My Leadership Style
I have always embraced a transformational leadership style for quite a long time, and in almost all the leadership positions I have held in the past. To some extent, I can describe my leadership style as inborn and success-oriented because it has been hard to divert attention. I credit my internship program supervisor for triggering my inspiration towards the practice of transformational leadership, something that I have been unable to change for quite a long time. Significantly, I would describe my leadership style as one full of inspirational motivation. I like leading by example, whereby I get involved directly with the tasks assigned to my team. By so doing, I try as much as possible to inspire them through working hands-on with them to achieve the best. At the same time, I mentor, coach, and guide my juniors in their assigned tasks to promote creativity and innovation. To make the process effective and efficient, I reward their hard work as well as offering the necessary support required in making the right decisions. I encourage new ideas from my teammates and take them positively without having to criticize them publicly, which I am sure would demean their efforts.
Successful leadership example
Two years ago, in my former job, my then manager assigned me a group of four interns in the clinical psychiatry sector where I was operating from. My task was to train, guide, and supervise them on clinical processes, including analyzing patients’ mental health status. At my desk, I oriented my team on some of the organizational objectives and personal goals I was determined to achieve as far as my commitment to that particular hospital was concerned. I attest that my relationship with them was the best; they exhibited a lot of confidence in handling their assignments, which I would approve and rate afterward. After the interns familiarized themselves with the organizational culture thoroughly, I would delegate three-quarters of my daily tasks to them and step aside to allow them to exercise creativity and autonomy in their submissions. I am excited that my engagement with the four incredible individuals turned out to be a success, which was be confirmed by the organization’s decision to absorb two of them on employment terms upon expiry of my contract.
Unsuccessful leadership example
As much as I remember, my ineffective leadership reign occurred during my early days in the university while pursuing my bachelors’ program. Upon participating in a heated-up school campaign, I was privileged to win a representative post in our faculty, where I was tasked with airing student’s views to our career department, among other duties. Notably, we often confined meetings and open field discussions to raise suggestions on matters of academics. I would moderate the talks as I take down the minutes as and when raised by members. That means I granted each interested member enough time to express themselves. Before the end of the first three months, I was unable to control the members anymore. Anybody could stand up and yell out at their will. Others felt partially represented and could take themselves to the chair of the department. Since I could not control the anger and pressure that had started building up on me, I decided to resign and term it a leadership failure.