Leadership in Organisations: Discussing How Have You Demonstrated Leadership

Leadership is the defining factor of any organisation, company or team, many people can have an experience in leadership this does not have to be at a professional establishment, it could be at home with friends etc. In the first part of this essay it will focus on my own person experiences with leadership where by I suggest areas of my own improvement. The second part will focus on the leadership style of Bill Gates and I will give a critical analysis and evaluation with the use of theories and concepts of leadership relating to Gates.

In my own experience of leadership, I have observed leadership in the workplace were the manager delegates tasks as a way to manage the responsibilities within the workplace. Often, meetings are called for in order to update the whole team on the work that members have accomplished through the week or month, the manager assigns tasks by talents and specialties for the specific job, a good attribute that was shown of the manager was his ability to see positives in certain scenario despite our perceived reactions of it.

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With his leadership, our communication was both upward and downward.

I feel he was a democratic leader who held the final responsibility also delegating authority to others as he perceived that we are competent workers that can handle the tasks on our own, this was discussed in Mcgregor’s X and Y theory where he suggests that Theory X is based on the assumptions that the average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if possible.

Theory Y is based on the assumptions that the average man is a competent worker and is hard working. The average human being does not inherently dislike work. Depending upon controllable conditions, work may be a source of satisfaction, or a source of punishment. (McGregor, D., 1960).

Furthermore, problem solving was not a sole task of our manager, but one that involved everyone in our team as in group shared activities. The Manager acted as much to take the role of a facilitator in his intention to involve everyone in problem solving of certain situations, laying down his views and opinions toward a particular direction, without dismissing others’ perspectives. The path-goal theory is seen in this example, whereby the leader directs activities with varying manners. The theory maintains that the leader sees a path that needs to be taken and gets the group to accomplish it by commanding, rewarding, soliciting suggestions, etc. (Griffin and Moorhead, 2012).

I believe the Manager was able to grow his staff which were one of his major responsibilities as a leader by helping them develop problem-solving skills. I once asked him for a solution to a certain problem, and his responses were what do you think must be done in this situation? in many cases, the manager was able to make staff discover the best course of action for a certain problem or situation. There were times when a problem seemed too overwhelming to be handled by a staff member and would seek his help, to which his usual response would be to insist that the person must learn how to do it to be able to know and be able to sort it without him, or his guidance. This was discussed by Paul hersey and Ken blanchard in their theory where they imply that any situation, the style may change depending on the scenario that is put forth in the said situation, i feel that this style was used by the manager to assess different situations in a different way and I also feel that it is a good way of acknowledging different situations and it proved to be to bring accurate results.

Another experience that I have observed is a time where the manager was faced with a problem two of the staff and he had to sort out the commotion the two was having, the manager as much as he could, the Manager did not take any sides or intervene with any personal problems, to which some people in our team would try to make him a mediator or a referee. His ideology was not to express his opinion showing any favour to one person over the other. This action was also taken as positive by Tracy (2013), who said that as a rule, one could not be able to have the full story, and once a leader or manager takes a particular position, it might mean weakening his authority with both persons in the future. As a result of good performance, the performing employee was rewarded by the manager.

Areas of Development

Based on the experience presented, the aim of my goal is to become a team leader, I suggest for areas for my own development as a leader are to be able to delegate responsibilities to my team members, promote decision-making through problem solving, and motivating the workforce through a high degree of job control. I will also state that in journey to leadership I will need to be able to implement a transactional leadership style that will balance the relationships of workers with each other and myself. I have learned through this experience that delegating responsibilities is not only to free or unburden the leader of the many workloads but to provide opportunities for growth.

Conclusion

In conclusion the manager plays a crucial role in leading, developing and control of staff in achieving organisational goals, this understanding was discovered through my critical reflection of my experience with observing the leadership of my manager. This reflection demonstrated the use of leadership style and concepts through the manager and the staff such as transformational leadership, transactional leadership and mcgregor's x and y theory. The manager demonstrated the use of delegating, problem solving, job autonomy and maintaining authority in team members, because of these traits the manager was able to promote trust and motivation for both himself and the workers, the study also complemented the path goal theory which helps to guide worker to a desired path which played a crucial role in discovering my areas of improvement.