Personal Leadership Style - Coursework Example

Personal Development Journal Name Course Tutor’s Name Date Introduction According to Pinar (1981, cited by Johns 2009 p. 49), “reflective writing brings events into focus, enabling the journal to act as a midwife, giving birth to new understanding”. Notably, reflection is supposed to make us cognisant of the meaning in lessons and experiences encountered in life. As Johns (2009) notes however, reflection calls upon one to pause, stop or pay attention to lessons and experiences. In this journal, I will reflect on my leadership style, which has been identified in the learning style matrix as transactional. To start with however, I must underscore my belief (which is informed by theories regarding leadership) that in addition to leadership being one’s ability to influence others by controlling their behaviour, it also includes one’s ability to motivate and enable others to achieve identified organisational goals. Analysing learning Being identified as a transactional leader has in a way made me realise that I need to develop more leadership competencies (and perhaps adopt a transformational style of leadership) especially if the association between effective leadership and transformational leadership approaches as established in literature (Avolio & Bass 2004; Rosette & Tost 2010) is anything to go by. Increasingly, organisational hierarchies are flattening, and globalisation is forcing leadership to transform, specifically for purposes of adopting an individualised and inspirational approach of handling employees (Eagly 2005; Rosette & Tost 2010). The aforementioned approach of handling employees appears to work best under transformational leadership, hence underscoring the need for me to gain more competencies in that area. Before writing any further, it is important for me to first answer the question, ‘can one learn how to be a transformational leader?’ Well, according to Bass (1990, cited by Atkinson & Pilgreen 2011, p. 2), transformational leadership can be “taught, learned, and practiced”. This answer therefore indicates that apart from being taught and learning (which I have in this course) about leadership, I can also practice the same despite being identified as a transactional leader. More theoretical indication that one can indeed succeed in moving away from transactional and into the transformational form of leadership has been offered by Bass and Avolio (1990 cited by Atkinson & Pilgreen 2011), who indicate that such a shift is possible if one practices: Idealised influence (making one’s subordinates feel good, proud and earning their faith); Inspirational motivation (communicating one’s goals , manipulating images, and helping subordinates find their work meaningful); Intellectual stimulation (helping subordinates find new ways of perceiving and accomplishing work-related tasks); and individual consideration (helping subordinates develop individually or in groups or teams). Learning about transactional leadership, it emerged to me that such leaders practice contingent reward and management-by-exception. Through contingent reward, leaders recognise and compensate effort and good performance, while management-by-exception ensures that the status quo remains, set performance targets are met, and that corrective action is taken whenever desired results are not attained (Hackman & Craig 2009 cited by Atkinson & Pilgreen 2011). While it was evident through the course that transactional leadership has its place in any organisation (e.g. in crisis and emergency management or in projects that require adherence to strict standards), I got the impression that such type of leadership needs to be the exception rather than the norm. From the leadership lessons, I also got the impression that transactional leaders are more likely to adopt approaches that maintain the status quo, and by so doing, they may jeopardise chances of an organisation progressing in future. The realisation that I was a transactional leader (through my approaches so far) has thus ‘awakened’ me to the need of developing my leadership competencies some more, especially because I realise that the modern (and future) employees are “more aware, educated, knowledgeable and expecting better values for themselves” as indicated by Sabir, Sohail, and Khan (2011). My desire to learn and practise more transformational leadership is also informed by Mujtaba et al.’s (2011 cited by Sabir et al. 2011) observation that different societal cultures expect from, or perform well, under different leadership styles. Working in a multi-cultural environment, I therefore realise the need to be equipped with competencies in different leadership styles; I also recognise the need to possess the knowledge needed to understand the styles to use in different cultures. In my personal development plan, I chose to include leadership competencies as an area I wish to develop further because I also learnt that organisational efficiency depends on the leadership adopted therein. Sabir et al. (2011, p. 149) for example note that the leadership style adopted in an organisation affects how the leader communicates “policies and plans, rules and regulations, [offers] incentives, instructions, co-operation and build efficient work environment”. Riaz and Haider (2010) further found out that transformational leaders are better able to influence employees compared to transactional leaders, because to a particular extent, rewards as used in the transactional approach stop being motivators, and punishments cease having the corrective effect intended. Admittedly, my past performance indicates that while making people abide by the rules is one of my strong areas, I rarely succeed in introducing new ideas; something I now realise could be linked to my approach to substitute interaction with awards and/or punishments. As indicated in the personal development matrix, I do not entirely rely on rewards and punishments in my leadership. However, I must indicate here that such incentives/disincentives would most likely be my priority as a leader. With the knowledge and understanding gained from the course materials, I now know that while rewarding subordinates can be a motivator that encourages better performance, its use does not always guarantee good performance especially if other employees do not feel valued. In a thought provoking book authored by Kohn (1999), it is argued that offering rewards and/or punishments is tantamount to dangling goodies in front of employees. According to the author, such form of motivation only works for a short while, but is ineffective in the long run. When employees get used to the rewards or punishments, Kohn (1999, p. 65) argues that “rewards turn play into work, and work into drudgery”. In other words, people no longer find satisfaction or meaning in work, and as indicated by Kohn (1999), the ultimate solution is to stop dangling the ‘carrot’ and find more effective ways to encourage employees to transcend self-interests and work for a common goal that is beneficial to an organisation. As indicated in the introductory part of this journal however, there are times when transactional leadership is necessary. For the aforementioned reason therefore, I will not completely dismiss the use of transactional leadership, but going forward, I will focus on prioritising transformational leadership, and only use transactional leadership in specific incidences. My decision above is further informed by Podsakoff et al. (2010) who observe that instances that require the leader to reduce employee cynicism towards a specific organisational change may require rewards and/or punishment as used by transactional leaders. Additionally, contingent rewards and punishment have also been shown to contribute to job satisfaction (Podsakoff et al. 2010). Competence development According to Goldman (2009, cited in Warden 2011), a leader can make a conscious decision to change actions and practices that lead to a toxic type of leadership in an organisation. Although I cannot go as far as calling transactional leadership toxic, I believe Warden (2011) means that one can change a leadership style that is not very effective, and embrace one that has better results. As indicated above, transformational leadership involves four dimensions namely Idealise influence; Inspirational motivation; Intellectual stimulation; and Individualised consideration. To develop my competencies in transformational leadership I thus need to embrace the four not only by reading about them, but practicing them too. In an effort to build my competencies in the Idealised Influence (II) dimension, and as Atkinson and Pilgreen (2011) indicate, I would ideally speak out about satisfactory and unsatisfactory performances in an obvious shift from transactional leadership. According to Atkinson and Pilgreen (2011), a transformational leader needs to settle down and listen to what his/her subordinates think about a specific issue. Even when performance metrics have to be made obvious, the leader would be polite and courteous in how he/she communicates. By so doing, Atkinson and Pilgreen (2011) argue that the leader would be positioning him/herself as an approachable person, who can advise or mentor the subordinates whenever the need to do so arises. In addition to being, polite, courteous and approachable without negating the professionalism between my subordinates and I, changing my linguistic strategies is also another way that I can develop the idealised influence competencies as suggested by Atkinson and Pilgreen (2011). Linguistic strategies involve using words to assert the importance of performance, without being unnecessarily harsh or critical. Atkinson and Pilgreen (2011, p. 12) specifically observes that rather than pursue someone like a criminal for violating a policy, a leader intent on embracing a transformational style of leadership should “provide the polices, emphasise why the policies were established and describe the big picture impact of violating the policies...” In developing Inspirational Motivation (IM) competencies, Atkinson and Pilgreen (2011) recommends the use of social semiotics and attribution theory as approaches to practising transformational leadership. Social semiotics in this context refers to the use of symbols and words in a manner that would motivate and inspire his/her subordinates. Attribution theory on the other hand is simply explained by Weiner (2010) as the process of associating causes to a person or factor. If a person fails to accomplish something for example, they may attribute the failure to self or others. Rather than chastise a person who fails to do something effectively like a transactional leader would, Atkinson and Pilgreen (2011) argues that a transformational leader ought to pay particular attention to what the employee attributes the failure to. For example, if an employee claims the task was too difficult, the leader has to be accommodating enough to either encourage the person to think more creatively, or assign a more-competent person to handle the task altogether. In relation to Intellectual Stimulation (IS), it would appear that I will need to engage more in creativity research, and by so doing, develop my competencies in thinking “about things in different ways” as suggested by Atkinson and Pilgreen (2011). Theoretical evidence that I can learn how to develop new ideas is offered by Estes and Ward (2002, cited by Jones 2011), who observe that although idea generation requires some thought and work, it can be learned. Creativity should not be a preserve of the leader only; rather, leaders should recognise and be open to the idea that their subordinates can be co-creators of some of the greatest ideas that can propel the organisation forward (Jones 2011). In developing Individual Consideration (IC), Atkinson and Pilgreen (2011) recommends the use of mentoring and linguistic strategies. In other words, I would need to develop my mentorship abilities and be willing to offer the same to my subordinates. Additionally, I would need to be more polite, courteous and sensitive in my communication (probably by understanding politeness theory). Overall, Atkinson and Pilgreen (2011) observes that “it seems that a transformational leader could follow the literature” to develop his/her competencies. Similarly, I will follow the literature, and seek more leadership opportunities where I can use my new competencies. Conclusion Transactional leadership is somehow unfashionable in modern literature. However, and as indicated in this journal, some authors still believe it has a role to play in organisations. Still, as a person who possesses transactional leadership skills in a world that seems to have a liking for transformational leadership, and whose cultural diversity may require me to be competent in different leadership approaches, I now recognise the need to develop competencies in the latter style of leadership. As indicated above, transformational leadership can be learned, and this only means that I need to find the lessons and exercises that will make me a competent transformational leader. Some of the major changes that I will need to undertake include adopting a more interactive mode of leadership, where rather than issuing orders and rewarding or punishing behaviour based on compliance or lack thereof, I will be required to be more influential (albeit in an idealised manner), considerate, motivating, inspiring, and intellectually stimulating. Fortunately, and as indicated above, a leader can change a leadership style that is not very effective, and embrace one that has better results. In my case, I am willing to develop competencies in transformational leadership because I realise the importance of the same in a global, multi-cultural environment, where organisational success is said to be associated with the kind of leadership therein. 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