Management Theory and Practice: Leadership. Portia Simpson Miller - Essay Example

This trait of her made her quite popular among other politicians and general public as well (Daft). She wanted power and control over different situation regarding the welfare of the State. On the other hand she also enjoys competition as she worked hard to compete and then win. She was also ranked among the top 100 most influencing personalities of the world. She possessed the quality of influencing people, which indeed is an important leadership trait. Influencing other is not an easy task as it includes communicating effectively with others and making them understand the importance of an idea and encouraging them to implement it in an effective manner (Lussier & Achua).

The other leadership quality possessed by Portia Simpson was the characteristic of agreeableness. This trait allowed her to get along with people quite well and therefore she was able to agree with people in different situations. Some of the other traits of agreeableness possessed by Portia included trusting others on several matters, being good natured and being cooperative in carrying out the operations of the State. She was very much concerned about the wellbeing of other people and therefore she made a very influencing leader.

She was always on the urge of achieving something. She was a goal oriented person and had the urge of achieving a goal. She took difficult circumstances as a challenge and then solved the problem with her utmost efforts to achieve the best possible result. She indeed possessed some of the significant leadership qualities that made her stand out and get positive feedback from the citizens of Jamaica. The decision making styles that were practiced by Portia Simpson were consultative and sometimes autocratic.

As a governor general of a state it was fair enough that the decisions she was taking must be in collaboration with the members of the assembly. Being such a high authority the problems she faced were not minor at all. She was asked to provide decisions for the problem that were concerning thousands of lives she was ruling. In such circumstances a bad decision could have had a long lasting negative effect on the lives of the citizen and therefore she made sure that the decisions made were consultative so that there was no account of any kind of error.

In many cases the autocratic decision making was also used by Portia. This happened usually in the cases when there wasn’t much information available for Portia to make a consultative decision. In such circumstances she made committees to gather information on the concerning topic. The job of such committees was to study the problem in detail and then submit a report to Portia. Portia then would usually study the problem and give the decision that was concerning the mutual interest of the citizens.

On closely analyzing the pattern of leadership, one can see that the leadership style followed by Portia Simpson was that of transformational leadership. This type of leadership style is not at all concerned with the status quo but it is concerned with bringing revolutionary changes within the society. This style of leadership is concerned with inspiring people to perform tasks that are related to the greater good of people or the country as a whole (Oslen & Johnsen). Portia as a leader believed in the development of moral maturity.

She also focused on the development