Introduction
Good leadership is crucial for the success of any organization. Leadership motivates and provides direction towards achieving a group’s objectives. Being an effective leader is, in itself, a major challenge for most individuals. Various leadership theories and styles have been developed to explain how leaders can become instrumental in directing their teams towards victory.
Leaders who are conversant with several headship styles, together with how to apply them to correspond with their personality and organization tend to stir their followers towards positive results. Of particular concern is the emotional intelligence concept, which is rapidly gaining recognition as an effective tool for stimulating the best performance.
The ensuing discussion is an account of how I noted leaders using emotional intelligence and leadership styles to spark positive results from tutors/volunteers at 826LA during my CBL fieldwork experience. Moreover, it provides an account of a personal experience I have had when teaching students math. The goal is to show how I applied various leadership styles to help them in achieving their full potential.
CBL Fieldwork Experience at 826LA
My CBL fieldwork experience involved working with a team of active volunteers at 826LA, where we were majorly assisting students in working on their school assignments to improve their study performance. As a group of ardent helpers, we worked closely with 826LA’s employees who trained us on how to perform various tasks within the programs. My workstation was at The Echo Park Time Travel Mart. In the neighboring schools, I had a one-on-one encounter with children where I would help them with their studies (Haan 18).
To accomplish my tasks, the staff members coached us on various leadership styles that would help us to work effectively with the children. During this training, I learned not only important leadership skills to assist as an individual but also observed several leadership styles that helped the staff members to get the best performance from the team of volunteers.
826LA is a subsidiary of 826 National, a non-profit organization, which offers tactical leadership, management, as well as appropriate resources. As an 826 center, it is committed to assisting minors between the age of 6 and 18 to advance their writing skills and support teachers in motivating their children to progress in their studies.
The organization believes that the potential of young people can be boosted through personalized attention and focus on their writing skills. This emphasis creates a better future for learners. Moreover, 826LA notes that writing not only helps youngsters to express their voice to the world but also creates a feeling among the children.
To achieve its objective, the organization runs a number of programs such as drop-in tutoring, workshops, as well as in-school tutoring. In the organization, I worked with several volunteers and interns who are selected annually to assist children through the individualized meeting. 826LA serves the Los Angeles Unified School District and the neighboring areas (Haan 19).
Examples from Management Theory Literature
The work on Goleman in the article ‘Leadership that gets Results’ is relevant concerning my experience. Since 826LA staff members work with volunteers who are occasionally replaced, I had to go through coaching using proper leadership skills to ensure that I produce positive results in line with the 826LA mission.
Staff members who were coaching the volunteers portrayed various leadership styles. All the styles represented various elements of emotional intelligence (Goleman 79). The different leadership styles had a different impact on tutors. According to Goleman, there are six leadership styles, namely coercive, affiliative, authoritative, coaching, democratic, and pacesetting leaders (79).
Each style is categorized depending on its manner of portraying the ingredients of emotional intelligence. Goleman asserts that emotional intelligence entails four essential abilities, namely self-awareness, self-control, social awareness, and social skills (80). A proper balance of the four components results in good leadership. Leadership becomes more effective when people utilize many styles.
When I joined the volunteer team, most of the staff members used a coaching style to educate the group about the various programs that 826LA used to reach out to students and teachers. The staff members helped me to identify my strengths and weaknesses when interacting with children.
It was a common feature for the staff members to uses phrases that encouraged all volunteers to attempt various strategies to work with children better. Some of the emotional intelligence components that were prominent among the staff using coaching style include empathy and self-awareness. Goleman observes that coaching helps in preparing employees for their future (83).
To ensure that the volunteers met the goals of the mission, the supervisors set a standard that every volunteer had to achieve. They worked in the forefront to ensure that the standard was met. Since the non-profit organization intended to get quick results from the passionate volunteers before they could be replaced, pacesetting leadership helped to ensure that motivated volunteers utilized their full potential to help the youngsters to improve their writing skills and studies.
Nonetheless, the approach did not work for some of the volunteers who were not willing to utilize their skills since no rewards were available. Goleman reveals that managers should be careful while using pacesetting because it is likely to have negative results, particularly where workers are not motivated (83).
Notably, staff members who used a democratic type of leadership promoted a teamwork spirit and improved communication among the tutors and staff members. Volunteers believed that some of the programs could be improved to ensure that children had a better one-on-one session. Volunteers felt that their opinions mattered to the company.
Thus, they were willing to get out of the box to ensure that the mission of 826LA was accomplished. Staff members who used the coercive approach could attest that the style had more of a negative impact than a positive outcome because there was no crisis where it is best fitted (Goleman 83). Conversely, the authoritative leadership style had a positive impact since it encouraged most volunteers to be dedicated to meeting the objectives of the institution.
Some leadership styles worked better than other approaches. Staff members who managed to balance the various styles succeeded in ensuring that tutors remained motivated and committed to the organization. Leaders can only use various styles if they build their emotional intelligence. The concept of EI involves adopting and repeating a new behavior (Goleman, 90). When a new sequence is introduced to the brain, it can become a habit once it is registered in the brain circuits.
Personal Experience
I have worked as a volunteer tutor in a support center. I normally dealt with children ranging from the age of six to eighteen years. The challenge that came with the job was the fact that the personalities of the children are diverse. Hence, the mode that is effective in handling one child may not necessarily be effective in dealing with another child.
Additionally, the ability of children to understand, rationalize situations, and grasp input is fairly different. As a result, it is important to study children to come up with the most effective mode of instilling knowledge in them. The most effective manner of doing so is by spending individual time with each student to create a bond with him or her (Cherniss et al. 239).
One of the most important results that a tutor can obtain from a student is the ability to influence them positively, even in ways that are unrelated to the study. Such an impact is likely to affect the attitude of the students towards learning, thus motivating them to become better performers. At the same time, the manner in which a tutor handles the students may affect the attitude they have towards the subject taught. This situation is likely to lead to deterioration in performance coupled up with passiveness (Cherniss et al. 240).
As a tutor, I had to apply leadership skills. Due to the diversity of personalities and circumstances, no single style of leadership could be applicable to all situations. In some cases, the learners needed guidance, especially when undertaking new tasks. In such a case, I used coaching because it boosted the learners’ strengths.
Additionally, this form of leadership involved empathizing with the students and giving them input that could come in handy over the rest of the exercises. This style of leadership is also instrumental with new students who are not yet used to the way things are run in the institute. Since some students are very slow learners, this mode of teaching is quite effective for such students (Batoolm 84).
Affiliative leadership prioritizes people. It not only addresses how they feel but also gives room for flexibility and innovation. This style of leadership upholds the changing of rules depending on the circumstances and age group of the learners. Additionally, it allows the learners to express their opinions while using their mode of revision and study for as long as it falls in line with the general principles and regulations of the institute.
I used this model of leadership on the older learners from the age of thirteen to eighteen because they were less likely to get distracted or get into trouble. Very young learners needed more supervision. This mode of leadership was most ineffective among mischievous children because they were more likely to take advantage of the freedom to break the rules. It was also accompanied by the giving of positive feedback.
Although students did not always post good performance, I tried to be encouraging by using positive remarks to correct and even motivate them. It was also important for me to build a relationship with my students for there to be a free flow of information. This strategy helped me to get to the core of their weaknesses (Goleman 79).
In case the students were rebellious, I chose to use the coercive mode of leadership, although it came with many downsides, including the fact that it created a gap between the students and me. However, it was effective in that it commanded obedience and general discipline. It involved stern instruction that came with a reward system that was disadvantageous to the disobedient and inattentive learners.
Motivating students to adhere to the rules mostly stemmed from the fear of penalties. I also used the pacesetting method by establishing goals for my students and encouraging them to meet them. The strategy gave them the drive to achieve their targets, thus motivating them to get good results within a short period (Batoolm 86).
One of my favorite forms of leadership was the democratic style. It involved considering the opinions of the group of learners and letting them select their choices under my guidance. It allowed them to give their ideas and solutions to problems that arose. I also let them select their leaders during group activities, as well as air their sentiments in case of problems. This form of leadership was effective in boosting their confidence. It also fostered cooperation and teamwork among the student groups.
Conclusion
Irrespective of the model of leadership, it is always important for a leader to use his or her sense of emotional intelligence. The concept involves being self-aware, applying self-management, being socially aware, as well as having social skills. Self-awareness is the ability to recognize people’s emotions and the impact that they have on those who are around them.
It also entails people’s ability to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and to have a strong sense of self-esteem. Self-esteem was crucial in ensuring that my feelings did not have a negative impact on the students. Self-management refers to the ability to control oneself from acting on impulse. As a tutor, some situations or actions by learners may tempt one to act in a manner that may be too harsh or inappropriate.
Thus, it is important for people to manage their impulses. Social awareness is the ability to empathize with other people. Likewise, a leader should understand the feelings of a follower. This appreciation may require a certain degree of empathy that comes with social awareness. It is also crucial to have the social skills of communication for one to deliver positive feedback.
Works Cited
Batoolm, Bano. “Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership.” Journal of Business Studies Quarterly 4.3(2013): 84-94. Print.
Cherniss, Cary, Melissa Extein, Daniel Goleman, and Roger Weissberg. “Emotional Intelligence: What does research really indicate.” Educational Psychologist 41.4(2006): 239-245. Print.
Goleman, Daniel. “Leadership that gets Results.” Harvard Business Review 78.2(2000): 78-90. Print.
Haan, Cole. Annual Report 2012-13, 2013. Web.