Assessment as a strategic leader

There are different types of responses that came out during situations of stress, working as a leader thinking in both ways for the organization as well as for workers. It is true that “strategy involves change” and that strategic leaders must continue to adapt and change in order to be successful (Hughes, Beaty & Dinwoodie, 2014, p. 21). The most challenging phase is coming to Canada and adopting a totally different style of living, education and working environment. The advanced use of technology and a very different way of learning is the most challenging aspect I am facing. Also, working as administrative in a dental office is totally challenging for me. I have to face problems like a slight language gap, an advanced use of technology and learning in an environment where I am also leading a group of people without letting them know that I am learning too. I used to handle accounts, insurance claims and sometimes, have to work as a dental receptionist to fill up someone’s place in case of emergency. I used to be calm, composed and never show any signs of stress even if I don’t know how to do that procedure. But I can say that I always keep an attitude of never-ending learning which helps me a lot to know more and the calm and composed nature helping me to adopt and gives me the strength to face the challenges of my life.

Needs for strengthening and changing responses.

In my opinion stressors are the people or circumstances which gives the best lesson and strength to face even the ugliest situation of life.  They are the best teachers one can encounter in life.

I am a person who never speaks or argues illogically. The best way I adapt according to my view is letting them speak whatever they want, listening to them carefully and avoiding any arguments. Which helps them to exhaust, and they are done I used to speak which I found it apt for me to handle many situations in my life personally. Leaders who encourage an environment of sharing ideas stimulate innovation and creativity. I am working in an environment of the dental office. There are a lot of emergency cases we face and almost every second patient is in stress. Keeping myself calm and pacing with the fast pace scale of the clinic I have to work thoroughly maintaining the dignity of the clinic. I would usually foresee the situations yet to come. I try hard to meet the demands of every patient I am encountering with. Hughes, Beatty, and Dinwoodie (2014) articulate “strategic thinking is about the present, not just the future” (p. 63). We all know that how difficult it is to get claims and complete all the procedures even in case of emergency. I have been through the situations when the patient was yelling out of pain, but still, I have to get his details before letting him operate. The best way I adapt to handle these situations is to be just quiet and answering them in a very positive manner which usually helps me to manage situations of stress.

Being an aspirant leader, I want certain changes to remove flaws. I predict the situation about what is going to happen next which would help me to access the situation before anything happens wrong. This can be gained by experience and proper assessment of the situation. I want to develop and gain the trust of people around me which is the best way for me to manage stressful situations. Knowing the people around me is crucial for leading them. I want to understand their emotions, their feelings, their expectations and their demands of what they expect and what is the best possible environment they can work.  Self-awareness is another tool which can help me in managing certain situations because by having a great understanding of who I am, my core values and abilities. I’ll be able to know my strength and weaknesses which I want to know to establish a better link with other people.

Strengthening my responses

Hughes, Beatty, and Dinwoodie (2014) articulate Individuals and teams enact strategic leadership when they think, act, and influence in ways that promote the sustainable competitive advan­tage of the organization (p. 9). Leaders are the people who used to involve into groups easily and speak out about their efficiency and their thoughts. My weakness rooted from the fact that I found it very difficult to speak among a group of unknown people and sharing my thoughts. This is an important part of a leader’s life which I have to work. Additional strength and weakness lie in being transformed into transformational servant leader who can understand emotions and motivates followers and smoothly drives the organization.

There are so many things I have to learn and adapt to strengthen my weakness. However, my biggest strength now is I’m welcoming new thoughts, adapting to frequent changes and adopting new ways of living life and learning from every situation of my life. My patience is the biggest strength but at the same time my extra precautious nature limits opportunities to explore the world and also, sometimes, can be fatal as a leader to take risks for the betterment of the organization.

Mission, Vision, and values

According to Hindu mythology, everyone on this Earth is born for a purpose, for a mission to accomplish. Most of the people can achieve what they want and what was their mission and the rest of them trapped in baits which are human-made and leading a purposeless life.

Mission – My ultimate mission of life is to serve people and humanity. It can be any form whether as a doctor, as a leader or as a social worker. This is why I choose dentistry as my profession. It is always my dream to relieve people out of their pain. I pursued dentistry with all my efforts and learned a lot. Then, a spark shook my head, and I found myself as a leader more as in many camps organized during my graduation. This made me realize the importance of leadership and led me to pursue this course. My mission is always living for the people and in helping them in the best possible way and also to initiate and implement strategies that will help them socio-economically.

Vision ­– I have always been driven to uplift people and to work for them. My vision is straight and clear to work for the people. I will use all my strength to pull out people from their darkness, and I have enough experience to share with them and make them feel comfortable. My positivity and patient nature can be a great help for the people to get through their shortcomings and difficulties in life.

Values – The challenges I have experienced and the circumstances of my growing years have made me naturally sympathetic toward the plight of less privileged people in society. I grew up in a very small and middle-class family with a wooden spoon. My core values are honesty, humility, gratitude, and empathy. Honesty is indeed the best policy, and it is one of the core values of leadership. We should be honest with yourself to foresee the world we want for the welfare of society. Empathy is the one thing I thought I have inherited from my parents. Being an empathetic person, I truly understand the emotions of people and their value’s. Often, we might fall into dilemmas, might get off the track or might feel the need for assistance; this is where our values will help us out.

Strategic drivers

While going through my Birkman assessment, I get to know that I am a thinker more than a doer. I spent much of my energy in planning and thinking rather than performing. I would rather abandon this area as this would lead me to an area of indecisiveness and can trap in a web of plans.

I want to explore in areas of human development. I will make the best use of opportunities life has given me and continue to learn to serve humanity and gain experience. “Crafting strategy is more of a discovery process than it is a determination process” (Hughes, Beaty & Dinwoodie, 2014, p.28). Planning is not sufficient but implementing it by keeping it consistent is much important for any mission to accomplish. Being consistent is important no matter how many baits you discover during your journey.

Culture

From all the knowledge I gained regarding Leadership, and from the experiences, I would like to develop a culture which involves enthusiasm. It is very difficult to adapt and form a culture as it is a long-term undertaking process. As Hughes et al., (2014) points out, the strategy involves constant change and that change requires a desire to learn, adapt, and progressively build on decisions and ideas (p. 21).

I believe that it is very much necessary to work collaboratively than as an individual. The basic meaning of a leader is to work in a collaboration involving everyone. This kind of culture can be beneficial to everyone. There is an analogy stating a single Ant may not be as powerful, but a group of them can even lift weight twice their whole weight. So, working in collaboration is always beneficial for the society.

Conclusion

There is a huge difference from the economic aspect of view as because there are global differences in method of adoption and use of different systems. I used to serve co-workers always and care for their emotions which I kept continuing when started practicing here. This gave me a better result, and people love it. As the cause of higher education rate here people used to understand more quickly and in a better way. “Leading from a new economy values perspective represents a specific way of being a leader as well as doing things differently by serving the interest of others as a core starting point” (Ungerer et al., 2016). Leadership is always about serving others and not just about self-interest. This is what I have learned more here, and there is an immediate demand to shift to transformational servant leadership which would bring the best out of people.

After going through multiple chapters and courses, I have undertaken. I realized that there is so much for me to learn to be a strategic leader. If I grade myself on a scale of ten, I will give myself only three in the race of being a strategic leader. These chapters are highly enlightening and truly describes what qualities should a strategic leader should have. The strategy allows making choices about what to do or what not. It allows to foresee what could be the result of action and prediction is the best thing for any steps or action to be taken by any leader. The ability to know the result much in advance and having everything planned makes a better strategic leader.

References

Hughes, R. L., Beatty, K. C., & Dinwoodie, D. L. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: your role in your organization’s enduring success. (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigating strategic possibilities: Strategy formulation and execution practices to flourish. Randburg: KR Publishing