Valuing Organizational Leadership, Essay Example

There are many different forms of leadership. Each form persists in a business or work strategy and eventually reveals itself as either a workable or ineffectual way to perform tasks. The main leadership styles this paper will focus on are emergent, situational, and true authentic leadership. This paper will argue define each different leadership type according to current research and will show how I have grown through the course of study about these leadership types.

Emergent

Emergent leadership doesn’t base its merit on test scores and GPAs in order to evaluate the potential of a person. Instead it is defined as people who inspire and propel others forward into innovative business techniques, strategies and ideas (MacFarland, 2013, para. 4). While bosses are typically leaders in a business, emergent leaders are the employees (or bosses) who fill the room with energy and lead everyone into a new direction of learning and understanding applicable or innovative techniques to lead the company in a new direction. The emergent leader is most often seen as the most influential member of a group whether or not that person is the boss of that company or group “The individual acquires emergent leadership through other people in the organization who support and accept that individual’s behavior” (Northouse, 2013,p. 8).

Situational

Situational leadership suggest that there’s no “one size fits all” (Blanchard & Hersey, 1996, p. 1) when it comes to leadership models, but instead focus on “identify the most important tasks, diagnose the readiness level of the followers, [and] decide the matching leadership style” (Blanchard & Hersey, 1996, p. 1). Even within this framework there is a delineation of situational leadership types that are directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. These are further divided into willingness and ability level in any given situation. Situational leadership focuses on leadership that deals with situations. This means that in any given situation there is a different approach to come to the best conclusion or outcome. In order to be an effective leader under this category a person must adapt their style willingly and with ease to any given situation (Northouse, 2013, p. 99).

True Authentic

Being a true, authentic leader means not following anyone else’s footsteps when it comes to leadership. In order to do this there are six principles to adhere to that help in the development of true, authentic leadership and they are, “gaining self-awareness, practicing values under pressure, balancing motivations (intrinsic and extrinsic), building a support team, staying grounded (by integrating life) and understanding passions and purpose in leadership” (George, 2007, p. 14).Authentic leadership gives people “good” and “sound” answers in an “uncertain world”. It is “prescriptive” and gives people a lot of information as well as having an “explicit moral dimension that asserts that leaders need to do what is right and good for their followers and society”. Not only this but authentic leadership that is flexible and allows for people who follow it to not stick with one idea of what leadership does but instead seeks out new ways to improve upon old strategies that aren’t applicable to current business models. Authentic leadership is “measured with a theory-based instrument” (Northouse, 2013, p.283).

How I will Grow from This Knowledge and Understanding

I am a mixture of all of these types of leaderships with an emphasis on true, authentic leadership. As a leader I try to accommodate and cultivate other individuals (situational) to grow as a leader and show them the right path toward growth (true, authentic). I am very big on moral integrity and values, it is something that I feel shouldn’t be compromised and as such I tend to believe this helps me as a true and authentic leader.  Along those lines I’m always leading by example and can’t stand hypocrisy.  If someone is not being genuine with me then I can tell and as much as it infuriates me I try to lead them on the right track.

As a military person for the past 20 plus years I feel I have a strong grasp on what it means to be organized and how leadership models can be effective in large and small groups, as well as what type of leadership is needed in either setting. This is something that I feel applies directly to situational leadership. The military in turn has taught me how to be persuasive, collaborative, and authoritarian in my leadership style based on situational awareness of the leader. I know that what’s important in situational leadership, and what has been highlighted above in this leadership style’s definition is the ability to be flexible as new problems come about. I do not believe I’m a hard-nosed military person who believes that there is one true answer and people must stick to a certain way of doing things in order to get the job done and to get it done right. Saying this, I do however believe that I’m the type of leader that will talk to a person concerning rule violations in order to have a more effective and flowing system of leadership. In this way I feel I’m an authentic leader because while I do allow myself to be flexible in my thoughts there are some things that I believe need to be adhered to when it comes to a business or group setting such as timeliness, distribution of work, and follow through on each individual involved in the endeavor. Without these then the work is shoddy.

I strongly believe that leadership is something that is learned through observational tools and as such the behavior that makes a leader can be something that changes, as it is a learned behavior. This means that leadership courses can be of benefit. I think that people would describe me as having emergent leadership style because it is a style that is seen through a long period of time and it develops through communication. Also, an emergent leader is someone who verbally expresses themselves which in turn lends itself to being informed. An emergent leader shows that they care about other people’s input in the decision-making process because these leaders know that other people’s thoughts and opinions could help in the formation of new and innovative ideas which in turn can help the business grow. When it comes to this type of leader I feel that I fit in because I’m a good listener (human skill) and like to allow other people to share their input because I know that it can lead to a different approach and that in turn can lead to a better and more efficient way of doing things.

This type of human skill allows for a leader to help in a group setting because cooperation is needed between different dynamics of people who all present different ideas. Being aware of other people’s perspectives lends itself to adaptive behavior. Being adaptive is important in a group setting and I learned this through the military. At first a group of individuals is trained together and learn the basics of what it means to be a soldier and work in a group. Then once this basic information is learned the groups are sectioned off into platoons and that is when the basic training can morph into something else. While the stringent training involved in basic training requires strict adherence to the formation patterns of years of battlefield strategy, when the troops are sectioned off into platoons they are then brought up against aberrant settings. New settings at once require a person to shift their way of thinking and to incorporate their basic skills in new decisions. These new decisions are based on the situation, the geography, potential enemy skills and strategy, and how the group functions as a unit. It is the last element that fixes itself on the idea of uniform strategy and it is the other elements that are variables in this task. Having the military in my background I recognize the need for traditional forms of leadership but also recognize the need for a leader to be able to adapt to new situations based on new information and goals. This is clear in situational leadership and emergent leadership as situational leadership calls upon a person to base their actions and thought processes on the situation at hand the potential of moves while emergent leadership will call upon individual members of a unit to come up with other ideas based on experiential premises. As an authentic leader I know the benefit of incorporating all of these elements and variables in order to attain trust in my troopand they in turn feel as if they’re opinions are being heard which in turn forms a tighter unit because of this fidelity.

The most important thing I learned about what makes a great leader through all of the different types of leadership is that it’s all based on communication. Either being able to present a succinct thought or being able to listen to other people express their ideas. Either is important to the goal of the company and vital to the relationships of the people involved in making that company the apex of itself.

References

Blanchard, K., & Hersey, P. (1996). The situational leadership model. Retrieved from http://greeks.cofc.edu/documents/The%20Situational%20Leadership%20Model.pdf

George, W. (2007). True north: discover your authentic leadership. Raytheon Lectureship In business ethics. 1-24.

McFarland, M. (2014). Emergent leadership: the trait that smart, innovative companies seek out in employees. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/02/24/emergent-leadership-the-trait-that-smart-innovative-companies-seek-out-in-employees/

Northouse, P. G.   (2013).  Leadership: theory and practice.  6th ed.   Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications.

Zeffane, R. (June 2011). Communication, commitment & trust: exploring the triad. International Journal of Business and Management, 6(6), 77-87.