Leadership Essay

The notion that there is no one definition of leadership has been long constructed; but to me, effective leadership is the ability to influence and motivate followers positively towards goals.

I will be analysing Ivy Yong, the owner of the jewellery shop which I have been working at since 2010. Although her leading skills may not have a sizeable impact on many people as it is a just a humble shop and not a big corporation, but having worked closely with her for 5 years, it is safe to say that she is an effective leader to my colleagues and me.

In this essay, I will be discussing the type of leader I have observed her to be throughout working alongside her, as well as what I have derived from interviewing her. I will also share a reflection on what I have learnt about leadership and what I can improve on.

PART 1: OBSERVATION

i. Behaviour

Based on the Ohio State University studies on leadership behaviour, Ivy leans towards the relationship-oriented ‘consideration’ side instead of the task-oriented ‘initiating structure’. Examples of ‘consideration’ include having concern for, defending, as well as consulting and accepting employees’ suggestions (Lowin et al, 1969) and these resonate with Ivy’s behaviours. Whenever customers are being unreasonable towards us, she neutralises the situation by explaining our stand and offering solutions to the customers, instead of scolding us just to satisfy the customer. Besides that, she often consults us regarding jewellery designs and would take our suggestions into serious consideration. These actions make us feel valued as her staff and gives us encouragement.

As leaders should combine both task and relational elements to be effective, it is not a surprise that Ivy also demonstrates behaviours from the ‘initiating structure’ – which are defining work roles and assigning tasks accordingly. However, instead of criticising and demoralising us when results do not meet her expectations, we are given advice to improve.

Although Ivy demonstrates behaviour from both spectrums, I would conclude that she displays stronger and more consistent behaviours from the ‘consideration’ side than that of the ‘initiating structure’, which makes her to be more of a relationship-oriented leader.

ii. Traits and Skills

Using Yukl’s eight aspects of personality (RMIT, 2014) to identify some of Ivy’s traits, I have singled out self-confidence, internal locus of control, personal integrity, and socialised power motivation as the significant ones.

Ivy is confident whenever there are problems, be it factory troubles or demanding customers; and she would be able to handle them calmly and well. People with internal locus of control tend to use persuasion instead of coercive influence tactics (Goodstadt et al, 1973) and this is apparent with Ivy – she never uses force or manipulative tactics to influence us. She also takes responsibility for her actions instead of blaming it on others. Besides that, she is honest to her employees and also customers, never fabricating information just to appeal to customers to make them purchase; thus I think the personal integrity trait describes her too. According to RMIT (2014, p. 149), people with socialised power orientation rarely use their power to manipulate, are more accepting to suggestions and are generally less egoistic, which can be observed with Ivy. She does not use her power as our employer to manipulate us, and neither is she unwilling to listen when we have suggestions. Therefore with all the aforementioned points, it can be noted that Ivy has self-confidence, internal locus of control, personal integrity, and socialised power motivation.

As for Ivy’s skills, the three-factor taxonomy of broadly defined skills will be used as a guide. Because Ivy is the shop’s owner and has been in the business for several years, I feel that she possesses all three types of skills, the technical, interpersonal, and conceptual skills.

In terms of technical skills, Ivy has extensive knowledge of the shop’s products as well as backend matters because of her accumulated experience. Her interpersonal skills are high as well – she has the ability to develop close relationships with customers, making sure to remember their names and being a genuine and close friend instead of just a salesperson. She is also friendly and empathetic towards her employees, preferring to use logical persuasion over being demanding towards us. Other than these, she has good conceptual skills too, often being able to predict trends and making good judgement calls on what products to bring in. Hence I would conclude that she carries all the three skills.

iii. Leadership Style

Leadership style is the consistent pattern of behaviour that a leader exhibits. Throughout the years of working with Ivy, I have observed her leadership style to change in different situations towards different subordinates. The best theory that can explain this would be the Path-Goal Theory under the contingency theories of leadership, where it states that the behaviour of the leader will motivate employees if it complements the work environment and reinforces what is lacking (Jermier & John, 1996). This meant that a single leadership style is not enough, and that one should lead according to the employee’s needs, abilities, and the environment factors in order to motivate employees.

Out of the four leadership styles under this theory – directive, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented –, I have observed Ivy to mostly use the directive and participative styles interchangeably. The directive approach is used towards inexperienced and new employees, where she would often schedule to work with them personally in order to guide them on how to serve customers and do daily tasks. She then adopts the participative style towards experienced staff, such as myself, entrusting us tasks such as placing shop orders as we know which products are popular amongst customers, and which colour would be more likely to sell better. Thus by these observations it can be seen that Ivy endorses the contingency leadership style, and the Path-Goal theory would most accurately reflect her style.

iv. Leadership Type

Judging from my observations, Ivy can be described as a transactional leader instead of a transformational leader. Transactional leadership involves having agreed values and motivations between the leader and subordinates, and is commonly seen as an exchange relationship where employees are rewarded for work done. Such leaders prefer stability over change and caters to the followers’ self-interests. On the other hand, transformational leaders like to make changes in a big and positive way by inspiring others with their vision, which in turn leads to employees’ job satisfaction as well as respect for their leader (Dartey-Baah, 2015).

To an extent, I agree that Ivy is a transactional leader; but instead of just being in an exchange relationship, I feel that her employees including me do have trust and respect for her too.

v. Power and Influence Tactics

Ivy uses 3 sources of power, namely the legitimate, referent, and expert power to influence her subordinates. As she is the owner as well as our immediate boss, legitimate power is definitely apparent and it is not surprising that we follow her orders even in times when we don’t feel like it. One minor example would be when Ivy wanted to implement a dress code with only black, white, and blue coloured clothing allowed. We were not enthusiastic about it but went through with it anyway, as she holds the most power. However, another significant reason why we are dutiful is because of her personality; which gives way to the referent power. Ivy is caring and warm towards the employees and at the same time, she is competent in her work which gains respect from us. Furthermore, she also possesses expert power from being in the jewellery and retail field for a long time, often teaching us new knowledge about jewellery and coaching us on customer relation skills as well.

The influence tactics that I have recognised from Ivy are consultation and rational persuasion. Ivy likes to consult us for opinions before she makes decisions; some examples would be deciding on what sort of promotional event to hold in the shop, or in what colours should the new products be made. Because such decisions were partly made by us, it raises our confidence in selling the particular product or convincing that the promotion is a good deal. Moreover, as aforementioned regarding the decision to implement a dress code, Ivy used rational persuasion to convince us to accept the idea. One of her reasons was that it would help us look more professional and approachable, which would in turn boost the shop’s image. As it was a justifiable and benefitting reason, we accepted the idea.

Thus, it can be seen that she has legitimate, referent, and expert power, and influences her subordinates via consultation and rational persuasion.

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PART 2: INTERVIEW AND COMPARISON

The interview will be split into the same sub-headings as the observations, so as to enable an easier comparison between the two.

i. Behaviour

According to Ivy, she feels strongly towards maintaining a good relationship with her employees as it would create a comfortable working environment. She thinks that although getting work to be done is important, but being on good terms with the people she works with is fundamental for that to happen. All in all, both the relations and task aspects are interrelated; and a good relationship will enable job satisfaction, which in turn leads to task effectiveness.

This in turn corresponds to my observation that she is both relationship- and task-oriented. She finds both to be interrelated and important, but places a bigger emphasis on relationships with her subordinates. Hence, it can be seen that she is indeed towards the ‘consideration’ side than that of the ‘initiating structure’.

ii. Traits and Skills

Ivy was not a leader from the very beginning; she attributes her leadership abilities to learning from previous employees. Although she does not believe that that she was naturally a leader, she considers herself to hold traits that leaders have – due to years of learning. The traits she identified that a leader should have are confidence, trustworthiness, flexibility, interpersonal skills, observation and interpretive skills. Being able to prioritise important work and manage time well is crucial too. Ivy also stated that leaders should be willing to accept suggestions from employers. She personally likes new ideas and suggestions from her employees and if she feels that it is truly a good idea, she would go ahead with it.

Upon analysing the above, I noted that three points from my observation are included; which are self-confidence, socialised power motivation and personal integrity.

On the topic of skills, Ivy admitted that she thinks all three types of skills – technical, interpersonal, and conceptual – are important and that she has these skills to an extent; thus proving my perceptions right. She feels that if a manager does not know his job well, he will be unable to perform effectively, and hence will not be likely to be a good leader. Besides that, not only is it important to be able to communicate and empathise well with subordinates, but one must be able to have a vision and make future plans.

iii. Leadership Style

Ivy stated that she changes her leadership style according to the level of her employees. She would lay out tasks specifically for newer hires, and exercise control over them to a certain degree. On the other hand, she gives the experienced staff more autonomy and would let them make decisions as well. She says that this helps the new employees to have a better understanding of their job scope and experienced staff also enjoy job satisfaction from being able to make decisions.

Ivy’s explanation of her leadership style is in line with my observations, which is the Path-Goal theory of contingency leadership; using both directive and participative styles.

iv. Leadership Type

In Ivy’s words, she is conservative and prefers to have a stable working environment. However, she also enjoys making small improvement changes in the company, such as implementing a new computer system; but would hesitate if there are risks to be taken. In other words, she prefers taking small steps to improve the company instead of making big changes and taking huge risks.

From the interview, it can be seen that Ivy is a cross between the transactional and transformational leader, although leaning more towards transactional leadership. Even though Ivy prefers stability in the working environment, she still likes to make changes in the organisation if need be.

v. Power and Influence Tactics

Ivy described her influence tactics as using reasoning and persuasion. She would discuss the decision with her employees first and then explain the benefits, either immediate or long-term or both, to convince them. One example she gave was when she wanted to change a system at the factory, but her subordinates were reluctant to do so due to unfamiliarity. Instead of forcing her way through, Ivy convinced them by explaining how the new system would make work faster and easier for them. The employees were eventually persuaded and accepted the idea, and have since reaped benefits from the new system and has praised Ivy for the decision. She also stressed that using forceful approaches would not bring about positive outcomes; only disgruntled employees.

Based on Ivy’s perceptions of how she influences her employees, it can be deduced that she does not like to use coercive or manipulative methods. This would align with my thought that she uses consultation and rational persuasion.

Besides that, drawing from the influence tactics used by Ivy, we can infer that she does not have a heavy reliance on position power, choosing to use her personal power such as referent power.

On the whole, it can be seen above that the results of the interview are very much in line with those of my observations.

PART 3: REFLECTION

i. Comparing Results to Theories

With 5 years’ worth of observations, it was expected that the results of the interview would confirm my understanding of Ivy’s leadership. However, there were results which did not align fully with the theories of leadership.

In theory, a transactional leader is a stark contrast to a transformational leader, often highlighting that the former only focuses on rewarding employees for work; whilst the latter taps the employees’ trust to motivate them and brings about large changes in the organisation (Vito et al, 2014). However, although Ivy prefers stability over risks, she still likes to make changes for the better as well and also genuinely cares about the welfare of her employees; which places her in a grey area between the two types of leaders. Besides that, as Ivy is just the owner of a small shop, it is naturally hard to place her under the transformational leader category due to the nature and limitations of her work.

The same goes for leadership behaviour; the Ohio studies specified two kinds of leadership behaviour, but in actual fact Ivy exhibits actions from both the ‘consideration’ and ‘initiating structure’ categories. Thus, I feel that it is difficult to accurately define leadership into specific categories as there will almost always be overlapping factors, and not forgetting the broad spectrum of work natures as well.

ii. Self-Improvement

In this assignment, I have learnt aspects of Ivy which I have not noticed closely before. Through having described Ivy’s leadership styles and behaviour in detail, I can identify my own leadership shortcomings and hopefully use what was observed and learnt to fill the gaps.

I do not consider myself to be a good leader. Whenever I am tasked to be the leader of a group, I feel that I lack the most in interpersonal skills, self-confidence, and internal locus of control. I tend to be more task-oriented, focusing on the work instead of building relationships, as I feel that it is difficult to be friendly and decisive at the same time. I also lack the confidence to be a leader, often needing help from another member to keep things in check. Using Ivy as a role model, I learnt that having good relations with your subordinates facilitates in getting tasks done well; hence an improvement I should make is to learn how to be empathetic and have more concern for my teammates, whilst still striking a balance between tasks and relationships. I also need to have belief in myself as a leader so as to be able to coordinate well and lead my teammates to desired outcomes.

All in all, I feel that for me to be an effective leader, either now or in future, it is crucial to have good and sincere relations with my subordinates and not rely on positional power and manipulative or forceful tactics to influence them. This way, subordinates will have respect for me and do their tasks well willingly. As each employee have different experiences and skill sets, it is also essential that I learn how to switch styles to lead the different employees in order to help them improve and boost their satisfaction.

Although I may be lacking in some leadership qualities, but bearing in mind that Ivy was not a leader from birth, I feel my leadership skills can be honed and improved as well.

CONCLUSION

Ivy is an effective leader as highlighted in the essay. Most of Ivy’s perceptions of her leadership style echoes my observations, and this was expected as I have been working with her for a long while. From this assignment, I have learnt that it is hard to define leadership accurately due to overlapping factors and the differences in the many natures of work. There were many aspects from Ivy’s leadership which I can learn as well, with significant ones being interpersonal skills, self-confidence and locus of control; as those are areas of improvement I need. Although these may be fundamental leadership qualities, I believe that they can be enhanced as Ivy was not naturally a leader as well. As Ivy is indeed an admirable leader, I will continue to look up to her as my role model in order to improve myself towards being a good leader.

REFERENCES

1. Berinato, SC 2010, 'You Have to Lead from Everywhere', Harvard Business Review, 88, 11, pp. 76-79.

2. Goodstadt, BE, Hjelle, LA & Lanzetta, JT 1973, ‘Power To The Powerless: Locus Of Control And The Use Of Power’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol.27(2), pp.190-196.

3. Dartey-Baah, K 2015, ‘Resilient leadership: A Transformational-Transactional Leadership Mix’, Journal of Global Responsibility, Vol.6 (1), pp. 99-112.

4. Heffes, E 2002, ‘Warren Bennis: Q&A on Today's Leadership’, Financial Executive, Jan/Feb, Vol.18 (1), pp.18-20.

5. Jermier & John, M 1996, ‘The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership: A Subtextual Analysis’, The Leadership Quarterly, Vol.7 (3), pp.311-316.

6. Lambright, WH 2015, ‘Reflections on Leadership: An Interview with Sean O'Keefe.’, Public Administration Review, 75, pp. 619–624.

7. Lowin, A, Hrapchak, WJ & Kavanagh, MJ 1969, ‘Consideration and Initiating Structure: An Experimental Investigation of Leadership Traits’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 1 June, Vol.14 (2), pp. 238-253.

8. Madsen, S & Gygi, J 2005, ‘An Interview with John H. Zenger on Extraordinary Leadership’, Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, Vol.11 (3), pp.119-125.

9. Merino, M 2013, ‘You Can't Be a Wimp: Make the Tough Calls.’, Harvard Business Review, Nov, Vol.91 (11), pp.72 (7).

10. RMIT 2014, ‘Empowering Leadership’, Sustainable Leadership, Pearson Australia, pp. 110-116.

11. RMIT 2014, ‘Traits and Skills of Leaders’, Sustainable Leadership, Pearson Australia, pp. 142-158.

12. Vereen, LG 2010, ‘Don C. Locke: A Profile in Leadership’, Journal of Counselling & Development, Vol.88 (3), pp. 377-384.

13. Vito, GF, Higgins, GE & Denney, AS 2014, ‘Transactional and Transformational Leadership’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Vol.37 (4), pp. 822-809.

APPENDIX

i. Choice of Leader

My chosen leader is Ivy Yong, the owner of a jewellery shop where I have been working at since 2010. Unlike many shop owners, she personally works at the shop and has frequent contact with her employees. She takes care of shop matters and has to coordinate with jewellers at the Hong Kong factory as well.

ii. Interview Questions

1. Were you a leader from young, or do you think it was something you’ve learnt from a mentor?

2. What particular traits do you think a leader should have? Do you think you possess these traits?

3. Would you say you are more of a participative or directive leader, or do you switch styles depending on the employee?

4. Is fostering a good relationship with your subordinates important as compared to getting tasks done?

5. Do you think having technical, interpersonal or conceptual skills are more important in being a leader?

6. Do you prefer to have a stable working environment or do you prefer to take risks and make changes in the organisation?

7. Have you ever had to make a decision which you knew your subordinates would be unlikely to accept? How did you convince them?

8. Do you feel comfortable letting your subordinates make decisions?