Leadership Qualities - Assignment Example

I. On Leadership Qualities – From our lectures and readings, we have established that the three more common qualities of leadership are integrity, job knowledge and people-building skills. Identify your strengths and weaknesses as they pertain to each of these leadership qualities. What is required of you to maintain your strengths and what is required of you to improve your weaknesses? Support your personal development responses with relevant readings from the literature to date. Yes, I am a Leader, but do I have the common qualities that call for job knowledge, integrity, and people building skills? Let me discuss first my strengths. As a leader, I believe I have these common qualities. My strengths are my social influence, job knowledge, and integrity. I guess these qualities fall into the definition of a leader by Kruce, Kevin, a management authority, who, after analyzing several theories, puts forward, a definition that I think describes it best: “Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal” (P. 1) In this definition, Kruce specifically stressed that leadership comes from social influence, not authority or power; Kruce emphasized others, meaning he acknowledges efforts of others; he mentioned a goal, and there is no distinction of personality traits. But what are my weaknesses as a leader? These weaknesses are lack of people building skills; I am not a good communicator, and I lack decisiveness. These are very important traits of being a leader as described by Peter Economy (p. 1). Peter Economy thinks a leader must be able to inspire action, be optimistic, be able to support the team, must possess integrity, have confidence, a good communicator, and decisive. By being decisive, a leader should not hesitate to make tough calls as required by circumstances. A decisive leader is quick to decide matters once he has the necessary information, and he sticks to his decisions, unless there is a compelling reason to change. To this kind of leader, failure is not an option. He trusts and puts enough confidence to his team that it can accomplish their mission. Knowing now of these weaknesses, how could I improve my lack of people building skills? First, I believe I must develop humility to accept contribution of others. In other words I must put enough confidence on them and give praise or proper acknowledgment when job is done. 2. On Transformational Leadership & the Leader’s Leader – In lecture we said that all leaders have been led – in essence, they have their own framework of leadership from influential people in their lives. Who is the leader that sets the benchmark for you as transformational? Critique the main leadership trait that is the essence of their ability to transform individuals and/ or the organization. Does/did that trait produce lasting results for those whom they are/were leading? Did the trait fail or are you still waiting to see? Consider the literature on transformational leadership to help support your discussion. Web definition of Transformational leadership is the style of leadership in which the leader identifies the needed change, creates a vision to guide through inspiration, and execute the change without commitment of the members of the group. To me, transformational leaders are great men in our history who took the changes in our history and in the business economy. Examples are Nelson Mandela who transformed the people’s lives in Africa, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Walton of Wal-Mart in business. . According to Kristen Bennett, the leadership traits that are common to these people are having charisma and goal (par. 3). Charisma is the compelling charm that requires people to follow him as a leader. He has a vision of change that followers are identified with. A transformational leader has the skill to inspire others to do their best and challenge themselves and achieve. Mandela, during his life sets out a vision of freedom for his countrymen. He was steadfast in his commitment and was able to inspire his people. The main trait that these people have in common, I believe is their charisma that is able to transform the visions of people. They were able to inspire people to accept and follow their convictions. This trait have lasting influence, as Mandela was able to transform his country, Walton changed the purchasing behavior of retailing, Steve Bob and Bill Gates led the way and transformed communications. The influence of Bob and Gates’ changes are seen and evident in the technology sphere, while the virtue of thriftiness made Walton great retail superstores. 3. On Leadership Effectiveness – Drucker taught that “popularity is not leadership; nor is it style or personality. Leadership is results”. To produce results a leader must demonstrate some level of competency. Identify and discuss your greatest strength and your most monumental weakness pertaining only to your competency level. Approach this question as though you are given a leadership job after graduation and you are now responsible for results. How will you exploit the strength and repair the weakness? Be detailed in your discussion with support from our readings. We are now in a hypothetical situation wherein I am assigned in a leadership job in a company. As a new graduate, my strengths in my competency level is only job knowledge gained from college education, and my personal integrity, meaning; I hold a strong sense of commitment, honesty, and high standards in myself. As such, I will stand for what is right, and as a leader, act as a role model to others. As put forward by Cohen, a leader must institute strategic planning, must observe business ethics. He must also possess personal integrity, leadership, correct perception and use of motivation, and use of a marketing model as general approach. Cohen quoted Drucker who considers leadership as “the lifting of a mans vision to higher sights, the raising of a mans performance to a higher standard, the building of a mans personality beyond its normal limitations." I agree with Cohen on other traits except the doubt about using the marketing model. Why should marketing concept be a used in leadership? I thought of this as trite reasoning, but Cohen (Part V) explains that leadership and salesmanship shares the common element of persuasion, that good salespeople are also good leaders, and good leaders use techniques used by good and ethical salespeople. Search on leadership traits provided me with a view that one should possess social, physical, emotional, intelligence, ability to communicate, experience and trustworthiness characteristics. (American Library Association). As figured out by ALA, I have outlined my strengths that corresponds to their traits findings By being physical, I am confident that I have high energy level, tolerance for stress, and I am not concerned for being overworked. In short, I possess physical stamina and vitality to become a leader By social, I think I am well-adjusted, I am oriented towards improving self, and do not deny my weaknesses. I am honest, ethical, trustworthy, keep my promises and fulfills my responsibility. My motto as a leader is “to make people feel that they are at the heart of things and that, when they are, they are making contributions to the success of the organization. By this, I will base my decisions on reality and needs of others, and not self-interest. With this in mind, I believe I will be able to convert purpose and vision to action and produce results. By having the intelligence, I possess knowledge used by subordinates to perform the work. I am willing to learn by experience and adapt to change. I have good judgment, foresight, intuition and creativity. I effectively plan, organize and solve problems As a new hire, and as a leader, my weaknesses start with my lack of people-building skills, lack of communication skills, and decisiveness. How will I repair these weaknesses? Pointers from the article of Tschiesche, Kathrin (par. 4) offers “people skills” a leader must develop, helped me to discern my lack of it. What concerns me is the development of social skills that means interacting with other to improve relationship, and increase productivity. Leaders who have people skills, Tschiesche describes, are those easy to talk to, good team players, good at resolving disputes, excellent communicators, focused on helping others and skilled at building relationship. How would I address my lack of people-building skills? As suggested by Tschiesche, a leader must be willing to develop other persons. He should have the confidence on her own ability and should not be afraid of other’s success. I agree with that because by helping others I would feel connected with them. The effort I have invested in others creates a feeling of belonging and teamwork. My weakness as a weak communicator can be resolved by becoming aware, by knowing how to resolve conflicts, and understanding each other’s point of view. By this, I mean having interaction with people in my team. With this, I hope to establish lasting bonds and build trust. As outlined by ALA, a good communicator must possess the following traits: Ability to communicate Ability to articulate a vision and persuade others Have and communicate purpose, direction, and meaning Have clear goals and are determined to achieve them Communicates passion to others Good communication skills are essential for a leader to get followers aligned behind the overarching goals of the organization. Use metaphors that others can relate to in order to symbolize their vision and inspire others Experts at one-to-one communication Superior speakers – major advantage, not true of all leaders Excellent writing skills Creates and maintains a communications network Has people keep them informed on problem situations Networks with people inside the organization (including those at the bottom of the hierarchy) Maintains contacts outside the organization and profession that may have certain knowledge and different viewpoints from those within Doesn’t depend on only one source for information Able to communicate with key individuals in “areas of specialization that may each have a different dialect” Eager to explore new approaches to their work Are not fuzzy about results, interested in ways to track their progress Communicates persuasively “All leaders take advantage of opportunities to speak to large groups.” 5 Keeping these pointers in mind, hopefully will correct my weaknesses in communications. 4. On Leadership – The Readings. Your personal development is the centerpiece of the exam and this question forces you to go even deeper. Pulling from the HBR Orange Book with supporting references, address the following in a well-developed discussion as they pertain to you, your development and you as a future leader: i. What is the work of leadership? As stated earlier leadership is the process of social influence. The work of Leadership then is process wherein a leader asks the help of others to accomplish a common task. In being a leader, he can either be autocratic, democratic or a laissez faire leader. Autocratic process is when a leader makes decisions without consulting others; a democratic process includes members in its decision process; while Laissez-faire is a style where members are given freedom to do work. Democratic and Laissez-faire are models that I agree with because both give importance to the work of others and these are the models of leadership I will use as a leader. This is parallel to correcting my weakness of lack of people building skills. A democratic leadership, which I hope to assume, is explained as a style wherein members of the group take a participative role in the decision process. This style, I believe increases the morale of the group and will lead to completion of the set objectives satisfactorily. Since the members of the group share ideas, necessarily, they are more involved and committed, and interested to see end results. However, I see the inefficiency of this style is when the roles given to members are unclear, or that the members do not have the necessary skills to make the necessary work contribution. ii. Why should anyone be led by you? I believe I am a good leader. I am knowledgeable in my job. I am willing to impart this knowledge to my team so that together we will be able to attain our mission. The success of our team will be my accomplishment as a leader, because without their support, nothing is gained. I do not lead because of power gained thru my position, nor coerce them to work by giving punishment or reward. I am cheerful, and my friends say, I possess charisma, they believe what I say and this influences them to follow me. In any organization that I have joined in my community, people always recognizes me as a leader because of my enthusiasm to correct things and make valuable contributions (not money) to improve our organization. I always ascribe for truth and honesty so people trust me. I think trust is earned, and when there is trust, loyalty to the leader follows. As a leader my strengths are my social influence, job knowledge, and integrity, and because of these, team members will be willing to be led by me iii. Which needs the most work – professional humility and/or professional will? I had difficulty in searching for the meaning of professional will. But following the dictionary meaning of professional that explains professional an expert, the terms professional will is how the leader develop her profession by administering it to others.(My own understanding) What I mean here, is the leader has a professional will to teach his team member how to do things appropriately. He is not afraid that by imparting his knowledge, the team member might surpass him because the leader has self-confidence. The term Professional humility presupposes meekness and lack of self confidence. But I believe meekness should not be judged as being inferior. They are just leaders who assumed professional humility; they just do great jobs but avoid public hero worship and never boast of their accomplishments. By this differentiation, I believe professional will needs more work because of the efforts to be exerted in demonstrating his will to reach others, while professional humility comes naturally from the character of the person. ii. The next best two – you have written on two of your “top one” essays from The Blue Book. Now provide a concise overview of your next best two essay through section three of the book. i. In a more concise review than your weekly reviews, discuss the following: a. What is the author(s)’ central lesson? Tichy and Bennis wrote about the importance of judgment calls in an organization. The central lesson speaks of Judgment calls being too significant in an organization because it can either affect the success or failure of an organization; or change the life of the leader. Judgment calls can either make or break a leader. Being ready all the time prepares a leader for contingencies in case crisis or opportunities come by. Being prepared, authors believe, limits the risks of a wrong call. b. Provide a critical review of the essay – why does it matter? Tichy and Bennis are both management professors and their insights on judgment calls provide clearer understanding of how to manage them. To these authors, a good judgment call does not come from luck, instinct or common sense, rather it is a three part process that involves preparing, calling and execution. The essay starts with the importance of making judgment calls both in the personal lives of people and in the organizations. Tichy and Benny asserted that good judgment cannot be done hastily; and in order to have a good one, leader must involve people and design a strategy, make a research on all aspects of the environment, then make a decision. In executing decisions, after getting stakeholders involved, leader must make sure that it is communicated and explained to all concerned. Leader must accept feedbacks and be ready to redo the process if necessary. To me, accepting feedbacks is humility, and a trait a leader must develop. Several examples provided in the book illustrated how judgment calls affected lives of leaders. The topic matters to me because a wrong judgment call can prove to be disastrous to the company, to the lives of people involved and can either end the career of the leader in the organization. Cited example in the book showed a CEO being fired because of wrong decision and the Board of Directors are being blamed for hiring her. It was a wrong decision in the first place to hire her because of her lack of knowledge. I have the same opinion with the Tichy and Bennis when they said not all judgment calls needs to be correct, but a leader should always make the right calls on big choices like strategy and talent. The phases of judgment process in the presentation of the said authors illustrated presentation phase, call phase, and execution wherein each phase has challenges and opportunities. The preparation phase, I think requires a lot of consideration because this is the time that a leader senses something critical has to be solved. Here, leader needs to plan and strategize before plunging into a call. A good strategy means a leader must find a new way when the organization is leading to a wrong direction. In an example that illustrated all the steps, authors were able to demonstrate the significance of a good judgment call. To me, this article projected well the scenarios that a leader must face in either direction. They were able to present with convictions cases when a leader does not follow the proper process or to correct and redo the process if there is something wrong. c. How is the essay relevant to you and your development? The essay bodes well how a leader must act under a crisis situation. The texts in the article provided me with a perfect insight not to depend only on my ability, but rather to scan the environment, search and ask questions. The examples they cited are true stories that demonstrated the good and bad experiences of a judgment calls. The leadership judgment framework these authors developed will help me build up the ability of my team and the book itself inspires me. It has helped in my development as my awareness grew that being a leader, I need to rely on others too, have the right people, develop them, communicate, and be ready for the changes in the environment as new opportunities arise. Works cited: ALA. Leadership Traits. American Library Association. 2014. Web. 02 May 2014 Bennett, Kristin. What is Meant by Transformational Leadership. Small Business. Chron. 2014. Web. 27 Aug. 2014 Economy Peter. 7 Traits of Highly Effective Leaders . INC. 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 27 Aug. 2014Cherry, Kendra. Leadership Theories. The Eight Major Leadership Theories. Psychology. About.com., 2014. Web. April 27, 2014 Cohen, A. William. Drucker on Leadership: New Lessons from the Father of Management. Safari Books online, n.d. Web. 27, April 2014 Mielach, David. Forget Likability — Leadership All About Power and Prestige. Business Daily News. 19 Dec. 2012. Web. 27,April 2014 Nandan, Kesari. Theories of Leadership. Slideshare.net. June 22, 2012. Web. 27 April 2014. Kruse, Kevin. What is Leadership. Forbes , April 9, 2013. Web. April 27, 2014 Tichy, Noel, M and Bennis, Warren, G. Making Judgment Calls. Harvard Business Review. Oct. 2007. Web. 02 May, 2014 Tschieseche, Katrin. Essential People Skills You need to help and develop others. Bookboon blog. July 24, 2012. Web. 28 April. 2014 Read More