Leadership DF

Leadership DF

Question 1

From the case, Tim is exposed as a caring and meek person. Besides, he is also aware of his two sets of skills as a leader. On different occasions, Tim has used his talents to better the lives of others. While he accepts his limitations, he also knows his strengths and knows what to do to achieve more. Indeed, he has developed into a successful leader. From his flaws, Tim has also curved his outstanding character as an effective leader. Though he was not born an effective leader, his childhood experiences have, over the years, shaped his abilities. While working at the Douglass Community Association, he realized that for him to achieve effective leadership, he needed to work on and improve his communication skills. His adoptive family also helped him to grow spiritually and instilled in him the set of values. His position at the bank helped to reveal his robust charisma personality. It is this personality, combined with willpower, that Tim was able to convince people to clear their debts. The central aspects of Tim’s leadership that suit my disposition and style include integrity and determination. I am task-oriented, and I always believe in getting work done effectively. Besides, I also believe in being ethical as well as truthful in achieving my goals.

An effective business leader must have traits such as self-managing, liability, effective communicator, fairness, visionary, endurance, integrity, and enthusiasm. Also, such a business leader must exhibit qualities such as decisiveness, self-awareness, creativity, and knowledge to thrive in personal and professional life. My business leadership traits include integrity, fairness, visionary, communicator, and decisiveness. Some of the characteristics not discussed in the text, but remain important for good leadership include strategic planning, passion, empathy, trust, perspective, and patience.

Question 2

I envision having a leadership style that powers, motivates, and allows people the freedom to do their part. In this sense, I envision an idealized leader. While working as a youth leader in my area, I had the opportunity to lead other youths in cleaning our community. I come from a city where factories often dumb waste products in nearby schools. For years, this problem had persisted, and society seemed less concerned. With my leadership, I convinced my fellow youths to traverse around the community to inform members of the need to live in a clean environment. After persuading most of the community members to embrace cleanliness, my next task included approaching the factories and asking them to find alternative dumping areas. I would say that all my efforts were successful. The transformational model, discussed in class, best describes my approach. As discussed under this model, I often exhibit traits such as courage, duty, honesty, self-respect, fairness, as well as humility. I have adopted the concept of ‘service before self’ because, as a leader must strive to serve his or her people in the best ways possible.

Question 3

Dan’s and Asher’s leadership styles

Dan’s style of leadership is task-focused. Even though he relates well with his employees, his main focus is on what they accomplish. He is concerned majorly on achieving company goals and objectives as well as its milestones. Besides, Asher’s style of leadership focuses on building a good relationship with the subordinate staff. He intermingles with his employees on a personal level. This trait helped him to develop a friendly atmosphere among his workforce as well as among his workforce.

Asher’s employees’ reaction to Dan’s task-oriented style

Asher’s employees will find it hard to work under Dan as they are used to work with no supervision. They may feel that Dan’s style of leadership reduces their creativity in the workplace. However, the employees will have to put their primary focus on accomplishing set goals instead of the leadership style of their leader. Generally, Dan’s leadership will hurt the subordinate as they are used to do their work without interference from their leader. They will be yearning to work in a free environment with minimum supervision.

Dan’s employees’ reaction to Asher’s relationship-oriented style

Dan’s staff might judge Asher as an irresponsible as well as an ineffectual leader. The employees will ask for clear instructions from Asher as they are not used to work independently. Nonetheless, they might not find it hard to cope with Asher since he provides autonomy and allows them to work in a way they are comfortable.

If Dan or Asher should go

If I were Mark, I would choose Asher over Dan because I prefer a relation-building leadership style that provides humanity for the employees. I would focus on meeting my employees’ satisfaction and friendly atmosphere for my subordinates than to be hard on them. However, the decision will entirely depend on the situation of the company. If the company’s main objective is to recover from a financial crisis, then I will choose Dan as he is strict and ensures that work is done accordingly using his guidelines. If the company wants improvements and also has long term goals, then I would probably choose Asher over Dan.

Question 4

One lesson from the polar bear story is that play is very important in every living species. It teaches us that play intrinsic in nature and overrides any feelings, thoughts, or emotions. A state of play allows creatures to explore possibilities. Besides, the story also teaches us to use creativity while developing our imagination, cognitive, as well as emotional strength. Some types of play include cooperative, spectator, ritual, object, imaginative, rough and tumble, solo, body, and associative plays. I always engage in cooperative play became it improves my team power, communication skills, as well as problem solving abilities. Play is vital to the health of the human brain because it helps the brain to develop. For example, it is through play that children often manage to engage, interact, as well as explore their worlds. As such, play helps to stimulate the human brain to make connections among nerve cells. It, therefore, helps a child to develop gross motor skills, including running, walking, or jumping. Equally, play also develops kids’ motor skills such as writing, manipulation of tolls, among others. The term ‘Neoteny’ is a biological word means the retention of immature characteristics into adulthood. I do not think that pay and leadership are mutually exclusive. However, there is need to integrate play in leadership in every approach as it does several things for workers and leaders.