To begin with, I think I possess different leadership styles depending on different levels of problems, situations, and different personalities of colleagues. Leadership styles that suit me best are transformational leadership and participative leadership. Before going through the model or theory, I would like to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths and Weaknesses
From what I observe myself and what others say about me, one of my strengths is to communicate effectively. I think communication is to key because people cannot work and achieve the goals when lack of communication. I am a good listener and always display empathy. Moreover, according to my performance at the university, I am responsible for both individual and group assignments. I excel at time management as I can prioritize what tasks should be done first. During the academic period, there were lots of group work and the results turned out well and effective. I think establishing good and positive working relationships among team members is essential because when people feel good with each other, they will be happy working together and the outcomes will also be positive.
Personally, I am a dependent person so that sometimes I feel like I have high self-esteem. However, I tried to lower my self-esteem and listen more to others’ opinions. Moreover, lack of creativity is also another weakness of me. I think that sometimes, the ideas I came up with are not really new and fresh because when I look up on the Internet. Somebody has already thought about that. I try to generate new ideas as much as possible but lots of time that I failed. Therefore, I try to fix this by checking out other people’s ideas, reading, and watching as much as possible. Then, I will create my work from what I have been inspired.
I think the leadership theory that best represents myself is a democratic leader. To define the democratic leadership, it also known as leadership or shared leadership. This theory was introduced by Kurt Lewin when he worked with his co-workers Lippett and White for 1939 publication, Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates (Tough Nickel Author, 2016). This type of leadership is the style where workers will have to be active and participative in the decision-making process. Benefits of this leadership style are such as high productivity, more ideas, and group members feeling engaged (Cherry, 2018). Furthermore, democratic leadership allows high flexibility, meaning that the leader is adaptable to how to do things in the better ways (Leadership Tool Box, 2018). As mentioned I am not quite a creative person, as a result, this style helps me fix my weakness because the new ideas also come from group members during the brainstorming. Whenever it comes to group projects, what I do is that I have been leading the group members, listening to their ideas and opinions, seeking the consensus to continue working on the projects.
The future career of my choice would definitely be a business owner. I think participative leadership will help me become a successful and effective leader for my business. In fact, this leadership style is applicable for almost every business sector since it enables opportunities to engage team members, encourage the creative and innovative environment, allows strong and positive working connections. All these are also keys to success for business (Miller, 2017). For the plans, when doing the business, I can apply this theory which is making my team members feel valued and comfortable to express the ideas and exchange the information. I would focus on the discussion and communication to make tasks more productive and focused on the company’s goals. In addition, as a participative leader, I will be ready to commit, meaning that my team members can make sure that I will do what I promise to my team. When it comes to disagreement among the team, I respect and listen to every opinion from my team as my company philosophy is employee-centered, not job-centered. I have a strong belief that happy employees will lead to effective and productive work.
All in all, I am confident that I can develop skills and leadership styles to be a better leader in the future. During my academic years, my team members have always been happy to work with me because they feel like I am an open-minded, not an egocentric person and gave them a chance to speak up their minds. As a democratic leader, I am also going to continue working by taking the importance of communication, teamwork, and exchanging ideas into my considerations.
References
Kendra, C. (2018) What Is Democratic Leadership? [online] available from<https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-democratic-leadership-2795315; [20 November 2018]
Leadership Tool Box. (2018) Leadership Styles: Democratic Leadership Style [online] available from<https://www.leadership-toolbox.com/democratic-leadership-style.html; [20 November 2018]
Olive, M. (2017) 8 Pros and Cons of the Democratic Leadership Style [online] available from<https://medium.com/democraticleadership/8-pros-and-cons-of-the-democratic-leadership-style-5b668f070c1b; [20 November 2018]
Psychologia Editor. (n.d.) Participative Leadership Theory and Decision-making Style [online] available from<https://psychologia.co/participative-leadership/; [20 November 2018]
Tough Nickel Author. (2016) The History of Leadership Studies and Evolution of Leadership Theories [online] available from<https://toughnickel.com/business/The-History-of-Leadership-Studies-and-Evolution-of-Leadership-Theories; [20 November 2018]
Leading in a Changing World 
Do you really think that participative leadership suits today’s world business?
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There are disadvantages and advantages for all leadership theories. Everything has two sides. For participative leadership that I am familiar with, I would say that it can apply to all business. For instance, the idea that employees want to feel valued. It is true. When working, you want to feel like you are a part of the team, a part to make a decision, a part to feel committed. All these lead to achieving the goals because you will have the motivation to continue working even if as the company, it might consume time in terms of decision making but I think it worth wasting time for.
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What if you let your employees make the decision and the outcome turned out unsatisfied, what would you do as the CEO?
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As I mentioned, communication is the key. Before start working on something, my employees and I will sit down and discuss the actions and the results in many different perspectives. If I know that those decisions are bad. As a CEO, I will show my expertise and use persuasive communication to make my team agree with what we are going to do. All the plans must be clear and achievable so that all my employees know what steps they have to take.
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You stated on the article that sometimes you have a high self-esteem. It is quite contradictory that you also mentioned you best represents participative leadership.
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Yes, I did state that. However, I think everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses that we need to get them fixed. For me, sometimes I have a high self-esteem, however, listening to people is also another thing I can do well. Despite personalities I possessed, my working behaviors are different. I like to work with team because I realize the importance of team work and human management because people are the key to help the company achieve the goals and objectives.
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If you become a future leader, what would you do in your business to make it successful?
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I am not sure if you have heard about Drucker’s theory. This is one of my favorite theories. There are five operations of leaders. Leaders must first set mutual goals and objectives, organize the task to the right worker, motivate and communicate in the team, establish the target, and develop employees in the company. These are key steps I would take as a future leader.
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Don’t you think that democratic leadership will not work if the workers are inactive?
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I agree with you on this point. Basically, the democratic leadership (participative leadership) will work in the organization where the employees are very active and participative in the decision making process. However, as a CEO of the company, in the process of recruiting the employees, I can see who will be best fit my organization. That means the workers in my company will be people who are willing to share ideas and express feelings and thoughts.
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What would you do differently from others as a future leader?
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That’s a tough one. Well I think what I do differently would be that instead of growing organization, I will self-sacrifice to grow my people first. My team and all workers can contribute to the company’s success so that employee development are critical. I will create and develop my people in a way that technology cannot be replaced.
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I am sure you can be a good leader in the future. Keep up your good work. I wondered one thing you mentioned in the article that you want to be a business owner. In your perspective, what core values or beliefs you would like to share to employees within the organization if you become a leader in the future?
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Core values I would choose in my organizational culture would be Reliability, Loyalty, Commitment, Respect, Efficiency, and Open-mindedness. I think these core values are necessary for today’s world business. My people will then be positively influenced by these values.
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After I’ve read the article. I feel you also suit with transactional leadership. Why don’t you try both democratic and transactional leaderships together?
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Thank you for your suggestion. And yes, you’re right that we can adapt different theories at one time for better and more effective outcomes. For me, transactional leadership also can work as employees will be kept motivated through rewards and punishments. However, it lasts only for short-term which I think I prefer to manage people in a long-term. Anyway, I’ll try follow your advice.
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May I ask what are the common characteristics of a good leader?
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Common characteristics for the leaders are honesty, confidence, good communicator, ability to inspire and motivate, good listener, positive attitude, empathy, and commitment.
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A quick question from me. Who is your role model leaders that you follow?
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Two role models I follow their leadership skills are Steve Jobs and Nelson Mandela.
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