Outline- 2 pages

! 1 Running head: LEADERSHIP THEORIES

Leadership Theories

Dustin Vosburg

MGT321

Mr. Nelson

4/30/18

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Introduction

The globalization is faced with rapid changes, organizations are realizing that they need

to adapt to rising the demands of their customers as well as the changing environment.

Organizations can only maintain their relevance and achieve long-term performance together

with the sustainable environment through the adoption of a leadership style that meets the needs

of their fluctuating work conditions. However, many company and business have ignorantly

failed to adapt to their operation cultures. The theory of the transformational leadership provides

the best platform for the emerging needs of organizations and embrace the significance of both

the transactional and transformational form of leadership. There is a range of evidence that

supports the use of transformational leadership as well as its benefits over the unilateral or

autocratic type of leaderships. Transformational leadership has the capacity of motivating others,

inspiring colleagues, creates respect for employees and the management, trust as well as being

loyal to the juniors (Shadraconis, 2013).

Organizations require leaders who are in a position to cope up with the emerging

changes, maintain the culture of the business and offer a competitive advantage.

Transformational leaders can inspire and enhance their followers, rally behind them for a

common task, leading to an improved output, job motivation and performance in an organization.

(Shadraconis, 2013)

Theory of transformational leadership has historical roots with the politicians and

leadership experts like James McGregor Burns. Transformational leadership ignores the

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traditional models of inducement transfers and realizes the desired results by inspiring other

members of the group to pursue the personal interests towards a higher collective purpose. The

transformational leadership entails four behavioral aspects: inspirational motivations, individual

considerations, idealized motives as well as intellectual stimulation. Idealized influence refers to

the extent of social identification that leaders build among their team members leading to the

desire to closely relate to him/ her. Whenever the leaders share the risks, cultivate trust and

respect and get involved in the self-sacrifice activities, there will be increased idealized

influenced among the followers. The inspiration element is the level to which the leaders are

capable of motivating and inspiring their colleagues, it can be raised by setting realistic

objectives. Intellectual stimulation is the motivation among the subordinates that is obtained by

discovering new methods of production. The leaders will also be considered to be transformation

if they are able to identify the individual preferences for their subordinates.

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Fig. Burn’s concept of transformational leadership

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Transformational leadership

Transformational leaders direct a company going a crisis situation through the sense-

making process by offering structure in the manner of a compelling vision. The process offers an

oversight of organizing and changing circumstances into a manageable framework, thus

providing a platform for relevant actions. Transformational leaders have the responsibility of

empowering members, therefore encouraging the self-interest, enhancing collective and inclusive

decision making (Shadraconis, 2013). Challenging situations in an organization can raise alarm

for the need for leadership, and leaders play a pivotal function in sense-making during a situation

of crisis. Through the act of sense-making, the leadership can reduce the impact of group

disintegration and lack of the process that can lead collapsing of a firm. The large organizations

have the ability to translate a section of their population into significant profits.

The process of developing transformational leadership

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Vision development

Certainly, leadership styles begin with the development of vision with a strong base; they

have a wide view of future of the organization that motivates the individual potential followers or

group members.

Selling the idea/ vision

It is the phase one that usually gets into play along with the primary vision, which not

only needs constant reinforcement but personal efforts and a lot of energy. Some people may

invite the idea of their leader instantly while others will need some time to get convinced to

enable the leader to adapt to his/her target audience appropriately (Miner, 2015).

Paving way forward and taking responsibility

While selling the leadership vision in motivating the members of the team, one needs to

be ‘’ Great Found’’, which entails a specific set of skills and personal behaviors that are not

acquired in the classrooms. The tough decision-making experience in life will help the leaders

develop a positive attitude to given situations.

The surest method of positively impacting an organization’s leadership is through the

adoption and emphasize on the transformational leadership. A company is only limited by the

minds that govern it. With the appropriate technique and skilled workers, the potential of a

company is ideally limitless. It is the mandate of firms to recruit the ‘’normal’’ persons and train

as well as transforming them into better leaders with continuous developments (Lussier &

Achua, 2015). Most organizations that embrace this type of leadership are change-oriented: it

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relies on the assumption that the individuals tend to imitate those who inspire them. From the

employees’ point of view, those operating under the transformational leader can positively get

experience and motivation due to being passionate.

Transformational leaders are primarily concerned about the vision, ideas, and building

relationships as well as shared values. In most cases, such leaders train the team members to be

creative and innovative. Transformational leaders can practice the collaborative style of conflict

resolution to help solve differences with the organization since they have extensive knowledge

and understanding regarding relationship building process and sharing of information and ideas.

This type of leadership also welcomes new challenges and experience. Transformational leader

has the character of being open to various situations and encounters to realize positive change for

the company (Lussier & Achua, 2015). On the other hand, transformational leaders possess a

strong sense of guidance and ability to the huge amount of productive performance into

reasonable tasks. The persons of such traits can analyze the current situation and offer necessary

changes.

Essential leadership skills in motivating team members

Personally, there is significance to the success of secured process rather than being a

supervisor or employees who are actively involved and motivated towards it. It is better to

engage the workforce in the decision making process within the organization. Great leaders

prefer having his/her people excited and committed to achieving the organization’s goals. A

leader can either decrease or increase the extent of engaging employees, which is directly linked

to their actions within the firm (Miner, 2015). Truly engage my team members: the whole

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motivation should come from the leader. Motivation results from the necessity to nurture values.

I believe in doing that which satisfies a need or believe should be consistent with the value of the

followers. Fully engagement of workforce rarely come as a result of satisfying the needs of the

employees. Therefore I believe in the following skills as my leadership strength:

Developing trust with the followers. Trust is an important aspect of improving employee

engagement. The action does not just happen as a result of being trustworthy. As a leader, there is

a need to demonstrate the trait by building traits as well as trusting others with the organizational

tasks (Miner, 2015). I have a belief that people are significantly trustworthy because they are my

best choice from the rest of the society.

Mentoring skills. The relationship between a leader and employees is a critical element

as far as the level of engagement is concerned. In most cases, employees expect feedback from

their bosses. I usually prefer giving them information concerning their performance rate in the

firm and discuss their need for improvement and growth. Also, the workers need coaching and

counseling services at the same time to increase the degree of engagement as well as

commitment.

The inclusion of employees. The employee should feel more of an insider to boost their

commitment level. I believe that everyone on my team has strengths and should be supported by

their success path and bring the best out of each employee. Persons with diverse values are the

best in a work environment, especially when determined to achieve a common goal and trust

each other in line with the job ethics.

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Purpose alignment. The employee aligned towards the business culture is usually the

best. It is essential for a leader to assist their team members to understand the connection

between success and the individual assign tasks within the organization. The individual

contribution of each employee is important in realizing the long-term goals of the company.

Developing a strong team. High performing teams are the true pillars of success for a

leader. As a leader, I prefer having all my followers understand the strengths and importance of

each other. It is essential in developing leadership potential each member of the group.

Delegating responsibilities to the followers help them build self-confidence and courage to

handle challenges whenever any arises.

Leadership weaknesses

Throughout my leadership tenure, have realized that being a leader is challenging and

usually needs patience and time of mastering the individual roles. Since most workers need

guidance from a leader rather than being a boss (Northouse, 2017). I usually have some

weakness and their possible remedies:

Excessive connection. The digital platform presents a challenge of being connected to

employees always, which have realized is a great threat to the empowerment of workers who feel

like being online always like their leader. There are this group of employees who feel that the

leader should approve their action in everything. The possible solution to this challenge is

through the realization that boundaries need to be created and avoiding every responsibility that

can disempower team members.

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Needing preference. It is my new workstation. Therefore, I feel like making decisions

that are popular that might affect the business negative in favor of other workers (Northouse,

2017). It is motivated by the idea of being liked by my colleagues. The remedy to such problems

would be, making right decisions regardless of the popularity.

Conclusion

Leaders change organizations by trying to transform the beliefs, basic values, as well as

the attitude of the follower such that they are able to perform beyond the prior specifications of

the business culture. Each leader is geared towards shifting the organization towards the

development of new products and services. These new products and provision of services must

meet the dynamic demands of the industry, through better stimulation and higher expectation for

modern strategic opportunities in the market. The freedom provided by this form of leadership

offer new opportunities for better ideas and knowledge, which creates good learning environment

(Ghasabeh & Provitera, 2017).

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References

Ghasabeh, M. S., & Provitera, M. J. (2017). Transformational leadership: Building an

effective culture to manage organizational knowledge. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership,

10(2), 7.

Northouse, P. G. (2017). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. Sage

Publications.

Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and

leadership. Routledge.

Shadraconis, S. (2013). Organizational Leadership in Times of Uncertainty: Is

Transformational Leadership the Answer?. LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and

Research from Claremont Graduate University, 2(1), 28.

Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2015). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill

development. Nelson Education.