The Key Aspects of Leadership Context - Case Study Example

Leadership Context Student’s name Course title Instructor’s name Date of submission Introduction Leadership, in simple terms, refers to the ability to make appropriate and effective decisions under different scenarios. And effective leader exhibits certain characteristics that allow him or her to make strategic and important decisions that allows progress to continue and set the stage for various outcomes. Leadership is needed under various situations where an individual is looked upon to make specific judgement calls that may change the course of affairs. A great leader is able to “walk the talk” meaning that leaders need to adhere to the ideas that they impose upon others (Saxena & Awasthi, 2010). Various situations may require leaders to react differently depending on the roles that they play. Therefore, leaders exhibit various leadership behaviours in order to suit the situation under which their direction is sought (Carter & Greer, 2013). This assignment fundamentally focuses on the leadership behaviours exhibited by various individuals while faced with various situations. The leadership behaviours that will help leaders to achieve excellence under these situations will be looked at. In addition, the analysis of three scenarios of leadership will be highlighted. The leadership portrayed under various situations depends on the different styles and types of leadership. The various leadership styles include authoritarian, democratic, laissez-faire, transformational, transactional, coercive and bureaucratic (Tavana, 2012). The various leadership styles dictate how a leader acts when faced with various situations. The trait approach also provides critical perspectives that will be vital in the analysis section. Unlike the behavioural approach to leadership that the specific behaviours associated with effective leaders, the trait approach makes an attempts “to identify stable and enduring character traits that differentiates effective leaders from non-leaders” (Griffin & Moorhead, 2014). Some of the integral traits that a leader needs to exhibit include emotional intelligence, charisma, cognitive ability, self-confidence, and knowledge of the business (Lussier & Achua, 2010). In fact, Daft & Lane (2015) define a trait as distinguishing personal characteristics of a leader that define how they act and react under different situations. The dynamic nature of the present global marketplace requires an all-round leader to make important decisions that have significant implications on the performance of the business organisations (Landy & Conte, 2010). The basic leadership theory reflects the contingency approach to leadership that describes the variety of behaviours that effective leaders usually exhibit. The leader portrays diverse behaviours in response to the situations they face. Alternatively, the situations may also portray clearly the behaviours of leaders. The contingency approach contends that there exists universal set of behaviours exhibited by leaders (Daft & Lane, 2015). The analysis section below looks at various situations and the underlying behaviour of leaders. Analysis Scenario 1: By a sports coach A number of sports team provide a lot of work opportunities for talented individuals in the society. In addition, sports team provide a source of entertainment to the masses and also serve as a symbol of pride for the supporters or even national pride for nations. For example, the Australian rugby teams provide a lot of limelight for the country. The success of sports teams lies on the performance of managers. In most cases, sports coachers act as managers of teams and bear the wrath of supporters and management for failures and mediocre performances. Therefore, sports coaches are forced to exhibit certain leadership behaviours, styles and traits. Democratic leadership style would suit a sports coach as the team input would be integral to the overall performance of the team (Saxena & Awasthi, 2010). As the team leader, the sports coach gets the input of players before making the final decisions. On the other hand, based on the situations, sports coaches may also be forced to resort to authoritarian leadership in case democracy does not work out. The authoritarian leadership would be an indication of the leadership behaviour and traits of the sports coach. A sports coach needs to be patient and calm during matches in order to conduct a sound assessment of the games. Such analysis would be integral for the team’s performance in the future and allow the players to employ different strategies to guarantee success. The tenacity of coach allows him or her to know when to make critical changes may change the course of a given sports match or performance (Carter & Greer, 2013). Most important, charismatic leadership would help the sports’ coaches to push their teams to the limits and put them at the brink of tremendous success. Scenario 2: By a prison guard Authoritarian leadership style seems as the most applicable leadership mechanism for prison guards to employ. The situation faced by a prison guard would require a lot of vibrancy and carefulness in both actions and decisions (Chandan, 2010). The prison inmates consists of a volatile group of individuals and they stay in prison in order to serve various sentences for their wrongdoing. As a result, this requires prison guards to exercise a lot of care while dealing with this group. The guards also need to be decisive in order to ensure that they are able to read situations correctly and avoid any quarrels or complicated scenes that may end in prison brawls and even deaths (Porter, Angle & Allen, 2003). On the other hand, it is also prudent to exercise an open mind because some of the individuals that prisons guards deal with are merely suspects and they need to be presumed as innocent individuals until the court proves that they are guilty beyond reasonable doubt (Giannantonio & Hurley-Hanson, 2013). However, the authoritarian leadership would allow the prison guards to rule with an iron fist. Such a style of leadership ensures that the inmates observe the stipulated rules and regulations within the penitentiary system. The prison guard serves an enforcer of law and justice within the prison walls in similar fashion to policemen in the free society. As a result, prison guards act as leaders that can influence the actions and behaviours of inmates thus allowing them to change. They need to be ready to absorb interpersonal stress and tolerate frustration that characterize their jobs and responsibilities (Chandan, 2010). Scenario 3: By a diplomat A diplomat bears the weight of his or her national government’s interests. Such an individual needs to put aside his or her personal views and be able to pursue the interests of the country of representation (Sadler, 2003). A diplomat, therefore, needs to practice bureaucratic leadership as well as exhibit a number of leadership traits that highlight the desires of the home country. The bureaucratic would mean that the diplomat strives to do every by book and follow the due process in striking key deals that fosters relations between countries. An important leadership quality that a diplomat needs to exhibit is decisiveness (Sadler, 2003). A diplomat needs to be able to make critical decisions after conducting a critical assessment or observation of the situation at hand. The bargaining power of the diplomat also mean that they are able to broker the best deals for their respective countries. The interpersonal skills to relate well with other foreign delegations would allow for the successful performance of leaders serving in diplomatic positions. Transactional leadership would also allow diplomats to make one-time decisions that may act as a breakthrough for the future. For example, the decisions that broker peace deals between warring factions of a foreign nation or other situations such as the recent nuclear deal involving Iran. Such deals may be important for the future bilateral relations between nations and may open way for better circumstances in future. A charismatic diplomat would also be very successful in their affairs. Conclusion The various scenarios discussed in the analysis section above present a number of similarities and dissimilarities. For instance, the sports team coach faces a tense situation as a diplomat brokering a peace deal between warring factions that trade insults and accusations against each other. The abilities of leaders to stay calm and objective under such situations underlines their abilities to succeed. Furthermore, the essence of the different leadership styles as brought about by theory serves to highlight the methodologies that leaders may utilize in order to make sound decisions to move forward. The bureaucratic leadership style would suit a diplomat but it would portend rueful results to a sports team coach. A coach asserting bureaucratic management of a team would be on the spotlight for lacking some edge especially when opponents destroy a prior game plan. In addition, democratic leadership would not work for a prison guard aiming at assert authority upon inmates. On the other hand, the trait theory and situational (contingent) approach to leadership all provide relevant methodologies that leaders can work with under various situations. A leader needs to possess some traits that will enhance the chances of making effective decisions. The situational theory gives insights for leaders to reflect various behaviours under different situations. The three scenarios all present various contextual factors that the leaders have to deal with effectively. The contingent approach, thus, provides working perspectives that individuals might work with in decision-making and every every human being is a leader of their own life too (Sadler, 2003). In a nutshell, despite the various a leader faces, the leadership styles and behaviour that the leader puts across serve important roles in ensuring that dynamic and high pinnacles are achievable. References Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Carter, S. and Greer, C. (2013). Strategic Leadership: Values, Styles, and Organizational Performance. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 20(4), pp.375-393. Chandan, J. S. (2010). Organizational behaviour. New Delhi: Vikas. Daft, R. L., & Lane, P. G. (2015). The leadership experience. Australia: Cengage Learning. Top of Form Giannantonio, C. M., & Hurley-Hanson, A. E. (2013). Extreme leadership: Leaders, teams and situations outside the norm. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.Bottom of Form Griffin, R. W., & Moorhead, G. (2014). Organizational behavior: Managing people and organizations. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning. Landy, F. J., & Conte, J. M. (2010). Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology. Malden, Mass: Wiley-Blackwell. Top of Form Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2010). Leadership: Theory, application, skill development. Australia: SouthWestern/Cengage Learning.Bottom of Form Porter, L. W., Angle, H. L., & Allen, R. W. (2003). Organizational influence processes. Armonk (N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. Sadler, P. (2003). Leadership. London: Kogan Page Ltd. Saxena, S., & Awasthi, P. (2010). Leadership. New Delhi: PHI Learning. Tavana, M. (2012). Decision making theories and practices from analysis to strategy. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More