My Personal Leadership Style Analysis and Action Plan - Book Report/Review Example

My Personal Leadership Style Analysis and Action Plan Introduction An analysis of personal leadership reflects on the leadership style chosen by a leader and how effective the leader becomes, based on the style he chooses. A leadership style refers to the method of leadership used to provide direction, implement plans, and motivate people to achieve goals and common objectives. This paper will focus on the democratic leadership style and its effectiveness. The strengths of the leader that make him effective will be discussed in length. Personal weaknesses that may affect the leader’s effectiveness will also be discussed. Furthermore, the paper will discuss how the leader can capitalize on his strengths and leadership style to increase his effectiveness as a leader. Areas of possible conflict/problems in relation to the leadership style used will be discussed and possible solutions given. An action plan to guide actions and direct the leader will be formulated to allow monitoring of progress and address any problems along the way. The paper seeks to assert that a leader’s effectiveness is greatly enhanced by the leadership style and personal strengths of the leader (Buckingham & Marcus, 2011). Democratic leadership style Democratic leadership style will be used for this analysis. This is an open approach to leadership where decision making role is shared and members’ insight is valued before the leader makes the final decision. The leader consults his subordinates before making any decision that directly affect them. The sty allows the subordinates/ followers to participate in power/control. It is a participative leadership style that captures the idea of involvement and engagement of all team members in a company’s /group affairs. Democratic leadership has gained popularity because it empowers the workforce or increase group cohesion. The style can be powerful in realizing the potential of a team within an organization (Bradberry, Travis & Jean, 2009). This is because the style blends in with the ideas of empowerment and staff engagement. It is particularly important in motivating the staff to increase their output, creativity and innovativeness. The style builds a sense of commitment and displays the skills and competencies that are valued by the organization. Moreover, the style allows time for the leader and subordinates to work together and think about important decisions that affect the performance of the organization. Democratic leadership is beneficial to organizations and small groups. It makes coordination of work easier and gives clear sense of direction for the teams involved. The style is easy and gives everyone a say in decisions that directly affect them. As a result, the team is highly motivated because their insight and input is considered to be useful in making decisions. For example, consulting members when setting their work targets is very critical in motivating them to willingly work hard so as to achieve the targets. The benefits of the style are that it invites discussions, opinions and views, thereby building consensus and unity of the team. It encourages creative ideas from others, making it easy to innovate permanent solutions to challenges and gain a competitive edge over the competitors. The style recognizes that other people apart from the leader may have better ideas that steer the team to greater success. Furthermore, the style creates a shared goal and vision, building commitment from individuals as they agree together on what needs to be achieved. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Leader and their Impact on Interactions with others My major strength is integrity and transparency. This virtue includes ability to remain confidential over private matters that are out of reach to the public. Information that is personal is very private and confidential. Integrity also calls for policy and procedure observation. In addition it calls for ability to maintain values and ethic at all times even when under pressure or when faced with opposition (Bass & Stogdill, 2010). As a personal virtue, I remain firm especially when faced with issues of moral and ethical values. I also work well under pressure and maintain my stand when faced with opposition. I have learned to observe all policies and procedure in order to ensure that work is done in the prescribed way. Observing these rules safeguard from a lot of negative issues such as accidents, poor quality of work and unacceptable work behavior. I also pride myself in having ability to remain transparent at all times. I rarely engage in shady deals that have hidden agenda and secret deals. I reject such offers upfront and maintain my grounds because I value honesty and transparency Self-discipline is another major strength that I possess. As a leader, I need to be able to control my behavior so that I can set a good example for others to follow. Self-discipline includes avoiding distractions that may hinder my performance as leader. For example, I need to strictly observe time when dealing with people to avoid messing up schedules and procrastination. In addition, self-discipline calls for control of personal behavior such as avoiding rowdiness, maintain personal hygiene, remain calm and avoid bad company that may taint my reputation (Malphurs & Aubrey, 2003). As a religious leader, maintaining high standards of moral behavior is of paramount importance. Any instances of bad behavior may not only dent my image as a religious leader but may also discredit the church in general and mislead church members who look up to me as their spiritual father. Therefore, maintaining discipline in my personal and professional dealings with others is critical. Self-discipline makes the big difference between a credible leader and one who lacks discipline and professionalism in his work and interactions with others. Ability to interact with all people is another trait that I possess. I have excellent interpersonal skills that enable me to maintain healthy relationships with people of different diversity including age, financial status, cultures and education levels. Interpersonal skills relate to the ability to respect people’s views no matter how different they are, appreciate cultural diversity, read and understand non-verbal cues and maintain pleasant mannerism that make a person blend well in a group without seeming aloof or obnoxious (Buckingham & Marcus, 2011). I am able to interact well with different groups because I have the ability to identify issues that interest a group and thus are important to the group. For example, while interacting with the young, I develop interest in youth affairs and technology because this group values these things. Interaction with the elderly requires knowledge of subjects they hold dear such as in-depth knowledge of the bible to facilitate interactions during religious meetings such as bible studies. Therefore, as a leader, I am able to reach to all people under my charge because I am able to identify their needs and work together with them to device solutions. I possess planning and organization skills that facilitate the success of all events and interaction sessions held with different groups. Organization skills include the ability to follow through decisions, devising viable alternative solutions, Gathering the necessary information to facilitate sound decision making after considering all the advantages and disadvantages of the available decision alternatives (Bradberry, Travis & Jean, 2009). My planning skills are demonstrated in my ability to gather all the necessary resources required to hold successful events. I manage these resources optimally and make schedules of all activities that will take place. Through this, I am able to follow through my plan and ensure that activities and events are successful. I take personal initiative and possess strong resilience/persistence. Initiative simply implies that I take steps to make my work better and improve the performance of the organization. For instance, identifying needs and coming up with viable creative solutions and providing innovative ideas for improvement. Resilience includes remaining enthusiastic and positive despite challenges and setbacks, overcoming problems and obstacles, effective dealing with disappointments and handling rejections positively. These qualities are important in my line of work because dealing with people is very challenging. People have different personalities and challenges that may make it difficult to interact with them. Initiative will help the leader take steps towards finding solutions to people’s needs. Resilience will enable the leader to keep trying despite challenges faced in dealing with people (Bass & Stogdill, 2010). Impatience is one of the major weaknesses that I possess. I find myself very impatient with others especially when they perform tasks slower than I expect. I am also very impatient when co-workers show lower standards of performance or display a slower pace than is expected. I also tend to be very impatient when someone is giving a story with lengthy details. I find myself losing track of what they are saying and diverting my attention to something else. I may interrupt them and ask them to briefly state their point of view or give a summary of the story. This weakness affects my interaction with people. I seem aloof and disinterested in what a person is sharing. As a leader who interacts with people often, I have an obligation to cultivate trust and reliability from others. It is therefore important that I overcome impatience. Currently, I am working with my colleagues to address the weakness. They help identify instances when I become impatient and device ways to deal with them. For example, when I grow impatient because the queue in the supermarket is too long and the attendant seems slow, I learn to put myself in the attendant’s shoes and empathize with him for having a busy long day. I am also a very controlling/strong willed individual who tends to be single-minded in achieving goals and rarely accept directions easily. At times, I may become insensitive of other people’s needs or feelings. I may be particularly insensitive when I want to take charge of a situation. For example, I despise people who seem weak and easily give in. I don’t empathise with them because I fail to understand why they let others overlook them yet they can fight for their rights. I also tend to be insensitive when I want to be in charge because I believe opportunities belong to the strong-willed individuals who are willing to do all it take to utilise every opportunity available. As a leader, this weakness is a major setback to my performance and ability to impact a positive influence on people (Malphurs & Aubrey, 2003). Being overly aggressive and controlling results in resentment from people especially those that seem to have a weaker will than mine. Since I tend to be insensitive when I want to take charge, I leave some people with grudges and hurt, which is unacceptable for a leader. I tend to be very stubborn and uncompromising. I find it difficult to adapt to changes and new ideas that I don’t understand or find logic in. Because I am very uncompromising, I am very inflexible and don’t accept ambiguous ideas. I also tend to use one way flow of communication i.e. tendency to be the only one giving instructions. Stubbornness is displayed in inability to change my position once I have set my mind to something. It is almost impossible to adopt a new idea once I have made my decision. This is because I always think that my decisions are right and well thought through. As a result, I fail to incorporate new ideas that may be better because I am so inflexible. Stubbornness and my inability to compromise are vices that reduce my effectiveness as a leader. They go against the virtues that I teach such as forgiveness and being considerate to the neighbors. It is impossible for people to follow these virtues if their leader is so uncompromising and stubborn. It is very ironic, similar to preaching water and taking wine. How to Capitalize on the Leadership Style and Strengths The democratic leadership style will enable me to overcome some of my weaknesses such as being overly controlling and uncompromising. The style requires the leader to remain less controlling and allow others to participate in decision making. This implies that the leader must consult and accept decision of all members before making a decision. Democratic leadership style doesn’t discriminate whose decision can be considered and whose decision is immaterial. Therefore, as a leader, I am compelled to remain patient and listen to the input of all members including those that have a lesser strong will than mine. This will help me overcome the weaknesses of being controlling and impatience. The democratic leadership style offers benefits that I can use as a leader to increase my teams effectiveness. The style leads to motivation and coordination of activities to achieve set goals. I shall capitalize on the leadership style to reap the benefits of team work, instilling commitment to others and encouraging transparency and professionalism approaches to work (Foels et al, 2000). My strengths will be used to come up with new ideas of solving problems and improve current ideas. For example, I take personal initiative, a strength that facilitates taking steps towards generating new ideas that will improve my work. These ideas can be used to solve current problems, and innovate cutting edge improvements to current ideas and procedures. My interpersonal skills will be used to draw more people and overcome my impatience and uncompromising behavior that make me seem aloof. Overcoming these vices will increase my credibility and trust, which will facilitate smooth operations of my work (Buckingham & Marcus, 2011). Self-discipline is a strength I shall capitalize on to restore discipline among the groups I shall be in charge of. For example, I shall insist on good mannerisms, time management and ability to follow through decisions as major virtues that guide my action and make me a better leader. I plan to capitalize on these virtues that I possess to encourage and motivate people to observe self-discipline. Problematic Issues that Arise Based on Democratic Leadership Style Despite Democratic leadership style being the most effective leadership style, it has its own shortcomings. In circumstances where the roles are not clearly defined or time is a critical factor, democratic leadership can cause communication failures and lead to uncompleted projects. In some instances, group members may lack the appropriate knowledge or expertise to come up with quality input and insight to the decision-making process. Therefore, they may fail to participate for failure of seeming incompetent. This makes their wishes not to be incorporated, thereby, reducing their morale and commitment to work (Malphurs & Aubrey, 2003). This problem is overcome by the leader giving subordinates some time think things over and search for information to support and give credit to their contribution in decision-making process. Where time is of essence and consultation will delay critical decisions, the leader can make the decision solely to seize available opportunities and save critical situations. Furthermore, roles should be clearly defined to facilitate democratic leadership. Democratic leadership works best in circumstances where team members are appropriately skilled and eager to share their knowledge. The style also requires a lot of time to enable people to contribute, develop plans and vote for the best course of action. Therefore, it may not work in situations of emergencies, requiring quick action to be taken. The style may also fail in small companies where labor is highly unskilled and members rarely know much about technical expertise since they mostly do manual work (Bass & Stogdill, 2010). To overcome the problem of time, departmental leaders can represent their in charges in decision-making process to minimize multiple consultations and speed up the decision-making process. The style can work for semi-skilled people by inducting them and training them on basic skills and knowledge of work. Empowering the people will give them a voice in decision-making process and increase their desire to learn more about their work to increase their performance. Action Plan The action plan is for sharing insights gained through my study and interactions with others. It contains the steps that I plan to take to increase my effectiveness and the benefits of such actions. The first step will be to write down my strengths and ensure that I capitalize on them to make me a me a more efficient leader. I shall evaluate how my strengths have facilitated my work and identify which strengths are key for a religious leader. Step two involves finding out my weaknesses and how they affect my work as a leader. I plan to take time evaluate my weak areas that need improvement and make people doubt my leadership capabilities (Buckingham & Marcus, 2011). Step three involves devising ways of overcoming my weaknesses. For example, I shall use my friends to identify areas of weaknesses and come up with ways to overcome them. Using friends as accountability partners will make it easier to see the ugly side of me that I choose to ignore. The next step will be request for character appraisal from the members I am in charge of. Through the appraisal, I shall identify my strength and areas for improvement to serve them better. The fourth step involves working with my in charges to come up with ideas of improving services. The final step involves implementing the new ideas and monitoring the progress to ensure that any deviations are corrected in good time. The potential benefits of the action plan are increased efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. The plan will help me overcome my weaknesses and build on my strengths. It will enable my in charges to participate more in decision-making and increase their commitment to ministry work (Bradberry, Travis & Jean, 2009). They will feel free to consult and share ideas with me, since their appraisal of my character and effectiveness as leader shows my commitment to work with them as a team member. In addition, the plan will facilitate timely achievement of set targets and proper coordination of ministry activities. Conclusion Democratic leadership style is participatory and involves all members in decision making. It offers benefits such as motivating team members and increasing their commitment to work. The limitation of the style is that it works best where there is skills and expertise and sufficient time to allow for consultation before making final decision. Strengths such as integrity, self-discipline and interpersonal skills increase a leader’s effectiveness, while weaknesses such as stubbornness and impatience reduce trust and credibility. The action plan will increase coordination, motivation and commitment to ministry work. Therefore, democratic leadership, coupled with strong leadership traits increases a leader’s efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery. References Bass, B. M., & Stogdill, R. M. (2010). Handbook of leadership. Theory, Research & Managerial Applications, 3. Bradberry, Travis and Jean Greaves. (2009). Emotional Intelligence 2.0. San Diego, CA: TalentSmart.  Buckingham, Marcus. (2011). Standout. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.  Foels, R., Driskell, J. E., Mullen, B., & Salas, E. (2000). The effects of democratic leadership on group member satisfaction an integration. Small Group Research, 31(6), 676-701. Malphurs, Aubrey. (2003). Being Leaders. Grand Rapids: Baker Books. Read More