Leadership: Theory and Practice - Essay Example

Part 1. The Issue: According to my judgment, the problem being faced currently at my workplace is ‘Change.’ The basket ball coach announced his exit following the acquisition of the Pioneers Club by a new company. He was with the club for almost 8 years after retiring from the same club as the captain. In total, the previous coach’s association with the Pioneers Club was close to 15 years, and surely the reason for its number one position during the last decade. This departure itself disturbed the team greatly. Added to this, I was appointed as a new coach for the team from an external agency. My experience and popularity in the game is much lesser compared the previous coach. Moreover, new leaders are not easily welcomed in the team because the members feel insecure about their previous contributions, skills and accomplishments. Apprehensiveness increased among the team members after they learnt about the big event, i.e., the National Basket Ball Championship. Reason for this apprehensiveness was not limited to the departure of their favorite coach and arrival of a new coach, but doubled by the fact that 4 new players would be a part of this big event. All these facts lowered the team’s confidence in sustaining their number one position. This was evident in couple of matches that the team played within the State just after me taking over as their coach. Individual performance was not up to the mark and the team lost one of the matches in a humiliating manner. This defeat has, undoubtedly, dwindled the team’s confidence further and has become major cause for concern for the club owners. From a coach’s perspective, equally severe challenges surfaced since my joining. Challenges began with resistance from the team to accept me as their new coach. This resistance was evident through their behavior. The team did not seem enthusiastic about the National Championship. Eventually, frequency of absenteeism in the practicing sessions increased. Cooperation among the team members was lacking. Some players seemed over confident as evident from their behavior and approach. There were four new players in the team who had played one game before I joined. These members looked confused and were extremely low in confidence. The experienced players seemed disinterested in the big event planned ahead. Initially, the team seemed self-sufficient in terms of skill and training. However, commitment seemed to decrease. At times, I also sensed lack of team bonding because of conflicts that started erupting between experienced players post their last defeat. In short, the players seem to have acquired an indifferent attitude towards their responsibility due to the changes; they were stressed out because of pressures from the club members and pressure of sustaining their top position. All these issues have resulted in low motivation, commitment and enthusiasm in the team. From the Pioneers Club perspective there was crushing pressure from the financers and organizers to ensure they sustain the top position, which drilled down to the players. To sum up, the situation was swamped with pressures from management; resistance to change; leadership and team bonding issues; and lack of motivation and commitment. Part 2. Applicable Leadership Model: I believe in situational leadership approach described by Hersey and Blanchard (1969a) and further developed to SLII, which is based on the principle that different situations demand different kinds of leadership (Northouse, 2009). Application of appropriate leadership qualities based on the situation is something that makes the leadership role justified. Northouse explains that situational leadership stresses that leadership is composed of both a directive and a supportive dimension, and that each has to be applied appropriately in a given situation. Situational leadership requires a thorough assessment of the members’ abilities and skills. Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership (SLII, 2000) focuses on finding out what individuals need in order to accomplish their personal and organization goals; in using a variety of leadership styles to meet those needs; and in setting up a communication process for reaching agreements about what the leader and the individual can expect from each other as they work together. In short, Hersey and Blanchard identify that situational leadership focuses on diagnosis, flexibility, and partnering for performance, thereby making these three the required skill set or components for the leaders as well. Firstly, the leader is required to have the commitment and ability to assess a situation and people’s competence or developmental level to handle that situation. This assessment will provide a fair idea of which leadership style would suit best to handle the task in specific situation. Development level of individuals depends upon their competence and commitment. Competence comes from individuals’ education/training, experience, and practice with coaching. Commitment is the level of individuals’ motivation and confidence in relation to a specific goal or task, and is evident from behavior. Situational leadership model identifies four development levels namely, D1 where individuals are low on competence and high on commitment and enthusiastic learners; D2 with low to come competence and low on commitment and are disillusioned learners; D3 where they have moderate to high competence and variable commitment, and are capable but cautious performers; and D4 where individuals have high competence and high commitment because they are self-reliant achievers. After diagnosis, leader will have to use flexibility in applying appropriate leadership style to suit the situation (development level). Situational leadership advocates application of four leadership styles namely, directing (S1), coaching (S2), supporting (S3) and delegating (S4). In this model, directing style is applied to individuals in the D1 level, S2 to D2, S3 to D3 and S4 to D4 individuals. Although very simple, leaders need to be aware of sensitivity of these combinations because if incorrectly applied, then it could lead to disastrous outcomes. Keeping in mind the present situation where challenges for the leader are numerous such as resistance to change, low trust, indifferent attitudes, the big challenge, sustaining their top position, getting the entire team together to achieve the common goal, and also time constraint, situational leadership will help in building partnership relation with every team member, aligning the team towards common goal, improving trust and cooperation, and creating a self-motivated team in the available time. Part 3. Applicability of Situational Leadership in the present context Considering the defeat experienced by the team after my joining, as a coach I need to take swift action reinstate their confidence, earn their trust, and align the team towards the organization’s mission even before going for the National Championship. The new organization’s mission is to sustain the Club’s competitive position and regularly increase profits. Winning the National Championship is critical to attainment of this mission, which is directly dependent upon the team’s commitment. The team has a mixture of experienced and new players. Before we start preparations for the National Championship, I will hold a formal meeting with the entire team. This meeting will help in understanding the team’s morale; in revealing hidden conflicting emotions and disunity; in aligning the team towards a common vision; and in assigning specific goals and deliverables. As Kotter (1996) describes, a sense of urgency and a clear idea of the vision are the foremost factors for effective change, which can be established through this interaction. Sustaining the team’s top position still remains as the team’s vision. In this meeting, I will find out about the team’s previous working guidelines so that I may include changes if required. This exercise will also help in reducing their apprehensions of changing the rules/policies to some extent. After two practicing sessions, I will assess the level of proficiency that each player possesses. This will give sufficient clue to decide their individual responsibilities. Firstly, I will assign amateurs (D1) to each of the experienced players on a term basis so that these players learn from experienced players. Here, I will continuously monitor the players with average skills and direct them towards goals; constant feedback, encouragement, questioning and explaining will help in improving their competences and commitment. At the same time, this will encourage the experienced players (D4) thereby sustaining their competence and commitment, and improve the learners’ (D1) competence and sustain their commitment. If the learner’s competencies are not improved, then their commitment and confidence may reduce. By empowering the able players, I will be able to improve their trust in each other and allow them to come up with creative ideas. Empowering others to act on the vision by coming up with new ideas will help the players overcome their apprehensiveness towards their new coach (Kotter, 1996). For experienced players with lesser competences (D2), I will constantly monitor their performance; provide feedback and appreciate good points; set short-term goals and interact more to understand their concerns. Besides this, certain additional responsibilities such as attendance, dress code, punctuality and discipline during practice sessions can be given to players who are good in the game and are struggling to improve further. These players, at the D3 level, possess good competence and variable commitment. Showing confidence in their abilities and giving them additional responsibilities will improve their commitment and confidence. By empowering D3 players, Kotter’s (1996) institutionalization of new approaches can be achieved, thereby encouraging players to think creatively and bring change in systems. Consequently, situational leadership approach allows the leader to adopt specific style for specific situation while considering individuals’ readiness for a specific task. Here, the possibilities of individuals’ unpreparedness and competencies are regarded individually irrespective of their experience or association with the organization or their work. Part 4. Implications for the individuals, leaders and organization. Adopting a situational leadership based on Hersey and Blanchard’s model will address most of the challenges in this situation. Firstly, it will help in reducing the ‘new leader’ anxiety among team members in the first few interactions. Firstly, three change factors described by Kotter (1996) can be followed; from an organization perspective, sense of urgency can be reinforced by defining their vision and identification of issues/challenges. Communicating the vision and aligning the team towards its vision will be a good initiative towards restoring team spirit. Secondly, from the team perspective, all players will be appropriately motivated towards their goal. Improvement of competence and commitment will be in congruence with requirement and situation. Further, situational leadership principles can be applied at any point and any level depending upon the developmental level of the followers. Preparing for the National Championship can be considered as beginning of a new assignment for the team, and situational leadership’s flexible approach makes it ideal for subordinates who are at various developmental levels (Northouse, 2010). In sports, a more directive leadership is required than democratic or participative (Martens, 1987). However, without involvement and communication, achieving commitment is almost impossible. With situational leadership, directing, coaching, supporting and delegating are possible, which also encompasses involvement and participation thereby increasing the chances of follower commitment. Moreover, situational leadership focuses on getting task accomplished than only improving competence, which is an essential element of success in team sports. For the leader, this approach will lead to increased interactions, better understanding, awareness of their developmental cycle, increased trust and commitment, and motivated and self-reliant teams. Situational leadership is a useful way to get leaders to think about how leadership effectiveness may depend somewhat on being flexible with different subordinates, no t acting the same way toward them all (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy, 2009, 106). After assessing team members’ skills, the leader should be able to gain the follower’s permission to use the leadership style that is a match for the individual’s developmental level; this process refers to partnering for performance (Hersey & Blanchard, 2001). Establishing this partnering relationship requires a good dialogue and understanding between the leader and followers. Hersey and Blanchard (2001) assert that involvement and communication are essential for members to sustain their performance and commitment. Frequent interactions with the players will foster better understanding and partnering relationship for the leader. By involving the players and encouraging them to bring about changes in the system, I will be able to make them adopt the change must faster. Empowering, encouragements and appreciation of good work will revive their lost spirit; this way a planned performance improvement can be achieved for every player and for the entire team. To sum up, both organization and individuals are benefited through this approach which involves diagnosis, flexibility, and partnering for performance. Leaders can achieve their vision and drive the change intended through telling what is required; emphasizing and encouraging involvement; addressing their concerns by listening and providing support in the form of resources and reinforcement of their abilities; and empowering to express leaders’ confidence in their abilities. References Hersey, P and Blanchard, K. (2001) The Article, Situational Leadership II. CA, USA: The Ken Blanchard Companies, 2001. Item # 13526. V020101. Hughes, R.L, Ginnett, R.C. and Curphy, G.J. (2009). Contingency Theories of Leadership. In Hickman, G.R’s Leading Organizations: Perspectives for a New Era. 2ND Ed. CA, USA: Sage. Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading Change. USA: Harvard Business School Press. Martens, R. (1987). Coaches guide to sport psychology. IL, USA: Human Kinetics Northouse, P.G. (2009). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 5th ed. CA, USA: SAGE. Read More