Leadership Styles Critique Essay
Leadership Styles Henry Emenanjor LDR 531 February 15, 2010 Leo Maganares Introduction Leaders are born or made; this can be interpreted as follows: “Are Leaders actually Born or Made? Very interesting question, there are present leaders on planet earth including past leaders for examples the Great Napoleon of France, Regan of United States of America, Margret Thatcher of great Britain whom seem to be naturally endowed or have the ability to lead others while others can become leaders by concentrating on a particular leaderships skills.
Leaders are said to be inspirational, possesses combination of attribute such as great personalities and great skills which gives direction and ultimately makes people want to listen and follow their lead. Leaders varies from people to people likewise the era in which that leaders existed, basically an effective leadership can be influence by time, culture , the people, need etc. Great leaders have one thing in common; they are confidence and make people believe in them especially their ideals.
Great leaders either present or past have different leadership styles and these styles can be defined as the process of providing direction for followers or individual, setting goals , ability to implement those set or proposed goals and ultimately motivate the people to achieve such goals ( Kurt Lewis 1939). There are different factors or approaches toward effective leadership, the styles each leader uses depend on combination of their: Belief, how confidence they are and abilities to motivate their followers. The second factor is their Values: Believe individual processes about ways of life and individual characteristics.
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Values are a set of emotional rules, feeling and governing characteristic that individual follow in making right decision about life and ability to implement those decisions in right directions. (H. Emenanjor, 2010). The third factor is the Organizational culture: Every successful organization has a solid base of personalities or cultural values, these cultural behaviors by leadership must be effective for any organization to be successful, thus the culture of an organization serves as a necessary ingredient in defining the type of organization. Leadership ust set goals or specific task that need to be implemented by their worker, ability to plan work activities with specific set time is very important, leadership must clarify each goal making it plane, understandable and provide specific objective for each goals. Leadership must monitor the progress of tasks giving to their followers and rate performance setting up a standard of achievement. And finally leadership must be supportive, developmental and possess the ability to recognize failure before it appears on surface and likewise successful task.
There are three major types of leadership styles which are characterized by leadership values, belief, state of mind, cultural organization etc, these are: Autocratic or Authoritarian: This type of leadership style is when leaders tell their followers what type of task needed to be accompanied or performed, how they want it done, without the imputes of their follower or their follower’s suggestion. This is a very unique way of government; it is used when leaders mainly want to gain motivation from followers and more commitment from them.
There seems to be misunderstanding of this leadership style with the present day workplaces of “bossing employee around” without any consideration of human feelings or respect for humanity. The weakness to this type of leadership style is that most people perceive this type of leadership has been bossy and too much authoritative. *This picture describes A*utocratic style of leadership I want this task done………… (Picture from www. nwlink. com/donclark/leader)
Democratic or Participative style of leadership involves one or more followers or team members in decision making processes or actualization of set goals. However, the final decision or authority is taking by the leader. It is easier to practice if leaders have trustworthy followers that are knowledgeable, skillful in a giving task and can be used if followers have certain information that complement that of leader’s ideal. There seems to always be a mutual benefit between the leader and followers.
The weakness to this type of leadership style is that there is always too much interference of ideals and can delay executions of plans. The ideal of working together to achieve a common goal or objective (Picture from www. nwlink. com/donclark/leader) Delegative or Free Reign type of leadership describe leaders allowing follower to make decision and are still responsible of decision that was taking. The leader set priorities as per what needs to be accompanied, time of execution and the final deadline for production.
This type of leadership style must be used wisely especially when dealing with trust and having confidence in followers. The only limitation is that as a leader, failures of followers automatically become leader’s responsibilities. *This picture describes Delegative or Free Reign *style of leadership This pictures describes leaders delegating task or responsibility to followers (Picture from www. nwlink. com/donclark/leader). Other types of leaders’ styles are:
Charismatic leadership style: These are leaders that followers perceived as been heroic, having strong personalities, they tend to have high self confidence, good examples is Barack Obama, the president of United Statesof America and former president, John F Kennedy of USA Situational leadership style: This type of leadership depends on various circumstances and an effective leader must be very careful in making decisions because it is imperative to make one in a bad situation.
Transactional type of leadership style: This type of leadership style is describedas rewarding as long that the followers are productivity but can be cut loose when they fail to produce. Servant leadership style: this leadership is responsible for their followers and also to a larger extend, less privilege in the society and this type of leadership describes leaders serving followers rather than follower serving leaders.
There are different forces that can influence the type of leadership styles, these are: Availability of time, the trust level, type of delegated tasks, information of the task, internal conflict, external influence (law of the land), the different stress level etc, depending on those forces, an effective leader must be able to combine or practice other type of leadership style to govern his or her followers properly. Good leadership style are characterized by their behavior, these are: They are good role model, very positive, optimistic, good listeners, communicator, result oriented, sets priorities, have good vision and mission tatement. The weaknesses of bad leaders are: they lack discipline, use poor judgment, are selfish, they are in sensitive to their followers needs, arrogant, holding grudges, unwillingness to adapt, overlying ambitious and treating followers with favoritism. Leadership theories explains the qualities that distinguish or differentiate leadership and their followers, it also focus on factors such as the present situation at giving point a time of leadership, likewise the skill level.
Based on these theories, leadership can be classified into the following: “Great Man” theories: This type of theories are based on the fact that great leaders are born and not made; it describes leaders as been heroic and is destined to reign as leader. The term “Great Man” was used because at certain era of time, the society believes that only men were primarily leaders. This makes leadership only a man’s affair. Trait theories: This type of theory is similar to Great man’s theory type of leadership because it is based on assumption of leaders which have inherited certain type of qualities that can be easily traceable.
These qualities are distinctive such as personalities, behavior that are associated with leaders. However this theory is not universally acceptable because everyone that has such traceable qualities or behavior must automically be a leader but that’s not the case. Contingency theories: These type of theories are directed toward a particular variable that are in connection to the environment and describes the type of leadership for that particular place. This leadership theory does not specifically support one particular type of leadership but its base on the existing condition or situation at the present time.
Leadership depends on numbers of variables such as time, present situation, environment, societal needs and the qualities of the followers must be put into consideration. This type of leadership theory describes my overall type of leadership style. Situational theories: These type of theories describes leadership choosing the best option of action based on the situational variables. This type of leadership is best applicable to decision making by the leaders. Behavioral theories: This type of leadership focus on plan of action by the leaders and this plan of action is not just mental or physical qualities.
This negate the theories of leadership that states” leaders are born and not made”, because people can learn to become leaders through interest, learning skill, ability to observe and impact knowledge. Participative theories: These type of leadership theories takes the input of team member or followers into consideration in making decisions; it encourages the contribution and participation of team group. This leadership theory still gives the leaders the ultimate or final decision making.
Management theories: This type of leadership is also known as transactional theories of leadership, it focuses on how leaders reward their followers, also in any organization how team member are been rewarded by their supervisor. This theory is generally performance oriented, followers get rewarded for good performance or get punish for failure. Relationship theories: These type of theories is also known as transformation theories, it focuses on the relationship between the leaders and the followers.
These type of theories ensures that followers fulfill their potential within the organization by motivation and encouragement from leaders. The leaders have a high moral and ethical standard that must be upheld at all times for the success of leadership. In an attempt to discover my leadership style, I took an online assessment which describes in total to some extend working with others and it explain in detail my leadership style. The first assessment is “What are my Leadership Styles”, based on this assessment I scored 9 (concern for people) and another 14 (concern for task).
Scoring 7 and above is excellent score for my concern for people while 10 and above is also an excellent score of concern for the task. The best leaders are the ones that can balance their people skills and still have the ability getting the job done. My high scores indicated that I can conveniently balance between my people skills and achieving my goals. I don’t do it only; people love to work for or with me. Autocratic leaders are just interested in getting the job done and not on the welfare of the people.
If a leader is too much people oriented, leadership is overly “laissez-Faire”, meaning people are so excited that they really don’t get the task done; their happiest is at the expense of production (What is my Leadership Style-Working with Others- Leadership and Team Skills Assessment: WEB LINK, February, 2010). The second assessment is “How Charismatic Am I”: These are personal qualities that give a leader influence or authority over their followers or individual with a group. The followers perceive him or her as been heroic or “messiah”.
They have an extraordinary leadership skills, high self confidence and strong conviction about any task they want to get done or executing their plans. This belief easily attracts their followers because they strongly believe in him or her. In my management of attention skills, I scored 20, indicating that I pay close attention to people when I am communicating with them. Management of meaning: scored 15, indicating how effective I am getting my meaning across to my people. Management of trust: scored 17, indicating that am willing to follow through promises and stand firm on any position taking.
Management of self: scored 19, meaning am very concern about the welfare of others and likewise their feelings. Management of risk: scored 18, indicating I am willing to take risk for those who believe in me and ready to move on in the face of adversities regardless of the circumstances. Management of Feelings: scored 19, indicating I have the ability to work with people’s feelings bring out the best in them (How Charismatic Am I-Working with Others- Leadership and Team Skills Assessment: WEB LINK, February, 2010).
The third assessment is “Do I Trust Others”, trust is an important element in dealing with people and also getting them to achieve or implement set goals and objective. I scored 1 which indicated high faith level from the analysis of the assessment while 5 is for low level of faith. High level of faith proofs my ability to work with people as a leader; I can conveniently work in HR department, teaching etc (Do I Trust Others-Working with Others- Leadership and Team Skills Assessment: WEB LINK, February, 2010). The fourth assessment is “Do Others See Me as Trust Worthy”, in this assessment I scored 57.
From the analysis, scores ranges between 9 and 63, scores above 45 indicate how high people or team member perceive me as been trust worthy while scores below 27 indicate how low team member perceive leaders as been trust worthy. Building trust among team member is very important in any successful organization; leaders have to be open-minded, give credit to others when they deserve it, show fairness at all times, follow through promises and maintain confidence at all times (Do Others See Me as Trust Worthy -Working with Others- Leadership and Team Skills Assessment: WEB LINK, February, 2010).
The fifth assessment is “How Good Am I at Disciplining Others”, I scored 20. This assessment gives an insight on how effective I might be at practicing discipline at workplaces. The scores ranged from 8 and 24, 22 and above indicate excellent skills at disciplining team member. My score indicated that there are needs for improvement, I should keep the process impersonal and disciplinary action should be progressive (How Good Am I at Disciplining Others -Working with Others- Leadership and Team Skills Assessment: WEB LINK, February, 2010).
The sixth assessment is “How Good Am I at Building and Leading a Team”, I scored 104 and the scores ranges from 18 and 108. This result indicated that I am in the top quartile (95 and above) while below 60 is bottom quartile. This analysis indicated that there are five development behaviors, namely: Diagnosing team development, managing the forming stage, managing the confirming stage, managing the storming stage and finally, managing the performing stage (How Good Am I at Building and Leading a Team -Working with Others- Leadership and Team Skills Assessment: WEB LINK, February, 2010).
Effective leadership is associated with high level of human involvement or followers in the society or organization. The organizational climate, timing including the needs of the people mediates the inheriting association between leaders and followers. In attempt to evaluate the performance of these two leaders mentioned below, l will like to point out this statement of fact” there is no one particular perfect leadership style use to govern followers but effective leaders study the event, environment before making decisions”.
The first leader I will choose is John F Kennedy, his charm, easy going personalities, followers’ involvement or team effort in making decision gave his leadership style a very unique one but he is ultimately responsible for the final decision and the outcome of those decisions. He seems to be in control of situation most time, understood his followers’ need and perceptions. He has a charismatic type of leadership, he was perceived as been heroic and his strong personalities penetrated not just his followers in the country but outside this country likewise.
He exhibited high confidence in making decisions there by gaining the trust of his followers with ease. His nature of cheerleaders played a vital role in his leadership style; he’s very dynamic, multi-talented and always optimistic which made it easier for him to see good and not evil or negativity in any situations. We know from experience with facts in life” NOTHING IS PERFECT”, his inability to see negative things or perceive bad in any situation has made his cheerleader style become a poor contingency planner of leading a team or project.
His leadership style is considered as not been totally analytical as the task unfolds. The leadership of John F Kennedy can be compared to that of Fidel Castro of Cuba. The second leadership style will be Fidel Castro; he has extreme self confidence or what I call as overconfidence, very demanding, reward failures with punishment, likewise disobedient and with act of punishment, it makes it easier for his followers to be loyal to him base on fear. He is highly independent, don’t really get followers involve in making decisions.
He shows great courage in the present of adversity even when been sanction by the outside communities. He’s willing to get harm regardless of the consequences in order to achieve is desire goals and objectives. He’s self absorbed. His style of leadership is regarded or viewed as a tyrant. The effectiveness of substitutes for leadership is described as making a clear distinction between two kinds of leadership behaviors and these are: substitutes and the neutralizers. The effectiveness of the substitute’s leadership makes leader behavior unnecessary and redundant (G. Yukl, 2006, P. 25), they include any organizational characteristics which ensure that subordinates will understand their role clearly in execution of deliberated task, knowing how they function and are highly motivated. Neutralizers eradicate leaders’ action by preventing them to act in a certain manner. Leadership substitute is focused on subordinate guidance in receiving task and also performance incentive from the leader (Howell and colleagues, 1990, P. 23). The effectiveness in substitute leadership is the experience, having the ability, high skill level of those leaders and are professional oriented.
In conclusion, effective leadership styles are dependent on various factors, the era or time of leaders is very important, the psychological need of the follower or nation becomes an effective tool in governing. Good leaders are very confidence in their action and words; this makes it easier for their followers to trust them. The strength of any good leadership is the ability to combine these leadership styles base on the need of the people and not just overly self ambition. References Yukl, G (2006).
Leadership in Organizations (6th Edition). Upper Saddle River, N. J: Pearson Education. Robbins, S. P. , & Judge, T. A. (2007). Organizational behavior (12th edition. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Newstron . J. W & Davis . K (1993). Organizational behavior-Human behavior at work, New York: Mc Graw Hill Rendra Van Wagner. Leadership theories, www. Psychology. about. com Pictures from www. nwlink. com/donclark/leader Six of Leadership and Team Skills Assessment: WEB LINK, February, 2010
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