Leadership Mid-Term: Apollo 13

Transformaitonal Leadership Slide Show

My slide show represents the transformation of minorities in the United States with help from transformational leaders.  Slavery to emancipation (Abraham Lincoln) to second class citizens (Civil Rights Movement/Martin Luther King Jr.) to Equal Rights (President Obama).

Transformational Leadership in action

Transformational Leadership

James MacGregor Burns is an award winning write who specializes in the study of  American leadership in politics.  Burns is known for his biographies on past presidents, and is also considered one of the pioneers of leadership theory and studies.  Burns is known as the chief contributor to the transformational leadership theory, which is based on a visionary leader who can inspire followers to a common goal.  Transformational leaders inspire followers to make changes and  motivate each other in order to accomplish specific goals that lead to the completion of a “vision.”

Contingency Theory

Contingency theories are a class of behavioral theory that contend that there is no one best way of leading and that leadership styles that are effective in some situations may not be successful in others.
An effect of this is that leaders who are very effective at one place and time may become unsuccessful  when transplanted to another situation or when factors around them change.
This helps to explain how some leaders who seem like they can do no wrong, suddenly appear make very unsuccessful decisions.

Fiedler's Contingency Model Fiedler's model assumes that group performance depends on: Leadership style, described in terms of task motivation and relationship motivation. Situational favorableness, determined by three factors: 1. Leader-member relations - Degree to which a leader is accepted and supported by the group members. 2. Task structure - Extent to which the task is structured and defined, with clear goals and procedures. 3. Position power - The ability of a leader to control subordinates through reward and punishment. High levels of these three factors give the most favorable situation, low levels, the least favorable. Relationship-motivated leaders are most effective in moderately favorable situations. Task-motivated leaders are most effective at either end of the scale. Fiedler suggests that it may be easier for leaders to change their situation to achieve effectiveness, rather than change their leadership style.

Contingency theory is similar to situational theory in that there is an assumption of no simple one right way. The main difference is that situational theory focuses more on behaviors that leaders should adopt, given situational factors (often about follower behavior), whereas contingency theory takes a broader view that includes contingent factors about leader capability and other variables within the situation.
     Hersey-Blanchard Situational Theory
     This theory suggests that leadership style should be matched to the maturity of the subordinates.
     Maturity is assessed in relation to a specific task and has two parts:

• Psychological maturity - Their self-confidence and ability and readiness to accept responsibility.
• Job maturity - Their relevant skills and technical knowledge.

    As the subordinate maturity increases, leadership should be more relationship-motivated than
    task-motivated. For four degrees of subordinate maturity, from highly mature to highly immature,
    leadership can consist of:

• Delegating to subordinates.
• Participating with subordinates.
• Selling ideas to subordinates.
• Telling subordinates what to do

I think I am more of a task-oriented leader than relationship-oriented. However, I use several different styles of leadership skills depending on the situation, and also based on previous experiences. I agree that there are many different ways to lead, and that there are different approaches of leading different people and skill sets.  I think I can be a directive, supportive, and participative leader depending on what goal my team would have to achieve and what kind of relationship I have with my team. I would exhibit more directive-path leader characteristics when approaching solutions to serious problems and be adapt to being a supportive leader when leading less mature subordinates.

Behavior theory

The Path-Goal leadership theory is based on how a leader motivates followers in order to accomplish goals.  The theory states that leaders can motivate followers in these ways: directive-path, goal clarifying, supportive, participative, and achievement (task) and relationship oriented.  LMX is the Leader member exchange theory.  This theory is based on the fact that leaders and followers develop relationships based on social exchanges.  The leader needs to decide what to share with followers because time and resources are limited.  LMX consist of three phases, Stranger (phase 1), Acquaintance (phase 2), and Partnership (phase 3).   The task/relationship is how leaders use tasks to guide their followers in achieving goals.  The show and characters I am going to use as an example is Las Vegas.  Ed Deline, the owner of the casino displays the Achievement oriented (task) part of Path-Goal Leadership Theory.  He always tries to get to the bottom of problems and is only interested in results.  Danny McCoy is the head of security at the casino, and displays LMX leadership skills.  He is much more relationship oriented with his followers and uses those relationships so that his followers can accomplish goals.  Mike Cannon is an engineer and works in the security department.  He is one of Danny’s followers, and their relationship shows the LMX theory in effect.  

What I’ve learned from others

When looking at other people’s blogs, I tried to find those that are similar and that are different from mine.  I wanted to see what others had to say about their PMAI results, and I wanted to make sure that there were blogs I could learn from.  I decided on two of my classmate’s blogs to read and learn from.  I learned from Veronica’s blog that it is important to enjoy life and to truly live life to the fullest.  It is pointless to work hard and get results when you are not enjoying what you are doing.  Although you may be doing great as a leader, you could be failing at your own life.  I also realize the importance of being a caregiver.  I need to be able to understand and take care of the people I am leading; I need to focus on project members as well as the project in order to get the results I am looking for.  Looking at Sunni’s blog, it appears that we have very similar results when it came to the PMAI tests.  We both believe in taking a no nonsense approach when it comes to dealing with problems, and that we like to go into problems looking at past experiences and trying to solve problems through those experiences.  I learned that putting together structure and policies for team members to follow are essential in leading an organized and focused team.  It is important not only to care for those you lead, but also that people need detailed guidance to accomplish similar goals.