Question

As already noted, in week four, you are to develop a Personal Leadership Action Plan (PLAP). One of the components required in the PLAP is that you give a critically reflective and candid evaluation of your current leadership strengths and weaknesses.

Here in the discussion board area, give an overview or summary of the strengths and weaknesses for other students to read.  

As such, frame your discussion in a way so as to invite observations, recommendations, and feedback from other students. It’s one thing to present a self-evaluation. However, observations from others give a more objective view of your leadership abilities and leadership effectiveness. Of course, any and all feedback from the students should be respectful, helpful, and insightful with the thought in mind to help provide further insight into your present and future leadership development.

Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with citations and references in APA format.

Answer 1

I feel I have a disposition towards servant leadership style. Servant leadership, basically is characterized by human oriented style. A servant leader is pro-followers or pro-employees and works his best to fulfill their interests. A servant leader is not born to rule, but is born to serve his followers. The same selfless philosophy is followed by the volunteers of Teach for India. The Teach for India leaders and volunteers work with the objective of serving children by providing them the basic foundation of education. It is the basic right of the children and the leaders of Teach for India are acting as facilitators for this attribute.

There are 10 principles of servant leadership:

• Empathy
• Listening
• Awareness
• Healing
• Persuasion
• Foresight
• Conceptualization
• Building community
• Commitment to the Growth of People
• Stewardship

The primary principles of servant leadership, along with examples, which have been inculcated in the organizational model of any public service are:

• Foresight: The leaders of any public service have analyzed the past and have understood the perils which are degrading the society. Hence they work their best to improve the future of overall society.
• Building community: The leader in a public service understands the importance of community. They work hard and develop policies to strengthen the future of the community by making them educated and self-sustainable.
• Commitment to the Growth of People: The leaders of public service keep analyzing the needs and requirements of different people in the society. They work hard to develop best policies and practices to facilitate the growth and development of overall society.
• Stewardship: The business principles of leaders in any public service works on the ethical principles of Utilitarianism i.e. providing greater good to overall society. Hence the leaders of public service are the stewards for a better society.

Strengths of Servant leadership:

• Servant leadership is based on Utilitarianism principle and hence ensures that majority gets benefitted
• Empathy gets encouraged by this leadership trait, which strengthens the bond between the leader and his followers

Weaknesses of Servant leadership:

• Decision making is quite time consuming as the leader considers the perspective of every stakeholder before making the decision
• The effectiveness with which a leader can get a work done from employees is quite restricted

However, I really admire the Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model. I feel that this model is quite apt for this competitive world. 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. Such a leader, who is able to analyze and handle any kind of situation is called an effective leader.

A effective 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.

A effective leader or manager will be able to guide his team effectively, in any kind of situation. He will be able to set the tone of the work and help the team in handling any kind of case, quite effectively. I aspire to become an effective leader as the effectiveness of this leadership style is unmatchable.

The traits which I need to develop to become an effective leader are:

• 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

References:

• Public servant Leadership: A New Paradigm for Public service by J T Hanson
• Servant Leadership in the Public Sector by D N Burrell