Source: wildapricot.com

Leadership is a social and mutual influence process where multiple actors engage in leading-following interactions in service of accomplishing a collective goal. Leadership has nothing to do with seniority or one’s position in the hierarchy of a company. A Leader plans and organise work in their area of responsibility and about how they relate to it (CMI,2015).

According to Mullins, in autocratic leadership style the focus of power is with the manager and all interaction within the group move towards the manager, and the manager has total control in decision-making, determining policy and procedures for achieving goals, work tasks and relationship and also controls the rewards or punishment (Mullins 2010: 381).

FINDING MY STYLE

There are numerous types of leadership style; one of which is transformational leadership style that is based on the leader’s capability to inspire and share the interest to followers. Transformational leaders support cognitive improvement in organisational members (Zagorsek, Dimovski and Skerlavaj 2009). There are numerous styles of leadership, but the one that I fell I am is Situational Leadership

Situational leadership is suitable for my future career in management consultancy. Since the culture of the work is dynamic, leaders should be flexible to implement the leadership style. Furthermore, a leader can make a difference by enhancing Virtue, Values, Vision and Voice (Grace 2006).

From Week One to Eleven

Personally, my weakness are presentation skills and Leadership. The first week all the students in the class were chosen randomly. In my group there were 5 different nationalities. As the weeks went by, through all the group meeting there was a constant improvement. Our group meeting started to get easier for delegation and there was an overall team morale. The activities that we did as a group help in laying some foundation and knowledge about the team members. The activities ranged from scavenger hunts to Blind Lego building.

As we went from week one to the last week, it has been getting easier to evaluate and identify attributes about myself and others in the group. While evaluating myself and collecting feedback from group, I found that I am more a situational Leader. Situational leadership is more ideal than charismatic leadership (Graeff 1997)

Situational Leadership

Source: drivenforward.com

Situational leadership is a leadership theory that merges both directive and supportive dimensions, and each of these dimensions is to be applied correctly in a given situation. Situational leadership means that leaders have to change the degree of supportiveness and directness to their employee according to the given situation of subordinates and their level of motivation (Ghazzawi et al. 2019)

I completely relate to this style of leadership. From an employee point of view I feel like I will be most receptive to this leadership style.

Attributes of a good leader are

1. Honesty
2. Ability to Delegate
3. Communication
4. Confidence
5. Commitment

The above are the characteristics of a leader. Any large or small, and the most important thing is not to panic in front of uncertainty. Part of your job as a leader is to extinguish fires and keep the morale of the team. Keep your level of confidence and assure everyone that setbacks are natural and focusing on the broader goal is important.

                                                         Source: 2discover.com

Leader in Progress

The question of ‘Are Leaders Born or Made?’ is a highly debatable one. Even though I am not a natural born leader I believe that leaders can be made as well. According to me experience dictated how you solve a problem. There are no shortcuts to becoming a leader. Situational leadership is the style I want to develop.

The Leadership style that appeals to me is Situational Strategy. As i go through different scenarios in a business, it will help me meld my leadership skills. I will be continuing to develop my skills and strengths to be a good leader in my future careers.

Reference

Grace, B. (2006) Ethical leadership: in pursuit of the common good. Seattle, WA: Center for Ethical Leadership

Zagoršek, H., Dimovski, V., & Škerlavaj, M. (2009) ’Transactional and Transformational Leadership Impacts on Organizational Learning’. Journal for East European Management Studies, 144-165.

Mullins, L., (2016) Management and Organizational Behavior, 11thedn., Harlow: Pearson.

CMI (2015) Management and Leadership Styles [online] available from < https://www.managers.org.uk/knowledge-bank/management-and-leadership-styles > [6 April 2019]

Graeff, C. L. (1997) ‘Evolution of situational leadership theory: A critical review’. The Leadership Quarterly, 8(2), 153-170.DOI: 10.1016/S1048-9843(97)90014-X

Ghazzawi, K., Shoughari, R. and Osta, B. (2019) Situational Leadership And Its Effectiveness In Rising Employee Productivity: A Study On North Lebanon Organization [online] available from <http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.hrmr.20170703.02.html&gt; [14 April 2019]

Change and development management within a company is called Change Management. It can be argued that the successful management of change is crucial to any organisation in order to survive and succeed in the present highly competitive and continuously evolving business environment (Todnem By 2019).

In the United Kingdom the biggest change right now is BREXIT. There is a lot of conversations happening around it. How will it affect the country? How will it affect economy? How it will affect the Trade? BREXIT will be an immense impact to the country and the business inside that country. As off now the EU has given Britain until 31 October to make a deal.

Change management is a incredible tool that allows a company to adapt to change and take advantage of the transition. The most prominent theory about change management is Lewin’s change management template and ADKAR change model

ADKAR change model

The ADKAR model is one of the most important models to ensure efficient change. The model focuses on the element of change ‘ people, ‘ specifically how to support and believe in the change by the employees involved. The stages of ADKAR MODEL are

1. Awareness
2. Desire
3. Knowledge
4. Ability
5. Reinforcement

                                        Figure 1; Source: inspiregroup.co.nz

Lewin’s Change Management

By looking in figure 2, you can see change as a process with distinct stages, you can prepare yourself for what is to come and plan for managing the transition. All too often, people are blindly changing, causing a lot of unnecessary turmoil and chaos.

Leaders have a critical role to play in ensuring that the change is implemented and ways of strengthening it are formulated. Without proper leadership, the last phase of the transition, known as refreezing, is difficult to administer.

This first stage of change involves preparing the organization to accept the need for change, which involves breaking down the existing status quo before you can create a new way of operating

Following the uncertainty created in the unfreeze stage, the stage of change is where people start to solve their uncertainty and look for new ways of doing things. People start believing and acting in ways that support the new direction.

When the changes are taking shape and people have embraced the new ways of working, the organization is ready to refreeze

                                          Figure 2; Source: process.st

Automotive Industry

Brexit affects all the industries in operating in and around United Kingdom. One of the most impacted industries are the automotive industry. The UK’s automotive industry has been one of the ‘star performers’ of the UK economy in recent years – unlike most other manufacturing sectors. Output has increased by 60% since 2010 and there has been over £8bn worth of investment in the industry in the last four years. The industry supports some 800,000 jobs in the UK (Bailey and De Propris 2017).

The awareness stage can help educate staff about the need for change to help them adapt. Also, the ADKAR model suggests building the desire for change to help in the transition that can be essential if the automotive industry applies it.

The automotive industry can use Lewin’s model of change management to adapt and benefit from the change. The model considers three stages of change management which include unfreezing, changing, and refreezing (Cummings et al. 2016).

Automotive companies like Toyota, Nissan are feeling the pressure of the changes that BREXIT will bring to the economy. Earlier this month JLR confirmed it was cutting 4,500 jobs, blaming Brexit uncertainty, a slump in diesel sales, and China’s economic slowdown. The carmaker also said it would extend its annual April shutdown by an extra week because of worries that just-in-time deliveries could be disrupted if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.

                       Source: therecruitmentsolution.co.uk

Conclusion

The news of Brexit came like a red alert of the business involved. Nothing ln this scale has ever happened in the recent history. The companies should adapt and find a way to circumvent BREXIT or at least diminish the effect of it. The automotive industry can make use of the Lewin’s Change Model and make changes. The companies are already in the phase scaling down so that the process of change can be smooth. The environment or economy rarely stays the same, they always change, and the companies should be able to adapt with them

Reference

Todnem By, R. (2019) Organisational Change Management: A Critical Review [online] available from <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14697010500359250?scroll=top&needAccess=true&gt; [13 April 2019]

Bailey, D. and De Propris, L. (2017) “Brexit And the UK Automotive Industry”. National Institute Economic Review 242 (1), R51-R59

Cummings, S., Bridgman, T. and Brown, K.G., 2016. Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. Human relations, 69(1), pp.33-60.

Leadership comes in many styles. Not everyone is going to be receptive to one style. If one style of leadership is working in a company that doesn’t mean it will be a success in a different company. In Figure1, we can see some of the

        Figure 1; Source: http://www.jsw.org.au                                

According to (9 Common Leadership Styles: Which Type of Leader Are You? – TEC 2019). The most famous Leadership Styles are

1. Transformational Leadership
2. Transactional Leadership
3. Servant Leadership
4. Autocratic Leadership
5. Laissez-faire Leadership
6. Democratic Leadership
7. Bureaucratic Leadership
8. Charismatic Leadership
9. Situational Leadership

The present world has made leadership harder and harder. Competition levels have increased, and a lot of pressure has been exerted by several bodies. The modern world demands a leader that can adverse in these conditions. The 20th century leadership theories are not suitable for knowledge-based economies. Others have criticized how theories of leadership are mostly male theories based on Western practices of working.

Females are more likely than males to indicate that they use an interactive style of management called transformational leadership. This leadership style was found to be correlated with several management skills associated with success. (Burke and Collins 2001)

The focus on more recent theories necessarily means to neglect classical leadership approaches, such as the trait approach, the behaviour or style approach, and the situational leadership approach. These theories are criticized for their determined and narrow perspective, which fails to cover leadership reality. Classical approaches assume that there is a unidirectional personal influence of the leader on the followers (Winkler 2013). On the other hand, contemporary leadership addresses the issues of gender, empowerment, team leadership, and shaping the moral dimension of leadership. Females hindered leadership positions in the traditional styles of leadership and the transition is not yet complete.

CHALLENGES

The following are the challenges faces by a leader

• Developing Managerial Effectiveness—The challenge of developing the relevant skills—such as time management, prioritization, strategic thinking, decision-making, and getting up to speed with the job—to be more effective at work.

• Inspiring Others—The challenge of inspiring or motivating others to ensure they are satisfied with their jobs; how to motivate a workforce to work smarter.

• Developing Employees—The challenge of developing others, including topics around mentoring and coaching.

• Leading a Team—The challenge of team-building, team development, and team management; how to instil pride in a team or support the team, how to lead a big team, and what to do when taking over a new team.

• Guiding Change—The challenge of managing, mobilizing, understanding, and leading change. How to mitigate change consequences, overcome resistance to change, and deal with employees’ reaction to change.

• Managing Internal Stakeholders and Politics—The challenge of managing relationships, politics, and image. Gaining managerial support and managing up; getting buy-in from other departments, groups, or individuals.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Customize the Leadership
2. More Strategic Approach
3. Give preference to Customers

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

Leadership is one of the skills I am lacking. Identifying your weakness is an important part of development. Acknowledging the problem and tacking it head on is the way to go ahead. Since I am from my leadership style is eastern influenced.The main challenge for a company who decide to expand globally is to be able to manage cultural differences. From earlier research, a foreign company in China must deal with the lack of a Western leader that understands Chinese culture and a small Chinese employee able to work well in Western multinational corporations (Wang 2011).

A study shows that project managers that they can adapt their leadership behaviours in order to enhance subordinates’ organizational commitment, improve work performance, and consequently increase a positive working atmosphere (Limsila and Ogunlana 2008). As I evolve as a Leader and a human I will try to adapt my strategies and take into account that there is no one size-fits-all approach to leadership

Reference

9 Common Leadership Styles: Which Type Of Leader Are You? – TEC (2019) available from <https://tec.com.au/resource/9-common-leadership-styles-which-type-of-leader-are-you/&gt; [13 April 2019]

Winkler, I. (2013) Contemporary Leadership Theories Enhancing the Understanding of the Complexity, Subjectivity and Dynamic of Leadership. Heidelberg, Neckar: Physica-Verlag

Wang, B. (2011) Cultural understanding is essential for effective leadership in China [online] available from <https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/cultural-understanding-is-essential-for-effective-leadership-in-china&nbsp; > [17 March 2019]

Burke, S. and Collins, K. (2001) “Gender Differences In Leadership Styles And Management Skills”. Women In Management Review 16 (5), 244-257

Limsila, K. and Ogunlana, S. (2008) “Performance And Leadership Outcome Correlates Of Leadership Styles And Subordinate Commitment”. Engineering, Construction And Architectural Management 15 (2), 164-184