Table of Contents
Leadership Defined
Leadership to me is defined as a process where an individual influences other individuals or groups of individuals to achieve a common goal, which supports a larger objective. To me, leadership is also defined as the ability to remove barriers for those on your team and to take responsibility for the actions of your group.
Leaders who remove obstacles for their followers can actually lead to creating more opportunity and time for employees to complete assigned tasks. “It is the leader’s responsibility to help followers by removing these obstacles or helping them around them. Helping followers around these obstacles will increase followers’ expectations that they can complete the task and increase their sense of job satisfaction” (Northouse, 2016, p. 120).
Being in the military, I can relate to and agree with Kotter’s military analogy, regarding leadership and management. “No one yet has figured out how to manage people effectively into battle; they must be led” (Kotter, 2001). During peacetime, I have been at a unit where we had mediocre leaders and they succeeded without their skills being tested. However, I have also been in Afghanistan and have seen how leaders react when faced with change and how the ability to react to that change can persevere through the most challenging obstacles in an ever-changing environment can save people’s lives.
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Effective leaders are individuals that possess the ability to influence others to adopt their vision and, in many scenarios, share common goals with followers. Effective leaders are much different than others within society, who are simply meant to be followers also known as non-leaders. Traits of effective leaders have been similarly documented throughout history. Northouse narrows these traits down to six: “drive, motivation, integrity, confidence, cognitive ability, and task knowledge” (Northouse, 2016, p. 23). These traits are described as the common threads that all effective leaders share. Leaders are also known to have a higher level of intelligence when compared to non-leaders. Self-confidence is another trait that gives leaders assurance that their efforts to influence are the right thing to do and in line with what they believe both morally and ethically. Leaders must understand the decisions they make, good or bad could affect the entire organization.
If leaders demonstrate to their followers that they have a greater purpose, they will trust and respect those individuals more than if they just punch the clock. Leaders must learn to relate to followers. Show that they understand that not everything in a follower’s world revolves around work. Leaders must be compassionate when employees have personal situations or challenges that may take them away from the workplace. “Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Northouse, 2016, p. 6). Leadership is a process that is not defined or encompassed by individual traits or personalities, it is rather an event or dynamic process that involves relationships between leaders and followers and the ability of leaders to influence followers. Leadership involves creating a vision and influencing people to align to that vision by communicating the big picture and setting broad strategies on how to accomplish that vision.
The ultimate successful organization is one where executive leadership can develop leaders, but also create a culture of followers that develop into leaders from within.
As Kotter’s article on leadership states:
Just as we need more people to provide leadership in the complex organizations that dominate our world today, we also need more people to develop the cultures that will create that leadership. Institutionalizing a leadership-centered culture is the ultimate act of leadership. (p. 199).
Leadership Theory
Adaptive Leadership
“Adaptive leadership is about how leaders encourage people to adapt—to face and deal with problems, challenges, and changes” (Northouse, 2016, p. 257). In today’s business environment, situations, processes, and technology change on a dime, so leaders have to be ready to lead their organization through those challenging situations. Regulating personal distress in adaptive challenges is very difficult and leaders need to address those that are resistant to the change. “Because stress is inherent in change, adaptive leaders need to withstand the pressures from those who want to avoid change and keep things the same” (Northouse, 2016, p. 268).
Situational Leadership
The situational leadership approach is based off the premise that leadership is made up of both supportive and directive components. Each component needs to be applied differently depending on each situation. “Effective leaders are those who can recognize what followers need and then adapt their own style to meet those needs” (Northouse, 2016, p. 94). In 1985, “The Situational Leadership II (SLII) was created and presented in book form with the publication of Leadership and the One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard, Drea Zigarmi and Patricia Zigarmi” (Blanchard, Zigarmi, & Nelson, 1993).
Situational Leadership styles can be grouped in four categories of different behaviors. The first style (S1) is a high directive-low supportive style, otherwise known as the directing style. This style focuses on the clear communication and stresses the importance of goal achievement. The second style (S2) is the coaching approach that is both a highly directive and supportive style. This style is the approach I took during my leadership challenge, which focused on communicating goals while also being focused on meeting the needs of followers. “The coaching style requires that the leader involve himself or herself with followers by giving encouragement and soliciting follower input” (Northouse, 2016, p. 94).
The third style (S3) is the supportive approach that is highly supportive and low in direction. This style is more focused on supporting the follower’s skills that can also be used to accomplish goals. The last situational leadership style (S4) is known as the delegating approach. This style is low in both supportive and directive behavior. Leaders who apply this style do not give much input regarding goals and do not focus on the socioeconomical needs of followers. The S4 style gives the followers within the organization full responsibility over the production of the department, how they support the overall organizations goals and the process by which they will achieve those goals.
Servant Leadership
Servant leadership is about serving something bigger than yourself and being a humble leader.
The thought is one is a servant first and leader second. A great example of this would be military leaders who put the needs and concerns of their troops before their own success. This is the understanding that without the success of followers, the can never succeed. The first task all great leaders strive to accomplish is to getting to know the organization’s employees and their concerns. These great leaders hold “Commander Calls” to better understand the pulse of the organization and based off the information gained from these calls, determine what needs to be changed. According to Greenleaf, “The servant-leader is servant first—as Leo was portrayed. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first” (Greenleaf, 2008, p. 15). Being a servant first means to serve the people. Don’t put yourself interests over those that you lead. To successful serve, means to be part of something larger than yourself. Continually listen to followers and act to support their needs and concerns.
Leadership Style
Using the leadership grid from our textbook, my assessment falls very much in the “team management” style. Northouse describes that the team management style “promotes a high degree of participation and teamwork in the organization and satisfies a basic need in employees to be involved and committed to their work” (Northouse, 2016, p. 77). With scores from the leadership behavior questionnaire score of 46 (Task) and 49 (relationship), it gave me hope that my current leadership style will be successful when trying to implement new ideas to a set in their ways, reluctant group of followers.
With an assessment range of very high for both tendencies, I feel that my current leadership style is fairly balanced between being task oriented and relationship based. Greenleaf states “The secret of institution building is to be able to weld a team of such people by lifting them up to grow taller than they would otherwise be” (Greenleaf, 2008, p. 22). I have learned over many years of successes and failures that if you want to build an organization of successful people, you must constantly communicate, listen to your followers’ ideas, and reward hard work and dedication. I scored the following on my Path-Goal questionnaire: Directive-28, Supportive-32, Participative-33, and Achievement Oriented-30.
Being in the military, followers look to leadership to provide direction and guidance that is supportive, allows them the ability to feel part of the team, and an environment that allows them to be rewarded for their hard work. I scored a 31 on leader-follower respect, trust, and obligation, which is in the very high range for leader-member exchange (LMX). Several of the questions on the LMX were difficult because they were based around removing formal authority. The military is so structured and is based around formal authority, but I tried to remove that and apply an objective view the best I could.
Followership
Effective followers are individuals who think for themselves, but eagerly attack assignments and tasks with enthusiasm and assertiveness. These traits are not only applicable to those in entry level positions. Any member of an effective organization can be an effective follower. “Many followers believe they offer as much value to the organization as leaders do, especially in project or task-force situations” (Kelley, 1988). In my last organization we had project-oriented team environment. Being in the military and wearing a uniform every day, it is fairly easy to identify a manager (E-7 and above).
For this reason, whenever we had a project and assigned new team members, we would have everyone report in civilian clothes. This way rank as an obstacle was removed and it encouraged the newer junior personnel to contribute without fear of retribution. This works tremendously! Followers share the same goals as leaders and most believe in something bigger than themselves. With that being said, there are always those followers, who are resistant to change and difficult to accept new leadership.
There are many tactics or techniques an organization can take to encourage effective followership. Northouse explains an effective technique is the Path-Goal Theory. Leaders must determine what motivates the followers within their organization and provide them incentives for achieving assigned tasks or goals. “Leadership also motivates when it makes the path to the goal clear and easy to travel through coaching and direction, removing obstacles and roadblocks to attaining the goal, and making the work itself more personally satisfying” (Northouse, 2016, p. 115).
In my current organization, I make it a point to sit down with every new employee and explain our mission and what will be required of them to accomplish that mission. I also get to know that person on a more personal level to determine what motivates that individual and inform them that my most important job besides effective communication is to ensure roadblocks are minimized when it comes to them achieving their goals. However, in order for me to do that for them, in turn they must give our team 100% each and every day.
This typically removes any walls that followers have put up and allows them to begin to have trust in their leaders. Being a part of the U.S. Navy for the last 18 years, I started out as an E-1, the lowest rank in the service as a follower to the core. 10 years into my career, I was lucky enough to be offered a commission as an Officer. Eight years later, I feel that my sole job is to make it easier for our enlisted members navigate the murky waters within our organization. “Leaders are not more important than followers and followers do not draw their talents from a leader, a leader merely maximizes those talents by assisting in focusing efforts” (Kelley, 1988).
Reflective Analysis
I have learned so many lessons from this course. To be honest, I feel this course has taught me the most so far out of all the leadership classes I have taken. If I had to narrow it down to three lessons, I would say Practice servant leadership, listen to your followers, and always 110%!
Practice Servant Leadership
Of all the lessons I have learned in this course, I feel that practicing servant leadership is the most important. As mentioned above, servant leadership is about removing obstacles for your followers and serving a purpose that is larger than your individual needs. “The natural servant, the person who is servant first, is more likely to persevere and refine his hypothesis on what serves another’s highest priority needs than is the person who is leader first and who later serves out of promptings of conscience or in conformity with normative expectations” (Greenleaf, 2008, p. 16). The more obstacles you remove for your leaders, the more they can focus on accomplishing the tasks and goals leadership has set for them. Practicing servant leadership will build a culture that gives it their all and works towards goals that are bigger than themselves.
- Listen to your followers
Listening to your followers is almost as important as practicing servant leadership. Northouse explains that the individual consideration factor is “representative of leaders
who provide a supportive climate in which they listen carefully to the individual needs of followers” (Northouse, 2016, p. 169). If followers feel that their leadership cares about their individual needs, they are more likely to trust in leadership and work hard to ensure the team succeeds.
- Always give 110%
Through this course, I have learned that if leaders do not approach every challenge like their job depends on it and give 110% in all that they do, the organization will never be as successful as they could be. Leaders know their strengths, so instead of taking the followers that they are assigned, or building a team around their strengths, they should go the extra mile and surround themselves with followers that have strengths where the leader is weak. This will allow the leader to build the complete team that can tackle any task.
No leader is perfect, so to enhance my leadership effectiveness, I can be more assertive and use delegating more to my advantage.
- Be more assertive
In an effort to become a more effective leader, the first action I can take is to be more assertive. I need to be more directive in my behavior toward followers. I am great at using the coaching leadership style, but I need to understand that this style will not fit all leadership situations. I will focus more on directing those that need direction in hopes that one day, they will become more self-sufficient. I also need to understand that every team member has something to contribute to the team. Just because some followers need more direction than other, it doesn’t mean that I should not consider their opinions or value their feedback.
- Delegate
In the past, I have been apprehensive about delegating tasks to any followers. Through this course, I have learned that as a leader, I should elevate those followers who are motivated to accept responsibility and the power of delegation can improve the organization efficiency and effectiveness. In the past I have been afraid to allow followers to fail. When you delegate, failure is inevitable. Just as no leader is perfect, no follower is perfect. I will do better to allow those I delegate authority to the ability to fail.
References
- Blanchard, K.H., Zigarmi, D., & Nelson, R.B. (1993). Situational leadership after 25 years: A
- retrospective. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 1(1), 22 – 35.
- Goleman, D. (2004) What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review, 82(1), 82-91.
- Greenleaf, R. K. (2008). The servant as leader. Westfield, IN: Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.
- Heifetz, R. A. & Laurie, D. L. (2001). The work of leadership. Harvard Business Review, 79(11), 131-141.
- Kelley, R. (1988). In praise of followers. Harvard Business Review, 66(6), 142-148.
- Kotter, J. P. (2001). What Leaders Really Do. Harvard Business Review, (11). 85.
- Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
