Running head: LEADERSHIP STYLE

Leadership Style
Christina L. Vidrich
University of St. Mary

LEADERSHIP STYLE

My Future goals as a leader are to continue to grow professionally and personally. I hope
I have discovered leadership styles that engage followers to follow a vision and ensure the
success of the organization. I believe how you treat people will determine your success as a
leader. Henry Ford said Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress: working
together is success (Ivancevich & Konopaske, 2011, pg.276). Leadership style is important and
specific behavior and the processes used by leader to make a difference are somewhat
ambiguous (Ivancevich & Konopaske, 2011, pg.441). The definition for leadership is broad, I
find its a continual process to change and adapt to make my leadership efforts successful.
The leadership role and the style a leader possesses are influential in the attainment of the
organizations goals. My style is a democratic leader by nature, I assume my staff can function
without my presence; I rely on empowerment of the staff and my expectation is that they can
perform well in my absence. Some situations when the stakes are high, the leader needs to adapt
quickly to a changing environment; I find that I adapt my leadership style in certain situations to
be effective using the contingency style which is applicable as leadership style changes
dependent on the situation (Daft, 2011). I find it vitally important to be a leader and treat each
person the same but sometimes depending on the synergy of the circumstance, styles have to
change to be effective. There are different skill levels and staff varies in readiness levels
conferring with the Hersey and Blanchards Situational Theory (Daft, 2011).The autocratic
leader who is power driven, lacks communication skills and micromanages with the threat of
discipline sounds harsh, but I would likely use this style on a new employee for a period of time
to ensure my employee is ready and needs reinforcement (Daft, 2011).
Working in a department with so many individual personalities can be difficult.
Sometimes there is not much time to consider feelings but if you have built good relationships

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with people they will continue to follow your lead, I am a positive person and have a way to
direct people to achieve a goal. I have been led by both good and ineffective leaders, my future
goals as a leader is to strive to become a highly effective leader by learning the characteristics
displayed by the good leaders I follow. The qualities associated with the effective leaders I
follow include their capability of creating a vision, communicating vision and displaying
loyalty and trust (Dye, 2006, pg. 32). The ineffective leaders I have encountered have behaviors
and certain traits that make them questionable as leaders.
It is very intriguing how the leadership style one possesses can affect the outcome of a
process. I feel with so many personalities I need to be tolerant, accepting of people and have a
positive regard for myself as well as others. My strengths as a leader are that I listen to my peers
and try to display a positive attitude. I have led by a democratic style leadership, I feel you have
to give empowerment to people and let them take the ball and run with it (Daft, 2011). My goal
is to display a leadership style that engages followers to follow a vision and ensure the success of
the organization. Engagement of leadership to let employees flourish builds an environment that
helps people find meaning in their work, creates a feeling of satisfaction and engagement that
prompts job satisfaction (Daft, 2011).
Character traits that define me are a combination of deeply spiritual values, agreeableness
meaning good-natured, cooperative, forgiving, understanding and trusting (Daft, 2011,
pg.101). These character traits were effective to my family whose household was led by faith,
encouragement, comfort and hope. Following the leadership of ethical parents or other
influences can continue to stay deep-rooted in personal and professional lives hopefully
empowering you to lead others well. The important values to me are humility, empathy and

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honesty. I like to help develop peoples strengths, work to improve people and just believe that
as a team we can do our best (Ivancevich & Konopaske, 2011).
In the reading by Ciulla, Leadership is about a person or persons somehow moving other
people to do something. Where the definitions differ is in how leaders motivate their followers,
their relationship to followers, who has a say in the goals of the group or organization, and what
abilities the leader needs to have to get things done (Ciulla, 2004). Moral leadership as
described by Daft distinguishing right from wrong and doing right, seeking the just, the honest,
the good, and the right conduct in achieving goals and fulfilling purpose (Daft, 2011, pg. 172). I
believe my strong upbringing; deeply spiritual values and forgiveness are morals l want live by
and guide me in my leadership roles. Respecting the individuality of a person and acting with
integrity is genuinely important.
I would like to be a leaders who demonstrated excellent communication skills, I am
descent, humble and hopefully a likable person; followers view the messenger as much as the
message. I am striving to communicate in a way to attract dedicated followers and I am always
learning skills to help me articulate difficult issues; if people can understand your
communication they will most likely chose to follow the vision. Leaders need to be optimistic,
positive and believe what they want their followers to aspire towards. Servant leadership is the
desire to serve and this form of leadership style combined with other style is purposeful.
Having a strong team will benefit any organization and will lead to more successes than
not. We are often expected to be a functional part of a performing team, the individuals I work
with now have formed a strong team based on positive relationships and each person recognizes
the individual strengths of each other. We all contribute; support each other and the group works

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well together. We are very cohesive and committed to our shared mission and goal making the
environment more satisfying with high morale (Daft, 2011). Working in Healthcare, it is
imperative to have a trusting relationship with each other ensuring the patient is the main
concern.
Teamwork and comradely are important, staff needs to work together to reach the goals
to improve quality, increase efficiency and the need to create long-lasting change in our
department. I try to motivating my peers to follow through on a task or fulfill a goal inspiring to
do the work and feel valued. Trying to create ones own path using your mind and motivation
from the heart creates a sense of belonging. I think there has to be some significance to the job to
feel motivated (Daft, 2011).
Culture change is difficult and the initiatives to change the culture need to be sustained. I
engaged staff to attend meetings and share their perceptions of exemplary performance and how
to keep the team strong with open-communication. Teams go through stages of developments
and have to change somewhat as a group to a shared purpose; coworkers can go through an
avoiding style, displayed an unwillingness to collaborate and avoided the need to share important
information (Daft, 2011). As an effective leader, the expectation to communicate the significance
of norms is important; every team member needs to understand the direction the team is moving
towards, not putting oneself above the team. Avoidance style can lead to distrust and a caustic
environment.
By displaying high morals and ethics, my actions as a leader will only lead to
cohesiveness of the team in the long run. It is tough to lead people you consider a friends, some
will begrudge, scrutinize and give negative feedback. It takes time to build a trusting relationship

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and express what behaviors are expectable. Individual personalities emerged continually, team
members will disagreed and have conflict but ultimately conveying the significance of the team
is the main emphasis (Daft, 2011).

LEADERSHIP STYLE

References
Ciulla, J. B. (2003, October 26). 302 Ethics and Leadership Effectiveness. . Retrieved
June 29, 2014, from http://www.ila-net.org/members/directory/downloads/antonakis
ciulla-13.pdf
Daft, R. (2011). Leadership experience. 5th ed. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Dye, C. F., & Garman, A. N. (2006). Exceptional leadership 16 critical competencies for
Healthcare executives. Chicago: Health Administration Press.
Ivancevich, J., & Konopaske, R. (2011). Organizational behavior and management
(Revised/Expanded ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.