Leadership styles

Abstract

Leadership is the focus of group processes from a view of personality or behavior. It is the collective power relationship between a leader and their followers. It comes with forms of achievements and skill performance. A leader acts as an influence to another group of individuals to achieve a similar set of goals. Leadership should not be confused with management. A leader knows his/ her and understands their abilities and personal attributes. Such a leader leads by example, commitment, professionalism, enthusiasm, and dependability. The characters above portray examples of some of the behaviors of a leader that transmit down to his subordinates. A great leader knows their profession as well as their colleagues in order to work with trust and confidence. A great leader will also encourage loyalty among their employees. An organizational success relies on effective management skills coupled with effective leadership skills. The paper tries to elaborate more on leadership and leadership styles in education programs. There is a discussion of three major styles of leadership and an additional discussion of why and how transformational leadership is the most effective. The conclusive report is that, there are no standards of selection of adult education program leaders, and that is detrimental to centers that try to educate adult sand the community at large.

 Introduction

There are no universal standards for adult education leaders and directors that exist in the United States of America. Those who work in programs for adult and community education programs understand the roles they have to play in maintain and enhancing quality education. Others from outside these fields may interpret the lack of standards as to mean that effective leadership is missing. The reason for the lack of leadership standards in these programs was because every program is unique to itself and its community (Hoyle, 2012). Another reason was the lack of financial support as well as the lack of employees. Leadership style involves a leader’s general personality, communication patterns as well as guiding others towards set goals and visions. There are dominations of self-evaluation reports on perceptions of subordinates about their leaders (Odai & Doherty, 2013). These perceptions focus on the leader’s behavior, decision-making, and interpersonal skills and, above all, their management efficiency. Assessment of leadership styles depends on the organizational structure, leadership behavior and organizational health.

Types of leadership styles

There are various styles of leadership. The categories are on the rise in the modern world. Among the categories include charismatic, gender and race, moral and spiritual leadership. The basic universal leadership styles are: authoritarian, participatory, transactional and transformational.  Most leaders adhere to a typical style or two and feel comfortable with it (Odai & Doherty, 2013). However, efficient leaders will employ multiple leadership styles in different situations and times. They will diagnose a situation and identify the right kind of leadership to use at that particular juncture. The following leadership styles are applicable in the day to day education programs.

a)    Transformational leadership

The most inspirational style of leadership is transformational. These leaders lead through vision.  There is a certain commitment to the forward-thinking communication. They act as models to their employees and also a source of inspiration (Zacharakis & Glass, 2010). Their subordinates follow their lead because they have faith in the set of goals and vision the leader has set. The style of leadership encompasses the process of how leaders are the inspiration behind their followers accomplishing things. The style emphasizes the understanding of leaders of the needs of their followers and motivate them. They are agents of change and good role models as well (Hoyle, 2012). They are creators of organizational visions and empower followers to greater heights of standards. Their actions are trustworthy and meaningful to organizational life. He is unlike a transactional leader because he will identify the needs of his associates and develop them to higher levels of maturity.

b)    Transactional leadership

That is the kind of leader that motivates his subordinates by offering rewards and prizes for services. They identify their employees’ career goals and work towards rewarding them for their performance at work. They exchange rewards and promises for recognition of effort at work. Thus, these leaders will respond to the needs and wants of the subordinates as long as they perform their duties efficiently. They will set up agreements for achievements after discovering the individual’s capabilities. They will then give specific compensation upon successful completion of these tasks. They always believe in the betterment of teams and individuals. Hence, they will always try to stretch goals to encourage continuous improvement (Maurer, 2013). They will grant their employees autonomy in the belief that they will do their personal best. These leaders always show confidence in the performance of their subordinates.

c)    Participative leadership

These leaders will always try to be less authoritative.  They appreciate that human productivity has the close correlation between their interactions. Hence, the emergence of informal structures and systems. These leaders believe in treatment of employees with dignity and change of the workplace to less strict collegial environment. They view successful organizations as various teams of humans working together and not just impersonal structures of authority (Hoyle, 2012). They also view organizations as social systems where the needs of the people are paramount to motivation of workers to greater productivity. They encourage shared decision-making in educational programs and discourage rules and regulations that do not foster effective teamwork. They will always let their employees know that their contributions are in consideration. The kind of leadership leads to communication about goals and respect for diversity in teams. They foster a collective effort to seek quality in the final result.  These processes foster a family environment in the workplace and respects contributions of every member.

Advantages and effectiveness of transformational leadership

            Transformational leadership is my opinionative best style of leadership. It is because these kinds of leaders raise the levels of their employees’ awareness to achieving valuable outputs and the strategies to get there. It is the kind f leadership that will encourage others to perform beyond their average standards (Zacharakis & Glass, 2010). If there is integrity in leadership, then this style will reform organizations in magic ways. Such leaders will empower their subordinates to achieve their highest needs and become part of a productive learning community. These leaders act as servants to others and are guidance to creation and embracing of organizational visions. That in turn acts as inspiration, bringing forth efficient performance and a system of integrity, diversity of ideas and inclusivity of all races and gender. The major assumptions of the outcomes of this style of leadership include morality, love and spirituality (Odai & Doherty, 2013). It is moral because the leader dignifies and respects the rights of others and their self-determination. It is like a covenant that requires doing the right thing for others and living it in all interactions. Educational programs that employ the style focus on the generic kid and make sure that all members of the organization work constantly to inspire new levels of trust. There is a commitment to every person and each other in the community.

Conclusion

There is a continuous and gradual adoption of transformational leadership in contrast to top-down authoritarian leadership in many education programs. However, there is still dire need for research on leadership styles, staff motivation and student performance (Odai & Doherty, 2013). Unless the research provides evidence that transformational leadership promotes morality, equity, empowerment, and love, then education centers will continue to be a patchwork of all these styles of leadership. For every situation in such an organization, there are particular leadership styles to apply and their corresponding techniques to accomplish the set objectives. Centers that provide basic education to low-skilled, unemployed adult students receive most of their funding from federal and state allocations just like public schools. However, research shows that educators and leaders in these schools must meet certain standards as opposed to leaders in adult education programs (Zacharakis & Glass, 2010). It is evident that adult education unlike other areas of education has no regular standards or credential to ensure the quality of practice or leadership. Observation reveals that some leaders are more successful than others because of the use of a constant style of leadership in all situations. Others that employ a more situational kind of leadership are not so successful. More so, some leaders thrive better in evaluating an environment and adjusting their style of leadership to address various issues.

References

Hoyle, J. (2012). Leadership Styles. From the Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership and Administration. Ed., 595-98

Maurer T. (2013). Five Leadership Styles for Effective Management. 

Odai, M. & Doherty J. (2013). Leadership styles, behaviors, and outcomes of athletic training education program directors 

Zacharakis, J., & Glass, D. (2010), why Kansas is developing standards for its adult education leaders. From the Adult Basic Education & Literacy Journal, 4(2), 109-113.

Carolyn Morgan is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in Write My Research Paper For Me services. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from custom nursing essay writing services.