Leadership Models, Framework and Theories

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In terms of models and methods used for a specific application, leadership is the most flexible concept. Most leaders pull from different leadership models depending on their situation, while others only fit on one leadership model. Generally, diverse leadership models are used as guidelines outlining specific leadership behaviors and how these behaviors can fit some specific situations and environments. Several leadership models normally show how an organization or a company can be lead. However, there is no specific leadership model because the choice of leadership models depends on the organization’s culture, the kind of involved stakeholders, and, most importantly, the disposition and the nature of the person leading. This paper will provide a summary of three leadership models, identify diversity consideration in the three models, best practices of multiple leadership models, and also explain my best leadership practice.

Leadership Models

Authentic Leadership Model

An authentic leadership model focusses on the sincerity of the leaders. This leadership model has it that the leaders should be aware of the values they hold and reflect those values in the way they act, speak, or lead (Bakari, Hunjra, & Niazi, 2017). The genuineness and authenticity expressed when leaders stay true to the values usually make leaders trustworthy and increase their credibility to both the people they work for and who they work for them. This leadership model is generally characterized by balanced processing, transparency, self-awareness, and assumed moral perspectives. Leaders utilizing this leadership model are in a position to instill trust and loyalty to the employees by consistently displaying their personality and feelings towards employee performance. This type of leadership model seems to be advantageous in the sense that it enhances respect and a higher trust level in the organization. Also, this model promotes typically harmonious relationships making it less difficult for leaders to lead even during a challenging situation.

Autocratic Leadership Model

The autocratic leadership model focuses on top-down instructions and a chain of commands. With this kind of leadership model, there is little decision making and collaboration because decisions are normally dictated by the people with power and authority in the organization (Harms et al., 2018). Those who are not in power may give their own opinion, but the decisions normally lie on the leaders. The rest of the team’s main role is to implement the decisions and choices of the organization leader. This kind of leadership model tends to be poor, but it can work effectively depending on the organization. An autocratic leadership model can be effective in situations where decisions need to be made faster because there is no taking of other people’s decisions, which might waste time.

The main outstanding characteristic of this kind of leadership model is that there is no taking of inputs and contributions from other group members. Normally, the leaders distribute responsibilities or dictate all the tasks to the employees without any reward or recognition, which might boost the employees’ morale. This leadership model’s characteristic makes it more damaging because it resembles that of a dictator, leading to attrition of many cases and lowering employees’ morale. Despite being unrewarding, this leadership model is effective when the business is a crisis or constant change because of its quick decision-making ability.

Shared Leadership Model

In this leadership model, authority and power are bestowed in a group of people rather than an individual. The shared leadership model is more flexible than other leadership models because it can withstand sudden changes in the organization (Franklin, 2020). This leadership model enhances the cooperative spirit and also stronger collaboration among all the members in the organization. Shared leadership models normally motivate the employees and hence increasing the organization’s productivity. In every step or part of the workflow, there is an outstanding decision-making process, thus improving the quality control. In this kind of leadership model, the employees have some freedom, which encourages them to practice creativity. When the employees are creative, the organization process and workflow becomes efficient.

Diversity Consideration

The leadership models do not consider diversity because these models were developed way before diversity could be incorporated into leadership. Previous studies in the leadership area focused on the leaders rather than involving the situation and followers and making leadership a process instead of just a position (Gholamzadeh & Ravana, 2016). According to Ayman (2010), leadership theories and models have neglected diversity issues. The argument by Ayman reveals that the leadership theories and models have a North American bias, which only focuses on the leaders. Despite various psychologists highlighting the enormous benefits of diversity in leadership, theorists have not incorporated it into leadership.

In terms of diversity consideration, Chin (2010) argued that leadership researches i.e., theories and models are often silent about how ethnicity and race influence leadership experience. Chin (2010) further stated that these leadership models have failed to include ethnic or racial leaders’ experiences. As organizations and societies become diverse, it is important to comprehend how social identities such as race, ethnicity, gender, and minority status of the leaders influence the exercising of leadership. Chin also argued that social identities alter our behaviors in interpersonal and social domains, yet the current leadership theories are biased to include these factors.

Most leadership models and theories may include some diversity but typically treat them as a special case instead of treating it as a potential source for theorizing given that social identities impact social experiences. Failure for the theorists to include diversity in leadership may be contributed by most of them viewing social identities as constraints that have to be managed and personal attributes in which leaders normally turn a negative experience (Connerley& Pedersen, 2005). Previous theories and models treat social identities not only as a political or social issue, with collective and personal meaning but also an individual characteristic. Additionally, O’Reilly et al. (2013) argued that the traditional notion of leadership focused on individual agency ideas. These claims indicate that previous leadership models did not include diversity.

Cross-cultural and diverse studies on leadership have not addressed the issue of diversity because they are bound to a gene that is limited to leaders operating under the norms of western culture. According to Jones (2014), a lot of pressure has been placed on higher education to develop new leadership models. These leadership models to be developed by the universities should be diverse and encourage working relationships (Clayton, 2014). Therefore, the search for alternative leadership models that do not rely on formal position has increased. These alternative leadership models should recognize the complex leadership process that focuses on organizational context and individual development. Jones (2014) further argued that the alternative leadership models to be developed are the primary need to develop more integrated and diverse models that foster greater involvement of all personnel involved in leadership.

Best Practices in Leadership

Through multiple leadership models, several leadership best practices can be identified. The most outstanding identified practice is modeling what matters. Through engaging the concept of idealized influence, multiple leadership models have what matters in leadership(Mohamad Karkouti, 2016). Furthermore, these leadership models have engaged ‘model the way’ concept, which is the key practice in typical leadership. Through this exceptional leadership practice, the leaders can model what matters to the people by utilizing the multiple leadership models. Despite being tempting to tell the followers what to do, best leaders comprehend the importance of action as their behaviors and actions provide a powerful example to the followers. Therefore, modeling what matters is the best leadership practice, which makes leadership exceptional.

Engaging in honest self-evaluation is also another practice that can be identified in multiple leadership models. The unique feature of this practice is its prominence on the self-evaluation before others. This practice serves as the foundation of an authentic leadership model, which makes it easy for the leaders to recognize their faults. This practice also calls for the leaders to reflect on their shortcomings and personal faults that shape the organizational environment. Engaging in honest self-evaluation practice ensures that the leaders do not go through the dangers of individualism and unconscious self-exaltation. The multiple leadership models ensure that honest self-evaluation is accomplished, which increases the capacity of change in leadership.

Multiple leadership models foster collaboration practice in organizations and teams. Fostering of collaboration is an outstanding identified practice that highlights the importance of leaders encouraging the followers to work together to achieve the best leadership in the organization. Collaboration practice is crucial because the best solutions to some complex problems can be solved through a collaborative engagement provided by the multiple leadership models (Mohamad Karkouti, 2016). The collaboration practice of multiple leadership models is also significant because no single person can meet all the leadership demands. Hence, collaboration allows the leaders to acquire new leadership resources which absorbed into the leadership process.

Understanding relational skills is another practice that is achieved through multiple leadership models. This practice focuses on comprehending people’s priorities and getting along with them to realize quality relationships. Understanding relational skill is important because it comprises of skills that support interpersonal and intrapersonal engagement. Multiple leadership models provide factors such as social skill and empathy, which are the basis of actual relational skills. The authentic leadership model is one of the leadership models which promote this leadership practice.

Resourcing and supporting followers is also another outstanding practice identified with multiple leadership models. Multiple leadership models ensure that the followers are supported and empowered to focus on important organizational goals. These multiple leadership models enable leaders to serve their followers towards success rather than only force them into production. This practice aims to create an outstanding context that will enable most followers to flourish in their work. Leaders embracing multiple leadership models build bridges and remove barriers to enable followers to excel in their responsibilities.

Accountability provision is another best practice that is identified. This practice majorly focuses on leadership behavior in providing accountability since it emphasizes on people reaching their goals. This practice is primarily fostered by an autocratic leadership model that promotes transparency and accountability. Multiple leadership theories promote accountability practice by encouraging clear communication to avoid confusion. Regular, open, and consistent communication effectively build trust and develop accountability. This practice can also be enhanced by an honest and open evaluation of performance.

Personal Best Practices in Leadership

Most organizations have leaders that have robust operational abilities required to maintain the status quo, but they face multiple problems when it comes to having individuals who are in power with skilled experiences and confidence needed to handle challenges happening within the organization. When problems arise within the organization, it cannot be managed by one typical because solutions seem sure and incomprehensible. A person can be a respected leader in the working environment, especially among colleagues without any formal reports. I believe that leadership when other people can learn, seek solutions, and can also inspire.

I believe that the best practices concerning leadership are by distributing responsibility. Effective leaders tend to gain excellent skills through practices that need a fair quantity of autonomy. Leaders need to push power downwards across the company empowering individuals at all levels to make decisions. Distribution of responsibility offers potential leaders a chance to see what is taking place when taking risks. It also enhances collective intelligence, resilience, and adaptability of the company over a particular person. It also harnesses the knowledge of those outside the traditional decision-making hierarchy. Leaders need to gain skills by leading within the organization and the whole society as well.

Another best practice that has also been tackled in the leadership theories is being open and honest about information. Transparency enhances conversation about the meaning and enhancement of daily practices. If productivity reduces, for instance, that could have been the most significant chance of implementing change, coming to the best understanding requires team efforts. They only need to talk openly and honestly about information. If the information is hidden, temptations increase to manipulate the information to make it look better. Strategic leadership comprehend actual power in the formation and tend to find and develop growth opportunities.

Creating many paths for raising and evaluating ideas are also good practices that leaders need to adopt. Creating and presenting information is a fundamental skill for all strategic leaders. They need to connect ideas that will benefit the whole company. Serving way for the team to follow will foster innovative thinking and help them exploit their performance due to maximum creativity. This practice differs from traditional leadership, where only a single channel for fresh ideas was only limited to a direct personal manager. This aspect was making managers block the idea from going forward if the idea does not favor them. When there are multiple channels, there is sufficient room for innovative things. All members of the organization will get essential to present their like-minded ideas. This phenomenon will increase collaboration among staff members.

Conclusion

As elaborated above, leadership theories and frameworks are vital to any organization because they explain how and why particular individuals become effective leaders. Such aspects mainly revolve elements of leaders and behaviors that people can seek to enhance their leadership skills in distinct environments. With excellent leadership skills, an organization, through collaboration among team members, will achieve organizational goals and objectives. With an excellent school of thought in leadership theories, people will learn how to face hard situations in any working environment and still have an opportunity to grow in those situations. Additionally, as seen above, leaders’ essential goal is to create more leaders within an organization. Leaders should demonstrate to others that setting goals are the only way to being a successful person. Overall, it differentiates and identifies leaders from the managers.

References

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Bakari, H., Hunjra, A. I., & Niazi, G. S. K. (2017). How does authentic leadership influence planned organizational change? The role of employees’ perceptions: Integration of theory of planned behavior and Lewin’s three step model. Journal of Change Management, 17(2), 155-187.

Chin, J. (2010). Introduction to the special issue on diversity and leadership. American Psychologist, 65(3), Special issue: Diversity and Leadership, 150-156.

Clayton, J. K. (2014). The Leadership Lens: Perspectives on Leadership from School District Personnel and University Faculty. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, 9(1), n1.

Connerley, M. L., & Pedersen, P. B. (2005). Leadership in a diverse and multicultural environment: Developing awareness, knowledge, and skills. Sage Publications.

Gholamzadeh, D., & Ravana, E. (2016). Transactional model: A comprehensive framework for leadership process understanding. International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies (IJHCS) ISSN 2356-5926, 1(1), 1168-1208.

Harms, P. D., Wood, D., Landay, K., Lester, P. B., & Lester, G. V. (2018). Autocratic leaders and authoritarian followers revisited: A review and agenda for the future. The Leadership Quarterly, 29(1), 105-122.

Jones, S. (2014, May). Distributed leadership: A critical analysis. Leadership, 10(2), 129-141. doi: 10.1177/1742715011433525

Mohamad Karkouti, I. (2016). Professional leadership practices and diversity issues in the US higher education system: A research synthesis. Education, 136(4), 405-412.

O’Reilly, D., Lamprou, E., Leitch, C., & Harrison, R. (2013). Leadership and Authority in a Crises-constructing World: towards a synthesis and clarification. In International Studying Leadership Conference.

Franklin, B. (2020). LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING: Beyond shared leadership: The importance of learning in a shared leadership model. College & research libraries news, 60(1), 22-25.