A511.2.3RB Reflecting on Leadership Traits

My leadership toolbox.  

       What is the make up of my leadership traits?  What are the traits would I add or remove that can prepare me for the leadership tasks?  What makes a good leader under combat and what makes a good leader in the boardroom?  How can I person like me go from one extreme to another?

    In order to find some gaps that I need to work on first, I need to look at what is my leadership makeup; examining my own reflection this week, I have found both positive and negative traits.  What traits are important to my leadership style?  In the trait approach I found at good time-to-subordinates ratio, technically knowledgeable, and the clarity of concepts are my strong traits.  This time management is not about me but for my troops and subordinates and the time I spend with them. They know that during the normal work day I am dedicated to them, helping assisting and ensuring that I am available all the time for them.  Sharmi wrote that "time is crucial for the understanding of the leadership relationship" (2011), I think I expound this out more to ratio.  

Technical knowledge is important to me, I have to understand what my subordinates are working on and ensure that I completely understand it.  This is not informational or knowledge power, but instead simply empathy and sympathy and personal involvement in their job (Leadership traits, 2009).   This not only gains me credibility with my troops but helps me understand their problems and how I might be able to help.  The last trait that I observed this week is clarity of concepts.  Throughout my experience, I often do not look at the small details but instead stay steadfast on the clarity of the concept.  Change is always around us, in the military ranks, change happens every two or three years, commanders and senior management changes out all the time. A lack of clarity can have detrimental affects on the relationship and the mission (Burnes 2012).  I have mission commanders rotate in and had no idea on 

     Knowing that these are my traits that I have observed, what could I add or what is distracting me from the ability to lead properly?  There are may distractors that I prevent me from leading in every situation and no matter the cause, one particular that comes to mind is my emotional intelligence and its relationship to my mood, or the trait of intellectual humility (George 2000).  In my previous class I wrote about this trait in my final paper and it is still something I need to understand when it distracts or prevents me from leading.  Intellectual humility, is as J.P. Moreland indicated, the ability to open minded and thoughtful. To challenge but not criticize, to understand another view point but not feel superior.  Intellectual humility (IH) is an abstract virtue in modern psychology (Tanesini, 2016).  It is the concession that we can recognize and admit that we do not know everything about everything and have limitations to our knowledge.  To recognize one’s IH limitation and remove unhelpful biases requires an internal observation of courage, honesty, commitment and knowledge in a social and self-reflective dimension.  

      The challenge is how important is this trait in my everyday life.  I face this difficulty “reaching the truth in a reasoned way” as defined by J.P.Moreland (1997) every day in my job both in the social and self-reflective dimensions.  In my squadron and in my position inside the Air Force organization, it is important to recognize the one’s own limitation factors.  Identifying that I am not always the subject matter expert in front of senior officers, civilians and industry, can be intimidating and can lead to a loss of a career, multi-billion dollar assets or even lives.  My experience with this trait has shown both good and bad outcomes.  My supervisors trust my knowledge, and I am usually the first person assigned to a new squadron establishment.  For the past 15 years, I have established three new units and countless small teams.  Too much IH and one becomes intellectual arrogant, too little and the application of all my other traits are unbalanced.  In one particalur  example, I became so arrogant with knowledge that my I lost any personal relationship that I had at the unit.  When I wrap IH properly with my strengths I find a unbalanced leadership style that seeks out truths, understands empathy and yet hold truths closely without much acceptance of others.  

References

• Burnes, B., & By, R. T. (2012). Leadership and change: The case for greater ethical clarity.Journal of Business Ethics, 108(2), 239-252. doi:10.1007/s10551-011-1088-2

• George, J. M. (2000). Emotions and leadership: The role of emotional intelligence. Human Relations,53(8), 1027-1055. doi:10.1177/0018726700538001

• Leadership traits. (2006). Partner's Report, 6(2), 9.

• Shamir, B. (2011). Leadership takes time: Some implications of (not) taking time seriously in leadership research. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(2), 307-315. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.02.006

• J.P. Moreland (1997) on Intellectual humility 
  http://afterall.net/quotes/j-p-moreland-on-intellectual-humility/

Tanesini, A. (2016). Intellectual humility as attitude. Philosophy and Phenomenological

Research, doi:10.1111/phpr.12326