Leadership Skills

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6.3 OBSERVATIONAL EXERCISE
Leadership Skills
Purpose
To develop an understanding of different types of leadership skills
To examine how leadership skills affect a leader’s performance
Directions
Your task in this exercise is to observe a leader and evaluate that person’s leadership skills. This leader can be a supervisor, a manager, a coach, a teacher, a fraternity or sorority officer, or anyone who has a position that involves leadership.
For each of the groups of skills listed below, write what you observed about this leader.
Name of leader: ________________
Administrative skills 1 2 3 4 5
Managing people Poor Weak Average Good Very good
Managing resources Poor Weak Average Good Very good
Showing technical competence Poor Weak Average Good Very good
Comments:
Interpersonal skills 1 2 3 4 5
Being socially perceptive
Showing emotional intelligence
Managing conflict Poor
Poor
Poor Weak
Weak
Weak Average
Average
Average Good
Good
Good Very good
Very good
Very good
Comments:
Chapter 6 Developing Leadership Skills 145
6.3 OBSERVATIONAL EXERCISE
(continued)
Conceptual skills 1 2 3 4 5
Problem solving Poor Weak Average Good Very good
Strategic planning Poor Weak Average Good Very good
Creating vision Poor Weak Average Good Very good
Comments:
Questions
Based on your observations, what were the leader’s strengths and weaknesses?
In what setting did this leadership example occur? Did the setting influence the kind of skills that the leader used? Discuss.
If you were coaching this leader, what specific things would you tell this leader about how he or she could improve leadership skills? Discuss.
In another situation, do you think this leader would exhibit the same strengths and weaknesses? Discuss.