Reflection on Leadership Assignment Sample
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Introduction
Leadership theory facilitates the study of good qualities of an effective leader and psychological analysis puts forward a set of common qualities. These common behaviour patterns are used to formulate a theory that enables an organisation to progress steadily. The analysis covers varied aspects like personality traits, actions, and environment and together formulates a leadership style that exists with their distinct qualities.
Critical evaluation of classical and contemporary leadership theories
The Behavioural theory
The theory suggests that leadership abilities of an individual develop under the influence of environment and not due to natural abilities. Conditioning is one of the key aspects that influence this theory such that it enables an individual to react accordingly as a response. In my observation technical giant Apple considered coaches and cheerleaders as the true leaders of an organisation and bring about a driving force. (Nason et al. 2018) I believe this theory brings about an impetus for innovative leadership policies and mitigation of decision-making problems.
The Situational Theory
This theory suggests that best leaders do not possess any specific ability, rather their skills are tested when their styles adapt to any situation. Such leaders are known for their flexibility and skills of participation and persuasion (Pauwels et al. 2018). In contemporary times, I have observed the omnipresence of this theory in leadership styles implemented by most organisations. The sense of active participation and persuasion conveyed through this theory makes it flexible and effective enough for any situation.
Intellectual, practical and effective transferable skills of leadership
Unlike most of the abilities an individual ends up learning or possessing, leadership does not have any specific requirements rather it is more of a compilation of different approaches and styles(Sousa and Rocha, 2019). The skills that go into this solution are numerous but the most effective and in-demand ones are listed below:
- Active listening and participation of the leaders
- Leaders have to be empathetic and understanding
- A sense of creativity to give scope for innovation
- Being flexible enough for any situation provided
- A capability to convince his or her team to function together
- Optimism is a crucial factor that drives a team towards its set of goals and vision.
- A leader is always aware of the competition and a sense of farsightedness is also needful to make executive decisions.
- An ability to recruit efficient employees
- Capability to align the employees according to values and goals that govern a company
- The efficiency of a team depends on the credibility of its leader so they have to be reliable enough to be at the forefront of an organisation.
Critical reflection on own personal effectiveness and development of leaders for a senior role in an organisation
Leadership refers to the art of motivating a team to function up to its full potential and in simpler terms serves the purpose of a driving force. It is also the ability of an individual to drain out the best, by virtue of which they serve a common purpose. For building and strengthening the effectiveness of a team under a leader certain abilities become imperative and are streamlined under the following subheads;
Becoming an all-rounder
I think it becomes critical for any leader to become an all-rounder rather than being specific about their skill sets (Karagianni and Jude, 2018). A greater sense of awareness and a wish to learn, add up to their prowess and influence as employees and workers get motivated by them.
Congenial Approach
The common responsibility of a leader is to drive his or her team to their full effectiveness, but that does not mean they end up disrespecting the authority they are provided. A balanced sense of authority and benevolence is an effective solution that ends up fulfilling the gap.
Broader influence
Leaders often pay too much attention to a particular section under the influence of mistaken perception, so a broader sense of influence should be showered. This helps catering benefits to a particular department and its subordinates, giving rise to a much-needed harmony amidst the operation.
Scope to learn
Leadership is a continuous process, where the scope to update is numerous, so every little opportunity to learn and update leadership skills need fostering (Sousa et al. 2019). This, in turn, drives the team to work on their already acquired skills and adapts a sense of motivation.
Effective communication
A well-defined system of communication involves the proper transmission of information, emotion and knowledge amidst an operation to mitigate any confusion that may arise (Farell, 2017). Furthermore, proper communication facilitates the formation of a friendlier and organised group, maintaining a balance of professionalism and a little less maturity.
Farsightedness
A certain sense of intuition becomes imperative for any leader to make executive decisions and helps with risk management. An excess of anything becomes unnecessary, so does intuition which could result in the wrong and drastic steps ultimately destroying an organisation.
Innovative assistance
Developing technology assistance is expected to give way for innovation and creativity to take over. Assimilation of both these intangible aspects caters to the possibility of a successful venture in future (Van Wart et al. 2019).
Owing to such observations, I think all these aspects add up to the list of secret ingredients that make up for the effectiveness of a leader in developing an efficient workforce.
Awareness of principles of Change and Process Change
Change management is a systematic approach to transition from one environment to another through reassignment of resources budget and other factors influencing the workforce. An effective leader is expected to lead his or her team during such times of transition and can be outlined by the following changes in responsibility.
Approach assisted by a culture
A leader tends to make the most of their company’s existing culture by tapping on pre-existing notions of the workers, in order to drain emotional energy(Jones and Harvey, 2017). The emotional energy can only be harnessed, once the cultural traits aligned to change are placed in the foreground and attract employee attention.
Involving every layer
The primary factor involved is often misunderstood by leaders. Breaking a change initiative by a leader could help in improved sustainability of a team. Functionally, the strategies of involvement also enable to understand potential glitches within the team leading to an effective improvement towards collaborative working.
Conveying rationality with adequate decision making skill
Generic leadership involves an approach that makes it rational but the process lacks any sense of emotion. This fails to convey pre-existing and future notions, derogating its functionality as a result of which workers face difficulty investing their hearts and mind equally in the process.
Assessing and adapting accordingly
Leaders when driven by miscalculated opportunities and ignore success of the company and change it went through. Owing to such clumsy assessment, adopting the transitional policy of a company becomes inconsistent and deprives an organisation of needful information.
Recommendations
In order to develop effective leadership amidst a continual workforce, it becomes imperative for an individual to possess the recommended qualities.
Skills and skilled decision making
A well-defined approach towards their employees to cultivate a sense of influence such that they get driven by motivation and it becomes mandatory for any leader to assess the environment and make decisions accordingly to maximise their functions. Skilful analysis of a situation would ensure the transmission of accurate information and a capable leader functions on that basis (Ahmad and Maidin, 2020).
Rendering a scope for Innovation
A well-defined leadership policy facilitates the importance of innovation in the overall organisational strategy. Innovation and creativity become the key ingredients to bring about a sense of uniqueness in the process.
Harnessing optimism into the system
Different leadership styles influence an operation their own way but assimilation of optimism is a constant (Wang et al. 2017). Leaders are expected to visualise any situation or occurrence with an optimistic approach to reduce chances of de-motivation and failure.
Good Conflict-countering skills
An organisation is exposed to numerous risks and maintaining a peaceful environment in times of conflict becomes an added responsibility. It is crucial for a leader to be prepared for a conflict at any time and possess the necessary abilities to counter them.
Now that the necessary skills have been highlighted, preparing a hefty and functional approach on basis of a model is equally necessary. In terms of that, the most functional of the existing models turn out to be ‘Lewin’s Change Management Model’ (Rosenbaum et al. 2018). The model can be broken into three distinctive sections, each possessing a certain functionality and importance.
Unfreeze
The stage involves the preparation of the organisation to accept changes and breaking down of the pre-existing status to the employees. This section is considered stressful and slow but as soon as it attains momentum, it gains sustainable functionality.
Change
The uncertainty out of the structure gives scope to employees to function accordingly, looking for new ways to do things.
Refreeze
The stage involves the team embracing and operating under the influence of those changes.
The influence of such an organised management model is numerous and its impact can be rationalised through the outcome facilitating development, establishment and empowerment of the structure.
Conclusion
It is a common belief that leadership skills are vital for the effectiveness of an organisational structure. However, through such careful analysis of pre-existing and contemporary leadership models, we can conclude that leadership refers to the capability to drive at team towards a common goal and can be attained through numerous methods and attributes, depending on their approach.
Reference list
Ahmad, A. and Maidin, S.S., (2020). A study on leadership skills in project management. PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology, 17(7), pp.8630-8639.
Farrell, M., (2017). Leadership reflections: Leadership skills for knowledge management. Journal of Library Administration, 57(6), pp.674-682.
Jones, S. and Harvey, M., (2017). A distributed leadership change process model for higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 39(2), pp.126-139.
Karagianni, D. and Jude Montgomery, A., (2018). Developing leadership skills among adolescents and young adults: a review of leadership programmes. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 23(1), pp.86-98.
Nason, R.S., Bacq, S. and Gras, D., (2018). A behavioral theory of social performance: Social identity and stakeholder expectations. Academy of Management Review, 43(2), pp.259-283.
Pauwels, L.J., Svensson, R. and Hirtenlehner, H., 2018. Testing Situational Action Theory: A narrative review of studies published between 2006 and 2015. European Journal of Criminology, 15(1), pp.32-55.
Rosenbaum, D., More, E. and Steane, P., (2018). Planned organisational change management: Forward to the past? An exploratory literature review. Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Sousa, M.J. and Rocha, Á., (2019). Leadership styles and skills developed through game-based learning. Journal of Business Research, 94, pp.360-366.
Sousa, M.J. and Rocha, Á., (2019). Leadership styles and skills developed through game-based learning. Journal of Business Research, 94, pp.360-366.
Van Wart, M., Roman, A., Wang, X. and Liu, C., (2019). Operationalizing the definition of e-leadership: identifying the elements of e-leadership. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 85(1), pp.80-97.
Wang, V.X. and Torrisi-Steele, G., 2017. Digital leadership in the new century. In Encyclopedia of strategic leadership and management (pp. 143-159). IGI Global.
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