There is an old saying that leaders are made, not born. While some may disagree with this saying, I personally feel that nobody can truly be a "born leader" and that our individual leadership styles are developed over time, through trial and error. It is the manager's responsibility to know what the leadership styles are and know where they are with each style as their leaderships grows as well as develop strategies and interventions in motivating and influencing people to accomplish the necessary goals.
The first leadership style many would start off with, especially being new to an organization is something called "nonassertiveness." According to Kinicki and Kreitner, authors of the text Organizational Behavior, nonassertiveness is "characterized by timid and self-denying behavior." (Kinicki & Kreritner, 2009, p307). The reason for this is simply being new; being new to the company, new the people around you, and new to the policy and procedures that govern your ability to lead. Unfortunately, this style is ineffective "because it gives the other person an unfair advantage." (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009, p307.) There is no real strategy or intervention to motivate and influence those around you in this state. The best strategy, and from what I have seen work in the past, is to try and spend as little time as possible in this style by assigning new managers to a mentor, someone who has leadership experience who can guide and train the new manager into a more effective leader.
[...] Developing your leadership style through mentorship Developing Your Leadership Style through Mentorship There is an old saying that leaders are made, not born. While some may disagree with this saying, I personally feel that nobody can truly be a “born leader” and that our individual leadership styles are developed over time, through trial and error. It is the manager's responsibility to know what the leadership styles are and know where they are with each style as their leaderships grows as well as develop strategies and interventions in motivating and influencing people to accomplish the necessary goals. [...]
[...] This, for all intensive purposes is not a place to be and managers can be quite successful in this phase of their leadership development. Strategies and interventions to motivate and influence those around come easily since there is an established trusted work environment. At this point the mentorship tends to go by the way side and the manager is left on their own to function. Unfortunately, something almost inevitably happens, a fine line between being assertive and aggressive gets crossed and begins to cause problems. [...]
[...] I too started out in the nonassertive side of leadership but have built my leadership skills, through a mentor program we have here at work to where I am today. For the most part I stay on the assertive side and yes, there are times where I have to be aggressive in order to get something done but if I ever stay over that fine line for too long, my mentor can quickly pull me back. Even when things are going well, my mentor and I speak once a week just to make sure I stay on track and keep growing as a manager. [...]
[...] Reference Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R. (2009). Organizational Behavior: Key concepts, skills & best practices (customized 4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin. [...]
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