Deliverable 7 - Effective Leadership

Leadership Theories

Name: John Blair

Institution: Rasmussen College

Leadership Theories

The best leader I ever worked for allowed democracy in our place of work. His kind of leadership did not seem coerced, rather he seemed motivated at all times. It was often easy to get inspired or to feel his energy while working. In most instances, he consulted us on decisions regarding the workplace, not to mention the frequent moments of interaction he had with us. Unlike previous mangers, he was not stuck to his cozy office, and often found time to solve problems of the workers, including those that were not workplace related.

The two theories that apply best to the description of the leader above mentioned are the contingency theories and relationship theories of leadership. The contingency theory focuses on the applicability of a style of leadership depending on the environment (Lussier & Achua, 2015). As seen above, our manager was highly accommodating. In the same way, he was also highly interactive, a characteristic I believe he used to study us. Normally, he often acted on situations after understanding the position of each of the employees. He did not have a fixed way of running things and instead relied on what he gathered from us. As the contingency theory suggests, variables in the environment determine what leadership style applies best. The relationship theory of leadership means that the leader helps the employees see the greater good of a task, a characteristic our leader possessed (Lussier & Achua, 2015).

I find the relationship theory of leadership highly appropriate. It instills a sense of will to the employees, making it easy for them to complete tasks, as compared to the types of leadership that demand employees to work without incorporating a sense of will in them (Lussier & Achua, 2015). Another leadership theory I believe would work well is the situational theory of leadership. The kind of leadership theory I would not apply would be the managerial theory. This theory maintains that employees be rewarded for their good work and punished for work not well done. I believe this kind of leadership would be demotivating, especially if an employee failed after putting in a lot of resources to a task.

Reference

Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2015). Leadership. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.