Essay Sample on Transformational Leadership: Achieving Team Project Goals

Introduction

Leadership is essential during a team project as members belonging to different groups are assigned different tasks for the same project. The team leader needs to adopt the best approach to achieve the project goals. During the project team that I was involved in this year, I applied a transformational leadership approach. This approach helped in leading the team effectively; enhance positive, meaningful changes (Hawkins, 2017). Through this approach, I have been able to exercise some of my strengths, such as persuading my team members to work hard and deliver the tasks assigned to them on time. This leadership approach also helped me to guide my team members in completing our projects and compiling them neatly and later submitting them. I have been a role model and a source of inspiration for my team members. However, I have had a weakness of ineffective communication, which I have worked hard to improve, and I have successfully made meaningful progress. The main hindrance to my effective leadership is handling arguments among the team members. Although arguments cannot be limited, they can be managed effectively to ensure that the team members are not discouraged from contributing. Also, too much time is not consumed in arguments.

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The two major leadership approaches that I normally apply are transformational leadership and servant leadership. During the previous semesters, I used servant leadership, where my service was complete to the team members and their interests came first. In servant leadership, the team members are involved in decision making. Servant leadership is similar to transformational leadership in that when using either of the approaches, the leader commits to the team members' growth and prioritizes their interests (Hawkins, 2017). Servant leadership is different from transformational leadership as a leader who adopts the earlier approach focuses on the needs of the team members rather than that of the organization. On the contrary, transformational leaders focus on the objectives of the organization.

Progress in Developing the Leadership Skill

Communication is a skill that is very critical in leadership, and if a leader faces challenges communicating, then they will not lead effectively. To improve my communication skill, I have reading books, magazines, and addressing people in various gatherings, focusing on my message, engaging the audience, responding to the audience, and listening without being judgmental. I feel that I have highly succeeded in improving my communication skill, and this has improved my leadership this semester.

The effectiveness of communication can be measured by the responses or feedback that you get as well as the level of audience engagement (Muszynska, 2018). I measured my progress in improving my communication skill by noting the number of responses or feedback from the team members and the members' turnover. During my leadership this semester, I have noted that the level of engagement has increased, and the team members are actively listening and asking questions. There has been decreased absenteeism also which has helped in completing our project on time as none of the members has been absent on any scheduled team discussion meeting.

Some of the challenges in improving communication skills are communication inconsistencies, not listening to the audience, and assuming that they understand jargon (Muszynska, 2018). The main challenge that I faced in executing my action plan was inconsistency in communication, which made team members assume meaning due to lack of clarity. Going forward, I will continue engaging my team members by asking questions and giving feedback. I will encourage teamwork so that each member can be actively involved in conducting group tasks. I will work on communicating clearly and handling arguments among team members more effectively.

Personal Leadership Philosophy

Personal leadership philosophy entails the kind of leadership that one embraces in terms of leadership attributes and strategies used to guide others. The leadership philosophy also includes personal values and beliefs that guide one in making the right decisions (Messina & Wilde, 2017). My personal philosophy includes a dedication to my work regardless of the work that I might be doing. I believe in offering the best service and doing perfect work to the best of my ability. I believe doing the work in the best way helps me to identify my strengths and weaknesses. Identifying my abilities and weaknesses helps me make the right decision for my future endeavors. The philosophy is reflected when I was a class representative on the board of students. I served my classmates with determination.

I believe leadership is for serving the interests of the people who I lead or the organization that I work for; this helps me to remain focused on serving the people that I lead. Serving the interests of the people makes me engage the people through interactions that enable me to identify the challenges that the people face and their recommendations and ideas of how the people believe the challenges can be dealt with (Messina & Wilde, 2017). The philosophy of being accountable to the people I serve makes me be focused on my responsibilities am tasked with because I know that the people I serve expect results from my engagements.

There are various leadership theories that guide leaders on how to manage challenges and develop solutions experienced in leadership. The theories include style and behavior theory that acknowledges the significance of leadership skills in enabling the leaders to perform their functions effectively (Ahmed, Nawaz & Khan, 2016). There re challenges experienced in leadership that require one to have personal attributes that enable the leader to deal with leadership challenges. The style and behavior of the leaders help in connecting the leader and the people being led by the leader to address the concerns of the people. The theory argues that personal leadership traits inspire confidence and trust among the people, which as key to creating a good working environment.

The trait theory also explains the importance of leaders to have traits that enable them to perform their functions effectively. The trait theory argues that leadership skills are inborn, where people are born with characteristics that enable the person to work and lead the people (Ahmed, Nawaz & Khan, 2016). The theory relies on the intelligence and personal characteristic of the person. The personal traits of a person influence the success of the leader in coordinating activities and managing people that work towards realizing a certain goal. The personal traits of the leader influence how the people one is leading reacts to the guidance provided by the leader.

Conclusion

I have learned that personal values and beliefs influence leadership; therefore, it's important for leaders to have values and beliefs that help them offer leadership and guidance to the people they lead. There also leadership lessons that I have learned as a result of taking this course, which include that personal values and beliefs influence the effectiveness of the leader (Messina & Wilde, 2017). The second leadership lesson that I have learned include that it's the responsibility of the leader to inspire and guide employees towards the goal that the leader wants the organization to achieve. The third thing that I have learned is that leadership is an art that people learn daily to improve their leadership skills.

References

Ahmed, Z., Nawaz, A., & Khan, I. (2016). (PDF) Leadership Theories and Styles: A Literature Review. Retrieved 1 July 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293885908_Leadership_Theories_and_Styles_A_Literature_Review#:~:text=Main%20theories%20that%20emerged%20during,and%20Laissez%20Faire%20leadership%20theory.

Hawkins, P. (2017). Leadership team coaching: Developing collective transformational leadership. Kogan Page Publishers.

Messina, P., & Wilde, R. (2017). Developing a Collective Leadership Philosophy. Public Management, 13-15.

Muszynska, K. (2018). A concept for measuring the effectiveness of communication in project teams. Journal of Economics & Management, 33, 63-79.