Explaining the governance structure and external environment factors of the Downer Group
Question
Task: How did the dynamics of leadership and followership impact the Everest simulation experience, and what can be learned from the various leadership styles observed?
Answer
Introduction
Leadership has a very crucial role to play when it comes to accomplishment of a mission or a project. However, often the role of followership is neglected. It is important to have good and effective leaders but at the same time every successful project requires obedient, attentive and loyal followers. During the Everest simulation, I have had an enriching experience under my leader and with my team members. In this reflective writing, I will discuss the various concepts and models which are associated with my Everest simulation and leadership. The leadership as well as followership encountered during the simulation will be analysed and highlighted in this reflective writing.
Reflections on my experience of leadership during theEverestsimulations
Analysis
A group is made up of different members who come from varied backgrounds. The composition of the groups, the kind of people or personalities, their backgrounds, cultures, etc. define the terms of the group and the way of working. The group of which I was a part during the Everest simulation mainly consisted of members who are from the Middle East countries. Most of the team members came from Qatar. This fostered uniformity across the group as the members shared similar backgrounds.
The group was a mixed population of introverts as well as extraverts. The extraverts are those members of the simulation group who are outward turning. These members were dynamic and proactive. They act, reflect and react very fast. When these extraverts got no actions, they started getting demotivated. The extraverts kept seeking varied interests across the team members and spent ample time with others as they recharge themselves. On the contrary, the introverts of the simulation group were inward turning. They first reflect and then act. These members kept mostly to themselves. Instead of looking for varied interests they seek depth. The introverts recharge themselves by spending quality time alone. Both the personalities have certain contributions to make to the group and the simulation, which were a learning experience.
The leader of the group was a transformational leader, who encouraged the team members to take decisions and independent initiatives. The leader avoided micromanaging and constantly motivated the team members during the simulation. Our leader facilitated positive changes in the team members, for instance, helping me to be more organised with materials and time. The leader valued each members’ opinions. He led through minimal interference and effective supervision.
The group was a mix of pacesetter, democratic and bureaucratic leaders. The pacesetters are usually very goal oriented emotional leaders who reap high achievers. The democratic leaders, the style with which I relate, encourage independent decision making and task handling. This style of leadership is more participative for the followers. Out of the five members of the group, there were also ones with bureaucratic traits, who mostly believed in hierarchy and fixed responsibilities.
The biggest advantage of the simulation group was that it had effective and good leaders. This helped the team to progress towards its goal efficiently. There were no disputes among the team members as the leaders facilitated peaceful team work. The effective leaders who guided us kept aside a specific time to meet each team member and enquire about their problems. They allocated time and funds for accomplishment of the group simulation. The leaders always used positive language while communicating with us. There were moments when we were tired and wanted to quit the simulation. But the leaders kept encouraging us and pushing us towards achieving our goals. In fact, it was not only about the leaders, each member of my team was highly loyal, obedient and focused. None of us went against our leader. We listened attentively and followed diligently. For any team, it is important to foster a physically, culturally and emotionally safe environment. The team members all belonged to Qatar, thus, shared a similar cultural background. Besides, the members and leaders were very cooperating and understanding which created a safe space for us. We could all put forward our opinions and problems without the fear of being judged. The innovative ideas, creativity and dynamism flourished within the group because of the friendly environment, like minded team members and helpful, encouraging leaders.
Evaluation
The transformational leader that has been followed has the probability to help in evolving a business in the long-run. The good part about the transformational leadership that has been followed by me includes effective communication. Effective communication has been regarded as an utmost component as maximum of the strategies can be incorporated as well as accomplished through proper communication. Building and sustaining healthy relationships, encouraging the workforce, improving the self-esteem of employees are much easier when leaders comprehend the value of good communication. Dispute as well as tension could be avoided through transformational leadership. A transformational leader values every member in the team thus empowering them to become successful. The total turnover costs get reduced by maintaining employee loyalty. But all good has a bad side that is the same case for transformational leadership. In other words, transformational leadership slows down decision-making power. The team members are likely to lose their focus when something bad takes place such as a member is at health risk. In that case, the team members would lose their focus thus thinking in a negative way. Leaders with a transformational style may require to evaluate when to invite participation of group in decision-making and when to decide on behalf of their teams. The three brain theory types are regarded while evaluating about transformational leadership includes fighting for a light brain. The fight or flight brain comprises of red light that activates at first when an individual witnesses a sudden shock or a new circumstance. That is followed by emotional negative brain as well as rational decision-making brain. During bad news, the brain stem gets flooded with hormones. The emotional negative brain comprises the emotional part that gets evolved later as compared to the brain stem. The orange light activates second that laid down every emotional memory. It also leads to anxious brain. The green light is the logical brain that helps in making rational decision. It activates at the last and governs behaviouras well as decision-making.
We could have saved more time and used that in a more wiser way. I could have incorporated supportive leader that could have helped to do things in an easier way. The supportive leaders identify the preferred ways in carrying out things among individuals.The supportive leader that has been identified in the academic course aims to comprehend the way mind affects reactions. The supportive leader identifies the strengths as well as weaknesses of their followers and adjusts according to that. Coaching has been suggested the best way to make the most of the talent of followers. Coaching is essentially regarded as a human procedure. The leadership role that has been played by me includes transformational leader that inspires employees to hold change by encouraging a company culture of accountability, proprietorship as well as workplace independence. A change agent in a business is regarded as a transformational leader who has the ability to recognize innovative as well as altering trends in technology. This in turn helps an organization to embrace change. The lack of focus has been the major inadequacy in transformational leadership theory. In other words, the theory is hard to be trained as well as taught as it is regarded as an amalgamation of several leadership theories. As a result, followers are mostly wrought by leaders that raises the chances of losing them. Through the transformational leadership the health as well as weather circumstances has not been predicted as the way it has been predicted. On the other hand, the medical supplies have not been adequate. This in turn has posed challenges in integrating the circumstantial situations with the group objectives that allow individuals to work outside of the group objectives. The employees also witnessed difficulty in differentiating between several transformational leadership behaviours as they might perceive them to be in the similar leadership sphere.
Development plan
1. Generally, democratic leaders possess all the qualities that are essential to face the challenges and hardships in life and the job. As a Democratic leader, I always encourage creativity and collaboration and always ask team members for feedback on their work. It is good for ongoing projects. Other than that, I along with my team player attitude are helpful to keep records and track the work of the project. I follow three core elements of Democratic leadership are the empowerment of subordinates, aiding of Democratic decision making and the distribution of leadership. Hence, I succeeded in becoming democratic leader and made the project successful compared to other forms (Kadiyono et al, 2020).
2. Democratic leadership is the opportunity needed for private or confidential information. I empower group members to take different types of actions and help to make a cohesive decision-making process. The reason for the effectiveness of Democratic leadership is that they contribute their thoughts and opinions to the employees. It helps to increase engagement and leads to more creative ideas and productivity. Furthermore, I also reduce the likelihood that the team and other employees in the project might feel. It is true that my democratic leadership often seems to be ineffective. Leaving all the ineffectiveness parts, it can be stated that my leadership is effective to deal with the project without interrupting (Ake, 2021).
3. The main function of Democratic leadership is to seek feedback and also to input subordinates. I benefit by providing the leaders with encouraging conversation and participation in the decision-making procedure. In today's world, almost all the big companies use Democratic leadership and tend to through employee engagement surveys, feedback and different forums. My effective leaders combine with different styles of authority needed with the hour. As an effective leader, I always show different styles so that the work should proceed without any failure. Due to my democratic leadership, both employees and employers get benefits and concentrate on their work. The leadership style means to look at all the problems of the employees (Gultom and Situmorang, 2020)
4. Realizing whether the leadership is maintained properly or not is a tough one. The first thing that I noticed is whether the employees are satisfied or not. Unsatisfied employees are the reason that my leadership is not working properly. Moreover, I also determine whether the outcomes and other details are maintained properly is not. Several types of long and short goals are there. These are essential to look at whether the goals are met or not. Small problems will always remain. However, overcoming the bigger problems without hurting anyone's emotions is a big challenge dealing with. That is why I try to maintain cordial relationships with all my employees (Sulismadi, 2020).
REFERENCE LIST
Ake, O., 2021. Democratic Leadership Styles and Industrial Relations Atmosphere of Some Selected Oil Servicing Firms in Port Harcourt.
Gultom, A. and Situmorang, B., 2020. Effect of Democratic Leadership Style and Bureaucratic Leadership Style against Teacher Work Motivation in DolokBatuNaggar State 1 State School. In Unimed International Conference on Economics Education and Social Science Individual,(Unicees) (pp. 306-313).
Kadiyono, A.L., Sulistiobudi, R.A., Haris, I., Wahab, M.K.A., Ramdani, I., Purwanto, A., Mufid, A., Muqtada, M.R., Gufron, M., Nuryansah, M. and Ficayuma, L.A., 2020. Develop leadership style model for indonesianteachers performance in Education 4.0 era. Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, 11(9), pp.363-373.
Sulismadi, S., 2020. Democratic leadership system to pursuit the vision, mission, and goals of community development. JurnalPartisipatoris, 2(1), pp.1-10.
