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Personal Reflection on Leadership Style

Paper Type: Free Assignment Study Level: University / Undergraduate
Wordcount: 1244 words Published: 1st Dec 2020

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Abstract

In this paper, the author discusses his personal leadership style, vision of leadership, and qualities that lead to his personal style. The results of Natural Leadership Quality (N.L.Q.) theory and Jung’s Typology Test are discussed as well as how the author’s current style and qualities relate to the results.

Personal Leadership Style, Vision, and Values

The leadership style that I subscribe to is informed through my own experiences from my childhood to where I am today. As a young adult leader, I was elected to be the Senior Patrol Leader for my Boy Scout troop and now as an adult I find that my co-workers and acquaintances come to me with problems that they need solved. Therefore, my leadership style is based on anecdotal evidence.       

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My preferred style of leadership is highly collaborative and in my experience can be powerful when stakeholders are passionate, data-driven, and seek opportunities for improvement. From my experience, this style can quickly fail when involved parties rapidly lose motivation and decrease performance. The effects of motivation loss are typically that efficiency and efficacy are lost as well. I find that Peter Dewitt’s collaborative model of leadership (DeWitt, 2017) most closely resembles my own experiences. Dewitt’s model assumes that four types of leadership are possible: Regulators, Bystanders, negotiators, and collaborators (DeWitt, 2017). Regulators are more directive and task centered (DeWitt, 2017), whereas negotiators are more relationship-centered and utilizes lead-member exchange theory quite heavily (DeWitt, 2017). Bystanders are leaders who typically will default to allowing subordinates to take control of situations (DeWitt, 2017), and collaborators lead with qualities that can best be described with contingency theory of leadership (DeWitt, 2017; Burns, Sorensen, Goethals, 2004).

My vision of leadership is very collaborative and intentional. In terms of Peter Dewitt’s classification of types of leaders, my vision most closely aligns to that of a collaborator or someone who doesn’t rely on, but deems necessary the ideas and opinions of surrounding experts (DeWitt, 2017). Aside from Dewitt’s model, my vision of leadership is to communicate with transparency so that I can truly listen to others and such that others can truly understand the solutions that I try to establish given that they are reciprocating their attention. In this way, my vision serves as an overall summary of my intent when I am leading. From my vision, I can reflect on my words and actions and pinpoint where I need to improve or decide that I need to change direction. Over the next few years, I would like for my vision of leadership to become more transformational while also being collaborative. In order to do this, I need to constantly reflect on the deeper qualities, values, skills, and principles that define my style.

The qualities that describe, not only my leadership style, but also my personality are the following: Visibly small ego, leading with humility, and remaining diligent in solving a problem and persevering through obstacles. In my opinion, it is efficient to lead with a small ego on the surface, especially when collaborating. It has been shown that conceited efforts can lead to bad decision making (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007) and can be damaging to collaborations. In my experience, collaborators with dangerous egos tend to focus less on the vision of the organization and more on how they are being viewed by everybody in the group. This is not to say that strong egos are always inefficient. For example, dynamic leaders who use their egos to promote the mission and vision of the organization tend to have a positive influence on subordinates (Glanz, 2002). I find that humility is a quality that has always helped me develop lasting relationships. Humility can also be used to teach co-workers and subaltern workers how to be a strong part of an organization (Owens & Hekman, 2012) and can help develop shared leadership (Chiu, Owens, & Tesluk, 2015).

Results of Jung Typology Test and N.L.Q. Theory

Upon completing the Natural Leadership Quality (N.L.Q.) survey by answering True or False to various statements, I am empowered to analyze my shortcomings and strengths given that I agree with the test assumptions. For example, one of my strengths is that I can securely adapt to varied situations (Glanz, 2002). Since my N.L.Q. as adapted from Null’s Natural Life Energy theory (Glanz, 2002) is adaptive assertive. However, I might miss opportunities as I am not likely to take charge immediately (Glanz, 2002). This is useful information to reflect on, but is even more powerful when coupled to the results of Jung’s Typology Test (Jung, 2016).

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The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used almost a decade ago during my senior year of high school to begin thinking about potential careers that align with one’s personality.  MBTI has also been the instrument of choice for some to assess how change affects teachers (Carnahan, 2016). The results of Jung’s Typology Test suggest that I prefer extraversion, intuition, thinking, and judging, or ENTJ for short (Jung, 2016). I agree with this classification because I have a tendency to exaggerate the outcomes of my endeavors (Jung, 2016), but I do not need motivation to make a plan (Jung, 2016). One outcome of synthesizing both of these results suggests that if I jumped at opportunities to lead instead of thinking about the situation for entirely too long, I would make more connections. As well, once I take on a leadership role, I need to make sure that my mission, vision, and strategic goals are pragmatic. Accomplishing both of these goals would guide my leadership style into more of a transformative style rather than pure collaborative.

References

  • DeWitt, P. M. (2017). Collaborative Leadership: Six influences that matter most.
  • Burns, J. M., Sorenson, G. J., Goethals, G. R., (2004). Encyclopedia of Leadership. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications, Inc.
  • Chatterjee, A., & Hambrick, D. C. 2007. It’s all about me: Narcissistic CEOs and their effects on company strategy and performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 52: 351–386.
  • Glanz, J. (2002). Finding your leadership style: A guide for educators. Alexandria, Va: Assoc. for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
  • Owens, B. P., & Hekman, D. R. (2012). Modeling How to Grow: An Inductive Examination of Humble Leader Behaviors, Contingencies, and Outcomes. Academy of Management Journal,55(4), 787-818. doi:10.5465/amj.2010.0441
  • Chiu, C., Owens, B. P., & Tesluk, P. E. (2016). Initiating and utilizing shared leadership in teams: The role of leader humility, team proactive personality, and team performance capability. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(12), 1705-1720. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apI0000159
  • Jung typology test. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp
  • Carnahan, M. A. (2016). MBTI psychological types in educators: Managing stress during organizational change

 

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