Chapter 1

The first chapter has termed leadership as an immature science. The reason behind this claim is that the concept of leadership comes both from art and science. Also, leadership gets defined as the process which influences a particular organized group towards achieving their goals. It has also been identified that while influencing, it is important for a successful leader to give equal attention to emotional and rational consideration. The most important fact that has been stated in the chapter is that leadership primarily depends on three aspects. These three aspects are the situation or the environment in which the leadership is being implemented, along with the individual influence and the followers. As Ndalamba, Caldwell & Anderson (2018) stated in their paper that effective leaders deliver intelligibility of purpose, inspire, and guide the organization to realize its mission. Therefore, this has helped me with the understanding that, in order to understand the actual meaning of leadership, no study could overlap the importance of education under any circumstances.

This chapter talks about the ways in which leadership could be developed based on formal education and also, at the same time, based on experience. This developmental process is important as it determines the way in which a leader observe, interpret, and take actions based on that interpretation. Therefore, based on that observation, it also has been stated that constant improvement in leadership could be only be attained if there are relevant challenges to overcome. The ways in which the behavioural aspects of a leader could be trained has also been discussed in detail in this chapter. Major studies have concluded even if leadership traits could be acquired from gaining knowledge and going through training, for certain individuals, some qualities that are already manifested early in life helps them to become significantly better leader (Cunliffe & Wilson, 2016). This has enabled me to understand that the earlier I start to incorporate leadership traits in me, the better it will be for me in the future.

This chapter talks about one of the most important factors that get implemented for influencing purpose is power. It is important for the leaders to reflect upon the different bases or power, which will help them with a better understanding of the ways in which they can influence the followers. On the contrary, it has also been highlighted in the chapter that even if power gets considered as one of the most important aspects of leadership, the fact that cannot be denied is that it would stand meaningless if the leader is not ready or willing to exercise the same. The three specific factors that have been highlighted are the type of power possessed, the rationale behind the different influence tactics and finally, the degree of resistance expected. The factors that I must specifically master in order to understand the exact utilization of power is self-confidence and self-esteem.

Chapter 2

To begin with, it needs to be stated that this chapter has helped with the understanding that there is a significant relationship between leadership, values, and ethics. These are the factors of utmost importance when it comes to a leader’s psychological makeup. It has also been stated that one’s belief’s regarding the rights, and the wrongs help an individual with the understanding of their leadership standing. Most importantly, it is a fact that ethical action tends to involve more than just the cognitive process of moral reasoning. Ethicality could be easily connected to the two specific styles of leadership which are servant leadership and authentic leadership (Hoch et al., 2018). Based on this observation, it could be realized that to create an ethical climate inside an organization, the choices of the specific will play a significant role in the entire process.

To summarise, this chapter has discussed the connection between emotional intelligence, personality and the intelligence connected with leadership. It has also been stated that even if personality has different understandings, it primarily talks about how an individual behaves. The chapter also clears the fact that OCEAN model of personality could help in the understanding of personality leadership relationships in multiple ways (Ziegler, Horstmann & Ziegler, 2019). The concept of emotional intelligence in relevance to leadership has also been properly discussed in this chapter. And the benefits that analytic intelligence tends to provide the leaders Have also been discussed. Based on this reading, I have realized it is important for leaders to first understand how to successfully stimulate and at the same time manage creativity as compared to being creative themselves. Therefore, I will give significant importance to the team that I will be leading in future as a leader.

This particular chapter talks about the different behaviours related to the leadership style. Multiple studies have stated that each individual has a unique leadership style based on their behavioural traits. It is also important to understand for the leading practitioners that ultimately, they will be judged by the behaviour they exhibit and based on that the result that they have been able to obtain. Innovating the right attributes, experience, and values does not assure that the leader will have the right behaviour to lead a team. Apart from that, this chapter also provides us with important suggestions on the ways in which an individual could be considered an effective leader (Alifah & Sukmawati, 2021). Feedback plays a very important role, as it might result in a behavioural change of the individuals. Based on this reading, I have realized that development plans regarding leadership and getting proper coaching from an effective leader would prove to be highly beneficial for my future growth.

Chapter 3

The main aim of this chapter is to talk about follower motivation as a concept. It has been specifically mentioned in this chapter the understanding of the way in which followers characterize based on their leaders’ actions and situational factors, which tends to affect the way in which followers are motivated. There are particularly five motivational approaches that get implemented need to be understood in order to get a piece of proper knowledge about the motivational factors. Getting a better understanding of this approach will help the leaders to implement strategies in order to change behaviour and exert energy and effort from their team members. The two leadership styles that have been mentioned in this Chapter are Charismatic and transformational leadership, and this true style of leadership could be connected with an extraordinarily high level of follower motivation (Mittal, 2015). The nexus between effectiveness, motivation, performance has been properly described in this chapter which enables the readers with the understanding of becoming an effective leader. Based on the studies, I realized that I must clearly identify the behaviour in connection with the performance and effectiveness of the followers so that I could exert a higher performance level from my team members.

This particular chapter has talked about the satisfaction of the followers and, based on that, the level of engagement the issue. Job satisfaction and employee engagement are other two most important factors that enable an organization to excel. Not that job satisfaction and also at the same time employee engagement are connected to the kind of leadership that gets exhibited in that particular organization. This chapter has also talked about certain survey results that indicate that the percentage of highly engaged employees tends to give better services to the customer (Davies, Mete & Whelan, 2018). Therefore, based on this observation, it could be realize that, employees who are treated well have a high chances to perform well in regards to their productivity, which again helps the organization in the long run. Based on this observation it could be realized, A great leader should create an environment which is creative and engaging at the same time in order to get the best out of their employees.

One of the most important issues that have been highlighted in this chapter is that most organization tends to suffer from leadership when strength issue. This issue highlights the fact that at times there are not enough of the right talent present in the organization to feel key leadership roles. In that particular case, the chapter has suggested that outside hires could feel the gaps, however, it is better if the organizations are promoting from within (Jones, 2019). Therefore, it could be realized that followers’ performance and their potential based on their effectiveness do have the ability to realize the potential of the leadership positions.

Chapter 4

In this chapter, the behaviour has been exhibited from a group perspective based on the individual characteristics of the followers. It has also been highlighted those leaders should implement a team perspective in order to get a better understanding of the behaviours exhibited by the followers and also, at the same time, group performance as a whole. In this chapter, the team leadership model has been explained to understand the team effectiveness in connection with inputs, processes and finally, the outcome (Abyad, 2018). From this, I have realized that these are the most important factors that enables a leader to take decisions which will prove to be extremely beneficial for their organization. Therefore, I will thoroughly give attention to these three factors as much as possible.

This chapter has talked about the greatest misperception regarding coaching. It has been identified that lot of leaders think that coaching takes a significant amount of time, however it has been identified that it is not the truth. The chapter also states that implementation of GAPS analysis helps in creating a coaching plan which even takes less than four hours. The entire chapter is based on the Waze how coaching can be made easier with the implementation of coaching models. It has also been highlighted in this chapter that it is very much possible for individuals to develop skills on their own (Bruner et al., 2016). Based on the entire study of this chapter, I could reflect that if I am ever trying to be a good leader in the long run, I must create a successor and that could only be done through the process of coaching.

This chapter talks about the situation as it has been identified as the most complex factor in the leader follower’s situation framework. It has been stated that at the very beginning level, the leaders must be very much aware of the different aspects of the task, which have the ability to affect the behaviours of the followers and as well as the leader. It has also been identified that the organizational level tends to include both the informal organization and also at the same time formal organization. Lastly, it has been identified in the paper that at the environmental level, implementation of the same would lead to societal culture. This culture tends to have distinctive mannerism and other ways of thinking which tends to value within the selected societies (Goksoy, 2016).

Chapter 5

Chapter 15 has been able to provide all the contingency theories connected to leadership. It has been identified that based on the difference of perception that two different leaders might have will eventually lead to two completely different conclusions in regards to the situation presented. Therefore, it could be realized that the behavioural aspect of the leaders could not always be predicted based on the theories, and it is more of a situational factor (Farid et al., 2020). However, for every leader, it is important to know about the four contingency theories so that it will help us with a significantly more sophisticated understanding of the entire process of leadership.

This particular chapter has talked about two significant approaches in connection to organizational change. Change management is a very important aspect that gets implemented in the long run of an organization. It has been found that the change that gets implemented is primarily practised by the leaders in the initial stage, which the followers then follow. Certain leadership styles tend to amplify the change management system whereas other leadership theories or styles Tends to hinder the process. It has been mentioned in this chapter that based on the research that has been done, charismatic leaders are best at bringing about change in an organization (Rast III, Hogg & Giessner, 2016). The factors that could be connected to this leadership are engaging and developing employees, creating better teams, and driving long-term changes which would benefit the organization in the long run.

This is the most important chapter in relevance to leadership as it talks about the dark side of leadership. It talks about the concept of destructive leadership. There are certain managerial in competencies that are implemented by the people in positions of authority, and the primary reason behind the same is because of their inability to engage with their followers. It has been clearly stated in this entire chapter that if an organization does not have a proper leader, it is a high chance to perish, and it would not be able to survive in the dynamic market.

References

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