Understanding Leadership free essay sample

There are a number of different factors that will determine your choice of Leadership style. To choose the most effective approach for you, you must consider: Your natural style or preferred style (This is determined by your own personality) Your level of responsibility (You may face different types of decisions) The Task at hand (Is it a routine task or something new and creative) Assessment of situation Timescales (When should the task be completed) The skill levels and experience of your team The personality of the team/individual members. The organisational environment (Is the organisation stable or changing) The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory identifies four different leadership styles. These different styles can be drawn upon depending on the situation. The theory states that instead of using just one style, successful leaders should change their leadership styles based on the task, situation and readiness of the group. Situational Leadership Google Images Hersey and Blanchard four main Leadership Styles Telling/Directing (S1) – Leaders tell their people what to do and how to do it. We will write a custom essay sample on Understanding Leadership or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Positives: Precise Instructions and deadlines, closely monitors progress Negatives: Staff may feel their opinions are not valued, Motivational problems Selling/Coaching (S2) – Leaders provide information and direction, but theres more communication with followers. Leaders sell their message to get people on board. Positives: Improve staff performance, builds confidence Negatives: Time investment listening and advising, Participating/Supporting (S3) – Leaders focus more on the relationship and less on direction. The leader works with the team, and shares decision-making responsibilities. Positives: Staff encouraged to take ownership of the task Negatives: Delegating (S4) – Leaders pass most of the responsibility onto the follower or group. The leaders still monitor progress, but theyre less involved in decisions. Positives: Empowering staff to act and make decisions, Negatives: Potential to be viewed as favouritism, As you can see, styles S1 and S2 are focused on getting the task done. Styles S3 and S4 are more concerned with developing team members abilities to work independently. According to Hersey and Blanchard, knowing when to use each style is largely dependent on the readiness of the person or group youre leading. They also break readiness down into four different levels. (See Appendix 1) Using this theory, leaders can place more or less emphasis on the task, and more or less emphasis on the relationships with the people they are leading, depending on whats needed to get the job done successfully. (http://www. mindtools. com/pages/article/newLDR_44. htm) 02/02/14 Leadership styles or behaviours are likely to have a positive or negative effect on individual and group behaviour In my role I manage a team of 11 people there are a number of strong personalities within the team. They all have varying degrees of knowledge and experience in their respective roles which affects their individual skill levels. No one style of management is good or bad, a management style can be a good or poor fit depending on the situation. This is why I find the Situational Leadership approach the most effective and try to change instinctively between the four styles according to the people and type of work I am dealing with at the time. It is essential to be adaptable as there are positives and negatives to the different styles if used in the wrong situation. However I think my natural style is a mixture of Selling and Supporting . Examples of when I have used these different styles are below: Selling: My team have a number of targets that have to be met. Some of the staff are consistently below their targets for various reasons such as heavy workload, organisational skills, prioritising etc. In this situation I will talk to them one to one explaining their targets and why they have to be met outlining the benefits to the team and company. I also encourage their input, listening to their ideas of how they can improve and develop. Supporting: A very experienced member of my team told me that they were struggling with their workload. That it had become too much and they could no longer cope. I sat down with the person and listened to what work they had outstanding and how things had become too much. After talking it became clear that it was due to a lack of motivation and organisation that things had built up, resulting in a lack of confidence to get back on track. I knew this person had the knowledge and skills to complete the work so I gave praise for previous work they had done well to increase confidence. I then gave guidance and support of how to organise their remaining workload. This resulted in the member of staff feeling a lot more confident and motivated to complete the outstanding tasks. I also use Telling and Delegating depending on the situation or task at hand. For instance I would use Telling if a member of staff is unable or unwilling to complete a task. I would use Delegating if the member of staff is capable and motivated resulting in my trust to complete the task. Its a managers responsibility to be a chameleon by changing their style to suit the situation. This way you will maximize the productivity and engagement of the whole team. My own leadership behaviours and potential in the context of a particular leadership model and own organisation’s working practices and culture, using feedback from others The Johari Window is a useful tool for helping build self awareness and gain an understanding of how others perceive you. To help form a judgement of my own leadership behaviours I asked 14 members of my team to complete a Johari Window handout consisting of 56 adjectives and asked them to circle 5 words they felt best described me. I also completed my own handout to compare against my colleagues. The completed forms (See Appendix 2) This is my Johari Window Known to Others Blind Spots Unknown to us Known To others able, accepting, adaptable, calm, cheerful, clever, dignified, friendly, independent, knowledgeable, logical, modest, observant, organised, patient, relaxed, responsive, self-assertive, sensible, sympathetic, witty Public Knowledge Known to us known to others caring confident dependable helpful trustworthy. Unknowable Unknown to us Unknown to others  bold, brave, complex, energetic, extroverted, giving, happy, idealistic, ingenious, intelligent, introverted, kind, loving, mature, nervous, powerful, proud, quiet, reflective, religious, searching, self-conscious, sentimental, shy, silly, spontaneous, tense, warm, wise Private Knowledge Known to us Unknown to others Unknown to Others I found the results of the Johari window exercise very interesting. The 5 words I had chosen to best describe myself were all picked by at least one of my colleagues and therefore placed in the Public Knowledge section. The words that were chosen the most (Public Knowledge) confident x 8, helpful x 7, (Blind Spots) friendly x 6, knowledgeable x 4, adabtable x 4, calm x 4, logical x 4, relaxed x 4. I have a good relationship with my team that has been built through good communication and being open about my thoughts/feelings. I think this has helped to gain a trust and understating which is reflected in the results of the Johari Window. I will continue to seek feedback from my team to help reduce my Blind area and increase my Open area. Also looking at my personality and leadership behaviours I completed the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) questionnaire and during the Understanding Leadership Course we looked at the results. My type indicator is below; Google Images The management style of the ESFJ is softly authoritarian and decisive. As a manager, the ESFJ expects everyone to follow the rules and procedures without question. Hierarchy is respected. They are congenial, helpful, considerate and thoughtful and wish to please. They focus on harmony and mutual support and achieving results through teamwork and a sense of mutual belonging. There are some similarities in the results of the MBTI and the results of the Johari Window. Both exercises show strong personality traits of being Helpful, caring, considerate and thoughtful. Appropriate actions to enhance own leadership behaviour in the context of the particular leadership model My preferred style of leadership is Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership. This model requires a leader to be capable of adapting or changing leadership behaviour and using different styles of leadership depending on Competence Confidence and commitment Ability Willingness Hersey and Blanchard further described these ‘Situations’ requiring a high or low leadership emphasis on the Task and the Relationship. This is not always easy and to be a successful leader in this model you must know your own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of the team. To grow as a person and get the best out of others, I must not only capitalize on my strengths, but also face my weaknesses and deal with them. That means taking a hard look at my personality type’s potential problem areas. I studied my Myers Briggs Type Indicator ESFJ to see if there are any common weakness’s of this personality type that I can relate to me. These are some examples; May be prone to struggle with insecurity stemming from their strong desire to be liked Strongly dislikes criticism and conflict – can be overly sensitive Tendency to dislike change May react too quickly and too emotionally in a situation better dealt with in a more pragmatic fashion To improve my self awareness I revisited my Johari Window results, in particular my Blind Spots. Gaining feedback and learning from your blind spots can help you see strengths that you may not know you posses or discover ways in which you are hard on yourself when other people are not. For example I never knew my team see me as clever, knowledgeable, logical and dignified. This knowledge has given me renewed confidence in my ability as a Manager. Using this information in conjunction with Kolbs Learning cycle (See Apendix 3) I can improve on my weaknesses and build on my leadership skills. Improving these skills will help to maximize the productivity and engagement of the whole team. Kolbs Learning Cycle Google Images Appendix 1 Hersey and Blanchard Readiness Levels According to Hersey and Blanchard, knowing when to use each style is largely dependent on the readiness of the person or group youre leading. They break readiness down into four different levels: R1 – People at this level of readiness are at the bottom level of the scale. They lack the knowledge, skills, or confidence to work on their own, and they often need to be pushed to take the task on. R2 – at this level, followers might be willing to work on the task, but they still dont have the skills to complete it successfully. R3 – Here, followers are ready and willing to help with the task. They have more skills than the R2 group, but theyre still not confident in their abilities. R4 – These followers are able to work on their own. They have high confidence and strong skills, and theyre committed to the task. The Hersey-Blanchard model maps each leadership style to each readiness level, as shown below. (http://www. mindtools. com/pages/article/newLDR_44. htm) 02/02/14 Appendix 2 Johari Window Questionnaires Appendix 3 Kolbs Learning Cycle Stage 1 Concrete Experience: Kolbs cycle starts with a concrete experience. In other words it begins with doing something in which the individual, team or organisation are assigned a task. Key to learning therefore is active involvement. In Kolbs model one cannot learn by simply watching or reading about it, to learn effectively the individual, team or organisation must actually do. Stage 2 Reflective Observation: The second stage in the cycle is that of reflective observation. This means taking time-out from doing and stepping back from the task and reviewing what has been done and experienced. At this stage lots of questions are asked and communication channels are opened to others members of the team. Vocabulary is very important and is needed to verbalize and discuss with others. Stage 3 Abstract Conceptualisation: Abstract Conceptualisation is the process of making sense of what has happened and involves interpreting the events and understanding the relationships between them. At this stage the learner makes comparisons between what they have done, reflect upon and what they already know. They may draw upon theory from textbooks for framing and explaining events, models they are familiar with, ideas from colleagues, previous observations, or any other knowledge that they have developed. Stage 4 Active Experimentation: The final stage of the learning cycle is when the learner considers how they are going to put what the have learnt into practice. Planning enables taking the new understanding and translates it into predictions as to what will happen next or what actions should be taken to refine or revise the way a task is to be handled. For learning to be useful most people need to place it in a context that is relevant to them. If one cannot see how the learning is useful to ones life then it is likely to be forgotten very quickly.