Introduction
Leadership style refers to the characteristics of a manager’s approach to engaging with the team. Individual and personal features of the manager, as well as external factors, impact the manager’s leadership style. All managers fulfill the same functions: group organization, decision-making, duty allocation, plan formulation and task assignment, team control, feedback organization, and partnerships with external partners, among other responsibilities. However, these duties cancan performed in various scenarios to the management style. I employ the diplomatic leadership style in my managerial activities.
Diplomatic Leadership
A diplomatic leader is dedicated to helping the team and attempts to impress colleagues in higher positions. This action logic is more focused on acquiring control of one’s own behavior than on controlling external occurrences or other people. By adopting the norms of the group and fulfilling their everyday tasks properly, a leader achieves a more solid position and influence, according to the action logic of this leadership style. Such leaders are incredibly courteous and pleasant, making it difficult for them to provide stimulating feedback to others (Oberthür & Dupont, 2021). Change, with its inevitable conflicts, poses a significant threat to the diplomatic leader, who will often avoid it at all costs, even if it means self-destruction (Aggestam & True, 2021). This type of leader has a lot to offer the team in terms of support.
Diplomats serve as an interpersonal “glue” for their coworkers, ensuring that others’ requirements are met; this is likely why most diplomats work in lower-level management positions, such as supervisors, customer service representatives, or professional nurses. Indeed, according to a survey of 497 managers from various sectors, 80% of all diplomatic leaders were in the lowest levels of management (Al Amiri et al., 2019). In comparison, 80% of all strategic leaders performed at a high level (Al Amiri et al., 2019). This implies that managers who transform their logic of action into a more effective, strategist-like one have a greater likelihood of progress and promotion.
The team perceives the diplomatic style leader as a diplomat who can negotiate and resolve issues when there appear to be no viable options. He bases his decisions on personal interactions and often on personal relationships. However, his adaptability in complicated conditions of commercial communication frequently leads to demagoguery.
A manager’s diplomatic approach often modifies its criteria and directions in response to the evolving scenario. This type of leadership has a demoralizing influence on subordinates. Thus, the plus of the diplomatic style of leadership is that the leader is characterized by extraordinary flexibility and can instantly reorganize his style and tactics according to changing conditions. Additionally, the leader can solve problems that arise during the activity (Cortellazzo et al., 2019). However, the disadvantages of this leadership style are that excessive disingenuousness can badly affect the team and its activities.
Strategies to Develop Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership is one of the most extensively employed kinds of leadership in businesses and organizations. To achieve huge goals, transformational leaders inspire and can produce good change at all levels, from individuals to large organizations. A transformational leadership style encourages and inspires employees to innovate, which leads to corporate development and success. They are concerned with instilling a strong sense of corporate culture, accountability, and autonomy in the workplace. These leaders do not micromanage; instead, they have faith in their colleagues’ abilities to complete tasks. Through coaching and mentoring, this leadership style encourages people to be innovative, think boldly, and suggest fresh ideas.
Establishing Trust
A leader must establish a trustworthy connection with the team to enhance transformational leadership. A team that lacks trust is not truly a team; it is merely a group of people working together, often with poor outcomes. They may disagree about their rights and obligations, fail to share information, and fail to communicate with one another. It makes no difference how skilled and brilliant employees are; if there is no trust in the team, they may not reach their maximum potential. On the contrary, when there is, each member of the team grows stronger since they are part of a cohesive group that works together.
When people trust one another, the group fulfills its objectives. Since it creates a sense of security, trust is vital for efficient cooperation. When team members feel secure with one another, it is simpler for them to “open up”; they are more willing to take fair risks and are not hesitant to admit their flaws. People who lack trust are hesitant to communicate with one another, do not create, and do not seek innovative ideas, resulting in unproductivity (Siangchokyoo et al., 2020). They waste time protecting themselves and their interests when they could be helping the group achieve its goals.
A leader must communicate directly with each team member frequently to develop team trust. The purpose is to identify their developmental needs and determine how the leader can support them in achieving their goals. First, a Team Charter should be prepared that describes the team’s goals, as well as the responsibilities of each employee.
A leader may also utilize team-building exercises to encourage people to open up and communicate with one another. It is also critical to meet regularly so that team members can share their progress and address any issues they may have. This allows them to get to know each other better while also providing an opportunity for them to start talking and assisting each other in solving challenges.
Coaching
Coaching is another method for enhancing transformative leadership. Coaching is a consulting and training strategy in which a mentor (coach) assists learners in achieving personal and professional objectives. Unlike mentorship and scolding, coaching is clearly focused on achieving specific goals rather than promoting broad growth.
Personnel coaching is designed to encourage employees to take autonomous actions and support them in achieving their goals, ultimately leading to the desired outcome. Mentor coaches use appropriately framed questions to help their mentees find their own answers to the problem. A coach encourages their mentees to recognize their objectives, their own talents, and their limits during the training process, particularly through constructive dialogue. As a consequence of the guidance, the employee is now able to design the best solutions to specific challenges independently.
Coaching is more successful as a form of human development than mentoring, coaching, and other strategies that have historically been used to boost labor productivity and address current and strategic problems. Coaching as a means of personnel development is an autonomous field that gained prominence in the 1980s (Schupmann et al., 2020). The counseling approach established by Americans T. Leonard and J. Whitmore is now widely used. The fundamental ideas of coaching are drawn from psychology and psychotherapy (Schupmann et al., 2020).
Both large and small organizations employ business coaching to enhance labor productivity and ensure managerial efficiency. Business coaches often help analyze the current situation and develop workers’ prospects for addressing issues and future growth. The first stage is to develop a connection between the leader and the employee by agreeing on the ground rules for the dialogue. Furthermore, the coach assists in formulating goals and determining solutions to problems. Third, throughout the communication process, intermediate goals are defined, tasks are described, and the final solution is addressed.
Reflection
Reflective practice is a third successful technique for creating transformative leadership. Reflective learning (practice) is an active, dynamic, action-based, and ethical set of abilities used in real-time to cope with relevant, complex, and challenging circumstances that occur not only during the learning process but also in daily life. Reflection is a vital phase in any learning process and should be included in a professional development plan.
It is beneficial to evaluate oneself, one’s emotions, and one’s mental models to reconstruct them and become a better professional. The use of reflective learning approaches in leadership enables leaders to tailor their training programs to the specific needs of their team. Using fresh methods or approaches to learning regularly might lead to interesting opportunities for both the mentor and the workers. These modifications may be minor (such as minor adjustments to an activity) or significant (a change in leadership style or an updated action plan).
Conclusion
As a result, a leader not only guides the activity of others but also demonstrates self-discipline and self-control. A leader inspires others (and themselves) to pursue goals other than their own. Each management style has its advantages and disadvantages. Still, if a person consistently focuses on improving their own abilities, they will be able to lead themselves and the team to success. Leaders who genuinely seek to understand and develop themselves have the potential to transform not only their own talents but also the capabilities of their organizations.
References
Aggestam, K., & True, J. (2021). Political leadership and gendered multilevel games in foreign policy. International Affairs, 97(2), 385-404.
Al Amiri, N., Daradkeh, F., & Al Kaabi, A. (2019). Leadership styles and competence among generation Z Emirati nursing students. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 18(9), 23-45.
Cortellazzo, L., Bruni, E., & Zampieri, R. (2019). The role of leadership in a digitalized world: A review. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1938.
Oberthür, S., & Dupont, C. (2021). The European Union’s international climate leadership: Towards a grand climate strategy?. Journal of European Public Policy, 28(7), 1095-1114.
Schupmann, W., Jamal, L., & Berkman, B. E. (2020). Re-examining the ethics of genetic counselling in the genomic era. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 17(3), 325-335.
Siangchokyoo, N., Klinger, R. L., & Campion, E. D. (2020). Follower transformation as the linchpin of transformational leadership theory: A systematic review and future research agenda. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(1), 101341.