Developing Leaders Leadership - Essay Example

Table of Content Introduction 2 Areas in My past where I exercised leadership role 3 Main Findings about My self 5 Diagnostic Results From the staff and boss of my current work Error: Reference source not found What area I need to develop further 9 The effect of culture on my perspective on leadership Error: Reference source not found Conclusion Error: Reference source not found Appendices Error: Reference source not found Bibliography 12 Introduction Self assessment is to determine what skills and abilities one can continue to improve strengths and what skills and abilities are required to develop opportunities for growth. I was born in Lahore, Pakistan. I am from Muslim family. My father was Army Officer. I spent my living and studying in different part of Pakistan because of my father job. After completing my Masters degree in Computer Science I worked as a computer consultant in Germany and retail manger in the England. In 2005 I got married and I had one son .I also speak a German and a little Polish. I am an ambitious and self motivated person who is willing to learn new skills and enjoys meeting new challenges. , I have gained administrative, financial and HR experience. Through these experiences I have gained many skills such as time management and the ability to handle pressure. I feel my main strengths are my organization and attention to detail skills. I am also able to work on my own initiative and as part of a team, with the ability to multi task when required. I like to perform to the best of my ability, as I have much to offer and I also hope to gain a lot more. My current employment at J Golding Group has provided me with the opportunity to demonstrate my communication skills and managerial qualities through working as a team member and managing staff. This has made me a responsible and reliable person, which I find is very important in the work place. Areas in My past where I exercised Leadership role Leadership is a management attribute that an individual can learn from others as argued by the behavioral theory which links leadership to an aspect that can be learnt through observation and teaching. Basing on the fact that my father was a military officer, I commanded leadership abilities at an early age due to my father’s influence. My father instilled a spirit of working towards what I desired to achieve without the fear of failure, for instance he would support me during my soccer games and encourage me that I can make it, only if I believe in my self. In my early school years I was the science club team leader. My experience with this particular leadership role was that managing teams can actually be difficult. One of the challenges I experienced included lack of cooperation by some of the team members. It was sometimes difficult to get every member of the team to cooperate as required; this is essentially because some people would wait for others to make contributions as they enjoyed just being part of the science club. However with time I managed to get every member to cooperate. One of the ways in which I solved the problem of lack of group cooperation was through specifying the responsibility of each group member of the club. This would afterwards result to establishing performance measurements for each individual group member. As a result every member of the club knew exactly what role they were to play in every project, in addition the expected standard of performance was also well communicated to them. If anyone did not meet the outlined expectations, they would be disqualified from the club. Although I had not studied much about leadership, I later realized that I was able to apply the postulates of the contingency theory whereby in order to effectively manage teams, a leader should clearly define the responsibility of each group member. As Fiedler proposes in the contingency theory, the most favorable working environment is whereby the scope of tasks is well defined. As a result it is through clearly defining tasks that the objectives can effectively be met (Winkler, 2009). I ensured that I gave precise specifications concerning the responsibility of each subordinate in relations to aspects such as the task, environment and the expected level of performance in order to attain the desired objectives. After completing my Masters degree in computer science in 2001, I went to Germany. I managed to get my first job ever in life in Germany in a ware house. I begun as a normal packing man and then after working for three months, I was later appointed as a team leader. I was appointed as team leader was basically due to hard work, quick learning and intelligence. Under the Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid (1964, 1978) I exhibit hard work, quick learning and intelligence in the section of Are You A Good Leader questionnaire (appendix g) test results reflect this. I scored 80 out of 100, ranking me as an excellent leader. This particular job was purely task oriented. Aspects such as time and accuracy were very much important. I managed a team of 15 people, and I was very proficient at motivating the team and helping them finish their work on time essentially because the situation of this job entailed pressure in terms of time management and finishing tasks within specific timelines. Under the Hersey and Blanchard leadership model a leader has to clearly tell people what to do, how to do it, where to do it and who’s to do it (Lussier, 2009). I managed to accomplish this through spelling out clearly the task to be accomplished by every particular team and the timelines they were supposed to achieve. In this particular job I leant that my leadership skills were developing especially in the effective management of teams. Main finding about my self Oyedele (2010) highlights that in the context of managing teams; a leader has to exhibit various types of leadership styles such as visionary leadership, transformational leadership and charismatic leadership in order to achieve results through people. In my first leadership experience as the science team leader, in order to solve the challenge of lack of cooperation, I adopted the contingency theory of leadership which brought out my true leadership qualities. According to the contingency theory, it is important for a leader to give precise instructions to be followed about the responsibility of each subordinate, in terms of the task, environment and the structure in order to get the desired goals ( Lakomski, 2005).As a result in order to accomplish this I drafted out the roles of every science club member, communicated to them how they would get the materials to accomplish the projects and the expected outcomes for each project. I also used the premise of the path goal theory by making clarification concerning the benefits we would attain such as best club of the year award if the science club was successful. As a result the team members become more motivated to work together in order to attain our objectives. As proposed by the premise of the path goal theory, the role of a leader is to increase the motivation of the followers in order to attain the goals of the organization, through proper clarification, of the path to rewards (House, 1996). House (1996) further argues that the essence of the path goal theory is to direct a leader to be effective in terms of engaging in behavior that would complement subordinates abilities in a way that is instrumental for unit work performance and compensates for deficiencies. What I witnessed is that with time, the team members who did not participate improved their performance in terms of contributions to the club. My Indirect experience with my first leadership role as a science club team leader was that I was selected to oversee all the science clubs in the entire school. In this particular rank my role was just to communicate with subordinate science team leaders concerning the programs of the club. As indicated by the certificate I got from the science club leadership role, the performance of the group was good and so was the leader. My first job in Germany as a packing man and later as a team leader was another test of my leadership qualities. As a team manager the application of situational leadership was very fundamental essentially due to the nature of activities in the organization. As proposed by Blanchard and Hersey’s situational leadership, a leader should adopt different styles of the leadership depending on the existing situation in the organization. Situational leadership further proposes that it is important for a leader to analyze the needs of the existing situation and use the most appropriate leadership style (Lussier, 2009). As highlighted earlier the job was task oriented and required time accuracy and meeting targets in the performance of tasks. Situational leadership assisted me in allocating tasks to each team member according to their level of commitment to the task. For instance I was able to identify people with high commitment and high competence, low competence and high commitment. Through identifying these categories of people I was able to come up with teams of individuals who could work together, support each other in attaining the objectives of the business which in this case involved meeting targets and maintaining time accuracy. It is to be noted by the Quinns test (see Appendix c ) I scored 23 which indicates my effectiveness in terms of managing coordination. The transformational leadership style came in handy for me. According to Bass and Riggio (2006) transformational leadership is built on developing morale, motivation and the performance of followers through various mechanism. Such mechanisms include connecting followers to the mission of the organization and challenging employees to taka a greater ownership of their task and understanding the strengths and the weaknesses of the employees. As the team leader in the German packaging company, according to Lussier, (2009) I was a transformational leader because I had passion and energy to inspire my teams to work towards the mission of the organization which was ‘’quality production for the future ‘’. Furthermore through grouping the teams according to their capabilities, I was able understand their capabilities in terms of their strengths and weakness. As a result, I worked on encouraging every team member to work hard and attain their targets. As noted by the Quinns test. (see Appendix c) I scored 25 which indicate my effectiveness in terms of energizing the employees. My leadership experience in England as a branch manager of a retail business was quite interesting and yet again very challenging .One of the challenges included managing absence and lateness .Quite a good number of the staff frequently came late and took sick leaves, these seemed as the culture of the organization. The business was frequently in a mess and the stocks and sales were always down. Additional challenges included difficulty in managing conflict, improving employee engagement, managing staff performance and appraisals and dealing with employee grievances and stress. In addition the aspect of gender difference was also a big problem because a large percentage of the staff were women. In a scenario like this I had to bring out clear leadership qualities.I had to learn quickly and adapt to the role by pushing myself hard and also pushing the employees in order to transform the culture that existed in the organization. Under the Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid (1964, 1978) I exhibit the status quo leadership style or what is referred to as the middle of the road approach (5, 5), this involved balance and compromise. I had to balance between the goals of the company and the needs of the workers. I did this by showing concern to the needs of the people and also the need to improve the performance of the business . I was able to initiate a communicating process whereby the staff would tell me the reasons why they were not motivated to work and the reasons why there was frequent absenteeism. Their major reasons was based on boredom which was a result of performing one task over and over again since they begun working for the business. I was able to motivate the staff by varying their roles and they gained trust and commitment. My Are You A Good Leader questionnaire (appendix g) test results reflect this. I scored 80 out of 100, ranking me as an excellent leader. I was able to motivate staff by varying their roles and gained their trust and commitment Also in order to revolutionize the bad culture of absenteeism and lack of commitment to performance that existed in the organization. I chose to be a charismatic leader. According to Lakomski (2005) a charismatic leader is not merely seen by followers as a boss but there is need to develop respect and a special bond between the followers and the leader. For instance I don’t mind helping out the staff incase they are busy, for instance if a customer drops something on the floor, I would just pick it and not wait for the staff to come do it. Sometimes I could even clean the toilets. This encouraged the staff to be sincere and also to be motivated because they saw their boss as concerned and caring. In addition I adopted the transformational leadership theory approach which entails inspiring followers to learn new things and face challenges as they come (Oyedele, 2010).For instance I frequently encourage my staff to always keep on trying and put more effort in order for them to reach their dreams. This worked because the staff become more committed to their work and with time the performance of the business begun to rise. As indicated by my followers in Leader Trait Questionnaire (LTQ appendix h) test I scored 5 which strongly suggest that I am a successful leader in terms of Diligent (is persistent, hard working) to my followers. I also introduced a reward system if s staff did not take any sort of sick off or leaves in six months, the individual would be given a reward of a one day off. As highlighted by the path goal theory of leadership rewarding successful achievements is important this is because the followers will be motivated to repeat the same behaviour over and over again. In despite of developing some level of positive change in the organization, I experienced resistance to change from a few of the employee. The resistance was attributed to rigidity by some of the employee who believed that changing their roles was not a good move. The resisting staff continued with their old habits of absenteeism and lack of commitment to their work. In order to deal with this sort of resistance, the first step I took was to warn the staff against the misconduct I had identified in the work place such as lateness and frequent absenteeism. Those who consistently resisted had to be sacked. As highlighted by Fielder’s contingency theory, there is a degree to position power which gives authority to a leader to get followers to accept and comply with the direction of leadership adopted by the leader (Winkler 2009). As a result employees those who consistently resisted instructions even after several warning deserved to be sacked. The transformational leadership theory also proposes that a good leader who is basically change oriented, is always up front and stands out with qualities of change and integrity as opposed to hiding their views and believes (Guy 2009). I used the threat of sacking the staff just as a strategy to influence their behaviour. Finally the resisting employees had to comply with the new changes. Diagnostic Results From the staff and boss of my current work Appraisal of a leader is an important aspect. This is because it enhances the credibility of a leader because his/her skills and leadership attributes are tested and proven to be trustworthy. In addition it also assists a leader to improve their performance. As highlighted by the results of my management skills questioner results (Quinn’s MASI), and (Style Questionnaire) I scored 45 for task and 44 for relationship, which according to the grid is an indication of a leader who is well balanced. The results basically imply that the dominating factors for me as a leader are based on high concern for production and high concern for people. The high task / high relations score of 45/ 44 is based on the fact that my application of leadership theories are basically behavioral and team based approaches, whereby a leader adapts a unique behavior that facilitates good relations which further results to high task performance. In addition the closeness of the two scores is an indication of flexibility for instance in terms of managing interpersonal relationships and managing the future. The following is a summary of my performance in managing two main areas, that is managing people and managing activities; Managing people The Quinns test result highlights that I scored 25 out of 25 in the managing teams. This is because I was able to effectively encourage team work in the organization as opposed to individual contributions to task. For instance this was done through allocating tasks that were to be accomplished as a team In the management of interpersonal relationships, I scored 25 out of 25. The score indicated that my ability to manage interpersonal skills was good. In order to effectively manage interpersonal skills I allowed the staff to express themselves freely in case of any issue. In addition .I listened to their views points when they presented them to me. In managing the development of others, I scored 25 out 25 of which was a good score .In order to manage the development of others, I did the grouping of teams through creating a blend between capability and commitment. For instance the capable members of a team would work with those who were less committed in order to assist them in improving the level commitment to their tasks. Managing tasks In managing customer service I scored 24 out of 25 which was an indication that the business was performing well in terms of rendering services to the customers. This progress was attained by putting customer feedback initiatives. Customers would give feedback concerning the services offered to them by a particular staff. As a result the staff worked hard to ensure that the customers were always satisfied. In terms of managing continuous improvement, I score 24 out of 25. I always ensured that there was always an improvement on the services and products offered to our clients. As proposed by the Kaizen principle of continuous improvement, I made sure that the products offered were always improved by ensuring that we offered a variety of new quality goods. (can you please discuss one weakest aera in Quinns test which will not conflict with all the assignment and it will be discuss in “what area need to improve”e please) What area I need to develop further The basic area that I need to develop further is in the development of team work within the organization. House (1996) argues that it is the role of the leader to create a working environment that facilitates the achievement of goals within the organization. Based on the fact that employees sometimes face the challenge of lack of cooperation, I believe that by developing team work within the organization, cooperation among employees will be enhanced which will further result to the attainment of the objectives of the organization. In order to attain this objective, I intend to mostly delegate tasks through teams as opposed to individual delegation. The areas I needed to develop involved improving my communication skills, for instance I had a problem with making a summary of statements, I would go to along way without presenting the main ideas that I wanted to communicate. As a resulted I opted to read books. What I learnt is that in order to go direct to the point I can note down the main points which I would later communicate, before explaining them to my listeners . I was able to apply the note taking method and I realized that I was able to communicate my points effectively. The effect of culture on my perspective on leadership Culture is an aspect that differentiates the application of leadership. In my culture for instance, the aspect of gender in leadership is a sensitive issues. A woman is not encouraged to take leadership roles, however in my encounter with the German and the English culture, woman can take up any sort of leadership roles. I had to adjust my perspective because just like the saying goes,’’ When you go to Rome, you do what the Romans do’’. I therefore had to accept the notion that women can actually take up leadership. As a result I gave women roles as team leaders in some of the teams.(Small example will be usefull,,how?) I also noticed that in Germany and Britain the aspect of leadership and getting a job is quite different as opposed to my culture. In Pakistan for instance, in order to get a good job or be a leader in a certain institution, you need reference from ‘’big people’’ such as the police, politicians and military officers. In addition in order to get that job you need to give a bribe. In Germany and Britain however your knowledge and ability will influence whether you get a good job or not. These societies are very honest and sincere in terms of merit and work. Managers adopt leadership styles which entail working with the staff in unison or like a team. In Pakistan this is the opposite, individual work is usually more often applied as opposed to team work. I can state that I have gained a lot from the German and British type of leadership and working culture. Conclusion I believe that in my experience of leadership I have shown qualities of good leadership. In every organization I have worked with, I initiated changes. I can not say that I was born as a leader as proposed by the trait theory, however I have leant to grow in leadership based on the various experiences I have had. In the long run my vision is to become the CEO of my company, which I believe will come true, with hard work and good leadership. (can you please use the following feedback in current job to strength the argument) From My Boss Feed Back About Me Efficiency in the use of resources __________ Assurance of quality performance __________ Employee satisfaction __________ Employee training and development __________ Customer service __________ Quality of products __________ Quality standards __________ Safety standards __________ Rate of product delivery __________ Staff punctuality __________ Corporate social responsibility __________ Environment conservation __________ Standard compliance __________ Management quality by managers __________ Evaluation and discussion of my performance by my supervisor __________ I know how my work contributes to overall company objective __________ Personal objectives are different from organizational objectives __________ Target dates are clearly communicated to employees __________ Personal development plans are highlighted to staff __________ Personal support is accorded to staff __________ Staff morale __________ How often are performance assessments carried out? __________ My manager appraise the result of his/her with team member regullay __________ My manager involves his/her team member to ensure they know all they need to Know __________ From My Staff Feed Back About Me Manager appraise the result of team with team member regulary __________ Manager communicate with team member to ensure they know all they need to know __________ Manager create trust in his relation with team member so that team can work most productively together __________ Manager praise staff when they produce above standard work __________ Manager coach the team member to grow and develop their knowledge/skill __________ Manager use team-building processes to build a high performing team __________ Manager involve team members in assessment of the team’s work __________ Appendices 1. Science Club certificate 2. Diagnostic Result" Feedback 3. QUESTIONNAIRE RESULT 4. Feedback about me from my boss 5. Feedback about me from my staff 6. Reference Letter (Word count , 3669) Bibliography Bass, M & Riggio, E, 2006, Transformational leadership, Routledge Blake, R.; Mouton, J. (1985). The Managerial Grid III: The Key to Leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co.. Guy, N, 2009, Leadership: Theory and Practice, SAGE. House , J, 1996, Path-goal theory of leadership: Lessons, legacy, and a reformulated theory , The Leadership Quarterly. Lussier, N, 2009, Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development, Cengage Learning. Lakomski, G, 2005, Managing without leadership: towards a theory of organizational functioning, Emerald Group Publishing. Oyedele, O, 2010, Team management, Glasgow Caledonian University. Winkler, I, 2009, Contemporary Leadership Theories: Enhancing the Understanding of the Complexity, Subjectivity and Dynamic of Leadership, Springer. As indicated by the feedback from my employer, I scored 79 which was an indication of being a good team leader. Read More