1LEADERSHIP STYLE AND DEVELOPMENT LEADERSHIP TRAITS REFLECTION As opined by Northouse (2018), the construct of leadership had become an important one within the framework of the modern world because of the diverse benefits that it offers to the individuals. Antonakis, Cianciolo and Sternberg (2004) are of the viewpoint that the construct of leadership helps the leaders to effective influence the behavior or the attitude of the followers for the attainment of the goals or the objectives that had been outlined for them. However, in order to effectively use the framework of leadership the individuals are required to have certain traits like intelligence, charisma, determination, integrity sociability, confidence and others (Conger, 1999). In this relation, it needs to be said that the Leadership Traits Questionnaire is an important since it helps the individuals to get idea regarding their leadership traits. It is with this objective that I undertook the Leadership Traits Questionnaire so as to gain an insight regarding my own leadership traits. The Leadership Traits Questionnaire focuses on six different attributes, namely, trait emphasis,abilityemphasis,skillemphasis,behavioremphasis,relationshipemphasisand process emphasis. In this relation, it needs to be said that the results of the Leadership Traits Questionnaire indicate that I have received the maximum score on the aspect of relationship emphasis which is an indicative of the fact that I have adequate relationship building skills which are likely to help me to establish effective relationships with my team members (Refer to Appendix 1). On the other hand, the results of Leadership Traits Questionnaire indicate that I have received equal scores on the attributes of skill emphasis, behavior emphasis and process emphasis. The high score in the attribute of skill emphasis is indicative of the fact that I have the required skills to effectively lead the different members of my team whereas the high score on
2LEADERSHIP STYLE AND DEVELOPMENT the attribute of behavior emphasis is indicative of the fact that I have the right kind of behavior which is needed for the purpose of influencing the behavior or the attitude of my team members for the attainment of the goals or the objectives that had been outlined for my team. Furthermore, the high score on the aspect of process emphasis indicates that I am capable to effectively utilizing the different changes for the attainment of the goals or the objectives that my team members are required to achieve. Lastly, the low scores that I have received on the attributes of trait emphasis and ability emphasis indicates the fact that I need to work on these attributes for the effective development of my leadership abilities. I would like to say among the different leaders who have been discussed in the course I personally find Bill Gates as the most appealing one. In this relation, I would say that the effective usage of the transformational leadership style as well as the success that he had been able to gain through the use of this leadership is one of the most appealing aspects regarding Bill Gates. More importantly, his ability to influence the behavior or the attitude of the workers of the business corporation of Microsoft by setting personal examples for the manner in which they need to work or complete the different tasks that are being delegated to them is one of the most remarkable aspect of the leadership style which is being followed by him (Nichols, 2016). In addition to these, I personally find his time management skills, critical decision making, intelligence, charisma, sociability and others the most remarkable aspects of his leadership traits displayed by him. On reflecting upon the leadership traits that I possess and comparing it with the ones displayed by Bill Gates I believe that some of the leadership traits displayed by him are even perceptible within the ones displayed by me. For example, just like Bill Gates I also display the traits of charisma, intelligence, sociability, critical decision making and others. As a matter of
3LEADERSHIP STYLE AND DEVELOPMENT fact, I believe that they are more authentic in my case than in the particular context of others because of the effectiveness with which I display them. However, at the same time I would like to say that I have not been the same kind of leader that I was earlier rather I would say that I have developed my leadership skills or traits more effectively over the years. This transformation or for that the development in my leadership abilities can be attributed to the different psychometric tests that I undertook for finding out the inherent weaknesses of my leadership abilities and thereby developing them through participating in various workshops and others. Furthermore, I also participated in different kinds of skill development activities like effective communication, critical decision making, time management and others which in turn contributed towards the effectivedevelopmentofmyleadershipabilitiesortraits.Thus,Iwouldsaythatthe conglomerate effect of all these aspects have made me a stronger or a better leader in the present times than I was in the earlier times. ACTION Mendenhall et al. (2017) are of the viewpoint that the effectiveness of the leadership style followed by the leaders is greatly determined by the leadership traits that they possess and thus it becomes important for the leaders to possess effective leadership traits which in turn greatly facilitates their ability to influence the followers who are associated with. In this relation, I would like to say that I correlate with the historical persona of George Washington and the leadership traits displayed by him. More importantly, I specially relate to the two most important leadership traits displayed by him, namely, integrity and accountability for his actions which I would like to integrate within the leadership style followed by me. Furthermore, just like George Washington I would like to display integrity of character in all complex as well as the critical situations with which I had to deal with while leading different individuals or for that matter in
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4LEADERSHIP STYLE AND DEVELOPMENT my own personal life as well. Moreover, just like George Washington I would also like to accountability for all actions as well as decisions which I not only make for myself or for that matter for the members of the team with which I am associated with. These in short are the two most important leadership traits which I would like to integrate within the leadership style that is presently being followed by me. On the basis of the case of Tim T. , the most important leadership trait shown by him that I would like to integrate within the leadership traits that I possess is the attribute of effective public speaking. Ghasabeh, Soosay and Reaiche (2015) are of the viewpoint that effective public communication is one of the most important traits that the leaders are required to have and this in turn helps the leaders to effective cascade different important information to their followers and also to influence their behavior or attitude in the best possible manner. More importantly, as discussed by Lussier and Achua (2015), the attribute of effective public communication also helps the leaders to effectively persuade the followers who are associated with them to perform the tasks or the job roles that they find difficult to perform or for that matter are unwilling to perform. It is on the score of these benefits offered by the attribute of effective public communication that I would like to incorporate this particular trait within the domain of the leadership style followed by me. In addition to this, I would also like to incorporate the trait of the ability to motivate others within the domain of the leadership style followed by me. According to Ong et al. (2016), the leaders are required to effectively motivate the followers or the subordinates who are associated with through the usage of adequate motivation skills so as to help them to achieve the targets or the work that had been given to them. In this relation, I would like to say that in the past I had struggled to effectively motivate my team members for the achievement of the targets which were given to them or for that matter for the completion of the
5LEADERSHIP STYLE AND DEVELOPMENT job roles that were assigned to them. It is in the light of these aspects that I want to incorporate this particular leadership trait within the spectrum of the leadership style which is being followed by me presently. I personally believe the fact that it is not easy for an individual to change or modify the leadership traits that they have since it takes a great deal of practice or perseverance to acquire the different leadership traits. Having said this, I would like to change one particular leadership trait that I have, that is, the trait of sociability. In this relation, I want to say that I have noticed that often while leading the teams and the team members I become too sociable with my team members, which in turn adversely hampers the nature or the quality of the work which is being performed by them. More importantly, I have found that although the leaders are required to establish strong ethical relationship with their followers yet at the same they are required to maintain a firm stance or authority which in turn will influence the followers to follow the instructions or the job roles that are being given by the leaders to their follower. Furthermore, for the effective modification of this leadership trait I personally feel that I need to attend different kinds of workshops wherein I would be able to learn the proper manner or the authority with which the leaders are required to behave or manage the diverse team members who are associated with them. However, at the same time I would like to say that the modification of this particular leadership trait would not be an easy task and I would work really hard to modify this particular aspect of my leadership style. An important problematic trait which hinders the effective usage of my leadership traits is my tendency to get easily distracted by the things that are going on around me. This I personally believe is one of the most important negative aspects of my character that I need to work. However, I would say that this aspect of my character or personality can be modified by
6LEADERSHIP STYLE AND DEVELOPMENT increasingmyconcentrationlevelwhichcouldbedonebyattendingdifferentkindsof workshops, performing yoga or mediation and others. These will help me to improve the level of concentration and thereby help me not to get distracted by the things which are going on around me and thus effectively focus on the things or the jobs that are really important.
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7LEADERSHIP STYLE AND DEVELOPMENT References Antonakis, J., Cianciolo, A. T., & Sternberg, R. J. (Eds.). (2004).The nature of leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Brookhiser, R. (1996).Founding father: Rediscovering George Washington. New York, NY: Free Press. Burns, J. M., & Dunn, S. (2004).George Washington. New York, NY: Times Books. Conger, J. A. (1999). Charismatic and transformational leadership in organizations: An insider’s perspective on these developing streams of research.Leadership Quarterly, 10(2), 145– 170. Ghasabeh, M. S., Soosay, C., & Reaiche, C. (2015). The emerging role of transformational leadership.The Journal of Developing Areas,49(6), 459-467. Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2015).Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development. Nelson Education. Mendenhall, M. E., Osland, J., Bird, A., Oddou, G. R., Stevens, M. J., Maznevski, M., & Stahl, G.K.(Eds.).(2017).Globalleadership:Research,practice,anddevelopment. Routledge. Nichols, A. L. (2016). What do people desire in their leaders? The effect of leadership experienceondesiredleadershiptraits.Leadership&OrganizationDevelopment Journal,37(5), 658-671. Northouse, P. G. (2018).Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
8LEADERSHIP STYLE AND DEVELOPMENT Ong, C. W., Roberts, R., Arthur, C. A., Woodman, T., & Akehurst, S. (2016). The leader ship is sinking: A temporal investigation of narcissistic leadership.Journal of personality,84(2), 237-247.
9LEADERSHIP STYLE AND DEVELOPMENT Appendix 1 Results of Leadership Traits Questionnaire