Introduction
Leadership varies with organizations; the form of leadership in any organization determines the success of that organization.
This paper discusses two major leadership styles and links them to the student’s philosophy. The type of leadership chosen is thus related to the student’s values and skills. The last section compares and contrasts leadership and management.
Leadership styles
The two leadership styles that are to be discussed in this essay are authoritarian (autocratic) and democratic. Authoritarian leadership style as the name suggests uses authority in ensuring that employees deliver the goals of the company according to the terms of the leader. This form of leadership does not invite suggestions from employees, the leader issues directives of how the job should be done. Organizations that have this form of leadership experience high employee turnover due to enormous job dissatisfaction (Jooste, 2004). On the other hand, the democratic leadership style operates on a platform of mutual understanding and idea-sharing. In essence, all the employees of the organization are made to contribute to the success of the company through their ideas and innovations. This form of leadership encourages contribution and career-building through participation. Organizations that have this form of leadership experience minimal employee turnover and are thus likely to last in the market.
The student’s leadership style
The leadership style that fits the students nursing philosophy is the democratic leadership style. The rationale for this is because of the values and leadership skills that she demonstrates while attending to patients and other employees. She believes in authentic leadership with integrity and mutual respect to others. As a leader, she values purpose and relationships with others and that is why the values of a democratic leader fit her philosophy as compared to authoritarian leadership styles. In essence, her skills and values as a leader are still in the developing phase but she believes in a servant kind of leadership. The student leadership skills also possess developed social skills, motivation skills, self-awareness ability, empathy, and self-regulation. As a democratic leader, she always ensures that whenever she is in a leadership position, she makes others feel like part of the decision-making process and thus contributes to the success of the organization (Huber, 2006). Since the human resource in any organization is vital, ensuring that this resource is adequately used is therefore imperative.
Comparison of leadership and management
Both the management and the leadership work together in an organization to achieve certain desired goals. The manager and a leader are also necessary for ensuring that the organization runs smoothly. In organizations, leaders and managers are the major sources of the decision-making body, the manager gives orders while a leader will inspire. Leaders and managers are usually the sources of power and direction to an organization. According to Adeniyi (2007) the performance of an organization vests on both the leadership and the management, they, therefore, take the blame for any poor performance of the organization that they manage or lead.
The contrast of leadership and management
A manager is usually positioned as an administrator while a leader is usually positioned as an innovator within the organization. The manager maintains the organizational structure and system while a leader develops and focuses on people to accomplish this task. Most perspectives of managers are short-term while the focuses of leaders are long-term. The manager relies on the system and thus mimics or copies how tasks are accomplished, on the other hand, a leader is original and thus creates a platform for inspiring people in the organization to accomplish the task. The manager can accommodate and accepts the status quo while a leader will challenge this perspective. The manager relies on his or her power of control in the administration process while the leader focuses on his or her inspiration to draw people into fulfilling desired goals. The manager usually accepts the realities of an organization’s situation while a leader will take one more step of investigating the reason for a situation. A leader will always rely on his or her integrity to lead an organization while a manager will use his or her powers to ensure that tasks are accomplished in the organization.
Conclusion
This paper has succinctly discussed the leadership styles and compared them to the student’s philosophy. The leadership style that fitted with the student’s philosophy is the democratic leadership style. This leadership style incorporated the opinions and suggestions of other people within the organization. Lastly, management and leadership forms are compared.
References
Adeniyi, M.A. (2007). Effective Leadership Management: An Integration of Styles, Skills & Character for Today’s Ceos. New York, NY: AuthorHouse.
Huber, D. (2006). Leadership and nursing care management. Michigan, MA: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Jooste, K. (2004). Leadership: A new perspective. Journal of Nursing Management, 12(3), 217-23.