This essay will critically analyse authors perceptions about leadership, and more specifically what makes a good leader in various different contexts, it will also include critical evaluation of author’s leadership style. The first paragraph of this essay will provide authors general consideration of the concept of leadership and will define leadership. After the leadership was defined we will explore effective leadership in the context of the teams and teamwork. Then we will move on to a discussion about the importance of good communication and effective decision-making skills in order to become an effective leader. After a critical evaluation of what makes a good leadership we will offer recommendations on how the author could become a more effective leader.
The concept of leadership is popular research topic and is highly empathised in the management literature. Yet, it remains somewhat of a contested concept about which there remains no universal definition or consensus about what “it” actually is, and so is no surprise that there is no universal truth about what constitutes a good leader (Tourish, 2013). Leadership theories evolved from the ‘Great man’ or Trait leadership theories. Such theories argued that leaders are born superior to ordinary people. It was believed that one cannot become a great leader if he is not born with ‘leadership’ traits. However, leadership theories have come a long way since. ' Trait' and 'Great man’ theories have been replaced by theories like; Fiedlers ( 1974) contingency theories, transformational leadership (Bass, 1996) servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1977), Shared leadership (Carson et al, 2007) and many more. These more complex theories of leadership consider leadership from a relational perspective, sees leadership more as a process and set of practices that can be developed and learned. Northouse (2013, p.5) defines leadership as a ‘process whereby an individual influence a group of individuals to achieve a common goal’, he implements the idea that leadership is a position rather than trait or skill. Author of this essay considers leadership as a process and a position, but she argues that in order to be an effective leader you have to develop and improve certain skills and abilities that will enable you to become the most effective leader you can be.
‘Leadership perceptions are based on cognitive categorisation processes in which perceivers match the perceived attributes of potential leaders they observe to an internal prototype of leadership categories’ (Foti & Luch, 1992 cited in Hartog et al., 1999). Literature suggests that attributes and skills that constitute effective leader not only differs in different cultural backgrounds, but also varies between different social statuses, gender, organizational hierarchy, and also individual subjective perceptions. Therefore, the author of this essay argues that the knowledge of teams and teamwork becomes important when considering what makes an effective leader.
Many organisations’ activities have shifted from original working patterns to teamwork. The main focus of many organisations is to develop effective and high-performance teams. Pfeffer (2001) states that great teams out-performs great individuals, even when individuals are more talented. Unfortunately, there is no general formula on how one should develop an effective team. Effective team needs ‘right people’ with ‘right skills’ (King, Lawley, 2013). The task of team development is traditionally seen as leader’s responsibility. Team-role theorists argue that to reach team’s potential, the team has
to have balanced team roles. M. Bebin (2013, originally published in 1981) developed a model that provides team role descriptions, she argues that performance of each role contributes to collective success. Thus the role of the leader is to coordinate and synchronize individual team roles contributions.
Author of this essay would argue that a good leader is a leader that can identify skills of team members and delegate roles effectively. An effective leader also has to be aware of shortcomings of this model; it can be very deterministic, in real life teams, one person can take many roles. The popular model of team development was introduced by Tuckman (1965,1977) (cited in King and Lawley, 2013). The model suggests that teams move through five stages: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Tuckman's model emphasis that as the team develops, the leader changes leadership style, this model is somehow similar with Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership theories, that focuses on how a leader should adopt different styles during different needs of the follower. One should be aware that as every theoretical model it is not without a fault, in reality, not all teams will go through all of the Tuckman’s five stages of teams’ development. The model is very linear and does not take into account the external environment. Behavioral theories of leadership also identify particular styles of leadership like Autocratic, Democratic and Laissez-faire associated (will not be discussed). An autocratic style authority is centralised, the leader tends to dictate work methods, while the democratic style emphasises delegate authority, encourage participation, and use feedback to coach employees. Literature suggests that democratic style is preferred in high-performance teams. Zachary, Rittman and Marks ( 2001) claims that ‘as teams become more experienced and achieve a significant level of expertise, other members take over more of the leadership functions, while designated leaders retain their boundary-spanning responsibilities’.
However, Rast et al. (2013) cames to the conclusion that self-uncertainty can reverse people’s usual preference for democratic leadership-causing them to invest greater support and trust in autocratic leadership. One has to be aware of the level of confidence and self-certainty in the teams, to adopt the most appropriate style of leadership. The author of this essay completed a leadership styles questionnaire (Studysites.sagepub.com, 2017) that concluded that author tends more to adopt autocratic leadership style. Even though she was sceptical about such questionnaire she does agree with the results. Gendered leadership theories suggest that autocratic style of leadership received more favourably when such leadership style is adopted by a male leader. Eagle and Carli (2007) argue that female leaders have to worry more about balancing male and female characteristics of leadership in order to be liked and recognised as a successful leader. Therefore, as a female, author of this essay has to be aware of such perceptions and societal stereotypes. We can draw the conclusion that an effective leader should be able to adopt different styles of leadership, considering the most appropriate style that would suit the situation and the context.
Leadership is concerned with the interaction between leaders and their followers. Thus communication plays a crucial role when talking about the effectiveness of a leader. Communication is the transfer of meaning or information from one person, or several, to another (King and Lawley, 2013). A good judgment wasted if a leader is unable to communicate clearly (Dewan, Myatt, 2008). Effective communication means that the vision, goals, and orders have been successfully transmitted to, and understood by, all people within the organisation. Lack of clear communication can cause ineffective organisational performance, resistance to change, poor employee engagement.
A good leader has to be a clear communicator. A clear communicator is a leader whose use of language leads to a common understanding of the message being communicated and the implications of that message (Dewan, Mayatt, 2008). Yet, the ability to construct and express clear message might not be the most important part of communicating effectively. Social constructionist theory of leadership argues that what counts as a good leadership is determined by the followers’ perceptions, in other words, followers have to actually want to follow the leader. That means that the way the message was delivered is equally important as well as the message itself. It can play an important role when influencing followers’ perceptions and how they interpret the message that was being communicated.
The way we communicate is based on our interpersonal skills. Pastor (2014) argues that leaders must have a good understanding of their own emotions and also of others. Effective leaders should be able to regulate their emotions when interacting with others. Such abilities are highly dependent on one's emotional intelligence. Esther et al. (1997) defined emotional intelligence as ‘ an ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, trust, creativity and influence’ (cited in Jorfi et al. 2014). Riggio and Reichard (2008) suggest that ‘emotional and social skills imbalance has a correlation with poor leadership’. That is because it can affect how well we communicate. For example, ‘the empathic individual can read emotional currents, picking up on nonverbal cues such as a tone or facial expression’ Goleman (2001). However, emotions and feelings are somewhat a tabu when talking about leadership. It is often seen as something that gets in the way of rationality and effective decision making (Albrow, 1992, cited in George, 2000). The author of this essay argues that the effectiveness of decision making can be influenced by emotions (not necessarily positively influenced) but if the leader is competent in emotional intelligence, that can give positive outcomes. For example, we could speculate that if a leader who is experiencing negative emotions (such as anger and frustration) is about to make a decision, has an excellent emotional intelligence, he or she is more likely to recognise that his/her's decisions are based on those emotions.
According to the author of this paper, decision making is a crucial part of leadership. A component that author of this essay believes to be an essential in decision making is critical thinking. ‘The Future Of Jobs’ report found that critical thinking is one of the skills that will remain in extremely high demand (World Economic Forum, 2016). There is no surprise why such skills are extremely valuable in an organisation. Critical thinking can be defined as ‘a deep, reflective and independent form of thinking that seeks to understand the assumptions and thought structures behind a statement or argument (Watson and Reissner, 2014: 43). It is a ‘capacity to work with complex ideas whereby a person can make effective provision of evidence to justify a reasonable judgment’ (Moon, 2007). When we think critically, we are evaluating the outcomes of our thought processes—how good a decision is or how well a problem is solved (Halpern 1996). Thinking critically can also prevent the possible danger of groupthink phenomenon. Groupthink is a term describing a group where ‘loyalty requires each member to avoid raising controversial issues’ (Janis, 1982, p. 12 ).
The author of this essay argues that leader who thinks critically is more likely to consider different outcomes and alternative options which can help prevent groupthink. Flores et al, (2012) claim that leaders who can think critically will be more effective when facing complex problems which require complex solutions. In recent years there was more and more research based on the ethical behaviour of leadership. Therefore, theories concerned with ethical leadership argue that leaders are obligated ‘to set a moral example for organisational members and to determine those organisational activities which may be detrimental to the values of society’ (Aronson, 2001, cited in Zhu et al 2004). Therefore, such theories argue that ethical decision making and ethical leadership behaviour creates trust between leader and followers, and so it has a potential to increase organisational effectiveness and performance (Zhu et al, 2004). Authors (ibid) suggest that ethical leadership can have a positive effect. It is so because it has an ability to create psychological empowerment via the trust. The consequence of such empowerment might be the increase of organisational commitment. Thinking about these ideas of ethical leadership we can conclude that a good leader should not only critically consider all the decisions, but also should consider the consequences that might happen if the decision made was not ethical.
The first thing the author suggests is to keep Continuing Professional Development (CPD) plan. CIPD (2016) provides guidance on how to keep your CPD log and stages that are important in CPD cycle. The first step is to identify where you are now in terms of your development and where you want to be. Then set a plan on how you can get where you want to be, in this case, become an effective leader. One of the most important stages of CPD cycle is to put your plan into action. Equally important is to reflect, as ‘processes of critical thinking in practice are rooted in reflection, either in the form of self-reflection or as of the relationships between individuals, collectivities and society’ (Trehan and Ring, 2005 p.14). Author’s first development objective is to improve time management skills and avoid procrastination. To do so, she has to start setting clear goals and break those goals down into steps. She must start organising work schedule and set time frame for task completion. To manage and lead others first, one has to be able to manage himself herself effectively. That is why it is important to learn how to manage your time effectively and how to prioritise. The author has always thought that her time management skills are poor and if she wants to become an effective leader she needs to improve those skills. Investigating this topic further, the author became familiar with term ‘active procrastinator’. Chu and Choi (2005) define active procrastinators as those procrastinators who like the pressure of looming deadlines and the feeling of achievement when beating them. Authors (ibid) also suggest that active procrastinators excel in terms of purposive use and control of time, self-efficacy belief, coping styles, and outcomes including academic performance. The writer of this essay identifies herself as an active procrastinator. She tends to delay less urgent activities and rather focus either on more important tasks at the time or task that she feels would be more beneficial. The author thinks that being an active procrastinator gives her an advantage when facing unexpected and urgent tasks. Holmberg and Tyrstrup (2010) suggest that more of management and leadership activity is event-driven- and thus it is more important to have an ability to respond to situations rather than future-planning (cited in Chu and Choi, 2005 )Yet, the writer also recognises the fine line between destructive procrastination and productive procrastination.
Next objective is to improve communication skills, to do so author recognises that she has to focus more on message’s clarity as well as paying attention to non-verbal communication’s factors, such as reading audience facial expressions and emotions. The author of this essay is already taking Personal, Professional skills enhancement module. She attended lectures on a constructive conversation, questioning skills, feedback giving skills sessions. Author of this essay thinks was very beneficial and practical, especially because there she was given an opportunity to ‘role-play’ real-life situations using endorsed effective communication models and theories.
This assignment proved that understanding of what makes an effective leader is very challenging and highly subjective. It is not only depending on your individual perceptions of what makes a good leader, but also those who surround you, in other words, your followers and just context and culture in general. The author of this paper realised that to become an effective leader one first has to get familiar with many different leadership theories and perceptions, so she can implement the most appropriate style depending on the context she is in. Thus, the good leader is the one who can admit that there is no perfect leadership style. To enhance one's style one needs to be willing to change according to circumstances. It is clear if one is able to identify different needs according to the given circumstances, communicate effectively, make good and ethical decisions one is going the right path in becoming a more effective leader.
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