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EI Leadership Styles
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OBLD 641 Resonant Leadership: Leading Change
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Introduction
Authoritative leaders have complete control because they set goals and expect results. The leader also oversees all tasks and seeks little or no worker input. Again, an authoritative leader sets a clear vision of what should be accomplished and highlights some challenges that workers or followers may confront along the way (Goleman, 2017). Overall, the plan for helping people or followers get to a certain goal or objective is within the leader’s control.
Authoritative leaders value enthusiasm and want to inspire it in their team members. They are also committed and want team members too to commit. Another distinguishing factor is that they have a higher degree of emotional intelligence, meaning they can connect and identify effectively with followers (Knights, 2022). The leader can also connect with the challenges or barriers that followers go through.
Why is this my best style?
Authoritative leaders want to be in control of issues and seek little or no input from workers. This style is the best fit for me as a someone who is a leader in the military, which is an extremely hierarchical environment. I will need someone who can coach or mentor me because I although I am a Senior Noncommissioned Officer, I am stepping into a level of leadership that I am lacking in experience with. I am also developing skills that will prove important or useful in the future.
I recognize that I have to submit to a more experienced senior leader who will help me grow. The person should also help me identify my strengths and areas I should direct my energy and attention. This is a person who has a good understanding of talent and people’s capabilities and how these create or determine organizational effectiveness (Boyatzis, 2009). I believe an experienced, authoritative leader has competency, experience, or research, and they can help me identify my skills and abilities. If I am low or weak in all areas, the mentor or authoritative leader can help me develop competencies.
An authoritative leader can demonstrate behavior that meets or serves my ends. For example, I believe the leader will ask questions or issues related to my future career aspirations. The pro-junior worker behavior will make me be more interested in working for growth (McKee et al., 2008). Elsewhere, I am sure authoritative leaders demonstrate empathy because they know the priorities, thoughts, and situations of a person starting to work these positions. Gaining an understanding of my personal views is a way of demonstrating that they want to influence or shape my career success.
Authoritative leaders have a higher degree of emotional intelligence that makes or allows them to be good at managing teams (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005). They also offer appropriate guidelines because they immerse themselves in the barriers or challenges that followers or juniors go through. I am betting on my leader’s emotional intelligence to predict my performance outcomes across different domains. The performance ratings will be based on my individual productivity, meaning I can make career decision on the areas I should focus on.
The overall goal of working is to be of help or value to an organization. Working under the guidance and advice of an authoritative leader can help me deliver optimal performance. I will also be under mentorship or training, implying I will be improving my performance every day. In another sphere, I trust the mentorship process will contribute to or improve other aspects such as teamwork, interpersonal relationships, stress tolerance, and leadership potential (Cherniss et al., 2006). Overall, I will rely on my mentors to get advice on the job I can keep or hold based on my cognitive intelligence and overall performance in the jobs I will be assigned.
How the Authoritative style has worked for me
The authoritative leadership style allows people or followers to follow a leader even if they are unwilling because of the support, mentorship, and training they get from the leader. The idea that I am learning increases the chances of committing to an organization. I learned important things or issues related to the organization now that I have become part of it. For example, I learned the vision of the organization and how I could carry it effectively. The leadership style was appropriate because basic things or issues, such as the organization’s mission and vision, should be learned within a short-term under controlled conditions or an authoritative leadership style.
Authoritative leaders mitigate most of the risks because they give tasks and clear guidelines on how to execute a goal. This helped me grow and learn without the fear of committing errors (Online Learning College, 2022). My leader was also emotionally intelligent because they used my performance in one task to determine another where I could excel or perform. In the end, I ended up doing a lot of different tasks and gaining knowledge and experience. Sometimes, I was also given another supervisor to review my work. This gave me a chance to get feedback and supervision from more than one person. In another sphere, the close monitoring or supervision made me learn working norms that govern people or work faster.
I am a loyal and devoted follower of my workplace and my boss because they embraced my lack of experience in my first days in my position. I am loyal because I gleaned that they have a good plan or a way of welcoming new personnel. The entire training program for new members in leadership positions is not an isolated service, meaning the work I did on day one counted (Veale, 2010).
I liked how the organization deployed the authoritative leadership style because there was little room for error while taking part in complex decision-making. Another important fact I gleaned is that authoritative leadership was the best style for me because of every checks-and-balances, especially in the processes I was using to do most of the tasks.
When this style has not worked in my favor
The style did not work in my favor when my mentor or leader micromanaged or over-supervised some sensitive tasks. The leader did not disclose why they were sensitive at the time of assigning. I only learned of their high importance after some time. I would have appreciated it if I had been informed, but the nature of this leadership style does not compel a leader to be democratic or narrate so many things to the follower. democratic and participatory because they rake in huge profits.
In conclusion, the authoritative leadership style serves me well. I am not planning to underrate or dismiss the style until I have gained enough experience in these new leadership positions to start branching off on my own. Again, the style serves me better because it is designed to allow sharing of experience or knowledge about work. The style is also fit for my training or specialization needs because I have not settled on a career progression path. As such, I will be patient or keep on learning until I have a sharp focus on where I want to be.
References
Boyatzis, R. & McKee, A. (2005). Resonant leadership: Renewing yourself and connecting with others through mindfulness, hope and compassion (5th Ed.). Harvard Business Publishing.
Boyatzis, R. E. (2009). Competencies as a behavioral approach to emotional intelligence. Journal of Management Development, 28(9), 749-770.
Cherniss, C., Extein, M., Goleman, D., & Weissberg, R. P. (2006). Emotional intelligence: what does the research really indicate?. Educational psychologist, 41(4), 239-245.
Goleman, D. (2017). Leadership that gets results (Harvard business review classics). Harvard Business Press.
Knights, J. (2022). Authoritative Leadership – Six Styles of Emotional Leadership. Vistatec. https://vistatec.com/leadership-style-authoritative/#:~:text=anAuthoritativeLeader-,WhatistheAuthoritativeLeadershipStyle,forhelpingeveryonegetthere.
McKee, A., Boyatzis, R. & Johnston, F. (2008). Becoming a resonant leader (8th Ed.). Harvard Business Publishing.
Online Learning College (2022). What is Authoritative Leadership? Online Learning College. https://online-learning-college.com/knowledge-hub/business/authoritative-leadership/
Veale, N. W. (2010). A Comparison between Collaborative and Authoritative Leadership Styles of Special Education Administrators. Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals, 147, 156.
