Leadership Styles and Development - Week 3 Assignment Analysis

This assignment is a reflection and analysis of leadership styles and development, focusing on task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership approaches. The student completed the "Task and Relationship Questionnaire" and assessed their results, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses in each style. The analysis section summarizes William Isaacs' article on "Dialogic Leadership," identifying the four players (movers, followers, opponents, and bystanders) and contrasting dialogue with discussion. The assignment further explores the four practices of dialogic leadership: suspending certainties, voicing, respecting, and listening. The student identifies the most challenging practice (voicing) and suggests active listening as a strategy for improvement. The assignment demonstrates an understanding of leadership concepts and their practical application, referencing relevant literature to support the analysis.

Running Head: Leadership
Leadership
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note

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Reflection
According to the two scales of leadership, that is referred as task oriented leadership and
relationship-oriented leadership. The marks, which I obtained, are 33 in task-oriented leadership
and 37 in relationship-oriented leadership. In case of Task-Oriented Leadership, the scale of
marking is refereed in the category of moderately low range because it indicates that the
candidate is partially interested in delivering the task. While delivering the task I was moderately
interested in performing the procedure, completing the activities and partially focused to attain
the goals. The task leadership did help me to achieve the objectives and critically analyze the
relationship of the leaders who defines the roles, reduces confusion and gains commitment
towards organizational effectiveness.
On the other hand, in Relationship-oriented Leadership I achieved the marking on the scale of 37
that is ranked as moderately high range. This scale of marking is generally comfortable for my
leader to assess me. This style of leadership is generally dealing to connect with others and
makes the subordinate feel comfortable as well. In this field of leadership style, I can access
myself on a moderate field. I can excel in this field by increasing the ability to influencing the
others and facilitate the leadership process.
Analysis
Identify the four players and their roles.

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The four players that is analyzed from The Art of Thinking Together by William Isaacs are
movers, opposers, followers and bystanders. The four-player model comprises of four players
and each carries a significant role (Monterrat et al., 2015). The roles of the following players are:
Movers- the movers are treated as the direction of the organization. Without the presence of
movers in the company the employee and the subordinate has no idea which path to follow. With
the movement of the team, the leader also follows the same direction (Aarseth, 2014).
Followers- the followers are the main stream of the organization. They support the initiative that
is taken by the manager or the team leader. Without the presence of a follower none of the task
can be completed.
Opponents- the opponent holders of the organization provides with the feedback after the
operations of functional management. The opponents of the management are taken into
consideration as without its presence nothing cannot be rectified. The process of feedback
facilitates the organization to see its faults and make rectification at the same time for proper
functioning of the management system (Avontuur, Spronck & Van Zaanen, 2013).
Bystanders- the growth of perspective is obtained from this stage of the model. They often make
observation in the team and is processed from the sidelines.
What is the difference between dialogue and discussion? When have you experienced true
dialogue?
Dialogue can be defined as the addressing of the problem of fragmentation by not rearranging
the physical components in a conversation but it is uncovered and shifts the natural fundamental

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structure that produces it. On the other hand discussion can be defined as an exchange of
conversation between a group of people where they are defenders of the view as well as
supporters (Okada et al., 2016). There are candidates who sustain the position and tries t resolve
any problem. In “defend badly” which is unilaterally, it is hoped that there is win and lose
situation. It is often noticed that the people are not open in the situation where there are
possibilities of situation.
The difference between dialogue and discussion cam be highlighted as discussion is about
making and finalizing a decision. The discussion about a particular agenda comprises of the
employee or individuals who come up with different views and the leaders formularizes a
particular opinion and makes a decision (Schoeneborn et al., 2014). On the other hand, dialogue
seeks an open possibility or delivery if a opinion or a statement. It is often comprised of seeking
completion and closure.
What are the four practices of dialogic leadership?
Dialogue is considered as qualitatively different in exchange medium where the leaders have a
ear for difference in quality and are seeking to inculcate within themselves as well as in others.
There are four types of practices implied in the leadership practice that are: suspending the
certainties, speaking the true voice and encouraging the others to do the same, to respect the
coherence of the view of others and lastly listening as a participants (Mabey,2013).
Listening- recently a manager was being lead by the leader and being in the position one has to
prepare itself to speak. The ability to listen is regarded much more the the power to speak
because listening facilitates to gather more knowledge. The situation is preparing to cultivate in

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the art of listening rather than simply being imposed on what people are saying. When in a group
it is even more important to listen together rather than discussing among them. If there is the
opportunity to learn together there is a bigger part of voice that is emerging from all the
candidates. If one follows the trend to listen attentively, the rest of the members enacts the same.
Respecting- with the aspect of respect, which is put into practice in the environment that
facilitates to improve the quality of life. Respecting people can be highlighted as “legitimate
others”. In an atmosphere of respect the people who are involved are encouraged and they look
at things as to what the others are portraying and thinking. When the art of listening occur in a
situation, the respect is portrayed in the same picture. On the colleague known as Peter Garrett
has run its dialogue in a prison for four years. In that situation inquiry and violence did nt
coexist while true respect was a genuine inquiry (Bushe,2013).
Suspending- it is the nature of human being that when other speak we face a critical situation.
Whereas on the other hand the view point of others is not always resisted. It is within the nature
of human beings to make other people understand. With the help of evidence, the views are
supported and discount the evidence that can point the flaws into new logistics. We learn to
suspend our evidence and opinion and all the certainty that lies behind. The term suspension
means that neither do we suppress that we think either we advocate it with unilateral conviction.
It is the nature to acknowledge the thoughts and feelings as it arises without any compelled to act
on it.
Voicing- lastly the aspect of voicing is the most challenging dialogic leadership. Said by one of
the eminent person “Courageous speech,” says poet David Whyte in his book The Heart
Aroused, as he always held us in awe. The discussion and conversation of the people hold onto

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the differences. It is therefore created by the human beings that creates, refine and shares
knowledge through the medium of conversation. The leaders in this phase are given the term of
leading in a consistent manner and through the conversation that is hidden in creative potential in
all ways. The practice of the leadership style is improved by various techniques that becom,es
easier for us to understand better to what it is said instantly. In the presence of personal and
professional life the listening of the critical skills are defined as the leadership style. The mind
tool works as the listening and hearing theory which is based on active hearing and actively
understanding (Bushe & Marshak, 2014). The role a leader becomes easier as it actively becomes
better to understand what you are being told instead on the own interpretation of what the
speaker says. Hence the voice of the speaker attains to be defined as knowing and the leaving the
people comfortable to what they convey.
How would you be able to tell if one of these practices was missing in a situation?
If one of the above practice in the leadership style is absent then the situation that may arise may
leave the people in dissolution. It becomes havoc for the employee if one of the skill is being
absent from the authority or manager. The communication is always termed as a two way
communication. It should not always be done on the authority side both the petition and
innovative ideas must also be given due attention from the employee side. The four parameter of
the practice that is followed by the leader or any employee is deliberately communicated and
cultivated in the overall developmental process.
Which one of these practices is most difficult for you?
The most difficult practice among the four practice is the voicing. Voicing becomes more
difficult to interpret in the communication process between the subordinate and the employee.

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Hence it is to be kept dominant by the leader and should understand the pattern of
communication.
What’s one step you can take to practice developing that area?
The one practice that can be implemented by the organization is the use of listening. Listening
not only helps in gathering knowledge from the other side but it also helps to give chance to
other to speak and share their viewpoints. Hence it can be concluded by saying that the true voice
gives encouragement to others.

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Reference
Aarseth, E. (2014). I fought the law: Transgressive play and the implied player. In From
literature to cultural literacy (pp. 180-188). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Avontuur, T., Spronck, P., & Van Zaanen, M. (2013, November). Player skill modeling in
Starcraft II. In Ninth Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment
Conference.
Bushe, G. R. (2013). Dialogic OD: A theory of practice. OD Practitioner, 45(1), 11-17.
Bushe, G. R., & Marshak, R. J. (2014). Dialogic organization development. The NTL handbook
of organization development and change, 193-211.
Mabey, C. (2013). Leadership development in organizations: Multiple discourses and diverse
practice. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(4), 359-380.
Monterrat, B., Desmarais, M., Lavoué, E., & George, S. (2015, June). A player model for
adaptive gamification in learning environments. In International conference on artificial
intelligence in education (pp. 297-306). Springer, Cham.
Okada, S., Ohtake, Y., Nakano, Y. I., Hayashi, Y., Huang, H. H., Takase, Y., & Nitta, K. (2016,
October). Estimating communication skills using dialogue acts and nonverbal features in
multiple discussion datasets. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference
on Multimodal Interaction(pp. 169-176). ACM.
Schoeneborn, D., Blaschke, S., Cooren, F., McPhee, R. D., Seidl, D., & Taylor, J. R. (2014). The
three schools of CCO thinking: Interactive dialogue and systematic comparison.
Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), 285-316.

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