Leadership (Term Paper Sample)

LEADERSHIP
Student Name:
Course Code:
Institution:
Instructor:
Date of Submission:

LEADERSHIP
The values of effective leadership are critical to the success of any organization, since they are the driving force that keeps or brings in new organizational culture that leads to success. Best skills in managerial practices are sometimes not obvious and may go unnoticed until years later when the organization has become successful. A good example of this is the management systems of Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric from 1981-2001 when he retired, having raised the valuation of the company from $12 billion to over $400 billion at his retirement. Even he himself admits that during his tenure, the only general practice he tried to maintain was that of ensuring that any good practices that were noticed in one division were quickly adopted in all other departments, something that seemed to work like magic for the company (Strohmeier, 1999).
However, in today’s world, a person within a managerial level does not have an excuse for not knowing their capabilities since there are self-assessment tools all over the internet. Getting to know such knowledge is important since it allows these leaders to home in on any successes made at becoming a good leader while eliminating or improving on the negatives. This paper will try to make self-assessment tests of the writer on various leadership skills and traits, including but not limited to; self-confidence, integrity, trust and factors such as my type of leadership style. The aim will be to provide an assessment of any improvements made from previous tests as well as to carry out comparisons with an admired leader. To carry out various self-assessment tests, online tools are going to be used.
There are numerous self-assessment tests online for trying to measure one’s self-confidence. A simple and more practical test can be found at scorelogix.com ( HYPERLINK "/testlogin.asp" /testlogin.asp ) where questions are asked on various aspects of the personality, then a discussion made on the answer provided. According to the website, my self-confidence has only slightly improved in various areas, such as the acceptance of making mistakes in public and being willing to face the challenge of correcting them. There are also limitations when it comes to dealing with commitments, breaking them often leading to unfulfilled self-goals. On a scale of 1-10, my score for the test lies at six, which is quite low for a person prospecting to become a great leader.
Therefore, what does this mean to my leadership prospects? First, according to Bernard Bass et al. in their book The Bass Handbook of Leadership, self-confidence plays a major role in the methods employed by a leader, for example, the book states that if a supervisor has a high self-confidence, he is more likely to use rewards and promises to influence others. Nevertheless, if he has a low self-esteem, then he is more likely to use coercion (Bass et al, 2008, 189). The author also states that though high self-confidence is a good thing for a leader, it should not be extreme, something that Bass states could lead to an inflated and unrealistic evaluation of oneself. There are various ways of raising self-confidence. One of the commonly given options by various authors, including Richard Daft in The Leadership Experience, is becoming more optimistic (Daft, 2010). This means having a more positive outlook towards life in general and challenges specifically. An optimistic leader, Daft says, easily garners followers since his optimism confers hope to them. To improve this score there is also need for improvement in terms of self-esteem, which is the outlook one has towards his or herself. This includes feelings such as self-worth.
Leadership traits, styles and skills refer to habits constantly practiced by people in power, some of which are natural while others are acquired, which give their leadership a particular edge to it and determines whether they are successful or not. Using mindtools.com for assessment on my leadership style, I have found that I have a score of 68 out of 90 on my leadership trait, style and skill’s effectiveness. This is a good score since it shows that I have the capacity to lead a team effectively. This score is obtained through answering eighteen questions that relate to different leadership styles and traits.
Something of importance to note with regard to leadership traits and styles is that leadership is a multilevel phenomenon (Dubrin, 2001). Leadership usually involves the interaction between the leader and one person as well as the leader and a group. It also involves the interaction between the leader and internal as well as external environment. As Dubrin continues to state, leadership usually evolves from one level, which is the personal level, to a higher level, or the group communication level. Therefore, the author states that becoming a good leader entails becoming all rounded in all the fields required for dealing with both individuals as well as groups. Having good leadership skills also calls for being knowledgeable. One cannot have a leader who does not even know how to save an email to draft, or such basic skills, therefore depending on the organization, a good person who aims to become a good leader must have all firsthand knowledge in the organization.
To improve on this 68 to get a greater score, I could take a few measures. Increasing good leadership means to increase decisiveness with how one deal with the staff. It also means honing in on my communication skills, since communication is the key to delivering (Kouzes & Posner, 2010). It allows a leader to explain tasks to the staff while keeping both those lower and the administration informed on the projects within the organization (Kouzes & Posner, 2010). Therefore, these three lines shall have to be improved upon to increase efficiency in leadership.
Various professionals in the field have raised various leadership approaches over the years. These include situational leadership theory, the path-goal theory and the leader-member exchange theory. The situational leadership theory was raised by Hersey Blanchard in 1969 states that situations determine the type of leadership necessary for leading the team (Blanchard & Zigarmi, 1985). This is the theory that also states that leaders are not born, but rather they are made by the situation (Guerrero & Rowe, 2011). It also states that maturity plays a major role in the directing required to guide the team. Path-goal theory states that the needs of the staff underwrite the leadership style used (Guerrero & Rowe, 2011). In lay terms, the goals set by the needs of the staff in terms of where they would like to be, as well as the task at hand determines the leadership used on them. The leader-member exchange theory focuses on the relationship between the two being dyadic, with a well placed relationship translating to better performance and decision influence.
Amongst these three leadership approaches, as highlighted by the earlier tests carried out, the one most probable as my leadership trait is the situational leadership theory, since this theory requires a highly self-motivated set of subordinates. As earlier shown while looking into my leadership skills, styles and traits, it became clear that my personality supports being more in touch with activities at hand. Therefore, these skills would best benefit in a situational leadership style where the leader deals with the subordinates according to the leader. This leadership style also calls for a highly mature team that will allow the leader to delegate. As Manktelow of Mindtools.com states, there are four types of leadership styles within this approach, which include:
Telling: this is where leaders tell subordinates what to do and how it is to be done.
Selling: here the leader provides information on what is to be done but go further and sell their idea to the team so as to get them on board.
Participating: leaders in this group rely more on relationships with little directing, working directly with the team and sharing decision-making.
Delegating: leaders in this instance simply pass down tasks to the subordinates and are less involved (Manktelow, internet source).
Therefore, as the formulators of this theory, Hersey and Blanchard state, with this information it is easier to deal with this approach, working with the maturity of each group will determine which of the leadership traits above will be best.
For improvement on the approach used, as Cohen in Heroic Leadership: Leading with Integrity and Honor states, the type of leadership approach utilized by a leader is very telling of that leader’s weakness (Cohen, 2010). Therefore, the use of this leadership approach may be indicative of a weakness in terms of dealing with all situations as a leader. To improve on this, self-confidence is the key to overcoming fear of failure in facing challenges. Again, as Cohen testifies, gaining self-confidence leads to attaining more responsibilities (Cohen, 2010), this loosely translates to attaining a higher leadership position.
Apart from the leadership approaches above mentioned, there are also other approaches to leadership including team leadership, collaborative leadership, participatory leadership and transformational leadership. Team leadership most of the times also refer to leadership. However, it is used in reference to a particular team leader, which is because it requires particular sets of principles in leading teams such as behavioral flexibility, great team-problem solving skills and the use of discretion when dealing with personal issues (Guerrero & Rowe, 2011). Collaborative leadership also deals with a more complex web of people, rather than just corporate subordinates, and is a form of leadership c...