Leadership Assignment: Managing Leadership Behaviour at Work

Question

Task: Write a leadership assignment examining the extent and ways to understand and manage your own leadership behaviour at work.

Answer

Introduction
The present leadership assignment presents a self-reflection on the concept of leadership that can be considered as an approach of motivating an individual or a group of individuals to act toward the achievement of a commonly developed goal. Leadership styles and attitudes are important in a business setting, which allows a senior management professional to direct the employees, colleagues, and sub-ordinates with the help of a strategy to meet the company’s goals. In this contemporary age, business environment has become highly competitive. Different companies are adopting different competitive strategic approaches in the business to maintain a competitive position in the industry. In this situation, the employees play a vital role in the success of the business organisations. Different organisations are taking care of the motivation, job satisfaction, good performance, and successful retention of the employees.

I have completed my management studies and I am seeking for employment opportunities from reputed organisations. I know that I have to evaluate and polish my leadership as well as managerial skills to gain employment opportunities from the reputed organisations. I can improve my leadership and managerial skills by the development of effective interpersonal skills and professional competencies. In future I might have to work in a multiple cultural work setting. Therefore, it is quite important and vital to evaluate my leadership behaviour and managerial approaches to become successful in any given workplace situation. Different leadership theories are applied in this assignment to determine whether I have the capability or competency to become a successful organisational leader or management professional in an organisation or not. This evaluation will also help me to understand my weaknesses and it may help in the improvement of my future leadership behaviours.

Leadership Theories to Describe My Leadership Behaviour
Basically the leaders do not put themselves in the top-hierarchical or leadership positions. Leaders generally act as influencers in a workplace and their visionary or charismatic attitudes allow the top-management to promote those individuals in a leadership position. Similarly, I have to work on my motivational elements and skills through which I can inspire and motivate my colleagues and sub-ordinates in future workplace environment to get promoted to the leadership positions of the organisations. Leaders are considered as good team players and earn the supports of the colleagues or the sub-ordinates in a workplace setting through their inspirational approaches, visionary elements, and charismatic attitudes. I am a job seeker and I am on the verge of joining business enterprises to start my professional career. Therefore, it is important for me to evaluate my leadership skills, attitudes, behaviours, and traits through the leadership theories to determine whether I will be a successful organisational leader in the future or not.

Trait Theory of Leadership
The trait theory of leadership generally focuses on identification of different kinds of characteristics and personality traits, which are linked to the successful leadership across the organisation. It is important to know that an individual can become a successful organisational leader if he/she has adaptability skills, flexibility skills, assertiveness, motivational techniques, courage, resolution power, creativity, emotional stability, responsiveness, intelligence, people management skills, self-confidence, time management skills, need for achievement, trustworthiness, task competence, and ability to understand the needs of the followers (Ren et al., 2018).

In case of my leadership traits, I have all of these traits and characteristics. First of all, I have great adoptability and flexibility skills as I can adopt any kind of situation. Secondly, I am highly assertive regarding performance in any stress-full or powerful situations. Thirdly, I have the skill to motivate my colleagues and sub-ordinates through the utilisation of different motivational elements. Fourthly, I have the courage and risk taking ability to perform in any kind of situation.

Fifthly, I have different resolution powers to overcome any challenging situation. Sixthly, I always encourage creativity and innovation in the workplace environment. Mostly, I justify my roles and responsibilities by applying innovative and creating techniques in the workplace settings. Seventhly, it is also important to state that I can control my emotions in workplace to achieve the created goals. This high emotional intelligence will definitely help me to become a successful leader in the future.

Eighthly, I always focus on group’s achievement as I know that group’s achievement will automatically ensure my individual achievement in the workplace. Ninthly, I prefer effective interaction with other individuals in the workplace can help me to boost the performance of a team collaboratively. Hence, my effective team management skills will help me to become a successful professional in the near future. Tenthly, I am highly confident my time management skills and people management skills. This self-confidence will also help me to become successful in near future (Mills et al., 2019). Last but not the least; it can be stated that group members will trust me in my future workplace as I always like to interact with others and engage others. Most importantly, I feel that achievement of the needs of employees can motivate the employees to perform well. Therefore, I believe strong trustworthiness will help me to become a successful organisational leader or management professional in the near future.

Transformational Theory of Leadership
Transformational leadership is a theory of leadership in which the organisational leaders work with the team members collaboratively in order to determine the need for change and create a vision for implication of the change through motivation and inspiration. This transformational leadership style is generally applied by the organisational leaders in order to improve the workplace performance by overcoming the existing problems associated with the operation management approaches (v et al., 2019). On the other hand, transformational leadership approaches are also implemented by the organisational leaders in order to improve competitive advantages and create benchmark within the industry. Charismatic leadership styles or visionary leadership styles are also considered as a particular segment of transformational leadership. There are three types of transformational leadership styles, such as transformational transactional, and laissez-faire.

Transformational leadership style is generally applied in the workplace settings by the senior management professionals or the organisational leaders in order to inspire the employees to overcome the existing challenges. On the other hand, transactional leaders monitor performance of the employees and motivate the employees by giving them rewards based on their workplace performance appraisal. Lastly, the laissez-faire organisational leaders are inactive in nature (Abasilim et al., 2019). These types of leaders generally avoid the supervisory roles and decision making activities. These types of passive or avoidant or laissez-faire leaders allow the senior professionals to make their decisions.

Figure 1: Transformational Leadership

I have discussed the characteristics of all three types of transformational leadership activities. Among all these three approaches, I believe in transformational leadership style. I follow Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, who are transformational leaders in nature as they followed visionary and charismatic approaches. I love to interact with people. I love to share knowledge with group members. I love to learn from group members and acquire important knowledge. On the other hand, I like to integrate innovation and creativity in workplace by taking suggestions of my group members. These are the characteristics of transformational leadership approach (Decuypere and Schaufeli, 2020). I believe these types of transformational leadership approaches will help me to become a successful professional in the near future.

Importance of Self-Awareness of Individual Leadership Style
In terms of self-awareness of individual leadership style, I know that my internal leadership traits and my transformational leadership style will be vital for me in my future career.

In terms of self-awareness and self-evaluation, I have great adoptability and flexibility skills as I can adopt any kind of situation. This particular leadership trait will be important for me to handle serious stress in the workplace environment. In addition, I am highly assertive regarding performance in any stress-full or powerful situations. This will allow me to maintain a friendly and inclusive workplace culture and it will be effective for entire team to perform under a stressed workplace situation. Most importantly, I have the skill to motivate my colleagues and sub-ordinates through the utilisation of different motivational elements (Gandolfi and Stone, 2018).

Different techniques like engagement and involvement of group members allow me to motivate my colleagues and group members. I am sure that this particular aspect will help me in near future to adopt visionary leadership approaches.

Apart from these, I have the courage and risk taking ability to perform in any kind of situation. I know that risk taking ability and leading from the front will help me become a successful professional in this challenging global business environment. Moreover, I have different resolution powers to overcome any challenging situation. I may face different controversies, conflicts, and challenges in near future. Hence, this particular skill is important for me to become successful in any challenging situation. In addition, I always encourage creativity and innovation in the workplace environment, which are the characteristics of transformational leadership approach. These particular skills will ensure my professional development in the near future. Most important, I can justify my roles and responsibilities by applying innovative and creating techniques in the workplace settings in the near future (Naeem and Azam, 2017).

I can control my emotions in workplace to achieve the created goals and I have high emotional intelligence. This high emotional intelligence will definitely help me to become a successful leader in the future as this particular skill is important for me to become successful in managing stress and conflicts in my future career. It is important to focus on group’s achievement as I know that group’s achievement will automatically ensure my individual achievement in the workplace. This democratic managerial approach is important for me in my future career to handle a diverse workforce. It is also my preference to interact with other individuals in the workplace can help me to boost the performance of a team collaboratively. These effective team management skills will help me to become a successful professional in my future career. I am also confident about my time management skills and people management skills. I follow a daily-routine log to maintain deadlines of all the activities. This is why I am self-confident to become a successful leader in the near future (van Assen, 2018). This self-confidence will also help me to improve my skill development and knowledge management activities.

Lastly, effective team management skills will allow my group members to have faith in me and it will assist me in my future workplace. I always like to interact with others and engage others and it will help me to become a part of motivated workforce in the near future. Most importantly, I feel that achievement of the needs of employees can motivate the employees to perform well and it will also allow me to achieve my individual goals. Therefore, I believe strong trustworthiness and influential approaches will help me to become a successful organisational leader or management professional in the near future. In terms of self-awareness, I need to improve my team management skills and professional development skills to become a successful professional in the near future

As per my transformational leadership characteristics, I love to interact with people and I also love to share knowledge with group members. Knowledge management will help me to acquire important knowledge. I love to learn from group members and develop a strong knowledge base. These will assist me in becoming an admired individual in the future. On the other hand, I like to consider innovation and creativity in workplace by taking suggestions of my group members. Innovation and creativity will assist my group members to create a benchmark for others in the organisation (Islam et al., 2018). These are the characteristics of transformational leadership approach. I believe these types of transformational leadership approaches will help my organisation to make a strong mark within the industry appropriately.

Effectiveness of Considered Leadership Style in Multiple Cultures
I have decided to work in a multi-cultural workplace and I have decided to work in a prestigious organisation. I have completed my management studies and my self-awareness on my leadership attitudes, traits, and behaviours are indicating that have the characteristics to become a transformational visionary or charismatic leader in the near future. My democratic managerial traits are also indicating that I might become a transformational visionary or charismatic leader in the near future. In order to become a successful leader in a multicultural workplace, I need to strengthen my transformational leadership skills (Berber et al., 2019). I have that self-confidence that I can become a successful organisational leader or management professional in the multicultural workplace because of my open-minded approach, interactive skills, and people engagement skills. These approaches and traits will significantly help me to become a successful professional in the near future. Apart from transformational leadership skill, it is also important to apply the situational leadership styles in the multicultural workplaces as it is highly possible that situations may get changed in the near future.

Importance of Research on Cross-Cultural or Situational Leadership As a future management professional, I need to develop my cross-cultural management skills in order to become successful in different kinds of multicultural workplace situations. It is quite obvious that I might have to face different kinds of workplace situations in handling a multicultural workforce. Therefore, it would be vital for me to understand the importance of situational leadership styles. There are four types of situational leadership styles, such as directing, caching, supporting, and delegating. This situational leadership theory is also known as Black & Mouton- Leadership Grid Framework. These four situational leadership styles are considered based on the two important aspects, such as consideration and initiation of structure. Initiation of structure includes criticism of poor work, use of standard operating procedures, and focus on high performance level (Solomon and Steyn, 2017). On the other hand, consideration includes conflict resolutions, consideration of minority viewpoints in decision making, and taking care of the feelings of sub-ordinates.

Figure 2: Situational Leadership Theory

Directing is considered as a basic level of situational leadership style, which is generally applied for the new employees. On the other hand, coaching is considered as an important situational leadership style for the sub-ordinates who have developed some important skills and competencies along with improved workplace commitments. Supporting is an important situational leadership style for the followers who are competent enough but inconsistent and not fully committed towards their job responsibilities (NawoseIng’ollan and Roussel, 2017). Delegating is considered as an important situational leadership style, which is generally applied for the employees who are high empowered, skilled, and self-confident.

In a multi-cultural workforce, it is important for me to understand that I have to face different kinds of workplace situations in the future. Therefore, I have to understand the demands of the situations and apply the leadership styles accordingly. I might get a new and young workforce. In that situation, I have to apply directing leadership style to boost their skill level and confidence level. In some situations, I might get a passionate but less-experienced workforce. In such cases, I have to apply coaching leadership style. In some workplace situations, I might get a less committed and inconsistent workforce due to cross-cultural issues. In such cases, I have to apply the supporting leadership style in which I can help them to overcome their problems and motivate them to improve their performance level (Akanji et al., 2018). In some workplace situations, I might get to handle a highly skilled, passionate, motivated, and empowered workforce. In such situations, I have to consider delegating leadership styles. Hence, I can encounter different kinds of workplace situations in a multicultural workforce. Therefore, I have to consider different kinds of situational leadership styles depending on the demands of the situation.

Evaluation of Leadership in an Organisation in Challenging Business Environment
I already have discussed the examples of adoption of leadership styles and leadership skills in different workplace situations. In order to encounter challenges associated with different workplace situations, it will be essential for me to adopt situational leadership style. Similar to cross-cultural challenges, I can face different kinds of challenges in the upcoming future career. The entire world is going through the negative impacts of pandemic COVID-19. The organisations are facing challenges to make adjustments with high HRM cost as majority of the business operation activities are stopped in many countries due to the COVID-19. The companies are terminating employees to reduce the cost of salaries and maintenance of the human resources (Arasli and Arici, 2019). In addition, it is also identified that the skilled and competent employees are suffering from anxiety, demotivation, and dissatisfaction in this situation. This level of anxiety will be increased in future. Ultimately, it will affect the performance level of the employees and it will result in automatic termination due to poor workplace performance.

Considering the current workplace situations across the globe, my individual reflection on suggestive leadership style will be to adopt transformational leadership style as well as situational leadership style. There are several organisations in this current situation did not consider the employee termination approach to reduce HRM cost. The organisational leaders of these organisations are focusing on the employee retention activities and unique managerial approaches to utilise the skills of all the employees in the improvement of business growth. Many of the organisations are considering the concept of virtual workforce. Hence, it will be the responsibility of future professionals or future leaders like me to adopt collective approach and think about collective gains (Peker et al., 2018). Collective gains will significantly help me as a leader to ensure positive workplace performance and positive business growth.

Responsibility of Leaders to Deal with Current Situations
The recent global business environment is going through several critical challenges, such as pandemic situations, competition in job markets, high workplace stress, poor employee motivation, poor employee performance, and poor employee retention. This is the responsibility of the leaders to maintain a conflict free workplace environment and ensure positive workplace situations. Following strategies can help me as a leader in the near future to become a success professional.

First of all, engagement of the employees and important stakeholders are important. Successful engagement of the employees and important stakeholders will help me to understand the views, thoughts, motivations, and dissatisfactions of the employees. As a result, the management can adopt strategies accordingly to motivate the employees to perform effectively.

Secondly, long-term visionary approach and successful retention of the employees are important. These will help in inspiring employees to improve their loyalty and commitment level for the organisations in a positive way.

Thirdly, it is also important to integrate innovative workplace culture and allow the employees to share their innovative views on future strategies. This will help in applying successful changes.

Lastly, it is important to apply motivational elements like promotions, rewards, salary hikes, and incentives for the successful employees to improve the performance level of the employees in the workplace. These activities can definitely help the future professionals and organisational leaders like me to overcome the current management challenges.

Conclusion
I have completed my management studies and I am seeking for employment opportunities from reputed organisations. I know that I have to evaluate and polish my leadership as well as managerial skills to gain employment opportunities from the reputed organisations. As per my transformational leadership characteristics, I love to interact with people and I also love to share knowledge with group members. Knowledge management will help me to acquire important knowledge. I love to learn from group members and develop a strong knowledge base. These will assist me in becoming an admired individual in the future. On the other hand, I like to consider innovation and creativity in workplace by taking suggestions of my group members. Innovation and creativity will assist my group members to create a benchmark for others in the organisation. These are the characteristics of transformational leadership approach. I believe these types of transformational leadership approaches will help my organisation to make a strong mark within the industry appropriately.

I can improve my leadership and managerial skills by the development of effective interpersonal skills and professional competencies. In future I might have to work in a multiple cultural work setting. Therefore, it is quite important and vital to evaluate my leadership behaviour and managerial approaches to become successful in any given workplace situation. I believe strong trustworthiness and influential approaches will help me to become a successful organisational leader or management professional in the near future. In terms of self-awareness, I need to improve my team management skills and professional development skills to become a successful professional in the near future. Apart from transformational leadership skill, it is also important to apply the situational leadership styles in the multicultural workplaces as it is highly possible that situations may get changed in the near future. Considering the current workplace situations across the globe, my individual reflection on suggestive leadership style will be to adopt transformational leadership style as well as situational leadership style.

References
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