Leadership and Management: Theories, Skills, and Personal Reflections

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Leadership and Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 What is involved in being a successful leader?........................................................................2
2) Can good leadership be developed, and if so, how?...............................................................7
3) What distinguishes leadership from management?...............................................................11
4) What have you learnt about leadership from your own experiences, on this course and
elsewhere?..................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Three Skills Approach......................................................................................................3
Figure 2: Contingency Theory.........................................................................................................4
Figure 3: Path Goal Theory.............................................................................................................5
Figure 4: Servant Leadership Theory..............................................................................................6
Figure 5: Big Five Personality Model.............................................................................................8

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Differences between leadership and management..........................................................11

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1 What is involved in being a successful leader?
Leaders posses the ability to accomplish the future goals of the organization and for this they
must be highly confident and enthusiastic so that both the needs of individual and the
organization can be fulfilled. There are certain theories that will exhibit importance of certain
skills and characteristics that must be possessed by leaders for becoming successful. Different
types of theories can be explained as follows:
Katz’s Three Skills Model
The theory states that leaders must possess different abilities for becoming successful and that
includes technical, human and conceptual skills. Technical skills are related to knowledge and
competencies about various proficiencies related to specific work. For an example, application of
software packages is an advanced technical skill that is required for accomplishing the new
business venture (Deming, 2017). Human skills support the leader to work in co ordination with
employees at the workplace. Such type of skills also supports the leaders to communicate with
teams. Along with technical and human skills, conceptual skills will spurt the leaders to work
with new concepts and ideas.
The theory helps to develop better understanding of the leadership by incorporating multiple
components related to skills and abilities. It will further allow the individual to connect at each
and every level such as lower, higher or middle level. However the theory becomes complex as
it discusses more number of skills other than leadership skills. It becomes difficult to identify
which skills are to be focused upon for understanding the progress.
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Figure 1: Three Skills Approach
Situational Approaches
This is effective in identifying the best leadership style as per the changing situations at the
workplace. As per the situations, leaders are liable to adjust their decision making, motivational
approaches as well as orientation on the basis of various factors such as employee’s
characteristics, organizational structures, type of work, and preferences of the individual as well
as influence of higher authorities (Schedlitzki and Edwards, 2017). Various situational theories
are as follows:
Contingency Theory
The theory states that managers must acquire different leadership styles according to different
situations at the workplace. There are various elements such as task structure, relationship
between employee and leader as well as positioning power that plays an important role in
deciding the most appropriate leadership style. The theory further related the managers with task
oriented or relationship oriented. Task motivated leadership style experience satisfaction while
accomplishment of task and relationship motivated style has higher focused over building
interpersonal relationship so that team development can be attained.
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Figure 2: Contingency Theory
(Source: Business jargons, 2019)
It is very difficult to identify that which leadership style is best or not suitable. Each and every
manager within the organization has their own preferences (Business jargons, 2019). For an
example, Task oriented leaders is considered to be the best where team performance is
outstanding and successfully contribute towards attaining defined sales and competitive
advantage. Relationship oriented leaders proves to be best while providing customer satisfaction
and also put positive influence on band image.
Path Goal Theory
The theory states that manager is to guide the employees to select the most appropriate path so
that goals can be attained. Leaders must adopt different type of leadership behaviour as per
demand and nature of the situation. The theory demonstrate different type of leadership styles
such as achievement oriented under which leaders set difficult goal for its employees; directive
style where employees are directed on how to perform the task; participative style where leader
encourage employees to participate in decision making and supportive under which leaders show
friendly approach.
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Figure 3: Path Goal Theory
(Source: House’s Path Goal Theory, 2019)
The theory assumes flexible nature of leaders and therefore it exhibits importance of contingency
variable such as environmental characteristics and follower characteristics. Environmental
characteristics include task structure, work group and authority systems on the basis of which
leadership style is chosen for maximising the outcomes of employees (House’s Path Goal
Theory, 2019). On the other hand follower characteristics include experience, perceived ability
and focus over control that supports determining leader behaviour.
The theory support the leaders to choose the most appropriate style of leadership so that
employees can successfully attain their goals and continuous enhancement of performance of
employees and better satisfaction can be observed.
Servant Leadership Theory
It is a philosophy that includes set of practices for enriching lives of individuals for building
better organizations. Servant leaders have higher focus over satisfying the needs of employees
and are highly committed towards improving their performance (Hoch et.al.2018). They
concentrate over prioritising personal and professional development of staff members which can
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be further utilized for attaining defined goals and objectives. Servant leaders ensure that
organization enhances its nation and community with business activities.
Figure 4: Servant Leadership Theory
Author
Servant leaders can successfully improve the organization and can put positive influence over the
long term. Positive treatment of employees is effective in enhancing the trust of employees
which further improves the credibility of the organizations brand. However the servant
leadership is time consuming while attaining positive outcomes.
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2) Can good leadership be developed, and if so, how?
Leadership skills and behaviour can be developed by analyzing one owns skills as well as by
identifying the areas of improvement. It is important to analyze the strengths and weakness of
developing strategies for up scaling of skills (Schmitt et.al.2016). There are some strategies that
that will assist an individual to develop the leadership skills. Practicing discipline is one of the
important strategies that will support the individual to become good leader. For developing
leadership, it is important to demonstrate discipline by meeting deadlines as well as by ending
meetings as per the scheduled time. Disciplined behaviour will influence other in the
organization to follow you which shows positive signs of good leadership.
In addition to this, taking on more responsibility will also develop good leadership traits. For an
instance, individual who is assigned with some responsibility in certain project must focus on
aligning and supporting roles and responsibility of others for gaining the positive outcomes from
the project (Kauppila and Tempelaar, 2016). In other words stepping out of comfort zone will
support building good leadership. Self learning and improvement is another important strategy
that will support the individual to possess good leadership skills. Individual must not be
threatened while facing disagreements and therefore one must accept this by open minds and
respect other ideas and opinions. To become good leaders, it is important for the leader to focus
on wider picture of the problem as well as to focus on anticipation before the problem arises.
Ability of predicting the issues and provide appropriate solutions will support the individual to
become the valuable leader.
Team motivation along with collaboration working also contributes towards development of
good leadership. To become the good, leader it is important for the person to direct and motivate
others by sharing knowledge and ideas. In addition to this, the best path to become the good
leader is to learn new things (Pardey, 2016). Empowerment of team mates, taking initiatives for
resolving conflicts, etc are some important factors that will ensure development of good
leadership skills.
Development of leadership can be further explained by considering application of various
theories such as:
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Great Man Theory: The theory states that few individuals are born with some important
attributes that successfully set them apart from others which further help them to gain better
power, position and authority for accomplishing goals. Leadership calls for some specific
qualities such as judgement, charm, commanding personality, intelligence, action orientation and
aggressiveness which cannot be taught in formal scenarios (Lee, 2018). This can be considered
by examples of great leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and many more who
were born as natural leaders with specific qualities of leaders. As per the theory, each and every
individual cannot become the leader however inborn leadership qualities are sufficient enough to
influence followers.
Big Five Personality Model
As per the theory, there are five personality traits of the individual that contribute towards
possessing leadership skills and behaviour which further help to attain higher power and position
within the organization. These traits include extraversion, openness, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, as well as neuroticism.
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