Assignment 1- Leadership StylesNiyati ShahHarrisburg UniversityThere are many leadership styles that a project manager can apply to his profession.
It includes a laissez-faire, transactional, servant leader, transformational, transactional, autocratic, democratic, charismatic, interactional, Bureaucratic and situational leadership.1 There is always a need for leadership skills to motivate and inspire work associates. A successful leadership not only focuses on the individual working on the project but also the effort of the entire team. The success of a project depends on great leadership skills with straightforward communication. Moreover, it depends on focus, creativity, honesty and team management. In order to achieve high performance, the entire team needs to be inspired and thoroughly communicated.2Amongst all the various leadership styles described above, I feel myself falling into the category of transactional leadership.
A transactional leadership often called as managerial skills which include focusing on goals, taking feedback from the team on time, organizing the groups and performance assessment.3 A transactional leadership helps to establish a clear chain of command by rewarding good performance and helping to improve bad practices. By following this, maximum output can be achieved.
Research study shows that a transactional leadership style is one of the frequently used leadership skills in any organization. Strict rules, standards, and procedure are primary elements of transactional leadership.4In general, this leadership based on to give and take principle. For instance, you will get rewards for showing good performance and punishment for a dull performance.
They do implement strict rules, proper procedure, and standards to achieve a maximum output of the followers. In situations, where followers are not enough encouraged to find a solution to a specific task, transactional leadership tends to be a unique and most effective approach.3 A transactional leader possesses some characteristics such as to focus on short-term goals, implementing the strict procedures and guidelines, making sure that followers follow rules and stick to the policies.5Transactional leadership has several advantages:2• Motivates team members to produce maximum creativity• While improving productivity it reduces cost• Short-term goals can be achieved very quickly• Chances of getting rewards from the leader• The simple and straightforward process that does not need to have training• Significant rules and regulations put in place to achieve the goalEvery leadership has pros and cons. Some of the disadvantages are as below:2 • It can create more numbers of followers compared to leaders• Does not help to achieve long-term goals• No reward for personal initiative • Success mainly depends on the leader To sum up, I believe that there is always a need for this leadership in the practical world today.
Especially in organizations where team workers don’t have the same language, this transactional leadership will serve as a fruitful resource. Because the structure and procedures are pretty straightforward and clearly described, workers do not require extensive training to learn a new skill set at the defined time. Hence, in the majority of the cases, the transactional approach become successful to grow the particular organization. References:1) A guide to the project management body of knowledge: (PMBOK® guide). (2010). Newtown Square, PA: PMI.
2) Cherry, K., ; Fogoros, R. N. (n.d.). How Does Transactional Leadership Work? Retrieved from https://www.
verywellmind.com/what-is-transactional-leadership-27953173) 16 Advantages and Disadvantages of Transactional Leadership. (2018, April 19). Retrieved from https://brandongaille.com/16-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-transactional-leadership/4) Zhou, M.
(2017). Http://ljournal.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/a-2017-023.pdf. The Factors Effect of Transformational and Transactional. doi:10.
18411/a-2017-0235) 10 Transactional Leadership Characteristics, Attributes, and Traits. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://yscouts.com/10-transactional-leadership-characteristics
