Introduction and Rationale
This year I am looking forward to sharpening my leadership skills; I decided after learning that leaders can be made. I have also realized that people can develop good leadership skills if they desire and have the will power to do so. Effective and successful leadership skills are developed through continuous education, self-study, training, and experience, I am thus looking forward to developing a good leader out of myself through wide study and knowledge search throughout the year (Boyatzis and Ellen, 2003). I have realized that in an organization, a sense of good leadership will be achieved when workers are inspired and motivated to a high level of teamwork, and for this to take place, there is a thing that should be understood and put into practice by the person in charge. These things do not exist naturally they are developed through continuous work and study. To be a good leader, I have realized I need to continuously study and acquire new skills to improve leadership skills (Hornsby and Warkeoczeski, 2000). The rationale that I aim to use in my thirst for developing good leadership skills is to follow five attributes in the development of a leader, they are:
Trust
I will look for a group and the group’s leader, whether informally or formally: being a group leader, I am expected to build confidence on the side of your followers. It is a requirement that I must be trusted by every member of my team to be able to win their will and guide them through the business that is yet to be accomplished.
Coherence
A leader has to be consistent in all his or her actions. The term walks the talk should not be taken lightly because it is what will bring about coherence in a leader. If you are a leader, you are required to do what you. The coherence existing between what a leader is teaching his followers and individual action would significantly affect the team. It will affect in that it influences the trust that exists between a leader and his followers. If you are not trusted, then your followers will not take seriously your instructions (Parker, 2009)
Competence
In a situation where a leader is incompetent, the legs will eventually be broken unless an immediate remedy is put in place Two qualities that leaders always possess include the ability to know how to resource and surround themselves. A leader will always strife to learn what he or she does not know and at the same time makes someone who knows about a task to execute it.
Collaboration
Leaders need to collaborate and work with others; collaborative coexistence between a leader and his followers should be paramount for successful leadership to be realized. It should be noted that the level of achievements by people in a team is the directly proportional level of achievement that would be realized by you as a leader of a group. It is advisable that you should not leave your people by themselves but always bring them to reach their best achievement.
Contribution
As part of the leadership element, it should be noted that contribution is what will act as a guarding angel to team spirit. In a situation where all the team members are very cooperative and ready to contribute to delivering the best out of their effort and contribution, then the group will be classified as being capable of hitting hard. It is recommended that every member of a team must contribute to achieving success in the set goals and objectives (Meinolf, Ariane, John and Ikujiro, 2003).
Application of theory and critical analysis
In the theory of organizational management and structure, the role of a leader has been highly elaborated and emphasized, the theory thinks that the quality of leaders that an organization has determined the success of such organization. If an organization has leaders who can make sound decisions, then there are high chances that the organization will perform far better than those companies are with managers making low-quality decisions.
According to the great-mans theory of leadership, leaders are exceptional people who are destined to lead and are born with inherent leadership qualities; however, the theory is of the view that the traits need to be natured and developed if they have to benefit an organization. Charisma leaders do not show their talent/profess unless challenged.
According to traits theory, that every human being has certain traits that are associated with leadership skills, there are quite several qualities, which are associated with leadership. They are adjectives in the dictionary that describes certain positive traits that are generally virtuous human personal attributes.
The behaviorist’s theories mainly concentrate on what leaders can do but not their qualities; they think that different leadership traits are required for different situations, what is important according to the theory understands of a situation and the kind of leader wanted.
In situational Leadership approach, the theory is of the view that leaders emerge when situations call for leaders; some situation requires autocratic leadership style whereas other requires democratic style (Margerison, 2002).
When looking at the above theories and analyzing them critically, there are some special attributes that they all are advocating, they all recognize that human beings need to be lead and have a central power where they can establish and get instructions from. Despite how leadership and decision-making come to be, the quality of decisions made and the direction that leaders take their team is crucial for the attainment of team goals and objectives (McKee and Richard, 2006).
. Managers are leaders; their employees follow their steps in their operations. The kind attitude and mood that they form towards their employees will affect the level of performance that will be attained. When something needs to be done, and organizations management should lead the organization to the direction that it requires the organization to go. A well-defined direction and code of doing work led to a workforce that realizes the expectations that their companies have and their career path. In motivational theories, for well-motivated employees, managers should lead from the front by example (Muller, Maclean, and Biggs, 2009).
Changes in thinking and behavior
What differentiates an effective and ineffective manager is the kind of decisions that either make, if the decisions made are not reflective of the prevailing condition, then the success of an organization is doomed. Making a decision has some process, however, much link between the decisions that come out from a manager and how the manager thinks and sees situations. Thinking is a mental power that is developed as one grows, according to personality development theories, people have different thinking capabilities however the level and quality of their decision is determined by inborn characters and socialized attributes (Lewis, 2004).
When it comes to playing the role of a manager, the exposure, and the kind of material that, the leader is exposed to affect the leader’s thinking. What people think is how they perform and they have an influence on their behavior. Leaders need to behave with emotional self-awareness; this is a personal competence where a person can recognize various emotions and what effects are created by emotions; when a manager can control his emotions then he can be able to change the organization and focus on the right direction. Leaders need to develop self-Management clusters, to manage others, there is a need to have managed oneself; this will go a long way in determining the kind of leader that emerges in a person (Crother-Laurin, 2006). To lead others it is important to have lead one, the kind of psychological peace that someone has with himself determines the success of his or her leadership.
From literature, it is clear that some attributes need to be learned in course of developing someone’s leadership skills while others are inborn and need to be exploited. Operant conditioning theory of behavior change offers a good platform for leaders behavior change, only that this time leaders are taking deliberate actions to change their behavior and actions. To nurture leadership traits in a manager, organizations need to develop effective mechanisms that facilitate learning and development of leadership skills (Dulewicz and Malcolm, 2003).
References
Boyatzis, E., and Ellen, O.,2003. A leadership imperative: Building the emotionally intelligent organization.” Ivey Business Journal 67(3), pp. 1-6.
Crother-Laurin, C.,2006. Effective Teams: A Symptom of Healthy Leadership. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 29(3), p. 4.
Dulwich, V., and Malcolm, H.,2003.Leadership at the top: the need for emotional intelligence in organizations. International Journal of Organizational Analysis 11(3), pp. 193-210.
Hornsby, T., and Warkeoczeski, L.,2000. New roles for leaders: A step-by-step guide to competitive advantage. Franklin: Hillsboro Press.
Lewis, P.,2004. Team-Based Project Management. Washington: Beard Books.
Margerison, C., 2002. Team leadership. Gale: Cengage Learning.
McKee, A., and Richard, E.,2006. Renewing and sustaining leadership. Leader to Leader,40 (2) pp. 30-36.
Meinolf, D., Ariane, A., John, C., and Ikujiro, N.,2003. Handbook of Organisational Learning and Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Muller, J., Maclean, R., and Biggs, H., 2009. The impact of a supportive leadership program in a policing organization from the participants’ perspective. Work, 32(1), Pp. 69-79.
Parker, G.,2009.Team Leadership: 20 Proven Tools for Success. New Jersey: Human Resource Development Press.