Leaders are faced with challenges and obstacles that they must overcome in order to accomplish their tasks. The style of leadership that a leader uses determines their effectiveness in situations. Whether they adopt an autocratic approach in which they do not rely on other to make their decision or a laissez-faire approach in which they are dependent on group decision. Whatever approach they use, their style can either decrease or increase their effectiveness on a company’s productivity, employee unity, or promote a positive work environment. In the military I have seen a many different types of leadership styles and how their leadership style affects others. I remember on my first deployment we were “dead in the water. “ Basically all forms of communication to the outside world were down. In any other circumstance that would not be too big of a deal, except for this time we were in the middle of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Tensions were high among the crew and many of our junior sailors did not know what to do. The crew had to rely on the leadership our Captain and our departments to get up back up and operational.
Our Captain used an autocratic style to get us back up and running. “Autocratically led groups produce more in quantity than democratically led groups but the quality of output is better when more democracy is practiced
In order to determine the effectiveness of a leader we not only need to look at the style they use but how those leaders actually interact with the people they are trying to lead. The situational approach actually examines those relations between leaders and followers in a particular situation/environment. This approach looks at how a leader uses his power and position when interacting with others. Their behavior in different situations and it appropriateness can affect the work environment. I have always been a big supporter of praise in public and reprimand in private. Even if a punishment is justified, I do not think it is appropriated to do it in front of others. A leader loses creditability when they reprimand someone in front of others. One day I was walking from one of our storage units back to my shop. On my back to my shop there was a chief out on the flight line yelling at one of his seamen. If not to make matters worse, he was reprimanding this junior person in front of his whole shop. I could not believe what I was witnessing. The language this chief was using was not appropriate and uncalled for; it was also something I should not have even witness. When a leader does this, it sends the wrong message to others. In most cases, it looks like the leader wants to show off his power and position. The chief could have accomplished what he wanted behind closed doors; instead he used that junior person to make a point to others. I feel that he wanted to show off his authority and let the other junior and senior personnel that work for know that he was in charge and that if they messed up, that he would make sure everyone knew about it. It takes more leadership skills to praise someone in public for doing right and giving positive credit where credit is due, than belittling someone in public. Adopting a supportive attitude and behavior instead of being a spirit crusher will encourage and facilitate your employees in their efforts to accomplish tasks and encourage responsible decision making
Become an effective leader is sometimes a thankless job, that is filled with up and downs. “Leadership is described as both a lonely and a highly participative endeavor
Gaining the respect and trust of your team/organization is not an easy task to do. As a leader you need to be willing to go to bat for your people and give credit where credit is due. Playing favorites or the perception of playing favorites can tear your team apart. Two years ago I worked for a supervisor who played favorites. If you flirted with him, bought him things, or did as you were told with no questions ask he let you do whatever you wanted. If you did what was right, or questioned what he was putting out, you were going to be in trouble and get the worst tasking. His lack of understanding, unwillingness to take criticism, and playing favorites contributed to our division’s demise. Eventually he was fired as being our Leading Petty Officer (LPO) and new LPO was assigned. After our transition to our new LPO, our division’s morale and willingness to do our work dramatically improved.
After meeting your company’s goals, effective leaders must also be able to adapt to change. Effective leaders need to be team players and be willing to accept company changes in policy and procedures. If your followers see your unwillingness to accept changes that are put out by your superiors, then they will be less willing to follow changes that you put into place. Listening to new ideas and modifying your own ideas that incorporate those changes for the benefit of the team and the company shows your flexibility. Your workers see that you are putting their welfare above your own which contributes to your effectiveness as a leader. On the other hand, if you are constantly rejecting ideas and opinions you can cause a tear in your organization. As a leader you need to balance between doing what is right for your company while not sacrificing your own values, morals, and beliefs. Doing this shows your followers that you respect not only the company but yourself as well; you will than eventually gain the respect, trust, and gratitude of others.
Learning to be an effective leader will pave the way in overcoming barriers in communication and lead to enhanced problem solving skills. There are numerous barriers that you might face in becoming an effective leader. Decision making and problem solving is probably one of the most significant barriers that you will face as a leader. “Decision making is the process of choosing from among several different alternatives
Our organizational culture influences our ability to make decisions. Depending on the type of organization you work in determines the method and how you will make your decisions. Most companies take on a more democratic way of making decision. You will have group meetings and focus groups that will aid in coming up with new ideas and ways to solve problems. When a decision is made, it is announced to the whole company/organization and it is your responsibility as a leader to enforce and embrace those decisions. Other organizations like my own rely little on group collaboration. One person is usually in charge and makes the decisions for everyone. A policy is put into place and you’re task is to carry it out.
An effective leader must also overcome any discomfort and communication barriers. Regardless if a leader feels that they might be attacked or viewed in a negative light, they still must voice their opinions. Leaders need to be able to communicate their ideas effectively and in a logical manner so that everyone can understand his/her thoughts. If a leader opposes an idea, they need to have alternative solution to aid in the decision making and problem solving process. Leaders should not avoid a situation because they are uncomfortable or are afraid of disagreements. There are many times in which my views go against what the norm is. I have found in every case where my views cause conflict, that other leaders still respect the fact that I speak up and give alternative solutions to problems. If nothing else, my ideas were listen to and I gained the respect of others which increased my effectiveness as a leader. Communication competency is a barrier that all effective leaders must handle.
The final barrier in which effective leaders must overcome is whether or not they have the technical competency to formulate or even influence decisions and aid in the problem solving process. I work in a technical field, so I have seen leaders who tried to play as if they knew what they were talking about. I had one supervisor who had been put in charge because he was the most senior person at the time. When anyone asked him how to accomplish a task or questioned what we were doing, he would get mad. He would focus on things that were not really important to the mission at hand. Eventually we all realized that he was doing this in order to by himself time and not have to admit that he really did not know what was doing. Each time this would happen, we all lost more respect for him and eventually did not listen to what he had to say. At the ended of the day, we all end up having more respect for those leaders who admit they need help, are willing to seek the advice and guidance of others, and who are not a shame of asking for help.
There have been many times in which groups or individual have made decisions without getting all the information
People are placed in leadership positions all the time; while some people are qualified to hold positions of leadership, others are not. Yes, there are natural born leaders, but that does not make them effective leaders. In order to become an effective leader you need to be willing to listen, adapt to change, learn from others, and overcome barriers in communication. An effective leader can leave a lasting impression on their subordinates for many years. Leadership is a skill that comes with times and is filled with many challenges. Effective leaders take those obstacles and learn from each experience; they apply those lessons learned to other decisions and use them to overcome future challenges and problems.
References
(Hersey, 1992, p. 15).” Being an effective leader involves more than just showing up; it requires you to alter your style of leadership, adopt different approaches, be willing to listen, and be able to overcome barriers in communications. In the military we learn about building esprit de corps. We learn to take pride in ourselves and work together to accomplish our mission. Our leaders are key players in building and unity our organization together. Without effective leaders our missions would not succeed. Before taking this course I was always taught that leaders were born; I now realize that yes there are natural born leaders, but being an effective leader is a trait that is learned over time in which some people are more qualified to do than others. (Shockley-Zalabak, 2009, p. 220).” In most situations the autocratic style of leadership can hinder a group’s goal by not taking into account other opinions; but, in this case it was the way to lead. The Captain called upon his department heads to get the job done. His first step was to hold a meeting of the different department heads and brief them on his expectations and goals. He gave each department head a list of things to do, time frames, and what to bring up and the order in which they were to be brought up. The Captain had told each department that everyone has a job to do and he did not want to hear that it could not be done. The Captain had given each department head a list of jobs and tasks to accomplish without discussion which enabled the ship to become fully operational within the hour. If the Captain had chosen another way of conducting business we could have been down longer, this could have caused dire consequences for the ship and its crew. Our Captain changed his normal leadership style which was very democratic and middle-of-the road to a more aggressive one. His ability to adapt to different situations and problems kept his crew out of harm and shows a key trait of an effective leader.(kenneth Blanchard, Zigarmi, & Zigarmi, 1982, p. 30).(Shockley-Zalabak, 2009, p. 231).” Leaders can be faced with a wide range of problems such as interpersonal relationships, unable to meet new challenges, build an effective team, or be able to adapt or change during transitions (Shockley-Zalabak, 2009) . Most people are placed in a leadership position because of a promotion. Their promotion can cause problems amongst fellow co-workers. In order to become an effective leader you need to draw a line between friendships and the work environment. Laying out your guidelines and expectations ahead of time can eliminates and reduce any possible miscommunication between your subordinates and yourself. When I got prompted to supervisor over my fellow co-works I ran into a lot of attitude and discontent. I had to let my co-workers know that just because I am in a leadership position, that it does not give them the right to take advantage of me and that I still accept them to do their work. Let my co-workers know what I expected out of them and what my goals for the division were enabled me to build a strong team and meet our objectives with little downtime and issues. At first, my new positions was difficult and trying because I had never been in a leadership position. People that I thought would not give me a hard time did and were always trying to make me look bad. I had to learn to adapt and change my original laid back attitude to a more aggressive one in order to combat the initial lack of respect. I had to gain everyone’s trust and respect as a leader in order to be effective. My original leadership role was filled with challenges; being able to adapt and face those challenges head on enabled me to gain the respect and trust of my fellow co-workers. (Shockley-Zalabak, 2009, p. 260);” while problem solving is moving a situation from an undesirable to more desirable situation (Shockley-Zalabak, 2009). Making the right decisions is hard to do even in the most straight forward cases. Things like our culture, communication, and technically competency play a factor in our decision and problem solving making skills. (Shockley-Zalabak, 2009, p. 263). Not having all the information available before making a decision can lead to negative consequences and make more work for everyone. This can cause anxiety and loss in productivity in any organization. As a leader you will end up losing credibility and your effectiveness within your organization. Making the right choice and problem solving are barriers that all effective leaders need to overcome. Fact-finding and evaluation skills will also help leaders over come communication barriers. These skills “assist in the discovery and criticism of information used in problem solving and decision making (Shockley-Zalabak, 2009, p. 271).” In order to come up with well formulated decision we need to have all the information. Effective leaders need to make sure that the information they have is relevant to the problem or decision they are trying to make. Once they determine if the information is relevant they need to make sure they have a sufficient amount of information to support what they want to accomplish. Finally they need to make sure that the outcome can be achieved and that the information they have is creditable (plausibility). When I first stepped into a leadership position I did not know what exactly to do or the steps that were involved in formulating decisions and problem solving. One day, I was tasked in revising some operational manuals. I had put together a team of system matter experts that could help me in getting this task done. I had done research, viewed old publications, and obtain current instructions relevant to what we were trying to accomplish. Once I had all the required/relevant information my team and I sat down and started to go through each line item to figure out what we need and whether the information was still creditable. This was a long and tedious process that none of us wanted to do. My job as the leader was to give them motivation and constantly reiterate the importance of updating these manuals. At the end of the day all the manuals were updated and we were able to provide justification and the resources that we used. I in turn put the whole team in for awards and made sure that I gave credit to everyone involved. Each team member was proud of the work they accomplished. As a team we covered all areas and made sure that no one would have to go back and modify any documents. This was accomplished by reviewing all the facts and evaluating the material that we used. Blanchard, K., Zigarmi, P. E., & Zigarmi, D. E. (1982). Leadership and the One Minute Manager. New York, NY: William Morrow and Company, Inc.
Hersey, D. P. (1992). The Situational Leader. Escondido, CA: Center For Leadership Studies.
Shockley-Zalabak, P. S. (2009). Fundamentals Of Organizational Communication: Knowledge, Sensitivity, Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Skills, Values.
