Benefits Of Leadership Styles Nursing Essay

Leaders are found everywhere and in every organization to guide people beneath them and build successful teams to have commitment to one another, to the team, to a high level of achievement, to a common goal, and to a common vision. Any team success depends on its leader. Hence it is very important choose a good leader. So, in understanding different leadership styles and personality traits, we can choose the perfect leader for a better organization.

Self-assessment tests are process of assessing our own personality. They help in identifying our strengths and weakness and hence improving our efficiency and better decision making (Lussier & Achua, 2013).

The temperament type test in Keirsey and Bates (1984) is also a good way to assess our personality and it also helped me in learning some interesting things. These tests are important for employees in any organization to motivate them and identify their progress. After taking this test, I found my type to be ESFJ. I resemble this type and analyzing some facts about my personality makes me feel more confident and motivated.

ESFJ individuals are very sociable and emotional. They can be good hosts and this will also help me in understanding other types and E types especially is harmonious and also attend to people needs and nurture them. These qualities are very important in identifying a good leader (Keirsey & Bates, 1984).

Leadership styles are based on a person’s skills or traits. The different leadership styles analyzed in the book by Lussier and Achua (2013), I could relate myself more to be of democratic leadership style as this is related my temperament style and helps me in motivating people beneath me. I also like to Job-centered as this concentrates on goal facilitation.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:

Two of my strengths that have helped me a lot in both my personal life and professional life are: 1) Responsible 2) Enthusiastic & Energetic

Responsible: I was very responsible towards things since childhood as both my parents used to work in a private organization and used to come home late sometimes. I had to take the responsibility of my younger brother. My parents always encouraged me by appreciating the way I took care of my brother. I strongly believe in doing any work responsibly. This trait in me has helped me a lot in my professional life. Every task I take up at my organization I make sure I am responsible for it and complete the task on time.

Enthusiastic and Energetic: One of my best traits is my enthusiastic and energetic nature. I jump and adapt to new things due to this nature which had helped learn a lot of new things without difficulty. By this nature I get adapted to my surroundings with ease.

Weakness:

The two weakest things in me are being emotional and trusting others easily. Being ‘E’ type makes me get attached to people easily and develop trust on them. This nature cannot be applicable in organization as we need to always take decision practically in any organization as feelings can facilitate the decision-making processes involved in selecting and prioritizing choices relevant to situational requirements. With the emotional nature like mine, I believe in people blindly. Though these could be good traits at times but a person needs to be well balanced to control his career and personal life. One good example being emotional made me suffer was that in of the companies I worked for I was a lead for a team of five, once my team member committed a mistake which delayed the production and when my manager enquired I took the whole responsibility and had to work extra hours. After few days same thing happened and manger came to know directly who was responsible and explained him the consequences and he never repeated his mistake. Next time the same employee for whom I took the blame repeated the same mistake I realized instead of taking the blame on me if I would have reported that to my manager he would not have repeated the same mistake.

Now that I have realized the importance I am trying to get a balance between my work and family which seems to be a very big task for me.

Effect on Career/Job

The strength which helped me a lot to grow in my career is taking the first initiative and responsibility of any new project that comes to my manager. I always used to be the first person to be approached in my team by my manager for any help because he has seen me how responsible I was and how I helped my team members to complete their tasks on time too. As I am always energetic I make sure everyone around me haves fun while working and due to this I also got elected by my colleagues as the best employee of the year too. Due to these strengths I was unanimously elected as the Team Lead for my team by my Director.

Now that I have realized the importance of balancing the work and other things I am trying to get a balance between the both. Because of my strengths I am very successful in my career and by converting my weakness into my strengths I will be able to do my best for my family too.

Benefits of leadership styles

A leader is important for success of any organization or country or team. Without a a right leader, organizations move too slowly (Mills, 2005).

There are many leadership styles that could be followed. In Leadership, strength and weakness are part of situations. And based on the circumstances these different styles could be applied and there are unique in their own way.

According to University of Iowa, there are two types of leadership style- Autocratic and Democratic styles. I most likely fall in Democratic Leadership Style as I believe in team work and being ‘E’ type will help in succeed with this leadership style. This style involves everyone’s participation and democratic leaders encourage people to be a part of decision making. This style helps in analyzing the subordinates and motivates them to achieve their targets which will help them to grow in their career. Autocratic leaders make their own decisions and this style is important in critical situations (Lussier & Achua, 2013).

University of Michigan defines leadership styles to be Job-centered and Employee-centered. The earlier one emphasizes on jobs to be done quickly emphasizes on employee participation. Ohio State University described leadership style to be Initiating Structure and Consideration which are same the Job-centered and Employee-centered respectively (Lussier & Achua, 2013).

Some situations where the leader needs to be warm and dominating in critical situations and this style has some negative effects to it. Subordinates might not respond well in this style. This style cannot be used in counseling sessions. Any leadership success depends on people whom they guide. Hence it is also important to nurture employee’s needs and give them regular feedbacks (Mills, 2005).

The main benefits of any leadership style are development of their employees as well as the company. Leadership styles would help in satisfaction in workplaces as they implement strategy to operational roles. Most of problems experienced in any organization are people-related. Developing the people to function at higher levels benefits the organization. Hence it is important to find good leaders and accustom a style where they can value people and consider them as an integral part of development process (Barker, 2001).

Summary

This assignment has helped me different temperament types to identify people’s traits, leadership styles and also identifying good leaders. Every leadership style has got advantages and disadvantages. All styles are necessary in a good leader and to influence people, help in their development and decisions. It is necessary to coach employees and coach them to achieve strategic goals.  Decision making is also a key factor for success of a leadership style. A leader should involve in gathering facts in making choices and evaluate results properly. By understanding that details of the task and maturity of your employees impacts success, you can make more effective leadership decisions (Barker, 2001).

A good leader is one who is combination of all the styles based on a scenario. We must accustom any leadership style based on a situation. Leader’s influence the behavior of group members in the direction of the goals with which the group is faced (Leslie, 2009).

Finally, I learnt that leadership is quality developed by both by nature and nurture. One of the most important tasks of leadership, in fact, is being able to put together a good team and to support its members in doing their best and also work on his own based on situation. The books I read so far taught me that leadership is necessary to balance both our professional and personal lives. We have to take decisions as per the situation by understanding the situation and follow the best approach.