Leadership Approach: Understanding Leadership Styles and Traits

This essay delves into the concept of leadership, emphasizing its crucial role in influencing subordinates to achieve organizational objectives. It explores various leadership theories, including the great man theory, trait theory, contingency theory, situational theory, and behavioral theory, highlighting the skills and abilities effective leaders possess, such as strategic thinking, planning, and communication. The essay also includes a self-analysis using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, assessing the student's leadership capabilities across different factors like idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualised consideration. The analysis provides insights into the student's strengths and weaknesses, offering a comprehensive understanding of leadership styles and their impact on organizational success. Furthermore, the essay underscores the importance of communication, change management, and employee motivation in fostering a productive and thriving work environment, emphasizing the significance of leadership in guiding organizations towards their goals.

Running head: LEADERSHIP APPROACH
LEADERSHIP APPROACH
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1LEADERSHIP APPROACH
The aim of this paper is to discuss the leadership approach of the individuals determining for
getting placed in a reputed company. The concept of leadership is associated with the
influencing of the subordinate by the leaders for accomplishing the objectives. This directs
the organisations and the human resource in such a way that align these with the perfect
achievement of the organisational goals within the set time. The leaders effectively organise
the internal environment with the external ones to work effectively in a perfect manner. The
concern of leadership in the because of business associations are more inclined to involve the
skills and capabilities of the leaders to influence the actions of all the stakeholders without
any problem.
From what I have learnt from the theoretical and practical studies about types impact
of the leadership in the business organisations which mainly gets regulated by the desires and
will power of the leaders. To me the good leaders develop through the ever ending process of
the education, self-study, experience and training. The dedicated leaders inspire the
employees into the high level of teamwork. There are certain things which are effective and
for the growth of the leaders in order to enhance their competitiveness. In most of the cases I
have found that the leadership capabilities and traits are in born capabilities. This means the
leaders who are successful in their fields are basically the most competitive persons who are
all the traits of leader that are not imposed later. The honest understanding of the leadership is
related to their attributes and skills that manipulate them to develop beliefs, ethics, and values
and characters they already possies. These are unique qualities which differentiate them from
the other employees in an organisation. To me, even if a person is working as an employee in
the organisation and possess all the qualities of leadership, can rise to the height of power.
The knowledge and sills however can also be developed later when a common person
develop skills and knowledge of leaders with determination.

2LEADERSHIP APPROACH
The leaders to me have the honest understanding of the self and what they lack
actually. To me the leadership concepts may be simple but they can never be just the
common sense. These are unique features of the persons who are holding more knowledge
than the others surrounding them and hold more power than them. In my experience and
understanding, I have found that the leadership requires intentional reflection on the chief
concepts. The most important keys to successful leadership include trust and confidence on
the decision making capabilities and the communication system. In order to help the
employees to grow personally and professionally. The more competent the leaders are the
more they can motivate the employees. The employees are encouraged to understand the
business strategies of the companies through the transparent communication system of the
leaders. He sharing of the information to the ground level employees to the team leaders are
conveyed through the leaders of the organizations. Therefore, the main concept related to the
capability of the leaders to communicate the ideas and knowledge.
The theoretical knowledge about the leadership is a necessity that enables the leaders
to be aware about their own skills and styles perfect matching the needs of the organizations.
There are five theories of leadership which are mainly seen in the attributes of the leaders
around the world. These theories include great man theory, trait theory, contingency theory,
situational theory and behavioural theory. According to great man theory, the great leaders
possess charisma, confidence, intellect, communication abilities and all types of social skills
that make them valiant, ordained and mythic. According to the trait theory of leadership, the
leadership qualities are capabilities inherited by the successful leaders. They possess all the
qualities of leadership from their vey childhood. Their characteristics are to be seen in any
situation as they are believe to come up with any type of solution to a critical problem.
The contingency theory of leadership denotes that the potential leaders can determine
their likelihood of leading effectively. The situational theory on the other hand supports the

3LEADERSHIP APPROACH
idea that the leaders are to follow the situational needs and make strategies for solving the
problems. Here the specific setting decide which style of leadership will be followed by the
leader of the organization. This I believe to be the best fitted leadership theory for the
constantly changing world of business. It enables the leaders to find perfect balance among
the behaviours, context and needs of the organisations. Finally the behavioural theory focuses
on the specific behaviour as well as actions of the leaders rather than their characteristics and
traits.
The theories of leadership actually relate to the leadership skills and abilities that
determine which types of leadership theories will be followed in the given organization. The
main leadership skills include ability of strategic thinking, planning and delivery,
management of people, change management, communication, persuasion and influence to the
others. The abilities of the effective leaders include the vision which enable them to foresee
the consequence of the strategies of planning they make or the changes they make in the
organizations. The visions of the leaders also include the ability of responding to the situation
in a perfect manner so that finding out of the solution to the problems become easy. The
planning and delivery skills of the leaders relate to the method that the leaders apply in
achieving the goals they have set and plan to achieve. The leaders if plan to achieve the
visions need to face with the various types of challenges impending in the path of achieving
the ultimate goals.
The capabilities of the leaders get exposed if they developed the skill to manage
people and gain trust accordingly. As I have gained knowledge about the skills of the leaders
from various models and case studies, it is clear that the leaders are the backbone to manage
people because people including all the stakeholders like the employees, customers,
shareholders and other people related to the business. As the business process is complicated
in its own way therefore the interests of the stakeholders create issues in many cases, the

4LEADERSHIP APPROACH
leaders therefore possess the skill to find out the rights people for doing the tasks and
motivate them to complete the tasks within the limited period of take. In addition to this,
perfect analysis of the emotions and needs of the stakeholders, the leaders can achieve their
support and trust to fulfil the expectations.
In order to achieve the set gaols, the leaders need to strategize the process of change
management, this is due to the fact that there can be problems in achieving the goals.
Therefore recognising, responding and the management of the changes of the vision and
plans. The communication process is a necessity for the leadership to sustain and flourish in
an organisation. The leaders through their communication style are able to encourage the
employees, negotiate with the stakeholders and maintain transparency in the workplace. The
employees and other stakeholder put impedance upon the communication style of the leaders
because, the knowledge is shared through this process and the employees and other
stakeholders are capable to share their ideas in the decisions making process. Finally, the
persuasion and influence encourage the others associated with the vision and straggles of the
leaders to achieve and demonstrate the advantages of the influencing process by the leaders.
The effective management beings with proper knowledge of the personal strengths
and weaknesses. This relates to the process of self-awareness. This means that the effective
leaders have proper understanding of the values which aligns with the behaviour,
development of the culture ion the workplace and maintaining connection with the team
members, with perfect amalgamation of the higher level professionalism and knowledge. The
leaders need to have strategic thinking skills which also include the feedback process from
the others affected by the visions of the leaders or on whom the changes are implemented.
The emotional understanding of the self as well as of the others can give the leaders extra
leverage in the proper utilisation of their power and skills at the time problem.

5LEADERSHIP APPROACH
In order to develop the leadership skills, I need to go through the process of self-
analysis. In this regard the multi factor leadership questionnaire can be analysed where there
are seven factors present, these factors include idealised influence, inspirational motivation,
intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration, contingent reward, management by
exception, and Laissez Faire measures. In the first factor, I have scored 5 which is a moderate
score relating to the connection with the subordinates. The moderate score in this factors
leads me to understand that I have moderate capability to win the trust of the employees
working under me, maintain their respect and faith upon my decision making. I show
moderate dedication to them and my application to their reams and hopes are also moderate.
As the leaders also act in such a way that the subordinates think them as their role model. I
have scored fairly high in the second factor that is inspirational motivation. This actually
measures the degree that I as a leader can provide my vision effectively and how much I use
symbols and images for the better understanding of the tasks. It is my capability that I can
make the team members to understand how much significant the task is to me as well as for
the entire team. The third factor is intellectual stimulation, in which I have scored 11. This
score of mine denotes that my efficiency to motivate the employees to solve the problems in a
creative and innovative ways. In some cases, I have felt the pressure of the organisation to be
too pressing and these issues are almost impossible to solve. Now the problems are thought
out carefully by me and nurture the process of diverse ideology for the ultimate decision
making process. I have scored low in the process of understanding the points of view of the
others which is the fourth factor in individualised consideration. I show little interest to the
wellbeing of the employees working under me. Despite the fact that I try to assign individual
[projects and pay attention to the growth of the teams but this consideration is less than
expected.

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I have used the fifth factor contingent reward in a positive way but scored low. I am
effective of understanding the points of view of the others and make the subordinates
working under me to understand my vision effectively. I put moderate importance to the
reward system which is considered to be a good means of motivating the employees working
under me. The process of transactional theory of leadership is important to be discussed here.
This type of leadership style can suit me if I take care of the needs of the subordinates and
supply those when needed. The sixth factor of leadership is management by exception in
which I have score 9. This relates to the fact that I do not force anyone to change the oath
until and unless the changes are inevitable. I am satisfied with standard performance hence do
not dominate like the authoritative style of leadership. The final factor of leadership is
Laissez Faire measures. That means I take responsibilities of the teams or the employees a
great deal and let them do whatever they want.
Therefore it can be concluded that the leadership is essential for guiding the
organizations in an effective way. I think there are different process of motivating employees
and eithers who can contribute their skills to archive the goals ultimately. I believe that that
the motivation process of the employees depend upon the reward system. Similarly when the
employees get promotions for their initiatives in the company’s growth, they are motivated to
contribute more. This also helps to motivate the others in the same situation by showing that
they will also get rewarded if they also contribute the same.