Principals Styles of Leadership - Essay Example

Leadership: process and organization Induction The leadership style is different in different situation. A successful leader is one who is flexible enough to adapt to the changing environment, and develop a successful leadership style so as to effectively handle its team members. This project has enabled me to learn the different leadership styles, the ways the groups are formed and to what extent the followers are affected by the style adopted by the leader. The leadership style I recognized in these three projects is authoritative leadership style, democratic leadership style and affinitive leadership style. Bruce Tuckman in 1965 approached a theory for the group development which comprised of four stages such as forming, storming, norming and performing (Forsyth, 2009). These three stages are very important for the formation of the group and the way the leader leads the group. The implication of this theory I have seen how a leader tackles problems, faces various challenges, plans work, finds solution, and deliver the desired results. Leader 4 Leader 4 in my group project was more focused towards reaching the goal. He even left the path to reach the desired goal on its group members. He was more focused on making the different individuals work as a team for achieving a common goal or task. He followed an authoritative leadership style where he motivated his employees to join him for planning and working together as one team. He believed that it is very important for the success of a project that the followers listen to the leader and be task oriented. He has helped me and even the fellow team members to guide us so that we perform well. He showed vibrant enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit while executing his duties (Northouse, 2012). However my group member for my first project had high level expertise in performing the task, and they did not like the authoritative attitude of Leader 4. As they were not able to share their innovative ideas with the leader and there was a constant control over their task by the leader. As I was a part of this project I learned the way a leader can lead a team and the way he guided me helped to effectively contribute towards this project. The norming and performing stage of group development was effectively carried out by this leader (Levi, 2010). There was a lot of conflict during this project because of presence of number of expert candidates in our group. I specifically learned from this leader through honey & mumford learning cycle. Where I firstly had an experience as an activist, then reviewed my experience or acted as a reflector, then as a theorist I concluded from the experience I gathered, and finally planned the next step. The leadership style of this leader helped me to learn through this specific cycle by being an activist in the initial stage then end up being a pragmatist (Mumford, 1997). I was thoroughly inspired by the high enthusiasm level that Leader 4 possessed. He was very keen towards reaching the common goal. The authoritative leadership style plays effectively where the followers listen to their leaders so much that they do not put their own ideas, and are dependent on the guidance of the leader. This kind of leaders imposes authority over their followers but do not command them to do a specific task (Burns, 2012). As leader 4 who always guided my entire group in order to perform well and successfully execute the project. Leader 5 Leader 5 in my second project followed a democratic leadership style where he was very much interested in making the entire group members participate in project execution. He did not showed power over his followers but encouraged them to share their ideas on improving efficiency in their performance. He even asked me my ideas once saying “what do you think how we should go about with this task?” this statement coming from my group leader made me feel that I play a significant role in this project. He even encouraged other group members to openly share their ideas to the extent that when he felt uncertain about a particular situation he asked some expert members of my group for their opinion (Mehrotra, 2005). He always wanted to give ownership to all the group members so that they own the work they are performing, in which if they own the success for the project they should be bold enough to accept the failures too (Sadler, 2003). Though there is a certain disadvantage of this kind of leadership style which I feel can affect any project that is this attitude of a leader of asking others for their ideas cannot be carried out in an emergency situation where quick decision has to be taken (Lussier and Achua, 2009). Another factor is that this style would not work effectively if the team members are not expert enough to guide the leader. Leader 5 had an ability to encourage its group members by following a two way communication method. This reduces much of the storming stage of the group development (Rost, 1993). However the performing stage of group development would require effective participation of the leader too. I have learned the expertise of Leader 5 through the Kolbe’s experiential cycle. In which I do not only observe the situation but also think over it and then apply my thoughts in order to perform well. This leader motivated us as a group and even as individuals but there was a lack in terms of guidance (Dixon, 1999). The group members were having the flexibility to share their ideas but at the same time they did not know whether some better ways exist which can only be stated by a leader. I personally gained the expertise from this leader of being highly motivated and that the problems as a team can only be solved is the entire work together to solve the issue and plan out better ways of executing the task. Sharing of ideas and knowledge is the underlying factor to this democratic leadership style (Iqbal, 2011). Leader 6 Leader 6 in my third project was task oriented as well as relationship oriented. He believed that only pushing the team members to perform well would not increase their work efficiency but there has to be an emotional bond between the leader and the followers (Bryman, 2013). This bond will make sure that the followers never cheat on their leaders and even the trust that their leaders will take a decision for the well being of the followers will be strong. Leader 5 was more focused on building such emotional bond with his followers; according to him people came first (Kano, 2013). This leadership style was highly effective in a situation when there was a lot of pressure on the group members to perform efficiently for the project completion. The emotional attachment Leader 6 had developed with the group members had made the group members feel comfortable to share their problems which they were facing while carrying out their task with the leader. This kind of leadership style is often termed as affinitive leadership where the leader builds up a strong relation with its followers (Gottlieb, 2003). Leader 6 did not only build up strong bonds with our group members but also organized and controlled the entire work process very well. The group members were highly impressed with the leader as they possessed the necessary expertise for completion of the project all they needed is an encouragement from the leader on their performance and a moral support that they can do it (Schyns and Meindl, 2005). The strategy of keeping the people as the first priority Leader 6 was able to increase the performance efficiency of the group members. I was able to work more confidently and effectively share my thoughts for such an emotional attachment that I shared with Leader 6 (Bonnici, 2011). This style adopted by this leader helped in effective formation of the group through successful forming, storming, norming and performing stages of group development. I was able to analyze the leadership style and learn through it by Gibbs learning cycle. Which comprises of the description of the even that occurred, the feelings associated with it, analysis and evaluation of the situation, and then on basis of conclusion an effective plan for the future (Moon, 2013). This leadership style adopted by Leader 6 has given guidance to the group members and even motivated them to outperform. Even the conflict was reduced through this leadership style as it was less of power or control and more of attachment. Conclusion I have learned the three different leadership styles through this exercise, where each style has a different impact on the followers. According to me the leadership style which I could relate to is affinitive style of leadership. This style has taught me the importance of the roles that a leader has to perform to make its group work efficiently. This exercise has affected my learning in a way that I could analyze the different leaders and how they manage their teams. As a group I was able to observe the different ideas that members has, and how much beneficial it is to observe the weakness and strengths of the team members in order to develop highly productive team and working relationship (Kellerman, 2013). I would take a more number of leaders and analyze their respective style if I had an opportunity to do this exercise again, and would try and find out the ways through the respective leadership style can be changed according to a particular situation. References Bonnici, C.A. (2011). Creating a Successful Leadership Style. USA: R&L Education. Bryman, A. (2013). Leadership and organizations. New York: Routledge. Burns, J.M.(2012). Leadership. New York: Open Road Media. Dixon, N.M. (1999). The Organizational Learning Cycle: How We Can Learn Collectively. Great Britain: Gower Publishing, Ltd. Forsyth, D. (2009). Group Dynamics. USA: Cengage Learning. Gottlieb, M.R. ( 2003). Managing Group Process. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. Iqbal, T. (2011). The Impact of Leadership Styles on Organizational Effectiveness. Germany: GRIN Verlag. Kano, E. (2013). Leadership Styles. UK: GRIN Verlag. Kellerman, B. (2013). Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters. USA : Harvard Business Press. Levi, D. (2010). Group Dynamics for Teams. US : SAGE. Lussier, R., Achua, C. (2009). Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development. USA: Cengage Learning. Mehrotra, A. (2005). Leadership Styles of Principals. New Delhi: Mittal Publications. Moon, J.A. (2013). A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge. Mumford, A. (1997). Action Learning at Work. Great Britain: Gower Publishing, Ltd. Northouse, P.G. (2012). Leadership: Theory and Practice. USA: SAGE Publications. Rost, J.C. (1993). Leadership for the Twenty-first Century. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. Sadler, P. (2003). Leadership. Great Britain: Kogan Page Publishers. Schyns, B., Meindl, J.R. (2005). Implicit Leadership Theories. USA: IAP. Read More