'Am I more of a transformational or transactional leader - Essay Example

My leadership style: Transformational leadership Leadership is one of the fundamentals of management. There however exist different leadership stylesand each style is suitable for a particular situation. The different leadership styles are further identifiable by unique characteristics that leaders exhibit. I, in this paper and based on an evaluation model, identify the leadership style that suits me the most and develop a strategy for improving my leadership potential. Transformational leadership is the style that most accurately describes my leadership approach.

I used Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to evaluate my leadership traits and the results identify the style. The evaluation exercise involved responding to prompts in the questionnaire. The responses were categorical data on a scale of 0 to 4 where zero indicated poorest scores while four indicated highest scores. Based on a model that grouped different prompts into seven factors that were independent and mutually exclusive, scores were evaluated for each factor, total scores compared, and the factor with the highest scores defined the most suitable leadership model.

Results from my analysis identify inspirational motivation factor as the best match my leadership characteristics. The factor describes a leader who offers a vision to people and assists the people in concentrating on their work from which they can derive self-utility. These features correspond to characteristics of transformational leaders who create awareness among their followers and develop focus on collective objectives. Transformational leaders also promote intrinsic utility among people, develops vision and “help people understand need for change,” features that are identifiable with the inspirational motivation factor (Dubrin, 2012, p. 84). Full range leadership model is relevant to my future practice because it identifies a need to posses diversified leadership styles that can be applied in different situations.

Its scope that identifies features of transactional and laissez-faire styles also offers a basis for identifying development goals and formulating a strategy for implementing the goals (Sosik, Jung and Jung, 2012).Based on my lower scores on features of transactional leadership style, I plan to improve on my ability to establish standards and enforce them. Developing this ability will diversify my leadership potential and ensure effectiveness in conditions that requires immediate but satisfactory results.

My specific goal for development is therefore to gain the ability to enforce developed standards on my followers. I will measure progress by randomly selecting a group of people, whom I lead, subjecting them to new standards, and determine their success in meeting the standards. Achieving the objective will require published literature on fundamentals of transactional leadership style and experienced leaders in transactional approach. The resources are readily available in libraries and through mentorship relationships.

The goal is relevant to diversification of leadership abilities towards a situational leadership approach. This is because different working conditions require different leadership approaches and a leader needs to integrate the diversified styles. I plan to achieve the goal within a period of six months. This period will ensure sufficient interaction with the necessary resources and multiple tests on attained success. The goal challenges me by identifying a need that I must meet for efficient leadership.

Achieving the objective will attract a gift whose value is worth the amount of money that I could have earned during the time spent in pursuing the goal. The amount will be based on my hourly wage rate. The goal is however not yet implemented because it is still in its preliminary stage.Works citedDubrin, A 2012, Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills, Cengage Learning, Mason. Sosik, J Jung, D and Jung, D 2012, Full range leadership development, Taylor & Francis, New York. Appendix: SMART chart