Personal Philosophy of Leadership - Research Paper Example

?AR Personal Philosophy of Leadership 15/07 Personal Philosophy of Leadership Introduction The concept of leadership is no longer a mystery. Leadership is not associated with the business field only but it is a concept that helps individuals in reaching their goals using a cooperative and collaborative approach to follow. Leadership in politics, sports, teaching and other professional careers guides towards the importance and significance of this concept. Leadership is defined in different ways by different authors, however, an easy definition may be “the process whereby an individual directs, guides, influences, or controls the thoughts, feelings or behaviours of other human beings” (Rost, p.52) Theories of Leadership Many researchers have been struggling to define and explain the leadership traits, theories, challenges and related affairs. The importance that has been given to this area of research is the importance of leadership on employees, performance and overall success of the organizations. There have been a lot of facts and myths associated with the concept of leadership. In the past, leadership was linked by people with the superhuman characteristics bestowed by God to various leaders. This idea was further developed by Weber and named as Charisma by him. The leadership charisma involved the qualities and special characteristics that leaders posses. The leaders having leadership charisma are Charismatics. The concept of Charisma actually directs towards the special power and influence of Charismatics over the followers (Rickards & Clark, p79). In addition to the concept of charisma in leadership, it has been a point of debate if leadership skills are inborn or they can be taught. Researchers have been struggling to find an appropriate answer to this. However, it is not unjust to say that the answer to this question contains an equal portion of both statements. The answer to this question has been given attention for the reason that it may help organizations have effective leaders. Brainpower is the only thing that requires being in a person naturally. Knowledge can be gained, skills can be learnt but intelligence cannot be generated. A person needs to be intelligent and sharp in order to gain knowledge and utilize it. Leadership requires certain traits in a person. These traits include strength of mind, interest to resolve issues, ready to face challenges, power to proceed with plans, will to succeed, determination and passion (Levicki, 2008). Personal Values of my Leadership Leadership qualities, theories and concepts are valuable and useful when it comes to practical life. The leadership skills are not limited to benefit in businesses but are useful in leading all teams including the political, social, cultural and virtual ones. The leadership techniques, qualities and skills are of paramount importance in successfully handling the followers. Religious and political leaders may be taken as a helpful example of how influential leaders are. My personal experiences helped a lot in learning the concept of leadership in a better way. The theory and practice of leadership differ in some ways. However, the theory and literature on leadership helps in understanding and building a better and more influential personality to handle and motivate the followers. To make my opinion more clear and effective I would describe Managerial work and leadership. Since my personal life involves being a financial manager who directly reports to the president of the company I know quite about the concepts of leadership. The step by step development of my career and promotions helped me in understanding which traits are valued and which ones are not. Managerial work is closely linked to leadership. A leader is a person who carry out plans and knows what to do, whereas, a manager is a person who knows how to do things and how would they actually complete a particular task. For instance, a student who is making a plan to carry out a stage performance on some occasion and take the responsibility to select the performers too, is not only acting as a leader but also working as a manager. Leaders normally work as managers too. For this reason we may say that leadership requires managerial skills too. Hence, we may conclude that leadership and managerial work are joined together to achieve the goal successfully. Managerial qualities can be taught to the person by giving proper management education. In simple words, a person can be taught to plan, organize and control things (Henrikson, 2006). Leadership and managerial work are common observable facts that there are no general rules that creates leadership events or leadership methods, or for that issue great leaders. Managerial work and leadership are made cooperatively. Therefore, the only way to understand leadership correctly is the basic knowledge in group sciences. In simple words, managerial work is the process of describing and calculating the victory. A leader is the person who puts forward the plan, explains success, and confirms the capability of success. It is clear that a leader who assures these things will be more competent than other leader who desires to put the idea but refuses to accept any work in the managerial part (Clark, Clark & Albright, 1990). Hence, effective leader is the one who has power over people and whose decisions are binding on others. Shaping up of my beliefs regarding Leadership There has to be a clear understanding of one’s roles and professional responsibilities in order to successfully achieve them. Effective leadership requires the leader to take the whole group along. It is not necessary to involve the whole group in decisions regarding the group’s success however; the members of group are ‘helpers’. These ‘helpers’, if motivated and encouraged to work together, may quicken the process of success. This is what my experience led me to realize. Leaders in the service industry need to be more attentive since the customers and workers are in a direct contact. The motivational theories helped a lot in running the business successfully from the very beginning of my professional career. The knowledge and understanding of such managerial and leadership concepts were the only assets I had. Motivation emerges with the feeling to improve the surroundings. An effective leader must know that motivation is the key to improve the group’s performance and the chances of success. Motivation, however, is not easy. It requires continuous performance appraisal and strong communication skills. This is the point from where effective leadership enters. The motivational techniques that I adopted were the comments of the customers on the comment cards. Those feedbacks were then analyzed to measure the performance of the team and helped in realizing the weaknesses which needed proper attention and techniques to be resolved. This experience leads me to think over the charisma concept. The believers of this concept assume that the charisma is God gifted and the influence of charismatics is because of the powers bestowed by God to those leaders (Conger & Kanungo, 1998). However, my leadership experience clearly directs towards continuous efforts and application of managerial and leadership concepts (like motivational theories etc.) to be an effective and successful leader. Values of Leadership which have helped to cope up with growing tensions My task as being a leader of my time helped me to create my views about leader and use motivational techniques for my staff. I have used motivational techniques to provide my staff with good feedbacks so they can be encouraged to complete the tasks of the company. Delegation of tasks to the other members of the team is another important factor that may help in enhancing the efficiency of my leadership. It is not a wise decision to hold back all the responsibilities and power in the leader’s hand as it might affect the leader’s performance due to overwhelming amount of work. It is important that all my employees work on it as per the techniques and for this purpose I encourage them with techniques and my charisma. The most important trait according to my leadership skills is to treat others with dignity and respect. Employees working under my control, hence, are encouraged to put forward their ideas without any fear of embarrassment or humiliating behaviour from the management side including me. My values involve firm commitment and fulfilment of my promises which act as a modelling behaviour for the employees. Employees spend more time observing the leaders’ behaviour on how he/she acts in certain circumstances and respond to the commitments. A responsive, more responsible and committed leader inspires the visions and actions of the taskforce. I also believe in developing a cooperative environment where workers are encouraged to ponder over different issues, share their thoughts and implement the change. The fact that their ideas and views are respected and implemented if they are appropriate, integrate them more in the organization and they feel more relaxed and satisfied with the working environment. This leadership trait also enables the workers to trust the leader, act upon his decisions and understand the underlying factors of the decision which are beneficial for the firm and/or the performance of the group. My leadership values include the communication about group aspirations often in the daily working environment. This enables the employees keep their focus on achieving the group goals rather than achieving individual targets which collides with the group targets. Hence, proper communication of the targets and motivation to achieve them as a group helps achieving those targets by inspiring the group members’ vision and point of views about the work delegated to them. Seeking challenging opportunities to test and polish skills is also one of the traits that I adopt as a leader. Challenges and adverse situations enable the person think critically, evaluate, assess and implement. The challenging tasks and situations help making the group more integrated and devoted. The whole group is equally involved in tackling the difficult situation, hence creating a more firm and goal oriented taskforce. This further helps in realizing the true potentials of the group members and their involvement and interest in achieving the group goals. In addition to this, my values involve proper assessment of the group progress and communicate the results with the group to encourage them on improvement and discourage the traits which may hinder the success of the group. The remarks and reports on the performance of the group and the individual workers, however, do not violate the self-respect and values of the employees. Conclusion Gradually with time I realized that all these traits of leadership are important to get a department work efficiently. If this was not the case then our company would suffer losses and the whole team would not be able to complete the tasks as per the criteria. My approach of leadership is related to the contingency type of leadership. The contingency approach of leadership is associated with the path-goal theory more closely than others (Dubrin, 2001 pp. 32-34). The path-goal theory follows the same idea as defined in the expectancy theory of motivation. The main idea is the relationship or connection between the leaders behaviours on employee participation and performance in achieving the tasks assigned to them. The path-goal theory is more inclined towards the rewards in order to attain higher motivation of employees and higher performance efficiency. Path-goal theory emphasizes on servant leaders, who are less dominating and more helpful. The leaders working under the contingency perspective of leadership are more like coaches, facilitators and guides to the employee team. I adopted this approach so that none of my employees feel that I am dominating at work and feel uneasy. Hence these employees would then work collaboratively with me so that we can work for the betterment of the company. References CLARK, K. E., CLARK, M. B., & ALBRIGHT, R. R. (1990). Measures of leadership. West Orange, NJ, Leadership Library of America. CONGER, J. A., & KANUNGO, R. N. (1998). Charismatic leadership in organizations. Thousand Oaks, Calif, Sage Publications. DuBrin, Andrew J. Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print. HENRIKSON M. (2006). Great leaders are made, not born. AWHONN Lifelines / Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. 10. LEVICKI, C. (1998). The Leadership Gene: Leaders are born not made. MANAGEMENT TODAY -LONDON-. 85. RICKARDS, T., & CLARK, M. (2006). Dilemmas of leadership. London, Routledge. http://www.netlibrary.com/urlapi.asp?action=summary&v=1&bookid=144367. Read More