The Assessment: Stress, Strength, & Weaknesses

According to Hughes et al., (2014), p.11 Individual and teams enact strategic leadership when the direction, alignment, and commitment needed to achieve the enduring performance potential of the organisation. In contemplation, as I attempt to assess myself as a strategic leader and my general response to the circumstances, I face in my life. My goal as a child of God in any situation I face is first always to embrace grace, and as a leader, legal practitioner and as an entrepreneur, I have always drawn on everything I have learned in my life into work to tackle the most demanding situation and problems. I consider tapping into the full set of my capabilities, interest, experience, and passion for coming up with innovative solutions. Most importantly, is my ability to connect with other people’s ideas to create values, by setting up ways for us to bring our creative thinking to the surface in our ministry, making the most of the team’s creativity. I find joy in working with people, advocating and looking for a means to influence them positively. I believe that in several ways on my life journey I have been strategic. I am delighted I can put a definition to this life experiences now through this strategic leadership program. Also, I am in for conceiving strategy as a learning process which requires a specific mindset, the mindset for crafting and implanting strategy. (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 23)

In reaction to stress at my professional level, I focus on things that align with my values and encourage people I work with to do the same, in order to create a lower stress environment and create an honest and authentic atmosphere in which everyone can share their motivations, ideas, and capabilities for us to produce results. I try to stay calm and then delegate duties when possible in order not to over-commit myself and to also get support from other people. Another critical factor for me personally in handling stress at home or work; in consideration of time, environment and stress circumstance, is the power of prayer & music. The Holy Spirit is always my present help in times of stress, needs or frustrations. The rhythm in my music list always helps me spiritually and physically to jump start my day or stay positive and stress-free. This also helps me see things with different views and discerning when my emotions are over clouding my thoughts.

In strengthening my response, both at the professional level or personal level. I need to continue associating myself with insightful people who see things differently from me to facilitate fighting off biases, having an open mind and creating a shared-mission environment where we can get the best of everybody in our team. I also need to keep focusing courageously on things that align with myself faith and values to facilitate an honest and authentic environment where everyone comes in being who he or she is and not pretending to be somebody else.

The development of my strengths and growth areas has been on people-centered activities, and I am drawn heavily with roles that require advocating, promoting, directing people, motivating people, and helping others, teaching or counselling. However, the personal strength I have developed and still practice each day is the spirit of discernment which has helped me professionally, in my service as a leader and in keeping my relationship with people around me. My weakness is always withdrawing from every activity into isolation. My joy is in helping others solve the issues but when it comes it my problems I prefer to handle it all myself. I feel I should open up more to trusted people and also share how I feel instead of withdrawing from people anytime I am under stress.

Mission, Visions & Values.

My Mission as a Christian, a lawyer, and a transformational leader is to make God’s word my final authority in all things and at times. To advocate the good news of God in my service to humanity and to inspire others to do the same in whatever field or career they are pursuing.

My Vision is to accomplish God’s given purposes for me personally and professionally. To do my best in all that I find my hands doing. I aspire to see how best I can serve the world, adding joy, making connections and creating a lasting experience with everyone I come across, with my products and services.

I have built my values around my faith which has been my driving force and the same core values I exhibit professionally. This value includes:

– Integrity
– Embracing grace
– Generosity
– Open-mindedness
– Relationship
– Balance
– Service
– Respect

Strategic Drivers

According to Hughes, et al., (2014), p.27 Drivers are the key value propositions. The critical strategic drivers that will help create significant impact for my potentials personally and professionally are:

– Personal Development; To pursue and achieve this, it will involve my total well-being, having personal time for reflections on my learning plan, individual assessment and growth areas. Also, be open-minded to insightful things that will facilitate in strengthening my interest areas and weaknesses. I have discovered that at my MA LEAD program process self-awareness and self-assessment are two key areas I have never paid attention to, this is why it is a key strategic driver.

– Innovative thinking is another crucial strategic driver that will assist me as an entrepreneur and to always be in a state of continuous discovery. For my progress at the level where I am now and leave my comfort zones, I need to structure my knowledge and begin to think creatively. At the moment of my life journey now I believe I need to spice up my life to go beyond the boundaries in my life now. I want to be able to generate new ideas in my products and services. Therefore, I choose to abandon my comfort zones and be open-minded to deep thinking that will take me far for long-term achievement.

Personal & Professional Culture

The culture I continuously aspire to develop both at a personal level and professional level are first, adding Joy and service. These two cultures are always the environment I intend to establish wherever I find myself, it could be at work, a new country or personal relationship. Moreover, I desire to continue developing them to accomplish my mission, values & vision effectively.

Conclusion; Old economy & New Economy Thinking.

My enrolment to Trinity Western University for MA LEAD program has revealed so many old economy thinking such as my idea of leadership, and my educational experience has been just academic, no personal assessment or time of reflection. The new economy thinking is transformational servant leadership and stewardship, personal reflection and involvement educational mindset, and self-awareness. This program has changed my orientation significantly. I plan on introducing more leaders to this program and also how I can take back to Africa some of this transformational insight I have acquired.

According to Hughes et al., (2014), the key factors I have identified for my personal development to becoming a strategic leader are;

– Prioritising my drivers; making the choice about which one to invest in first.
-Creating a Business Strategy
– Execute, perform, and learn

The present strategic strengths I have discovered are; clarified mission, vision, and Values, and my ability to assess internal and external environment and I plan to align them to create a business strategy to position my business and organisation for superior performance over time. Hughes et al., (2014), p.31

Reference

Hughes, R., Beatty, K., & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader:Your role in your organisation’s enduring success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigating strategic possibilities. Randburg: KR Publishing.