Leadership

Leadership Styles

Frequently held within society is the notion that a leader is born and not made; conversely, a good leader is one who is holds an awareness of his or her personality, traits, and their followers also. These individuals know which leadership style to adopt in a particular situation. This assignment will analyze the leadership style of the student and the style of leadership of a respected individual. As a leader, the student will lay out a brief plan for improving the effectiveness of her current leadership style based on the comparison of the respected leader and suggestions offered by her mentor.

Leadership and Leadership Theories

Leadership entails effectively orchestrating change in the business, creating a vision for the company, moving the company toward the future, keeping their people focused and motivated, and making ethical decisions Leadership involves doing what is right even when it is not a traditional move. Most leadership theories emphasize leader characteristics. These principles include, but are not limited to the situational leadership theory, and the path-goal theory (Yuki, 2013).

Leaders encompass principal styles that persuade his or her values and preferences. The Fiedler contingency model centers upon suitable blending amid the leadership conditions and his or her leadership style. Determining a leader’s situation is a necessity within this model. Within the realm of The Path-Goal theory, leaders can escalate subordinate satisfaction and performance through simplifying and clearing the road to goals and by escalating the quantity and types of available rewards concerning goal achievement. The Situational Leadership Theory contends that leadership actions should adapt to match the demands of specific situations as successful leaders must be able to assess the demands of their environments and adapt their leadership styles to fit (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). Individuals have a different perspective on situations; henceforth, it becomes necessary for leaders to not overreact but at the same time be equipped to react to rising circumstances competently and impartially.

Leadership Characteristics and Styles

The style of leadership is commonly an extension of a leader’s personality, beliefs, values, choices and takes shape through the needs of the position held. A leadership style characterizes itself as characteristics, behavioral propensities, and characteristic methods of a person in a leadership position. Some features exist that contribute to effective leadership such as, integrity, high level of energy and tolerance for stress, and self confidence (Yuki, 2013).

Varying leadership styles exist, and no single method is the best one. Leaders should adjust his or her style of leadership to the situation and to the people being led.

• Democratic-Participative: Leader facilitates guides and communicates. Encourage staff to take part in making decisions, yet the leader has the last word.

• Authoritarian-Autocratic: Leader’s makes decisions on his or her own regarding processes and practices in an organization or team. Leader prefers to retain sole authority of the project or situation

• Transformational: Change agents. Leaders set out to empower followers and nurture them in creating change Relies upon strong communication from the leader to obtain goals (Leadership Styles, 2014).

My current leadership style developed after becoming a production leader at an Atlanta television station. During this time, I developed the Democratic-Participative style by encouraging feedback, and ideas from subordinates and created a comfortable trusting environment that allowed them to participate in the decision making process. This part was vital as each person had different levels of expertise and skills, and it rendered the opportunity to learn individual’s strengths and weaknesses this element was significant. A number of individuals enhance their style of leadership from internal and external dynamics. My training at various media outlets set the stage for collecting ideas thus putting them forward in open team discussions and delegating tasks to individuals who best fitted the role.

My degree of conscientiousness and intellect allowed me to lead by example and set the standards for creating leadership relations that promoted future leaders. Because the Democratic-Participative leadership style comes with some pitfalls, it became necessary to achieve training to learn the traits of the Authoritarian-Autocratic leaders.

Admired Leader

My admired leader is Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group. This group is noted for aviation ventures Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America, Virgin Radio, Virgin Hotels, and other multiple business undertakings. Branson is known for his distinguishing personality and styles of leadership. This transformational leader has received accolades for his entrepreneurial success and criticism for his unstructured business management and leadership skills. He is not one that fears risk taking, and he believes that his accomplishments come from the base of people. His energetic and captivating prominence along with his ability to empower others facilitates effective communication within a nontraditional business culture (Hellriegel & Slocum, Jr., 2011).

Branson personifies a leader through “developing ideas and vision, living by values that support those ideas, vision, influencing others to embrace them in their own behaviors, and making hard decisions about humans” (Hellriegel & Slocum, Jr., 2011, p. 290). Branson focus on leadership skills that he exerts exceptionally well. Thus, he fashioned his own distinctive brand of innovative leadership style that steers his organizations and employees toward success.

The ‘Branson-esque’ leadership style mirrors particular elements of the components of the Authentic Model of Leadership along with the basic philosophy of the Transformational Leadership style. As an element of the authentic leadership profile, the Branson-esque leadership style reflects my participative style, which he erects trust and gains respect under his direction through encouraging active and diverse perspectives and input and involvement amid his groups. This teamwork method is reflective of the participative leadership style, which he allows his employees to attain a level of freedom to construct decisions and take on roles of leadership (Hellriegel & Slocum, Jr., 2011).

Improvement Plan

My plans for improving my effectiveness as a leader based on discussions with my mentor, and my current styles with my admired leader consist of, taking the opportunity to further my education and interact with my coworkers when working in a group setting. My mentor advised me to identify my leadership style extension areas, as well as discover methods to accurately unify them with my intrinsic style. My opportunities for growth rest within reviewing the blend of strengths in my team or business through identifying member’s strengths that complement my leadership style and discover ways to use them more effectively.

Conclusion

The world, as well as the work environment, is constantly changing, and the need for effective leaders is more important today than yesterday. The current business environment necessitates leaders to have competencies in seeking, gathering, and effectively using knowledge to construct leadership styles that best fit his or her firm. Studies suggest that one leadership model does not fit all organizations. An effective leader can filter through a wealth of data to ascertain a thriving style. Through evaluating my career, my personality traits, discussing them with my mentor, and comparing them with my admired leader helps me in acknowledging my areas of improvement.

References

Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, Jr., J. W. (2011). Organizational Behavior: custom edition (13th ed.). Mason, Ohio: South Western Cengage Learning.

Leadership Styles. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm