My Leadership Style
Some people are born leaders and some people have to learn how to be leaders. For someone to become a great leader they need to learn the concept of leadership styles and learn how to apply this concept into action. There are three leadership styles that one needs to know about in order to be a great leader. These leadership styles are ; democratic, autocratic and laissez-faire.
The first leadership style is democratic leadership. A democratic leadership is where you allow your group members, your employees to have a say in what happens. This type of leadership helps when trying to promote a sense of team, and giving the group confidence that their opinions are valued. Even though you do ask for their input in the decision making , you decide what the final say is going to be. The second leadership style is autocratic leadership. This leadership style is not hard to understand at all. In autocratic leadership you are the one who makes the decision. It is always your way or no way.
Finally the third leadership style is the laissez- faire leadership. This leadership style is also called permissive, nondirective, ultraliberal and delegative leadership style. Just like the name implies with this leadership style you always delegate and put someone else in charge of the task. This will definitely raise the level of confidence of the group and teach them how to be a leader themselves.
When I took an online leadership style assessment test I found out that my leadership style is Laissez- faire. Usually the problem with the permissive leadership is that it seems like there is no leader at all. What happens eventually in this case is that the group members start to take on leadership and respons...
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... own style and plus consider any improvements necessary in order to be a great leader.
References
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Finkelman, A., (2012). Leadership and Management for Nurses. Pearson Education, Inc.
Skogstad, A., Einarsen, S., Torsheim, T., Aasland, M. S., & Hetland, H. (2012). The destructiveness of laissez-faire leadership behavior. Journal of occupational health psychology, 12(1), 80.
Woods, P. A., & Gronn, P. (2009). Nurturing Democracy The Contribution of Distributed Leadership to.a Democratic Organizational Landscape. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 37(4), 430-451.
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...rting style, or delegating style an effective leader will know which style to use with each person or group.
STYLES OF LEADERSHIP An autocratic leadership style is one where the manager sets objectives, allocates tasks, and insists on obedience. Therefore the group becomes dependent on him or her. The result of this style is the members of the group are often dissatisfied with the leader. This results in little cohesion, the need for high levels of supervision, and poor levels of motivation amongst employees. A democratic leadership style encourages participation in decision making.
Giltinane (2013) identifies three leadership styles. The first is transactional leadership in which a leader is controlling and functions in a reward and punishment environment. In transactional leadership style, leaders give little room for employees to express ingenuity. Decisions are passed laterally from top down and the form of leadership is to stress obedience rather than loyalty. Transactional leadership is closely related to autocratic style (Giltinane, 2013).
You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink is a proverb I have heard since I was young. Leadership is the skill of influencing people to accomplish goals (Huber, 2014). In today’s world with policy and technological changes the leaders must use their leadership skills to not only get the horse to the water, have him drink, but also do it with a smile an invite others to join him. Leaders use a variety of styles to accomplish their goals. I will discuss the leadership style that I utilize most often, how my style relates to leadership theories and the work type environment it is most useful in.
My style of leadership according to the quiz by Cherry (n.d.) is participative leadership which is a type of leadership that engages the members of the team to participate in decision making and problem solving while the leader makes the final judgment in the deliberation process. This style of leadership allows members who are experts in their fields provide input to reach a more effective and accurate decision. This fits exactly into my leadership style. I always believed that in every aspect there is a greater or lesser person than you are, so, why not focus on the best in others and tap on their expertise in knowledge or skill to get the best results.
They further stated that most leadership forms a new paradigm for understanding both the lower and higher order effects of leadership style. The style of leadership which is adopted by a leader is influenced by the leader’s background, personal experience, religion, political affiliation, ideology, inclination, culture and even orientation without necessarily being based on the dynamics of the situation. The major leadership constructs consist of transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and lazzirfair leadership others that are going are common are democratic and autocratic types of
Mlls, D. Q. (2005). Leadership How to Lead, How to Live. Boston: Harvad Business School Press.
Yukl, G. (2002). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. p. 1-19. Retrieved from http://www.blackdiamond.dk/HDO/Organisation_Gary_Yukl_Leadership_in_Organizations.pdf
Leaders do not just appear out of thin air and automatically start making great things happen in the world. A leader must learn from prior leaders or role models that they are surrounded by that they look up to. Not everyone can be a leader, only some people have the correct characteristics it takes to lead others in the right direction. Those who do great things, for example volunteering at a homeless shelter, are not leaders. Many people mistake a “great person” as being a leader, which is completely incorrect (Kouzes and Posner, p. 3). While playing an active role in your community is a positive thing it does not make someone a leader of that community. All leaders have a group of people they have inspiration too and that is a good way of determining who your personal leaders are. My mother, brother, and grandfather are my leaders because I have always looked up to them and tried to mimic some of the great things that I have seen them do. My mother has always been an independent women with goals and an action plan to accomplish those set goals. Stephen, my elder brother, is outgoing and tends to have a leveled head when it comes to evaluating stressful situations. My grandfather is the most caring person I know and he is amazing at keeping situations under control in order to please everyone. These are all the qualities I want to combine into my own leadership style. I know I am not a efficient leader of these actions yet, but I plan on growing into this as I more on into my career, fulfill my set goals, and adjust to the curve-balls that life throws at me.
This report is attempting to delve into the systemic differences autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire styles of leadership has on an individual, class, department or institution. As a nursing student, I believe it is important to understand the distinct differences inherent to each style as well as the benefits and disadvantages associated with the various styles of leadership.
"Quiz - What's Your Leadership Style?" Quiz - What's Your Leadership Style?About.com, n.d. Web. 12 June 2014. .
There are a few different types of well known leadership styles, authoritarian, delegative, and democratic. To assess my leadership style I used two online tests to help me determine my style. I felt the results were accurate and I fall into a democratic style/participative style. If I am leading I prefer to include the group and get their feedback on solving issues. However, I still make the final decision after listening to the thoughts of the group on a particular topic. This is considered to be a positive style of leadership that is inspiring to the group involved. The leaders decision making tends to be more accurate due to the input of other experts. (Cite)
Throughout my life I have encountered the chance to experience position of being a leader. Being part of groups in university for class presentations, being the organizing secretary of my campus fellowship, being a youth leader in my church and the church admin, also being part of a family. Leaders are charismatic, inspirational and trust worthy. I have gained some important qualities of being a good leader through these experiences. Most of the valuable leadership’s characteristics that I obtained and strengthened are: learn to become a better leader every day, how to be a team player, to be a better listener, to be an effective communicator, to have more patience, not afraid of constructive criticism, to be outspoken, and to be a problem solver. Even though I have gained a lot, I still have more things to learn to become a better leader such as being more assertive, being more disciplined, becoming a better public speaker, and learn how to be realistic and not too optimistic. You are a leader if someone else choses to follow you.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
In this paper I will look at the four major leadership styles, their characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, and in what situations a particular leadership style is desired. Additionally, I will look at my leadership style and how I acquired this style throughout my career.