My Leadership Style

My Leadership Style

MGMT 312

Leadership and Motivation

25 May 2014

At the beginning of human history leaders were believed to be superior with magical attributes in difference of the common person. In some culture these leaders were considered to be God like or were born within the “Gods” favors. But within time history had showed that thee impressive persons were mere men or woman with the power of leading masses. Today is quite difficult to believe that leaders have any magical power, but only the power to move groups in conviction of their believe(s) or an objective with the great taught of achieve=ing greatness for their followers. Some people think or we think that true leaders are born with that trait; others think that leadership comes from experience, but what about if all those opinions about leadership are true? The one thing that is real is that the beginning of leadership is based in a series of attitudes and skills available to anyone with the right motivation. Nevertheless, a leader is much more than just a boss were he or she could give specifics instructions or objectives to a subordinate, but that does not means that the subordinates supports or share the boss’s ideas. Leadership as defined by the The Wall Street Journal (2014), “ is less about your needs, and more about the needs of the people and the organization you are leading”. So what makes a leader? My opinion is that leaders is a person with the capacity of communicating with a group of persons, has influence in their decisions, share the group ideas and drives the group in accomplishing a common objective; the instructions given by a leader are executed by his / her subordinates with the thought of that the accomplishment of the task will benefit everyone. “Leading is an act of controlling, directing, conducting, guiding and administering through the use of personal behavioral traits or personality characteristics that motivates employees to the successful completion of an organization” (Stowell, pp. 32).

In this essay I will evaluate my leadership skills, traits, affiliation on leadership approach and leadership model, this is based on the studies of the subject matter experts like Stowell, Colown, Northouse, etc. and their leadership theories. In addition, I will include my plan of action and time frame needed for me to improve my leadership, and personal motivation.

Northouse (2012) stated, “contingency theory is a leader–match theory, which means it tries to match leaders to appropriate situations. It is called contingency because it suggests that a leader's effectiveness depends on how well the leader's style fits the context” (pp.123). After reading Northouse’s textbook explanation of the contingency leadership approach and having completed the assessment for the theory, it cleared how much this theory resembles the various styles I used to achieve a given task or a long term objective; it also encompasses the considerations given by me to my peers or subordinates depending on the given situation (emergency, non-emergency, etc.). If the task pertains to an emergency situation of some degree, or life safety and needs to get done in a certain time with explicit directions or degree of technical skills, my leadership approach is focused in selecting the performers needed to attain the goal; the most skilled worker for the complex job. My entire concern is directed in the task primarily, with less assumption on building a relationship with the subordinate at that specific moment. “The relationship between the leader and group members is much more an internal matter which is reflected in the degree to which the leader is accepted and members are loyal to that person and in the affective reactions of members to the leader; when the relations are good the leadership job is much easier” (Miner, pp.236). Nevertheless, if the objective is gradual in matter of being a daily task my attention is directed in performing the task with much of the consideration given to my subordinates; this approach is based in building a co-worker relationship. For example, if the task for the day is to clean the fire truck I would offer to buy or cook lunch, get ice cream once we have accomplish the given task; I have seen how this minor investment helps build moral, work relationship and takes care of some hungry bellies. I think that both examples give credits for my beliefs on the type of leadership trait I have been using for some time now. Northouse (2012) wrote in the class textbook that the contingency approach “is a leader match theory that emphasizes the importance of matching a leader's style with the demands of a situation” (pp. 135).

I been in leadership positions for (directly and indirectly) since I joined the military service; giving me the opportunity to experience the mentoring of different leaders, the follower reactions towards them and the techniques they use to accomplish the objectives. In spite of my past experience and as a result of it, being able to adjust to the situation in hand (Situational Approach) is the leadership style that I consider to be my most distinguished leadership trait. “The Situational Leadership theory is a popular approach based on task behavior, relationship behavior, follower (subordinate) maturity, and effective leader behavior, may not be what the training-management professional expects” (Johansen, pp.xxi). Namely in other words, during fire ground emergencies is imperative to fully direct the fire fighting units to their assigned tasks or newer ones, by doing so the objectives are met and more important their life’s are not being jeopardize; this type of leadership trait could be considered as On the other hand, if the emergency is a simple fire alarm activation my directives are minimal

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