Being a leader implies facing a range of challenges and playing several roles in the team. Therefore, it is essential that a leader should be capable of not only delegating responsibilities to the staff and assigning the latter with specific roles but also presents the staff members with specific tasks, as well as clarifying the goals that the organization pursues and the objectives that the staff members in question will have to attain (Pedler, Burgoyne, & Boydell 2013). However, the above-mentioned skill requires certain character traits, such as the ability to think rationally, resistance to personal remarks, the skill of a compromise, etc., which I lack. While locating a means to solve the problem is not very hard for me, analyzing the situation and returning to the issue that has already been resolved to draw a lesson from it is what seems complicated to me (Argyris 1986). As a result, I lose several opportunities to improve my presentation skills (Kolb 1984), which affects my level of leadership expertise, and which can be addressed by changing my attitude towards the issue of setting goals and representing them to the staff.
The problem described above came out into the light as a misunderstanding regarding the presentation of the project goals that emerged in the workplace, and I had to address it. Particularly, I had to represent a plan, which the team members were supposed to comply with the course of the project completion. However, the visual aids chosen for the presentation did not illustrate the ideas that the project conveyed successfully, and the general layout thereof was not understandable. Therefore, the team members could not comprehend their roles and responsibilities. The specified issue is a graphic example of the leadership strategy failing due to a single inconsistency in the tools chosen (Palmer et al. 2001).
I believe that changing my behavior toward a more analytical one will help improve the efficacy of the organization as well as provide me with an opportunity to become a better leader. I must develop the presentation skills that will help get the essential ideas across. Additionally, as soon as I learn to draw important lessons from the misunderstandings occurring in the workplace as opposed to avoiding them, I will be able to gain experience from both positive and negative outcomes of the projects launched y the organization (Pedler, Burgoyne, & Boydell 2013).
The aforementioned change will require that I should get my priorities straight and alter my idea of representing ideas and avoiding misunderstandings in general. Particularly, I will have to realize that misunderstandings and conflicts are an integral and, therefore, inevitable part of the daily routine (Argyris & Schon 1996); therefore, there is no point in avoiding them. Instead, a flexible strategy for managing them must be designed (Tyson 2010).
The process of the acquisition of the required skills may start not necessarily in the workplace but, instead, in my personal life. For instance, stating the objectives for a specific project to my family members and friends may be managed with the help of the above-mentioned principle. Thus, the behavioral patterns will be changed before promoting the change in question in the workplace and, therefore, will be trained properly before their application to the scenario under analysis.
Reference List
Argyris, C 1986, ‘Skilled incompetence’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 64, no. 5, pp. 74-79.
Argyris, C, & Schon, DA 1996, Organizational learning II: theory, method and practice, Addison-Wesley, Reading.
Kolb, DA 1984, The adaptive style inventory, McBer & Co., Boston.
Palmer, B, Walls, M, Burgess, Z, & Stough, C 2001 ‘Emotional intelligence and effective leadership’, The Leadership and Organization Development Journal, vol. 22, no. 1, p. 5.
Pedler, M, Burgoyne, J, & Boydell, T 2013, A manager’s guide to self development, 6th edn, Kogan Page, New York.
Tyson, T 2010, Working with groups, 2nd edn, Macmillan, South Yarra.