Leadership_Style

My behavior style is interactive. Optimism is central to whom I am. It is a forward driving force. I experience the world around me optimistically. I approach people expecting positive discourse. Strong people skills enhance my ability to communicate with individuals as well as groups. I do my best to make work meaningful by attempting to understand the feelings of others. Positive feedback allows me to look at failure as an opportunity for growth. As a leader, ideas and innovation are what motivate me. Change is welcome and I adapt quickly. I am not afraid to take risks for the things I believe in and accept that I will encounter failure in pursuit of my goals. Enthusiasm, persuasiveness, and charm help me gain trust and build strong relationships. These qualities help me rally support for goals I wish to accomplish. Achievement of goals is what drives a type A personality. I have been assessed a type A+ that means I often become impatient and make decisions quickly when additional information is not forthcoming. However, I see that as strength in a crisis. I often underestimate the time it will take to complete tasks causing undue stress to others and myself. I have difficulty delegating tasks to others that I feel are less capable, thus, I tend to take on more than I can accomplish effectively. Whatever aspects of my personality considered weaknesses can be fine-tuned to make an effective leader. Adaptability and openness to change will serve me well in that endeavor. My leadership approach is under development. Adaptive would be the word to describe my stand on leadership. However, there are aspects of my leadership style that are fully developed. A hand on approach to leadership is how I will be most effective in influencing growth, satisfaction, and goal achievement. Communicating clear task objectives while creating a collaborative environment can cultivate trust and increase intrinsic value. Having a technical background, I am accustomed to working among a highly skilled workforce that needs very little direct supervision. My leadership approach seeks to guide, support, enable, and reward employees in their jobs. A supportive and knowledgeable leader can do more to motivate a skilled employee than a directive leader. “When the task is structured or subordinates are highly competent, directive leadership will have no effect on effort” (House & Mitchell 1974 p. 220) The path-goal theory defines how to achieve favorable outcomes by exhibiting leadership behavior that fosters reward, empowerment, and collaboration. “The motivational function of the leader consists of increasing personal payoffs to subordinates for work-goal attainment and making the path to these payoffs easier to travel by clarifying it, reducing roadblocks and pitfalls, and increasing the opportunities for personal satisfaction en route” (House 1971). p. 218)' Variables such as individual characteristics and task characteristics will determine the type of leadership behavior necessary to influence desired outcomes. This reinforces my adaptive stand on leadership. Although my style of leaderships leans toward collaboration and support, there are instances when the situation will call for a more directive or achievement-oriented approach. Clearly defined roles decrease stress and increase expectancy of successful task completion. There are clear limitations to the path-goal theory. The theory fails to recognize the correlation between employee skill level and successful task performance. “It is assumed that role ambiguity is determined primarily by task structure (defined as a characteristic of the task, not the employee), but a more appropriate moderator variable is an employee’s ability and experience in relation to the task” (Yukl, 1989). 8, 222 It also fails to look at the possibility of interaction between behaviors or variables. No one behavioral influence can stand-alone and achieve the desired outcomes needed for every circumstance. Employee skills, situational variables and behavioral approaches come together to shape likely outcomes. Effective leadership has to examine each situation and determine the most successful approach or approaches. “Likely interactions among the behaviors or interactions with more than one type of situational variable are not considered” (Osborn, 1974) 8, 222). Situational leadership theory deals with skills as a variable or contingency to leadership behavior. It takes employee skill level or maturity and defines it in four degrees ranging from one to four (M1 to M4). M1 is least skilled and M4 being very skilled or expert. The mix or interaction between behavior and task is also in line with my developing approach to leadership. Leadership behavior is adaptive based the employee’s place on the range continuum. The level of maturity determines which behaviors leadership exerts to influence growth and intrinsic value. “According to Hersey and Blanchard, the maturity level of a subordinate can be influenced by developmental interventions” (1977) 8, 224). This theory requires leadership to be committed to possible long-term processes of exerting consistent and varied behavioral influence to facilitate growth. “How long it takes to increase the subordinate’s maturity depends on the complexity of the task and the skill and confidence of the subordinate” (Hersey & Blanchard 1977) 8, 223). Essentially, this theory uses all four of the path-goal leader behaviors interchangeably depending on the contingency. Flexibility and openness to change are required of a leader that adopts this theory as a leadership approach. “Hersey and Blanchard pointed out that it is essential to treat different subordinates differently, and to vary behavior as the situation changes” (Hersey & Blanchard) 8. 225). Although this theory appears to be a perfect match to my developing leadership approach, it comes with its own set of deficiencies. The lack of a strong concept shows in the few studies conducted to validate the theories’ propositions. The process a leader would use to influence performance is not clear. Last, the inclusion of other variables such as task characteristics or expectancy leave a gap in the causal relationship for determining specific behavioral use. Of the two theories discussed, situational leadership most suits me and is more in line with my developing leadership style. Describing my stand on leadership as adaptive, this theory emphasizes adaptability and flexibility. Situational leadership allows me to guide, support, enable, and reward while using a combination of behaviors that can effectively influence outcomes. My approach is to combine support and participative leadership to create a collaborative, safe and friendly environment focused on enhanced workflow, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. I would employ directive and achievement leadership behavior to increase performance and innovation while pursuing process improvement raising service levels and customer satisfaction. Network Operations Manager Data Center Operations Manager Implementation Coordinator Help Desk Manager Project Manager Customer Support Center Director References Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in organizations (6th ed.), 8,218 Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentis Hall