Behavioural Theory. The Best Leaders Are Those Who Have

As part of this critical assignment, it is a requirement that I reflect on my own experience as a Leader where I have demonstrated a high level of emotional intelligence, as well use theories to demonstrate my learning’s.

A team leader faces many challenges such as co-ordinating a team to achieve a set goal or objective. Every team is created for a purpose, and each one must succeed in meeting objectives. Learning how to get the best out of a team is really the key to making things work. Other factors and challenges that may affect a team leader include budgets, schedules, project timelines, and complaints or bad relationships with underlings. Balancing a series of tasks and roles is really what being a leader is all about, so the most successful leaders will have a dynamic blend of diplomatic skills. Leaders know how to motivate "the troops", and they also know how to quiet down and relate one-to-one when that sort of approach is needed. The best way to become a

An authoritative leader addresses the end but generally gives workers freedom to innovate, experiment and take risks. The authoritative style works best for organizations that are off track, it helps in creating a new course and fresh long-term vision. The affiliative style strives to keep employees happy to create harmony among. The style has a positive effect on communication. People who like one another a lot talk lot. They share ideas, inspirations leading to flexibility, innovation and risk taking. This style should only be employed when trying to build team harmony. The democratic style allows leaders to build consensus through participation. By spending time getting people’s ideas, a leader is able to build trust, respect and commitment. This style works best when a leader is uncertain about best direction however, it does not make sense if employees are not competent. Pacesetting is a leadership style that expects excellence and self-direction. The leader is obsessive about doing things better and faster, and expects the same of everyone around

Leadership can be defined as the process of identifying a goal, motivating others, and make them to achieve the mutually goals (Giltinane, 2013). According to Humphreys (2002), successful leaders do this by applying their leadership knowledge and skills. A good leadership is not only good at management, but also use different leadership styles in different situations. A successful corporation must has a good leader who have the flexible ability which can provide a suitable leadership to make the company successful. Furthermore, there have no perfect leadership styles in the world. Different leader have different leadership styles which also have the different strengths and weaknesses (Ali & Waqar, 2013). Leaders need to consider

Batool, B. F. (2013) Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 4(3), 84-94. (Note: Available in the Strayer Library)

How their work blend into a larger vision for the organization. This type of leadership style

Reflecting on my skills, I believe I have excellent social, communication and language skills. These skills are essential in any customer-facing or team work oriented job. As explained by Morgeson, F. P. et al. in “Selecting individuals in team settings: The importance of social skills, personality characteristics, and teamwork knowledge.” (2005):

Emotional intelligence is important in sport leaders because leaders often operate in emotional environments such as nationals at a tennis competition. Imagine being on the court, having worked so hard to get there, late nights studying the opponent, early mornings in the gym, endless hours of conditioning and practice, all to come down to this. A leader must be prepared to handle any situation that may come up. If the tennis player wins, there is appropriate ways of celebrating where if the player lost, there would be anger, sadness and disappointment in the air. A strong leader would have to have the right emotional intelligence to control the situation and how to take action from there.

There are different leadership theories developed throughout the history. Most popular ones are trait theories, behavioral theories, contingency theories, and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory. The author of the post will briefly discuss two theories, Fiedler contingency theory and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), and compare and contrast their strengths and weakness.

There are many differing theories on the styles of management and leadership which attempt to differentiate the skills, strengths and personalities required between management and leadership although it is clear from the studies of these theorists that many of the skills are applicable to both.

This is the essence of the managerial grid defined by Blake and Mounton (1964)which sugest five key leadership styles .

“It is important to understand and determine the factors that have an effect on or predict leadership style in order to prepare leaders for the future more effectively, to teach them how to keep followers motivated to meet both organizational and

The trait leadership theory focuses on the individual leader’s personal characteristics as the basis of its investigations. It is one of the earliest leadership theories upon whose tenets many researches on leadership have been done. Although it is not very coherent, its heuristic nature has contributed to its significance in leadership research. Zaccaro and Klimoski (2002) define traits of reference to leadership as the stable personality characteristics, which result in a consistent leadership performance pattern, given different scenarios and groups. They include individual personalities, temperament, rationale, prowess, as well as cognitive abilities. Initially, the theory explored both physical and psychological characteristics that tell apart leaders from non-leaders.

The contents and assignment in this course has helped me understand the various theories of leadership and how different leadership styles can have a negative or positive effect on followers and organizations. The leadership theories helped me understand the concept of leadership better because it educates me on the different leadership options that are available. Leadership and followership is not based on specific characteristics. Leaders must draw from things and approaches to find the right style. A follower’s attitude determines the way a leader leads. According to Johnson (2011) “Being a good follower means ensuring your boss is supported, but only if he is making optimum decisions”.

The best leaders are those have the adaptability to flex their behavioral style, and choose the right style suitable for each situation. According to this theory, people can learn to become leaders through teaching and observation and certain behavioral patterns may be identified as leadership styles. Advantages of Behavioral Theory of Leadership: Behavioral theory promotes the value of leadership styles with an emphasis on concern for people and collaboration. It promotes participative decision making and team development by supporting individual needs and aligning individual and group objectives. It helps managers evaluate and understand how their behavioral style as a manager affects their relationship with the team and promotes commitment and contribution towards organizational goals. This theory helps managers find the right balance between different styles of leadership, and helps them decide how to behave as a leader, depending on concerns for people and for productivity. Criticism / Arguments against - Behavioral Theory of Leadership: As there were inherent limitations with the Trait approach to leadership, when early researchers ran out of steam in their search for traits, they turned to what leaders did, how they behaved and came with behavioral theory of leadership. This became the dominant way of approaching leadership within organizations in the 1950s and early 1960s but this