Week 3 Discussion Question Response
Reflect on this week’s Learning Resources and on your own experience as a leader (preferably in a work context but possibly in a volunteer or personal context), and describe an instance in which your leadership was not successful because you simply ‘told’ rather than ‘shared’. Now, using and referencing this week’s Learning Resources, describe how and why you might have handled this situation differently.
Ayopeju Njideaka/H0032748 (University of Liverpool , Online MBA)
Introduction
Many approaches have been adopted in the attempt to define leadership – philosophical, scientific, non-scientific. Leadership is so complex that experimentation has not yielded much , holding all but one variable constant is impossible. Grint (2000) states that survey and review of successful leader approaches are mostly used for leadership research. Both produce results that are informative rather than definitive. According to Maxwell (2011), Leadership is influence. A business leader seeks to influence his team to maximise their effort at achieving the predetermined goals. Getting people to perform at their best takes a lot more than wielding authority over them. In my experience, employees give their all to the organisation when they feel valued. Organisational leaders and managers are instrumental to this feeling. To the employee, they are the face of the organisation.
The complexity of Leadership can be attributed to many variables. Some of the variables are leadership approach, leadership style and communication style. Many approaches to Leadership have been identified. Grint(2000) stated four approaches: Trait, Contingency, Situation and Constitutive.. The Constitutive approach identifies that the leader’s interpretation of the situation is subjective. Brooks (2009) lists four broad leaderships styles; task/structure orientation,