The Theory Of Leadership Styles

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.

When developing a template to assess which leadership styles are best suited to mitigate the effects of a decline in financial compensation, it is imperative to understand leadership theory. One of the first pioneers in leadership theory was Kurt Lewin. Kurt Lewin (1890–1947), was a prominent figure in psychology in his generation. He provided a solid foundation to the teachings of organizational development. In many circles he was known as the father of organizational development. He was best known for the development of field theory. Field theory was essential because it allowed business professionals to understand why undesirable behaviors was produced. It also taught how to bring about desirable behaviors. Field theory was developed in part because Lewin wanted to address organizational employee turnover.

According to Harold Koontz, “leadership is defined as an art or process of influencing people so that they strive willingly and enthusiastically towards attainment of group goals”.

A leadership philosophy helps to define and let others know what you expect, what things you value, and how you act as a leader. Different styles of leadership are needed for different situations. Every leader needs to know when and how to display a particular approach of leadership within a group. Leadership strategies define every leader’s personal leadership style. Three leadership styles of a counselor are the following: authoritarian style leaders, democratic style leaders, and laissez-faire style leaders.

Urban Meyer is the head coach for The Ohio State Buckeyes football team. He is 49 years old and was born in Toledo Ohio. He attended University of Cincinnati where he played football. Coach Meyer is married and has three children. Prior to coaching Ohio State he retired from coaching was working as a sports analyst for ESPN. Before retiring and working for ESPN, Coach Meyer was the head coach for the University of Florida. He led the Gators to two BCS championship wins and he held the highest percentages of wins for any active college football coach. (www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com).

A leader is assumed to be an individual who is always involved in the right activities at the right time to ensure everybody in their circle are benefiting. Leaders must maintain confidential appearances to accomplish obligatory aims. A leader must be professionally responsible and self-restraint as everyone will follow you. When someone follows the leadership line, he/she will possess weaknesses and strengths. The writer will talk regarding the weaknesses and strengths that she own as a leader in individual and professional accountability, career planning, personal journey, personal journey discipline, and reflective practice reference behaviors.

My leadership style is a combination of two of the leadership styles mentioned in this module. The transformational leadership style mostly exemplifies my style and personality. However, I have implemented situational leadership based on the skill level of the teachers assigned to my school and happenings within the community.

According to J. Seyfarth, there are four types of leadership styles: directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented leadership (Seyfarth, 1996). These styles vary from one another, but all may be visible within a school environment. During a recent interview with an elementary school principal, Amy Zilbar, she described her dominate leadership style as supportive (personal communication, April 25, 2013).

Stacey Feiner once stated, “For those of you who really want to give critical thought to your unique leadership style and foster genuine followership, learn from what’s out there and weave it into something meaningful and authentic.” (Feiner, 2015) For the last two weeks, I have spent time self-analyzing and soul searching to identify the qualities I bring to a leadership role. Many of the core values important to me also align between the participative leadership style and laissez-faire leadership style. These values include working in a team environment, empowering others to make decisions and providing support for those decisions, keeping an open mind to new ideas/suggestions, and being involved with my team members on a daily basis. (Mooney, n.d.) As I learn ways to build on my strengths within these leadership styles, I also need to improve upon my weaknesses to become the well-rounded leader I want to be.

The critique with the most supporting evidence to suggest that trait theory is flawed is possibly the Style approach to leadership. The style approach was developed in the 1940’s and is centralised around the idea that it is not what traits and characteristics the leader possesses, but rather the in the behaviours they exhibit (Roberts, 2013). This argument analyses the types of behaviours, which the leader has, and they ways in which they carry out their business, as opposed to the trait they may have been born with.

The focus of this chapter is understanding theories of leadership and leadership styles. Van Wart (2008) provides a framework for discussing such theories. The framework asks: What performance goals tend to be achieved with what leader styles, under what conditions? Additionally, for each theory the following aspects are briefly discussed: what is the background of the theory and what have researches tried to explain? Which contingency factors does the theory emphasize? Which style or styles does the theory emphasize? What type of performance goals does the theory emphasize? What are the strengths and weakness of the theory or approach? (Van Wart, 2008). Throughout this chapter Van Wart (2008) identifies nine overall styles that have been recommended

Often when there is police corruption in the news, there are individuals who will point fingers not only at the officers involved but also at the leadership in charge. The mindset, in general, is that if the leadership had reigned in their officers, then incidents of unruly behavior, excessive use of force and questionable decision-making would not have occurred. Thus, it leads this author to wonder what impact leadership truly has in policing. More specifically, this author is concerned with discovering if leadership styles have an effect on how effective or ineffective a leader will be within policing.

What is leadership? Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines leadership as “the power or ability to lead other people”. Although this is simply put, it is also correct. But leadership is much more than the ability to lead. The ability is one piece of the puzzle. Other pieces to consider in leadership are education, attributes, and style, just to name a few. In this assignment, I will focus on leadership style. Specifically, I will discuss my style according to the assessment developed by The University of Kent in the UK.

Different leadership styles result in various results in the workplace. The Fiedler contingency model postulates a leader’s style is static; however, God can transform anyone’s heart and thus their leadership style. Additionally, the grapevine can be an important tool for employers. As long as each individual chooses to use gossip for honorable purposes, God will bless the workplace.

Leadership is a concept most people feel informed enough to discuss, but that few are truly educated sufficiently to comment on. Therefore, it is instructive to consider the leadership styles of people with very different approaches both to better understand the diversity underlying leadership, as well as to appreciate the effective and less effective strategies that underlie different leadership outcomes. For that reason, this essay will consider the styles of two leaders who are less visible in this highly contentious presidential election season: Jill Stein (the Green Party nominee) and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. The leadership styles of both are very different, yet they are aligned in the sense that both are outsider candidates struggling to gain momentum from a disaffected electorate. This essay begins with a theoretical discussion of leadership more generally and then turns to the two leaders as case studies, comparing and contrasting them and drawing conclusions about how they both work within the same public sphere and for putatively similar ends (i.e., gaining votes).