Transformational Leadership and Managing Conflict - Essay Example

Leadership Table of Content Part Personal Development Plan 3 OBJECTIVE ONE: COMMUNICATION 5 OBJECTIVE 2: TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 6 OBJECTIVE 3: MANAGING CONFLICT 8 OBJECTIVE 4: VALUING AND SUPPORTING STAFFS 9 Part 2: Reflective Rationale 11 An Introduction: Why I could not achieve my goals 11 What all need to be done to achieve those goals. 12 Supporting theory & evidences 17 Bibliography 22 Part 1: Personal Development Plan In the modern times competition has increased manifold in almost all the sectors, and everyone is trying hard to reach the pinnacle of excellence. Such sojourn is possible only if one maintains a continuous development strategy which will not only overcome the shortcomings but also enhance the strength one has. Soon I will be part of the corporate world where I need to compete hard to attain success; hence it becomes imperative to identify the weakness and make necessary amendments so that it no longer remains a hurdle in the path to success. Therefore I have devised a plan that will enhance my strengths so that they become my core competency thereby assisting me to survive in this highly completive world. Before framing the development plan I have decided to conduct a SWOT analysis which will help me to recognize those areas that requires special attention. SWOT helped me to understand not only my strengths and weaknesses but also gave a brief idea regarding the opportunities and threat which I am likely to face from the prevailing market scenario. Down the line five years I have a plan to be the head of Human Resource Management in one of a multinational company where I have to manage people from different backgrounds and different cultures. For handling the job responsibility I need to enhance my leadership skill and have to overcome the weaknesses as soon as possible. Considering my strengths and weaknesses I have decided to learn more regarding communication, transformational leadership, managing conflict, and valuing & supporting staffs. I know that my plan is to develop a long term plan so that the existing loopholes can be removed. I decided to make a three year plan within that time I can develop my self and make myself capable of handling the job responsibility of an affective HRM in a multinational company. It is a know fact that to attain success during implementations of a project, the plan should be broken down in small segment and one by one each part should be implemented. After one part of the plan is successfully implemented, I will go to the next one. I also have a plan to maintain records of my achievement in form of different charts and flow diagrams. This will be of great importance because with the help of this charts if can understand what I was suppose of attain and what is my real achievement. The gap between plan and real achievement will help me to understand where the progresses got deviated and what remedial actions need to be taken for smooth progress of the plan. This documentation will help me to understand that whether I successfully attained my goals or if not then because of which factors my plan failed. This learning is of great importance because whenever will make the plan in the future I will take care of all these factors. The success of the manager depends on how well one can plan, implement and control the process, so my learning plan, its execution and controlling activity will give me the experience which will be highly valuable in my future life. For all the four fields namely communication, transformational leadership, conflict management and valuing and staff development I made separate plans so that I can allocate individual effort on achieving my goals and can also review who well the plan is progressing. OBJECTIVE ONE: COMMUNICATION Goals: My first aim is to enhance the communication power and to learn more regarding corporate communication style within the time frame of three years. Actions: to gather more information regarding professional mode of communication. Job activities: learning regarding vertical and horizontal communicational channels, who they work and best application of these channels in organisation for smooth functioning of the activities. Personal Activities where appropriate: gathering more information from friends, teachers and internet. People to contact: a person who provides communication classes to the professionals and my teachers who handles communication as a subject. The one who are already working in a good organisation in the HR department can provide a guideline. Information to gather: about different tools for written communication in the organisation and also information about oral communication mode. Resources to find: good books which provide enough information about this topic, any school which provides classes on communication and the online tutorials. Possible obstacles: timing of the classes may not match, good books may be too costly and out of my budget, my current daily schedule may not permit to devote enough time to practice what I learn on regular basis. Ways of overcoming them: search for different schools which offer more flexible timing, more use of E-Books and online journals to save money and preparation of a time table so that at least some time can be given for practising my daily lessons. Evidence of success: feel of confidence while communicating with strangers, better knowledge of the words and tones followed in workplace. Date of interim review: on monthly basis. Conclusion / Summary for each objective: the progress was measures on monthly basis and a chart was maintain to understand where thing are moving as per the plan or not. OBJECTIVE 2: TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP Goals: understand what does transformation leadership means and how one can apply it in the workplace. Actions: develop in-depth understanding of the most contemporary leadership style and its proper implicating. Job activities: understanding the characteristic of transitional leaders, the way they handle their subordinates and their decision making style. Personal Activities where appropriate: practicing the leadership style of transitional leaders in day to day life. People to contact: the teacher who takes the classes of leadership and the manager who follow this leadership style in their organisation. Information to gather: bibliography of different leaders who have followed transitional leadership to understand the advantages and downfall in their leadership patter. Resources to find: different books which offers in-depth knowledge about transitional leaders, online tutorials and bibliography of successful leaders who applied transitional approach. Possible obstacles: difficulty to understand the skills related to transitional leadership style, the matter may sound too theoretical and difficult to understand. Ways of overcoming them: taking help of the teachers and the known HR persons who are applying this leadership style in their organisation. Evidence of success: growing interest in the subject and the ability to identify the skills which results in transitional leadership style. Date of interim review: ones I complete the biography of a successful leader I will try to analyse what knowledge I gathered regarding this particular leadership style, the theoretical aspect and its practical application and no regular interval can be planned. Conclusion / Summary for each objective: the progress was measures on monthly basis and a chart was maintain to understand where thing are moving as per the plan or not. OBJECTIVE 3: MANAGING CONFLICT Goals: To operate in any team or any organization, one has to face conflicts and as leader it is my responsibility to handle those conflicts and let them not to destroy the organization or the work culture. Actions: to enhance the conflict managing technique Job activities: learn about different reasons which ends in conflicts, developing in-depth knowledge regarding group behaviour and group dynamics, different tools to handle the conflict and also different problem which emerges out due to conflict taking place in workplaces. Personal Activities where appropriate: keep a keen eye to identify the factors which often leads to conflict between group member. People to contact: the union leaders of any organisation which have a strong grip on his group can provide a lot of knowledge regarding negotiation, bargaining and handling of conflict as and when it occurs. Information to gather: knowledge about different factors which results in conflicts and the policies to be adopted to handle conflict in a neutral manner. Resources to find: books with chapter on conflict management, negotiation, bargaining, group dynamics and group behaviour. Books on human psychology and organisational behaviours are also helpfully. Possible obstacles: unavailability of good books, the psychology books may appear too technical to understand, difficulty to coordinate between theories and practical application. Ways of overcoming them: taking more practical approach toward the topics and taking help of the professions who deals with psychological matters. Evidence of success: if with passage of time I find that I can understand the root cause that leads to conflict it will be the sign of success to me because according to the cause I will be able to develop the remedial actions. Date of interim review: as the total duration of the plan is three years but after a 6 month the progress need to be evaluated. Conclusion / Summary for each objective: solving the conflict need more practical experience and the loopholes found during each review need to be documented and further efforts to be applied to overcome. OBJECTIVE 4: VALUING AND SUPPORTING STAFFS Goals: to learn who to value and support the organisational employees so that the organisation can function in smooth and progressive manner. Actions: to learn the techniques through which employees can be values and supported as and when required. Job activities: enhancing the knowledge regarding different tools to value the performance of the employees, to find out the existing gap between the job skills required and the ability of the employees to fulfil them, technique to develop an effective training program for the employees Personal Activities where appropriate: developing an understanding regarding different types of training approach followed in many developing organisations. People to contact: the HR policy developers are be contacted to understand which factors need to be taken into consideration while one develop a training plan, Information to gather: different books can be followed to understand the type of training programs and their effective utilisation for enhancing productivity of the employees. Information regarding different tools for appraising the performance of the employees can be used to determine the existing need for training. Online journals regarding this topic can be affective. Going through interview of different CEO of successful multinational organisational will give quite useful information. Resources to find: books, online journals and interviews of CEO of different multinational companies. Possible obstacles: as the training approach may varies from organisational to organisation depending on the size of the company I might get confused which type of training or appraisal methods are more beneficial. The theory and practical application may be contradictory and confusing. Ways of overcoming them: instead of paying importance to the type of training, by giving more emphasis on the condition because of which the managers adopt choose a particular type of training program will be more beneficial for me. Evidence of success: the more I will understand the methods, through which I can appraise the employees, the more I will gain confidence to motivate them for performing better. Date of interim review: after I will be on job, the feedback of my subordinates will be a good source to analyse my progresses, so such feedbacks will be collected after an interval of three months. Conclusion / Summary for each objective: the gradual progress of whole plan will be based on the feel back from my subordinate. Initially I will maintain a chart from where I can understand the gradual progress of plan. Part 2: Reflective Rationale An Introduction: Why I could not achieve my goals Everybody has his or her own goals and the respective plans to achieve the same. As I would be joining the corporate world, it is very much important to have certain pre-specified goals, as I have. There can be some obstacles which can come on the way of achieving those goals. Sometimes I set goals, which are not so realistic in nature. Sometime it happen that I set a goal as well as the procedures to achieve the same, but somehow it happen that after sometimes the plan goes on toss. Another problem with me is my timelines. I set a timeline to achieve my goals but most of times I miss the pre set timelines and stretch out it more and more. Quantifying the goals is very much necessary to measure one’s performance. Sometimes the situation does not allow me to achieve my goals. For an example I was all set for my examinations. I studied the whole term following a strict routine; but unfortunately I fell sick on the D day. The goal was in place, the procedures and planning were all in place; but somehow the unfortunate situation did not allow me to achieve my goals. Weaknesses would be there, but I am not afraid of those. I would like to face them and go on every possible way to transform them to my strengths. What all need to be done to achieve those goals. I have given a thought on how I will be able to achieve my goals without much hassle. I have listed down some of the do’s which should be done to achieve the goal within the pre specified time period; these are articulated below. Setting up realistic as well as challenging goals: Identifying what I want and focusing on the same is the very first step towards attaining those goals. I always try to set the aim big enough to motivate and challenge me; but at the same time I must take care that the goal must not be big enough to put me in dilemma to take the very first step. Plan at the forefront The path to reach at the aimed goal needs to be defined clearly; the plan needs to be planned in such a way that the outcome must be the achievement of the goal within the timeline. Sometimes, even it happens to me also; I am about to touch my goal and that time I could not find or decide which way I should move on. So defining the steps as well as deciding on certain deadlines for those respective steps can help in such a course. Other ideas I prefer brainstorming myself in the thought that if there are any other ways to reach at my goal. Does not really matter if those roads ahead seem to be impractical or impossible, but one should think about new innovative ideas. Learning from the experience of others No one can direct me the path better than those who have achieved the goal what I wish to achieve. Experience matters a lot; I always try to learn from the experienced ones without replicating them. Defining and describing the goals One must be quite so aware of the goal, he or she wants to achieve and what are the reasons behind such aims to put on. Thinking about these and the feelings which one would feel when he or she would achieve the same can motivate oneself from the core of the heart. Being optimistic The optimism is very much needed in achieving the goals. Sometimes I have seen people who believe that they can attain their objectives and that belief make them go on and to really achieve those goals, they thought of. Contingency plans It happened to me that sometimes I just do not take into account those, which can come on the way of performance as per my planning. In such a scenario, a contingency plan works; one always needs to think about the problem those could come as obstacles to achieve those goals. Positive thinking is very much needed but preparedness is much better than to get confounded by the probable obstacles. Learning from previous mistakes Human beings are meant to do mistakes. So avoiding them can not be as fruitful as getting knowledge how to take learning from the mistakes. Mistakes are important from the point of view that they made us avoid the same in future and led us toward the attainment of goals. Drawing on all the past experiences which are quite relevant to this goal Reliving all those past experiences, which are important aspects respect to the attainment of this goal, can help towards the achievement of the current achievement. Does not matter how small those experiences are, those are important. Personal and professional strengths Thinking about the personal as well as professional strengths would inject confidence level within a person. I always think about how my personal strengths can become relative towards the procedures and planning I have done to attain my goals. Relating the strengths to the current goal path can be beneficial by bringing up confidence as well as having more idea about the procedures. Transforming the weaknesses Every person has certain weaknesses, same with me. I always try not to make these weaknesses come on my way to the attainment of my aim. That is why I always try to remove those weak links and transform into my strengths. Seeking help Seeking help from the peers can help oneself to the attainment of the goals. Speeding up my learning process from books, audio, video programs as well as from the other achievers can facilitate the process. Creating benchmarks Having a benchmark is quite important; through which can measure the goals as well as make me be on track, always. Sometimes creating short term benchmarks to reach at long term goal can be helpful. Zeroing down on timeline Deciding on a timeline for achieving the goals is very much needed. Drawing up a timeline with many short term timelines can make us know which have been achieved and which are to be achieved. When I will be able to achieve any short time goal, then that will increase my satisfaction and hence increase the confidence level. Being passionate What goal one has, only being passionate about the same can help some body to attain the same. Striving towards the aim without passion often results in being out of energy in the long run. Evaluate the goals and the procedures It is better to have documentation of the long term goals as well as the short term ones. Sometimes re-evaluating the goals as well as the goal path will let us know if there is any modifications need to be done. Considering new opportunities those come the way Sometimes things come to our way. We might not have thought the goal path including these opportunities; but the procedures must be flexible enough to mould as per the opportunities. These opportunities even can take us closer to our goals before the timeline. Working towards the goal The very moment a person has decided on his goal as well as on the procedures to be maintained, he should start working on the same. Always passion needs to be there to get the goals as soon as possible. Perseverance It is important to have the momentum going. Some stages can seem more exciting than others. That does not mean we will just perform those steps which excite us; every step should be done with the same passion, same motivation. Summarizing all of the steps means that the goal should be chased with utter passion, planning and perseverance. Sometimes things can be easier having some new opportunities ahead or sometime the road ahead will be tougher having some more obstacles on the way; in every way the aim must be in place. While planning for the attainment of the goals, contingency plans as well as evaluating the procedures are most important parts in achieving the goals. Supporting theory & evidences Leadership has been defined by many scholars in different ways, as defined by Hesselbein and Cohen (1999) “Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do” (Rigolosi, 2005, p.82). In nutshell leader is a person who can motivate the followers to achieve a common goal, and the leaders take care of team dynamics to retain the efficiency of the group. The important components of leadership are discussed below: Communication: “Communication is a dynamic process in which people attempt to share their internal states with other people through the use of symbols” (Samovar, et al., 2009, p.16). Many authors regarded it as ongoing process where information flows from one point to another (Norton & Brenders, 1996, p.18). Transformational leadership: “Transformational leadership is the comprehensive and integrated leadership capacities required of individuals, groups, or organizations to produce transformation as evidenced by step-functional improvement” (Hacker & Roberts, 2003, p.3). A transitional leader sets him as an ideal for the subordinate to emulate and motivates them to transform the organisational goal into their personal goal. (Bass & Riggio, 2006, p.123). Managing conflict: Gardiner & Simons (1992) defined conflict as “divergence of interest between the individuals, groups or even organisation regarding tasks, activities or processes” (Fryer, et al., 2004, p.93). Organisations are facing severe problems due to the increasing number of cases of conflict, as it reduces the productivity and the work quality of the employees. So organisations ask their HR managers to handle the conflict which is among the employees. For inter organisational conflict third parties are hired from outside the organisation (Wallensteen, 2007, p.47). Valuing & Staff development: Valuing the staff refers to “committing to their satisfaction, development, and their wellbeing” (Hertz, 2006, p.2). In order to value the staff, the manager introduces more flexibility in the organisational structure. This helps them to attain high performance at work because the work environment is tailored in such a manner so that staff members can fulfil requirement of work as well as of the personal life (Hertz, 2006, p.2). Through staff development a manager analyses existing gap between the requirement of the job and the present performance of the staff members. If the manager finds a discrepancy existing between these two, he arranges for appropriate training programs (on job as well as off job), he tries to motivate them through different motivational tools and also ensures that the staff members develop themselves to take higher job responsibility after getting promoted to the next level (Zepeda, 1999, p.2-3). There are several staff (professional) development programme available but the management should have an in-depth knowledge regarding its proper utilization (Janosik, 2003, p.93). Back in the year of 1953 a study was conducted on goal settings at the Yale University in USA. The study was mostly conducted in graduate students and the outcome was that only a trivial number of students have taken necessary steps to set the goals successfully. The remaining, which was 97%, did not possess any specific goal; they had general goals which was not defined precisely. After 20 years of that incident, one study, following up that previous one had been conducted among the same students, who were apparently not students then. They were asked questions about their heath, wealth etc. A huge part of the answers was subjective in nature. One of these areas, wealth of each, was measurable. The result was quite interesting. The 3 % of the students, those were very much precise about their goals, were in possession of much more than those of the remaining ones. As per Jim Rohn, a good goal must be SMART; that means a goal must be specific in terms. Some vague descriptive general goal can be distracting. The goal must be measurable as well as attainable. The goal must be challenging and inspiring, but at the same time achievable enough to chase for the same. The goal must be realistic. Having a goal which may be very challenging but not unrealistic in the current scenario can be destructive. Only a time sensitive goal can be put in forward, so that the achievement can be measurable within a certain time limit. The goal setting theory has given a specific structure to the goal, as which the goal can be achieved and that too within a certain time limit. The goal needs to be precise and to the point as well as time oriented. Reference Bass, M. B. & Riggio, E. R. 2006. Transformational leadership. 2nd ed. Routledge. Chance, L. P. & Chance, W. E. 2002. Introduction to educational leadership & organizational behavior: theory into practice. Eye on Education. Changing Minds. 2010. Transformational Leadership. [Online]. Available at: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/styles/transformational_leadership.htm [Accessed on January 30, 2010]. Fryer, G. B., Ellis,R. & Egbu, C. 2004. The practice of construction management: people and business performance. 4th ed. Wiley-Blackwell. Hacker, S. & Roberts, T. 2003. Transformational leadership: creating organizations of meaning. American Society for Qualit. Hertz, S. H. 2006. Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence: Baldrige National Quality Program. DIANE Publishing. Janosik, M. S. 2003. Supervising new professionals in student affairs: a guide for practitioners. Routledge Mental Health. McNamara, C. 2010. Clarifying Confusion About Conflict. [Online]. Available at: http://managementhelp.org/intrpsnl/basics.htm [Accessed on January 30, 2010]. Norton, R. & A. D. 1996. Brenders. Communication and consequences: laws of interaction. Routledge. Rigolosi, M. L. E. 2005. Management and leadership in nursing and health care: an experiential approach. 2nd ed. Springer Publishing Company. Samovar, A. S., Porter, E. R. & McDaniel, R. E. 2009. Communication Between Cultures. 7th ed. Cengage Learning. Wallensteen, P. 2007. Understanding conflict resolution: war, peace and the global system. Zepeda, J. S. 1999. Staff development: practices that promote leadership in learning communities. Eye on Education. Bibliography CIOS. 2002. Conflict Management. [Online]. Available at:http://www.cios.org/encyclopedia/conflict/index.htm [Accessed on January 30, 2010]. Haughey, D. 2010. SMART Goals. [Online]. Available at: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals.html [Accessed on January 30, 2010]. Jrank. No Date. Goal-Setting theory. [Online]. Available at: http://www.jrank.org/business/pages/669/goal-setting-theory.html [Accessed on January 30, 2010]. Appendix After conducting the SWOT analysis I have realised my strengths and weaknesses in a more meticulous form. My biggest strength is my pleasant personality which identifies me from the rest. However while communicating with people I often feel nervous and fail to carry on the conversation for longer time periods. I have realised that I need to take necessary steps to improve my communication skill so that I do not lose confidence while communicating with unknown people. The second strength which I have noticed is my inherent desire to come up and take responsibilities irrespective of the situation. I have an innate urge to lead the group but many a times I have failed to manage the conflicts taking place between the group members wherein the situation has gone out of control. Hence I need to learn more about the leadership skills so that I can to handle the conflict in a better way. I can get friendly with people very easily and thereby develop an emotional bondage, which I think is one of my strength. However sometime it results in certain problems wherein people try to exploit me. Therefore in future when I will be working at managerial level I need to be a bit more cautious and adopt a more professional approach. Hence I am planning to learn how to manage people and to support the staff members as and when they need assistance. Read More