- Transformational Leadership
According to the Transformational Leadership Scale, I scored high on charisma/idealized influence, individual consideration, and transactional behavior. My overall score was 54, which indicates that I am on my way to becoming a transformational leader. High score on idealized influence shows that I am a role model who shows mutual respect and trust, as well as, dedication to my followers. With individualized consideration, I learn by mentoring and coaching others and help people realize their full potential, while at the same time empathizing with those who have difficulties (Northouse, 2021). High transactional score shows that I act decisively to ensure poor performance does not reoccur.
I utilize idealized influence and individualized consideration in my workplace as mental health specialist to shift my team’s views on how things should work by convincing them to step out of their comfort zone to offer quality patient care. To do so, I also use empathy and the ability to inspire confidence (Northouse, 2021). These behaviors help me establish expectation for my team to recognize thoughts and ideas. Further, I provide my team members with the desired incentive to complete tasks while combining it with threat of corrective action for performance failure, for instance, a negative review. I believe using transactional behavior, somehow absolves me of any failures by a member of my team to meet the group’s objective or goal since I am following our organization’s guidelines for dealing with worker behavior.
One of the laissez-faire behaviors that is holding me back and I would like to stop is failure to guide my teams. I think I need to cultivate more trust and become confident of my team members that they possess the right skills and knowledge on mental health, and follow-through to complete tasks without too much intereference (Northouse, 2021). Further, I need to constantly check in on my team’s performance, provide constructive and consistent feedback, and make sure that everyone knows their roles within the team. I need to get better at defining roles for my team members and guide them to be sure what is expected of them.
- Destructive Leadership
The destructive leadership score for my supervisor is 2 and less which indicates that they have low levels of destructive leader behavior. Although I have never worked under a supervisor who is highly destructive, I can single out a manager who was overcontrolling. The supervisor’s behavior sabotaged tasks within our teams and impaired our effectiveness and motivation. The individual liked followers who did not challenge his ideas and punished those who did not agree with him. He would assign a lot of work to anyone he considered hostile to his opinions, leading to staff turnover within his first six months.
I believe overwhelming job demands made him hostile to those who challenged his opinions. The work environment changed from amicable to one characterized by fear, anxiety, and distrust. Employees started to retaliate through reduced work efforts. Exposure to the undermining and non-supportive supervisor led to high job-strain, burnout, and fatigue for the employees who went against him (Aravena, 2019). Further, the work environment involved dissatisfaction and emotional exhaustion.
I have engaged in micromanagement of teams, which I found tended to dent the morale of the teams as it led to mistrust. It also limited the teams’ capacity for growth. From the results we got from our projects, it became clear to me that micromanagement hinders the team’s ability to focus on the most important issues. I found out that it is important to let the team performed with greater accountability and limited interference.
To avoid destructive leadership behaviors, I need to ask myself why I micromanage and reflect on my need for control. I will need to prioritize tasks and projects that matter most, and talk to my team about how I would want them update me with their progress (Aravena, 2019). It would be important to reflect on my behavior, get feedback, and build trust.
- Commitment to Action
The actions I will take in the upcoming days to practice transformational leadership include having solid integrity to inspire trust from my team members and encourage them to work together to make our organization’s vision a reality. I will apply idealized influence to not ask followers to do things that I would not be willing to do myself. This will require setting an example for everyone by taking on risk. I will inspire my teams to embrace innovative ideas and attain higher levels of performance. I will provide each member of my team with personal attention and motivate them to become better at what they do (Northouse, 2021).
I also think I need to belief in others and understand that each person in the team brings valuable contribution. This will involve considering what works for my team members and rewarding their good ideas, as well as, empowering them to develop such ideas. It will be crucial to combine recognition with coaching. I will also need to practice taking personal accountability by deciding to have the choice and power to affect change. one of the things I have learned that differentiate transformational leaders from other types of leaders is the ability to keep one’s ego in check, by putting the best interests of team members and the organization before personal gains.
References
Aravena, F. (2019). Destructive leadership behavior: An exploratory study in Chile. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 18(1), 83-96.
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice, (9th Ed.). Sage Publications, Inc.
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