Self-Reflective Essay on Leadership Styles and Theories

Introduction

Leadership of the organisation plays a crucial role in managing the operational activities in the workplace, where the leaders are important to take active decision and initiative to run the organisation in a systematic way and fulfil the strategic objective (Holten and Brenner, 2015). Through this self reflective essay, it is possible for me to evaluate my own leadership style as well as review the theories of leadership in order to improve my knowledge and capabilities to contribute positively in achieving the organisational gaols and team objective. The leadership theories and styles are effective for all the companies and it has important impact on the industry of safety, health and environmental performance and this essay provides a scope to me to evaluate my own understanding and capabilities to become a good leader for contributing in achieving success in the field of safety, health and environmental performance.

Impacts of leadership theories

The theories of leadership provide a scope to the individual to understand the activities to become a good leader and in this regard, the trait theory and situational leadership theories are effective to become a good leader in the organisational context. As per the trait theory, there are some traits which are physiological, socioeconomic characteristics, personality, and intellectual, task related and social characteristic (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider, 2015). As per the physiological trait, the leaders need to be good in managing structure and appearance for managing the team members, as per the personality trait, it is necessary to have extraversion, self confidence, patience, agreeable, reliable, honesty and leadership motivation, which are necessary to become a god leader (Gipson et al., 2017). In this regard, I try to become a good leader where I focus on improving my personality trait by improving myself confident and extraversion where I try to be confident in making decision and share the ideas for more innovation and creativity. In addition to this, I also try to consider the social economic factors such as literacy, earnings, gender and religion and create values for all the colleagues at the workplace of safety, health and environmental management, so that the issue of cultural diversity can be mitigated well.

In the safety, health and environmental management department, it is necessary to treat all the members fairly and equally so that they feel valued at the workplace and become interested to contribute positively to develop an effective team. In this regard, I try to respect all the team members and colleagues and develop an appropriate group with cooperation and communication. As per the intellectual trait, decisiveness, intelligence, judgmental ability, knowledge and emotional attribute are necessary. I try to improve my decision making skill and make judgemental comments for sharing more knowledge and experience, so that the decision can be made with proper empowerment of all the members in the workplace. Additionally, the task oriented trait factors such as intelligence, taking initiatives, determination towards achieving future success, attainment drive and dedication further help me to conduct the working activities in the safety, health and environmental management efficiently and develop effective team work for better performance, where I focus on dedication and determination to achieve success in near future. On the other hand, the situational leadership theory is also another effective theory of leadership, where the leader needs to be supportive, and direct ad coach the team members for better performance. In this regard, I try to support the team members with adequate knowledge and experience and respect each other’s views for enhancing their performance.

Additionally, I encourage having proper training sessions for successful coaching, where every members have the chance for personal and professional’s development and this in turn helps me to develop an effective team and improve cooperation among the team members. Hereby, the leadership theories are effective for me to improve my personality trait and encourage the team members to follow a suitable path in order to achieve success in safety, health and environmental management (Khan et al., 2015). Additionally, I also try to improve self confidence and motivate others for more creativity and innovation, where every team members are interested to share their experience and contribute positively in safety, health and environmental management. Moreover, I try to improve creativity and innovation by taking active initiative and utilising my decision making and critical analysis skill for enhancing the performance. Emotional intelligence further helps me to build strong relationship with other colleagues, where I improve trust and loyalty among each member and lead them towards achieving future success. Furthermore, honesty and integrity are effective for me to handle the teamwork and contribute in achieving success in the safety, health and environmental management.

Effects of leadership style on performance

There are different leadership styles through which the leaders are trying to contribute positively in the organisation for leading the organisation towards achieving success. The leadership styles are such as demographic, autocratic, laissez-faire, transformational, transactional, coach style and bureaucratic. As per the demographic leadership style, the leaders try to share power and make decision cooperatively (Fiaz, Su and Saqib, 2017). In this regard, collaboration and communication as well as free flow of information are the characteristics of the demographic leadership style. As per my opinion, I also try to be interactive with others and share my power with others for developing an effective team. It is suitable for me to collaborate with others as it provides me a scope to share my ideas and gather more views and knowledge from others. Sharing experience and free flow of information are beneficial for me to improve my own capabilities and knowledge in working in the health and environmental safety departments. Through this leadership style, the leader and the followers in the workplace can collaborate with each other and build trust and loyalty which in turn provides a scope to respect each other and improve partnership working (Mohiuddin, 2017).

I also try to follow the demographic leadership style, where I focus on building trust and loyalty among the team members, which in turn provides me a scope to work collaboratively by enhancing free flow of information among the individuals. High communication and cooperation are also advantageous for me to work with the team members in the safety and health care department, where I try to develop an effective team with proper cooperation and communication. In this regard, I also try to improve mutual respect and share the power with each other’s, so that the interest of the group as a whole can be maximised, where each members are trying to cooperate for working as a partnership basis with proper collaboration with the organisational leader. As per the Autocratic Leadership style, the leader does not follow the decisions of the followers, where empowerment of the team members are absent in the organisational workplace (Antonakis, and Day, 2017). The leader enjoys his or her power and make own decision on the basis of own understanding and knowledge. This is not effective for me in working with the group members in the safety, health and environmental protection.

On the other hand, transformational leadership style is good for the organisational activities, where the leaders work with the team members and to identify the necessary changes at the workplace, create visions to guide the change through proper inspiration, and executing the change with fulfilment of the commitment of the group members (Storey, 2016). Hereby, transformational leadership style is good for me to work in the safety, health and environmental management, where I focus on developing an effective group with proper cooperation and collaboration. I try to maintain positive body language and be interactive so that I can communicate with all; the team members. In this regard, I also try to utilise my problem solving and decision making skill to adopt the organisational changes and implement the changes efficiently with cooperation with the group members. In this regard, transformational leadership style also gives me the change to create values for the team members and be a god leader through inspiration and support for the members at the workplace. In this regard, I try to create values for the team members by providing them freedom to work and maximise their interest by sharing their experience and sharing powers at the organisation where all the members become interested to collaborate with each other for maximising the common organisational goals.

Additionally, transactional leadership style is also suitable for working in the health and environmental management, where the leaders try to support the employees with rewards and punishment, in which the leaders try to provide suitable path to the followers and evaluate their performance through rewards and punishment. Proper support and cooperation further help the followers to be motivated, where the leaders are supportive and contribute positively in the organisation (Gümüsay, 2019). In this regard, I also try to evaluate the performance of the team members and contribute positively with proper collaboration and communication with the team members as the safety, health and environmental management is a complex phenomenon, where cooperative working practice among the team members are necessary. Additionally, I also try to motivate the team members for performing cooperatively with proper communication and ensuring free flow of information, so that each member can share their experience and be updated with latest news of the organisation. In this regard, the coach style leadership is also another effective leadership style, where the leaders try to support and provide information to the members for improving their performance as a whole. I hereby focus on improving my leadership skill, for managing the team members in the safety, health and environmental performance, so that I can handle the performance and work collaboratively at the organisational workplace.

In this regard, the coaching style leadership is associated with collaboration and partnership, where the leaders behave like coaches and encourage the members for improving their performance through partnership working and collaboration (Wilson, 2017). In this regard, it is effective to maintain the organisational hierarchy and control the team members successfully by improving trust and loyalty, where the leaders become supportive and the team members are motivated to cooperate with the leader for better working practice. In this regard, I also try to enhance my leadership style. Through supportive behaviour, I support all the team members and share experience for improving knowledge and capabilities. In addition to this, I also try to be communicative and supportive, where I provide proper information and tactics to improve performance of the team as a whole. Hereby, coaching leadership style is appropriate for me to support the team members and share each other’s knowledge and experience for better performance. Self motivation as well as encouraging other’s innovation and creativity are possible under this approach of leadership, where I try to encourage the innovation and creativity of the team members to work in the safety, health and environmental management collaborative in order to manage the working activities and enhancing the overall performance of the team.

Impacts of leadership style on colleagues and team members

The above mentioned leadership theories and style are appropriate for me to understand the ways of managing the team members in the safety, health and environmental management. The working activities of safety, health and environmental management is complex task, where proper cooperation and communication are necessary, and n this regard I also try to improve cooperation and communication or better working practice, where every team members are encouraged to be collaborative and work with cooperation successfully. In addition to these, the leadership style and personality trait of myself are also contributing factors, in working with the team members in the safety, health and environmental management, where the team members have trust and loyalty towards me and they rely on my decision and working practice to achieve the future success. I try to be interactive and maintain positive body language respect each of the members which are effective for me to build a strong relationship with all the members in the safety, health and environmental management department and this in turn provides me a scope to cooperate with each of the members and maximise the organisational aims through developing partnership working.

I also try to motivate the members and lead them toward achieving success by providing suitable organisational environment with proper management of transparency and accountability, fair treatment at the organisational and power shared activities, where each of the members are feeling valued at the workplace and they are interested to cooperate with each other for better performance. Moreover, I try to empower each of the team members in the decision making practice of the safety, health and environmental management department, so that every member can share their opinion and contribute positively in developing suitable decisions. It is also effective for building trust and loyalty among the team members, where the colleagues are trying to work operatively by relaying on the decision of others within the team. Hereby, proper collaboration and communication are effective for me to share each other’s experience and views at the organisation and develop effective decision in the safety, health and environmental management where every team members are empowered well and they contribute positively for better performance.

The leaders are also require to be supportive and share the power and in this regard I also try to be collaborative and share the power at the organisation, where it is possible of the members to rely on each other and work with enhancing communication and improving cooperation. In addition to this, commitment is also required to be fulfilled in the workplace, and as the leader, it is the responsibility to maximise the commitment towards each of the members at the safety, health and environmental management department. In this regard, leadership style towards managing the commitment of the members and creating values for them through encourage their creativity and giving them freedom to work are effective to develop an effective team and maximise the working practice in managing the safety, health and environmental activities. Hereby, the leadership style of enhancing communication, respecting each other, building strong relationship with each of the team members and empowerment of the team members are effective for me to develop an effective team in the safety, health and environmental management department and contribute positively by working as a partnership basis by sharing each other’s knowledge and experience and enhancing cooperation.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, leadership style and the theories of leadership are effective to be acknowledged in order to improve own leadership skill, where it provides me a scope to manage the colleagues and team members in managing the safety, health and environmental activities. I try to focus on developing trust and loyalty among the colleagues, though positive cooperation and communication, so that I can manage the activities in the safety, health and environmental management and develop an effective group, where power sharing and high communication as well as proper empowerment of the team members are effective for me to enhance the practice of partnership working, in which all the members try to be collaborative and maximise the organisational goals by contributing positively as per their knowledge, experience and personal capabilities.

Reference List

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Khan, M.S., Khan, I., Qureshi, Q.A., Ismail, H.M., Rauf, H., Latif, A. and Tahir, M., 2015. The styles of leadership: A critical review. Public Policy and Administration Research, 5(3), pp.87-92.

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Storey, J., 2016. Changing theories of leadership and leadership development. In Leadership in Organizations (pp. 17-41). London: Routledge.

Wilson, A.L., 2017. Measuring the Impact of Implicit Leadership Theories on Leadership Efficacy and Developmental Readiness. London: Cardinal Stritch University.

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