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Personal Philosophy and Theory of Leadership (Theories of Leadership…
Personal Philosophy and Theory of Leadership
Theories of Leadership
"Great Man" Theories: This is the idea that leaders were born with certain heroic leadership traits and natural abilities of power and influence. The idea is that a single "Great Man" would put everything together and get everyone to follow along because of their inherent traits.
Trait Theories: It was believed that if leadership traits could be determined, leaders could be predicted, or trained.
Behavior Theories: Researchers looked at how a leader behaved toward followers and how this correlated with leadership effectiveness or ineffectiveness.
Contingency Theories: The idea behind contingency theories is that leaders can analyze their situations and tailor their behavior to improve leadership effectiveness. Leaders cannot be understood in a vacuum separate from what is going on around them.
Influence Theories: This examines the process between leaders and followers. A primary study is the charismatic leader which focuses not on position or rank, but qualities and personality of the leader. Leadership Vision is another area of study in this theory, the leader will inspire followers with a inspiring vision of the future shaping the culture and values needed to attain it.
I believe many of these are good theories, but no one is correct. To determine a good leader you made need to incorporate a few of these theories. I feel the influence theories are closest to being able to stand on their own. You want a leader that gets followers because they have great qualities, morals, and a great personality, and you want a leader that can inspire others with their vision.
What is Leadership?
It is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes and outcomes that reflect their shared purpose.
What does Leadership mean to me?
I believe that a leader will not waiver in the face of adversity. I believe they have a strong drive, have an open mind, a look for the best in every situation. A good leader will find a way to learn and to help their team learn with each success and failure.
The Leader as an Individual
What does the individual leader need to be successful?
Self Awareness: One needs to be concious of their internal nature, such as their traits, emotions, values, attitudes, and perceptions. And understanding how their actions and patterns affect other people.
Blind Spots: All leaders will have blind spots, this can hurt their effectiveness, and get in the way of their career success. To avoid this I believe that leaders need to be open to criticism, and be able to learn from what others around them view and see in them.
The Big 5 personality dimensions: Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Open to experience.
A good leader will need to be well off in all of these areas in my opinion. They must be able to be talkative and social and be willing to meet new people. Also they must be able to get a long with others by being trusting and understanding. Furthermore they must be reliable, dependent, and achievement oriented. A leader must be well adjusted, calm, and secure with themselves. Finally a good leader will be open to new ideas and have the ability to be creative.
Locus of Control: is whether a person places the primary responsibility for what happens to them, within themselves or on outside forces. A good leader needs to have a strong locus of control. Being able to accept responsibility and not push blame onto others is key. Understanding that outside forces may play a role in how things turn out, but are not the sole reason for success or failure.
Values: A leader must have good values that they stand by and other will feel comfortable getting behind as well.
End Values: these are beliefs about the kinds of goals or outcomes that are worth trying to pursue. A leader must have a grasp on this so they have a clear vision and people know where their leader is trying to take them.
Instrumental values: beliefs about the types of behavior that are appropriate for reaching goals. A leader must have strong instrumental values, understanding the kind of behavior needed to achieve short and long term goals is crucial for a leader.
Theory X or Y?
Theory X is the idea that people are naturally lazy and not motivated to work and they have a tendency to avoid Responsibility.
Theory Y is the idea that people do not inherently dislike work, and they will commit themselves willingly to work that they care about.
I believe that theory Y is the approach that managers need to take. This would mean they are often more relationship oriented, which I believe to be a good thing in the work place. Building strong relationships with your subordinates can go a long way. If you view you subordinates this way, they will feel the trust you have in them and want to go above and beyond for the cause, and the overall vision.
Is Communication important to Leadership?
Communication Champion: is a person who is philosophi-cally grounded in the belief that communication is essential to building trust and gaining commitment to a vision. Communication is key to success in any endeavor and even more so as a leader. A leader needs to be a Communication Champion in order to get what they want out of their followers.
Embeddedness: This comes from a leader being a communication champion. This means people throughout the organization are united around a common purpose and have a deep understanding of the vision and strategy. This only happens if the leader can clearly communicate the vision and what is expected from each person.
Sensegiving: this is the process of influencing how others make sense of the organization, where they fit within it, and the larger purpose of their work. A leader must be able to sensegive to their followers. If the leader cannot make others see the big picture, and does not clearly have a role for them to fit in, the organization will struggle.
Strategic Conversation: this is communication that takes place across all levels of the organization. About the values, vision and strategic themes that can affect desired outcomes. Leaders must find a way to have these conversations on all levels so that everyone is working in sync towards the same goals and future.
Open Communication: this is leaders sharing all types of information throughout the organization. Leaders need to be open to sharing information with all subordinates. They may end up having a different view point or idea that could really help the company. An open door policy can also help leaders, letting employees know that they can always come talk to you about work, personal life, new ideas etc.
How important is the leaders team?
Team: a unit of two or more people who interact and coordinate their work to accomplish a shared goal or purpose.
Types of Teams: Functional; Cross-Departmental; Special Purpose; and Self-Directed Teams
Functional Teams: a team made up of a supervisor and subordinates in the formal chain of command. This will have 3 or 4 levels of hierarchy.
Cross-Departmental Teams: team made up of members from different functional departments within an organization. This is typically seen for projects that affect multiple areas of the company so many view points are to be considered.
Special Purpose Teams:
team that focuses on a specific purpose of high importance and disbands once the project is completed; sometimes called a project team. Often seen to make organizational changes, or to develop new products or services.
Self-Directed Teams: teams made up of members who work with minimum supervision and rotate jobs to produce a complete product or service.
All of these types of team can be good, depending on the company you are running and what your expectations are. Though in business I found that many areas of the organization can be affected during projects that may have not been seen prior. Because of this I believe that the Cross-departmental team approach is the best fit. That way everyone is in the loop and their will be many eyes and potential for good ideas coming from many angles.
I believe a leader must surround themselves with a good team in order to be successful. In order to do this a leader must find driven and motivated people and avoid the free-rider type. Giving his/her team recognition and the trust to be able to carry out their tasks is key. That will build morale and strong relationships to help the organization achieve its short and long term goals.