Manager Interview Report

For interview I was fortunate enough to speak with Tonia Dudley who is an Information Security Risk Reporting and Awareness Analyst at Charles Schwab in Chandler, Arizona. She was very happy to share her wealth of knowledge with me and I came away with multiple resources for more information and a greater understanding of the job itself. Not only did I ask questions about her current position, but I also wanted to know about her prior experience and schooling that qualified her for the job.

This approach emphasize that having a leader with a certain set of traits is crucial to having effective leadership. It’s the leader and the leader’s personality that are central to the leadership process.

I chose to interview Regina Geis, who holds the administrative role as acting supervisor for the County Mental Health adult day program, which provides services for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Ms. Geis has held this position for 15 months. This is her first managerial position within a human service agency. Her style of management has changed over this short period of time. She feels that she is now more direct with her direction with staff. She stated, “Maybe now I come across as a little bit cold. But I have learned that I now have to use the least amount of words to get my point across.”

The theories applied to Steve Jobs have opened my mind to realise how important effective leadership styles are to organisations. A lesson learnt from Steve’s leadership qualities is that a leader can adapt different style of leadership and this makes a leader more effective and efficient. The late Apple boss was a master of employing various strategies to adapt to differing scenarios and situations. Steve Jobs did not exhibit a single rhetorical style, but rather altered it depending on the situation and yet still managed to deliver a constant message to support his company’s

My father once told me that, “everything we do— be it in academia, at work, social or family life—we are guided by principles, beliefs and values that collectively form our ideology of life.” I believe that every leader, to a certain extent, is shaped through her individual personal experience. Although in some cases, we may not realize to what extent our personal assumptions and beliefs shape our ability to lead or be led.

Managers make many decisions every day. Thankfully there are many tools available to a manager as they make these decisions. Tiffany is a General Manager of a franchise in the quick service restaurant industry. She is faced with decisions dozens of times in one day. A large portion of the decisions that she is faced with are made to solve structured problems, however, sometimes an unstructured problem does arise that she needs to address. As well as solving problems Tiffany must also make plans to in order to have structure and organization to achieve the goals set forth by herself and the company that she works for. Looking at some of the decisions that Tiffany has had to make recently it can been seen how she goes about solving

As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.

I have to say that I did not know much about Steve Jobs before I read the article; however, I do know that when he had an idea he took it and he developed it to its full potential. He 's been hailed as a genius and the greatest CEO of his generation. I have heard that he was a high-maintenance supervisor who demanded excellence from his staff and was known for his blunt delivery of criticism. He was a very talented individual, a skilled motivator, a decisive judge, and a gifted strategist. Steve Jobs created a company that became known worldwide. He made digital devices more elegant and easier to use. He made a lot of money for Apple Inc. after people told

leader is, if there is some type of genetic makeup to leaders, or whether skills can be learned,

     The manager interviewed for this assignment was Chief Warrant 3 Linwood Bowers, the Chief of the Personnel Support Directorate of the White House Communications Agency (WHCA). Chief Bowers has held his present position for four years. The focus of the interview was the unique challenges of good communication.

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.

Trait leadership theory suggests that all leaders are born with or display certain key personality characteristics. Certain characteristics are particularly suited to leadership. People who make good leaders have a sufficient combination of these character traits. Most of the time the traits are considered to be naturally part of a person’s personality. Hence, leadership trait theory tends to assume that people are born as leaders or not as leaders. However, according to Shead (2007), the idea that leadership traits are inborn and unchangeable appears to be incorrect. He posits that it is true that many of our dispositions and tendencies are influenced by our personalities, but most people will acknowledge that it is possible for someone to change their character traits for the worse. Someone typically known for being honest can learn to be deceitful. Stogdill (1974) identified the following traits and skills as critical to leaders.

There are many kinds of leaders; some lead through position and authority, while others lead through inspiration and vision. Some people are simply natural born leaders. However, whether one was born a leader or has to become a leader, all great leaders spend time developing their traits. Similarly, when you train for a sport, you first learn to develop the fundamentals, and then you work to master and apply them. I’ve been told I am a born leader, but have always sought to improve my leadership abilities through experience. Maxwell states, “The learned leader; has seen leadership modeled most of life, has learned leadership through training, and has self-discipline to become a great leader” (Maxwell, 93). This statement is reflective of my experience during my military tenure, and what it means to me is; leadership must be developed in practice, as well as in theory.

The characteristics of a leader like Ms. Jovita Carranza came through in her daily actions with those encircled by her personal and professional life experiences. Leaders come in all forms of varieties, genders, ethnicity and descriptors like Carranza. Carranza didn't stopped to think about some of the leaders that have inspired her or even some that have infuriated her, the qualities of her good leadership skills will became apparent through her professional growth with UPS. When we think about the characteristic of a leader, we often think of leaders that are ever-changing, which calls each of us to act or to follow. We could take on the prime example, such as Carranza. She had some of the values that we all inspire to follow, she had

Leadership is something that can be taught (Northouse, 2015. There are some valuable theories, which will be discussed later in this paper, how a leader can develop into having a strong influence in any daily aspect of their lives. Also later in this paper it will be discussed the various styles of leaders that can affect the behaviors of the actions of each leader. Each leader can learn these attributes or some of them just have the natural capability of being a leader.