Leadership Assessment I recently took the 'How to Discover Your Leadership Style' assessment, developed by the University of Kent in the UK, (How to Discover Your Leadership Style, 2009). In this assessment, I was asked to answer situational questions based on my preferences in leading my team in my current leadership role. After submitting all my responses and getting the results back, I was a little surprised to see the gap between my two favorite leadership methods and my two least favorite leadership methods. I fully expected to see higher scores in both transformational and participatory leadership styles, and with 45 points and 48 points scored in each of these styles, I find these to be my favorite and most comfortable means of leading others. After evaluating my results, I did not expect to see scores of 24 and 27 for procedural and authoritarian leadership styles. I found that this assessment helped me identify where I was in my overall growth as a leader, more than simply my strengths and weaknesses. To grow and become the leader I would like to be, I must use all the information provided in the assessment to expand on my areas of weakness and master my strengths. I would like to explore my preferred methods of leadership (participatory and transformational) by first explaining my personal beliefs about what makes a good leader. I believe a good leader inspires their team to achieve good results through personal interactions and leading by example. Additionally, I personally believe that a good leader allows their team members to make mistakes to learn from the mistakes and grow through that learning process. Finally, I think strong leaders recognize ...... middle of paper ......y as their leader, to ensure they are ready to perform the tasks expected in those promotions and well prepared to lead others. The Kent University assessment reminded me that to become the leader I would like to be, I must continue to look for ways to develop my weaknesses or areas of leadership that I may not enjoy or feel comfortable with. I wasn't surprised by the rating results, but I was definitely surprised by the rating gap between my favorite styles and the styles I don't use that often. This assessment helped me immensely because; showed me that, as a leader, I may have become stagnant in pushing myself to explore areas for growth. As I continue to grow as a leader, my team will also grow in their leadership development and hopefully one day, I can transition from their coach to their mentor.