Assignment 2 – Critical Analysis

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Word Count: 1488

Personal Conception of a leader

My personal conception of a leader is an individual who is able to successfully convince a

group of other individuals to follow according to the regime set in place and coordinate

group behaviour towards the desired results of the individual in charge.

In respect to leadership styles, I believe that throughout the course of being a leader in a

position of power that a leader can display multiple leadership styles in accordance to

dynamic effects of contingency factors such as change in internal, external environments,

home life and change in situation which brings awareness to change certain qualities,

essentially this creates a leadership dynamic more than set styles. Leadership effectiveness

in that sense would directly be related to the answer if the leader was able to obtain the

desired result, because to be an effective leader they must produce effective results

whether it be growth goals, surviving a crisis, executing an intricate operation, minimising

loss, whatever the task or goal may be the determining factor to analyse if the leader was

effective or not is the outcome of set challenge or struggle Den (2013), this does not mean

a leader cannot make mistakes and learn from them, that also is a key skill, but being able to
produce the desired result determines leaders success, time management, accuracy, impact,

etc are factors which determines leadership effectiveness, but over all in the end being able

to produce the desired results and overcoming failures and challenges and still winning

would be the way to determine leadership effectiveness, most leaders do this by operating

through duty with a strong and trusting dynamic, this allows leaders to navigate effectively

regardless of the contingency factors Pettinger (2012).

My leadership style at present is strategic mixed with laissez faire, I am long term goal

orientated and I make the most effective use out of my situation and resources to fulfil my

purpose Zumitzavan, V (2015), I am stubborn in what I want and I stand firm with my beliefs

and judgments, but I prefer to let the people that follow me to make decisions for

themselves and use me as a guide, my leadership effectiveness however is not at the stage I

want it to be, and for that I must adapt to a new type of leadership where I have to perfect

the skills in which I’m good at and work on my weaknesses to become an effective leader, so

I aim to be a leader that loves the people that surround me, lead so that everyone around

me makes money and for that to happen, I am required to learn the skill of patience and

placing trust my actions despite of the pressure from community and family, as mentioned

in the first paragraph strength and trust are determining factors for leadership effectiveness

Pettinger (2012), as a leader I am being taught to be strong and skilful in complex adverse

environments from the challenges I face so that in the future I am prepared to minimise

failure and build on strategic skill effectively.

One factor that is often missed out in this subject of leadership management is God and

religion. More than any scientific study conducted the most essential skill a leader could
posses is his/her intimacy with God, the reason as to why it is not mentioned as much in

academic literature may be for readers to gain a scientific view on leadership without the

discrediting different religions, but as a leader faith is a key attribute to lead, as a the role of

a leader is to bring forth something that did not exist before, if it had already existed then

people would not need a leader, but a leader is created to produce outcomes which do not

currently exist and they are expected to guide the followers to attain that outcome in which

they desire, in this matter faith would play the main role in the leaders characteristic Journal

of religious leadership. (2002) this would mean that the faith would need to be backed up,

the only thing that can back up faith is religion and scripture, what I am writing about does

not relate to faith in people or things like we see on a middle management level when

leaders have faith in their leaders but that again in essence would just make a middle

manager an employee of the leader who is appointed to take order to lead others, a true

leader has no human or individual above him/her with a higher decision making power

Benzel, E. (2021), so naturally the only thing a true leader can do is be in unison with a

higher consciousnesses for guidance which many call God Journal of religious leadership

(2002), this is why religion, spirituality and faith play a very important role in leadership

effectiveness as the more intimate the relationship with God the easier it will be for the

leader to obtain the desired outcome which would prove his/her leadership strategy to be

effective, as Kayne West who has been leading R&B and designer fashion culture for

decades said in his song follow God “how can you lose by following God”. The role of a

leader has many contingency factors but faith is one trait which does not need to take any

of those contingency factors into account, as contingency factors would act as a test to

personal religion and faith of the leader.

a situation through multiple lenses before making a decision, I tend to be assertive when

dealing in business environments and some social environments as I understand everyone

speaks for their own benefits, I also empower and motivate others when it’s the right time,

the mix of leadership behaviours I displayed was used under a laissez faire type leadership,

my leadership proved my leadership to be ineffective at the time as I was not reaching the

results I hoped for, the reason why my leadership was ineffective was because I did not

establish any control over anything or anyone, instead I expected everyone to figure

situations out themselves and use me as a guide, but they lacked trust in me because I did

not produce the results that everyone expected of me, due to these two factors the first

being I did not establish control and the second being that I did not reach the desired

objective that I wanted others to reach was the reasons as to why my leadership strategy

was ineffective Ruderman (2000).

The leadership traits I have include, risk taking, decisiveness, adaptability, creativity and

confidence, the traits which hinder my leadership has been adaptability as I tend to adapt to

a situations instead changing it to my advantage, this is because I am long term orientated I

do not tend to focus on the immediate wins, and this where I realised I need to be assertive

in this area as people looking to achieve short term gains will change their surrounding in

accordance to that, so I have the need to be assertive so I do not conform to the short term

win dynamic and stay focused on my objectives that I desire to achieve.

The challenges I see in my leadership journey include getting too caught up in my own head

and taking actions out of impulsive emotion as when I will be in the position of power with
fluent finances these are the two situations which I can foresee that may cause disruption to

my effective leadership strategy which I have right now, the way I have planned to

overcome these challenges is by surrounding myself with positive friends and family which

will keep me grounded and down to earth, this will allow me to create the right decisions

moving forward.

The areas I want to improve as a leader is communication and active listening as most of the

time I place my own situation first when listening to others and this hinders the relationship

because I fail to listen to what the other person is trying to say, I get caught up on how

situations should happen instead of allowing things to happen, I fail to achieve a deeper

level of connection with another person because a part of me does not want to even though

I notice the signals to build a deeper connection, these are the aspects I would like to

change about myself so that I am able to become a better leader as communication is an

essential part for leadership effectiveness de Vries (2010), overall I would say that my

current leadership traits prove to be effective I aim to still lead in a laissez faire style but I

understand that my strategy needs to change and that I would need to improve certain

aspects and traits in order for me to reach my desired outcome.

References

Benzel, E. (2021) ‘Leadership’, World neurosurgery, 152, pp. xvii–xvii. Available at:

[Link]
Den Dekker, W. (2013) Global mindset and leadership effectiveness Wim Den Dekker.

Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

de Vries, R.E., Bakker-Pieper, A. and Oostenveld, W. (2010) ‘Leadership = Communication?

The Relations of Leaders’ Communication Styles with Leadership Styles, Knowledge Sharing

and Leadership Outcomes’, Journal of business and psychology, 25(3), pp. 367–380.

Available at: [Link]

Journal of religious leadership. (2002). Claremont, CA: Academy of Religious Leadership.

Pettinger, R. (2012) Management : a concise introduction / Richard Pettinger. Basingstoke:

Palgrave Macmillan.

Ruderman, M.N. and Ohlott, P.J. (2000) Learning from life turning life’s lessons into

leadership experience / Marian N. Ruderman and Patricia J. Ohlott. 1st edition. Greensboro,

N.C: Center for Creative Leadership.

Zumitzavan, V. and Michie, J. (2015) Personal Knowledge Management, Leadership Styles,

and Organisational Performance A Case Study of the Healthcare Industry in Thailand / by