Manager's Leadership Style and Employee Job Satisfaction - Coursework Example

PORTFOLIO NOTEBOOK Leadership and Management Task 1: Scott’s Leadership Style Scott was an expeditionary and an explorer who took voyages and adventures in the sea. He was also a former military man who had prior skills about navigation and how to survive in hard situations. Scott’s last expedition was not successful and this is said to come about because of the poor planning before the voyage. He had some leadership skills that are a lesson to people in management positions even up to date. One of the leadership styles that made Scott’s expedition a failure was lack of proper preparation (Chen, 2012). Scott remained confident that he would make it to the South Pole and therefore did not prepare well despite his lack of knowledge with the poles. As a leader, he had to put in mind that situations can turn out to be either positive or negative and as such, as a leader, he had to prepare for any outcome and not just hope for positivities alone. His military background overwhelmed Scott’s leadership and therefore he believed to press on and force a situation even if it seems impossible, he never had an option for changing the plans when things get tough (Lussier & Achua, 2015). Shackle ton’s leadership style. Ernest Shackleton was an expeditionary and an explorer. He travelled long journeys on water and had to go with some other people on his expeditions. One of the memorable and successful expeditions that he made was the voyage to the Antarctic in 1914 just before the First World War with 28 people aboard. During the expedition, they faced a rough time and had to encounter real disasters. Shackleton showed leadership in all that events of the expedition. His leadership styles during the expedition are still being discussed up to now and then reflected to the business and management spheres (Martin, 2005). One of the greatest leadership style that was portrayed by shackle ton was endurance. Endurance means persevering and staying focused on the target even when the circumstances do not favour the situation. This means that one should try all that can happen to pull together the team and make them stay focused even when the going gets tough. During the expedition, shackleton and his team’s ship broke down and they had to stay for two years on the ice cold water and with no food supply, this was a very hard time for the expeditionary but still they made it because the leader that they had the ability to keep their spirits up. Shackleton believed in unity of his team and believed that that was the best thing that gave him the chance to reach his goals (Lussier, 2008). Shackleton as the Best Leader Shackleton had the ability to manage both physical survival and survival of the spirit because they both are equally important. He managed to do this by maintaining his teams joy, pride and happiness, he did this by playing the banjo to the crew members to keep their spirits high because he knew his last expeditions had failed due to lack of a high spirit (Ortigoza, 2011). The greatest man and a good leader between Shackleton and Scott is Scott. He is a good leader and has all qualities of a good leader. For instance, while selecting his team, he took time to get the best team. Every person was specialised in his sector. He had a biologist, a photographer, a banjo player and others. As for Scott, he did not even have time to plan. Shackleton also knew how to amalgamate his crew. There was unity and high spirit. People on board could do any job and they helped each other to carry out duties. Shackleton’s endurance lesson during the hard times in the sea but still managed to make the voyage successful shows how a good leader he was, because a good leader endures together with his team, plans well and keeps his tam’s spirit high always (Chen, 2012). Leadership and Management Task 2 Personality Traits Associated with Good Leadership Styles Good leaders have characteristics or traits that distinguish their leadership style from bad leaders. Good leaders have the following personality traits in their leadership. These traits include observation, enthusiasm, communication, listening, being adaptive, clear vision, self-awareness and trust. A good leader should be able to identify his team’s weaknesses and strengths. This is only achievable through observation. An observant leader will assign his or her team members duties according to their areas of specialization and this increases efficiency and team morale. A leader should be able to be enthusiastic about what they do in correspondence to their position as a leader. An enthusiastic leader is one who focuses on the goals and recognises dedication of his or her team members towards achieving the goal. An enthusiastic leader should be a source of motivation to his or her team members by showing them by example of what he or she expects them to perform their duties and responsibilities. Such a leader acts as an inspiration to his or her team members (Lussier & Achua, 2015). Effective communication is vital in management. A good leader should be open, as well as welcoming and ready to listen to his or her team. Maintaining a good relationship with employees through effective communication allows the manager to understand the issues affecting them. A good leader should be a good listener when leading his or her team. He or she should be ready to listen to their woes and compliments. This enables the leader to get to know the minds of his or her team members hence make it easy to lead them accordingly. Adaptability and flexibility are key when it comes to making top management decisions. Leaders should be able to shift with the current situation and learn to appreciate flaws and treat them as a lesson and not as a set back to the next step (Lussier, 2008). A leader must have vision that will that will guide him or her on their mission. The vision should be clear and understandable for the team members. A leader should share his or her vision with team members in a way that they can buy the idea. A good leader should have good self-awareness so that he or she can be able to the strengths and weaknesses of his or her team members. The last trait of a good leader is trust as mentioned above. A leader should trust his or her team members and share with them ides and decisions. Trust is important in any organisation, when team members build their trust in their leader; they follow all his or her orders because they know it is for the better (Lussier, 2008). Personality traits associated with bad leadership styles As there are good leaders, bad leaders too are common, bad leaders are those who do not utilise fully the potential of their teammates, and as such, they lose a lot. Bad leaders come about because of poor planning, mistrust from members of the team or craftiness. Bad leaders are described by personality traits such as lack of communication, lack of clear vision, lack of interpersonal skills and lack of energy. In lack of communication, bad leaders do not have time to communicate with their team members, or if they do, then they do not do it perfectly. Poor communication may lead to misunderstandings and hence this slows down the process of development (Ortigoza, 2011). Lack of energy in bad leaders makes them to move away from the norms and the set goals. Reduced enthusiasm in a leader may cause all the other team members to reduce the passion and respect they had for the set goals because the spark should come from above and not from the juniors. A leader who lacks enthusiasm is a laggard and does not accept new ideas and hence retaining the status quo even if the outcomes are poor. Another trait of a bad leader is lack of interpersonal skills. These skills include listening, as well as how to relate to the team members. A leader who cannot listen to his or her team members will not be able to know what they are up to. Reluctance to use other people’s ideas and inputs even if they are the best makes the team members to question their relevance and that is disorientating. Pessimism leaders do their actions with the attempt to be seen as performing. They may set their targets so low and obvious so that they are perceived as achievers. Such leaders should change and be optimistic and embrace the use of team member’s ideas and efforts in improving the organisation’s goals. Lack of clear vision is also a trait of the poor leaders. They are often vague in their visions. Such leaders are not willing to collaborate with others easily. For a person to be a leader, he or she should work with those people who surround them to gain their goals and be performers. Character traits that can be learnt It is possible to learn both good and bad character traits depending on the social surrounding and upbringing that an individual has. However, most schools of learning, such as academics, religion, ethics, as well as societal norms and standards advocate for people to learn good character traits in order to become competent leaders in future. As such, the society shapes an individual to grow up and develop positive character traits, which in turn transform him or her to become a competent leader in future. Historical Personality Associated With Good Leadership Nelson Mandela, the first black president of independent South Africa, is an exemplary choice of a leading world personality that practiced good leadership. The leadership style of Nelson Mandela was accommodative of all persons in his country, as well as compassionate and accommodative to all persons despite their political or racial backgrounds. In fact, Mandela won a Nobel Peace Prize owing to his charismatic leadership styles, which was vey democratic (Lussier, 2008). Historical Personality Associated With Bad Leadership Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada, who was once the president of the Republic of Uganda, is an exemplary choice of a leading world personality that practised bad leadership practices. Idi Amin was a dictator who killed nearly 300,000 innocent civilians of his country during his totalitarian rule. He also exiled a significant number of elite Ugandan leaders who posed a political threat to his rule, as well as chasing away literally, all foreigners from his country, especially the whites and the Indians. This was a costly move as it almost brought Uganda’s economy to its knees (Ortigoza, 2011). Reference List Chen, X. (2012). The Relationship between Manager's Leadership Style and Employee Job Satisfaction in Selected Beijing Computer Software Companies. Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Lussier, R. & Achua, C. (2015). Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development. Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Lussier, R. (2008). Management Fundamentals: Concepts, Applications, Skill Development. Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Martin, J. (2005). Organizational Behaviour and Management. Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning EMEA. Ortigoza, G. (2011). Leadership Styles of Department Heads and Performance of Faculty Members at the Philippine Military Academy. 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