Leadership in the Context of Youth Work - Essay Example

Reflect on the theoretical perspectives of Leadership and discuss which is best suited to the context of youth work. Contents Contents Introduction3 Discussion 3 Trait Theory of Leadership 8 Situational Leadership Theory 10 Conclusion 12 References 14 Introduction Leadership is all about leading from the front. A leader is a person who always motivates and inspires people to achieve their goals. Leadership is an action of leading individual or groups of people. Leadership creates vision for the future which inspires followers. Leadership also manages delivery of vision from the side of the followers. It is a process of social influence which reflects actions from the side of the followers. In leadership, visions of the leaders are generally being shared with the followers and collective efforts have significant in the context of leadership. With the help of leadership, information, knowledge and methods are being shared for achieving any common goal. With the assistance of proper leadership, innovative and successful teams are being made. In the context of modern world leadership has gained enough significance in every aspect of human lives. That is why this topic has been chosen for the purpose of the essay. During the course of this essay various leadership theories will be described. This extensive discussion of the various leadership theories will be significantly helpful for the essay. All those leadership theories will be analyzed in a detailed fashion. The essay will critically discuss all the leadership theory and after the critical evaluation of the all theories a leadership theory will be selected which will be significantly suitable for the youth works. With the help of this essay a comprehensive relationship will be drawn between the leadership theory and the youth work. Discussion Daniel Goleman proposed six leadership styles which are mostly used by leaders. Each of these styles is a part of emotional intelligence. However these styles work best only in certain circumstances and has a significant impact on organizational performance and climate. As per Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence can be stated as ability to manage feelings of others as well as oneself. It is related to motivating oneself, managing relationships with others and emotions. The six different leadership styles are commanding, visionary, affiliative, pacesetting, coaching and democratic. Commanding style refers to demanding nature of leaders in terms of immediate compliance. Visionary style is all about mobilizing people towards a common organizational vision. Affiliative leadership style believes in creating harmony and forming strong emotional bonds. Democratic style is focused towards encouraging individuals to participate in operational procedure. Pacesetting style is linked with setting high performance standards which needs to be achieved by team members. Coaching style is a systematic approach adopted by a leader in order to guide team members for delivering best results. Leaders following this approach aim towards developing necessary skills in people so as to ensure that they are successful in nearby future (Goleman, 2000). All these styles have certain unique characteristics possessed by a leader. For instance, visionary leaders are highly inspiring, empathetic, believes in own vision as well as their people. Leaders following coaching style - listens, identify strengths and weakness, helps people, encourages, counsels and delegates. Affiliative leaders usually promote harmony, boosts moral, are friendly and always try to effectively resolve conflicts. On the other hand, democratic leaders are good listeners, prefer collaborative working approach, motivate people to work as a team and even can be termed as influencer. Pacesetting leaders possess a strong urge towards achieving desirable goals. These leaders are initiators, impatient, collaborators, set high performance standards and are usually number-driven. Commanding leadership often proves to be less productive in most scenarios as there is less of two-way communication. In this form of leadership there is more threatening and tight control exercised on group members. This form of approach drives away talent of individuals and even contaminates everyone’s mood. Resonance building is a common aspect in these forms of leadership styles. Each of these approaches has a significant way of building resonance as stated by Daniel Goleman. In visionary leadership people are inclined towards shared dreams. Leaders adopting coaching style build resonance through connecting individual’s interests with organizational goals. Affiliative leadership creates harmony by establishing connection amongst people; democratic leadership appreciates active participation of individuals, pacesetting leaders realizes exciting goals and challenges, and commanding leadership eliminates fear factor by providing clear direction. These styles are appropriate in certain circumstances such as coaching style is effective when employees need to improve their performance. When a radical change or a clear direction is required, visionary leadership is most appropriate. In order to motivate team members during various stressful times, affiliative leadership is best suited (Pinnow, 2011). Pacesetting leadership style is usually adopted when high quality results have to be achieved from a competent and motivated team. In crisis situation, when there is great deal of workplace conflict, commanding leadership style yield best results. The main disadvantage or critique which can be stated concluding the above leadership theories are they are mostly based on situations. These leadership theories are based on situational grounds and often individualistic. The style depends on the leader and the leader should have the capability to deal with the situation by applying the aobe leadership theories. According to the theory of Stephen Covey, there are seven principal habits which make one person highly effective in nature. The theory also has stated that all these seven habits are significantly important for a person to make himself different from others. All these seven habits are utterly important for the proper leadership. Being proactive is an important habit for a highly effective person. According to this theory decisions of changes come from the inside of the persons. It is totally an internal matter. People can improve their lives by taking proactive measures only. By reacting to the external situations people cannot improve their lives. According to the theory people must take initiatives by themselves to change their lives. The theory has stated that to become highly effective person people should have individual mission statements. This mission statement should be extended for the long term permanent basis. According to the theory this habit should not be followed for temporary time period. It should have a permanency (Northouse, 2012). People should be distinctively clear about their long term goals and they should be absolutely free from any confusion. The theory has stated that, prioritising the mission is significantly important. According to this theory people should put first thing first in the priority list. It helps the people to channelize their dreams in a suitable way without any distraction (Covey, 2004). The theory also stated that people should give more time and energy for performing key roles and responsibilities related with the future goals and should avoid any distracting factors. The fourth habit of this theory states that people should go for such agreements which are mutually beneficiary. Mutual beneficial solutions are the most desirable results out of any business agreement or relationship. According to this theory if people cannot achieve win-win situations in their agreements they should avoid those deals or agreements. Win-Win thinking is significantly important for a highly effective people. According to the fifth habit of this theory, at first people should understand other persons by listening them carefully. After understanding the other people, a highly effective person should try to make him understood to the rest of the people. According to the theory effective listening helps a person to get the real point of view of the other person and in this way a particular situation can be analyzed properly before taking any action. Synergize is also an important habit for highly effective people. According to this habit strengths of the people should be combined together for achieving goals (Covey, 2011). The habit of Synergize can be achieved with the help of positive team environment. This habit provides equal importance to all the team members. To become a highly effective person, people should balance and renew their resources consistently. In other words this habit is popularly known as Saw sharpening. According to this theory, people should renew physical, mental, spiritual and emotional resources after regular interval. Trait Theory of Leadership The trait theory of leadership focuses on identifying different personality traits and characteristics that are linked to successful leadership across a variety of situations. The Trait theory of leadership is generally considered as the first modern theory of leadership. This theory is based on the combination of different traits of the leaders bad and good, ethical or unethical, honest or dishonest, successful or unsuccessful. It is a replica of wide range of individual differences. Effective leadership is greatly influenced by the behaviour of a leader in a group or organization performance, follower fulfilment and success of the organization. For an effective leadership it is important to understand the significance of core personality. Some of the core personality traits recognised by the successful leaders are the leader should be self confident, he should have confidence in his decision, ideas, views, and ability . He should be persistent and determined in reaching to his goal; he should be able to commit to his vision and work hard to reach to his mission. Eagerness to accept the responsibility, capacity to influence and motivate people, courage and resolution, dynamic and adaptability so that he can take quick and prompt decision according to the situation, he should have the skill of dealing with people (Lussier, and Achua, 2012). The strength of this theory is that it is naturally pleasing; it serves as a yardstick in which a lot of leadership qualities of an individual can be judged and assessed. The theory explains that the leader should be social and friendly to keep in touch with everyone; he should be able to deal with everyone tactfully and diplomatically. Honest and trustworthy serves as an important tool as the leaders with integrity has the ability to inspire and gain confidence from others. An effective leader has the quality of good reasoning to justify his decisions and plan of actions. Effective leader should be honest, so that his followers or his team can follow him and have satisfaction that the leader is trustworthy, the leader should be able to prove his trust worthiness. The qualities of a leader can be trained to increase his competencies. The leadership theory focuses on personality, which it believes that personality of an individual is fixed it is inherited it cannot be changed or modified, so they believe that leaders are born not made they have inherited the quality of leading from past or their ancestors. The trait theory also highlights some symbolic features such as height, weight, physique, appearance, health, popularity. The theory explains that the popularity of a leader can be judged by its follower’s satisfaction and overall effectiveness. It believes that the organization will function well if people in top management or in managerial position well define the profile of leadership. When a manager follows the trait theory and analyzes his traits it highlights or reflects the weakness and strength in him. Trait theory mainly focuses that selecting the right people is very important for the organization as it will increase organizational effectiveness. The theory always raises a debate that whether leaders are born or leaders are made. This theory believes that successful leaders have some common characteristics and traits; they have the ability to lead the organization effectively and efficiently. The traits of the successful leaders are very different from that of the unsuccessful leaders, their abilities, personality and interest varies. It gives the idea about the elements of the leaders in the process of leadership (Bass, and Bass, 2009). The trait theory of leadership fails to account the environmental and situational factors. The approach has no definite list of traits while subjective interpretation may lead to non reliable research. The theory lacks the description on how traits of the leaders can affect the outcome of the team within organizations and follows fixed psychological structures. It can be a hindrance towards value of educating and training. Situational Leadership Theory Successful leaders belief that if they are to be successful and build a successful team they are required to understand the needs and well being of its team members. This theory is developed by Paul Hersey, it is based on the concept that there is no single style of leadership, it is the ability, maturity and willingness of the individual to take the responsibility for the task, this theory is also termed as contingency theory he should be able to adapt to the changes according to the maturity of the team members, it comprises of telling, selling, participating and delegating the maturity of the leader is to perform the work with maturity. It deals with high competence and commitment (Don and John, 2008). Leaders command and advices on when, how and which work to be done by the individual or by the group. After the instruction it becomes a two way process the message that is passed by the leaders has to be sent to the mass. The theory believes that it is the task of the leader to take suggestion from the group and then taking a decision and engaging the group for implementation it believes that without the support of the team members the leader or the team cannot progress and also it is the duty of the leader to go hand in hand with the team members. The leaders delegate their work to the group and consistently monitor the progress of the work. The three skills of a situational leader are goal setting, diagnosing and matching , goal setting deals with what work needed to be done, diagnosing refers to assessing the commitment and competencies for achieving the specified goal and matching deals with combination of variety of skill to meet individual requirements (Peter, 2012). Comparing the four theories above mainly Daniel Goleman theory, Stephen covey theory, situational theory, and trait theory it can be stated that the theoretical perspective is the best suited to the context of youth work. The theory of Stephen convey is best suited as compared to rest three theories as it discusses the fact that to become highly effective person people should have individual mission statements. This mission statement should be extended for the long term permanent basis to achieve success. It is important to be consistent while working with a group of people striving to meet expectations. If the situational leadership theory is applied under not so expert hands the resultant can be behavioural inconsistency. The group will fall in a dilemma and will try to predict the response of the manager and eventually will create a sense of uncertainty and fear. Situational leadership denies the capable leaders to get hold of the situation before they respond towards it. Since there is a possibility that leaders will modify the circumstances there is a probability that the situation will change. Conclusion Leadership is the ability to handle situation tactfully and strategically, the trait theory which mainly deals with the personality trait of the leader to deal with different situation. The trait theory mainly focuses on the ambition, honesty, intelligence, desire to live, self confidence, job relevant knowledge. The strength of this theory lies with the fact that it believes on nature pleasing characteristic. The situational theory explains the maturity of the leader to handle situations, it deals mainly with four important elements supporting, coaching, delegating and directing and the skills required for a leader are goal setting, diagnosing and matching Goleman theory deals with highly effective people habits and emotional intelligence. He stated that the ability to manage feelings of others as well as oneself, he followed six different types of leadership styles such as commanding, visionary, affiliative, pacesetting, coaching and democratic . Goleman suggested in crisis situation, when there is great deal of workplace conflict, commanding leadership style yield best results. Stephen covey theory explains the principal habits which make him different from others. Stephen covey discusses the seven principal habits which makes a person highly effective in nature are being proactive, to have a clear and pre determined mission, prioritising the mission, should suggest mutual beneficial solutions, paying attention to other people and recognising and identifying that the other persons agree with the opinion formulated by him, synergizing with the help of positive team environment, balance and renew their resources constantly. Thus it can be said that in today’s competitive business environment there is an important and essential requirement of an efficient leader who can achieve the organizational goal by providing inspiration, motivation, and clear direction to their team. References Bass, B. M. and Bass, R. 2009. The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, and Managerial Applications. New York: Simon and Schuster. Bass, B. M. and Bass, R. 2009. The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, and Managerial Applications. New York: Simon and Schuster. Covey, S. 2011. 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teens. London: Simon & Schuster Ltd. Covey, S. R. 2004. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Reprinted Edition. London: Simon & Schuster Ltd. Covey, S. R. 2013. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. London: Franklincovey. Don, H. and John, S. 2008. Organizational Behavior .USA: Cengage Learning. Goleman, D., 2000. Leadership that Gets Results. Harvard Business Review. Vol 1(1). Lussier, R. and Achua, C. 2012. Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development. London: Cengage Learning. Lussier, R. and Achua, C. 2012. Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development. London: Cengage Learning. Northouse, P. G. 2012. Leadership: Theory and Practice. London: SAGE Publications. Peter, G. N. 2012. Leadership: Theory and Practice. London: SAGE Publications Pinnow, D., 2011. Leadership - What Really Matters: A Handbook on Systemic Leadership. Germany: Springer Science & Business Media. Read More