Leadership Tactics, Capstone Project Example

Introduction

Service in any position requires an individual to have visionary and exemplary leadership capabilities. This requires effective leadership tactics, which include vision and tactical approaches in operational and process activities, in any environment. These individuals also require immense strategizing capabilities, which include the creation of unique and valuable approaches in an organization. Processes and systems of activities that support and fit in complementary ways should support this. Leadership tactics in most cases require an individual to have control and command over the process that they oversee (Robinson, 2003). These aspects require efficiency, conceptual, effectiveness and interpersonal capabilities for their achievement. Leadership capabilities confer management advantages and the individual faces minimum challenges in managing processes, activities and operations in an organization.

Service in leadership positions requires key and valuable variables vital for the achievement of service and progression in an organization. In most cases, people posses these variables intrinsically; in their personality and character. However, some of these variables require changes, modifications and advancements in order to achieve leadership and service to people (Robinson, 2003). Changes in these variables require strategically measures in order to ensure alterations of the variables with an aim of advancing the variables. Other natural variables can immensely assist the individual as leadership tactics leading to success in an organization despite the tribulations and trials.

The analysis of leadership effectiveness can be understood through a comprehension of leadership tactics. This is crucial in understanding the intricacies present in an individual’s character, and the composition of the individual with respect to insight, vision, ambiguity and empathy (Robinson, 2003). The summation of these qualities and aspects leads to a comprehension of an individual’s personal character and inner self.

Review of Leadership Capacities

(a) Strengths

Concerning ambiguity, I take calculated risks with an aim of achieving progressiveness and stability for the organization (Robinson, 2003). In addition, I feel comfortable with certain levels of conflict with the organizational environment. This means that I take concern of conflict that involves cases where the majority seek the right or correct path for attaining a resolution. In my opinion, these tendencies seek to achieve cohesiveness, integrated and comprehensive leadership for the organization. This requires first hand acquisition of facts before making any decision that concerns the organization. As a leader, I have knowledge that the acquisition of facts before making decisions can be time consuming and sometimes challenging because of the time required to make the decision. In addition, I have the comprehension that decisions must be made in different circumstance and situations. In addition to achieving effective decision making regardless of the situation or circumstance, I ensure that I have a clear mind of the organization’s goals, vision and mission, in addition to having a rational, comprehension of the impacts of the decision to these organizational features.

Concerning empathy, I emphasis on the concerns and needs of other individuals, and the organization. I apply Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs to ensure satisfaction for individuals working for the organization. These trickle down to commitment and focus, by the workers, towards the activities in the organization. I also place immense emphasis on interpersonal relationships within the organization to ensure a comfortable working and people relationship. This is evident in my approaches and treatment towards people and fellow work mates. I have competencies in studying verbal and non-verbal communication (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2012). This is reinforced, by my abilities, to study and understand body signs for signals that indicate problems and discomfort, which cannot be communicated verbally. This gives me an edge in understanding workers and their work surroundings. I am receptive to employees and people associated with the organization. Empathy requires insightfulness, which facilitates an understanding of the factors and needs that motivate the workers. In addition, I have a clear understanding of my limits, and I usually seek strength and solace from people around including my friends, family and workmates. Whenever I reach these limits, I look to these people for strengths and solace in order to prevent hurting the organization by appearing to have a personality that does not fit.

Throughout my activities and interactions with the organization, I maintain positive attitudes despite the trials and tribulations associated with leadership. I ensure I have harnessed the benefits of maintaining a positive attitude maximally. Most importantly, I listen to the ideas and concerns of other people within the organization in order to gain insight into their concerns and underlying meanings of their sentences and concerns. In addition, body language has immense meaning and application in communication and conversation (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2012). An understanding of body language in meetings and in dealing with workers and clients is crucial in understanding their requirements and positions in various issues. During meetings, I have noted that I feel comfortable in small sized meetings. However, I have gained training and learnt to improve and increase my confidence in large sized meetings.

In my experiences, in leadership capacities, I avoid occupying top political positions within the organization. In some of the cases, I engage in the political games, but with care and consideration so that I do not hurt the operations and activities at the organization. This requires an understanding of the structure of management and operations within the organization (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2012). In addition, I also comprehend groups and investors that hold immense influence and power within the organization. An understanding of these factors and individuals, and their role in the organization is crucial when seeking resources for leadership.

In addition to these leadership capabilities, I have a decent and personal sense of humor. However, I remain focused to the activities of the organization. I also maintain focus during situations that require steady resolution and calm. I maintain a level head, and I have adapted to flexibility over the years. I also have attuned myself to the needs and requirements of other people instead of placing my personal needs first. This factor was considered immensely during the promotion that placed me at my current position. I am a highly self-aware person and I avoid becoming overly defensive. I also have a high recognition of instances when my emotions begin to assume influential role in decision-making. In these cases, I refer to an individual with minimum emotional ties in order to complete tasks with minimum bias and maximum effectiveness. My workmates and constituents have also indicated that they love my honesty and commitment towards the organization (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2012). They also feel secure in obtaining feedback and opinion from my office. This plays a central part in fostering cohesiveness and integration, which makes them feel needed. This also plays an integral role in increasing motivation within the organization and in creating a family-like environment within the organization. This is crucial in ensuring that people within the organization are engaged in all activities, and they take pride in their association with the organization. This is also crucial in the performance of stressful and difficult tasks within the organization. Individuals in the organization perform these activities to the best of their capabilities, and they ensure progressiveness for the organization.

(b) Weaknesses

Leadership positions require an individual to comprehend the negative and positive leadership qualities and attributes. This is crucial in fixing or changing the negative attributes that will negatively affect the progressiveness of the organization. Addressing the negative attributes ensures the concentration of the positive attributes and increase in effectiveness in performing organizational duties (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2012). It is essential to understand that leadership involves the creation of a team environment, advocacy, multitasking, friendship, loyalty, confidentiality, and the facilitation of support. An understating of these aspects about leadership is crucial in the creation of successful leadership.

In addition to understanding my strengths in leadership, I also have a comprehension of my weaknesses in leadership, which is crucial in the formulation of effective leadership tactics. These weaknesses include manipulation, listening inadequacies, snap decisions and multitasking. Manipulation forces people to do things because of compulsion. This means that these individuals do not act from willingness. My abilities in communication may sometimes lead to manipulation. I use this ability in communication especially in painting a vision that acts as a motivator. Manipulation comes in as a short-circuit process for avoiding the lengthy collaborative processes. I have noted that this leads to a dilution of the organization’s culture and cynicism replaces authenticity. I also have weaknesses with snap decisions, where I find that I require information and facts to make decisions. Improvements in snap decisions can be achieved through experience and improvements in judgments. This can also be improved by learning data assimilation techniques (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2012). I also have weaknesses with multitasking, where I have noted that I require immense time to complete enormous volumes of work. Organizational growth requires the completion of enormous volumes of work. Multitasking requires immense focus and the investment of personal resources such as time. Another weakness comes in listening, where I find that I cannot focus my listening abilities to all the individuals at the organization. Listening requires the availability of the leader’s time and resources. I find that, in most cases, I am engrossed in conversations with workmates, but do not process or pay attention to the conversations.

(c) Improvements

Identification of these weaknesses leads to  identification of areas of improvement. I know that I have to improve on listening, which requires attentiveness and engagement with the people. This will ensure that I do not become less informed, isolated and dependent on outdated information. An improvement on these areas requires the creation of a summary of the discussion or conversation, and answering back to the conversation. Improvements on multitasking require additional investment on time (Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). This will also require discipline and full engagement with individuals and organizational activities, which will improve decision-making. Improvements in snap decision require improvements in judgment and increased experience. This also requires additional engagement with organizational data and people.

III. Personal Approach to Decision Making

(a) Different Leadership Styles

Leadership requires constant decision-making. This happens through processes carried out by the leader, which are crucial in determining decisions. Experienced leaders have adapted to the decision-making processes because of their service in the organization. Other leaders choose democratic leadership, and they prefer decision making after consultations with other individuals in the firm (Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). This allows the constituents to have immense input in the final decision. In addition, these approaches facilitate the creation of a consensus and an understanding of opinions.

(b) Personal Style and Why

My leadership style requires the collection of information prior to making decisions. I gather all the relevant and required information and I additionally seek professional assistance before making decisions. I ensure that the final decision has its basis on information and professional opinion in order to ensure positive outcomes for the organization. As a leader, it is imperative to understand decision-making processes and ensure that the correct and right steps are followed during the process in order to avoid miscommunication. This also helps the leader to save time and prevent inconveniences that arise from the creation of wrong assumptions and information. Routine and non-routine decisions are required during leadership (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2012). Routine decisions are not difficult, and they do not require the input or consideration of professionals. Non-routine decisions are usually difficult decisions, and they usually arise randomly. These decisions require immense time and resources from the employees and leaders. My leadership style emphasizes on the collection of information and analysis of this information before decision-making. I also comprehend that I take responsibility for any outcome that arise from my decisions. I also bear the responsibility for negative outcomes from my decisions. As a result, I ensure that my decisions have their basis on professional opinion and factual and honest information. In case I do not trust the information in my possession, I will ensure that I have inputs from professionals. This will ensure that I do not place myself in a compromising situation. In addition, this will ensure that I make best choices for the organization.

(c) How Other Styles Are Integrated

In case I am required to make snap decisions because of time limits, I ensure that I apply rationality in the decision making process. I also ensure that I have applied all the available information to the decision making process. Leadership also requires the right application of instincts with caution for rationality. Placement in leadership positions requires decision-making capabilities and abilities to perform organizational based tasks under pressure (Stewart, 2009). Therefore, in such situations, instincts play a role in steering an individual in the correct direction until the availability of time for concerted collection of information for a solid decision. Strong leadership skills should continuously evolve because of increase in leadership and decision making experience. This acts as a crucial factor in successful leadership.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence refers to the capabilities of an individual to identify, assess and control emotional attributes. From the survey, I was not comfortable with the question involving decision making without surveys. As a result, I gave a no answer to this question because, in my decision-making, I require information. In order to improve on this approach, I need to trust my workmates and gain confidence on my decision-making abilities. In addition, I need to go through organizational data and information for additional knowledge (Stewart, 2009). Concerning excellent communication, I need to improve on my listening abilities. In addition, I need to improve on my handling of meetings because I am not comfortable with large meetings. This can be improved by developing confidence and interpersonal skills.

Areas for Future Leadership Growth

(a) Areas Identified

The areas identified for future leadership growth include decision-making, listening, multitasking and interpersonal relationships. Improvements in these areas will ensure positive leadership growth and the avoidance of negative leadership attributes such as manipulation and procrastination (Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). It is expected that growth in these areas can be achieved through training, experience and improvements in judgment.

(b) Plan for Future Personal Leadership Growth

These plans include the performance of activities that enhance or facilitate the advancement of quality leadership. These activities should focus on the development of personal attributes and leadership abilities. These activities will eventually lead to improvements in leadership tactics. My plans for future development or growth in leadership will focus on personal learner characteristics, nature and quality of leadership and support for leadership behavioral changes. This will be achieved through  integration of developmental experiences, experiential learning, visioning and self-efficacy. This will also be achieved through focus, responsibility, and development of purpose, taking action and the development and setting of effective goals (Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). In addition to improvement in these areas, I need to improve on strategizing through the creation of valuable and unique visions and market positions for the organization. This will be supported by decision-making, tradeoffs and making choices for the organization. Additionally, there is a need to advance my leadership through operational effectiveness and the adoption of best practices.

Reference

Heifetz, R. A., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Press.

Lunenburg, F., & Ornstein, A. (2012). Educational administration: Concepts and practices (6th ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Robinson, C. (2003). Assessment of leadership characteristics. Retrieved from Advanced Leadership Consulting: http://www.leadershipconsulting.com/whats-your-eq-survey.htm

Stewart, B. (2009). Leadership under pressure: Tactics from the front line. London: Kogan Page.