Leadership effectiveness and personal managerial qualities

Leadership is about knowing the pros and cons of change, and comprehending the interplay of oneself and others. Leadership is the perception of one’s connectedness both personal and business wise, thus leadership is about being self aware and choice-decision making. Thus, it is a process where a person influences a team to accomplish there objectives, and direct those objectives to be more coherent for the organisation, this is viewed by (Northouse, 2007). Hence, a leader is one who has a clear vision, communicate passionately, and direct their actions and those of the team toward the goal, by driving to completion.

1. 1 Background

Who is the author?

The author born October 1978 belongs to a Christian home; newly married and is at the early stage of parenthood with bringing up a young family, has earned an Upper Second Class Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Anglia Ruskin University who is currently pursuing Masters in Business Administration with emphasis in Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

The author holds the position of an Office Manager who performs a wide array of diverse duties, thus, working alongside the president to meet the company’s staffing and organisational needs. Furthermore, the author is responsible for designing and implementing various policies, supervisory responsibilities, recruiting and training, which facilitate efficient and smooth functioning, with focus on supervising works of administrative staff.

After eleven year service in the marine industry as Office Manager at Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, the author now partly owned and is a Director of a Sign Company. In addition, the author also landed a new job as Office Manager at another marine company, which operates tugs and water tankers.

However, the author currently has no outside activities due to studies, a new family, working part time with spouse business, plus having a full time job. Therefore, the author has a tight schedule, with a vision to complete studies and become successful in being a confident leader and expressing creativity to find unique solutions for the family business with a joyous presence, continued dedication and people skills. The author strongly expressed values that everyone deserves to be fairly treated and education is the key to success.

These few leadership traits, qualities and skills of the author are known to be “ soft skills” that will assist the author’s ability to resolve conflicts and build consensus, to motivate and inspire employees. Thus, office is like family, they get cranky and having a positive and genuine attitude will assist tremendously.

2. 0 Reflection on Leadership Effectiveness

Effective Leadership begins with the fundamental ability to believe in oneself, which incorporates maturity, conviction and expertise that translate into a purpose and direction, thus, having a dream and vision that will better the company or society. Effective leadership is composed of a number of different competencies, thus effectiveness of leader is limited, where leaders are person who know how to inspire and relate to subordinates. This all depends on how appropriate the leadership style is to the situation in that it is operated, which comes from matching style and follower task relevant maturity, or task readiness.

Based on the Myers Briggs test, the author type indicator reflected ENTJ (Extroversion, Intuition, Thinking, and Judging). ENTJ are generally gets straight forward, decisive, and leadership natural, they also see illogical very quickly and notes inefficient procedures, also generally develops and implement comprehensive systems in solving any company or business problems. Along those same lines, enjoys setting future planning and being goal oriented, usually well up to date, well read, enjoys on expanding knowledge as required and passing it to others by giving forceful present ideas. Thus, true effective leaders possess specific leadership qualities, skills and styles beyond industry knowledge and technical skills.

2. 1 Qualities of Leadership

Leadership behaviour reflects the traits and personal characteristics that will facilitate success in leadership role. ENTJs are imaginative, conceptual learners who learn best in a challenging and interactive environment. The combination of intuition and logic leads them to enjoy dealing with concepts and strategic thinking, and excellent language skills. These qualities of the author are drawn from work and personal life balances that are reflected as follows:-

Strengths of Personal and Work Life

Communication and Relationship

The author an ENTJ is an enthusiastic communicator who loves to interact with tremendous amount of self-confidence, has excellent verbal communication skills and value honesty. The author has always been the centre of attention that is being an extravert with intellectual freedom to think and speak, who has a disposition of always being frank and getting straight to the point with strong regards for positive structure that is able to synthesize and adapt to new ideas.

Even though the author had been tested to be extraverted, the author has Introverted Intuitive functions which complement Extraverted Thinking, such as, being talented in creating great benefits through the ability to recognise the expected potential of others, and showing others the way to get past difficulties within the given situation.

Career and Work

In the position of an Office Manager ENTJ shows exactly that the author is assertive, loyal, and knowledgeable and manages people, along with marshalling resources. The author is career-focused in long-term perspective with visualisation of both businesses with high performance and standards. The author is generally an energetic people person who likes to be in charge and make things happen, along with others participating, especially in team projects rather than work alone.

The author tends to move up the ladder very quickly when joining any company or generally in life. With this current company the author has been there for two months and a major travelling abroad is ahead. On entering the organisation, the author has been leapfrogging people who have been there longer, thus, the cumulative experiences have prepared the author for it. The author has always been level headed, shows improvement and value the position given.

Throughout the author’s career, as most ENJT can identify, vision is priority and risk does not scare the author. The payoff has been consistent on an executive level, and once going towards the goal, the author makes sure it is attainable, and believing all production must be done to the best with logic and rationale.

2. 1. 2 Weaknesses of Personal and Work Life

Some major flaws of the author:-

Gets frustrated by lack of closure of people not meeting deadlines, thus, bearing in mind the given work produced should also show professionalism, which is one of the main priorities in and ENTJ.

The manner in which conversation is carried out, such as, being harsh and blunt in criticism when errors occur.

Tends not to listen to other people’s sentences or have them finish their sentences, especially if what was said do not make sense to them, thus, not giving the chance for the person to justify their point.

Limited patience with a temper over relatively small matters that escalates into bigger things with inefficiency and can be very judgmental and argumentative.

Low regard for people who are intimidated by them that is intensified by arrogance, thus, making hasty decisions, without understanding the issues and possible solutions to the problems.

Therefore, the author must enforce balance due to the qualities possess above, in order to accomplish whatever goals are set. Below, speaks on the leadership skills which need improving by the author.

2. 2 Leadership Skills

Leadership skills are based on leadership behaviour, thus, skills alone do not make a leader – style and behaviour do. Leadership is interesting because it is about talent and the “ natural ability” that is mostly about oneself and maintaining that personal authenticity, by being true; not just slavishly following other’s ideas. Good leaders always rely on their ability to read situations and improve tasks, and acknowledge their shortcomings, which may work for them. However, a good leader would want to improve their skills of communication, decision-making and problem solving and not shy away from new opportunities to lead.

The author skills are most effective when matching styles to the needs of the people that are trying to influence. Thus, the challenge is that leading people is the opposite of trying to control them. It is not just what happens when you are there; it is what happens when you are not there. The author believes that leadership is not something you do to people; it is something you do with them.

Listed below are two simple ways suggested for the author to improve leadership skills for future growth?

The author must prioritise time for proper organising and planning, thus, by consulting with experts for feedback

Political skills can be developed by the author in order to reduce the gossip and rumours, that is, look for further critical information that others cannot get

Thus the continued characteristics of developing good leadership skills for the author will take time, as if perfecting an idea for a project, because without investment of time, the author will not be able to become the great leader envisioned, thus these few skills that contribute to the author’s behaviour will be able to accurately and successfully adapt to changing environment with limited challenges. Below speaks on the style of leadership the author is engaged in.

2. 3 Leadership Styles

Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans and motivating people. Effective leadership style takes time and energy but provides benefits, which helps to enhance team spirit and effectiveness among members that identifies preferred management styles. The style describes the personal way of leading; it becomes effective when matched with the skill sets and motivation of the follower. However, there is no right style of leadership, because it varies with the personality and situational needs.

Thus, the author likes a mixture of working with others and working alone, in the form of management and leadership positions which can energise others to carry out the vision via the objectives and tries to motivate the team to work towards those goals. Leaders within the organisation have been found to account for some of the organisation’ overall performance, thus, the author’s style has been identified as an important area of interest. Additionally, the author likes teamwork and interactions that convince and influence enthusiasm with an invaluable source of vitality and drive according to the style needs of Participative or Democratic Leadership.

2. 3. 1 Participative or Democratic Leadership

Participative leadership or democratic style encourages employees to be part of the decision making, which takes everyone words as a considerable opinion before carrying out the final decision. This style of leader is coach, the one who has the final say, but still gathers information from staff members before making such decision.

Ultimately, the author works in an environment that is still very autocratic, but given the changes that the organisation has hired the author for, participative leadership is what they are looking at. However, the author is not equipped to all situations that arise, thus, team handling is an assets and the author must use the required skills of facilitating discussion and ideas that is generated by the group. Furthermore, the author likes being in charge and to know what is going one at all times, thus, enjoys marshalling facts and planning future directions.

Additionally, if the author foresees the project cannot be handled, someone will be brought in to carry out the project, and this person must have clear understanding towards the goal, because the author demands high quality and standards. The author a natural leader encourages team members to participate through listening and communicating, however, the leader maintains the final decision making. The style of leadership reflects the following characteristics of the author:-

Organise staff to complete tasks in the most effective way, by delegating those tasks and overseeing the completion of the project to achieve results

Motivates staff to meet the goals and objectives, given the overall picture, and vision to follow with new ideas, evaluation of possibilities and rational decisions

Create positive work environment, and seek the interest of each employee with fairness given the responsibilities, which allows them the to challenge themselves

Allowing subordinates to feel free in thinking creatively for problem-solving, thus, reducing office politics, so the use of ideas will importantly gain credit and reduce the tension generated amount staff

Thus, the business cannot afford to make mistakes, using this type of leadership is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of strength where the author gains respect from the employees. Also, the author do not have all the information required to achieve the goal that is why knowledgeable staff is hired to allow better decision via teamwork, so that, effective and accurate decisions are made.

3. 0 Theoretical Concepts

O’Regan and Ghobadian (2004) define performance measurements as consisting of quantitative indicators used by management to judge how well the organisation is doing. Leadership depends on whether emphasis is on behaviour or the result of that behaviour according to (Jex, 2002) thus leaders also make attributions about their followers’ behaviour. Similarly, Kelley (1967) describes leader attribution as a way leader interprets follower behaviours and attributes cause to that behaviour, where leaders can assess follower behaviour by specific task or across tasks and whether it is unique to an individual.

Leader’s intention is to diagnose problem performance, to understand the reasons for success, or anticipate the consequences as stated by (Mitchell et al. 1981). However, there is a distinction between leadership and management, where a manager carries out administrative duties and exerts control subordinates’ behaviour, thus obtain reluctant compliance. In contrast, a leader carries out administrative functions along with inspiring and motivating members to strive for excellence, by obtaining commitment, reviewed by (Jex, 2002).

So, effective leadership demonstrates by influencing and guiding the activities of a team toward achieving its goals, defined by (Judge et at., 2004). In addition, according to Jex (2002), goals direct attention, focus efforts and maintain task persistence, helps individuals avoid getting sidetracked, thereby, guiding a leader to enhance processes and facilitates development of collective efficacy which has an influence, revealed by (Chen and Bliese, 2002). Leadership therefore, is most relevant aspects of an organisation context and is challenging by different situations, thus, emphasis of future leadership and interpersonal skills that ensure sound management practices and high leadership standards by the author are discuss as follows:-

Qualities of Leadership

Leadership Skills

Leadership Style

3. 1 Qualities of Leadership

According to Roach and Behling (1984), leadership is the “ process of influencing an organised group toward accomplishing its goals”, therefore, these influential qualities most people associate with leadership are assertiveness, loyal, risk taker, self-sufficient, ambitious, patience, trustworthy, and knowledgeable. Thus, employee trust in leaders is influenced by the level of perceived fairness reflected in the company practices of distributing rewards and benefits.

Dirks and Ferrin (2002) stated that leadership has three types of justice; procedural which is an indicator of the leader’s tendency to be fair when making decision about rewards; distributive is the fairness of outcomes a follower receives as a result of those procedures; and interactional involves the degree of respect with which the leader treats the follower as they carry out organisational policies and procedures. Thus, Dirks and Ferrin (2002) also, found that trust in leadership is related to attitudinal, behavioural and performance outcomes.

Therefore, trust a key concept is where leaders often have the power to impact followers’ and their ability to achieve goals, reflects that followers will attempt to draw inferences about their leader’s characteristics such as integrity, dependability, fairness and ability, because these inferences have consequences for work behaviour and attitudes, viewed by (Dirks and Ferrin, 2002).

Building subordinates’ trust in leadership starts with the manager’s ability to lead and administer the department functions, stated by (Knabe, 1999), thus, mutual trust needs to be in place. According to Bass (1985), one of the most important conditions that a leader must instill in his subordinates prior to problem solving trusted by his employees is the ability to lead for effective results.

So, in order words, for the business to grow qualities of a leader is not only to fulfil goals, but, basic skills in management and leadership will also have to be the foundation in developing a more advance practice, thus, problem-solving, decision-making, planning and delegating, communication and managing oneself are effective leadership skills discussed below.

3. 2 Leadership Skills

The characteristics of a leader come through our day to day interactions with those around us. If the author stop to think about some the leaders that have been, or even infuriated, the qualities of good leadership skills will become apparent. Leadership skills is not just about showing your superiority, according to researchers (DeHann and Havighurst 1957), it is the use of attributes such as initiative, persistence ambition and dominance to describe leadership abilities, as well as, sensitive to others needs, affectionate and agreeable, that is used to enhance the skills towards leadership and the ability to improve such tasks.

Tannenbaum (1983) reported that a correlation exists between the exhibition of leadership skills and general intelligence for advance leadership skills, such as, written and verbal communication, group dynamic, problem-solving, planning and personal skills. Effectiveness of these skills must be able to perform the ability to analyse strengths and weakness, identify and provide training effectively, show success in developing and enhancing skills, and scheduling and controlling work, such as, capabilities in identifying and setting performance goals along with posing all supervisory skills necessary.

Thus, real leaders, read their team, analyse the compound between their team members, the tension between the tasks and processes, and how the team builds its competencies. According to Mehra et al. (2006) organisations must seek efficient ways to enable performance, longstanding approach that is, by shaping collective norms, helping teams cope with their environment that provides valuable insights into relationship between leadership and team performance (Guzzo and Dickson, 1996). Furthermore, Herr (1998) identifies a few competencies that should be incorporated into an executive performance appraisal including; coordination, awareness, personnel management, planning, financial management, coaching skills, evaluation skills, accomplishment assessment skills, technical competence, interpersonal skills, communication skills and leadership skills, thus in providing behavioural outcome and performance, that will lead to leadership style.

3. 3 Leadership Styles

Today management needs to command and direct, but also identify needs, communicate, empower, inspire trust and forge a common vision for a better future, defined by (Athanasaw, 2003). In similar, leaders need to enforce recognition of employees’ and value human being whose ideas are seriously considered, viewed by (Athanasaw, 2003) to support leadership role. Thus, leadership is the process of influencing followers so they cooperate, such leaders are members of groups who influence the context of the organisation they lead, according to (van Knippenberg and van Knippenberg, 2005).

There are many types of leadership, but because of society today, participative or democratic leadership is more recognised, thus, Hersey-Blanchard (1998) theory is based on the amount of direction and socio-emotional support a leader must provide given the situation and the level of maturity of the followers. So, the most suitable leadership style would be the development level of the subordinate actions, such as, directing, coaching, supporting and delegating.

Similarly, Tannenbaum and Schmidt’s (1958), leadership continuum reflects that leadership behaviour varies along a continuum and that as one moves away from the autocratic extreme the amount of subordinate participation and involvement in decision taking increase. They also suggested that the kind of leadership represented by the democratic extreme of the continuum will be rarely encountered in formal organisations. The four main types of leadership are, autocratic, persuasive, consultative and democratic.

In similar, participative leadership defined by Lewin (1939) and others stated that there are three types, autocratic that is very dedicative, which has led to revolution, laisse-faire which lacks enthusiasm and democratic the effective style.

Furthermore, Likert (1967) theorised four styles namely, exploitive authoritative where there the leader uses fear-based to enforce conformance, benevolent authoritative is rewards use to motivate performance, consultative is the seeking of consultation and participative invites participation across all level. Thus, leadership cannot perform without leaders and followers, therefore, leadership results in followers’ behaviour that is purposeful and goal-directed in some sort of organised setting, although most studies reflect the nature of leadership in a workplace.

So, without having a leadership style, business cannot conform to achieve its objectives and goals, thus leaders must a style is able to adapt to the laws of the company and its future expected outcome. Thus, the values and qualities of the author must be able to adapt to the global challenges in an effort to develop proper growth for the business.

4. 0 Recommendations

With recommendation to continued success, the author should enforce combination of leadership savvy, good judgement based on knowledge and information, and reasonable ability to steer a business in the right direction, which is considerably important. Thus, to become an excellent leader the author must use wisdom (head), feelings and emotions (heart), strength and power (hands) and good communication (tongue) to help others because without leadership within any given situation, there would be chaos and no formability as to where the organisation is headed.

In addition, the author must commit in enhancing personal leadership qualities and managerial skills that is needed to initiate and sustain profitable growth for the company. Thus, strong leadership it is essential to the success of any company and therefore it is recognisable that the author should develop qualities of courageousness and patience to strive and become powerful. The author must also, choose competent subordinates, continue to demonstrate high moral standards, and exude charisma, while keeping the control of protocol and process, which will be used to enhance leadership.

However, the author should never abuse power and should stay focus and stick up for one another, the author must readily adapt to leadership style to suit the situations, such as, being faced with a crisis, the author ought to take action and use imagination to solve problems and make recommendable suggestions, by simply scanning the business environment.

ENTJs should be reminded that not every one is perfect and mistakes are there for everyone, so having quality patience is of foremost and respecting other people’s feelings is appreciated. Even though their personality of sentiments are not powerful, ENTJ must still be mindful the feelings and value judgement ought to sensitive to that individual, because, if submerge emotion and inappropriate problems are found – serious problems can occur.

Therefore, because ENJT are very informed and extremely creative, the best able to continue to keep head strong and hear others for what they need to say. Always be level-headed and growth will come its way, so that when making judgement and hurting someone, always keep focus that not everyone are leaderships, there must be people to lead, which make you a leader.

Another recommendation is to prioritise your time as this will assist in planning and developing in case of an accident or incident occurs, thus, true leaders demonstrate strengths and recognise their weakness. If sound criticism is to take place, be sure that the individual has a strong back and that the criticism is approached in a professional manner and not arrogant as mentioned previously.

So in all, leadership skills ought to improve, by making observation from other leaders using a variety of settings, going beyond their prior experience and adjusting or adapting to current business situation is of essences and must be able to develop continued skills. A good leader has a lifetime of study and should acquire indefinable qualities that involve developing and improving leadership skills along with enhancing the managerial skill at the business.

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