APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
5. Motivate personnel
In order to motivate your staff and be a catalyst for change in any environment, it is
important to know yourself as a leader. In LEAD 7000, one of our assignments was to analyze
our leadership style and apply it to theory. The way I describes myself in this activity is an
insightful look into how I functioned as Director of a school age program from 2006-2011. I had
a staff of 8 college students and it was very difficult to motivate them. I discovered through trial
and error that the best way to motivate personnel is to; encourage their strengths, foster new
learning opportunities, and give them the chance to “buy in” to the organization. This artifact
will give you some insight into me as a leader and also how my style of leadership compares to
theory.
Scroll down for artifact:
Leadership Theory and Practice
Dawn Kimble
Midterm
LEAD 7000
My own leadership approach is most closely related to the skills approach in leadership,
but would also incorporate aspects of other theories. My theory, like the skills approach, focuses
on developing the skills of a leader to insure effectiveness at the individual’s present level of
leadership. The skills approach in leadership focuses on characteristics that can be learned and
developed. It was developed to explain the skills needed to be an effective leader. Although it is
a leader centered perspective, it does emphasis knowledge and abilities as integral for effective
leadership. This approach is divided into two parts with three basic skills: technical (knowledge
about and proficiency in a type of work), human (the ability to work with people), and
conceptual (the ability to work with ideas and concepts).
Dawn’s approach would involve reevaluation and continued education in order to continue
leadership growth and development and unlike the skills approach, that was been used on
military personnel, my approach would also incorporate aspects of the situational approach
because it shows how leaders should act in order to be more effective, and aspects of
transformational leadership because” transformational leadership treats leadership as a process
between leaders and followers, it provides a broad view of leadership that augments other
leadership styles, and it places a strong emphasis on followers’ needs, values, and
morals.”(Northhouse 2009)
2.
The trait approach in leadership and the contingency theory are both very valuable
theories that have added to the foundation of what leadership is today. They both have very valid
views of leadership but slightly different explanations of what is important for a leader. One only
views the trait of a leader as beneficial to organizations where as the other examines leadership
from a situational point of view.
The trait approach does not consider the followers or the situation as contributors. It
focuses on a leader as being gifted with a certain number of important traits which ensure his
capabilities as a leader. This theory is an integral part of the foundation of leadership, but fails to
address leader/follower interactions or situations in leadership. It provides a basis for the
characteristics that are most prominent in great leaders and it has also given organizations
guidelines for selecting great leaders. This approach has also provided a starting point from
which to study leadership and also to consider other factors that contribute to leadership
The contingency theory shifts the focus of leadership from an individual focus to looking
at leadership as a relationship between the leader and a situation. Based on Fiedler’s (1964,
1967; Fiedler & Garcia, 1987) theory, the contingency theory is defined as a leader-matched
theory. Unlike trait theory, it does address the interactions of a leader in different situations not
just the characteristics of that leader. This movement in leadership addresses the fact that
leadership is not just about one individual and opens the study to the possibility of other
relationships in leadership. One of the negative aspects of this theory is that like the trait
approach, it does not consider leader/follower interactions and it only addresses a leader’s skill in
certain situations. That means that this theory functions under the premise that a leader’s
effectiveness is based on matching their skills with appropriate situations.
3.
I would use transformational leadership as a basis for change in an organization. This
theory incorporates and uses emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long term goals as a way to
transform and influence people. When evaluating a dysfunctional organization, a leader will
discover that the difficulties that any organization faces will fall in one of these categories. By
examining and addressing the issues, transformational leadership can be a useful tool in
addressing, staff/ follower issues, leadership deficiencies, and organizational culture. Bass and
Avolio (1990a) suggest that transformational leadership can be taught to people at all levels in an
organization and that it can positively affect a firm’s performance. It can be used in recruitment,
selection, and promotion, and training and development. It can be used in improving team
development, decision-making groups, quality initiatives, and reorganizations (Bass and Avolio,
1994).
This theory is one of the few theories that, in addition to leader skills, address follower
issues as an integral part of leadership. Transformational leadership assesses followers’ motives,
finds ways to satisfy their needs and treats them as full human beings. This theory separates
leader-follower interactions into factors that can be examined and used to improve various
aspects of an organization. The five factors include; (1.) Idealized Influence which explains
followers identifying and wanting to emulate leaders, (2.) Inspirational Motivation which
describes the high expectations of leaders for their followers, (3.) Intellectual Stimulation the
factor which includes leadership that stimulates a follower to be creative and innovative, and (4.)
Individualized Consideration which represents leaders who provide a supportive environment
and listen to the individual needs of their followers. Northhouse(p.172) states that
transformational leadership is a process whereby a person engages with others and creates a
connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower.
Bass (1985,p.20) argued that Transformational leadership motivates followers to do more than
expected by(a) raising followers levels of consciousness about the importance and value of
specified and idealized goals,(b) getting followers to transcend their own self-interest for the
sake of the team or organization, and (c)moving followers to address higher-level needs.
Because transformational leadership “requires leaders to be aware of how their
own behavior relates to the needs of their subordinates and the changing dynamics within their
organization”, this is the best theory for reorganizing or addressing issues in a dysfunctional
organization.
Resources
Northouse, Peter (2009) Leadership: Theory and Practice, Sage Publications, Inc