Question

Your Leadership Reflection Journal should exhibit a personal reflection of your present leadership competencies and also possible adjustments that could be made to your leadership approach. Importantly, your Journal entry should be in light of the various concepts that have covered each week in the course. Also of importance, the Leadership Reflection Journal should be far beyond a mere casual discussion. It should demonstrate a high level of understanding and should also provide adequate integration of authoritative sources as assigned for reading each week.

• You should integrate other scholarly sources, most preferably to review literature retrieved from the University research library.
• Your weekly Leadership Reflection Journal should be no less than one page and no more than two pages in length.
• This journal should be written in the first person and should be critically reflective. As such, you will discuss the most important concepts that you have learned throughout the week and how those concepts may be applied to your leadership career.

Answer 1

The leadership theories which are applicable in workplace setting are as follows:

• Communitarianism: The leader, in this leadership, regards community as the most important and critical entity of the society. The leadership purpose, objectives as well as actions are aimed towards well-being of the overall society. The leader works with the objective of facilitating the greater good and develop a collaborative society.
• Collective leadership: It is basically is a type of social process, which is implemented with an objective of achieving collective goals of a group. It involves the leadership actions of many, the actions usually channelized and coordinated to achieve the collaborative goals. Each member has shared responsibility in the project and they work as connected networks.
• Authentic Leadership: This leadership revolves around genuineness. The leadership’s trait of genuineness makes the leader more relatable and trust-worthy. The authentic leader does not hesitate in owning his mistake and works with the objective of correcting the same. Authentic leaders are quite mass attracters and have wider influence.
• Transformational Leadership: The leader acts as a change agent for the overall society. The leader is quite inspiring and has the vision for the better future of the overall society.

I really admire the Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model. This model suggests that there is no specific style followed by a leader of an organization. The leader needs to mold his leadership style as the gravity of the situation, faced by the organization, demands. The characteristics of leadership style may also depend on the maturity of the followers.

A situational leader anticipates a situation, analyzes it and then develops his leadership style accordingly. This makes him manage the overall situation quite effectively. If the company is anticipating a change, he transforms as a change agent and aligns the objective of the change with the overall culture and value system of the company. This makes the change embracement quite effective with the company.

An effective leader must have the following skills:

• Negotiation Skills: An effective leader must have the negotiation ability
  • Example: A leader will need negotiation skills to reach a mutual consensus during the collective bargaining process
• Leadership Skills: The leader must have the leadership skills so as to guide and lead the employees under him
  • Example: The leader will require leadership skills to make the employees believe in his vision and BATNA in the bargaining process
• Communication Skills: An effective leader must be a great communicator
  • Example: The leader needs effective communication skills to make the employees understand his perspective and overall strategy for enhancing the company’s performance
• Listening Skills: An effective leader cannot be considered as a great communicator, if he does not have good listening skills
  • Example: The leader will use his listening skills to understand the thought process and disposition of the employees.
• People Manager: The leader must have the image of being paternalistic and to take care of his employees
  • Example: The leader must portray his people skills so that the employees understand that he will take care of their needs and overall welfare
• Problem Solver: A leader must be able to solve any problem at hand
  • Example: The leader must be able to identify the root cause of problems at the company, using his problem solving skills, so as to solve them completely