Introduction to Management: Traits of Effective Leaders and Leadership Theories

In this document we will discuss about Introduction to Management and below are the summary points of this document:- Trait theory: identifies characteristics of a successful leader, including motivation, drive, and knowledge. Personal profile: self-analysis reveals empathy as an effective leadership trait. Leadership types: situational, transformational, and servant leadership adapt to changing situations and followers.

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INTRODUCTION OF MANAGEMENT
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2-8-2019

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Contents
Trait Theory.....................................................................................................................................2
Situational, Transformational, and Servant Leadership..................................................................3
Identifying a Leader.........................................................................................................................4
Leadership Scenarios.......................................................................................................................5
Personal Leadership/ Management Profile......................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Trait Theory
This model of leadership reflects on specific characteristics of a leader that makes him or
her a successful leader. These are the consistent characteristics found in a leader that are
responsible for their act of leadership. Some of the traits that were identified are leadership
motivation, achievement drive, self-confidence, honesty and integrity, business knowledge,
cognitive ability, emotional maturity, flexibility, creativity, and charisma and many more
(Brenner, 2015).
Among these traits, three major traits that I feel I possess are leadership motivation,
achievement drive, and business knowledge. These traits were observed from the last project,
where I was leading and I was effectively able to motivate my team members when they were
lacking with the confidence and were demotivated to perform in the team. Moreover, I was able
to apply my business knowledge to the project which results in successful project
implementation. Moreover, from my marketing project experience, it was observed that I am
very goal oriented personality and achieving the higher aspect is always on my mind, as the drive
for achievement kept me motivated to complete the project, even after many difficulties faced
(Cherry, 2018).
In my opinion, one of the traits that I possess is empathy, which was not specific in the
list of traits in the theory, but I believe can be helpful for being an effective leader. I feel the pain
or problem of my team member and help them accordingly, which makes them more loyal
towards the team and their leader and motivated to provide a more effective result (Bird &
Mendenhall, 2016).

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After self-analyzing, I feel that I would be an effective leader, as the traits that I carry are
very helpful and effective, like it is important to be self-confident before helping other to
accomplish any task, and things are done from others. Motivational trait plays an important role
while making the team perform better in any circumstances. Moreover, knowledge is very
important in order to apply that successfully in the team. Moreover, the achievement drive,
makes a person urge to accomplish another task to achieve what is the next step for success, this
creates self-motivation to complete the task (Carton, 2014).
Situational, Transformational, and Servant Leadership
Situational leadership – within an organization, the situation are changing rapidly, and a
leader has to lead to different followers and in different situations. According to situational
leadership, the leader is changing their leadership style according to the change in the situation.
This is an effective leadership style, especially if one is working in a dynamic environment or
leading more than one team (Dolan & Kawamura, 2015).
Transformational leadership – this style of leadership is focusing towards change,
according to this the need for change are identified by an individual, they believe in encouraging
one another in the team to implement change for the better. Moreover, this includes the leader to
create a vision to provide clear direction to the team to implement change and motivating people
to accomplish change effectively (Li, 2018).
According to this leadership style, the leader is not willing to rules other but is willing to
serve. This includes sharing the power with others, understanding people and their needs, and
putting others before oneself. This is effective, where the major goal is customer satisfaction for

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the organization than to lead the market. They possess a natural feeling to help others and serve
other first. Some of the political leaders can be one of the examples, who are willing to serve to
their nation, as they are more of servant first than the leader first.
Among the above three leadership, the situational leadership would be better than other
two leadership style, the reason being that other two styles are specific, which would be suitable
in major change management in case of transformational leadership. However, situational
leadership is considering the dynamicity of the environment, which is more practically possible,
as the leadership style must be changing according to the current situation that the leader has to
face with the followers. This is most suitable in an organization, for example, a CEO has to apply
leadership style differently with different teams or stakeholders. In addition, as the environment
change, it may have to change the leadership style in the working environment. Therefore, in my
opinion, situational leadership is better (Dustershoff & MacGregor, 2014)
Identifying a Leader
A leader can use power and influence in a harmful way or in a positive way. For instance,
the leaders that have used the power in a positive way could be Brian Krzanich, Intel’s CEO. He
was able to apply a good leadership in the company and has been responsible for the up
gradation, and success of the company.
However, the example of leadership power use in a harmful way from 2015 would be
Dan Price, who was a co-founder of gravity payments. He raised the minimum wage of the
staff’s to $70,000. This was taken as pay cut to 70K to 1 million dollars which shows disparity
among staff apply and CEO. The trouble for fermenting for price, for this his business partner

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and his brother decided to sue him. The reason for this move could be the Price’s Heroic
leadership, which turned out to be harmful for him and company (fastcompany, 2019)
Leadership Scenarios
The first scenario – in this scenario, one of the leadership style that would be helpful
while considering the Hershey Blanchard model, is the selling leadership. Among the four major
leadership style from this model, the most suitable is selling, the reason being there is the need to
encourage and motivate the employees. According to this leadership style, it is helpful in
creating competence for the followers and more time is spent to develop trust and offer clear
instruction to the employees. Moreover, in general, the praises are used to encourage positive
result and caret self-confidence among the employees (Caillier, 2014)
The second scenario – from the scenario, while implementing the path-goal theory of
leadership, it can be said that the person was demotivated towards the work, and needs the
motivation to back in her form, which are the charters she actually possesses to be promoted. The
most suitable leadership style in this scenario would be achievement oriented leadership style.
The reason being she was not able to perform well and was unable to focus, which can get into
the line with some clear objectives to be accomplished, providing her some interesting work in
the job and motivating her to accomplish or achieve the goals (creativechange, 2018).
The third scenario – according to the path-goal model of leadership, the most suitable
leadership style would be supportive leadership style. The reason being the current
characteristics of the environment are creating dissatisfaction among the employees that can be
resolved by the leader through a friendly relationship with the followers and showing concern for
them, and the employees would be able to understand their leader as the more friendly approach

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is considered. Moreover, the leader can remove the obstacle, or get a solution to the employee’s
problem, to get them motivated (D’Innocenzo, 2016).
The fourth scenario – for this scenario the most approachable leadership style would be
the participating style of leadership among the four leadership style according to Hershey
Blanchard model. The reason being the employees may feel like their point of view are not
considered in the organization, and something is going wrong which may lead to dissatisfaction
among the employees. If the participating leadership is applied, they would be held responsible
for their decision, and point of view of each team member will be given due importance
(Edelman, 2017).
The fifth scenario – according to the path-goal model of leadership, the most suitable
leadership approach that can follow is a directive leadership style. The need for direction is very
important in this case. The reason being the major issue is the lack of direction, which is the
major cause of low productivity. It is important for the leader to explain what people are
expected to perform in order to motivate them and increase their productivity (Frich, Cherlin, &
Bradley, 2015)
Personal Leadership/ Management Profile
Before this leadership insight from the assignment, I was not sure if the leadership style is
relevant to study or not, or it may impact the work environment and productivity of the
followers.
As I started learning from the leadership theories, model and styles of leadership, I
understand the relevance of the leadership style that the person possesses and major

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characteristics of the leaders that can be useful in success journey or accomplishment of a leader
(Hill N. , 2016).
After learning from the leadership, there were major learning from the knowledge gained.
Among the learned leadership style, the leadership style I would like to incorporate in myself to
be an effective leader in future is the situational leadership style, according to which a person has
to adopt the leadership style as per the scenario and level of followers to be effective in a
dynamic environment of the organization. The core values that could be important for me is the
leaders are self-confidence of leader, motivating skills of the leaders, providing a clearer
direction to the followers (Hill C. , 2015).
The major learning from the assignment includes
 Leadership traits – from the experience I was able to know the major traits that can be
used and what traits must not be used in order to be successful leaders in the future. This
was learned from the trait theory of leadership. Among which I would like to adopt self-
confidence and self-motivation in the future to be an effective leader (Hill N. , 2016)
 Understanding environment and employees characteristic – this was the major learning
that is understanding the dynamicity of the environment and the understanding the
employees or the followers, in order to understand the major issue that has been faced by
oneself or the followers and then adapt to the leadership style, which is most suitable and
would be helpful in effective lead the team and improve the team performance (Jacobsen,
2015)
The new learnings can be helpful for me to attain future goals in the way:

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 I would be able to use different leadership style, while understanding what the need to
adapt the style, in different situations. This could lead me to lead my next project
team more effectively (Koryak, 2015)
 Moreover, I would be able to keep my team or followers motivated, and this learning
would be helpful in managing another team and keep them motivated to perform
better. This will be helpful in accomplishing the project on time and with high
productivity through more creative use of leadership skills and enhance the leadership
competence (leadershipcenter, 2018)

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Brenner, S. (2015). Leadership style and the process of organizational change. Leadership &
Organization Development Journal, 2-16.
Caillier, J. (2014). Toward a better understanding of the relationship between transformational
leadership, public service motivation, mission valence, and employee performance: A
preliminary study. Public Personnel Management, , 43(2), 218-239.
Carton, A. (2014). A (blurry) vision of the future: How leader rhetoric about ultimate goals
influences performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(6), 1544-1570.
Cherry, K. (2018). Understanding the Trait Theory of Leadership . Retrieved 08 01, 2018, from
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-trait-theory-of-leadership-2795322
creativechange. (2018). Leadership Development: tools for growth. Retrieved from
https://creativechange.biz/leadership-development/
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Dolan, S., & Kawamura, K. (2015). Cross cultural competence: A field guide for developing
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Dustershoff, C., & MacGregor, J. (2014). The effects of performance rating, leader–member
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satisfaction: Applying a moral judgment perspective. Journal of business ethics, 265.
Edelman, P. (2017). Training leader emotion regulation and leadership effectiveness,. Journal of
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fastcompany. (2019). the-10-best-and-worst-leaders-of-2015. Retrieved from fastcompany:
https://www.fastcompany.com/3054777/the-10-best-and-worst-leaders-of-2015
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664.