Introduction
The level of proficiency in effective communication skills is one of the key competencies of an outstanding leader and any person in general. Recognizing this statement to be true, I have repeatedly attempted throughout my life and professional career to develop the ability to communicate and build relationships. Thus, at the beginning of the course, I had only subjective, unsupported theoretical knowledge of effectively interacting with other people.
The course and the list of business-oriented readings offered allowed me to structure my pre-existing knowledge and develop several key competencies for networking. More specifically, it should be clarified that my professional experience included working for the Ministry of HR, and therefore communicating with job seekers and clients, and executives — to inform them of corporate policy trends — was a daily task. It was a revelation that leadership is not an innate talent of the individual and has little to do with charisma, but instead can be regarded as a product of consistent and deliberate learning (Kotter, 2001).
Consequently, to be an effective link in an organizational system linking such unrelated branches, personal leadership potential must be developed. Furthermore, one of the critical findings of the course is the concept of EI to perceive and process the inner motivations, feelings, and experiences of one’s colleagues for the sake of making positive connections. In this context, it is pertinent to recall Frei and Morriss (2020), who showed that all leadership is perceived through three paradigms: authenticity, logic, and empathy. Thus, in future professional practice, I should develop areas of self-identity, consistency, and emotional intelligence, realized through empathy, to gain greater credibility in the eyes of the people with whom I work.
Power and Influence
It used to seem obvious to me that effective business process management is built on the formation of a disciplining environment in which the leader has an unconditional influence on employees. The model of the hierarchy of power was recognized as the only true one compared to the modern trends toward equality and partnership of leaders and subordinates, which did not have sufficient empirical evidence.
This is the paradigm for perceiving the effects of leadership that guided my professional development throughout my career before studying the theories and concepts offered in this course. Most of my experience has been reduced to using personal pressure and persuasion of opponents without regard to their interests or motivations, but in such a way as to prove a point and reshape a person’s perceptions.
Although I have met people in my life whose arguments and style of persuasion seemed firmer, I used a policy of gentle pressure and mixed leadership with the rest. Two key readings allowed me to change my pattern of perception, which I believe will have more positive effects on future professional practice. More specifically, Goleman (2000) showed that among the six leadership styles delineated, choosing only one was not a strategically correct decision, but instead, I should combine and mix them. Therefore, depending on the seriousness of the task at hand and the results I want to achieve, I may exert more or less pressure on my subordinates as a leader. On the other hand, my beliefs about the effects of influence and power on opponents have become more structured and clearer with the reading by Peterson, Abramson, and Stutman (2020).
The three researchers demonstrated that all leaders must be built on the persona’s attractiveness and power. Recognizing this fact, I realized that I could previously emphasized the power and strength of my decisions and influence, but I did not consider the attractiveness component. Elaborating on this thought, it is appropriate to assume that some of my corporate decisions in the Ministry of HR were not successful because colleagues did not find my management style attractive and appealing and thus were not interested in the tasks’ quality. Now it has become clear that the element of attractiveness is just as critical as strength, and therefore I should develop competencies related to ESCI coupled with delving into the theories of motivation and effective management.
Self-motivation and Motivating Others
For me, there has never been any doubt that the driving force behind any accomplishments is sufficient motivation of the individual, even regardless of the specific field of application. I was convinced that in the business sphere, the level of motivation determined employees’ productivity and qualitatively influenced the final result. At the same time, it seemed to me that some levers of motivation could be more morally valuable than others.
It is pertinent to note that the suggested readings were only indirectly related to the theory of self-motivation and inspiration of the rest of the staff, but some of the aspects concerning the hierarchy of motivation and its necessity, in general, were resolved for me. More specifically, my coming to the course was accompanied by a clear idea that money, development, and a desire for personal involvement in something grandiose characterized my self-motivation model, without having a clear idea of what I was striving for or why.
This changed with course readings that made clear to me the importance of learning and building new competencies to become a more confident leader leading people (Spain, 2020; Peterson, Abramson, and Stutman, 2020). Specifically, I realized what was behind my desire for professional development, namely gaining the skills and competencies that make me a more valuable resource for the company’s human capital. On the other hand, Morriss, Ely, and Frei (2011) made it clear that even in subjective motivation issues, there are important obstacles that prevent me from effectively managing my career or collaborating with my colleagues.
For instance, over-prioritizing one’s image hinders development, and therefore it is crucial to conduct self-reflection and identify the presence of problems in time. Connecting this knowledge with the theory under consideration, it became clear to me that motivation itself is a flexible and adjustable system, so the presence of hindering factors in it is inevitable. Therefore, I consciously concluded that it is necessary to analyze my driving mechanisms in greater depth, looking for those errors that hinder development.
Managing Conflict
Conflict resolution is one of the most challenging topics for me because given the leadership and motivation styles discussed, I was more inclined toward the outcome of conflict resolution than toward the process and motivations of the group participants. Everything I had done before was about trying to take personal initiative to resolve conflict, although it was not resolved.
I cannot say that I have changed my views significantly with my thoughtful reading of the semester’s materials, but it is nonetheless a mistake to assume that I have not learned anything useful. The attempts I made to pressure or take personal initiative were not productive, as they resulted in dissolving the problematic situation but not eliminating it and taking it under control. Therefore, in the course of my reading, I came to several useful conclusions at once. First and foremost, the vital importance of conflict to the corporate development of a group should be recognized (Suarez and Montes, 2020).
Any processes, including crises, must be managed and controlled. From Brown (2008), I have learned that conflict management should be primarily based on the desire to look at the full picture from the outside, without emotional interference. This requires having enough courage to understand how the internal business process works through the external paradigm. Finally, a synthesis of the material led me to the realization that an important milestone in conflict management is leadership style. Given the capabilities of situational management, it is wise to choose only those controls that are appropriate for a unique environment.
Reference List
Brown, T. (2008)Design thinking. Web.
Frei, F. X. and Morriss, A. (2020) Begin with trust. Web.
Goleman, D. (2000) Leadership that gets results. Web.
Kotter, J. P. (2001) What leaders really do. Web.
Morriss, A. Ely, R. J. and Frei, F. X. (2011) Managing yourself: stop holding yourself back. Web.
Peterson, S. J., Abramson, R. and Stutman, R.K. (2020) How to develop your leadership style. Web.
Spain, E. (2020) Reinventing the leader selection process. Web.
Suarez, F. F. and Montes, J. S. (2020) Building organizational resilience. Web.