There are many different forms of leadership styles and each differs greatly from the other. All leadership styles share one simple objective; to complete a goal as effectively and efficiently as possible. (Elliot) Effective leadership involves the delegation of tasks and proper training so that people can build upon their foundation of basic skills and grow their competencies. (About.com) An effective leader naturally motivates people to act upon opportunity, encourages others, and empowers people to achieve success rather than place blame. (About.com) To be an effective leader is to care less about your needs, and more about the needs of the people and organization you are leading.
What are the traits of an effective leader? Do I have these traits? How would I develop these traits? 3. How would I ensure that my work goals and plan reflect the organisation’s goals and plans?
Leadership is the process of influencing an individual socially in order to accomplish a common task. According to Schein (2010), a leader is someone who guides the employees to achieve the organizational goals or the leader is someone whom people follow. There are various leadership theories that have been introduced in the world such as trait leadership theory, behavioural leadership theory, contingency theory and transactional and transformational leadership theory. In my opinion, each leadership theory has its own advantages and limitation when we apply it to the real world. This essay analyses the three leadership theories and its application in the real world: situational leadership, servant leadership and transformational leadership.
“Thinking about Leadership” by Thomas Cronin According to Thomas Cronin, there is a big difference between being a manager and a leader, “managers do things the right way, while leaders are more concerned with doing the right thing” (27). Throughout his article he provides numerous characteristics to define a leader along with many examples of past time leaders also examples of how a true leader would handle certain situations. A leader knows who they are; they select and solve priority problems, have a sense of humor, are skilled mediators, show signs of integrity and possess brains and breadth. Becoming or being a continuous leader is not an easy task, it really takes a special type of person. In summation, Thomas Cronin wanted the reader to understand that anyone can be a leader; leadership is not restricted to just the government.
The best strategy to build teams would be to perform evaluations of employees and focus on the each person’s strengths and build on their individuality. Weaknesses also play a part in process. Determine if their strengths outweigh their weaknesses and if they can be formed into a positive team member. If training is to play a part in the decision making incorporate that with the recruitment of the team players. The challenges and barriers that may
Knowledge shapes a leader’s identity and is reinforced by a leader’s actions. While character and knowledge are necessary, by themselves they are not enough. Leaders cannot be effective until they apply what they know. What leaders DO, or leader actions, is directly related to the influence they have on others and what is done. As with knowledge, leaders will learn more about leadership as they serve in different positions (2006).
1.1 DESCRIBE FACTORS THAT WILL INFLUENCE THE CHOICHE OF A LEADERSHIP STYLES OR BEHAVIOURS IN WORKPLACE SITUATIONS Leadership is defined as a dynamic process in a team whereby one individual influences the others to contribute voluntary to the achievement of team tasks in a given situation. Leadership depends not only on the knowledge, skills, and personality of the leader but also on the task to be achieved, the skills and the motivation of the team, and the environment or situation in which the leader has to operate. Leadership style is a leader's style of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. The situational leadership theory (by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard) in 1969 proposes that leadership effectiveness depends on the leader's ability to tailor his or her behavior to the demands of the situation, namely, the subordinate's level of maturity. This theory highlights four different types of leadership behavior based on combining directive and supportive behavior: DIRECTING (high directive, low support), COACHING (high directive, high supporting), SUPPORTING (low directive, high supportive), and DELEGATING (low directive, low supportive).
Some of them are: the importance of honesty and integrity in leadership; the need of effective communication inside the organization; the necessity to understand the team's business or mission; and, the requirement to adapt to changing situational factors. Another topic that has received considerable attention inleadership and management discussions is motivation. The main reason of such popularity is a close connection between leadership and motivation. Motivation is a key component of leadership. It is unlikely that managers or supervisors can be successful without being able to motivate followers.
The research focus the importance of delivering intervention after leadership training, not only ensure that behavior goals are achieved, but also to make sure that negative outcome for leaders is not happen in workplace after the training. In practice, these findings suggest that training designer and trainers need to be aware about the possible outcome from leadership training, the positive effects as well negative ones that are connected to behavior outcomes that may also represent. For example, by promoting the positive atmosphere that got from the training and celebrate this to achieve more positive change in transformational leadership behavior. The study stated by Bandura (2001) about social cognitive theory, reveals that leaders’ reaction to transformational leadership training includes psychological attributes as well as behavioral changes. These changes that leaders experience over period of time after the training are associated with the amount of improvement and decline that leadership experience in their behavior, perhaps they should about be able to designing training intervention that are more effective in supporting those
In this article the authors examine individual and social factors that help to determine whether leaders will use their personal power to advance organizational goals or whether they will act to advance their own self-interest. Results demonstrated that although leaders often prioritize group goals, in situations where the individual thinks that their individual power is threatened leaders who were high on a trait called dominance motivation chose to work within the scope of their own self-interest at the expense of group goals. These findings underscore important traits that help to predict how and when a leader might choose personal power over the success and direction of the organization. I chose this article because it is well grounded in research and it is practical and useful for organizations. The authors’ arguments and hypotheses are grounded in evolutionary theories of power and leadership.