Analysis of Trait Results: A Leader's Personality - Paper Example

A leader's personality is critical in determining their ability achieve organizational effectiveness during their interactions with other employees at the workplace. As a leader, I tend to be conventional but curious and creative as well. Using the OCEAN scale (Open- mindedness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Negative Emotionality), my typical attitude places me in the 23rdpercentile on Open-mindedness.

On Conscientiousness, I tend to be a self-disciplined leader who works on my initiative to accomplish my responsibilities in the organization with less supervision. Initiative and planning is my motivating principle, especially in personal commitments. I am also careful enough in my executive role out of cognition that the organization will hold me to account for the decisions and actions that I take. Since I interact with other leaders in the organization to build rapport on the best decision paths to take to achieve harmonized response, I tend to back all my documentation in an organized manner for easy referencing. On a percentile scale, I believe that I score 86 points on Conscientiousness as a personality dimension.

On extroversion, I tend to be sociable with the employees I interact with as a way of building rapport for working on collaborative tasks. I have developed a close working relationship with most of them such that they see me as one of their colleague workers rather than their boss. My friendly interaction with them makes it easier for me to communicate to them any tough decisions that they need to take in their job roles to meet organizational objectives. On a percentile scale, I would give myself 73 points on Extraversion as a personality dimension.

Agreeableness is easily understood as the ability to get along with others easily. On a general scale, I tend to be courteous with every person I interact. However, I also prefer that everyone is held accountable for their actions for easy administration and follow-up. This makes me less forgiving to people who act out irresponsibly. I would be very critical to individuals who commit mistakes as a way of pointing out that their actions are wrong and that they should not be repeated. On a percentile scale, I would give myself a score of 46 points for Agreeableness as a personality dimension.

On Negative Emotionality, I tend to score lowly. My personality tends to be anxious and nervous. I get moved quickly by challenges that emerge in the course of duty. Extreme eventualities may sometimes jolt me into feeling insecure, worried and nervous- especially when my job is threatened. I also prefer to be preemptive in my leadership approach to avoid falling into last-minute contingencies. These personality traits make me score highly on Negative Emotionality. On a percentile scale, I would give myself a score of 76 points for Negative Emotionality as a personality dimension.

How Trait Results Contribute to or Hinder Organizational Effectiveness

I believe that the results of my personality traits above contribute to my organizational effectiveness. They support my ability to influence the people I lead towards achieving the goals set by the organization. I can stand my ground when things go wrong, and also motivate employees to work towards achieving higher performance. A leader needs to motivate the team he is leading towards achieving higher individual performance at the workplace and a significant collective success for the organization.

To achieve this, I must be equipped with the necessary skills to influence the employees to tap into their intrinsic motivational factors rather than mere external wants and needs. I understand that some factors in an organization directly contribute to employee satisfaction while others prevent dissatisfaction. Motivators will determine whether employees achieve eventual Satisfaction or No Satisfaction. At the same time, hygiene aspects for an organization are those job factors that create conditions for workplace motivation. I always have to develop a strategy to motivate employees and proceed to communicate such strategy to them. This improves my effectiveness as a leader.

Motivational factors include those essential work elements that yield real satisfaction. The motivators drive the workers to achieve superior performance. They bring intrinsic rewards to the customers. I have to communicate a sense of achievement to the employee. This is dependent on the employee's job, responsibility levels apportioned to each employee, a sense of meaningfulness derived from work, the level of recognition that the organization gives to the employees, and the amount of growth and promotional opportunities advanced to the employees (Stello, 2011).

Difference of Personality Effectiveness within Mechanistic and Organic Structures

When working under pressure, I tend to be nervous, scoring highly on negative emotionality. On the contrary, when the job schedule is within the regular duties, I tend to be relaxed, calm, confident, and more competent in executing my duties. As a leader in a multicultural global organization, I often rely on my personality and ability to strike a rapport with my employees as a way for motivating my employees towards achieving higher performance.

References

Stello, C. M. (2011).Herzbergs two-factor theory of job satisfaction: An integrative literature review. In Unpublished paper presented at The 2011 Student Research Conference: Exploring Opportunities in Research, Policy, and Practice, University of Minnesota Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development, Minneapolis, MN.

Van De Voorde, K., Paauwe, J., & Van Veldhoven, M. (2012).Employee wellbeing and the HRMorganizational performance relationship: a review of quantitative studies. International Journal of Management Reviews, 14(4), 391-407.