Managing Organizations and Leading People

This essay analyzes my leadership style using the democratic leadership theory. It evaluates my strengths and weaknesses, recommends improvements, and sets SMART goals to enhance my leadership effectiveness. The importance of effective leadership in organizational success is emphasized throughout.

Running head: MANAGING ORGANIZATIONS AND LEADING PEOPLE 1
Managing Organizations and Leading People
Student’s Name
University Affiliation

MANAGING ORGANIZATIONS AND LEADING PEOPLE 2
Managing Organizations and Leading People
Introduction
Leading an organization is one of the most important tasks that an individual can
carry out in organizations. Effective leadership can ensure that the organization remains
among the best compared to its competitors. Effective leadership helps to maintain highly
motivated employees that operate with high levels of effectiveness. This high level of
effectiveness makes the organization manage to meet its set goals and targets, an aspect that
is highly beneficial to how it operates. Good organizational leaders also make appropriate
organizational decisions, which helps to shape the direction that the organization takes. The
success of an organization is defined by the decisions that are made by its management and
leadership. Good decision-making practices help to ensure that it succeeds in its operations
(Dugan, 2017). Being an individual who aims to become an organizational leader, it is
important to assess and determine my leadership style. This paper assesses my leadership
style, strengths, and weaknesses, through the utilization of a leadership theory.
Results from the seven habits profile, and their indication of my leadership style
The seven habits profile helps an individual to define his or her habits and then from
the combination of scores obtained manage to determine their indications. Each one of the
habits that this profile provides is the normal habits that individuals involved in on a daily
basis. An example of such habits, among others include aspects of showing kindness and
considerations of other people and working hard among other habits. These habits have been
categorized into categories. The first category is the emotional bank account category, in
which I scored 14. This score is given a very good ranking. The other category is life balance,
in which my score is also ranked very well. Being proactive is the other category, in which I
scored 12. The other category is that of putting first things first, in which I scored 13. In the

MANAGING ORGANIZATIONS AND LEADING PEOPLE 3
rest of the scores, I managed to secure a very good ranking for the rest of the categories,
which include, think win-win, seek first to understand category, synergize and sharpen the
saw. Each one of these categories is important to consider for individuals who are leaders and
those who seek to become leaders in future. From the information provided by this seven
category test, I managed to understand that I am in a good position about leadership aspects.
In each one of these categories, however, I did not manage to attain the total score required.
With this regard, therefore the implications of my results are that I am in a good position
about leadership, but I still have room to improve (Kane, Patapan, & Hart. 2011).
Evaluate three strengths of your leadership practice using a scholarly leadership theory.
Leadership theories help leaders to determine their type of leadership and the reasons
why that type of leadership suits them most. There are a large number of these theories,
which explain the logic of how many leaders lead and the reasons why their leadership style
is as it is. From the consideration of the results I obtained in the seven categories leadership
traits test, I consider the leadership theory of democratic leadership. A democratic leader is an
individual that involves in the activities of leading other people by allowing them to give
their inputs and concerns regarding the leadership decisions that are being made. A
democratic leader begins by allowing other people to give their opinions and having concerns
about them, an aspect that helps to motivate them effectively (Cismas, Dona, & Andreiasu,
2016).
The first major strength of my leadership, from the results of the seven habits profile
test, is the fact that I have concerns about other people. As a leader of an organization, I will
be leading a group of people who are highly skilled and might have ideas that might be of
benefit to the organization. When an individual has such an idea, he or she feels the need to
provide it to the organization, mainly because after it helps the organization to achieve

MANAGING ORGANIZATIONS AND LEADING PEOPLE 4
improvements, that individual is also recognized and even in some cases rewarded. Being a
leader that has concerns for the welfare of other people in the organization, I would not deny
such an individual the chance to give his or her opinions and ideas regarding the most
appropriate action that should be taken (Linzey, & Pierce, 2015).
The other major strength is the fact that through effective leadership, I have the ability
to establish a good relationship with others. As an organizational leader, it is appropriate to
ensure that all the employees are in a good relationship with me. Without a good relationship,
the employees may not be open to me on the different issues that occur within the
organization, and thus failures may occur as a surprise and chances that would have been
beneficial may be lost. The third major strength is my ability to understand my goals and
targets as a leader. This aspect helps me to remain motivated and willing to carry out the
needed operations to obtain organizational success. These three major strengths guarantee my
ability to lead an organization effectively (Ziaran, Kucerova, & Melasova, 2016).
Evaluate three weaknesses of your leadership practice using the same scholarly
leadership theory you used.
From the perspective of a democratic leader, whose main strength is his or her
relationship with others and the willingness to involve them in matters of leading the
organization, I have some leadership weaknesses. The first weakness is that I am not effective
in taking responsibility for my moods and poor decisions. I instead blame other people that
these moods causes and circumstances. By so doing, I do not formulate strategies and ways
through which I can manage to prevent other similar occurrences from taking place in future.
This weakness, therefore, has the potential of reducing the effectiveness of my leadership
significantly and thus a solution is important to formulate and implement (Kane, & Patapan,
2012).

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The second weakness is my problem of keeping promises and honouring
commitments. Although I ensure that I honour most commitments and promises that I make, I
still have a problem in the same, since there are some promises that I make and due to some
reasons I am not able to honor them. As an organizational leader, I am likely to make some
important promises to people and organizations that have the ability to cause impact to the
progress of the organization. Being unable to honor such a commitment might be a major
problem that may eventually cause the organization to be affected negatively. With this
regard, therefore, it is significantly important to ensure that I increase my skills and
capabilities of making and keeping commitments and promises (Woods, 2005).
The third weakness that I have is the insensitivity to the feelings of other people. The
lack of being sensitive to what other individuals feel makes it difficult for me to view things
from their perspective. I also make certain remarks about them that may not be pleasing or
beneficial to them, an aspect that eventually makes it difficult for them to maintain a good
relationship with me. Being an organizational Democratic leader, I need employees who are
willing to work with me and those that I can inspire to operate at high levels of effectiveness.
With the ability to recognize their feelings and how the duties and roles that they carry out in
the organization affects their lives, I have a major problem in determining the means through
which this high level of ineffectiveness can be beneficial to them (Winkler, 2010).
Recommend three theory-based changes that you could make to maximize your success
in managing organizations and leading people in the future, using the same scholarly
leadership theory you used
The activity of managing an organization through the democratic type of leadership
requires a highly skilled leader who can determine how to handle employees and the level of
leadership involvement that is appropriate for them to increase improvements of the

MANAGING ORGANIZATIONS AND LEADING PEOPLE 6
organization. Although I am a highly skilled individual with the capability of leading an
organization effectively, the first important change that would help me become an even better
leader is embracing more learning and acquisition of more leadership skills. This change can
help me create ways through which I can increase my effectiveness as a leader within the
organization in a significantly simple way (Locke, & Kirkpatrick, 2010).
The second change that I can make which can help me improve my leadership
capabilities as a democratic leader is a change of how I relate to other people. Relationship
with other individuals is one of the major ways through which a democratic leader can
manage to help an organization attain its set goals and targets. Such a leader embrace the
contribution of other individuals in the activities of the organization. To attain the best
contributions, the individuals require being in a good relationship with the leader. From the
seven habits profile results, however, it is revealed that I have problems with relating
effectively with other people. A change on how I relate to others is thus the most appropriate
way through which I can manage to achieve effectiveness in the activities that I involve in
(Weth, 2007).
The third change that is appropriate and significantly important to help me improve
my leadership is the change of how I react to failures and negativities that occur, both to me
and to the organization. From the seven habits profile results, it is clear that I blame other
people for the negative occurrences that take place. Although on some occasions, other
people within the organization may cause problems that occur, organizational leaders are still
to blame up to a certain extent. Without taking this blame, I do not feel the need to formulate
a personal solution, which will ensure that such an occurrence will not re-occur again in
future. With this regard, therefore, it is important to change this aspect and begin taking
responsibility of the occurrences that take place which affects me and the organization.

MANAGING ORGANIZATIONS AND LEADING PEOPLE 7
Making all these changes will ensure that I manage to improve my leadership and personal
traits, an aspect that will be of significant importance (Williams, 2014).
Discuss two short-term SMART goals that will help improve your leadership practice.
To improve my leadership within a very short period, establishing important goals is
of significant importance. My first goal is ensuring that in all the unintended occurrences that
might take place both in my life and in the organization, I will take full responsibility for the
parts of the occurrence that I am to blame. I will also ensure that I do not blame other people
for such occurrences when in certain ways, it is also my fault. This goal is of significant
importance, because, it will help me learn to formulate and implement solutions to the issues
that I cause. Without these solutions being established, it implements effective strategies that
will help the organization and my leadership style to improve. The goal is specific because it
involves only a single issue of blaming other people. It is measurable since I can determine
the number of times where I do not lay blame on other people for occurrences that I am
involved in. It is also realistic and time bound because it begins with the next inappropriate
occurrence both in the organization and in my personal life (Loritts, & Loritts, 2008).
The second goal is ensuring that I honor all the promises and commitments that I
make. This goal will help me become an individual that makes commitments and keeps them.
By achieving this goal, I will manage to ensure that I attain the trust of other people easily, an
aspect that will be beneficial to both the organization and me individually. This goal is
specific since it will help me achieve a certain issue that has been problematic in my
leadership. The goal is also measurable since it is easy to understand when I achieve and
when I do not achieve it. It is also realistic and time bound as it begins immediately when I
make a promise or commitment to an individual or an organization (Weth, 2007).

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Discuss at least two specific actions you will take to reach each of the SMART goals
discussed
To achieve each of the SMART goals, I will be required to take some actions. The
first action is to attend a training session where I will learn from my past actions about the
situations where I blame others, but I am partially or fully to blame. This action will be
effective in helping me achieve the desired goal because, in many occasions, I blame other
people because I view issues in a different perspective from how I should view them.
Learning the right perspective to view issues which I am involved in will help me manage to
achieve the desired goal in a significantly easy way (Siegel, 2014).
The second action that I will take is learning the importance of promises and
commitments to other people. To learn this, I will assess earlier situations where the lack of a
single individual to keep a promise of honor a commitment caused significant problems to
that individual and others. I will also research to help me understand the importance of
commitments and promises to other people and the implications that people have on those
who do not keep them. Since I need to become an appropriate leader, learning these things
will help me increase my understanding of issues (Lussier, & Achua, 2015).
Conclusion
In conclusion, a leader is an individual who is highly respected by other people in an
organization. The leader’s effectiveness, therefore, determines the success of that
organization. According to the democratic theory of leadership, democratic leaders involve
their employees in the important aspects of the organization like decision making. This
involvement of the employees helps them offer a good leadership. Being a democratic type of
leader, it is important to ensure that I have the skills and capability to handle employees
effectively and establish a good relationship with them. This aspect is important because,

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with good relationship with organizational employees, Democratic leaders manage to achieve
effectiveness in their leadership (Northouse, 2010).

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