Assignment

Write a three to four page paper (not including the title and reference pages) about your leadership factors according to the Authentic Leadership Self-Assessment Questionnaire. Your paper needs to:

• Explain the scores you received on the Authentic Leadership Self-Assessment Questionnaire.
• Describe your perception of the accuracy of these measures.
• Discuss the implications of the scores for your effectiveness as a leader.
• Give specific examples to support your ideas of effective leadership.

In addition to the requirements above, your paper:

• Must be double-spaced and 12 point font
• Must be formatted according to APA style
• Must include an introductory paragraph with a thesis statement
• Must conclude with a restatement of the thesis and a conclusion paragraph
• Must reference at least two scholarly resources
• Must include a reference page written in APA format

Chapter 12

Transformational Leadership: What does this mean to each of you? Do you know anyone that you would consider a transformational leader? Is this a style that you would consider your own leadership to fall under? There are several definitions out there on what a transformational leader would be.

According to Ozzaralli (2003), "leaders who create a dynamic organizational vision that often necessitates a culture of values to reflect greater innovation" (p. 337).

According to Rouche (1989), another definition would be "transformational leadership in terms of the ability of a leader to influence the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors or others by working with and through them in order to accomplish the organization's mission and purpose" (Sasiadek, 2006, p. 37-38).

Lastly as determined by Byham and Cox (1994), "transformational leadership behaviors are related positively to several important organizational outcomes, including perceived extra effort, organizational citizenship behaviors and job satisfaction" (Sasiadek, 2006, p. 39).

As you can see there are many definitions of transformational leadership. One of the basic elements here is that these are dynamic leaders that go beyond just leading, but actually share their values and beliefs and help others to be a part of something great that will lead to the outcome desired. Who can you think of that would be a transformational leader? Some that come to mind are Oprah Winfrey, President Ronald Reagan and Bill Gates.

Below is a video on a Transformational Leader. As you watch this, see if you can identify the elements that set Oprah apart from the other leadership styles discussed in our readings this week.

Oprah Winfrey- A Transformational Leader (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://youtu.be/9zDMoj7D3b8)

Servant Leadership: Can anyone be a servant leadership? Do you have to be in a leadership role to be a servant leader? This is a leader that gives everything they have to serve the greater good. Who can you think of that fit this type of leadership style? How about Jesus Christ, Harriet Tubman and Abraham Lincoln.

According to Ramsey (2003) and Sasiadek (2006), there are ten ways to accomplish servant leadership. They are as follows:

1. Get to know every employee as a unique human being. Know their names, something about their families, their lives, their interests and what makes them individual.

2. Manage, while walking around, to see what needs to be done in order for employees to have higher productivity. This is not to catch them doing something wrong, but more or less a reinforce.

3. Practice open management; keep employees fully informed. Tell the truth and nothing but the truth.

4. Model productive behavior. Lead by influence.

5. Make empowerment more than a cliché. Delegate real decision making authority.

6. To be a teacher, mentor, coach and cheerleader.

7. Buffer employees from undue pressure, distractions, or interruptions.

8. Give employees many choices and second chances.

9. Provide growth opportunities for all employees.

10. Become a prospector for resource. Find a way to get whatever your work needs to succeed (Sasiadek, 2006, p. 36).

Below are two videos that will also help illustrate servant leadership. The first one is a really interesting one that many will be able to relate to. See what you think and if you are able to connect the first one on the list above to this video.

Authentic Leadership: Authentic leadership is one that is very interesting and yet very confusing. There are several areas between the servant leadership that cross over into authentic leadership. For example; one of the videos below describes Gandhi as an authentic leader, yet his style of leadership was certainly that of a servant leader. So how can we distinguish the difference between the two?

According to Nayab (2010), "the major difference between servant leadership and authentic leadership lies in approach, application and style" (para. 1).

The core principle of servant leadership is to give priority to the interest of others. The primary duty of the leader is to serve others by fulfilling their needs, aspirations, and desires. Authentic leadership, on the other hand, does not encourage the leader to be too responsive to the desires of others. Going overboard to meet the desires of each individual creates problems such as:

· Organizational goals suffering due to competing interests

· Danger of deviating from course of action

· Leader not making difficult decisions due to fear of offending (Nayab, 2010, para. 12).