Leadership Challenges, Leadership Style Theories - Coursework Example

Reflective Writing Name Institution Instructor Course Date of Submission Executive Summary Since the time past, there have been no single definitions that has been outlined and spotted to be the main contributing factor to companies that do not perform well. Cultural differences between deserving groups or categories of employees have cost firms and organization of their most important and demanding tasks as wells as reactions to some aspects. Leaders have different modes in which they lead people and the most important thing is that, they have diverging traits. Even if sometimes the traits are the same, there are variations in the way they are presented and portrayed to the society under consideration. In addition, effective leadership enables one to understand how such challenges presented can affect performance of a company or a group. Accordingly, change of a team leader or a group leader significantly means that the long time procedure of handling things will change and that there are lots of variations to be noted by either group members or employees. Traits are portrayed different and the overall result is either, success or failure which depends upon how one practices the inner understandings and valuations. Similarly, organizational culture can limit one from exercising his power as a leader especially when he or she is misunderstood by group members. Introduction Since the beginning of the world, leadership has been explained as a role that can be manipulated by different people in different leadership positions. The meetings held were of great importance especially when it is considered that a group of many people presents serious challenges and complex leadership spectrums (Arvey et al 2006, p 3). During the first meeting, I learned more about what leaders should have and about the challenges that are faced by leaders serving in different capacities. However, from what I encountered from the second meeting, I realized that emotional intelligence is a key requirement towards achieving good results in an organization or in group discussions. This was because, our group leaders presented different character traits that were so diverging from each other and truly, it was an indication that leaders do behave different even when they serve the same position and agenda. Similarly, from the third meeting, I learned and enjoyed the lessons because the arguments gave an insight on what happens when cultural integration and good leadership is not corporate in management of human resource and production resources of an institution or organizations. From the meetings, it was realized that a manageable group should consist of three to five members so that views can be easily shared between all participants. Group meetings are critical because they helped me understand how people have different motives and views on different topics. They can offer different definitions, comments, suggestions, views, recommendations and can also present divergent understanding of the answers (Arvey et al 2006, p 3). Leadership Challenges During the first meeting, I learned about the challenges that are faced by leaders during the time in management. It also enabled me understand the need to have a leader during any discussion or when an organization is looking for a solution to an identifiable problem. Sometimes answers can only be obtained after holding a consensus. In most cases, generation of conclusions was so difficult to an extend that we were forced to hold small elections to vote for a sentence and comment. Still, after making conclusions, some of the members could still complain and give different suggestions (Al-Tarawneh 2012, p 3). From this, I learned that it is difficult for one to generate effective results especially when a group comprises of different professions having a tendency of analyzing and describing matters from different professional perspectives. It is through meetings that people can best learn other peoples’ characters because meetings provides a firm platform on which arguments and conclusions on specific topics can be generated and agreed upon (Warrick, 1981, p 157). There are variations in understanding issues that affect formulation of questions and answers on recognizable discussable questions. Our meeting consisted of members who presented varied views on different leadership understanding topics (Meyer, Loch, & Pich 2013). Many organizations have suffered greatly and delayed to meet their development and business goals because of gaps that exist when issues related to leadership roles and positions arises. There are variations and considerable divergence that exist when issues are not handled with fairness by a transformative leader. Leadership is needed by any organization especially during planning, staffing, coordinating, budgeting, reporting, directing, and during organization of special events (Ruderman et al 2001, p 4). During the event held during the meetings, I released that being a leader can be defined as a special ability by the superior person to influence the juniors or subordinates while persuading them to adopt a specific role or to follow a specific action to deliver targeted goals. Our meeting consisted of four members who included Mike, John, Arthur and myself (Meyer, Loch, & Pich 2013). This was a manageable group because of the low number of members. This means that there were minimum interruptions. The group leader develops legitimate power which comes freely due to the position that one holds or exercises (Ogbonna, & Harris, 2000, p 130). During some meetings, leaders were encouraged that their efforts will be rewarded with gifts. As a result, during the first meeting, reward power was generated among stakeholders. From class work, I came to understand that reward power can result when salaries are increased, or when they are promoted to significant positions that requires one to be responsible of the tasks presented. Significantly Mike presented good and effective responsibility handling techniques and capabilities. He comprised of expert based power which came automatically because he had full understanding of the topics under discussions. Handling our focus and question was difficult for Mike because I personally called for new paradigms every time a new topic was being discussed. Maintaining a new focus on leadership issues and agenda was noted as the most devastating issue that affects people’s thinking because leadership requires maintenance of attention upon members by the leader (Meyer, Loch, & Pich 2013). Leadership Style Theories According to the leadership roles, there are different theories on which most of our leaders presented their skills and while it happened, they presented a variety of theories including transactional leadership theory, situational theory, and contingency theory. Behavioral theory was significantly presented during presentation and Mike was one of the persons that presented a large context of the theory (Cherry 2014). It was realized that leaders can only be made and that leaders can not only born. Successful leadership is based upon definable behavior and description. From the class definitions, behavioral characteristics can not effectively be understood by looking at traits only. However, I noted that behavioral leaders can be best understood when inborn traits are interpreted independently. Out of the meetings held, it was realized that leadership capability and essentials can be understood when acts in describable manner. Leadership skills can be learned by practicing (Cherry 2014). This was significant because there were some of the meeting leaders that were shy at first but later on, they presented accurate arguments. In addition, the meeting leaders Mike was shy at first and did not accurately know when to ask for answers to some questions (Schein 2006, p 44). Therefore, the experiences and presentations outlined that leaders can effectively be trained and mentored to become good leaders. Harsh treatment of members by leaders can lead to absenteeism among members and there are various considerations that include. New task orientations. Displaying good characters to members is an aspect that was presented by different leaders of different group leaders (Cherry 2014). It was difficult at first for our group members to coordinate and relate discussions to the stipulated objectives. This was identified from class work that at least, we required a good leader in our group to guide us towards the targeted objectives. Members who included Mike, john, Arthur, and I was so not so organized (Cherry 2014). This problem could only be solved by putting into consideration the issue of co-operation. Every body was anxious to answer asked questions without following specific procedures or best criteria that could not cause chaos. With reference to class work, I realized that co-operation among members was the best solution and it was the best strategy that could save us from meandering with suggestions. Effective cooperation provides a firm platform on which ideologies are formed and concluded or are agreed upon by relevant stakeholders (Fiedler 1967, p 202). Culture, Corporate governance and Performance From class work, I realized from class work that culture and leadership are linked or associated with poor or effective delivery of good results by a firm and company. Performance of a company or organization is an aspect that relates culture and cooperation that exist between the two entities (Bass & Avolio, 1993, p 115). From meeting three, I realized that effective and transformative leadership encourages employees or group members to provide working solutions to problems that affect an organization at a specific time frame. I realized that most companies have a tendency of delivering good results and there are always possibilities that failure to link intercultural experiences with leadership styles may end up giving rise to serious performance implications. During the group, lack of cooperation between team members led to unnecessary delays in answering probable questions, finishing assignments (Fiedler 1967, p 201). However, these chaos made us to demand a group leader who could serve as the new director for our activities. After choosing Mike as our leader, we managed to accomplish some issues and agree on answers provided much earlier than in the first scenario. Traits From group experiences and class work in meeting two and three, I realized that every leader portrays a totally different mode of thinking and have tendency of acting differently from others at any given time. During the discussions, we held different discussions which were directed by different individuals (Bass & Avolio 1993, p 116). However, after I carried out a close evaluation of the happenings, I realized that Mike acted totally different from John and Arthur. Even though not so clear, leadership can be effectively defined as an innate character and capability that exists between human beings and individuals. I also noted that every identifiable leader has his or her own way of conducting researches or have varied methodologies that they apply to members or team work when they are assigned different managerial roles to undertake. However, some leaders showed that depending with their understanding of the matter, a leader can harshly portray poor characters, or good characters (Puplampu 2010, p 632). From class work discussions, a great leader therefore has a capability of identifying people’s requirements and giving the members what they require most. Almost all leaders should learn to incorporate members, or stakeholders agendas and relating them to objectives of a specific discussion. Traits are significant and they form core requirements of a good leader when it is considered that good leaders inspires and motivates people through their movements and actions (Dartey-Baah, Amponsah-Tawiah & Sekyere-abankwa, 2011, p 60). John was so caring and could understand each other’s views whether the views were relevant or not. Similarly, Mike was so composed to hear from us but the only limitation was that, he lacked enough courage to ask one of us or to question our participation in answering relevant questions. It took lot of efforts to convince Mike that courage was one of the greatest traits that any leaders should have. With regard to other sorted aspects, it is important to note that integrity is essential because it helps people to understand each other’s views. Apart from this, I learned that for one to be respected and heard as a leader, it is important for a leader to be compassionate about their actions and regulations (Jung 2001, p 186). Out group experienced minimal challenges because the leaders engaged and elected from our group were considerate and caring. They could understand when one was not satisfied from the feedback given by one of our members and could also fully inquire to see if all members have understood and agreed upon a specific conclusion or not. Emotional Intelligence Every attendee of the meetings we held could agree that emotional intelligence is one of the most directive aspects that can determine whether one is a great leader or not. for example during some of the presentations, it was realized that a great number of members did not understand themselves, welfare of the members and neither did they understand and comprehend what the society wanted from them as leaders (Northouse 2001, p 3). According to how John presented his ideologies, it was realized that great leaders should understand and evaluate their inner self-awareness and relate their capabilities with what is being demanded by group members at any given time. According to class work, it is comprising difficult and of great importance to note that for one to succeed as a leader in our entire group, the major prerequisite was to self assess their capabilities in order to gain self-confidence (Northouse 2001, p 7). Self-management is also an important consideration that should be analyzed and explained when one’s character portrays that the individual is able to adapt to the new environment, is transparent, self-controlled, and if one is so optimistic deliver good results. High levels of self empathy among group leaders were also one of the factors that affected orientation of some group members. Having empathy means that a leader can sense flow of the group and can easily detect the level at which members of a group are understanding the agenda under consideration or not. Once our group was formed, there were social frameworks and notable networks that were formed (Reardon, Reardon, & Rowe 1998, p 130). These networks were notable only to people of good characters and thinking. Till now, I still know that leadership has a role to play in organizations. Firms and organization which have good leaders with a complete set of characters and traits have an effective track record that indicates achievements that have been made by employees towards meeting organizational goals and timeframes. Not all out groups worked better (Ogbonna, & Harris 2000, p 770). Questioning and answering relevant questions according to the objectives being displayed indicated that leaders have different motives and capabilities to lead and evaluate other people’s challenges. 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