My Personal Leadership Mission, Vision, Values, and PortfolioPart I: My Personal Leadership Mission, Vision, and Values

My Mission Statement
To serve as a leader in whatever organization or group I find myself in, whether in a formal
capacity or informally, by inspiring team members to greater performance and teamwork and
by providing strategic direction to the organization or group.
This mission statement alludes to the softer yet higher-order leadership skills – that is,
interpersonal and decision-making skills – expected of a leader, as opposed to the technical
skills that might be more relevant for subordinates, supervisors, and managers (refer to “My
Leadership Skills” in Part II for more on this). Meanwhile, the mission statement is informed
by a number of personal observations over time. First, through the groups and teams, I have
belonged to or served in, both formal and informal, I have observed that leadership abilities
are in short supply. In fact, I believe most groups and teams flounder for lack of good
leadership. Secondly, through my work as a non-commissioned military officer, I have
observed that most non-performing team members need just a little encouragement and
affirmation to start performing at par with the rest of the members.
My Vision
To be, within the next five years, the go-to problem solver in all the teams and groups I will
belong to.
Like my mission statement, my vision is also informed by personal experience and
observations. Just like leaders, I have also come to a conclusion that, in most group settings,
problem solvers are in limited supply. Instead, what I have seen is a tendency for team and
group members to bury their heads in the sand when problems arise. I believe it is a great

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demonstration of leadership to be able to mobilize group or team members and get them
talking with the aim of solving a problem.
My Values
I believe ethics is a critical matter to my success, both as an individual and as a leader.
This is because people want to associate with ethical people and leaders (Johnson, 2021) .
Conversely, being perceived as an unethical person can ruin one’s leadership career. Closely
related to the idea of ethics are personal values. While there are many values I live by, the
three most important ones are courage, integrity, and justice. While there could be many
definitions of courage, for me, courage is the ability to confront problems as they arise and to
do something to solve them, as opposed to proverbially burying one’s head in the sand and
wishing problems away. In a group setting, this definition would include the ability to get
people to acknowledge or recognize the existence of a problem and to mobilize them for the
purpose of addressing the problem, even if just by brainstorming possible solutions.
Integrity is about being honest in one’s personal and business dealings. It is about not
being manipulative, not lying, and not stealing. It is also about keeping one’s promises and
acknowledging wrongdoing on one’s part. With the careers of many executives coming to
abrupt ends on account of issues of integrity, this value has never been more important.
Meanwhile, many corporations have ended up seriously tainting their reputations simply by
denying or trying to conceal wrongdoing on their parts. Perhaps if these companies had come
out openly and admitted their mistakes, they would have had better outcomes. Behind prison
walls, where I work, integrity is particularly important. There exists a totally different world
hidden from the public eye. It is an environment that is conducive to corruption. I have seen
members of staff being compromised by offenders. I have reported to colleagues that I have
witnessed to collude with offenders in violation of laid down rules.

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Justice is about being fair and equitable to others. It also entails distributing burdens
and benefits equitably. Justice is important to me because it reminds me of a particular soldier
I interacted with in the last unit I was assigned to during my military service. The soldier had
a history of not cooperating with his colleagues. As a result, all the other soldiers did their
best to avoid him. I observed that his peers had only negative comments about him,
something that affected his work negatively. In my opinion, he was a troubled soldier looking
for his way out of the military. I asked myself how I would have liked others to treat me had I
found myself in his situation: tired of military service yet unable to leave because, as with
most ex-soldiers, the civilian world was not ready to embrace me. Having understood his
predicament, I endeavored to always be on his side when everyone else seemed to be against
him. Time and again, complaints would be brought to me against him, and I had to constantly
justify his actions. In the end, he left, and I believe his transition was much smoother thanks
to my support.

Part II: My Personal Leadership Portfolio

My Strengths
Based on the Leadership Strengths Questionnaire (Northouse, 2019), I score relatively
high on many measures of the strengths of a good leader, namely: Implementer (25),
Innovator (25), Encourager (27), Analytic (23), and Mediator (25). A score of 25 on
Implementer suggests that I am good at remaining committed to goals and objectives and
following through to ensure their successful attainment. I enjoy leading team projects from
beginning to end; I do not stop until the project is complete and the set targets have been met.
A score of 25 in Innovator is quite high and suggests that I excel and finding new ways to
accomplish both routine and new tasks. I also enjoy exploring, sharing, and testing ideas that
could propel organizations to better performance in the future. Encourager is the area in

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which I scored the highest (27). As an encourager, I enjoy uplighting my colleagues, team
members, and subordinates to higher levels of performance. I do so through praises and other
affirming statements and by being supportive of them. Even though I scored the lowest in
Analytic (23), this is still a good score. As a matter of fact, I tend to approach situations, both
simple and complex, with an analytical mind. As a Mediator, I am able to successfully solve
interpersonal conflicts among team members.
My Leadership Skills
According to Lussier & Achua (2016), managerial and leadership skills form a three-
level pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid are technical skills, which are mainly concerned
with things. In the middle are interpersonal skills, which are mainly concerned with people.
At the top are decision-making skills which as mostly concerned with conceptualizing ideas.
As a person moves from a managerial role into a leadership one, high order skills are
demanded of them. That is, a leader is expected to be less of a doer and more of a direction
giver. According to the “Organizational Climate Questionnaire” (Northouse, 2019) that I
completed, I possess strong interpersonal skills, including clarifying norms, building
cohesiveness, and promoting standards of excellence. I also possess an important decision-
making skill: providing structure to teams. I learned many of these skills while serving in the
military as a non-commissioned officer (NCO). As an NCO, I have been charged with many
group activities. I have also taken responsibility for the success or failure of various unit
operations.
My Leadership Approach
In terms of my approach to leadership, I subscribe to the team-centric approach rather
than the leader-centric model. In the team-centric approach to leadership, leaders perceive
themselves as facilitators of their teams (Lussier & Achua, 2016; Kelly & MacDonald, 2019).

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They facilitate their teams by formulating clear and achievable goals for their teams. In
setting the goals, they seek team members’ ideas and act on the best suggestions. While team-
centric leaders are mostly facilitators, they sometimes act as a player. On many occasions,
when deliveries of supplies have arrived late at my place of work – the Department of
Emergency Services (DES) – I have rushed from the executive suite, joined subordinates, and
helped in offloading goods from trucks. Thus, from time to time, I practice leadership by
doing, not telling. In contrast to the team-centric model, in a leader-centered approach to
leadership, the leader tends to play more of a command-and-control role rather than a
facilitative one. Also, in a leader-centered model, decisions tend to originate almost
exclusively from leaders, without any significant inputs from team members. Team members’
role is to implement the decisions handed down to them from the top.
My Ethical Code
There are six styles of ethical leadership: duty ethics, utilitarianism ethics, virtue
ethics, caring ethics, egoism ethics, and justice ethics (Northouse, 2019). According to the
Ethical Leadership Style Questionnaire (ELSQ), which I completed, I scored highly on duty
and justice ethics. It is worth noting that the questionnaire does not measure whether a person
is ethical or unethical. Rather, it simply assesses the ethical style of leadership a leader
subscribes to. As one who subscribes to duty ethics, I attach a lot of importance to doing what
I believe is right in any given situation or whenever I am confronted with an ethical dilemma.
I also take fulfilling my duties very seriously. Meanwhile, as a person who subscribes to
justice ethics, I am always careful to do what is fair to others. In fact, I endeavor to do to
others what I would like done to me. For example, because I expect people to be lenient with
me when I make a mistake, I strive to be lenient with those who offend me.

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Working within My Organization’s Climate
DES is an organization characterized by high employee turnover. Also, particularly in
the unit, I work in – the Security Guard Force (SGF) – the majority of staff are veterans and
retirees, as the unit is unable to attract younger workers. SGF is the unit charged with
protecting the expansive federal property that DES occupies. Several factors have contributed
to this situation, including poor working conditions, hence low job satisfaction, and limited
opportunities for promotion. Equally importantly, though, I believe the various leadership
styles prevailing in the organization also contribute to these problems. Managers and leaders
at different levels of the organization employ different styles of leadership, a situation that
likely frustrates employees and influences their decisions to leave. While lieutenants tend to
use a democratic leadership style, perhaps because of their limited authority, shift lieutenants
favor a Laissez-faire style, whereas captains tend to be autocratic. Perhaps a unified and
progressive leadership style, like transformational leadership, could help make DES a better
organization to work for.
Working within My Organization’s Culture
Closely related to organizational climate is the concept of organizational culture
(Schneider, González-Romá, Ostroff, & West, 2017). Of the nine dimensions most
commonly used to analyze an organization’s culture, four are particularly relevant to DES and
help explain the organization’s problem of high staff turnover: power distance (PD), in-group
collectivism, assertiveness, and humane orientation. PD measures the extent to which
members at different levels of an organization interact freely (Lubis & Hanun, 2020). At
DES, such interaction is non-existent. In fact, so bad is the situation that even lieutenants,
shift lieutenants, and captains engage as unequal. In-group collectivism measures the degree
to which organizational members work together as a team to realize organizational goals.

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Again, teamwork is limited at DES. Assertiveness refers to the extent to which employees
can aggressively pursue their rights. Again, the level of staff assertiveness at DES is low.
Humane orientation is about the extent to which an organization cares for its members
(Mousa, 2016) . Except for senior leadership ranks, DES’ focus on staff well-being is low.
Demonstrating Leadership through a Crisis
Organizational crises have become an inevitable reality of the life of any organization
(Lussier & Achua, 2016). Whether externally forced or internally induced, leaders must
handle crises well, lest they break, or at least derail, the organization. Today, more than ever,
leaders must demonstrate their abilities to lead through crises. Indeed, the careers of many
executives have come to abrupt ends, thanks to a mismanaged crisis. Fortunately for me, I
have had many opportunities to lead teams during times of crisis. The most recent incident
happened at DES’ GSF unit when many of the unit’s already inadequate security guards
decided to leave the unit, all at once. The crisis was triggered by the arrival into the Fort
Hood area of a mega public infrastructure project. The project would run for five years, and
the contractor promised better compensation and benefits than any local employer could
match. Luckily, together with other leaders, we were able to manage the crisis and return to
normalcy in three months.
Demonstrating Leadership through Change
Just like crises, change is another constant in the lives of most of today’s
organizations. As such, managers and leaders from all walks of life must be able to
successfully implement change efforts, whether the change is deliberately planned or
imposed by external forces retention (Kotter, Chan Kim, & Mauborgne, 2011). The crisis
referred to above struck while we were in the middle of implementing a raft of changes. The
changes were aimed at reversing the pattern of high staff turnover and improving employee

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retention by increasing job satisfaction. These measures included an annual salary increment
and employment benefits like medical insurance and annual paid leaves. I had been an
integral part of the team that had initiated, planned, and rolled out the changes.

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References

Johnson, C. E. (2021). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow
(7 th ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Kelly, S., & MacDonald, P. (2019). A Look at Leadership Styles and Workplace Solidarity
Communication. International Journal of Business Communication, 56(3), 432-448.
Kotter, J. P., Chan Kim, W., & Mauborgne, R. A. (2011). HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Change.
Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Lubis, F. R., & Hanun, F. (2020). Organizational Culture. 2nd Yogyakarta International
Conference on Educational Management/Administration and Pedagogy (pp. 88-91).
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Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, Application & Skill Development
(6 th ed.). Boston: CENGAGE Learning.
Mousa, M. (2016). Organizational inclusion and academics’ psychological contract: Can
responsible leadership mediate the relationship? Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion:
An International Journal, Unpaginated.
Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice (8 th ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE
Publications.
Schneider, B., González-Romá, V., Ostroff, C., & West, M. (2017). Organizational climate
and culture: Reflections on the history of the constructs in the Journal of Applied
Psychology. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), 468-482.