Leadership Portfolio

MOL 630E
Professor Marianne Sullivan, PhD
Section 2

Leadership Portfolio
Introduction
Over the last few months I have taken several different competencies, leadership
profile and psychological trait tests for work or school. After I completed the tests I
usually can relate my results compared to the rating or category I was associated with.
This most recent test yielded similar results. The most recent two assessments I
participated in were DISC style assessment and the ESCI test. I will discuss my results
with an in-depth look at strengths, weaknesses and how each trait impacts personal
experiences.
Initial DISC Style
The DISC style assessment looks at four major areas. The first function is
dominance or sometimes referred to as drive. This relates to control, power and
assertiveness. The second is inducement or influence and this trait to social situations and
communication. Another label is submission this explains how an individual handles
patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness. And finally the last area of focus is compliance.
This describes how you approach and organize your activity, procedures and
responsibilities.
If you look at the pie chart I have attached you will notice my assessment
breakdown. My most prevalent area was dominance. This ranked dominance as my
highest personality trait at 50%. Influence 30% and steadiness 15% were next. The least
of the four traits is compliance at only 6%. Given these factors I have a strong inner
motivation to influence people and circumstances. I thrive on competitive situations,
challenging assignments and the stresses and pressures of everyday work and life are
unlikely to reduce your effectiveness and enthusiasm. I would agree with this assessment

Leadership Portfolio
and say it is very accurate.
ESCI
The ESCI test is a 360-degree test that concentrates on assessing an individuals
emotional and social competencies. This assessment focuses on eighteen competencies.
The competencies focus on self- awareness, emotional awareness, accurate selfassessment, self-confidence, self-management, emotional control, transparency,
adaptability, achievement, initiative, optimism, social awareness, empathy, organizational
awareness, service, relationships, developing others, inspirational leadership, change
catalyst, influence, conflict management and teamwork and collaboration. What make
this assessment is that the feedback provided is 360 degrees. This type of feedback comes
from self, peers, direct reports, manager and others. By gathering this data you can see
how you are perceived by all in your organization. When I reviewed my results I had
mixed feelings. Some of the feedback surprised while others did not.
My first surveys showed how I lead and deal with some decision making. We all
can think how employees and people perceived us but with the 360 degree feedback
assessments you get a true gauge of how you are perceived and come across. I feel from
my feedback provided I need to be more flexible and let some control go to my
employees. I need to trust the employees more and start to develop, train and mentor
them.
Updated DiSC
I again took the test last week. The DISC style assessment looked at four major
areas. The first function is dominance or sometimes referred to as drive. This relates to
control, power and assertiveness. The second is inducement or influence and this trait to

Leadership Portfolio
social situations and communication. Another label is submission this explains how an
individual handles patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness. And finally the last area of
focus is compliance. This describes how you approach and organize your activity,
procedures and responsibilities.
If you look each specific area I noticed some change my assessment breakdown.
My most prevalent area was influence. This was a change from the previous test. This
time dominance personality trait at was down to 30%. Influence up to 40% and
steadiness and compliance both up to 15%.
What was the driving cause in the change? I feel I become more aware to others
needs and realizing that a leader must empower and let go to allow others to learn and
develop. To what extent does team work lead to empowerment? The term team work is
often times viewed by others as a group of persons working towards achieving a common
goal. I now view this as echoed by employees who view team work as a group of
employees working towards achieving organizational goals which would equate to
increased revenues for the organization. Empowerment on the other hand has been
viewed as bestowing some level of autonomy on employees in an effort to build their
self-esteem whilst transferring some level of responsibility towards problem solving or
trouble shooting. This initially was not easy for me. The program has provided key points
in how and why too achieves this.
Empowerment often requires taking a new look at the organizational design. The
ultimate goal is to improve organizational effectiveness by promoting ownership of work.
The fundamental approach, and also the best practice, is to promote multi-functionalism
within the organization. At the micro level, multi-functionalism refers to each team

Leadership Portfolio
members task variety or multi-skilling. It is suggested that rather than performing only
one highly specialized job, each individual should be able to understand and perform
different tasks within the team. It is hard for employees to feel they are part of something
meaningful if they keep doing the same job and fail to see how their work ties into the
bigger picture. By giving employees more job responsibilities, a sense of job ownership
can be strengthened. A popular practice is the designated stand-in arrangement in many
organizations: when a team member is on leave, another team member may take over the
absentees duties. This practice can foster the communication and understanding among
team members, so that the members are able to make important decisions as a team.