Finding Leadership

Definitely reminds me of transformational leadership. Now the fishes must figure out how to cope with change!

Feeling Leadership

As I look at this image I feel I have a better understanding of my personal leadership skills. From my first post I have definitely changed and analyzed how I really feel about leadership in me. I was very mixed up and I did not really see myself as one particular type of leader. As we have learned about different leadership theories I realized there is no TYPE of leader. Leadership can be created and anyone is capable of being a leader. The leadership theory I connected with most was Transformational Leadership.


Transformational Leadership stood out to me because I agreed that Leadership is coping with change and Managing is really focusing on delegating. Many managers are great managers because they do their job well and have effective outcomes. Yet, those same managers may not be great leaders. A person that is a great leader carries all the characteristics that is needed to basically change something and people will follow. The characteristics may have been developed or the leader already had them. I feel that when people think of leaders they think of those who have made a great contribution to a mass group of people. This theory makes me think about how I may get to be a real transformational leader. I feel there are steps to leadership. One may be a great leader with relationships but not very good at completing a goal. The person can then work on their task orientation and improve their leadership skills.

I am someone that knows I relate a lot to Path-goal theory. I really feel I should work on my relationships with others instead of just a task. In the future I hope to create some type of transformation. I want to be that leader that people can trust and feel that change will only improve the team, company, etc. One way to do this is to create a bond with my employees and then figure out if the employees understand the goal of where they are working. I hope to lead in a way were at the end of the day people are motivated to come back!

My Synthesis

I can definitely say that I have learned a lot about leadership. The midterm was a perfect way to really identify situations where leadership is seen. Watching the movie Mona Lisa Smile assisted me in identifying not only the differences in the leadership theories we have discussed but noticing the characters that may be in the background. I saw leadership in the background character and I feel this is what clarified my overall synthesis of leadership. Leadership is created and learned with the will and personality of a person. I feel that it is important to understand that a person may have the traits of a leader but they may not use them and they fall into the background. Someone that has the traits or does not but who has the will to learn and determination can be an effective leader. It is significant to understand from the theories that leadership must be effective. The path-goal theory describes a goal that must be achieved. In order to reach the goal having a relationship with the people that are helping you is important. Trust is definitely key in leadership not only with a leader and follower but trust must be within a leader.

From the first class I have definitely opened my mind about leadership. I am excited to learn about how I will develop with my skills. I am definitely task oriented and I need to work on my relationships. I really did not believe leadership could be studied or analyzed in so many ways. Transformational leadership was one my favorite theories because I understood the difference between managing and leadership. The only thing I do not agree with is the moral aspect. Although I feel people should be moral in there intentions it does not necessarily mean you are not an effective leader if you are not moral. The synthesis I created will maybe change at the end of the class. I am still a bit confused about the 360 degree behavioral based leadership and I still feel that I need to apply and research more on how to look at the theories in a situational matter. Overall, the class has definitely opened my eyes and the activity we did about combining all the theories into one paradigm was very interesting. I enjoyed it because I got to hear others opinions about how they explained the different leadership theories. This activity has left me wanting to learn more about leadership...

Mona Lisa Smile

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/100737860/htmmidtern

Transformational Leadership in Action

This video demonstrates the Motivating and Inspiring Aspect of Leadership. The coach could have easily described and made a plan about how they could win but instead used an influential person to demonstrate they were capable of anything. Just watching this video inspired me!

They don't make plans, they don't solve problems, they don't even organize people. What leaders really do is prepare organizations for change and help them cope as they struggle through it.

You can see the transformation of skin color not mattering anymore because that was the real struggle to surpass....

Remember the Titans - flash slideshow

JAMES McGregor Burns

Transformational leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality.

-Burns

He tells it like it is

James McGregor Burns studied leadership in a different way that became Transformational. He was one of the first scholars to look at leadership through relationships and with that he embarked on his Transformational Leadership Theory. Burn's background demonstrates his credibility of reconstructing leadership theory. He received his bachelor's degree from William's College, his PhD from Harvard, and he has also attended school in London. He was very involved in out government and began his new philosophy of leadership by pointing out some great themes. Transformational Leadership looks at the difference between a manager and a leader. One important topic is that Burns began to discuss leadership instead of discussing leaders. He states that leadership is a moral endeavour not a wielding power or trying to manipulate others. Overall, Burns has written many books about leadership and his theory has been praised and discussed by many scholars. His words have definitely taken the management level into a whole new ballpark.

First day of PARTICPATING

Blanchard describes four types of situational leadership styles. There is selling, participating, delegating, and telling. All of these styles have a relation to either task or relationship oriented people.

My leader-follow story begins on my first day working at a hotel. I had never worked as a front desk agent or worked with any of the computer systems so I knew I would need help in the technical service part of this job. The first day I arrived, I was introduced to my supervisor and she would be the one showing me around and training me to start work out on the front. As we got to know each other my supervisor began explaining all the areas of the lobby and was very talkative. She asked me a lot of questions about myself and joked around. Finally during the computer learning part of the tour she sat down and tried to explain how to use the system. Unfortunately she was not actually explaining it slowly and she would just keep asking me questions about myself. She had me somewhat practice for about five minutes and if I made a mistake she would just say, "its okay" and fix it instead of me learning how to fix it. I felt that I really trusted the supervisor because she made me feel welcomed and comfortable. Yet, at the end of my shift I realized I did not how to work the computer or really know how to do all of my tasks. In this case, although having a good relationship is key in welcoming a new worker, teaching them how to do the job is also just as important.

Although I was a bit frustrated that I did not learn the technical aspect of my job, in the end, it turned out for the best. I eventually learned what I had to do and I made a great relationship with my supervisor. This was a good participating experience for me!

till next time....

Contingency vs. Situational

Contingency Model

Fiedler concentrated on traits and behaviors to figure out if someone was relationship oriented or task oriented. He uses a model of Least Preferred Coworker to describe what type of leadership motivates an individual. I like how Fiedler describes the fact that one must look at situations and determine the effectiveness. According to the article neither task or relationship orientation is preferred. Both have good uses but depending on the situation. Fiedler describes the fact that we are looking at the effectiveness of leadership in a situational manner.

Situational Model

Within the situational model we look at developing management styles. This article focuses on four types of leadership styles. They are high task- low relationship (telling), high task- high relationship (selling), low task-low relationship (delegating), and low task-high relationship (participating).  These different leadership styles depend on the readiness of a group and also the ability and willingness to accomplish a task. The leader must look at the task at hand and use the best leadership style to produce effectiveness.



Looking at Both Models
Both of these models demonstrate situational leadership. As we look at a situation we can then see if we are concerned with a task that needs to get done or the relationship between the workers, groups members, etc. Under the contingency model during a certain situation working with people one is able to identify their motivation and leadership ways. They may be annoyed by someone because they are not getting tasks done. Or it could be that the person does not have a good relationship with the rest of the team. In the situational model, this article focused on how to use your leadership skills in certain situations. Both models demonstrated the task orientation and relationship orientation but in different ways.

Me myself and Tasks!

After reading about both models I found that I am task oriented. When I thought about my least favorite person to work with I remember I did not really care to be their friend. It was a group project and I mostly cared about the person doing their work and completing the tasks. With this situation, even though I was not the leader, I was high task-low relationship.

Also, I am apart of a sorority and when I held the position of historian it was my duty to put on an event for alumni and family. The people that were helping me out I made sure they were getting their tasks done and not really worrying about our friendship. I really took it as this is business and personal will come later. In the end, the group was a bit annoyed with me because I did not see they were competent enough with tasks that I should have focused on our relationship. I should have worked in low task-high relationship and seen this more as a participating situation.

I definitely like these models because they are situational and one can learn from their mistakes and change their leadership style.