Ch. 9 Communicating Leadership – Blog 1
On p. 278 and 279, our text describes Situational and Transformational leadership styles. The description of the situational leader stood out to me, because my direct supervisor possesses many of these traits. She is a high advocate for finding good, mature employees and then empowering them to make their own decisions with very little supervision. Like the text suggests, situational leaders may not communicate very effectively in all situations, and they are unable to motivate and inspire others. I find that my direct supervisor does indeed have a difficult time communicating with various groups at my organization. However, in the right setting, she can be quite encouraging and inspirational. I, personally, am more inspired to work hard when I’m not being micromanaged. It appears that situational leaders are the least likely to micromanage their staff.
I have another supervisor who would fall more into the category of a transformational leader. He’s very proactive in inducing change, and he is incredibly strategic and persuasive in his communication in order to encourage organizational change. When my husband and I planned to move from TX to CA, my “situational supervisor” had discussed the option of me having a remote office with the company’s owner. However, her inability to communicate effectively with him hindered her attempts to persuade him. My “transformational supervisor,” on the other hand, was able to convince the owner, with little effort, that a remote office situation would be ideal.
3 comments:
Three years ago I was promoted to a supervisor position in our office. All the new supervisors were sent to a two week supervisor school to learn the liabilities of the job as well as being good leaders. One of the concepts they covered was Situational Leadership. Since I was a new supervisor the information seemed interesting to me, but complex at the same time for a new leader. In other words, I was trying to learn how to be a supervisor and these concepts were being emphasized at our training. I found that I took my first year as a supervisor and stood on the balcony to watch the action below. I needed the ability to see the big picture, rather than strategies like situational leadership theory to survive. Now I can say that I have utilized some theories of situational leadership in dealing with morale issues, but have also implemented “Habits of Mind” leadership as well. I agree that situational leadership theory inhibits some communication and the ability to motivate by the way it was designed. I find that habits of mind contribute to a more flexible, proactive, and creative approach to leadership, which is the type of leader I strive to be.
This chapter on leadership also made me reflect a lot about the different managers and “leaders” who I have worked with or for. It is really interesting to use our textbook as an insightful mind-map of sorts to identify leadership styles. I have seen some managers be very good at certain types of work and then really bad at others. Looking at it now though the lens of and Transformational leadership styles, it certainly makes much more sense now as to why they did certain things certain ways.
I've come to realize in my many years on this earth that a good follower is just as important as a good leader. Granted, a quality of a good leader is to motivate even the unmotivatable (not a word, I know), but unfortunately, in this world, there are just some people who are not going to budge. So, I firmly believe that a good leader is seen as such because they have had good followers. Of course, however, I have been in the situation as well where there is a good follower and just a horrible leader. I happen to be involved in this situation at work right now where I have a very business savy boss who lacks any and all people skills. Motivation is not something he is very good at.
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