Part 1 of 2
In Chapter 2, I learned about the difference between democratic and autocratic behavior. An autocratic leader tends to centralize power and derive authority from the position, coercion, and control reward. A democratic leader, on the other hand, delegates authority and relies on the subordinates and encourages their engagement. My General manager is a more democratic leader. The General manager has ten supervisors reporting to her every day. He has always strived to promote passion, energy, confidence, optimism, honesty, integrity, and charisma to all the subordinates. Through promoting positive energy, workers would feel determined and motivated to accomplish their objectives.
Promoting passion within the hospitality industry has led to increased satisfaction and happiness within the working environment. This has helped in creating a more successful organization in the long run. The general manager is optimistic, which has promoted positivity and enables the workers to perform better. The confidence in herself and the subordinates have made the team more collaborative and successful. Considerably, integrity and honesty bring about a long-lasting positive association between the followers and the leader.
Democratic leadership has been emphasized as an effective leadership style in many organizations. Leaders have realized that they can acquire better results through empowering employees rather than acting like authoritarians. For instance, I always remember the general manager asking for my opinion about how the hotel can improve the guest check-in procedures. After I gave my input, he would go around the table and ask other team members about their opinion. She has always been concerned about various issues and asked for more feedback from the supervisors. The general manager exemplifies a democratic approach, which is better than autocratic since it shows the difference of just being a manager.
Leader-Member Exchange
The leader-member exchange is a relationship-based approach in leadership that pays attention to the two-way relationship between followers and leaders. The relationship between the leader and the subordinate has a direct correlation with the performance. For instance, if a subordinate has a high-quality relationship with the leader, they will experience a good working environment that facilitates responsibility and collaboration. On the other hand, a low leadership-member exchange will lead to subordinates struggling with advancement, trust, and a negative working environment.
Ideally, not all employees will be on the positive side of the leader-member exchange. When working as an assistant manager, I had a very difficult time with one of the employees named Smith. To establish an effective partnership through the leader-member exchange, I had to treat him like an in-group member. I offered more encouragement and support than to other employees, praised him for his improvements and achievements as well as offered him chances for promotion to receive better pay. I have realized that it’s important to put as many members as possible in the in-group to boost employee performance and job satisfaction.
Personality Models
The big five personality models are a group of personality traits. The big five personality traits include extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. This has been an effective way of conceptualizing variations among people since the personality traits are measured independently and distinct from others. My personality trait assessment has accurately defined me since most of my characteristics have been perfectly described.
My extroversion results are high, which suggests that am outgoing, talkative, interacting, and friendly. For instance, I am working as a supervisor, and most of the time I have to be talkative and friendly to ensure everything is in place. To be successful in this profession, I have to be outgoing, talkative, and friendly. My orderliness results were moderate, which means that I am structured, organized, and neat. This clearly described me since I like to have everything categorized and organized in a particular manner.
My accommodation results are moderate since I am, at times, selfish with my things, difficult and uncooperative. This trait shows another side of me since most of the time, I don’t go out of my way to help other employees. I have also found myself making other people’s lives difficult since they are not doing as expected. My emotional stability is very high, which means that I am very secure, relaxed, optimistic, and calm. I have always controlled most situations in front of me since I don’t let a lot of things bother me.
My Inquisitive results were high, which means that I am curious, intellectual, and imaginative. I agree with the results since I am a curious person and pay attention to examining causes and acquiring solutions to them. For instance, if something fails to give the desired results, I will look at myself and make sure the right thing is achieved.
The personality assessment has played a big role in understanding my personality blind spots. This is has influenced my behavior in the workplace, thus enabling me to achieve the leadership roles within the organization. Recognizing my shortcomings is essential in correcting problems to lead in being a greater problem.
Followership
Followership is considered the willingness of an individual to cooperate and work with others to achieve defined goals while showing a high degree of interaction. Followership illustrates the actions of a person who is in the subordinate role but shows great cooperation in achieving defined goals. Considerably, followers are mandated to listen to their leaders and show their commitment to achieving the anticipated goals. Therefore, a follower is part of the team and is obliged to deliver the set goals for the specific tasks. While working as a salesperson, I illustrated the characteristics of purposeful follower since I had the confidence and capability to question anything that I felt was not being done per the expectations rather than just accept to comply. I courageously expressed my opinions and needs to the leaders to remain effective for improvements and changes.
Followership includes the ability of an individual to get in line and take the direction in line with the actions of the team members who deliver what is expected. I feel that I can influence my organization by adopting the seven habits listed in Covey’s model. By being more proactive and showing more efforts to undertake the responsibilities and help in solving problems will influence the teamwork. This will also facilitate continuous improvement to achieve the desired goals. Relatively, through training other subordinates to take more responsibilities with the end goal in mind, making them better will impact change within the organization.
I am an effective follower since I am an independent and critical thinker. For instance, I prefer initiating change and take risks hen am trying to do something that will improve and enhance the organization’s performance. I believe that I am always the role and help employees around my move from passive to effective followers who are active within the organization. Effective followers dare to challenge authority, accept responsibility, serve the needs of the organization, and participate in change. For instance, the courage to accept accountability shows that an effective follower understands the firm’s sense of ownership and personal accountability. The follower has the responsibility for their behavior and influences the organization. Effective followers do not assume that a leader will offer approval to act, individual growth, and security. They initiatives ways through which they can exercise their capability, achieve their personal goals, and full capabilities.
Motivation Theories (Maslow Hierarchy of Needs)
Motivation theories offer a great understanding of how people behave and what motivates them within an organization. It is important to ensure that people get motivated within an organization. The motivation theories have boosted my understanding of the role of motivation in an organization. Motivation plays an essential role in driving the performance of employees to achieve organizational goals. There many theories of motivation that influence the outcomes of employee performance and job satisfaction. Intrinsic rewards have played a major role in workplace motivation approaches. They are essential in retaining long term employee engagement and motivation. Intrinsic rewards have been used in motivation since they have appealed to the higher needs of individuals. On the other hand, extrinsic rewards have been used to appeal to lower needs, such as material items. The external rewards have met the higher needs of individuals that internal rewards can never meet, such as materialistic rewards.
My external and internal motivation is part of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. My physiological motivations entail the basic needs which come from my base salary being met to meet my daily life. My internal motivation is self-actualization, which is the highest need of the Maslow hierarchy of needs. Internal motivation is a representation of self-fulfillment on the feeling of growth and accomplishment in my career due to opportunities for advancement. I think I would like to have an intrinsic positive approach to enable employees to have job satisfaction and ask them what is effective to them about their occupations as well as what I can assist them in finding meaning in their work. Through this initiative, I believe that employees will remain committed and motivated to their work. This will offer me an intrinsic reward for achievement.
Part 2 of 2
Throughout this course, I have learned about varying leadership approaches. I have also gained insight into the difference between a manager and a leader. A manager can be promoted into a position of power that does not come automatically with respect since most managers take more of autocratic leadership behavior that relies on holding of all authority and power. On the other hand, leaders take more democratic leadership behavior and rely on the subordinates to ensure that the tasks are completed effectively. Democratic leadership styles have proven to be effective. I also had an issue with my leader-member exchange since I had my team divided into group and out-group members. Moving forward, I have decided that I will make everyone part of the group feel encouraged and supported. This will also increase their trust in me, offer ideas and suggestions to grow to effective followers.
Effective leadership depends on the ability of an individual to lead with purpose. Considerably, every person has a unique approach to leadership. Understanding one’s leadership styles are essential since it helps one maintain authenticity. After going through the leadership topics, I have acknowledged my leadership weaknesses, strengths, and growth needs. I have mirrored upon my leadership styles and vision and identify areas that have made a more versatile leader.
My visualization of leadership is to be a transformational leader. This is a kind of a leader who has skills to motivate, vision, and gain commitment, which results in inspiring performance. I have been keen to motivate my staff by offering them with goals and objectives of the organization. I have always felt appropriate about others’ capabilities, increasing the interests of others through motivation, and inspiring work life. My leadership philosophy has always been to be a leader who has inspirational qualities. This has involved being hardworking, approachable, supportive, and competent. Fulfilling this criterion will enable me to remain a credible leader. This is what is expected of a leader and the reason why leaders are competent and confident.
I have always wanted to share a vision and communicate effectively with staff to have a follower’s capabilities and ability rather than a servant leader. I have completed an assessment of my leadership traits, where I have been able to identify my strengths, weaknesses, and areas of development. This will lead to being able to capitalize on my capabilities, strengths, and interests. I appear to be motivated, a good communicator, supportive, and focused. These have played a big role in becoming an effective leader.
The team lead objective has always stood out to accentuate my professional dedication to promoting the company’s success through leadership and good management. Team lead objectives are employed in organizations to ensure that all employees meet the performance expectations and set targets. Motivation has been effective in promoting the success of employees and employee productivity. Motivation translates an employee’s skills, knowledge, and abilities. I will utilize the Covey model, an effective method of improving personal effectiveness, to remain an approachable leader.
My strategy to improve my leadership style will involve concentrating on my weakness, such as accommodation of others and being able to help others. This will boost my ability as a leader to explore, identify, and resolve issues that may be leading to conflict. In the current organization, there has been an issue with employee growth and development. As a leader, I plan to create a training manual that will help the employees remain motivated and promoted. It is important for those in a leadership position to take time and understand the employees, review the past mistakes as well as the lessons that the organization can gain from their leadership practices.