Leadership experience

Leadership experience

Leadership is a practice by which an individual influence motivates and enables people to achieve a goal and directs the business in a way that makes it more consistent and rational. Leaders complete this course by using their management skills and understanding. Leaders, therefore, bring about transformation in a company or a group. This paper discusses my experience as a leader using various leadership theories and the context in which I worked as a leader (Northouse, 2009). This essay discusses my leadership experience in a school context stating the number of my followers and their dissimilarities. It also discusses the enormous task I undertook as a leader and illustrates how I applied situational and transformational leadership theory in my leadership experience.

Context

One of the most demanding environments that I worked in was a school. The most challenging task was devising and developing the school curriculum. A curriculum plays a significant role in helping students rebuild misconceptions and see connections between their current lessons and previous lessons. Curriculums embody more than a compilation of activities or facts: it gives a holistic presentation of significant, challenging tasks in increasingly demanding settings. My followers were a total of fifty teachers from both primary and secondary schools and ten board members, bringing the total number of my followers to sixty members. These followers were not similar as the group included both male and female members from diverse ethnic groups and regions. There were also young and old members of my team.

Situational Leadership

Situational leadership theory works on the hypothesis that the most successful style s of leadership vary depending on the situation. This method of administration proposes the necessity to match two essential components appropriately: the leadership style and the followers’ development or vigilance levels (Grube, 2017). I applied this approach to leadership by making decisions and giving directions to my followers. Besides, I communicated with my followers, persuaded them to work, took part in the project, and assigned the decision-making process to my team members. I applied the situational leadership concept by identifying that diverse workforce are at a different rank of growth or development phases, which symbolizes the comparative capability and obligation of assistants for a given undertaking. I, therefore, categorized them into four different development levels due to the differences in the competency level, confidence, and commitment. As such, I had to use different leadership styles to manage my team members.

First, I applied a transactional leadership style in instances where I motivated employees by rewarding them for the work they did. I also used democratic leadership by involving my team members in the decision-making process. As a result, junior workers were able to exercise authority when designing and developing the school curriculum. Similarly, I used the Coach –style leadership by discovering and developing the strengths of each team member. Besides, I focused on tactics that would improve the performance of the team. I did not use the same leadership style for each employee due to the different development levels. Instead of forcing my followers to concentrate on comparable abilities and goals, I created a team where each follower had knowledge or expertise set in something different.

Transformational Leadership Theory

Transformational leadership is an approach that leads to an adjustment in people and societal systems. In its perfect form, it results in priceless and constructive disparity among team members with the end purpose of nurturing followers into leaders. Transformational leadership enhances the inspiration, confidence, and performance of team members through a multiplicity of mechanisms. These mechanisms included being a role model to my followers and understanding their strengths and weaknesses (Northouse, 2009). There were occasions in which I was expected to be a transformational leader. The first was after the creation of my team. There was a need to motivate my team because working alone leads to division among team members. I was ready to accept the challenge even though it was clear that the task would be tedious, with a limited amount of motivation from other leaders. It was, therefore, necessary to empower employees and tap into the intrinsic motivation for them to take the initiative and prove that they can undertake a challenging task.

The transformational factors that I applied include Individualized reflection, where I attended to each member’s needs by mentoring, coaching, or guiding them. I listened to their concerns, offered my support, and was empathetic towards them. I also used inspirational motivation by motivating my followers to perform beyond expectations because I was confident about their ability to meet the goals of the project. However, I did not apply the transformational factor of Intellectual inspiration. I did not challenge their theories or take risks ( Peker et al., 2018). Also, I did not acknowledge them through creativity and innovation. As a result, their morale was low, thus affecting the entire project.

My Performance

I was a successful leader because I motivated my followers to have a strong sense of purpose and achieved the project’s goal. I also ensured that my followers aspire to grow and show intrinsic motivation when performing their work. I earned the respect of my followers due to my high moral principles and ethical conduct. I was doing the right thing, according to My followers. As a result, they were encouraged to invest more effort in their tasks, be confident about the future, and to invest in their abilities, thus enhancing Team spirit. To be more productive, I would have supported and collaborated with the followers as we try new techniques and find inventive ways of dealing with the project. I would also encourage my team to think independently and become autonomous.

Conclusion

In conclusion, my strength as the head consists of confidence and outstanding at communicating innovative ideas, excellent at balancing long term and short term objectives, high reliability, and skilled at building strong alliances. I was also committed to quality, ready to adapt, and involved my team members (Northouse, 2009). I would excel best at leading committed followers who are willing to undertake challenging tasks that require new and innovative ideas. My weaknesses as a leader included low experience and lack of focus. I would struggle with leading people who are not ready and able to undertake challenging tasks. The aspects of Leadership that I would try working are tolerating gaining more experience, and being focused when taking challenging tasks. It is, therefore, necessary for me to focus on my personal growth, focus on my strengths, and draw experience from mentors who undertake challenging tasks.

References

Grube, D. C. (2017). Transforming a Transactional Debate: Leadership and the rhetorical road to Brexit. Social Alternatives, 36(3), 12.

Northouse, P. G. (2009). Leadership: Theory and Practice. (6th Edition). SAGE Publications Ltd.

Peker, S., Inandi, Y., & Giliç, F. (2018). The Relationship between Leadership Styles (Autocratic and Democratic) of School Administrators and the Mobbing Teachers Suffer. European Journal of Contemporary Education, 7(1), 150-164.