Leadership Styles, Preferences, And Traits

Being a leader is more than simply holding a leadership position or having the ability to lead. Everyone is capable of being a leader, but not everyone exercises his or her leadership abilities. Each person’s idea of leadership is different. My idea of leadership has developed over time, and being a member of the President’s Leadership Class has helped me develop my philosophy of leadership further than what it was two months ago. My personal philosophy of leadership is the ability to effect change through leading by example, taking initiative, and encouraging others.

Leadership goes beyond management, for some, leadership is instinctual and pours over into your personal life. This paper will discuss a leader I admire in my personal life, and analyze their leadership style. I will discuss how that leader has influenced my leadership style, as well as how things like environment and the economy affect my leadership approach.

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.

There is no one-size-fits all definition when it comes to leadership. Some individuals define leadership as solely guiding others to complete a task. While others, including myself, believe leadership is defined as “motivating yourself to be the best so that you can one day motivate the members of your own team.” For me, leadership is being bold enough to have a vision and humble enough to recognize that achieving that vision requires much effort. A leader translates vision into reality, by stepping out of their comfort zone and taking risks. I believe I took the initiative to translate the vision of the founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., which --- and of the current members who pour their hearts and

How I define leadership has mostly to do with 27 years of service in the Army and 20 of those years spent as a Non-Commissioned Officer. Simply put, I believe leadership is the balancing of two competing priorities, the accomplishment of the mission and the welfare of the people that are in your charge. Others can probably think up a million of other subcategories that go into defining leadership, but I believe those are the two over arching things a leader has to do. I see those two priorities being symbiotic because without the people I can’t accomplish the mission but without the mission I don’t need the people.

9. Create contentment and a passion for the roll of leadership and management and let it fuel the energy and commitment to be the best that you can possibly be, strive to achieve the goals you set out for yourself.

Leadership can be defined in many different ways. Some people are saying that leadership is “the behavior of the individual…”(Hemphill & Coons, 1957, p. 7), some others may describe it as “the influential increment over and above mechanical compliance with the routine directives of the organization” (Katz & Kahn, 1978, p. 528). I have to admit that I completely agree that every one of them but I personally believe that that the leadership is “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization...” (House et al., 1999, p. 184). As I mention in my first paper that good leaders care not only about their personal best, they always want to get the best out

My definition of leadership is the capacity to motivate and to lead others towards a shared objective or want with the capacity to empower individuals and enable them to look for their method for accomplishing their objectives, empowering imagination and diversity and having the capacity to influence these diversities to work. A leader ought to likewise be consistent with communication, in a way that speaks to the standards professed in each part of individual lives. Leaders ought to have a huge feeling of regard for their environment and be exceptionally cautious with how they communicate. As a leader I should have the capacity to guide myself and impact people around me, being a role model with expected behaviors, and leverage strength,

Leadership is a position we can easily identify, a word that is inherently understood, but to clearly define leadership is broad and complex. I remember early in the beginning of NURS 641 class, I had to define leadership in my own words. I described leadership as the power to influence people to achieve the same goal, vision, or purpose. I see true leaders as great communicators with high moral standards that are not afraid of change and who continue to innovate, inspire, and empower everyone to improve or progress the group. As there are many leadership definitions, there are also various leadership styles. What stands out the most for me is transformational leadership. Burns (as cited by Crowell, 2011, pp. 81-82) described a

Who comes to mind when you hear the word leader? Do you think of your president, your teammate, your classmate, your coach or even your teacher? How would you define their leadership? Everyone has their own definition of what a leader is or should be. There are many different leadership styles that one may need to share, or prefer to use, depending on the situation or what the leadership is used for, such as, a captain of a team is going to have different styles of leadership compared to a president of a country. To be a leader, one must guide and inspire with the use of words, but most importantly guide with actions. It is important as leader to be mindful of how actions set an example to those that they lead. If a leader says one thing,

Taking this course and reading most of the book from Peter G. Northouse as well as listening to the lectures and videos that have been throughout, I have learned that there are many different aspects of leadership and there are many different definitions and aspects that can change those definitions. According to Seeman (1960), “leadership is acts by persons which influence other persons in a shared direction” (p. 3). This is the definition that I have been following my whole life. Wherever I go I thought that whatever you do as long as you have followers who tend to follow the same direction that makes you a leader. I never thought of the actions being right or wrong or the followers going down their own path I was simply stuck on this definition. After reading the book and learning there was more to that definition I was able to come up with a definition of leadership that I have been living by since this past spring and it has elevated my leadership skills to a great height. I think that leadership has three components: to listen, to inspire and to empower. Since becoming a president of an organization here at Florida State University those three things have made being a President so much easier. I have learned a lot from others just by simply listening to what they say rather than being focused only on my needs. It has caused me to learn from others and really understand people’s point of view. Being an inspiration is important. As a leader you want the people that

Leadership is defined as having the ability to allow others to follow willingly. In the clinical and organization decision-making process, the nursing leadership role can be described as challenging including life changing decisions for patients and team members in an interdisciplinary care setting. Furthermore, leaders should have a vision of what success should be like and how to accomplish the task at hand. Leaders should be able to communicate, perform, create and innovate to allow the vision or dream for the organization to come into existing. To be an effective leader, I feel I must be willing to commit to lifelong learning and building skills. Equally important, among the use of various evaluation tools, I have come to understand my leadership style and personality traits which will help me to become a more effective leader in my organization.

My view on leadership has not changed very much from the beginning of this course. However, I have been able to learn more formal theories and ideas that support my definition of leadership. I have always compared leadership to management because though the two are different when it comes down to it, they do share a few similarities. My definition of leadership that I referred to throughout this course was: a continuous process where an individual motivates changes and inspires others to achieve a common purpose. This course really confirmed for me that leadership is an ongoing process and one is never done learning how to become a leader. This course made me realize though, how management is good, but good leadership is more important to a company. We look at several studies about how a manager’s leadership can influence sales, employee motivation, and so much more. For me, this reinforces my idea that being a manager is just not enough anymore, but one also has to be an inspiring leader for their followers. Leadership is taking what management does a step further by understanding their followers, encouraging growth, and inspiring a way to get there. Finally, this course confirmed for me that there are no set personality traits that make someone a good leader. Instead, there are traits that are common amongst leaders. This does not mean that those who do not possess those traits cannot become leaders, it just mean they may have to work a bit harder than others.

There are several kinds of leadership styles used to facilitate the actions of others. Mirriam-Webster.com defines leadership as “a position as a leader of a group, organization, etc”. Another more inclusive definition regarding the leading role is “managers motivating employees, directing their activities, selecting the most effective communication channels, or resolving conflicts among members” (Robbins, Judge, 2013). If a company or organization suffers from poor, none, or the wrong leadership styles, everyone involved will pay and it can break them. On the other hand, when a company is firing on all cylinders and they have all the right people at the right time leading in the correct form, great things can happen, and that makes all of the difference. According to Air Force Pamphlet 36-2241 (2013), the five main leadership styles are: Laissez-Faire, Management by Exception (Passive), Management by Exception (Active), Transactional Leadership and Contingent Rewards, and lastly Transformational leadership. Each one of these styles broken down, and in different settings may add to or destroy an organization. The definition of each leadership style will be discussed, as well as the pros and cons that each style can have on a company.

Intellectual/Intelligence - Having the required knowledge and experience to perform, good judgment and able to look ahead into the future and being able to handle uncertainty. Be able to plan, organize, lead and control. Honest attitude towards facts, analyze situations, problem solving and be objective to information.