Assignment “Introduction to Leadership” Essay

Leadership styles: – When looking at leadership style I have to look at what as a manager I am good at and that has got me to the position as Manager and what I need to do to progress my team. Firstly I need to gain the respect of my team by treating everyone fairly. Leadership is defined as ‘the process in which an individual influences the group of individuals to attain a common goal’. The goal is attained by mutual cooperation and cohesive behaviour. A leader infuses a sense of positivity and directs others to reach the specified goal. A leader is someone who stands not only for his cause but takes responsibility and motivates other individuals also. There is a clear difference between being a manager and a leader. A leader is a motivation for others and inspires individuals to aim high and attain that aim. However a manager only supervises over his subordinates. Power naturally comes to a leader but that power is not a tool of leader. To be a good lead I have to look at the managers around me and what in my opinion makes them good or bad leaders and also if these are traits that I can adapt and use or ultimately will they be out of character for me and be counterproductive for me. Using the Paul and Kenneth Blanchard model of Situational Leadership:- Telling: – this is where a person has low ability and low willingness maybe a new starter. This is the style I would use for a new starter who does not yet have the skills to operate independently. Selling: – this is where a person would have low ability but high willingness. This style I would use on someone like Dave in the office he wants to do a good job but is of an age that he does not quite have the skills he needs but he more than makes up for that with his knowledge of the job. So I need to draw on his experience to help him achieve his goals. Participating: – this is for a person will high ability and low willingness. This leadership style I would use on Becca as she has the ability but when things are going against her tends to try and hide from difficult circumstances so i would have a discussion with her and give her the support needed to get the job done. Delegating: – this is for High ability and high willingness. This i am more than comfortable using on Ann and Mel as they have shown that they can comfortably do the tasks i set them. I have also set them individual tasks looking at how we can improve our day to day activities and ultimately make our lives easier in the long run. After doing the test I came down as someone who was fairly evenly spread of tell, selling and participating but who does not delegate this is something I have known about and my team has told me and something I can now begin to address Review of own leadership behaviour:- I am relatively new in the role of Sales office Manager. I have progressed from a role within the factory by doing an excellent job as a traffic planner. I took all the information gain by talking to people and being in the loop within the factory. I took in account what the factory could do and what our customer expectations were which allowed us to plan what was needed and by when to meet what the customer actually needed. Being new to the sales role I have had to take myself out the information loop and learn a new role. I have had to learn a new computer system and at the same time be the role model for my team. Whilst doing this I have made myself available for any problems the team has but have tried to show that I can do the job and also help team members who have been doing it for years. I currently have a team of five people all with varying abilities. I have two long serving members of staff one part time and two that started at the beginning of the year. With no two members of staff the same I have had to employ different leadership style i.e. with Dave he is coming up to retirement and I would say he was low on ability he has a high willingness to complete tasks set so with him I would employ the telling leadership style which was very similar with my two new starters but as the months progressed they both showed high ability but one was more willing to achieve than the other so with Becca I had to show a participating style of leadership and with Mel I am able to delegate more as she showed both high ability and high willingness. The factory as a whole is very unionised and whilst the majority of the staff are in the union they do generally like to get the job done and if this means working long stressful hours they do. When we are in these situations I will change my leadership style to match the situation where it be acting on their behalf to speak to people who they have issue with (maybe another member of staff or even customers) or by re-enforcing procedures that are there to make the lives easier or by finding courses that will ultimately give them the tools to make their jobs easier in the long run. I have spoken to members of the team and other managers around the office and all have said I try to do too much and that I need to â€Å"learn to delegate† and whilst this doesn’t come naturally to me (my preferred leadership style was telling and participating) I have taken their comments on board and have started to delegate a lot more around the team and focused on other areas within the team that would help them to improve and grow. I can improve myself as a leader by listening to others and taking advice and giving and receiving feedback and also by doing courses and re assessing myself to look at things from a different angle and point of view. Within the factory I am constantly being assessed and feedback given my goals are constantly moving but I personally need to delegate more to enable me to grow as a manager. I have also started to meet other Sales office managers within the group so I know that the job I have been doing whilst not exactly the same as other sites is very similar and I haven’t been doing that bad a job but perception is everything so I have to look at promoting myself with the site and also more importantly to other sites what I have to say has value and I can bring a lot to the table but I also have to look at the individuals within my team and look at their maturity levels and adapt my leadership to what is needed to each individual and also learn to delegate more.