Blog 3- Most effective Leadership & Management Styles & Approaches

Leadership and management styles are adapted vastly around the globe; however, the outcome of both are different. Lunenburg (2011) indicated that not all managers practice leadership and not all leaders possess management skills thereby making its activities unique. Mullins (2010) stated that management activities contains five elements which managers abide with to achieve their day to day operations such as planning, organizing, command, coordination and control. However, Yukl (2013) describes leadership based on the attributes practiced by the leader such as traits, values, skills, behavior, influence and also confidence. Managers provide directions to their subordinates and is a decision maker for any task given whereas a leader accepts anyone and guides them regardless of the consequences that may arise (Popovici 2012). Furthermore, Boharis and Vorria (n.d.) compared a process difference in a workplace between leaders and managers based on the Kotterman’s process shown in Figure 1 which are vision establishment, human development and networking, vision execution and vision outcome. Each process explains how managers and leaders characterize themselves in a workplace in order to achieve specific goals.

Figure 1-Management vs Leadership based on Kotterman 2006.

 

Situational Leadership Model

Situational approach is an approach designed by Hersey and Blanchard in 1969 in order to analyze different situations of leadership to attain the best outcome (Schweikle 2014). The author mentioned that this approach analyzes different situations which are defined based on the employee’s skills, competence and relation in order for a right leadership style in any specific situation. According to Blanchard (1985), the four basic leadership styles are S1 which is directing that includes high directive and low support, S2 is high directive and high support leadership referred to as coaching, S3 as high supportive and low directive leadership defined as supporting and S4 which is low support and low directive leader labelled as delegating.

Figure 2-Situational Leadership model.

 

Advantages and Disadvantages

Situational leadership model is effective in a workplace as it can be used to train leaders in an organization to become effective in leadership (Shonhiwa 2016). Moreover, the author mentioned that this model is practical and easily adapted in various settings resulting in a more direct approach. Despite its advantages, this model has its limitations. A leader may face significant amount of pressure in analyzing situations before making the calls (Kokemuller 2018). Shonhiwa (2016) noted that this model does not clearly explain how commitment combines with competence to form the four model based on S1, S2, S3 and S4.

CMI 2013

Referring to the statement on CMI 2013 by Chartered Management institute I would agree to it as adopting appropriate style would assist managers to build trust, respect, establish good rapport and building good working relationships in an organization (CMI 2015).

Tim Cook (CEO of Apple) A situational leader

Figure 3-Apples Current CEO Tim Cook.

 

Apples CEO -Tim Cook is a great example of a situational leader. Notably, Cook maintains a low profile and prefers to share the limelight it with innovators (Dicob 2016). Furthermore, Dicob (2016) mentioned that many had doubted Tim Cook from his predecessor Steve Jobs but he has proven himself to the company and the consumers. Besides, Tim Cook used his situational leadership skills to address the US government to obtain security information of customers by not fulfilling the request as it may risk the consumers (Dicob 2016). Tim Cook fully emphasized on advancing Apples talent rather than practicing the legacy of Steve Job’s which was an autocratic leadership style (Investopedia 2018). Moreover, Tim Cook enforces Situational style on his teams where he looks at situations from all perspective and addresses the issue accordingly (Kraemer 2013).

 

Bad Leadership Style – EX-CEO of Uber Travis Kalanick

Figure 4-Uber Ex-CEO Travis Kalanick.

Travis Kalanick, Ex-CEO of Uber is classified as an example of bad leadership. Issues such as sexual harassment, temper tantrums and a distinguished aggressive culture made Uber viral causing negative perceptions towards the leader (Leland 2017). Kalanick is held responsible for the toxic culture of the company as he had instilled it from the beginning (Dawson 2017). The author added that this toxic culture that was existent in Uber was a result of his personal aggression as there was a viral footage of him arguing with an Uber driver. Although his strength was to accomplish goals, the greatest weakness was his behavior in handling the organization (Kleinman 2017).

 

Conclusion

Based on theories and examples above, I would prefer to be led by a situational style leadership due to its flexibility and practicality. A leader could analyze the competency of my job and use an appropriate situational style to lead in order for me to succeed. In a nutshell, there are varieties of leadership styles but choosing the right approach in an organization is vital as it will give a positive influence on employees.

(784 Words).

 

Reference

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Blanchard, K.H. (1985) ‘A situational approach to managing people’. [online] 9^th October. Available from                                                                                                                                                <https://www.talent.wisc.edu/download/supervisor/pdf/BLANCHARD-A%20Situational%20Approach.pdf&gt; [27 February2019].

CMI (2015) Understanding management and leadership styles checklist 256 [online] available from                                                                                <https://www.managers.org.uk/~/media/Files/Checklists/CHK-256-Understanding_Management_and_Leadership_Styles.pdf > [26 February 2019].

Dawson, J. (2017) ‘Travis Kalanick has no one but himself to blame for uber’s toxic company culture’. recode [online] 2^nd march. Available from                                                          < https://www.recode.net/2017/3/2/14794092/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-company-culture-toxic-values&gt; [26 February2019].

Dicob, J.K. (2016) ‘Tim cook – A situational leader’ [online] available from                                                                                <https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2016/03/22/tim-cook-a-situational-leader/>                          [28 February 2019].

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Kokemuller, N. (2018) ‘Negative of a situational leadership style’. azcentral [online] 5^th April. Available from                                                                                                                                           <https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/negatives-situational-leadership-style-12378.html&gt; [27 February2019].

kraemer, H.M.J (2013) ‘Tim Cook is not a nice guy-and that’s a compliment. [online] 6^th April. Available from                                                                                                                                                <https://qz.com/71571/tim-cook-is-not-a-nice-guy-and-thats-a-compliment/>                    [15 March 2019].

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