Personal Leadership Model: Management, Multiculturalism, And Teamwork

Leadership Development Model

Discuss about the Personal Leadership Model.

I have learned that leaders typically have to ensure that their relationships with staff are sustained.  If those relationships are strained it becomes difficult for leaders to lead. It is important that the individuals should have a personal leadership plan so that they can improve on a continuous basis. Simply defined, leadership is the act of leading a group or an organization in a formal or an informal setting (Plucknette, 2014). The leader oversees the development of teams with diverse individuals who possess the skill sets needed to ensure the project critical in the success and overall performance of the project (Carpenter, Bauer & Erdogan, 2014). My leadership plan would be based on the three key areas of management, multiculturalism and teamwork. It is important that a leader envisions plans for the future. What the next step will be for the organization or how to revamp an existing platform that has become dated and needs a new direction (Hechanova, 2013). Therefore, it is important that the leadership model should not only focus on individual development but also on organizational development. The logical view of my leadership development model can be shown as below:

 The above leadership model suggests that the leader will be in charge of monitoring the activities of the management staff and the groups assembled for the project. The leader keeps and eye on production, quality and satisfaction within and outside of the organization keeping the organization on track toward meeting its goals and making corrections as necessary (Walters, 2016). In a nutshell it can be said that confidence, commitment and passion are the three most important skills of leadership. It is important that the leaders should have these attributes so that they can lead from front. Leaders should be able to take calculated risks and take the team together in the tough time. The core values that the above leadership development model focuses on are management, multiculturalism and teamwork. This outcome of the leadership development model would be the platform where leaders can practice charismatic leadership. The society is an interconnected global economy and it is important for leaders to understand the differences between cultures. There are various dimensions of diversity that the leaders should realize and try to inculcate in his or her leadership style. These dimensions of diversity can be shown as:

The practice of these dimensions would enable leaders to emerge as a successful leader in the business world and multicultural society. A great leader or a good leader is one who can get the best out of the people. A true leader realizes that leadership is all about giving and serving (Hutchinson & Boxall, 2014). The true leaders are always willing to serve the team, or community. The good leaders lead by setting the right examples. With the use of the above leadership development model, the organization or the group can have a transparent relationship and transparency is the basis of effective teamwork and organizational productivity. 

Dimensions of Diversity

The leadership philosophy practiced in the above leadership model seeks to identify future goals and establish tasks and processes to achieve long-term goals. A leader is more easily able to identify future goals and create visionary ideas, however, this can be challenging if they are not able to manage their employees and keep their ideas realistic, measureable and relevant to the employees (Kempster & Higgs, 2014). A manager is not able to see the future or have the risk taking ability to seek out innovative ideas. There are lot of leadership conceptual model. The model that I have elaborated above is discussed than the existing models in the market because this model focuses on the leadership aspects and not only on the managerial aspects. Managers tell people what to do.  They tend to be autocratic. Leaders know their success comes from how well the team succeeds.  They believe strongly in teamwork (Chreim, 2013). A manager is typically power driven, forcing their ideas on her team without any input from her team. A challenge that may occur from being a manager is that you may get more resistance from your team, because they may not feel that you take their opinions into consideration.  A leader may be challenged by her/his administer pressuring her/him to be more assertive or aggressive when implementing change. 

It is important that the individuals should understand the difference between management and leadership while they are on the path to develop leadership skills. The same way a leader is out going in creating relationship and “giving credit to where credit is due,” they can also overstep boundaries and create discomfort if their “EQ” (Emotional Intelligence) is not up to par (Plucknette, 2014, p. 1). They may become a friend instead of a leader where relational issues might conflict between friend and leader. Managers as indicated can be more “focused on the results, on how much product did we make, did everyone record their time correctly, and do our numbers look better than last month’s (Plucknette, 2014, p. 1). They can be very impersonal, consequently this will affect productivity and innovation. Managers as indicated only manage and really do not lead as a motivator and communicator. While informal leaders may have no management responsibility (i.e. Hollywood actors leading in various cultural or political causes), formal leaders always have some kind of managerial position built in to their position. Anyone in a managerial position is a formal leader unless they are managing a process or system that is devoid of humans. This brings us back to the question of whether there is a real difference between leaders and managers or is there some kind of semantic difference that is being pushed for some reason. I continue to believe that setting leadership and management against each other is simply a nicer way of talking about good leaders vs. poor leaders.

Leadership Philosophy

The application of this leadership development model would depend on number of attributes. The application of this model at a personal level would depend on the planning. I believe that it is important that the individuals should planned well before implementing this leadership development model. Planning can be a very hard thing to do, not everyone is a great planner. Leaders should ensure their plans are well thought out and that they can explain the job duties to their employees (Lussier, 2016). Managers also have to make sure they are great managers and can delegate to their leaders exactly what they need from them. I can apply this model as I feel that I indeed am able to motivate the people that I work with, and that I truly have a good understanding of what it takes to demonstrate those skills on a daily basis. I must admit however that in regards to short-term results vs. long-term gains, I am still in the short term results area. I am working on learning more and more about long-term goal setting, and continuous quality improvement. I always have felt that I am able to learn so much from people that I am pleasured to work with, and there is absolutely nothing that says that my ideas are the only ones that will work. Working together with your team not only allows you the privilege of learning from their ideas, but also shows a mutual respect for those on your team, by showing that you care about their thoughts and ideas. I always have felt that I am able to learn so much from staff that I am pleasured to work with, and there is absolutely nothing that says that my ideas are the only ones that will work. Working together with your team not only allows you the privilege of learning from their ideas, but also shows a mutual respect for those on your team, by showing that you care about their thoughts and ideas. 

References

Carpenter, M, Bauer, T & Erdogan, B (2014) Principles of Management: Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling, retrieved from https://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/6?e=fwk-127512-ch01_s03

Hutchinson, A. & Boxall, P. (2014), ‘The critical challenges facing New Zealand’s chief executives: implications for management skills’, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, vol.52, pp.23-41.

Hechanova, R. M., & Cementina-Olpoc, R. (2013). Transformational leadership, change management, and commitment to change: A comparison of academic and business organizations. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 22(1), 11-19.

Kempster, S., Higgs, M., & Wuerz, T. (2014). Pilots for change: exploring organisational change through distributed leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 35(2), 152-167.

Lussier, R.N. & Achua, C. F. (2016) Leadership; Theory, application, & skill development, 6 th ed. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Plucknette, D. (2014). 4 Differences between managers and readers. Plant Engineering. 68(10), p.16-18.

Walters, N (2016) 17 of the biggest differences between managers and leaders, retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-differences-between-managers-and-leaders-2016-3

Reay, T., Chreim, S., Golden-Biddle, K., Goodrick, E., Williams, B., Casebeer, A., Pablo, A., & Hinings, C. (2013). Transforming new ideas into practice: an activity based perspective on the institutionalization of practices. Journal Of Management Studies, 50(6), 963-990.