An Integrative Theory of Leadership, Essay Example

Introduction

Working in health care and managing my own time, balancing my studies with work has been a challenge in the past few years, however, the experience has also helped me grow as a leader. I will below list some of the findings of my leadership self-assessment, in order to better understand my traits and main styles, so I can build on my strengths and identify my weaknesses as a leader.

Main Findings

Based on the findings of the Dynamic Culture Leadership Assessment, I would give myself a high rating in art and leadership, a generally lower rating in management and science. I tend to build teams based on effective and open communication, while I like leading team members as an example. My management and analytical skills still need improving, as I tend to struggle with time management and allocating tasks.

I also completed a test for  Bolman & Deal Reframing Organization Assessment and found that I am a combination of symbolic and human resource leaders. I scored 22 points on human resources, and 20 on symbolic traits. My weaker traits were structural (7). and political (11).

On the Jungian assessment, I was found to be a “feeling” individual, who cares about the environment, and an “extrovert”. I was also found more of an “intuitive” person, and a “perceiving” individual.

I am a Type A/B person, who is able to make adjustments based on the environment and the challenges ahead. (Ledlow & Coppola, 2011, p. 30).

Major Points and Tenets

I found out that my strongest leadership tenets and skills are intuition, communication, listening, and leading through engaging with people. I have always been good at human resources and making decisions based on the requirements of the environment. I am, however, sometimes too intuitive, and easy to influence. While I am extrovert, and – according to the test results and my colleagues – a good communicator, my time management, analytical, and statistical skills are weaker. One of my strengths is creativity, based on the fact that I scored 20 on symbolic traits, and I am an “intuitive” person based on the Jungian assessment. My A/B personality makes me adapt a flexible approach to leading teams, which is a valuable skill in today’s health care environment.

I believe that often my intuitive style makes it hard to make rational decisions. It is also harder to decide on a strategy, when I take into consideration every team member’s opinion, and as my statistical, analytical skills are weaker, I often procrastinate. Communication skills can be beneficial when trying to deliver important strategic messages and a vision, but they can slow down the process of making a decision.

Dominant Leadership Style

Based on Bass’ Continuum of leadership styles scale, I am more of a transformational leader than a transactional one (Kark, Chen & Shamir, 2003). I am able to create and effectively communicate vision, gain trust and respect from other people. I can inspire team members and peers through effective communication, by expressing my views and highlighting the benefits of the action in a simple, easy to understand way. I also often engage with other people to solve problems. I believe that collaboration can multiply the results. I am also – based on the Jungian assessment – an intuitive person, who is able to understand the views of others. I enjoy coaching individuals and providing personalized advice.

Development Plan

In order to become a more effective leader, I will need to improve on the identified development areas, such as rational assessment, analytical, statistical skills, and organization. I will also need to understand the benefits of delegating tasks better. My interpersonal skills make me a good “human resources” manager, and it is important that I develop these skills further to create a strategy that empowers individuals in my team and increases the overall effectiveness and competencies of the team.

Chemers’ (1997) assessment and differentiation between transactional and transformational leadership traits has highlighted that in the globalized and ever changing health care environment, those who are transformational leaders have an advantage, as they can quickly adjust their strategy based on the new needs of the organization. This is an important skill that I would like to work on, however, in order to spot the challenges ahead, I will need to improve my analytical and management skills. As a real life example from my work experience: I can only re-organize the shifts of nurses in the nursing unit to best meet the organization’s goals if I can analyze the demand for care in each time bracket. If I fail to collect data from the department, I would – based on my intuitive leadership style – simply ask nurses about their preferences and their experiences. By strengthening my analytical and rational decision making skills, I could make a decision to adjust service levels based on patients’ needs, cost effectiveness consideration, and the preferences of health care providers in the team.

According to Fiedler (1967), the main tasks that determine leadership effectiveness are position power, member relations, and task structure. In order to become a more effective leader, I will need to work on task structure. I will also need to move towards democratic style from Laissez-Faire approach, based on Lewin’s (1939) categories. This will increase my impact and authority as a leader, and allow me to make democratic decisions faster.

References

Chemers, M. M. (1997) An integrative theory of leadership. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. London

Fiedler, F. (1967) A theory of leadership effectiveness. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Josey-Bass Leadership Assessment. (n.d.) Online. Retrieved from http://www.josseybassbusiness.com/2013/07/assessment-leadership-orientations-self-assessment.html

Kark, R. Chen, G., &  Shamir B. (2003) The two faces of transformational leadership: Empowerment and dependency. Journal of Applied Psychology 88(2), 246-255.

Ledlow. G. & Coppola, N. (2011) Leadership for health professionals. Theory, skills, and applications. Jones & Bartlett Learning. Sudbury.

Lewin, K. (1935) A dynamic theory of personality. New York: McGraw-Hill.