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4 approaches to leadership
Approach to leadership
Leadership: theory and practice 7 ed
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Introduction:
In preparation for a leadership position, one must gain additional knowledge as it pertains to different situations, interactions with employees, and within the organization. This essay will focus on four areas; organizational life style, the readiness of employees in different situations as well as gain an understanding of characteristics associated with leadership, and explain the need to consider all that is involved in leadership when in a leadership role.
Overview:
In the movie Apollo 13, the support team of people working in Houston’s Mission Control was presented with the task in solving a life threating catastrophic event in space with the hope of retuning the crew back to earth safely. In directing the support team to
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This essay presents five separate phases with each phase offering different challenges for leadership. According to Boulgarides and Cohen the five phases include Innovation, Transition, Growth, Consolidation and Adaptation. The life cycle affect the leadership approach and calls upon different leadership styles throughout each phase. Leadership style is defined as “the relatively consistent pattern of behavior that characterizes a leader” Boulgarides, J. D., & Cohen, W. A. (2001). According to Northouse there are four distinct leadership styles; directing, coaching, supporting and delegating. Each style provides different levels of directive behaviors and supportive behaviors which provide communication, level of comfort for social and emotional support. Northouse, P. G. …show more content…
Each style; Authoritarian/Autocratic, Participative/Democratic, and Delegative Leadership offer time and place applications. The Democratic approach appears to be the most effective approach as the leader is an active participant. Cherry, K. (2016, October 5). Looking more into a leader as a person, Forbes examined qualities that make a great leader highlighting “honesty” as the number one quality of a leader. Additional qualities included communication, positive attitude, and ability to make hard decisions round out the list of essential qualities Prive, T.
Leadership is centred on balancing the followers and the situation. There were different displays of leadership in this case. It is also important to note that leaders do not have to use force but influence. Making decision, managing change and dealing with conflict was demonstrated by the leader of the crew Apollo 13 who was Jim Lovell. There were other leader roles such as Gene the head of the ground crew. Also Marilyn Lovell played a part of a leadership in her own side as she had more experience than any of the other wives. This was her fourth launch so she knew what was expected and Mary Fred wife willingly followed her lead.
On April 13, 1970, NASA's Mission Control heard the five words that no control center ever wants to hear: "We've got a problem here." Jack Swigert, an astronaut aboard the Apollo 13 aircraft, reported the problem of broken down oxygen tanks to the Houston Control Center, less than two days after its takeoff on April 11th. Those at the Control Center in Houston were unsure what had happened to the spacecraft, but knew that some sort of explosion had occurred. This so-called explosion sent Apollo 13 spinning away from the Earth at 2,000 miles per hour, 75 percent of the way to the moon. In order to get the astronauts back to the Earth's atmosphere would be to utilize the moon's gravitational pull and send them back towards home, like a slingshot. However, this procedure would require three days, and this demanded more oxygen and electricity than the crew had available to them. Eugene "Gene" Kranz, head of this flight mission, although looking on in horror, began thinking of solutions to the problem immediately after the Controls were aware of the problem on board. Knowing that the options of refueling the spacecraft with oxygen or retrieve the astronauts himself, he needed to think of a strategy for a safe return. In this sense, if his solution fails, it could result in the biggest catastrophe in NASA history.
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
It holds that various situations require different leadership styles to result in effective outcomes. According to this school of thought, it is the assessment of the competence, as well as the commitment of the leader’s subjects that makes the whole practice a success. As a result, a leader should access the two factors before deciding on either directive or supportive form of management.
The best characteristics for an effective leader are integrity, passion, patience, transparency, innovation, and a good listener (active listening). It is imperative that the leader possess these characteristics to provide competent/effective leadership. As noted earlier a leader influences (motivates) the team to
Organizations are social entities that are goal directed, are designed as deliberately structured and coordinate activity systems and are linked to the external environment. They are made up of people and their relationships to one another. This becomes really important throughout an organization’s life cycle. An organizational life cycle is the idea that orgs are born, they grow older, and then they die. Daft says things like organizational structure, leadership style, and administrative systems follow a predictable pattern throughout the stages of this life cycle. There are four phases of an organizational life cycle. They are the infancy phase, the adolescence phase, the middle aged phase, and the maturity phase. Each phase have their own unique characteristics in term off their goals, size, and structure. What is also unique to each phase is the type of leader it takes to successfully get through it. There are many different leadership styles and tactics and there is no one best way to be a leader in any of these phases. Often times, the type of leader needed is based on the situation. But there are general attributes to each phase that allows one to determine what type or types of leadership style would best suit the organization.
On April 10th James "Jim" Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise embarked on one of the most historic missions in NASA history. Three days later on April 13th, while performing a routine stir on the O2 tanks, the Apollo 13 mission suffered a terrible electrical malfunction and was forced to make an emergency return mission. The movie has forever contributed two phrases to our everyday cultural vocabulary, "Houston we have a problem", communicated by Jim Lovell, and "Failure is not an option", voiced by Gene Kranz.
A person’s title within the organization does not make them a leader. The driving factor which determines if someone is in a leader position is their behavior. This person who is a leader will guide those in the organization by influencing, guiding, giving direction, and opinions (Marquis & Huston, 2012). The culture as well as the climate of an organization begins with the leadership (Azaare & Gross, 2011). Each individual person has their own leadership style. Knowing one’s own leadership style will help them understand themselves and be able to grow as a leader. The purpose of this paper is to look at my own leadership style, including my strengths for leading others. A description of a potential challenge that I foresee due to my leadership style and a plan for my personal leadership development will be discussed.
After completing the “Leadership Style Questionnaire” and analyzing my results, I have learned what my preferred leadership style is and how that influences how I lead and may be perceived from members of the group. From the results attained from the questionnaire, my preferred style of leadership is directing. This type of leadership style is best for individuals who have a low competency and high commitment level. These types of leaders are highly focused on tasks and less focused on relationships. They make decisions without consulting with the group and communicate without regarding the group’s concerns or suggestions. This type of leader also supervises the followers intently. They are very successful in creating objectives for each follower and the group as a whole to guide the group in reaching a certain goal.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
The leadership is a privilege and it is such a privilege and an honor which will carry the tremendous responsibility which will inspire others to direct them to accomplish goals and vision of the organization. Leadership is about influencing the people, by producing direction, purpose and motivating in order to accomplish the mission, vision and improving the organization. The leadership philosophy is evolved based on the experiences, both positive and negative, in most of the initiatives and activities that we undertake. It is also one among the collaboration and teamwork within which the team members can utilize each other’s strengths to counter the weaknesses of the individuals. By observing, introspecting and experimenting we can developed a leadership paradigm which is inclusive, collaborative and proactive. We can develop the ability to recognize which will approach in order to reach the productive conclusion. The great leaders know their limitations and are capable at utilize their strengths and also the strengths of others to compensate.
Many Scholars characterize the core qualities and skills necessary for an effective leader. Useem defines leadership as “Creating a vision and translating that vision into actions”. Historically, an effective leader was assumed to be exceptionally knowledgeable, authoritative, and dominate. Those leaders applied the command and control method to lead an organization. With the passage of time, this definition has been changed. The modern definition of an effective leader is honest, courageous, trustworthy, inspirational, and result-oriented. Today’s leaders create shared values and vision, and empower others to achieve their targets.
”Leadership involves the exhibition of style or behavior by managers or supervisors while dealing with subordinates; leadership is a critical determinant of the employees ' actions toward the achievement of the organizational goals” (Saeed, Almas, Anis-ul-Haq, & Niazi, 2014). Leadership is a strength that initiates, inspires, and guides the cooperation and attitudes of others on the way to set vision. Leadership is influential and involves several styles of approaches that involve trust, accomplishment and focus to reach a projected result. Using and implementing the ideas of others motivates new thinking and gains the confidence to build the trust and encourage everyone to work to the same goals (Northouse,
In this paper I will look at the four major leadership styles, their characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, and in what situations a particular leadership style is desired. Additionally, I will look at my leadership style and how I acquired this style throughout my career.
The most important quality that differentiates a leader from other people is the ability to think strategically. Vision is the most important aspect that drives a leader’s strategy. It is all about where you want to be. Other qualities include Decision making, problem solving, time management, self-motivation, emotional intelligence and many more. Once we know the type of leadership, it is easy to find what leadership skills we have and which we need to develop which is explained in the book “Leadership: Theory, application, skill development (5th ed.) by Lussier and Achua.” Also, Keirsey Style Sorter personality type helps to knowing our temperament type, and work on our weakness and to emerge out as a good leader.