Eadership style and skills using relevant theories and examples - Essay Example

? Leadership Table of Contents Introduction 3 Analysis of own leadership skills using leadership theories 4 Trait theory of leadership 4 The Behavioral School 5 McGregor’s Theory X & Theory Y Managers 5 Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid 6 Tannenbaum & Schmidt’s Leadership Continuum 9 Transactional and Transformation Style of Leadership 10 Analysis of own leadership skills 11 Application of leadership skills in different situations at the workplace 12 Conclusion 14 Reference 16 Bibliography 18 Introduction Along with the emergence of the new global economy, the need for effective management and leadership has become all the more important and crucial. Global business organizations have increasingly realized the need for effective leadership and its capacities to leverage the collective knowledge in the organization and which consequently depends largely on the quality and effectiveness of the leaders. Known for its ability to influence the minds of people and directing their activities and actions towards a required desired direction, leaders have emerged as one of the most crucial components in the management of organizations. In fact the future and fate of organizations significantly depends on the presence of leaders. Some of the most famous multinational organizations in the world, such as Microsoft and General Electric has successfully attained fast pace of growth because of the initiative and efforts taken by their leaders. Extensive researches have been conducted to identify the traits of leaders. It is seen that leadership traits or styles can vary significantly between individuals and this greatly depends on the personality that he is born with or the situations under which he emerges as the leaders. However, certain theorists are of the opinion that leaders are not made, they are born with leadership qualities. Thus it is important to make a thorough understanding of the leadership style that an individual should adopt depending on his character, personality, traits or the situation in which he adopts leadership styles. In the context of a large organization, it must understand which style of leadership would be suitable for it to take it towards success and growth (Gitlow, 2004, p.1-2). This project seeks to make an analysis of one’s leadership style and skills using relevant theories and examples. The views of researchers and authors are provided to make a critical analysis of the subject. Following with the identification of the style of leadership suggestions are made with regards to the ways in which it can be enhanced in order to find usage in different situations (Okafor, 2009, p.81). Analysis of own leadership skills using leadership theories Leadership theories primarily focus on the differences in attributes between the leaders and the followers. However, recently there has been a shift in emphasis in this regard and subsequent theories have emerged which considers variables like situational factors, skill levels etc. Trait theory of leadership The trait theory of leadership provides a list of qualities or traits which are associated with leadership. The theory identifies some of the key characteristics which are associated with the great and successful leaders. The general belief was that people having such key characteristics would make great leaders and so therefore they were recruited for the leadership positions in the organization (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison, 2003, p.6). However, the trait theory is not free from criticisms. After the identification of the traits several researches were conducted, however, the subsequent researches revealed that no such consistent traits could be identified. Although certain traits were found in many of the studies, most of the research results remained inconclusive. Researchers have claimed that although certain traits have been identified as being typical of the leaders, their mere absence does not necessarily mean that these people would not make good leaders (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison, 2003, p.6). Some of the traits identified are adaptability to situations, alertness towards the social environment, orientation towards achievement, ambitious, decisive, cooperative, assertive, self confident, dominant, persistent, dependable, stress tolerant and willingness towards assuming responsibility (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison, 2003, p.6). I have identified as having all of these traits, however, in varying extent. Some of them dominate my character, while some of them appear only in traces. For example, I am highly ambitious, assertive, self confident, decisive and assertive and highly cooperative towards people. However, I am less tolerant towards stress. However, when situation demands I can assume a different personality and can act as the driving factor for the entire group. The Behavioral School McGregor’s Theory X & Theory Y Managers Under the behavioral school of thought McGregor has put forth the theory X and Theory Y for managers. According to the belief of the theory X Managers the average human being dislikes work and prefers to avoid it much as possible. This is the reason why these people need to be coerced, controlled, directed and even threatened for punishment in order to attain their efforts towards attaining organizational objectives (Fallon, Eric & Zgodzinski, 2011, p.185). On the contrary the Theory Y managers believe that mental and physical efforts come naturally to individuals as rest or play and the average human being tend to accept, seek and look for responsibilities. Moreover when people are committed towards a particular objective they employ self direction and self control to achieve that objective. Additionally it is completely accepted throughout the population that high levels of imagination, creativity, ingenuity are accepted in the organization and that the intellectual potential of the normal human being remain unutilized under the circumstances of the modern industrial life (Allen, 2011, “McGregor’s Theory X & Theory”). According to the behavioral school of thought, I find resemblance of my personality greatly with that of the Theory Y manager. I do not shirk from taking responsibilities and generally and seek to adequate effort in required work activities whenever required. I have a lot of control on my emotions and do not need the support of external elements for me to take initiative in any work activity. Having high levels of imagination, creativity, self direction and enthusiasm I strive to seek additional responsibility apart from my regular course of activities. I have enough enthusiasm and zeal to undertake responsibility and do not get bogged down due to the external de-motivating factors. I generally remain perfectly clear about what I want and how I can achieve the same. My focus remains clear and I go out of my way to achieve that focus in whichever activity I undertake. Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid This managerial grid was formed by Blake and Mouton according to tendency or orientation of managers towards production or tasks. The grid measures the two components of production and task activities along the two axes and according to the combination of the two factors the manager places himself on some position on the grid. The following figure can be used to demonstrate the managerial grid as formed by Blake and Mouton (Egner, 2009, p.9). Figure 1: The managerial grid (Source: Miller, 2008, p.47) According to the managerial grid the manager having both low concerns for people as well as task activities is said to undertake impoverished leadership style. However this leadership style neither attains organizational objectives nor is able to create a suitable working culture conducive for people working in the organization. On the other hand people having great concern for people and least concern for the production activities manages to create favorable working environment in the organization but does not successfully achieve task accomplishment (Miller, 2008, p.47). On the contrary, high concern for production processes and low concern for the people are said to be under the authority-compliance style of leadership. This particular style of leadership is very conscious about accomplishing job activities and tasks but fails to satisfy the employees. Workers are generally said to remain dissatisfied and discontent with this manager or leader having this style of leadership. Leaders having high concern for both production and people are said to follow team management style of leadership which has the advantage of having both task accomplishments and also contentment among employees for having suitable working environment. Lastly a moderate style of leadership is followed by people showing a balanced concern for both the task activities as well as production processes. These people are neither too ambitious about the jobs nor tries to attain too much satisfaction and involvement of the employees (Miller, 2008, p.47). According to the above grid, my personality resembles more with the style of team management. I remain highly ambitious and motivated towards attainment of high quality of the job. Additionally my expectations from the employees are also high. I seek to complete tasks well within the stipulated time and also ensure that it is of very high quality. However, that does not mean that I exploit people or try to attain their participation without providing them with the requisite remuneration. I have the deepest concern for the people and try to attain their involvement and participation by providing them with a conducive working environment and fair and adequate remuneration. Along with the right kind of compensation I also seek to provide them with rewards and appreciation for successful completion of work activities and providing them with high levels of motivation and inspiration (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison, 2003, p.6). I believe that through the provision of job satisfaction to employees through both monetary and non monetary rewards employees are willing to put in extra efforts towards work activities and attain quality and perfection in their jobs (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison, 2003, p.6). The above theories of leadership have been criticized on the ground that they have perceived the leadership styles too much on black or while terms. The democratic or autocratic styles of leadership or relationship based styles described by authors are extremes. However, it is criticized that in practice the leaders’ behavior remains somewhere between the two extremes. According to the views of the contingency theorists like Tannenbaum and Schmidt, leadership behaviors vary along a continuum. As the leaders move away from the extreme autocratic style it is seen that the involvement and participation of the followers or the subordinates increase simultaneously (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison, 2003, p.10). Tannenbaum & Schmidt’s Leadership Continuum Tannenbaum & Schmidt have presented four main styles of leadership which can be located along the continuum. According to the autocratic style of leadership, leaders are the ultimate decision makers and their expectation from the subordinates is that they would follow the leader’s decisions without question. According to the persuasive style, leaders are the decision makers; however, they feel that people would be motivated to perform a task if they could be persuaded to think that the decisions made were good (Burke, Robert & Krey, 2005, p.316). The leader tends to provide a lot of emphasis on explaining and persuading the followers to take up a particular activity. On the contrary the third category of leadership, which is consultative, tries to attain more participation of the followers. The In this case the leader confers with the members of his group before taking any decision. In this case although the main responsibility and accountability of the decision making rests with the leader, the participation and involvement of followers in the process is much more as compared to the persuasive style (Sadler, 2003, p.65). Lastly under the democratic style, the problem is presented by the leader and paid before the subordinates or followers and discussions and suggestions are encouraged from them. The leader takes the decision but it is entirely through the initiative and influence of the group members (Taylor, 2006, p.65). According to the leadership continuum presented by Tannenbaum and Schmidt, I have identified some of my characteristic leadership styles. I resemble with the consultative style of leadership as I seek to encourage views and participation of followers while making any decision. I believe that since followers would be the ones to conduct the work process their views and perception about the decisions must be considered. Decisions must not be imposed on them such that they tend to see them as burden, Rather they should be made part of the decision making so that their involvement, participation and accountability for tasks is enhanced. Transactional and Transformation Style of Leadership According to the views of James McGregor Burns, transforming leaders alters, shapes, and elevates the values, motives and goals of followers to achieve considerable and significant change in the processes and activities. Burns has particularly appreciated this characteristic of leaders for its ability to expand and enhance the follower’s portfolio of needs, to transform the self interest of the followers, to increase their confidence level and expectations. Most importantly such leaders carry the power to motivate other people. On the other hand the transactional leader builds on a person’s need to get a task completed for making a living. He predominantly remains pre-occupied with position, power, politics and perks. He participates in the daily affairs of the operations, and strives to fulfill each individual’s role within the present system of the organization (Morse, Buss & Kinghorn, 2007, p.106). According to my personality, I would rather see myself as a transformational leader as compared to a transactional leader. This is because of my ability to look at long term goals and my strength in human values and principles. I do look for positive changes and try to bring about improvement, development and attainment of perfection in any activity or circumstance that I am under. I generally do not remain content with existing systems and try to design and redesign structures for their improvement. Analysis of own leadership skills According to the basis of the different theories of leadership as presented by authors, I have recognized some of my leadership skills. Firstly it can be said that I have almost all the qualities which are required to be a successful leader. Even though I do not possess all of the traits of a leader, some of them dominate my character while some appear in traces. For example, my confidence, assertiveness, ambition and decisiveness are quite high which some of the prerequisites for a good leader are. Moreover I am highly cooperative towards people. However, my incapability towards handling high stress levels might pose problems in being a successful leader. According to behavioral school of thought as presented by McGregor I find that my personality characteristics resembles more with the theory Y manager and less with that of the theory X manager. This is because I generally try to seek additional responsibilities apart from my regular course of activities. I remain self initiated and self inspired towards work and do not need the support or influence of external factors or forces to undertake responsibilities. Neither do I neither shift from my focus nor do I withdraw from the path towards my goals due to the emergence of hurdles or barriers in the same. Because of my strong ambitions I generally remain extremely committed towards accomplishing organizational objectives at any cost. I do not get diverted over petty issues or hurdles coming in the way of the organizational tasks. However, I ensure that my followers are not neglected in the process of accomplishment of organizational tasks. I believe that a conducive working environment along with adequate compensation and rewards structures are important for attaining the workers participation and involvement in the work activities. It helps them to be motivated and committed not only towards the work but also towards the organization at large. This is the reason why I seek to follow team management style of leadership according to the leadership styles presented by Blake and Mouton in his leadership grid. A highly satisfied staff would go beyond his abilities to perform an organizational task with initiative and effort. In addition my cooperative nature and ability to accept suggestions and views of others are responsible for consultative leadership style. Under this style, the leader accepts and encourages suggestions and views of followers but at the same time retains the ultimate making power to myself. I do not persuade people or explain them about the validity and implication of a decision. Rather I like my followers to make a choice between different decisions through supporting facts as to why they have chosen a particular decision and allow myself to make the ultimate statement regarding the same. Finally my ability to enhance other peoples' motivation levels and generate new ideas and strategies at the workplace reflects my transformational leadership characteristics. Also my tendency to look towards positive changes and ability to redesign work structures towards their betterment are also the reflection of my transformational leadership characteristics (Manjunath & Nagendra, 2009, p.102). Application of leadership skills in different situations at the workplace My over ambitiousness towards attainment of work objectives through the maximum protection of staff and employees in the organization might not always be possible. At times, too liberal compensation structures and high rewards can be too expensive for the organization. In such cases I have to inculcate the abilities to attain the maximum commitment out of the staffs under stringent situations. However, that does not mean that I must adopt authority-obedience leadership style in which leaders show very little or no concern for the staffs. Thus my abilities to boost confidence and trust of people must get a boost (Chandler, 2004, p.31). If it’s not possible to motivate people through monetary rewards they must be motivated through other means. It can be through words of appreciation, distinguishing the works of individuals from others for their high performance, congratulating them, felicitating high performers, keeping note of the high performers in personal records, providing regular feedback to members on their good or bad performances, and even looking into their regular needs and requirements needed for successful completion of work activities without getting de-motivated (Kandula, 2006, p.58). My tendency for transformation of work structures towards improvement can be very useful. But it might not always be perfect in all circumstances. Sometimes a very stable and balanced structure can be led to imbalance with the disturbance of the work structures. Thus transformational leadership must not be applied at all circumstances. Rather it must be applied only when there is need for dramatic changes in the organization because of deterioration in performance and productivity such that sustaining the same productivity level can be detrimental for the future growth of the organization. The need for transformational leadership must be backed with supporting facts like lowering performance and productivity, increased competition, high discontentment and dissatisfaction among employees, shift in organizational goals and objectives (Marshall, 2010, p.10). It is seen that with globalization and technological innovation organizations have been undergoing rapid changes in the business environment. In such circumstances the need for keep changing oneself and adapting to the new global business environment is increasingly felt in organizations. However, adapting to the changes is not an easy task and requires long term planning and strategic focus. This is where the need for transformational leadership finds importance; as creating changes generates considerable amount of resistance from existing staffs and employees who do not remain comfortable with the changing job roles and responsibilities arising out the changes in organizational objectives (Hacker & Roberts, 2003, “Shifting technology and Social Standards”). Convincing staffs towards accepting the change processes requires strong leadership skills and long vision and capability to drive the perception of staffs towards new goals and objectives. It requires considerable power to convince and retain accountable for any undesirable circumstances that might arise. It is found to be most suitable for organizations requiring continuous change towards improvement and enhancement of performance and productivity (Bass & Avolio, 1994, p.133). Conclusion It is seen that leadership qualities and styles have gained considerable importance in the increasingly changing global business environment. However, it is important that the perfect leadership styles are adopted in the right circumstances in order for them to be effective. Various theories have been identified and presented by leadership theorists according to the personalities, traits, behaviorists and situations and circumstances of organizations. The personal qualities of individuals vary and so do their leadership styles and qualities. The theories presented by authors have thrown light in identifying my own leadership styles. It has also been beneficial to determine how my leadership qualities and styles can be improved and enhanced such that they can be maximum effective in organizational settings (Ledlo & Coppola, 2011, p.25). It is seen that my high ambition levels and simultaneously high concern for the people around me causes me to adopt the team management style of leadership in which the leader has high concern for both people and activities. Thus I aim and expect to achieve high perfection and standards of performance from people but do not shirk from giving them their requisite compensation and rewards. However, it is felt that too liberal compensation can be costly for the organization. Thus In such cases my leadership style needs a change and I must work towards getting the participation of people through other incentives which need not always be monetary in nature (Bass & Riggio, 2006, p.194). I must seek to encourage people by appreciating their performance, felicitating their performance, keeping track of the high performers and rewarding them personally. Also it is felt that my tendency to attain perfection leads me to adopt the transformational style of leadership. However, it might not always be suitable. It is recommended that this style can be applied only in situations when the organization requires dramatic changes in activities and processes. It is especially applicable in the changing business environment that organizations are subjected to and which constantly requires organizations to adapt to the changes accordingly (Loethen, 2008, p.30). Reference Allen, K. (2011). Complete MBA For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. Bass, B. M. & Avolio, B. J. (1994). Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. SAGE. Bass, B. M. & Riggio, R. E. (2006). Transformational leadership. Routledge. Bolden, R., Gosling, J., Marturano, A. & Dennison, P. (2003). A review of leadership theory and competency frameworks. Centre for Leadership Studies. [Pdf]. Available at: http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/cls/documents/mgmt_standards.pdf. [Accessed on January 5, 2012]. Burke, Robert & Krey. (2005). 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