Leader And Follower Attachment Styles : Implications For Authentic Leader Follower Relationship Essay

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.

Kim Bartholomew took Bowlby’s theory a step further and proposed four styles of adult attachment based on working models of self and others (Lyddon & Sherry, 2001). These styles were secure, preoccupied, dismissing and fearful. Secure adults feel self worth and expect other people to be trustworthy. Preoccupied adults feel unworthy but feel better about other people. Dismissing adults feel they are worthy but have a negative view of others. And fearfully attached adults tend to feel unworthy and untrusting of others (Lyddon & Sherry, 2001). All of the styles noted except for secure would also fall under the broader category of insecure.

I am excellent at relating to people and understanding why individuals make certain decisions. My ability to acknowledge and validate the emotions and actions of others has allowed me to create a positive repertoire not only in leadership positions, but also in daily situations. The key to my leadership style is close relationships with those I’m leading, which I usually create through frequent conversations or individual meetings. I believe that leadership is not a competitive ladder where I am above others, but instead a connective web in which I am the center of those I oversee. I have learned to be straight-forward and firm in setting rules and standards, while also being compassionate and understanding to individual

Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.

Effective leaders interact with their followers in a positive manner to learn about them on a personal and professional level (Colorado State University – Global Campus, 2016). The United States Coast Guard (USCG) refers to this type of communication as deck plate leadership. Deck plate leadership blends an interest in junior personnel’s professional development and well-being (Smith, 2010). Often, before one becomes an effective leader they participate in a follower role. The level of follower engagement may be a precursor to the type of leader they later will become. Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) C. MacInnes is the Executive Officer (XO) of Enlisted Personnel working directly for the commanding officer (CO) at the USCG Academy in New London, Connecticut (http://www.uscga.edu). LCDR MacInnes oversees several divisions at the Academy, meaning he has numerous direct reports. He is an example of a person in a leadership and followership role.

Devine and Winter (2012, p. 25) state, “there is nothing magical about leadership, and there is nothing magical about teaching it or learning it.” They go on to define leadership as the ability to influence those who work for you to want to accomplish and strive to reach organizational goals and objectives. Those who influence others must understand the theories of motivation so that these theories can be applied, communicated and taught in order to motivate followers (Devine and Winter, 2012). Different from supervision, leadership implores the desires of those around you to want to succeed in meeting a goal through you the leader’s motivational abilities.

Attachment theory was originally proposed by Bowlby (1969) as an explanation of interpersonal relationships, with particular focus in his work on the parent-child relationships which are formed in early childhood. He noted that this was an evolutionary need within us as humans to form close attachments to improve our rate of survival (Bowlby, 1969). He later also theorized that these attachment styles would persist throughout life into adulthood (Bowlby, 1988). Further work on attachment theory by Bartholomew & Horowitz (1991) expanded on attachment styles and looked at the continuation of attachment style into adulthood. Using interviews with participants and the participants close friends they found evidence for four types of adult attachment styles: Secure, Preoccupied, Dismissing and Fearful (Bartholomew & Horowitz 1991). Further support for adult attachments styles is from Mikulincer & Shaver (2004) showing that attachments styles persist from childhood into adulthood demonstrating bowlby 's later hypothesis

Attachment-based relationships stem from attachment behaviour, which is conceived as any form of behaviour that results in a person attempting, or retaining proximity to some other differentiated and preferred individual, who is usually perceived as stronger or wiser (Ainsworth, 1985). These relationships have a strong connection with the development, functioning, and well-being across the lifespan, in both parent-child relationships, and adult relationships. This essay sets out to display and prove the positive relationship between secure attachment relationships and positive development, well-being, and functioning, across the lifespan.

Three predominant styles of attachment, secure, insecure-anxious and insecure-avoidant reflect expectations about the reliability and availability of attachment figures (Hazan & Shaver, 1987). Individuals who portray secure attachment styles tend to value relationships that provide trust, comfort, and availability. In contrast, individuals with insecure-avoidant or insecure-anxious styles of attachment have difficulty recognizing, acknowledging, and/or valuing secure-based relationships. Avoidant individuals experience discomfort when becoming close with others. In contrast, insecure-anxious individuals report relationships as a threat,

I see building relationships as the key to great leadership. Success does not usually happen without the action and support of many people. I may achieve extraordinary things, but I cannot do it alone. Accomplishment is better when it is a team effort. I have had a great deal of support in my life. Without the help of coaches, teachers, my parents and God, I would not be where I am today as a soon-to-be high school graduate, an athlete preparing to attend College of Charleston or a Head Lifeguard at the City of Shenandoah

This week we have been really discussing some interesting topics on the birth of leadership, also the core skills along with the mandatory skills that compliment excellent leadership. From the reading, the four equally important part’s that displays excellent leadership consists of: Firstly, Building Relationships. I can agree, “Relationships should be the primary focus of any leadership position. When people become the key to the organization, decision-making is shared, vision is collaborative; the team that is correctly aligned becomes “ fiercely competitive and an ultimate high-performance entity”(Guttman, 2009). In my opinion, this is so true about the importance of building good positive working relationships. Building relationships is all about perception and attitude. If you are the new teacher or administrator on the job, obviously no one knows who you are and because people do not know who you are, those people may or may not be reluctant to change or to buy-in to your vision. If you exploit your expectations, your vision and involve them in the process, then your colleagues will trust

Leadership is a term that cannot be defined or simplified with a standard definition (Bethel, 2011). The term’s complexity is a phenomenon, as it carries a different meaning for each person. During the

These experiences empowered her to seek healthy attachments in her current job instead of running away as she reported that she so often had done. Social Attachment theory subsists as a deep-rooted relational theory which explores explanations of personal relationships. Thus, it has attempted to describe how warmth and sensitivity shown by primary relationships affect individuals' motivation and capacity to investigate their social

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks: CA: Sage Publications.

Leadership has become overly romanticized by popular culture, leaving little research and attention to followership (Meindl). This focus on leadership has left a deficit in the development of