Personal Philosophy Of Leadership Styles

Leaders are some of the most influential individuals in any society. They have the ability to influence those around them with various leadership styles including coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and coaching. Effective leaders consistently adapt to the environment around them to either enhance or correct any situation facing them. Within these leadership styles the most effective style has been considered that of the authoritative style. This style brings individuals together, builds self-confidence, and easily adapts to the environment around it.

My own leadership style could be considered very similar to my mothers, our personalities are very similar and she was the first person I learned from, so it only makes sense. I consider honesty to be the most important trait. I work to be as transparent as possible with my team. With that comes being open and clear with communication. I have also found that being passion about your job and what you do has a huge impact on how followers see you.

According to dictionary.com leadership is defined as, the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group: Its synonyms include guidance, influence, control, direction and supervision. These are all qualifications that are needed to be an effective leader. All characteristics are not necessarily needed at the same time and do no need to be used for each subordinate. This paper will identify my personal leadership philosophy along with theories to support my leadership style.

With some insight on my leadership skills, I believe my nursing leadership style is one of a servant leader. The term servant leader was coined by Robert Greenleaf and describes individuals who not only influence but motivate others around them by building relationships and developing the skills of individual team members. According to Greenleaf this style of management requires that the entire team

Urban Meyer is the head coach for The Ohio State Buckeyes football team. He is 49 years old and was born in Toledo Ohio. He attended University of Cincinnati where he played football. Coach Meyer is married and has three children. Prior to coaching Ohio State he retired from coaching was working as a sports analyst for ESPN. Before retiring and working for ESPN, Coach Meyer was the head coach for the University of Florida. He led the Gators to two BCS championship wins and he held the highest percentages of wins for any active college football coach. (www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com).

My father once told me that, “everything we do— be it in academia, at work, social or family life—we are guided by principles, beliefs and values that collectively form our ideology of life.” I believe that every leader, to a certain extent, is shaped through her individual personal experience. Although in some cases, we may not realize to what extent our personal assumptions and beliefs shape our ability to lead or be led.

I believe a personal leadership philosophy is developed through experiences as both a follower and a leader. Leadership skills are gained in many ways such as learning from the successful methods and mistakes of others, constructive criticism from followers and leader colleagues alike and remaining current in leadership literature. I have developed my theory based on personal encounters with positive and negative leadership experiences which include leading by example, listening and adapting to your followers needs and lastly, including followers in times of significant change.

Out of all the different leadership theories I learned about this semester I really feel that I best relate to transformational leadership and authentic leadership theories. During the development of my personal theory I found that these theories tended to list many similar traits, and values that aligned with my own. Additionally, both authentic and transformative theories place a significant amount of emphasis on the relationship between the leader and her/his followers. The success and influence of a leader comes not from herself but from her ability to create and invoke strong relationships with their followers. Given my character strengths of sociability, integrity, assertiveness, and my drive to connect to others on a deeper level, I value both the authentic and the transformative leadership theories.

In saying this, if I had to choose a leadership style that I believe I most closely align with and follow would be transformational leadership. Researcher Bernard M. Bass developed what is referred to as Bass’s Transformational Leadership Theory and stated “Transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers. Transformational leaders are those who stimulate and inspire followers to both achieve extraordinary outcomes and in the process, develop their own leadership capacity. Transformational leaders help followers grow and develop into leaders by responding to individual followers' needs by empowering them and by aligning the objectives and goals of the individual followers, the leader, the group, and the larger organization.” (Bass, Riggio, 2008)

In terms of leadership styles a wide variety exists for one to employ (Boykins, 2013). There isn’t firm consensus as to which styles prove to be the most effective. Different situations call for different approaches. In the article, Empirical Study of Leadership Styles, it discusses several leadership styles that I can relate to.

Leadership and management are two different subjects but both are essential for an organizations growth. Leadership is “A relationship through which one person influences the behaviour or actions of other people” (Smith P et al 2012), whilst “Management is more about getting things done on a day-to-day basis and ensuring consistency” (Smith P et al 2012).In simple context Managers helps in doing the right thing where as Leaders do the right things. Having a strong Leader and Management an organization can reap the benefits of Competitive advantage as it would distinguish them to be an organization with core values, goals and scope which will eventually help them grow. It is understood that successful leaders do not habitually

Leadership is a concept most people feel informed enough to discuss, but that few are truly educated sufficiently to comment on. Therefore, it is instructive to consider the leadership styles of people with very different approaches both to better understand the diversity underlying leadership, as well as to appreciate the effective and less effective strategies that underlie different leadership outcomes. For that reason, this essay will consider the styles of two leaders who are less visible in this highly contentious presidential election season: Jill Stein (the Green Party nominee) and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. The leadership styles of both are very different, yet they are aligned in the sense that both are outsider candidates struggling to gain momentum from a disaffected electorate. This essay begins with a theoretical discussion of leadership more generally and then turns to the two leaders as case studies, comparing and contrasting them and drawing conclusions about how they both work within the same public sphere and for putatively similar ends (i.e., gaining votes).

Leadership style was a new concept to me before this chapter. I thought leadership was leadership and that there was nothing more to it than that. I was wrong. I have been in leadership positions before and wouldn’t have been able to say what my style of leadership was at that time. Now, looking back with what I now know, I know what my leadership style was: primarily authoritarian and partially democratic. I believe I adjusted my leadership style based on the situation. Some situations would require an authoritarian style because I had followers who were reluctant to do anything. On the other hand, some situations where my followers would be willing to do something, I would use more of a democratic style of leadership.

It is appropriate that I mention a few things about leadership prior to delving into different leadership styles. In my research, I learned that the success of a leadership style can depend on the type of industry you are working in. Different styles will tend to be more effective in different working environments (Cunningham, Salomone, Wielgus, 2015). It is also known that different leadership styles induce various levels of how teams work together, team and individual job satisfaction, and self-esteem (Ruggieri, Abbate, 2013). The leadership style of the leader is the main vehicle that a manager can use in order to increase the rate of success of their team (Cunningham, et al., 2015). By choosing an effective leadership style, you will have the opportunity to reduce employee turnover ratios, achieve the goals of the organizational, and improve employee’s productivity and

In general, a leader should be someone who has their stuff together, a stable psyche, and an open mind. My leadership style is Change-Oriented (MBTI) meaning that I like to find alternative ways to do things and introduce creative solutions to problems. I always lead by example, which forces me to learn as much as I