Question

Instructions

Write a “leadership autobiography” in which you reflect on your past and present leadership experiences.

Add the following utilizing the Six Bases of Power (French & Raven, 1962).  

Incorporate the following questions into your narrative:

What people have had a significant impact on you?

What leadership traits do they possess?

What skills have they developed and how?

What are their growth areas?

You should submit

A word document containing your "leadership autobiography".

You must format your paper according to APA style.  Not sure how? Review the information on APA style format in this course.

Answer 1

At the outset, I would like to convey my opinion on the role of leadership within any organization, the responsibility of any excellent leader. A good leader requires vision, power to enthuse and mostly ability to lead from the front. Every organization requires adequate push of responsibility downwards as no large organization can survive without delegation, this has to be however tempered by retaining power at the top during crisis management. It is these crisis situations that are the true test of a leader, when he/she is expected to jump into the arena to face and manage the crisis effectively, at the same time setting a befitting example for all the employees, as well as a standard. It also restores employee faith in the leadership and the organization and induces unity rather than fear of the outcome amongst all cadres. Mark Zuckerberg has exhibited superlative leadership skills as well as exemplary crisis management. His extensive appearance across all media restored not only employee but public faith in the organization, that the top man was himself handling the issue and interpreted it as concern for public welfare and compassion. He is a classic example of a leader leading from the front, becoming the face of the company and taking responsibility for mistakes but including the entire organization for finding the solution. His use of I for the mistake and We for the solution are clear indicators of differentiation. He could have said “we made a mistake” and “I will find a solution”. Superlative leadership.

We are in a very competitive economic environment today largely due to the massive impact of communication technology putting the world at our fingertips. In this scenario most of the successful brands and large organizations worldwide are creating fresh milestones in leadership excellence and over the top management, a no bars no boundaries mindset and out of the box thinking has taken business management to an altogether different sphere. Hence, most managements are very much aware of the need to carry the team along with the organization to achieve its core goals of maximization of profits and global growth. They do not want to handle crises within the organization when they have so many to handle externally. Therefore, a leader should have the ability to promote harmony and avert or manage crises effectively internally and externally. I had an opportunity to accomplish this within my project management team in the below example.

Strategic means related to strategy in other words it is the identification of overall aims and the means to be adopted for achieving them. The six concepts for power strategy are described as Coercive, Reward, Legitimate, Referent, Expert, and Informational, can be considered part of leadership strategy. It consists of utilising the most suitable of these concepts for devising a plan for achievement of specific goals and following through with perfect implementation of the plan together with adequate control measures to ensure the goal is achieved. Actually, what finally matters is always the goal. Strategic leadership and management both emulate these basic features of strategizing within their jobs. So, a strategic leader whether at top, middle or department level needs to absolutely understand and be attuned to the objectives to be achieved, the plan for the same and how they will manage the people and processes to derive optimal results and what control measures they will implement to ensure success. A leader has to motivate his entire team through performance and maintain a human element through inclusion and encouragement for each individual to explore their talents and excel. I have absolute belief that is strategy the most important management tool at the disposal of leaders for successful achievement of goals, and also to exceed expectations. Lack of a well formulated strategy to lead and motivate others towards achievement of goals as a unified team, is sure to lead to failure or average results at best. It is like going on a treasure hunt without a map. I utilized this strategy to the maximum with absolute focus on the goal.

Transactional leadership style which consists of extensive focus on the operations, as the name suggests. These leaders are extensively involved in the supervision, monitoring and control of the performances of individuals, groups and the organization as a whole. The entire planning implementation and management of the organization is based on this style. The goals are identified, the plans are laid out for the strategy to achieve them, the jobs allocated, and all the employees and departments at every level are monitored and controlled, through either reward or punishment towards achievement of the goals. These leaders follow the path goal theory absolutely true fixing a goal planning a path towards the goal and through rigid control measures, control and fix deviations from the path swiftly and efficiently. This kind of leadership style is not suitable for adhocratic or other dynamic structures, as it is not comfortable with making changes and prefers analyzing existing efficiency and implementing measures to enhance output. This type of leadership is more effective in organizations that are not in initial stages of development and requiring constant change and achievement of results within chaos. It is suitable for organizations which have achieved most of them goals and apparently in the stage of sustenance true continuing standardized practices which have been in operation for long periods and generated optimal results. Transactional leaders utilize the carrot and stick approach to optimize performances as well as to extract loyalty. This is the type of leader I was on my first leadership role of project manager. However, on later analysis I realized that it was too autocratic an approach and switched to a mix of transformational along with transactional, halfway through the project.

Transformational leadership is a contrast to transactional leadership, in the sense that, it is highly proactive and focuses on achievement of goals through motivation of the employees and Organization as a whole. This is a dynamic form of leadership and proposed to implement constant changes within the organization, through introduction of new ideas, as well as, dynamic analysis of the goals and the plans set to achieve them, with implementation of changes within them whenever and wherever required. This dynamic approach believes in motivating every individual and group to achieve personal goals through excellence in performance. This is the form of leadership embodies change and encourages individual growth is everything in developing future leaders. The goal of the organization is projected as the goal of every individual as inclusive management is a hallmark of this leadership style. As a result entire organization operates as one and becomes motivated to achieve organizational goals as part of personal goals because an individual grows along with the organization and relationship between the organization and the workers is cooperative and the growth of one simultaneously benefits the other. Such leaders always lead both from the front and from within, meaning they represent all the required leadership qualities, they exemplify leadership by themselves being super achievers and motivate the rest to follow by example. Thus, it promotes an environment of growth and learning within the organization which mimics growth for the organization externally. This leadership is extremely popular presently and works well in organizational structures such as adhocratic and market.

Interpersonal skills are one of the most important life skills that are required for achieving success in both professional and personal life, but a mandatory skill set for effective leadership. A lot of our success depends upon inherent ability to communicate effectively rather than extensively, as this is very essential to solving problems as well as finding solutions to overcome the numerous obstacles that we encounter in our personal and professional lives. Interpersonal skills do not only consist of verbal communication but communication and understanding of every type physical, emotional and mental.

Having excellent verbal communication skills that is being able to clearly express verbally our thoughts to ensure that the communication is effective. For this communication to be effective it is important that we have adequate listening skills which becomes input for our verbal output. If we are unable to process the input correctly the output will definitely be imperfect. This also includes all non-verbal communication which is through body language, tone of voice, our facial expressions and our attention.

Empathy is an essential interpersonal skill which enables us to not only interpret and understand communication from others but also analyze the situation perfectly by putting ourselves in another’s place. It is very different from sympathy and denotes superior emotional intelligence the ability to understand and manage not only our own but the others emotions also. This also helps in the resolution of conflicts which may be personal or within the group in a positive manner true empathizing with both sides and assisting them through presenting the issue from the others viewpoint. Another skill set which is very important is the ability to operate within the group as a team true development of adequate analytical skills which may require working together with other group members and being able to view a problem through various angles and promote consensus on the solution. To achieve this we require adequate skills to influence the decision of others through assertiveness, as well as, persuasion. The same skills also serve as a great tool for negotiation when applied as a whole. Therefore, it is clear that, interpersonal skills are a major requirement for achievement of success within an organization, as well as, in every relationship personal or professional. It is an essential part of our personality and it is personally important to have excellent interpersonal skills to ensure we are able to fulfill leadership role and responsibility optimally.

I had the opportunity of leading a team for a data conversion project which had to maintain extreme quality along with very strict deadlines. The project was an exceptionally tough one requiring very strict controls and discipline within the team. Considering that I was managing the team, it was not an easy task but I learnt a lot about interpersonal skills, handling diverse individuals, controlling situations and overcoming numerous obstacles. In short, it may not have been the most pleasant job and experience in my professional life, but it was definitely one which taught me a lot. I was exhilarated at being selected for managing such an important project as it was the perfect opportunity to exhibit my leadership skills along with managerial talent. It extracted the best from me and I somehow rose above all expectations by achieving excellent results on an impossible project. This taught me that expectations are mostly very different from reality, given the fact, that it seemed like a very simple and challenging task but proved to be an obstacle race.

We hit a lot of snags as a group, for example, the requirement for the job was to type out entire images into Microsoft Word with 0 errors and then this had to be passed on to another group for editing, from where third group for formatting as per requirement, and finally it had to be segregated into the required folders and zip for uploading by the final group. Considering the fact that input of each group, was dependent on the output of the previous group simply ensuring coordination and cooperation between all groups was nothing less than a tightrope walk. As a solution to this specific individual targets were provided to each group to ensure that at least a minimum input was available for the next group to ensure that the flow did not stop. Another major hurdle was the difference in quality of the output achieved by members within each group. For example if the quality of work of a certain member in the data entry group was below average none of the members in the editing group wanted to edit that particular members work, as it was more difficult. Finally, as a solution to this I am sure that when the work was passed on to editing group no names were mentioned of who was the data entry operator. It became a lottery system so no one could complain that they were being provided work which was tougher. Then again they were multiple issues in the form of attrition and leaves from work which were the major concern considering the deadlines were very tough to meet and fixed as not submitting the work and time would result in the rejection of the entire project. I handle this by answering back the members working in most groups and all the required skills for all groups and could be inter changed within groups creating flexible and agile groups. In this way whichever group output was of maximum importance for the day received maximum input stuff and the rest was adjusted accordingly as per requirement.

I would definitely do certain things differently after having gathered much more experience now, considering that the project required intensive control and was a high stress project with impossible quality to achieve and stringent deadlines. Due to this attitude towards the group members was very authoritarian to ensure that authority and control remained with me and hence I could control the project outcome better. Later on realizing that a softer more empathetic approach and more inclusive management would have reduced stress on the team and improved attrition rate, I made a change in attitude. I very often conducted one to one discussions regarding the group that many of the members to avail information on various issues existing within the team and also to get to know each of them better. Information and feedback was very useful in the sense that some of the stellar performers, recognized and praised by all and there were members who were extremely helpful to the entire team whatever their group, always ready to lend a hand. Then there were few very introverted members and in order to be able to give their best had to be brought out of their shell. In this manner with the help of the members itself each team members talents skills and behaviors were identified and utilized, so as to ensure optimum output, as also to decide which task they would be best suited to. For example a member consistently unable to meet deadlines would be shifted to the final group, which was not as deadlines sensitive not having another group depending on its output as input, so as not to disturb the flow of input from one group to another. A member of the final group would be assigned to provide training to this member on how to perform the required task.

This was by far my most memorable leadership experience as it was a huge learning experience, the absolute toughness of the job honed my leadership skills making me adaptive. as well as, dynamic.