Different Leadership Styles - Literature review Example

Leadership Leadership Chapter 3 Contingency leadership is the ability of a leaders to adjust his or her leadership style to fit the situation. There is no common leadership features that are good in any context; on the contrary, powerful leaders have to analyze the situation and their followers in order to lead effectively. This chapter dwells on different models that help leaders to choose the right approach. All these models have some features in common; they differentiate leadership style based on the main focus which can be either tasks or relationships and the power given to followers. Surely, it makes sense for every person who have tried to be a leaders in different groups. For instance, if I apply authoritative leadership style in the group of my peers, I will fail to catch their attention and inspire them. The same model can work if I need to lead the group of high school students because they lack confidence and knowledge to lead. This chapter gives a deeper understanding of my behavior and let me see why I fail sometimes. I am not an experienced leader and I still focus too much on the tasks while I need to find the right balance between tasks and relationships in the group. Generally, I need to keep in mind that I have to be flexible because flexibility gives me power to react effectively and adjust my behavior to the context. Moreover, this chapter inspires me to experiment with leadership styles in order to find the most comfortable for me because different leadership styles can be effective in the same context like in it described in the case of Apple. Chapter 6 The most valuable though in this chapter is that leaders are successful only when they put others over themselves. In real life, many leaders who are given power, act for the sake of themselves. They use their status in order to become richer, more powerful and more successful. At the same time, other people suffer because they are neglected by the person who won their trust. The case of Malala is a good example of moral leadership. The girl was not afraid to lose her life; she only wanted to be heard and she achieved her goal. Her blog ruined informational blockade and let people see what was really happening in Pakistan. Even less profile leaders have to keep in mind such inspirational stories in order to verify their actions and think about other people instead of their ambitions. This chapter forces me to think about my moral values and how to implement them in everything I do. Honesty is the biggest value for me and I believe that people need not to hide the truth especially when they are working together. I have already experienced a couple of situations when dishonesty of a team member leads to collective collapse. Also, I believe that such values and good relationships, equality and respect should be presented in all relationships I lead at home and at work. These values are not situational and there is no need to compromise them. They add value to everything I do and let me think that even one person can change the world. Chapter 7 This chapter dwells on different types of followers and I must say that it is very helpful in understanding my behavior in the group. There are different types of followers and each of them has their role in the group. Obviously, it should be a final aim of every person to be an effective follower but, unfortunately, genuine effective followers are very rare and everybody needs to learn not only to lead but to follow well. Reading this chapter, I have recognized myself in several cases provided as an example. I am often resilient to changes and sometimes I can inadequately perceive criticism of others. I need to work on these two points in order to make sure that I am ready to collaborate with other people effectively and listen to them carefully. This chapter proves the close connection between leader and followers again and it shows to what extent followers can change their leaders. However, they need to be open with each other and encourage honesty in their relationships. Hierarchy often makes things complicated because managers are not ready to perceive criticism of their followers. Overall, this chapter motivates me to change my attitude to people I work with. I have to be more attentive to others if I want to be a good follower. I need to watch what other people say and do to make sure that we understand each other and treat each other with respect. It seems to be simple in writing but this is fundamental for good relationships at work and productive cooperation between team members. Chapter 8 The term motivation is often exploited in media; people take it for granted that they need to be motivated in order to achieve more but nobody looks deeper to find out what motivation is and why it is so important. Chapter 8 dwells on the concept of motivation and how it is achieved. Obviously, content of this chapter applies to my every day life and gives me a number of ideas about factors that influence my productivity. It is stated that the atmosphere where every employee feels valued and empowered is a key to motivation. Event the smallest change like the ability to have flexible schedule can change the whole organization from the inside giving employees more freedom and meeting their needs. Friendly attitude and attentive listening is a good reward for every person. My motivation to study depends on many factors. The most evident one is to get a higher score in every class I take. However, the most powerful motives are internal; my personal attitude to the subject, interest to learn more or ability to apply received knowledge practically is more important for me than the score. During my school years I experienced a couple of moments where bad attitude of the teacher served as the main factor of my failure in the subject. Even though I tried to ignore that situation, it made me feel nervous and I failed. At the same time, I remember teachers who managed to create incredible engagement in the classroom. They showed us that everything we learned was valuable; even when I got lower marks, I had enough motivation to move on and try again. The atmosphere where I felt important positively influenced my motivation. Overall, motives are quite personal but there are several factors that are important for all people. Respect, positive attitude, support and ability to learn, positive thinking, realistic goals and right rewards can boost performance of everyone. All leaders should keep this in mind when they build relationships with their followers. Chapter 10 Leading teams is challenging because every team member is a personality with original values, needs, personal traits and background. At the same time, people boost their performance when they work collectively. Chapter 10 contains numerous relevant guidelines to team leadership starting from general overview of all hidden challenges to practical topics like conflict management. It is quite general and I believe that I will search for additional resources to cover aspect of team leadership deeper. A team can be defined as a group of people who share some work and ideas. Ideally, all these people are carefully selected by HR managers who can identify the best candidates for different tasks. The situation is quite different at school were teams are often created randomly and team members are forced to work together by circumstances. I try to avoid any conflicts in my team because they immediately ruin the atmosphere we build together. I believe that the ability to lead teams comes with experience especially when one team works together for a long time. People learn everything about each other and they can prevent some unwanted consequences. All people need to learn how to balance personal interests and team interests. Working in team, each of members is led by own motives which is not right. Team interests should always be above all personal matters. Of course, some exceptions are possible, but they depend on team rules, moral and ethical values. Unfortunately, I do not have enough relevant experience of working in one team for a long time. On the other hand, it is good because I can prepare myself to be a good team member and a person whom people can trust. This chapter gives me some clues to personal improvement in terms of working together with other people. Chapter 12 This chapter is very useful as it describes 4 types of leadership using life examples. Transformation, charismatic, coalition and Machiavellian-style types of leadership are used by many leaders to influence people. All these leadership models utilize different techniques and their choice depends on personal traits to a great degree. Analyzing the content of this chapter, I can say that I would choose to be either coalition or Machiavellian-style leader. First of all, I do not really support one feature of Machiavellian style leaders because they use lie to manipulate people. I cherish honest relationships with other people and this feature conflicts with my personal values. At the same time, being strict and demanding sometimes really pays back. The case described in the chapter shows that mother could not cope with her children when she was simply kind; she needed to make kids follow the rules, compete and be more independent to keep her family well-organized. I really like coalition leadership approach because it always works well. Only some people have enough charisma to influence all their followers and keep them going in the same direction. Coalition leadership approach everyone and listen to others before they make a decision. It gives them strong advantage over those who act independently and neglect opinion of other people. At the same time, some people might think that coalition leaders are weak because they rely on others too much. Combined with Machiavellian-style strengths, coalition leadership can look as a great alternative to charismatic and transformational leaders. There is no perfect style one can choose. All people are unique and their leadership style will be unique as well. At the same time, theoretical knowledge about different types of leaders can give leaders more suggestions how to act in different situations and be contingent. I think that I will need to experiment more in order to find leadership style which fits my personality and helps me to be a better person. Chapter 14 Every organization tries its best to stay different from the rest. There is a number of benefits in unique atmosphere and micro-climate and every company strive to have them all. Today every business publication talks about organizational culture and this chapter explains why it is so frequently mentioned. The fact is that values manifested by leaders directly relate to performance inside the organization and motivate people to be better than their competitors. This chapter makes me think about the culture I am in and possible ways to improve it. Being a student, I join the culture of my school and become a part of it. I support creativity, understand the meaning and value of critical thinking and do my best to meet performance expectations of my instructors and peers. Alongside with this visibly ideal conditions, I am still limited by a number of pressures that impact my daily operations and become the source of constant stress. Deadlines, highly hierarchical communication system, limited decision-making opportunities and objections to non-conformism cannot be treated as the best sides of the organizational culture. Despite all negative sides mentioned above, my school is progressing because it promotes liberal thoughts. It encourages such values as respect and diversity; I am happy to be a part of culture where every person matters and students are motivated to help each. Inspired by this atmosphere, I rarely notice things that I perceive as negative. I feel that everything is moving in the right direction and things are slowly changing to the better. Perhaps, the school simply needs some time to change because the sphere of education is organized in a way that changes are always slow to come. Zappos, Google, Lego and GM have their stories to tell and it is good that this stories inspire other companies to experiment and change. Yet, every organization has define its unique path to success and follow it till the end. It is difficult to say what culture is good; all of them have their positive and negative sides. The only was to measure success is to look at achievements and think whether they coincide with corporate goals. Chapter 15 This chapter covers organizational change and dwells on several possible way how to implement it effectively. Basically, all organizations need change because it is impossible to stay the same in this rapidly changing world. Planning and analysis help to minimize the risk of change resistance so it is important to make sure that changes are perceived as values by those people who will be involved in them. This chapter shows a framework for change implementation; I believe that it can be adjusted to any organizational context to implement successful changes. I find the discussion of change resistance particularly interested as I have witnessed how leaders fail when they do not take into consideration their followers. People who are engaged in the process of change, they show less resistance. For instance, if someone orders me to stop wearing what I love and gives a uniform instead without any explanation, I would object and protest. However, if someone sells me this idea and show all the benefits, I would love to try. This simple example shows how human psychology works because force is not the best way when it comes to inspiring others to change. Appreciative Inquiry is a good solution for diverse organizations primarily because it promotes positive thinking. Learning from success is much better than learning from mistakes because it emphasizes what people do best and motivates them to work even better. I would like to try this method at my first workplace to see how it works in reality. Summing up, changes are required for progress and development. It is very difficult to foresee everything; it is the reason why viewing changes as positive organizational element is a key to success. Cases described in the chapter show that some changes can be controversial and criticized by public. However, if they bring positive outcomes, they are proved to be successful. Final Reflection I have learned several fundamental things and ruined many stereotypes about leadership during this course. After reading books and articles, writing assignments and digesting all information I received, I have discovered myself as a leader, a follower and a personality. This final reflection section will cover all my discoveries in these three directions. This course empowers me to look at myself as a leader. I used to think that some people were born to be leaders, but now I see than it was my mistake. Any person can learn to be a leader; it takes time and effort, but it pays back twice. Now I understand that I have everything a person needs to be a good leader; I am inspired to change, learn, develop and overcome the difficulties. I can try myself in different roles, apply various leadership models to find the right one. What is most important, I am not afraid to fail because I know that there is no situation that has no solution. As a follower, I have to work hard on some aspects I have discovered in course reflections. Good followers are attentive to their colleagues and they are ready to sacrifice personal interests for the sake of their team. I still need to learn to be a better follower and a positive thinker. During this course I had many chances to look at myself objectively and reflect on who I really am. It is a valuable lesson that initiates a long way to my self-improvement. Now I know what I care about and what I value in the world around me. This inner certainty in what I want from life, makes my personality stronger and more flexible at the same time. Good leaders need to understand themselves and have a good moral standing to succeed. During this course, I though a lot about my personality and discovered my strong and weak sides which was good to have a clear picture of myself. Alongside with these personal benefits, I have received knowledge and skills which are important for my future career. I am still impressed by simplicity, complexity and diversity that coexist in the challenge of being a good leader. At the same time, knowledge gives me more confidence and motivates me to think positively about myself in the new role and new community. This course gives enough food for thought to anybody because all knowledge received during the course are applied to each person individually. All assignments I wrote during the course reflect my personality and I will definitely use them for further self-analysis. I think that this method of learning is quite effective as it forces me not only to understand what I am learning but apply it to some real cases. Finally, I have discovered many sources of inspiration during the course. I read stories about Google, Lego, GM and other companies I know and they gave me deep insight of how difficult it is to be successful. It is much easier to lose everything and almost impossible to recover after the failure but positive thinking changes everything. If people believe in what they do, they inspire their followers and together they become more powerful than ever. All in all, this is just the beginning on my long way of self-improvement and self-development but it is a great start that inspires me to be confident, motivated and optimistic. References Daft, R. (2014).The leadership experience. Cengage Learning. Read More