Question

The behavioral theories of leadership claim that an individual’s leadership style is fixed. Do you agree or disagree? Give examples to support your position. The behavioral theories also claim that the ideal style is the same in every situation. Do you agree or disagree? Again, give examples.

Answer 1

I do not believe that an individual's leadership style is fixed.

I also do not believe that the ideal style is the same in every situation

Explanation:

I do not believe that an individual's leadership style is fixed. I believe that the leadership style needed in every situation is different. A good leader is a person who can adopt to situations and not be able to use one leadership style for all situations. A good leader adapts based on the situation at hand. They do not use the same leadership style over and over. Nelson Mandela was a transformational leader, he led South Africa to independence and fought for change throughout to the point that South Africa was able to become independent. After that he became a democratic leader where he allowed other leaders to stand up and lead and through a democratic process he retired when people needed him to. He adjusted his leadership style based on the situation at hand. Another example is Barack Obama. When he was President, he governed in a bureaucratic way. He made sure that he followed the law and in areas where he was expected to be a transformational leader he became a transformational leader. Nowadays he has become a charismatic leader who captures the attention of people through style and through his personality and values as a person. He adopted according to the situation presented. Also, when a manager is startinga company they need to be task oriented and people oriented to be able to ensure that the people give their best in the organization, once the company has grown and it is doing well then he can be charismatic to continue to motivate people and to give the people a reason to stay. You see good leaders develop their leadership styles to fit different situations.

I also do not believe that the ideal style is the same for every situation. Different situations requires different styles of leadership because different styles of leadership brings out different results in people. For example, when Obama was President he had to be bureaucratic. he had to follow the laws that had been set out for the President to follow to be able to lead the US, however, on retirement he had taken a more charismatic approach, using his personality to connect and inspire the next generation. He is attending basketball games and mingling with people and just being happy. In an organization for example Bill Gates is charismatic when it comes to giving. he runs his foundation which exposes his charismatic side to help people who are poor and who have no access to quality education. However when he was running Microsoft transformational and task oriented because that way he could be able to motivate people to give their best at work so that the company could be able to achieve all the success that it needed to achieve. You see different situations bring out different qualities in leaders

"The leadership style of an individual is usually not fixed. We all have the ability to modify our leadership style to fit the situation. Good leaders can adjust quickly to suit almost any set of circumstances. Once you find your default leadership style, see how you, too, can adapt to deal with any situation that comes your way