Personality Type, Leadership Approach & Journal Of Leadership Education

Importance of Interpersonal Skills in Leadership

Describe about the Personality Type and Leadership Approach and Journal of Leadership Education ?

Interpersonal skills are the ability to have deep understanding and knowledge on your feelings and the ability to show self- understanding and awareness. Enhancing of social skills occurs once you understand yourself and the person you interact with (Olaniyi, 2012). Their main concern is maintenance, initiating and building of relationships with other people who are different from you. This difference among other thing may include age, social class, ethnic group or race and gender. Enhanced managerial performance is by maintenance of interpersonal skills with employees. They are able to relate with those in management enhancing communication that increases productivity of the company since it promotes good team working spirit, mutual understanding of each other’s expectations and respecting other views, thus using your diversity as strength rather than a thing that sets you apart (Adams, 2009). They are measurable and give predictions of positive occupational outcomes. It also relates to competence and performance that lead to success in the end. They consist of four areas. In the first instance, you put yourself in the other person’s shoes to understand how that person feels when faced with a situation. This enables you to be able to know how to communicate with him without raising his emotions or eyebrows which in many instances may lead to conflicting views between you.  This includes seeing a situation just as the other person would and their expectations (Lievens, 2013). The first person takes up the other person’s role putting their views and opinion into consideration. In the second category, a person gets it right when they anticipate the other’s expectations and are able to interpret them correcting and acting in a way that meets that persons expectations in a satisfactory manner. A skill focuses on the accuracy of understanding another person’s perceptions to enable you meet the expectations of eth person. There is a relationship between social experience and the cognitive ability. The third category includes incorporation of information on other’s expectations into their behavior which require the recipient person to first interpret it correctly and align his behavior and actions to that of the other party.

Finally, one needs to have self-control to be able to handle his emotion to and maintain focus in the others expectations to avoid simply reacting to another person’s viewpoint disproportionately without understanding what that person is trying to say in the first place. Listening skills are the way that we interpret verbal and non-verbal cues from others since after all without proper listening skills you would not be able to hear what the person is saying nor fully comprehend what he means which is the basis for providing an appropriate response to the demands of that person in a way that would be satisfactory to both parties (B.A et al., 2015). They should show attentiveness using non-verbal cues including nodding of the head so show to the other party that you are engaged in the conversation to avoid that party feeling that you are not interested in the discussion which is likely going to upset him or for him to think that you are being disrespectful. Non-verbal communication skills include the body language that is in use during communication.

Enhancing Managerial Performance with Interpersonal Skills

The decision making skills involve exploration and analyzing the options when faced with a situation that needs acknowledgement. It is essential for managers to have these skills for ease in management. With negotiation and problem solving skills, managers work in unison with others to find an agreeable outcome (HRM: Launchpad to top management?, 2003). It is also easy for them to analyze, identify and solve problems that come up in their workplaces. As a manager, once you understand yourself better it gets easier to understand other people. Managers think through issues thoroughly to avoid mistakes and self-awareness and interpersonal skills help in this. Those with these skills have intuitive ability. They also leave open options for inclusion in making changes especially when in involves colleagues or subordinates whom these changes may affect. They make consideration of other people’s opinions in decision making at the workplace enhancing satisfaction for all the parties involved but also help boost the quality of decisions which when being implemented all those who participated in making it will feel that they share part of the ownership of it (Sels et al., 2006).

A reflection on my training skills after the exercise also helped me in mapping the level of my interpersonal skills as well considering that I have always been quite in y corner during lessons. In the workshop, I advocated and introduced the transformation of relations between staff into natural ones that are more inclined to the informal side. Smooth relations make people more willing to express their opinions and thus giving management feedback. Such information helps the leadership in improving the working environment and developing business strategies that augur well with the staff hence the importance of good communication skills for management. The result is a dedicated team willing to achieve better organizational performance in terms of outputs and returns (Conroy, 2009). Nonetheless, I realized that my interpersonal skills need improvement and harnessing if I am to maximize this leadership potential. Leadership theories are useful in influencing practice by suggesting new ways of perceiving and managing events better. The Trait Theory applies because belief is that the natural leadership qualities are god-given to certain individuals who exhibit those skills involuntarily in all spheres of their daily lives. In the interview practice, I learnt that to be a desirable manager, I must portray desirable traits and character so that the signal or image I portray leaves a lasting positive impression of the firm that I represent because such an image gives the interviewee a picture of what culture the company nurtures (Holmberg and Tyrstrup, 2010).

Listening and Decision-Making Skills in Effective Leadership

Upon reflection, I realized that just like institutions/firms, individuals also have strengths and weaknesses. For organization, there is always a social perspective, and interactions are inevitable in everyday businesses. Thus, the observation is that an effective leadership takes into account the dynamics of relations so that employer-employee negotiations don’t end at interviews, but go on during the work to ensure fluidity and better understanding among colleagues to yield better performance. Leadership and negotiation is not just about commanding, controlling, directing and managing employees as a pure management world. There is the aspect of relationships between colleague and from personal reflections; this only proves that the social nature of people is vital in any setting (De Luca and Nawab, 2011).

From the reflection it is clear that leadership approaches prove to be effective model as it focuses upon the attributes of leaders with work methods. Any leadership style refers to the combination of features as well as skills to be used in interacting with people. However, theories attempt in identifying as well as arranging the general approaches to be used by leaders in achieving goals. These approaches are based upon the assumptions of a leader regarding motivating people to attain goals. The theories attempt to identify several methods that leaders may use in impacting upon goal achievement. These are theory-based with leader’s abilities in determining the motivation factors for members and approaches that meet objectives. On the delivery of training, the workshop was quite busy as it involved a lot on contemporary development and measurement of sustainable integrated strategies (de Vries, 2008). During the workshop, I delivered training on communication skills because I find it to be an integral item in interview, negotiation and even training itself. After the workshop, one of the trainees thanked me on the basis that such a workshop on communication skills helps identify some blurred areas that he did not previously consider important but now realizes that communication skills are not only important at school/work but its the life-line of valuable relationships (Holsbrink-Engels, 2000).

The sessions highlighted on availability of the external environmental aspects which influence upon the development of management skills, the distinction amidst the approaches like coaching as well as mentoring that effectively develops management competencies, thereby understanding systematic approaches of recruitment, selection and retaining of staffs, including several other functionalities of organizational management (Germain, 2012). I had received significant learning related to the need for practicing high-performing cultures within workplace, some effective ways of achieving performance among teams with elimination of barriers within employee engagement, and even emphasized upon key approaches in enhancing individual performance and commitment from organizational employees in the organization. The session imparted experience of practicing essential managerial characteristics to conduct professional practices. The session enabled me to think independently, innovatively and creatively with engagement into the innovative areas of investigation.

The Trait Theory and Personal Reflection

As referred to the concept of leadership, different leaders are said to play different leadership responsibilities, depending upon the situational circumstances. A business leader uses key leadership skills of gaining trust, respect and commitment of team members. An effective leader provides enhanced encouragement to his members in achieving desired organizational objectives. Such cases may be reflected in case of situational leadership style that benefits business firms (Holsbrink-Engels, 2000).

Different leadership styles have been emerging, each based on specific beliefs, attitudes, values, preferences of members. Mentioning some of the most effective leaders of business environment, Bill Clinton, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler and Mother Teresa are worth mentioning. All these renowned personalities possessed charismatic leadership. It is one the latest styles in leadership whereby the leader uses his charm to inspire his followers. These leaders show increasing concern for people and address to needs of all people (Beenen, Pichler and Rubin, 2014). The charismatic leaders create quite comfortable as well as friendly environment for all followers by paying great attention to their ideas and making them feel empowered in playing a significant role in decision-making. This charismatic leadership style may appear similar to transformational leadership style, where the leader imparts greater doses of encouragement to his members and acts very energetically to drive others in the forward direction. However, these leaders often tend to rely on themselves than in others and their members (Gnambs and Batinic, 2012). This phenomenon may create a risk that a project or even the whole firm may collapse once the leader quits. Here, the team members perceive success in the eyes of their members and also tie success with the presence of their leaders. Thus, charismatic leadership carries greater responsibilities and also requires strengthened commitment from the leaders.

Another mentionable leadership style is that of situational leadership. Here, three factors are said to influence the decisions and these are the capability of followers, the situation and the capability of a leader (Sengupta and Sengupta, 2011). A leader is said to accommodate to whatever limitations laid out to him by his members and even the situation. Adaptability to any situation is the buzzword here. These leaders behave dynamically to situations they are faced with. An instance of an individual who possessed this kind of leadership is Dwight Eisenhower (Ghamrawi, 2013). Leaders who follow situational leadership are said to practice approaches that would provide solution to the given situations only. These leaders are more concerned about solving issues at the present situations only and adopt approaches that would support the ongoing situations. This is a more preferred leadership style since the best solutions and resolution can be expected out of this. This kind of leaders understands the situational needs better with more effective solutions (Tsai and Yen, 2013).

Effective Leadership Approaches and Theories

Another key leadership style is that of transformational leadership. These leaders are said to lead their team members by motivating the members (Groves, 2006). The leaders appeal to all their followers’ morale as well as ideals to encourage them to accomplish their jobs. Generally, these leaders are said to empower the members by using own beliefs as well as personal strengths. Transformational leaders are best suited to any organization as they inspire their team members in some or the other ways (Carson et al., 2010). Some personalities who have been considered to be transformational leaders are Walt Disney and Martin Luther King Jn. An individual possessing transformational leadership attribute considered an effective leader who promotes employees with shared leadership vision of future. They are increasingly visible with effectively communicating with team members. They hardly leads from the forefront rather delegate key responsibilities to team members. Thus, this transformational leadership style refers to the dominant leadership style for leading a group of members. While the approach is highly effective in the business, no best way of managing all situations exists (Beenen, Pichler and Rubin, 2014).

For selecting the most appropriate leadership approach in an organization, a leader needs to consider all available skills and experience of organizational members, along with the organizational environment to practice preferred natural style. A capable leader is one who switches between suitable leadership styles depending on the kind of jobs to be dealt with. This is basically referred to as situational leadership which is the best leadership practice. For instance, a manager of a factory provides training to machine operatives using bureaucratic style to ensure they know the process to attain appropriate quality standards of product including workplace security (Turcksin, Bernardini and Macharis, 2011). The same manager may adopt participative leadership style. Thus within any leadership style, it is important for leaders to understand the needs of team members with organizational situation to lead the group towards success. The leader needs to promote members for accomplishing tasks or objectives.

With reference to the learning sessions related to working as team and leading organizational members, it has been my personal view that the session proved to be highly effective to attain its key objective of persuading us to make us understand keenly regarding the importance of management skills particularly “people management skills.” This is greatly needed by all managers so as to deal with members effectively and develop potential teams that are supportive as well as coordinated efficiently (Weldon and Chow, 2005). This learning session on leadership was greatly beneficial as provided me with the knowledge of what management is all about. Previously management was considered to be just a field to ensure arrangement of organizational resources towards leading the final productivity and profit. Now that I know that management is much more than that. It is about the most essential organizational workforce as well as emphasis on making people capable of performing effectively with combined manner for developing strengths. This causes the concept of management to be quite critical. I gained from the session some information to support entire life in building essential managerial skills to help me growing up to a person. Being a people’s manager and developing supportive teams within organization to lead within the competitive environment is what I have gained from the session.

The Importance of Communication Skills for Leadership

The session reflected that a manager is largely responsible for leading his team members. Teams are said to play significant role within organizational deliverance. I found the session to be extremely useful as well as resourceful since the session imparted with useful has learning. It highlighted the differences amidst team members as well as groups with the approaches for effective team development. I have received increased knowledge regarding managing diverse teams within the organization. It also explained me the factors which specifically inhibit the designing, establishment and delivery of management skills (Weldon and Chow, 2005). I have well understood the legal or ethical rationale needed for a systematic approach in adopting employee management approaches. I have learnt that teams comprise of individuals having similar interests as well as complementary skills. Teams need to work collaboratively to achieve goals. It has been emphasized that tasks cannot be accomplished without support from team members. It is even reflective that teams must respond to organizational challenges set by management, where management is said to set the goals. I have gathered increased control on achieving the objectives (Bubas, 2001). The session provided me the knowledge to consider teams to be important performance units possessed by organizations for accomplishing objectives. This is useful for my personal learning since it enables me to act appropriately within organizational context. The knowledge ensures that I develop required attributes of an effective team player before practicing in professional front. It is important to identify team roles so as to enhance self-awareness and personal effectiveness. It would enable fostering mutual trust or understanding among members. It would enable me to improve my strategies of selecting potential teams as well as building concrete teams. The session that focused on leadership theories enabled me to have proper understanding about the most essential requisites of an effective leader. The session enabled me to think independently, innovatively and creatively with engagement into the innovative areas of investigation. This learning session on leadership was greatly beneficial as provided me with the knowledge of what management is all about. Previously management was considered to be just a field to ensure arrangement of organizational resources towards leading the final productivity and profit (Weldon and Chow, 2005). The sessions highlighted on the existence of the external environmental aspects which influence upon the development of management skills, the distinction amidst the approaches like coaching as well as mentoring that effectively develops management competencies, thereby understanding systematic approaches of recruitment, selection and retaining of staffs, including several other functionalities of organizational management.

Reflections on a Leadership Workshop

Strengths – One of the mentionable strengths that I possess as a leader is self-confidence. This is created by mastering skills as well as situations. Confidence may be improved by being well aware of the things that I have already achieved. Another personal strength is possessing positive outlook as well as attitude. This is related to potential leadership. Positivity is essential to maintain a sense of balance in life and manage problem situations capably. The positive individuals are ones who approach all situations quite realistically and make required changes to mitigate any issue. As a leader I possess the strength of emotional intelligence. This enables an individual to act as per the situation and also practice empathic listening (Facilitating knowledge management strategies through IT and HRM, 2010).

Weaknesses – With personal reflection it has been clear to me that I need to make more efforts in encouraging employees and members to participate in important decision-making processes. This would not only provide me with better exposure to leadership qualities but also allow me to work diligently to achieve organizational objectives. Again I need to pursue strong and cordial relationship with my team members. This would make many tough situations easy to handle.

References

Holsbrink-Engels, G. (2000). Designing role-plays for interpersonal skills training. Performance Improvement, 39(9), pp.32-39.

HRM: Launchpad to top management?. (2003). Business Horizons, 46(5), pp.1-2.

Italy’s ageing workforce: Improving HRM practices can prevent skills shortages. (2012). Development and Learning in Organizations, 26(3), pp.22-24.

Johnson, C. (2009). Introducing Followership into the Leadership Classroom. Journal of Leadership Education, 8(2), pp.20-31.

Lievens, F. (2013). Adjusting medical school admission: assessing interpersonal skills using situational judgement tests. Medical Education, 47(2), pp.182-189.

Olaniyi, I. (2012). Gender Differences in Entrepreneurial Skills’ Acquisition: An Analysis of Informal Institutional Factors. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 2(6), pp.24-26.

Sels, L., De Winne, S., Delmotte, J., Maes, J., Faems, D. and Forrier, A. (2006). Linking HRM and Small Business Performance: An Examination of the Impact of HRM Intensity on the Productivity and Financial Performance of Small Businesses. Small Bus Econ, 26(1), pp.83-101.

Sengupta, D. and Sengupta, D. (2011). Organizational Innovation: Imperative for Business Sustainability. IJAR, 3(12), pp.307-309.

Shapira-Lishchinsky, O. (2014). Simulation-based constructivist approach for education leaders.Educational Management Administration & Leadership.

Tsai, P. and Yen, Y. (2013). Development of institutional downsizing theory: evidence from the MNC downsizing strategy and HRM practices in Taiwan. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 26(3-4), pp.248-262.

Turcksin, L., Bernardini, A. and Macharis, C. (2011). A combined AHP-PROMETHEE approach for selecting the most appropriate policy scenario to stimulate a clean vehicle fleet. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 20, pp.954-965.

Weldon, E. and Chow, M. (2005). A question of leadership: Are Western leadership development approaches appropriate in China, or might a Chinese approach be more effective?. Leadership in Action, 25(5), pp.12-13.