Leadership is one of the critical factors that determine the success of an organization or team. As such, leaders are expected to apply appropriate leadership styles to ensure smooth processes. Thus, during the learning exercise, I realized that leadership incorporates several personal traits other than what meets the eyes of many people. I was able to note that, like any other human being, leaders are also sensitive to emotional matters. However, leaders are expected to behave and conduct themselves differently despite the challenges, such as stressors that they may experience. For instance, Turk and Wolfe (2019) assert that thought leaders, such as principals, may experience a variety of workplace challenges, they must ensure high standards of emotional intelligence, resonant leadership, and resilience. In short, leaders should ensure self-awareness more than the people lead.
Subsequently, various aspects about myself surprised me as far as resonant leadership is concerned. For example, initially, I know a leader as a person who is expected to lead the way for others to follow by creating the right processes and ensuring that everyone’s goals are in line with the goals that have been set. However, I came to my surprise that as a resonant lead, one is expected to be compassionate and emotionally available for their follower. This means that a leader should not only exist to set goals and expect people to follow them. Rather, a resonant leader should seek everyone’s opinion and understand their position to ensure that everyone is physically and emotionally available. Ali and Kashif (2020) state that being compassionate involves the understanding of another person’s pain and being ready to assist them. This follows that resonant leaders should strive to show compassion to all people.
In addition to being compassionate and emotionally supportive, I also discovered that I am an inspirational and optimistic leader. For this reason, I realized that many people look up to resonant and inspirational leaders who can portray positivity in all situations. Combined with authenticity, I am confident that I can offer effective leadership to my colleagues. What’s more surprising is that in my authentic nature, I have always been genuine with my employees, and they have never had a problem. I now believe that my personality and characteristics I portray as a resonant leader will put me ahead of others, and I will practice effective leadership whenever I am given a chance to lead others.
Overall, I have to admit that I am not a perfect example of a resonant leader. For this reason, there are specific areas that I believe I have to put some effort into becoming better. As stated earlier, I try my best to act authentically before my employees and colleagues. However, as a leader, I am forced to pretend even when great challenges lie ahead of my team. Indeed, I have faced several challenges, most of them being emotional issues, but I have not been able to share them with anyone. This is because of the belief that I have that leaders should be emotionally stable and aware. As a result, most of the time, I find myself feeling depressed and stressed. This makes e afraid and worried about the fact that if I continue being reserved, I may not be able to exhibit effective leadership. As such, I am determined to improve my communication insofar as my emotional well-being is concerned.
References
Ali, R., & Kashif, M. (2020). The Role of Resonant Leadership, Workplace Friendship and Serving Culture in predicting Organizational Commitment: The Mediating Role of Compassion at Work. Revista Brasileira de Gestão de Negócios, 22(4), 799-819. Web.
Turk, E. W., & Wolfe, Z. M. (2019). Principal’s Perceived Relationship between Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, and Resonant Leadership throughout Their Career. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, 14(1), 147-169. Web.