Leadership Qualities And Theories

About Leadership And Theories Related To It

Discuss about the Leadership Qualities And Theories.

Leadership is the way one person supervises and co-ordinates with a group of people to help them accomplish a certain task. Leaders are able to create a supportive environment among group members and motivate them to accomplish goals of the organization (Avolio and Yammarino 2013). The effectiveness of leadership can be measured from outcomes that are desirable like productivity, quality and satisfaction. Leadership is a partnership between the leader and the members of the group. The partnership between the leaders and the group members is balanced when participative decision making is followed. Leaders should focus on building relationships with the group members. Leadership requires sharing of responsibilities between the leader and group members (Bauman 2013). Leadership is positively related to the performance of an organization. Studies have shown that 15-45 % of organizational performance depends on the leaders in an organization. Leaders have important role in decision making. Socrates argued 2500 years ago that leadership is always situational and a leader has qualities and professional competence that is not transferable. But there is another side of the coin: there are certain generic characteristics of leadership which leaders have in common, for instance, a good business leader can also be a good military commander (Bolman and Deal 2017).

Leaders have multiple roles to play. They play the role of a negotiator, coach and motivator, entrepreneur, strategic planner and many more. The effectives of leadership can be measured by characteristics of group members, Characteristics and Traits of leader, behavior and style of leader and internal and external environment (Klenke 2016).The characteristics that can be associated with leadership are Emotional Intelligence and Personality Traits, Cognitive Factors and Intelligence and Leadership Motives and Needs (Northouse 2015)The various motives and needs of leaders are that of Power, sense of achievement, Resilience and Tenacity and Strong work ethic. Both heredity and external environmental factors affect leadership. Leadership styles are the different ways in which a leader influences his followers. There are different leadership styles like the classical autocratic approach and the modern creative, participative approach (Odom 2015).Every leader follows a different way of leading and influencing people. The major styles of leadership include autocratic, democratic, transactional, transformational, charismatic and cross-cultural leadership (Bargau 2015).

In Autocratic leadership, leaders make the major decisions and formulate the policies, guidelines and procedures and simply communicate the same to the subordinates. The medium of communication is downward and subordinates need to abide by the strict procedures and rules set by the leaders. In democratic leadership style, subordinates are involved in making decisions. This democratic leaders delegate responsibilities to the subordinates and the communication system is both upward and downward (Waqar 2012). Transformational leadership is a unique form of leadership and is all about initiating changes in the organization and groups. The transformation leaders set challenging expectations in front of the subordinates and help them accomplish more than they ever imagined. In Transactional Leadership, the expectations are communicated well to the subordinates, immediate feedback is given and the subordinates are rewarded for their achievements. Charismatic Leaders use their revolutionary power to transform the values and beliefs of the followers (Van Wart 2013).

Set Of Questionnaires

In order to understand my leadership type, there were a set of questionnaires that was completed in the class. What makes a great leader in 21^st century – TED talk video was watched and following questions are answered- What is leadership?  What leaders do and how they do it?

A buddy was found and two questions were discussed- My readiness for a role of leadership and why?  What are they key capabilities I have and what are the capabilities that I need to develop?

The questionnaires have made me understood the role of leadership in 21^st century. In modern days organizations follow a flexible structure with less hierarchy. So, participative leadership styles are encouraged in the organization. I have understood that my key capabilities of leadership are my ability to influence people, act as a coach and motivator, and I demonstrate qualities of a transformational and charismatic leader. The areas I need to develop is delegating responsibilities and exerting control on people.

The first activity is about the leadership roles of HR leader in a large corporation. A suspicious package was found in the canteen which was informed by the police. This is a group activity and three actions were developed for each of the roles of leadership.

The second activity is about finding out ten things that I personally find satisfying about leadership and the 10 things that I find frustrating about leadership.

The third activity is about the type of followers.  The followers can be classifies on basis of their engagement level into 5 categories like isolates, bystanders, participants, activists and diehards.  It was identified what type of follower I was in class.

The fourth activity is about undertaking Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz and Leadership Skill Building Exercise.

The fifth activity is about self-reflection journal and the 16PF personality Test. In a group of three or four, implications of results of this personality test on leadership is discussed.

The fifth activity is about the orchestra conductor who faces the challenge of leadership of creating harmony without articulating.

The sixth activity is about leadership motives. Power, Drive and Achievement, Tenacity and Resilience and work ethic is ranked from 1 to 4 on basis of my aspirations of leadership. I have turned to the next person and explained them my reason of doing so.

The seventh activity is about Gender and Leadership. This is a group activity. The article is read and it is discussed how leadership is influenced by gender.

Activities That I Have Undertaken

The eighth activity is about a reflection of journal. Three questions are answered .What have I learnt about leadership? What has surprised me?  How could these learning be applied in workplace?

These activities have helped me to understand that hereditary and external influence affect leadership styles. My primary motives of leadership are drive for achievement and work ethic. I am an individual who is self-driven and I believe in maintaining ethics and integrity at workplace. I feel that my type of followers I was is participants. From these activities, I have found out that leadership is about building relationships and motivating the group members. In modern days to be a good leader, I have to demonstrate charismatic qualities and my decisions as a leader will influence the performance of my workplace. The class activities have made me understand that leadership can’t be imposed and it is not easy to gain followers. Followers can revolt if they are not satisfied with their leader. The activities have made me realize that I can play the role of a figurehead, coach and motivator and a good team builder as a leader. From this activity, I personally feel that leadership is not influenced by gender. Though there are examples of women who are great leaders in 21^st century in multi-national corporations across the globe, I feel that gender bias do not impact leadership.

 My type of leadership would be transformational and charismatic leadership. My personality traits of warmth and liveliness will help me to demonstrate the qualities of a charismatic leader. As a Transformational leader, I can create a sense of empowerment among my team members and I can have a huge base of followers. I can encourage entrepreneurial and innovative mindsets among people. From the class activities and questionnaires, I have found out that I can motivate people to achieve more than they actually thought they could achieve. As a transformational leader, I will follow an open model of communication and I will communicate the goals and requirements of a particular task among my team members. It is essential that team members are well aware of the challenges of a task and as a leader, I have the capabilities to support them to overcome the challenges and hurdles of the organizational goals and tasks and motivate my team members to undertake challenging tasks. It is of paramount importance to create a sense of empowerment among team members and ensure that they are motivated intrinsically and are self-driven.

My Type Of Leadership

The charismatic leader transforms the underlying normative orientation that structures specific attitudes. Thus charismatic leadership is not only a sheer behavioral modification but this form of leadership manifests into an internal change within the subordinates. As a charismatic leader, I can be a change agent in an organization. Changes are difficult to embrace, so as a leader I will clearly communicate the changes among my group members. The members of a group might demonstrate resistance to changes. As a leader, it is important for me to communicate to the group members the beneficial effects of changes. I have the ability to work in a competitive environment and I am flexible which will enable me to play the role of a charismatic leader. My ability to create a supportive work environment and my role as a influencer can help me change my group members internally. As my prime motive of leadership is sense of achievement and work ethics, I will be able to create a work environment where goals will be achieved and every member of my group will be encouraged to strict to work ethics and integrity.

The areas that I need to develop are my ability to exert control over group members. Leaders do need to direct the members of the group and set goals for them to increase the performance of group members. I should improve my ability to delegate responsibilities among groups. I should work on my abilities to solve a problem and upgrade my technical skills. My non-technical skills alike verbal and written communication and management skills are great but I do need to work on my technical skills as upgrading the technical skills is mandatory  to be a good leader in  a competitive work environment. Also leaders often need to negotiate with team members or external stakeholders of an organization. I need to improve on my negotiation skills in order to be effective as a good leader .It is of prime importance as a leader to negotiate with members of society and government to protect the interests of internal stakeholder of a company. I would also like to build up my communication skill by undertaking more language courses. In the global environment, organizations perform in a cross-cultural environment. Thus to be a leader in the fast paced competitive global environment, I must be an effective communicator. Learning multiple languages will enable me to play leadership roles in global multi-cultural work environment. I should also be able to remove stereotypes based on culture and language. Developing tolerance for every culture will enable me to be an effective leader in the global work environment. I should be able to demonstrate leadership qualities in a cross-cultural group.

Conclusion

I can conclude from the self-reflective essay that I demonstrate the qualities of a supportive leader. Charismatic and transformational leadership are my leadership styles. As a leader, I prefer to follow participative decision making by carefully drawing inference from the viewpoint of group members. I strongly feel that hierarchical structure can’t be effective in increasing workplace productivity. So in my leadership style, I prefer to implement a flexible work structure that will foster innovation and creativity among my group members. It is of prime importance to follow an open communication model which involves both forward and backward communication to be an effective leader. I have demonstrated qualities of a good communicator in the group activities that were undertaken in the class. I have also understood that I can act as a good change agent in an organization by encouraging people to embrace changes. However, I would like to work on and improve certain arenas to be an effective leader. This would include my ability to learn multiple languages so that I can demonstrate effective leadership in a multi-cultural work environment. This would also require my ability to develop cultural tolerance and remove stereotypes which will enable me to be an effective leader in a cross-cultural team.

References

Avolio, B.J. and Yammarino, F.J. eds., 2013. Introduction to, and overview of, transformational and charismatic leadership. In Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th Anniversary Edition (pp. xxvii-xxxiii). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Bargau, M.A., 2015. Leadership versus management. Romanian Economic and Business Review, 10(2), p.197.

Bauman, D.C., 2013. Leadership and the three faces of integrity. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(3), pp.414-426.

Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Klenke, K. ed., 2016. Qualitative research in the study of leadership. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Odom, S.F., 2015. Undergraduate Student Perceptions of the Pedagogy Used in a Leadership Course: A Qualitative Examination. Journal of Leadership Education, 14(2).

Riggio, R.E., 2013. Advancing the discipline of leadership studies. Journal of Leadership Education, 12(3), pp.10-14.

Van Wart, M., 2013. Administrative leadership theory: A reassessment after 10 years. Public Administration, 91(3), pp.521-543.

Waqar, M., 2012. Leadership styles (Doctoral dissertation, Department of Physics and Applied Mathematics, Pakistan Institute of Engineering & Applied Sciences).