Leadership That Gets Results free essay sample

Reflection – Leadership That Gets Results The first comment before the article starts is vastly important. Most effective leaders use a variety of leadership styles in order to achieve maximum performance from organizations, teams, and individuals. The ability to act as a chameleon as a leader has huge benefits and allows you to tackle many different types of leadership situations. In order to achieve the best results a leader must be able to use many different leadership styles to accomplish their organizations goals.The six basic styles of leadership presented (Coercive, Authoritative, Affiliative, Democratic, and Coaching) can have either a net positive or net negative affect on an organizations climate. The basis for being able to use and understand the different leadership styles arise from one’s Emotional Intelligence. Understanding your own emotional intelligence (EI) is the key and foundation to understanding and becoming a better leader. The more you understand about your EI’s strengths and weaknesses the better you will be able to adapt and apply one of the author’s six leadership styles. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership That Gets Results or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It is important to note that there are appropriate and inappropriate times to use each leadership style. The two leadership styles that have negative effects on an organization are Coercive and Pace setting. I for one was surprised by the pacesetting outcome as I’m probably guilty of using that technique more than I should in previous organizations. I always want to do things better and faster and that probably has had a negative effect on people I’ve worked with. Of course one of the goals of this article is to get you to understand the different techniques and be able to apply them in your own life. I think reading this has helped me gain a better understanding of how I’ve led in the past and how I can work to become better at using and adjusting to other techniques. The four positive leadership styles are Authoritative, Affiliative, Democratic, and Coaching). According to the research completed Authoritative had the highest impact on org. climate. Also, when combining Authoritative and Affiliative those had the most impact on an organizations climate. I would tend to agree and think that it is very important to get a vision set in an organization and have the ability to foster harmony and uild meaningful relationships with the ones you work with. One of my Battalion Commanders always stated that people are our most valuable asset. If you can give people vision and treat them with dignity, respect and foster mutual reliance and friendship you can accomplish a great deal. I often try to use a good bit of democratic leadership when trying to gather information on a difficult decision and to try and get buy-in from people in my organization. It helps me to understand where they are coming from and how I can best meet their needs and customer needs.It entails a lot of listening, but I think it usually pays off when you have heard people out on where they stand. Even though you cannot make everyone happy, you at least took the time to listen and hopefully are able to make the best decision with the information you have. Going back to EI, it is very beneficial how the authors give you the underlying EI competencies needed for each leadership style. I for one can look at those and work on those areas that I’m deficient in. An even better way to understand your deficiencies is to use 360 degree feedback as mentioned in the article.All military leaders are now required to use 360 feedback as a tool to help you understand what other leaders, peers, and subordinates rank your skills at. I’ve had this done and I know that have some additional weaknesses that I might have not been entirely aware of prior to the 360 assessment. You have to have thick skin and be able to understand that the people you asked to rate you want you to succeed and you should try to focus on working to address your weaknesses instead of taking their feedback as an attack on you personally.I found it interesting that if you have mastered the four positive leadership styles that businesses will have the best climate and business performance, when compared to only using a few or one of those techniques. The research is very powerful and useful to leaders everywhere. I think as I move forward in to higher positions of leadership I will seek out more mentorship and coaching to ensure that I’m working on the right weaknesses and at the same time trying to ensure that I remain consistent when applying different leadership styles for various situations.