Analysis of Leadership in Organizations

Analysis of Leadership in Organizations

Understanding the leadership characteristics of good leaders in real organizations can help in the improvement of the performance of one’s leadership. This project aims to evaluate the leadership of two individual contributors with a specific focus on personal and purpose mastery. The study of the individual level of leadership is an area commonly overlooked in the study of leadership. Most studies on leaders focus on people with an actual leadership position, but the role played by individual contributors is also vital for the success of an organization. I decided to interview two respectable personal contributors, Mark Brown and Lydia Raymond, who are an IT manager and a Facilities planning and development manager, respectively. Hire our assignment writing services in case your assignment is devastating you. We offer assignment help with high professionalism.

The Interviews

The two people interviewed were a manager within our organization’s Facilities Planning and Development area and an IT manager. Mark, the IT manager’s position entails managing the information and communication systems of the organization. He ensures that the systems are working well for the organization to be able to function effectively. On the other hand, Lydia, the Facilities’ Planning and Development Manager role requires her to oversee all functions related to Logistics Programming. Some examples are organizational moves of people and/or equipment down to furniture and telephones.

The first interview I did was with Mark Brown. We talked about his job, how he performed the role effectively, and his career goals. Mark was very friendly and open throughout the interview. He stated that he believes his contribution is important to the organization. However, he does not look at his role as leadership. He stated, “I believe I make an important contribution to this organization, but I am not a leader. I report to my superiors and do not have people to report to me, but I do not believe that this makes me a leader.” He said that he does not believe he needs to hold a leadership position to be important to the organization’s success. Another thing noted in the interview with Mark is that he had great interpersonal skills. He is a very good communicator and good at getting his points across. When asked about his interaction with workmates, he said that communication and collaboration are essential to his job role. He goes around the organization and interacts with people to identify any problems they may be experiencing with the company’s systems and helps fix issues. He stated, “I have to listen to the concerns of all other employees, leaders, and department heads and constantly ask them if the systems are working efficiently so that I can know what to improve and how to make those improvements.” This interview also demonstrated that this job role requires a lot of intelligence. Mark is a good critical thinker and decision-maker. He has developed these skills through education and practice in the workplace and social environments. Lastly, he is hardworking and dedicated. He believes his efforts will help him succeed in his future endeavors. He plans on advancing to be a senior IT Director in the future.

The second interview was with Lydia, the facilities manager. Lydia demonstrated some great leadership characteristics in an open conversation where she could freely share her information. Lydia was very open about her journey to becoming the facilities manager. She started at a lower role as just a clerk and worked hard to get to the position she is in now. One of the strategies she used to get there was through networking. She stated that her interpersonal skills have been very helpful in advancing her role. She was always looking to join different teams where she could get a chance to learn new things that could advance her career. She also stated that she has been able to advance her roles through good planning. She always has a planner to determine her steps to achieve a certain goal. She stated that she believes in using the SMART goals concept to set standards that she can achieve. Lydia’s personal values have also contributed to her success. She believes in determination and resilience. She has faced many obstacles in her path to achieving her goals, but her resilience has enabled her to remain on the right track. She would like to become a manager of an entire organization one day.

Leadership Theories

One of the essential components of successful leadership at all levels is personal mastery. Personal mastery is a journey of self-awareness. People must understand their personal traits and how they contribute to their effectiveness of leadership. Personal mastery is not a simple process of recognizing one’s strengths and ignoring one’s weaknesses. It involves the ability to recognize the strengths and the weaknesses so that one can reinforce the strengths while working on improving the weaknesses to improve their leadership effectiveness (Cashman, 2017). Courageous and self-aware leaders can develop a strong foundation for handling leadership challenges and developing better strategies for leading others.

Personal mastery was one of the main areas of focus when studying the individual contributors’ leadership traits. In the interview, it can be seen that the leaders are self-aware. They understand their personal characteristics and how they contribute to the effectiveness of their role (Cashman, 2017). For instance, both leaders have expressed an understanding of the importance of developing a collaborative environment to work effectively with others. Therefore, both leaders understood their personal characteristics that contribute to better collaboration. For instance, good communication and interpersonal skills were seen to be important. However, one factor that can be improved in their personal mastery is a recognition of their weaknesses. Both leaders focused on how they positively contributed to the organization. As leaders, they need to recognize their weaknesses to work on them to improve their positive contribution to the organization.

Another area of focus in this project was purpose mastery. Having a purpose is essential for enhancing performance. Purpose mastery elevates leaders to focus on short-term gains and long-term success. It energizes workforces to have a goal and objective that is deeper than just the financial gain they can get from their work. The embodiment of a purpose helps to develop the values and traits that enhance talent development, thus enhancing performance.

Purpose mastery was also an area of focus in this project. One of the aims was to identify how purpose mastery affects the individual leadership level. In the interviews, it can be seen that both leaders understand their purpose in the organization. When asked about the contribution of their current role to their future goals, they both expressed a purpose for development from their current position. The IT manager would love to advance their role by moving into a senior leadership position. While the Facilities manager was also looking for the same opportunity, she has to coordinate her work with other departments to get budget, scope, and scheduling information processed in time so that she could perform tasks associated with her role. Both stated that they would also be happy to look for advancement opportunities outside of the organization should offers not be available in the future where they are today. The purpose mastery theory argues that having a purpose shapes a person’s traits in their current position. This is evident in the way the leaders interviewed perform their roles. They understand that good performance currently will contribute to achieving their future purpose. For example, they engage in good communication and collaboration and work hard at their jobs to be better in the future.

The roles of these two leaders are also exemplary of the effectiveness of participative leadership theory. Participative leadership is a model of leadership where leaders collaborate with superiors, peers, and subordinates to enhance the effectiveness of their role (Lam, Huang, & Chan, 2015). Both of the leaders interviewed express elements of participative leadership. They are good communicators and understand the importance of working together with the people they serve to enhance the effectiveness of their jobs. They demonstrate that participation in teamwork enhances the effectiveness of individual contributors’ roles.

New Business Realities and Thinking Habits

Certain components of leadership are essential for the successful management of businesses today. The new realities of business in the 21st century and the thinking habits of mind, heart, and imagination are some of the components that can enhance leadership in the contemporary business environment. The two leaders interviewed for this project have demonstrated some of the characteristics of the new business realities and their thinking habits.

One of the characteristics embodied by the leaders is collaborative teamwork. Collaborative teamwork is collaborating with teams to achieve a common goal. Collaborative teamwork is enhanced by communication and taking responsibility and initiative to cooperate meaningfully with others (Jaisle, 2000). These characteristics can be seen in both leaders interviewed. They both acknowledged that communication is essential to the role they play. The IT manager has to collaborate with people all over the organization to understand their needs and how he can offer assistance. Similarly, the Facilities manager works with people from all departments to effectively communicate Logistical Planning opportunities and outcomes. This cooperative model of working contributes to their success as leaders and improves their usefulness in the organization.

Another characteristic demonstrated by these leaders is communicating effectively. Effective communication is essential for successful leadership. This involves using words and metaphorical language to influence people’s understanding and perception of factors that affect work (Jaisle, 2000). Both of the leaders interviewed demonstrated an understanding of effective communication. They both communicate effectively with their peers in the workplace environment to enhance the effectiveness of their job roles. Therefore, these leaders show that communication is essential, even on the individual level of leadership. It is not only managers or leaders in a position of power who are required to be open in their communication to enhance productivity.

The leaders also embody the component of continuous learning. Continuous learning is seeing every experience as an opportunity for knowledge development (Jaisle, 2000). Leaders who engage in continuous learning are intentional with their actions. They tend to learn from their failures and take their successes with humility as a stepping stone towards achieving their greater role. Both leaders in this interview expressed an intention to advance their roles in the future. They viewed their current responsibilities as a step towards becoming the people they want to be in the future. This shows that they are using their current roles as an opportunity to gain knowledge and experience to be qualified for bigger roles in the future.

Interviewer Reflection

The whole process of conducting this project has been a great learning experience. The project has completely changed my perception of the individual level of leadership. Before this project, I had minimal understanding of the role of individual contributors as leaders. I associated leadership with positions such as a manager, supervisor, project leader, or team leader, among other roles. In general, leadership was a role that involved a person directing others. However, my perception has been changed after performing this project.

The hardest part of the interview process was getting the interviewees free time to meet on their schedules. After the initial meeting, it was clear that there were more detailed questions that we both wanted to address. Luckily, both targeted leaders were more than happy to contribute to the project. The interview process itself was simple. Both of the leaders were friendly and willing to answer all the presented questions. They also added additional insights, which added to the data collected for the project.

In summary, this was a good experience. I learned a lot from these two leaders that I can apply to my approach and, as such, use towards achieving my goals. Others can also learn from these leaders to enhance their job effectiveness. Generally, I have learned that leadership at the individual level is just as important as other levels of leadership. Leadership starts from the self. People need to understand how to handle themselves before they can handle others. The following are the leadership development recommendations from the results yielded by the individual contributors.

Leadership Development Recommendation

There are many things that individual contributors can learn from the interviewees to enhance their personal and purpose mastery. First, leaders must ensure that they perform constant self-assessment. The first thing a person needs to do to achieve personal mastery is to evaluate themselves and determine their strengths and weaknesses. There are various ways that leaders can self-assess. For example, numerous self-assessment tests can be done to determine a person’s dominant traits. They can also learn from experiences and learn to take feedback positively. The importance of self-assessment is that it helps a person to understand their strengths so that they can capitalize on them to become better leaders and determine what weaknesses hold them back, so that they can improve and become better.

Another recommended strategy for leadership development is developing goals. Purpose mastery is developed when a person has a sense of direction. Setting short- and long-term goals is important for a leader to master their purpose. Like the leaders in this interview, they need to understand the ultimate goal they are working towards. It is important to know what they hope to achieve at the end of the effort they make currently (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Understanding one’s purpose shapes the traits and behaviors one expresses currently. A person with a goal to work on is likely to work harder because they understand how it contributes to their ultimate goal.

It is also recommended that leaders enhance their teamwork and collaboration skills. Collaborative working has been seen to enhance the effectiveness of leadership at the individual level. People can work better when they share responsibility with their peers in the workplace. People in the organization complement each other’s roles. By working together, they help one another to achieve their purpose. Communication is essential in a collaborative working environment (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Through open and effective communication, people can share information about the job, reduce misunderstanding and conflict, and be stronger at achieving their ultimate goals in the organization.

Conclusion

Successful organizations must be under-inclusive leadership. The leader must define a vision and mission for the organization and ensure the employees can understand them. As such, the leader will support the subordinates to encourage them towards exemplary performance. As such, a good leader models the way, inspires the vision, challenges the process, enables others to act, and promotes the Heart. The leader must be ready to overcome the challenges and utilize the opportunities that present themselves.

References

Cashman, K. (2017). Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Jaisle, A. (2000). Thinking Habits of Mind, Heart and Imagination for the 21st Century. Capella University

Lam, C. K., Huang, X., & Chan, S. C. (2015). The threshold effect of participative leadership and the role of leader information sharing. Academy of Management Journal, 58(3), 836-855.

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Analysis of Leadership in Organizations

Personal Project Final

[u04a1] Unit 4 Assignment 1 – Interviews with Leaders

Execute your plan. Interview two leaders and write up your notes, including examining interviewees’ personal characteristics. What worked? What did not work? What would you do differently next time? What did you learn about interviewing? What did you learn about your topic and its potential for helping leaders examine their leadership skills and characteristics? How might the alignment to effective leaderships be used in its own career progression?

Analysis of Leadership in Organizations

Resources

• Interviews with Leaders Scoring Guide.

Due Date: End of Unit 4.

Percentage of Course Grade: 5%.

The final paper should be 7 to 9 pages, double-spaced and set in Times New Roman or Arial, 12 point. The paper margins should be 1″ on each side. A title page, table of contents, and reference page are also expected and do not count toward the paper length. APA format is required.