The definition of a proper leadership pattern has always been one of the most challenging aspects of working with a team, as there is a variety of factors that are to be considered prior to choosing the most appropriate option. Hence, when reflecting on my cooperation with the team in the leader’s role, I had an impression that my leadership style resonates with the fundamentals of the affiliative approach. According to Goleman (2000), affiliative leadership places significant emphasis on the notions of empathy and anthropocentrism as crucial for teamwork. However, after analyzing my work patterns in detail, it has been identified that my current style was more correlated with the idea of coaching, which shifted the focus towards the idea of mentorship. Indeed, this approach, while encompassing empathy, communication, and development, contributes a lot to the tangible outcomes of my team.
When speaking of positive aspects of the coaching leadership style, such aspects as good interpersonal communication with the team members, feeling of belonging to the decision-making process, and encouraging environment should be considered. Based on personal experience, I could say with confidence that people who are heard and valued within the team’s environment are by all means willing to pool their efforts in the way of reaching new heights and growing as individuals.
However, as far as drawbacks are concerned, it would be safe to assume that coaching leadership may result in violating the barrier between mentor and leader, as the former has the duty to make final decisions. Sometimes, when expressing much empathy, I struggle with assessing the situation objectively and making a decision that might eventually benefit others less than they expect. For this reason, while perceiving leadership as a system of mutual support, trust, and proactive approach, I tend to see my current leadership style as one of the most positive for the environment. Yet, I realize that there is a need to excel in different leadership styles in order to increase agility and response efficiency to every possible situation.
For this reason, over the next month, I am willing to master the leadership styles I find myself fairly developed at, yet uncomfortable to work with at the moment. In terms of the assessment, it was defined that my areas of weakness concerned the notions of pacesetting, authoritative, and democratic styles. Consulting scholarly sources, I have defined that the application of such models would not be beneficial when applied regularly, but styles themselves serve as an asset in situations requiring immediate action (Boyle et al., 2018). Moreover, in the context of my leadership style experiments, I would like to:
- learn to control my need for reassurance when making a decision;
- be more open with my teammates on the matter of leadership approaches use;
- reflect on the precedents in order to avoid mistakes in the future.
Having closely analyzed individual patterns of leadership, I have identified some of the major areas I should work on for the sake of better outcomes for the team in the long-term perspective. Primarily, I need to define the patterns of applying various leadership styles according to the situation emerging. It would also be beneficial to learn the ways in which the following approaches may be combined in order to secure better results for the team. Another significant leader’s quality I am willing to acquire is the ability to make decisions not influenced by the need for constant reassurance from individual team members.
References
Boyle, C. J., Gonyeau, M., Flowers, S. K., Hritcko, P., Taheri, R., & Prabhu, S. (2018). Adapting leadership styles to reflect generational differences in the academy. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 82(6). Web.
Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review. Web.