Principles and Practices of Leadership and Management - Essay Example

Other cultures seek a more sensitive leader with empathetic and charismatic personalities and strategies. Not just related to cultural dynamics, I must understand the state of employees (as well as myself) if I am go build trust and confidence in my decision-making processes. This is why I felt to discuss my strength as a leader in relation to cultural sensitivity and awareness. I understand that most organizations have diverse populations of workers that hail from different ethnic, regional and just general lifestyle cultures.

All of these individuals have differing beliefs, values and attitudes that must somehow find harmony when working with others in group settings. Fairholm (2009) describes the transformational leadership model, one in which a shared vision and mission must be established, where the leader role models desired behaviours, and also opens effective lines of communication. In order to provide any meaningful feedback or direction, others have to trust in my judgment. As a transformational leader, I must get the whole organisation on board with a singular vision.

Having an understanding of the foundational concepts of long-term orientation, individualism, collectivism, and other important characteristics of diverse employees is highly valuable in understanding how to approach certain cultures. In a collectivist organisation, which is the goal of the transformational leadership model, people appreciate and find personal identity through group membership and social belonging (Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov 2010; Hofstede and Hofstede 2005; Hofstede 2001).

I realise it will be necessary for this type of culture to focus on group rewards, establishing collective rewards, and also promoting better socialisation among tacit and explicit knowledge holders. Understanding both the emotional states of others and their cultural values will assist in develop cohesive vision direction and promoting better work group outcomes. Whilst also providing strengths, I must be critical of my weaknesses. One of these is an inherent ethnocentrism, a belief in the superiority of my own cultural values.

Even though I understand the needs of others, I am sometimes frustrated when what I view as over inter-dependency occurs between organisational members. I do not personally have much of a need for the social condition and belonging within the organisation since I trust in my own competencies and maintain very positive self-esteem. I have reached the self-actualisation stage of development, one that is highly motivated to succeed and do not require the affiliation nearly as strongly as others.

Now, achievement is considered a significant strength in leadership. An achievement-minded leader gets intrinsic self-satisfaction from excellence in a task and reaching a standard of excellence (Kirkpatrick and Locke 1991). However, this over-confidence in my own abilities sometimes translates into frustration or disappointment for those who have not yet achieved the type of confidence that I have earned through experience. This is apparent in my body language, if not my words. It is something I must work on: finding balance between ethnocentrism, self-confidence and finding empathy for others that require more social approvals to build their self-esteem.

A quality-focused leader must appeal to the needs of employees by first motivating and then inspiring followers (Kotter 2001). I have another strength which is excellent communication skills,