Leadership Is Not A One Side Approach

Leadership has been in existence since the beginning of time and there are many different styles. I believe a truly effective leader needs to be adaptive and rely on multiple styles depending on the situation. My primary leadership style is servant leadership. However, I find myself transitioning into participative and democratic leadership styles when needed. On a very rare occasion, I use an autocratic style when immediate decisions are required or the other leaderships styles fail to produce a satisfactory result. There are distinct advantages and disadvantages of the servant leadership style.

For this assignment, I have decided to use the leadership trait, skills and style questionnaires. For this questionnaire, I asked 5 different people that know me in different contexts in life, such as personal, school, and work environments. For the majority, I rated myself higher on the traits than my fellow colleagues. On some of the traits however, I was rated higher than what I thought. Overall, I averaged a 4/5 which means that everyone agreed with the traits that were given. For the style questionnaire, I found out that I place more emphasis in building relationships rather than completing tasks. Finally, the skills questionnaire, my leadership skills are in the high range for technical skills, and my human and conceptual skills are in the moderate range.

The results suggest that my four dominant leadership types are the following – extrovert, sensor, feeler, and judger. The two most prominent dominant types (with a score of 5) are extrovert and feeler. I believe the results reflect who I am. I’m very outgoing, a people’s person, and talkative. I’m also a very emotional person. I show my emotions on my face and I am sensitive to what others think of me.

To ensure leadership effective, several leadership theories are put forward and are adopted by different organizations. Some widely accepted theories include Trait Approach, Style Approach, Situational Approach, New Leadership Approach and Post-charismatic & Post-transformational (Western, 2013). Beyond doubt, they have their pros and cons, and they could play their role to guarantee the effectiveness of leadership as long as they are applied in an appropriate condition.

I feel that a leader must first understand the basic styles of leadership and how to apply them. Then he/she can know what style is the most appropriate given the task and

Leadership is one of those terms that get used very often, but it has a variety of meanings. The traits you use as a leader always changes depending on the time, place, and situation, and it is the good ones that knows when to make the change. Leadership also has many styles Example, do you use dictator like style, who rules with an iron fist and persecutes people with different ideas, or do you have a more democratic approach. “Every leader has a particular style of leadership that is innate. However, the behaviors, attitudes or methods of delivery that are effective for one staff member may in fact be counterproductive for another,” says Michael Burke, account supervisor, MSR Communications, a public relations firm. “Great leaders are aware of their own style and make the effort to learn how their style actually comes across to their team. They learn to flex their leadership style to individual team members so that they communicate and behave in ways that motivate and inspire.”

We have learned from an early in our careers what leadership is, what it means and how we should apply it. Since 1981, I have seen and studied many styles. We also learn what leadership should not be by watching examples of poor leadership. Leadership styles change, evolve and most people attempt new methods to achieve the end goal. That is to influencing others to accomplish the mission by providing purpose, motivation and direction. Newer definitions add “to improve the organization”. All of this is what we have been taught and most leaders can and will adapt to change. One key element is to be able to read people and organizations to determine the culture and people to find out what motivates individuals. Teams and organizations are made up of people not machines.

Half of the categories are broken down into questions detailing how a leader views his/her effectiveness towards subordinates. The other half of the categories focus on the leader themselves and his/her ability to be effective in their daily life. It is in my opinion that leaders’ effectiveness in the workplace begins with their effectiveness in their own life in being able to maintain a healthy balance of work and life.

Autocratic leadership somewhat resembles a dictatorship or an authoritarian structure. The leader has a high level of control making decisions without the input of others. This type of leadership is not very effective in most situations, what does work well during emergencies.

There are a few different leadership approaches that were discussed in this course. The leadership approaches I’ll be discussing are the trait, skills, style, and the situational approaches, as well as two leadership theories which are contingency theory and the path-goal theory.

Being the leader of any organization shows you have the ability to dominant and control others. This being said there are many theories and studies that have been done to determine different leadership styles and what would work for an organization. Many of these studies have shown participative leadership is the most effective style, but leaders need to change the way they solve problems based on that specific situation. (De Poel, Stoker, & Van der Zee, 2012). According to the self-assessment, my leadership style is participative or democratic. My style maybe participative but a good leader will be able to use a variety of leadership styles to fit the needs of the organization. Understanding the different types of leadership styles will provide you with the skills to perform as the leader within any given company.

A great leader once said “Leadership is not so much about techniques and methods as it is about opening the heart. Leadership is about inspiration-of oneself and others. Great leadership is about human experiences, not processes. Leadership is not a formula or a program, it is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others. It is an attitude, not a routine”. Leadership is all about understanding, contributing and bringing out a decision that is accepted and respected by all. For me leadership is only about three words: be, know, do. You should BE impartial with people. You should KNOW that your leadership is all about bringing the right decision and you fulfill it and you DO provide direction for example by

Autocratic leadership is a directive style of leadership, this mean one leader is in charge of making business decisions. This means the leader will tell the employees of the changes or policies that is happening to the business and the employees just have to follow order with no say in the matter. Directive leaders let their

Leadership came along with many changes as time or generation changes. The leadership style, at first the Great Man theory where the leaders are born or destined by birth. Then the Trait theory, the trait or characteristics of a leader either inborn or can be learned. Leaders should have an ability to reflex upon the situation at ad hoc with respect to the situation, so the theory Situational theory of leadership style aroused. Then the Transactional theory, leadership style where leader promotes compliance the followers through reward and punishment. The most importantly the Transformational leadership style focuses on team-building, motivation and collaboration with followers at different levels for the better change. Other leadership styles like Participative which is very democratic in decision making and delegate style making followers take charge of the

At the beginning of the year I had a very different outlook on leadership, now it has changed quite a bit because of the exposure I've had to different positions of leadership and a very diversified set of audiences. My point of view has really been influenced by the experience I've gained from this class. I would describe myself as an autocratic leader, which hasn't changed, but I've learned to adjust my leadership style towards the audience I am catering to. I've learned that when a leader uses one style exclusively it's insufficient. Effective leaders generally incorporate more than one style of leadership, using one more predominantly. below i will examine each style and elborate on what it entails.