Leadership Application

When we shadow leaders or supervisors, we are able to observe the necessary attributes of effective leaders. Many people maintain that leaders are born and not made, so shadowing also sanctions us to take a deep look within ourselves in order to see if we have what it takes to lead others. I chose to shadow my workplace supervisor because he is well respected by his peers and employees, so I regard him to be an effective leader. Overall, I found that trait theory allowed me to identify my supervisor’s leadership style, and I established that his strengths of expertise, confidence, and adaptation are three lessons that promote effective leadership.

Trait theory’s leadership styles involve Telling (S1), Selling (S2), Participating (S3), and Delegating (S4). While the four leadership styles depend on one’s personality, Murray (2012) has noted that “Leadership is less about [personal] needs, and more about the needs of the people and the organization [people] are leading” (par. 1). With that in mind, S1 and S2 leaders will provide direction to their employees. While S2 leaders give their employees more freedom to accomplish their tasks, S1 leaders will expect their employees to execute tasks based on explicit instructions. In this way, S1 and S2 leaders are competent because they consider the organizational needs; however, it seems that they do not consider the workers’ needs. On the other hand, S4 leaders will expect their employees to be responsible for tasks, but they continue to monitor their employees’ progress, so they recognize that employees have levels of accountability that they must exert. Lastly, S3 leaders develop work relationships with their employees so they are able to effectively work side by side as teams. S3 leadership appears to be the more effective style because it encourages the supervisor to focus on employee and organizational needs instead of his or her wants. Incidentally, through my shadowing, I found that my supervisor is a S3 leader.                                                                                                                                   

Strengths

Leaders will assess their personal strengths in order to develop their leadership qualities. My supervisor’s significant strength was his expertise in our field. Germain (2012) has suggested that “traits and skills are attributes of expertise” (p. 33). Expertise implies credibility and experience, and my supervisor used his skill sets to guide his employees. In addition to my supervisor’s extensive experience, his personality is also one of his strengths. 

For example, regardless of the situation, my supervisor’s personality is open and optimistic. Young (2012) revealed “Charisma is an important tool for uniting a group and raising expectations, so it can be invaluable for anyone who has to lead a team or convince others of a new idea” (p. 38). Charismatic leaders are confident in their abilities as speakers and role models, so confidence is an essential element of their personality. When we have confidence, we are able to extend that emotion to others. During the workday, I always found my supervisor’s personality upbeat, but viewing it through a leader’s lens, I realized that his personality may have been natural, but his experience allowed him to combine the two effortlessly. Therefore, he maintained a positive work environment with his personality but gave the employees incentives to produce due to his credibility. In addition to his optimistic personality, my supervisor utilized a specific leadership style. 

Leadership Styles

Murray (2009) identified six common leadership styles: 1) Visionary: The Visionary leader predicts future direction and goals; 2) Coaching:  The Coaching leader encourages individual development and performance; 3) Affiliative: The Affiliative leader advocates group harmony; 4) Democratic: The Democratic leader asks individuals to use personal knowledge and skills to attain goals; 5) Pacesetting: The Pacesetting leader pushes employees to exercise high performance standards; and 6) Commanding: The Commanding Leader relies on criticism to motivate followers. Murray (2009) has suggested that Commanding and Pacesetting leaders are ineffective because of the pressure these two styles place on the employees. Fortunately, my supervisor did not demonstrate these styles. Instead, he seemed to embrace an Affiliative leadership style. 

Relationships and Interactions with Followers

As an illustration of his Affiliative leadership style, my supervisor worked alongside his employees when he felt they needed direction, and it was a subtle yet effective technique. In addition, he encouraged each other to provide helpful feedback when necessary and offer support. In other words, throughout the day, my supervisor was an Affiliative leader because he treated his employees as equals and encouraged collaboration. This revealed that my supervisor believed a positive atmosphere would enable teamwork, and a harmonious working group would be more productive. Because positivity is one of his personality’s key characteristics, his inherent thought process allowed him to perfect his Affiliative leadership style. Notably, Germain (2012) emphasized through leadership theories that “It is the leader and her or his personality that are central to the leadership process” (p. 33).  Subsequently, it seemed as though my supervisor’s confident personality accounted for his ability to interact with his groups. In addition, because he was self-assured in his role, he did not consider working alongside his employees as a weakness. Instead, he was able to adapt to each situation and to the people who were involved. 

Adaptation demands that we do not stick with one technique, but we consider the task or problem at hand, and we take appropriate measures to implement or solve daily responsibilities or complications. As an illustration, my supervisor directed several groups throughout the day, but he did not use the same tactics. Instead, he realized the differences, albeit slight, and adapted his instructions that depended on the groups’ skill levels and maturity levels. Often, leadership requires us to take into account our followers’ maturity levels. My particular group would be considered as a M3 group because we are ‘ready and willing;’ however, our work climate often changes, so my supervisor’s ability to adapt is a crucial component to his success.  

Three Lessons about Leadership Effectiveness

Significantly, I found that my supervisor’s external behaviors emerged from his internal beliefs. While modern trait theory suggests we can develop attitudes and behaviors of successful leadership, others maintain that we can also lose leadership skills if we do not exercise them. Young (2012) asserted Ronald Riggio has found that “emotional expressiveness, enthusiasm, eloquence, self-confidence, vision and responsiveness to others” (p. 39) are essential leadership traits, but one must “have a balance between these components” (p. 39). Therefore, we develop our internal beliefs with our behaviors and actions. Some may consider ‘emotional expressiveness’ as a weakness, but it takes a strong individual to display his or her feelings. While my supervisor did not overly express his emotions such as crying or laughing, he demonstrated empathy and understanding. In addition, my supervisor exhibited the S3 leadership style as a second important lesson to take away from this experience. 

For example, I had the opportunity to observe my supervisor tend to an employee’s personal matter. While I cannot divulge the information itself, he handled the situation admirably because he recognized the employee’s right to his/her feelings and considered how the employee would be effected by his/her personal problem. Also, my supervisor’s level of tact and decorum was impressive because while he could have asked me to leave, he indicated to the employee that I was to shadow him for an assignment and anything that was said would remain confidential because we were a team and could rely on one another. In this way, I realized that my supervisor had strong ethics but he also encouraged his team to trust one another. Trusting each other is a vital factor to survival and the workplace because it allows us to concentrate on our tasks instead of our doubts.

As a third lesson, I realized the importance of communication skills. Germain (2012) emphasized “Charismatic leaders are also thought to possess outstanding rhetorical ability” (p. 36). Communication skills are often viewed as natural possessions, but they also require exercise in order to develop them. Because my supervisor’s words were well thought out but spontaneous, I recognized that his ability to communicate was part of his successful leadership style. Essentially, he never had to repeat himself and he was confident in the way that he spoke, so his employees were able to trust in his authority.  

Action Plan

First, I will consider my leadership style based on trait theory. At this moment, I would view myself as a S3 leader. With that in mind, I would contemplate which of the six leadership styles I seem to utilize the most. Thus, I have the attributes of a Visionary leader and an Affiliative leader. In order to develop my leadership attributes, I will try to focus on an Affiliative style because it has been successful for my supervisor, and I regard him to be a role model. However, I can still utilize my Visionary tendencies and demonstrate adaptability and foresight. Ultimately, trait theory advises successful leaders to adapt their leadership styles based on the people they are leading and the details of the tasks, so I can combine the two styles to maintain a balance based on my personality. Lastly, as another element in my action plan, I will work on my verbal communication skills so I am able to effectively lead diverse groups.

References

Germain, M. (2012). Traits and skills theories as the nexus between leadership and expertise: Reality or fallacy? Performance Improvement, 51(5), 32-39. doi: 10.1002/pfi.21265

Murray, A. (2009, April 9). Leadership styles. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/how-to-develop-a-leadership-style/

Young, E. (2012). The X-factor. New Scientist, 214(2870), 38-41. Retrieved from http://www.newscientist.com/