What’s new in leadership skills?

If I had to choose, which one of these famous people would I most like to emulate? Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, Queen Elizabeth II or Madonna?

As it turns out, I’m a bit like all of them when it comes to my leadership personality type.

I’m not in a leadership role at my current job, but I have held those positions before, and as I was updating the Velsoft Leadership Skills for Supervisors course, I thought it would be fun to see what type of leadership personality I have. So I filled out an assessment that’s part of the course, which identifies a leader’s base temperament.

Disney, Winfrey, the Queen and Madonna are each examples of the four personality temperaments identified through work completed by Carl Jung, and Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers.

Based on my answers, I’m most like Winfrey and also Eleanor Roosevelt — Authentic Idealists — which surprised me a bit. Before I took the test, I thought my style would be similar to Her Majesty, mostly because that type of leader is called an Organized Guardian, and for people who know me, I like to be organized at work.

However, my scores were so close — ranging from 42 to 36 (two categories tied) and 35 — that according to the test, I probably find it easy to “flex (my) style to those other categories,” which also include Inquiring Rationals like Disney and Resourceful Artisans like Madonna.

While the temperament assessment is not a new part of the Leadership Skills course, several sections have fresh information added.

One change is the name of the course, which is now simply Leadership Skills for Supervisors, adjusted to better reflect the course content. It contains some of the original information from Leadership Skills: Communication, Coaching and Conflict and replaces that course in Velsoft’s offerings.

Other changes include an overview of various leadership styles, techniques for time management, and a synopsis of various conflict resolution styles. Along with these additions, new activities have also been included.

I came across this quote while updating the course, and whether or not you’re an official leader at your workplace, it speaks of philosophies that can be adopted in one’s job and in life. And the sentiment is something I plan to try to carry out.

“A leader’s role is to raise people’s aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.” — David R. Gergen, political analyst, former presidential advisor, and professor at the Center for Public Leadership.