MGMT 601: Leadership Report on Soft Leadership in Global Context

This report analyzes the article "Hard versus soft leadership? Examples and illustrations" by M.S. Rao, focusing on the role of soft leadership in achieving organizational goals and effectiveness within a global context. The report defines soft leadership as a combination of soft skills, hard skills, and l...Read More

Running head: LEADERSHIP IN THE GLOBAL CONTEXT
Leadership in the global context
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
Summary:...................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the article:...............................................................................................................3
Reflection on personal experience and thinking:.......................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................9
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Summary:
The article is based on the analysis regarding the role of soft leadership in the way of
achieving organisational goal and effectiveness. The name of the article is “Hard versus soft
leadership? Examples and illustrations” and the name of its author is M.S. Rao, the article
was published in the year 2016 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited. The article is about
the role of leadership in the context of globalisation. The power of successful leaders must be
based on love as it is the key of moving an organisation towards appropriate direction by
generating positive attitude among the human resources (Rothaermel, 2017). This is the kind
of soft leadership, which play a pivotal role in the way of emphasising the significance of
human resources in the context of an organisation.
Soft leadership is a fine combination of both soft skill, hard skill and leadership,
which serves the leaders with the ability to manage feeling and emotion of the people with
utmost efficiency. It is important to note in this context that soft leadership put stress on
personality, attitude and behavior of the people and help the leaders to take important action
in order to make the people feel more valuable (Rao, 2016). According to the article, soft
leadership in an integrative, participative relationship, which focuses on appreciation,
motivation and collaboration among the staffs. In the context of contemporary globalisation,
this article is very much important as it has helped in understanding the key skills of soft
leadership and how to apply them in the real business case.
Analysis of the article:
The article is all about soft leadership and its impact on the global organisation.
According to this article, soft leadership is defined as the assertive leadership, in which the
leaders follow a very polite style of communication in order to improve the performance level
among the team members. This is a fine alignment of courageous leadership, thought
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leadership, servant leadership and inspirational leadership, which help in setting
comprehensive goal, influencing the subordinates, developing strong team, respecting their
failures, keeping them motivated and acknowledging their contribution towards
accomplishing organisational objective (Geiger, 2020).
This article shows that, leadership is entirely based on three important aspect, which
include, the way, through which the leaders communicate, the way, through which the leaders
make decision and how they take action. By executing these three activities, the people can
become effective leaders. However, in order to be the soft leaders, it is important for the
people to blend their both head, heart and gut (Komives, 2016). This is the way, through
which the people can be able to be task oriented. The 11Cs of soft leaders are character,
charisma, conscience, conviction, courage, communication, compassion, commitment,
consistency, consideration and contribution, which collaboratively can build soft skill among
the leaders. These soft skills act as the determining factor for the success of sift leaders. In the
highly competitive business environment, practicing soft leadership is one of the major ways
of getting tasks executed very smoothly without any kind of hindrance.
As change is the key of contemporary corporate existence, by practicing soft
leadership, the leaders become able to implement win-win approaches, which is the key of
promoting fraternity (Grundy, 2017). However, there are certain differences in between hard
and soft leadership. Soft leadership puts stress on persuasion and transformation. On the other
hand, hard leadership is concerned with putting hard-power in order to get things done and
pressurise the staffs in order to complete their allocated task properly. In addition, the soft
leaders adapt transformational, democratic, servant and authentic leadership style, which the
leaders under this hard leadership, follows autocratic style of leadership. Though, in order to
improve the productivity and efficiency among the staffs, the leaders need to follow
autocratic style of leadership (De Munter, 2018). Through this way, the leaders will be able to
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generate positive attitude among the staffs, which is the key of keeping them committed
towards accomplishing organisational goals and objectives.
The soft leaders are highly intended towards believing on setting personal experience,
empathy, persuasion, negotiation, recognition, appreciation and assertiveness, contrary to
which the hard leaders believe on threat and negative motivation. It is the general tendency
among the soft leaders are concerned with motivation and empowerment, which are the key
of building morale among the employees and lead them to put their best towards achieving
organisational goals and objectives.
Reflection on personal experience and thinking:
Leadership is all about the way of leading the staffs towards leading the staffs towards
appropriate direction, by providing them with necessary assistance, so that they can complete
their assigned task efficiently (Terrell et al., 2018). Now, it is important to share my personal
experience on leadership. Gibbs’ Cycle is one of the major framework, through which the
personal experience can be presented properly. There are six different parameters of Gibb’s
reflective cycle, whicj are as follows:
Figure 1: Gibb’s reflective cycle
(Source: Bush, Bell & Middlewood, 2019)
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 Step 1: Description
This is the first step of Gibb’s reflective cycle, in which detailed discussion regarding an
event takes place. The development of effective leadership skill is the matter of utmost
importance as it helps in accomplishing both personal and professional success (Gopee &
Galloway, 2017). It is important to note here that in this highly volatile business environment,
it is important to put stress on developing effective leadership style, which is the key of
having both personal and professional development. I work for the global pharmaceutical
company and I have to encounter issues on regular basis in the way of submitting the FDA. I
have the problem solving skill, which has helped me to explore the most effective and
efficient way in order to run the internal functionality of the pharmaceutical company
smoothly. With the assistance of great problem solving skill, I have become able to complete
the given project within the dead line.
 Step 2: Feelings
This is the second important step of Gibb’s reflective cycle, in which the feeling triggered
from the event takes place. In addition, in this phase, the thought regarding the activity, event
or situation also takes place. Generating awareness is one of the most important goals of this
situation (Raelin, 2017). In this phase, it is important to figure out the personal response at
the time of the incident. As discussed above, I work for the global pharmaceutical company
and I hold comprehensive problem skill, which has helped me to solve any critical issue
effectively. I think that strong support from the higher management has helped me to figure
out the root of any problem try to solve the problem effectively. In addition, my colleagues
were also very supportive and helped me a lot in the way of solving the problem in a
systematic manner. However, I believe that the organisational culture needs to be changed
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and training must be provided to the staffs in order to enable them to complete the process of
submitting FDA.
 Step 3: Evaluation
This is the third important step of Gibb’s reflective cycle in which personal thought
regarding the personal incident needs to be presented. It is important to incorporate personal
reaction during the incident. This is one of the most important steps, in which both the good
and bad experience are to be incorporated (Oshagbemi, 2017). On the basis of my feeling, it
can be said that the change initiative needs to be taken for the sake of improving
organisational functionality. It is necessary to develop comprehensive organisational culture
and integrate training program as the part of the organisational culture. This is the way,
through which the higher authority of that global pharmaceutical industry will be able to
complete the process of submitting FDA properly without any hindrance. In addition, by
providing training to the staffs, the senior manager of pharmaceutical company will be able to
ensure that the issue related to resistance to change can be mitigated from the staffs.
 Step 4: Analysis
In this stage, it is important to present the thought regarding the personal strength in order to
deal with any kind of issue during the event. This means that both the positive and negative
think along with the problem is to be incorporated in this step. I think that it is important to
figure out new ways in order to keep myself motivated and show eagerness in order to learn
new things.
 Step 5: Conclusion
This stage deals with personal learning from the situation. With the assistance of such
learning, people become able to figure out the action that needs to be taken in future (Bolden,
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2016). Being the leader in global pharmaceutical company, I have learned that self-awareness
is one of the major aspects of effective leadership. In addition, I have also learned that the
leaders must consider integrity, which is the key of strengthening own word and action.
 Step 6: Action plan
This is the last and most important steps of Gibb’s reflective cycle in which comprehensive
actions are to be developed for future situation. I think that in order to lead the global
organisation, I have to be self-aware. This means that I have to work hard in order to
understand my strength and take comprehensive action in order to mitigate my weaknesses.
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References:
Bolden, R. (2016). Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower
handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Bush, T., Bell, L., & Middlewood, D. (Eds.). (2019). Principles of Educational Leadership &
Management. SAGE Publications Limited.
De Munter, J. (2018). A Personal Reflection of My Leadership Journey in AYA Nursing. In
Nursing Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer (pp. 29-40). Springer, Cham.
Geiger, J. (2020). Personal Reflection on Board Leadership and Ethical Decision-Making.
Music Therapy Perspectives.
Gopee, N., & Galloway, J. (2017). Leadership and management in healthcare. Sage.
Grundy, S. (2017). Educational leadership as emancipatory praxis. In Gender matters in
educational administration and policy (pp. 165-177). Routledge.
Komives, S. R. (2016). Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change
model of leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.
Oshagbemi, T. (2017). Leadership and Management in universities: Britain and Nigeria
(Vol. 14). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Raelin, J. A. (2017). Leadership-as-practice: Theory and application—An editor’s reflection.
Leadership, 13(2), 215-221.
Rao, M.A., (2016). On a different note . . . Hard versus soft leadership? Examples and
illustrations. Strategic HR review, 15(4), 174-179.
Rothaermel, F. T. (2017). Strategic management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Terrell, R. D., Terrell, E. K., Lindsey, R. B., & Lindsey, D. B. (2018). Culturally proficient
leadership: The personal journey begins within. Corwin Press.
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