The aforementioned stories have covered some of the most significant moments in my leadership journey. Through these stories I have shown how my leadership style has been formed and why that is the case. To begin with, a study by the journal of Advances in Management claims that “leadership is a social influence process in which the leader seeks the voluntary participation of subordinates in an effort to reach their goals” (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014). To seek the voluntary participation of others a leader must have certain skills. These skills have been split into two areas by Victor Dulewicz and Malcolm Higgs. First, there are competency areas. These are the abilities to envision, engage, enable, inquire, and develop (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2004). Next, there are personal characteristics. These are authenticity, integrity, will, self-belief and self-awareness (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2004). These skills are configured differently in each leader and are closely related to what sort of leadership style that leader is more predisposed to. However, leadership styles are also impacted by the environment of an individual. A study conducted by the journal of Engineering Economics suggested that the external environment of an organisation can influence the leadership style of their CEO, and that based on what external environmental factors impact the business the leadership style of the CEO has a profound impact on its success (Jelaca, et al., 2020). It is important to also realise that the four leadership styles are not completely disassociated from one another. My leadership journey has taught me that I mostly conform to the idea of being a quiet charismatic leader mixed with a contingency leader. This is reflected in my most recent iteration of my leadership statement:
I am a USyd graduate who is soon to enter his career as a logistics graduate at Kuehne & Nagel. I believe in leading through action, as well as through words. I have found success in leading people by being composed and confident in the face of adversity and by recognising the skills of others. I value honesty, going the extra mile for someone, and compassion.
This mixed approach to leadership has come about purely because leadership is based on who you are and what you have been exposed to. It is axiomatically impossible for everyone to be perfectly predisposed to a specific leadership style. This is why everyone is different, and why each world leader has a slightly different approach to leadership. A study in the journal of International Business Research agrees, suggesting that “leadership is not only inborn but can be developed if one focuses on the inborn preferences” (Sethuraman & Suresh, 2014). This is why an individual’s leadership statement is constantly changing. In the first story it is clear that I was predisposed to a more transactional leadership style through my parents and teachers. My thoughts on leadership were limited to the status quo of being a child and being told what to do. When my friends got into a fight my first reaction was to try to tell them what to do. However, I soon realised that this was not within my nature. I was a quiet kid and did not want to shout at people to stop arguing with one another. My leadership statement then would have been along the likes of the following:
I am a student at Epsom Normal Primary School. I respect my teachers and parents and learn a lot from them. I try to stop people doing bad things by explaining why they are bad and telling them what to do instead.
This is a very limited leadership statement due to the fact that I was young, I had little life experience and was unable to fully explore my own ideas on the matter. In the second story I am old enough to know what sort of personality traits I am naturally predisposed to and what sort of skills I have. I recognise that I was too quiet to shout at people and did not have the authority to delegate tasks. I realised that I was not able to take on a traditionally transactional or transformational leadership style. I had to adapt to what I was naturally able to do. My leadership was a lot more closely linked to a quiet version of a charismatic style of leadership. My leadership statement at the time would have been something like this:
I am a student at Saint Kentigern College. I am compassionate and I want to help those around me. I value people who respect me and are willing to listen to what I have to say. I try to afford that same respect to those around me.
This leadership statement shows that I was supporting the students through one-on-one conversations and giving them advice based on my own experience. I was not telling them what to do, how to do it or why they need to change.
In the final story it becomes clear why I have adapted to my current leadership statement. I have learned to use what I already have access to. I recognise the fact that I am not a naturally loud individual, but I can have an impact on someone in a one-on-one conversation. This is why I class myself as a quiet charismatic leader mixed with a contingency leader. Each leadership style has its strengths and weaknesses. Each leadership style is suited to different types of people. Some situations require people to change to fit a certain leadership style. Some situations require a leadership style to change to the person. Sometimes, individuals do not fit into a specific leadership style but rather take parts of many leadership approaches and mix them together.
The ‘Managing Post-Crisis Through Action Research’ course and its action research project have played a large role in my leadership journey. This is because it exposed me to the theories I have been discussing above. I was also able to fully explore them during the group project. Our group project was focused on the different opportunities afforded to domestic USyd Business School graduates in comparison to their international counterparts, and what we could do to help solve this issue. This was my final project for university, so I was very keen to make it a good one. I wanted to take a leadership role within the team, but I knew my limitations based on previous experiences at university and beforehand. Within the first few weeks the team was trying to get to know one another and there was no real direction, and nobody was taking a real leadership position. However, after a few weeks we were able to find our places in the team and I was able to figure out how I could impact the team in a way which was not counter-productive. I found that I was basing my leadership on my current leadership statement, but I was also gaining some valuable action research and leadership skills due to the course work we were doing alongside the project. A major skill I learned was the ability to find my own place to work so that I am comfortable and confident. This was a great skill take on as it helped me harness my current leadership style to a greater degree. My team and I never changed our seating arrangement and always sat at the same table. This meant that we were all mentally ready and focused when class started. I was able to then be confident and switched on to what was going on. This made me a better leader as I was able to lead how I was naturally able to. A skill that I want to develop is the ability to express a vision to a group. I think this would be beneficial in the future when I am working in the logistics industry. I want to be able to gain the confidence of clients during meetings, not only in one-on-one conversations. The lack of this skill impacted my contributions to the group project as I was unable to full express my opinion on a matter during a group meeting but would rather need to win over my group members one at a time. Being exposed to more public speaking, and taking some courses to improve these skills would be beneficial.
References
Sethuraman, K., & Suresh, J. (2014). Effective leadership styles. International Business Research, 7(9), 165–172. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v7n9p165
Dulewicz, V., & Higgs, M. (2005). Assessing leadership styles and organisational context. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 20(2), 105–123. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940510579759
Jelača, M., Milićević, N., Bjekić, R., & Petrov, V. (2020). The effects of environment uncertainty and leadership styles on organisational innovativeness. Engineering Economics, 31(4), 472–486. https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.31.4.20948
Nanjundeswaraswamy, Dr & Swamy, D R. (2014). Leadership styles. Advances In Management, E-ISSN No.: 2278-4551. 7. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dr-Nanjundeswaraswamy-2/publication/272509462_Leadership_styles/links/5b5e8707458515c4b25226d6/Leadership-styles.pdf
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