Critical Synthesis of Contemporary Leadership Models paper
Running head: LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP
Leadership
Amenia Payne
University of Phoenix
Leadership
Leadership is termed as the activity of leading a group of people or an organization. Through the application of various leadership skills, styles and models, an individual is given the mandate to drive a group or an organization towards achieving their set goals and targets. The leader is trusted with the decision making process as well being able to organize all the people and make the right choice towards a particular issues. It is through the skills and styles employed by the various leaders that organizations are able to perform differently depending on how best their leaders are. The major roles of leaders are the creation and the inspiring of the future vision of the group or the organization they lead, inspiring and motivating the people, managing the delivery of the set vision and the coaching and organization of the team towards the achievement of the vision. A good leader must be sincerely enthusiastic, have integrity, and possess very great communication skills, very loyal to the group or organization they lead, be decisive, have managerial competence, and possess empowerment skills and charisma.
Evaluation Criteria
The evaluation criteria to be employed will be aimed at measuring the performance of the leader to determine how good they are at driving their group or organization to achieving their set vision. Leadership evaluation gives a clarity on the direction the organization is heading, the speed or the rate at which they can get where they want to be and helps shape up the current leaders to even better ones. Evaluations gives the leaders strengths and weaknesses as well and after the evaluation the leader can know what has been dragging him and the organization behind and work on that so that their vision is achieved.
The first step should focus on ensuring that the leadership evaluation criteria is effective in its structure ranging from the pre planning activities, data collection and analysis and this can be got from the people who are led by this particular leader, conducting surveys on the organizations to see how it is organized and performs its duties and giving the feedback (Gonos, J. 2013). All sectors of the organization should be well covred to ensure that no information is left out and then after all the data is collected all the information should be delivered at a joint meeting where the evaluators can determine whether there has been employment of good leadership skills in each sector.
The sources of the information to the evaluation should be within the organization as they are in direct touch with the particular leader being evaluated and they are the only ones that can give actual data (Gonos, J. 2013). The recorded materials such as the organizations results and performance in the past as well as their financial records can be adequate data sources that can effectively help in evaluating a leader.
Open communication is also another skill that can be employed within the leadership evaluation process. This can be highly encouraged among the people that will be giving data about this particular leader and should be encouraged to be frank and give the right information without fear or favor. They should be made to realize that the evaluation is aimed at the betterment of the organization which will direct affect them depending on good their leader executes their duties. Collaborative and open discussions with all the participants ensures that they speak their mind out without leaving any information that will very important for the evaluation.
The last part will be determination of the findings. The major role of evaluation is not only to determine the performance of the organization or group leader but also to determine how best the organization or group can achieve their short terms and long term goals without undergoing any challenge that can be overcome by the application of good leadership. After the results have been analyzed and determined then the evaluation can be able to tell if their leader is effective or where they have been failing in the achievement of the organization or group goals (Gonos, J. 2013). Evaluations also provides solutions on the areas that needs to be worked upon in order to ensure that the goals have been made achievable.
The current leadership scenario is not that effective as the achievement of the organizational goals takes time and some even go unachieved. This led to the selection of the step by step evaluation ranging from the information in the data books to those being led in order to ensure that all the areas are investigated and a solution is achieved for the achievement of organizational goals and good leadership.
Application of Models
The three models applied include the situational leadership, managerial grid and the four framework approach. Situational leadership is the one that guides a leader on the kind of training or coaching that is required in order to develop a worker towards a specific situation. In this case situation leadership will make sure that every worker will get the training and coaching they need in their areas of specialization so that everyone becomes very skilled and steer the organization forward the achievement of their vision (Gonos, J. 2013). It makes sure that every worker has the skills and the potential to execute their duties effectively and together they are able to give very great performance.
Managerial grid model also shapes the leader to a better person and their relationship with all the people they lead. It involves consideration that surrounds relationship behaviors, concern for the people, their trust and respect. A leader as well as the duty to respect their workers and have a very healthy relationship with trust and this provides a very good working environment that everyone can be very comfortable performing their duties. It also surrounds initiating structures in terms of task behaviors which may include the organization, scheduling and making sure all the tasks that needed to be completed are done. As a leader, they should be involved in all the levels of the organization ranging from decision making to the implementation of these duties and this makes sure that everything is run as it was planned and no duties go unattended to.
The four framework model that suggests that leaders display leadership behaviors in both structural, symbolic, human resource and political framework. A leader should have the leadership behavior that is fit for the organization they lead in order to avoid any problems that may occur due to the employment of another behavior that is not fit for that organization. This will ensure that leaders perform their duties well and with the great code of conduct that can help the organization achieve the set vision.
The evaluation has enhanced my skills and the models applied have also enlightened me on what a leader can do at different circumstances. They should be the overall managers of the organizations and their behavior affects the organization in one way or another. A leader should therefore be at their best behavior as the workers take them as role models and be directly involved in the organization tasks and not only making decisions and passing out orders of what to be done. They should therefore make sure that the directions they give are executed as they are given and they can only ensure this if they are directly involved in all the levels of the organization.
My personal leadership practices are not very effective, however, with all the findings have come across they will be effective as I will work on all that is expected in order to gain good leadership skills and be able to lead and drive an organization towards achieving their set vision.
References
Blanchard, K.H., Zigarmi, D. (1985). Leadership and one minute manager: increasing effectiveness through situational leadership. New York: morrow
Gonos, J. (2013). Model for leadership style evaluation-efst
Humphris, D. (2004). Leadership evaluation- e prints soton- university of Southampton.
Kimberly, F. (2018). Eight essential qualities that define great leadership.
Northouse, G. (2007). Leadership theory and practice: 3rd edition. Thousand oaks, CA. sage publications, Inc.