Transactional Analysis: Bellwether's Leadership Style

The Trait approach in leadership focuses exclusively on the leader, not on the followers or the situation (Northouse 2016, p 29). There are five major traits (intelligence, self-confidence,

19). Still a part of the Great Man Leadership era, these trait theories just went a step further in attempting to pinpoint exactly which traits of these “great men” were consistently associated with the leaders, in an effort to more clearly define what a great leader was. This was again a further attempt to be able to identify a leader early on and predict which individuals were born to become leaders. It is thought that a major flaw with these theories was the failure to account for external factors, such as the environment in which the individuals were brought up in, as well as the situations they experienced (Horner, 2007, p. 270). Still today we do continue to study the characteristics of leaders in order to better define and understand what makes someone a good leader.

Is it socially acceptable behaviour for people to dedicate their lives to an object? Sure, one might say. People have passions and hobbies; these “objects” are worked hard for and should be enjoyed. Although most would say that this type of behaviour is not how normal people should live and that life’s fruition lies in the hands of social interaction; we can only truly enjoy life in the company of other humans, not objects. Where is the line drawn? Is it possible to cling on to a possession so much that it starts to detrimentally affect the person involved? W.D. Valgardson’s short story The Novice demonstrates that this is certainly a possibility. The protagonist undergoes a similar situation; he gets caught up in idealism (glamorizing

The study ot leader traits has a long and controversial history. While research shows that the possession of certain traits alone does not guarantee leadership success, fhere is evidence that effective leaders are different from other people in certain key respects. Key leader traits include: drive (a broad term which includes achievement, motivation, ambition, energy, tenacity, and initiative): leadership motivation (the desire fo lead but not to seek power as an end in itself): honesty and integrity: self-confidence (which is associated with emotional stability):

According to the article “BlackBerry Posts Loss as Phones Go Unsold”, BlackBerry performs a poor performance. Business has a quarterly loss in 2013 for $965 million. The revenue had drop 45% that down to $1.57 billion from $2.86 billion compares with a year earlier. BlackBerry lost $248 million, or 47 cents a share, and analysts forecast 49 cents a share loss for the quarter ended August 31. The net loss is $235 million which excluding inventory charge and restructuring charges in the latest quarter. The cash position also down to $2.6 billion from $3.1 billion at quarter-end. Smartphone maker report a hefty operating loss of nearly $1 billion charge on inventory of unsold phones.

Critical reflection in education is very important because it impacts on pedagogical practices of the early childhood educators and helps in developing child agency in effective learning contexts. In this essay will explore, what critical reflection means and its key components, the process of critical reflection and reflective practice is implemented in education, what impact is has on educators and the development of child agency through critical reflection.

During my examination of the various types of leadership styles, I was able to take a few assessments online. There were two that stood out the most for me which, were The Type A and B personality indicator and the Hemisphere Dominance Personality Assessment. I found that the style that these two assessments closely matched my own style.

In the research carried out by Bass (1990), they found out that trait leadership theory believes some people are born to lead because of their personal qualities, while others are not. Trait theory also suggests that leadership is only accessible to the chosen ones and not available to all. In the past researchers focused on traits that were able to measure such as physical characteristics, aspects of personality and aptitudes. The current trait research has pointed the focus to more specific traits like stress tolerance, energy level, emotional maturity, integrity and self-confidence. Reviews of the trait research have found all of the above traits to be related to managerial effectiveness Bass (1990) and Marques (2010). When looking at the results of

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 first phase (1955-1962) began with Berne’s identification of the ego states (Parent, Adult, and Child), which provided a perspective from which to explain thinking, feeling, and behaving. He decided that the way to study personality was to observe here-and-now phenomena such as the client’s voice, gestures, and vocabulary. These observable criteria provide a basis for inferring a person’s past history and for predicting future problems. The second phase (1962-1966) focused on transactions and “games.” It was during this period that TA became popular because of its straightforward vocabulary and because people could recognize their own games. At this time TA was primarily a cognitive approach, with little attention given to emotions. The third phase (1966-1970) gave attention to lifescripts and script analysis. A lifescript is an internal plan that determines the direction of one’s life. The fourth phase (1970 to the present) is characterized by the incorporation of new techniques into TA practice (such as those from the encounter group movement, Gestalt therapy, and psychodrama). TA is moving toward more active and emotive models as a way of balancing its early emphasis on cognitive factors and insight (Dusay & Dusay, 1989

The Trait Approach was the 1st systematic attempt to study leadership. In the 20th century it was known as the “great man” theory. This approach takes a look at the leaders personal attributes such as but not limited to: motivation, energy, intuition, creativity, persuasiveness and foresight. Some of the traits that are essential to this list include: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. Thus it focuses mainly on the leader and not on the followers or situations. The strengths of the Trait Approach includes: 1) it is intuitively appealing, 2) it has research to back it’s theory, 3) it highlights the leader, 4) it identifies what the traits of a leader should have and whether the traits we do

In T.A. the life-script is an important concept as all transactions, games, ego-states and the concepts they encompass relate to the re-enforcement of an individual’s life script. Berne defined life-script as;

Leaders are made up by traits, skills behavior and effectiveness, which are determined by distinguishing personal characteristics of a leader, such as intelligence, honesty, self-confidence, and appearance. However, the value of a particular trait or set or traits, skill behavior and effectiveness vary with the organization’s situation (Draft, 2015). For example, our executive leaders of Humana have their own unique style.

Furthermore, the trait leadership approach serves as a benchmark for which individuals tend to measure their own leadership qualities, and also for the organisations to identifying suitable and competent leaders (Northouse, 2013). This approach makes trait assessments valuable for assessing a potential leader's strengths and weaknesses, and trait measures are a good way to understand the behaviour of leaders; how they fit into the organisational hierarchy and a possible future course of action.

According to Bass, 1990; Jago, 1982 the Trait approach was the first attempt to study leadership. In the start of 20 century leadership traits were studied in order to know that what made some people leaders. According to this approach it was supposed that people who have those leadership