Leadership Skills

Leadership Skills

From academics to the corporate world, every individual strives for supremacy and authority. A country having democracy or dictatorship also possesses some kind of leaders. Leadership is the process of influencing others to work toward the achievement of objectives. Some of the traits of leadership that my group members possess are decisiveness, intelligence, initiative, commitment and ability to work with others.

In our textbook, the Leadership Trait Theory assumes that there are distinctive and psychological characteristics that account for the effectiveness of leadership. Edwin Ghiselli's studies concluded that there are six traits important for effective leadership namely, supervisory ability which basically means getting a particular job done through others. In my internship with KPMG, I noticed that all my senior managers possessed this trait. The reason they relied heavily on employees for most of the toil was because of the excessive work load the 'Big 4' faced throughout the year. The second trait mentioned by Ghiselli was the need for occupational achievement. This trait is held closely to seeking responsibility and having some motivation to work hard for success. Once again, in my internship with KPMG, I felt the need for an achievement because I knew that my recommendation letter would guarantee a good amount of interviews at the career fairs of Purdue University. The third trait is intelligence which involves good judgment, reasoning and thinking capacity. The fourth and one of the most used leadership styles is decisiveness. This leadership trait is one of the most commonly used traits as it involves good decision making and the ability to solve problems and make decisions competently. The fifth trait is self- assurance which involves self- monitoring as it engages in behaving in a manner that shows a person has self- confidence. The last trait is initiative which involves initiating a job with minimal supervision from one's boss.

Our text book focuses on the Behavioral Leadership Theories which assumes that there are distinctive styles that effective leaders use consistently, that is; the good leadership is rooted in behavior. The studies conducted at the University of Iowa states three basic leadership styles namely the autocratic style where the leader makes the decisions and closely supervises the employees, the democratic style where the leader allows participation in decisions and does not watch employees closely and lastly the Laissez- faire where the leader takes a leave- the- employees- alone approach. In addition, the Ohio State University came up with the Two- Dimensional Leadership styles which states initiating structure which is job- centered and consideration which is employee- centered.

According to the Leadership Grid, the quadrant I demonstrates a very high concern for production as well as people also known as the team manager. These managers are true team players. In contrast, quadrant III illustrates a very low concern for production as well as work. This would be an exact example of an impoverished leader. Unlike the first two quadrants, the second quadrant points low consideration for people and high consideration for job performance. Lastly, the fourth quadrant shows a very low performance for production and a high concern for employees, for example, a country club manager. Another leader who would fall in the center of all quadrants is the organized- person manager. This leader strives to maintain satisfactory mainstream routine, performance and morale.

Linking the opening case of our textbook with the Ghiselli Study, basic leadership style and situational supervision, I felt that Mike had a supervisory ability to get the work done. The words "I selected you because of my faith in your ability" simply demonstrate an approach used by the supervisor to get the work done by the employee on time. In the case, the supervisor Mike used a democratic style as he allowed Jean to participate in the decision of formatting the report. According to the Situational Supervision model, Mike used a participative (low-directive - high-supportive) leadership style which would let Jean prepare the report her way and thus focus on the end result. Mike and Jean made decisions together, but Mike had a final say in preparing the report.

Based on the Two- Dimensional Leadership Styles concluded by the Ohio State University, I feel that Mike had a very high consideration