1. The Leadership Moment - Background Information

View the below 'Draw my story' video for an animated description of the Leadership Moment! Refer to below for transcript.

This early September, I was invited by my Diploma to join the organizing committee of an annual pageant bash as alumni.

I joined the Resources Committee and Alex, was the Head of Resources. The Resources team was responsible for sourcing of required resources and stage props.

However, Alex is someone with many other commitments does not bother to keep us informed and efficiency was greatly reduced due to the short of time for us to get things done.


Furthermore, Alex would only take credit for our work but does not take effort to spearhead things to get done. Janice, one of the members, took the initiative to lead the group knowing that the team cannot function with an incompetent leader like Alex. The main committee was gradually aware of the Alex’s incompetency and eventually passed on instructions to Janice directly instead of Alex. Despite supposedly being a follower, Janice took pride in her work and led us well in order to complete the tasks and fulfilled what Alex was incapable of accomplishing.

2. Taking the Role of Leader

2.1 Alex, the ‘leader’ with the legitimate power
Alex was granted the legitimate power with authority from a formal position. However, due to his incompetency, it is arguable to whether Alex was indeed considered a true leader. Alex lacked the power of influencing his followers, as he was unmotivated to intend changes and outcomes despite having a committed team that wants to contribute towards a greater goal.

2.1.1 Autocracy
Alex was an autocratic leader while making decisions and simply delegated tasks as he deemed fit. Even though autocratic leadership does has its pros of accomplishing tasks more efficiently, it may be abused. Judging from the limited time to accomplish the task due to the lag in informing the members, autocratic approach may be the best way for Alex for tasks to be completed within the short time possible.

However, this could have been avoided should Alex took the time to inform the committee once he has received the instructions from the main committee instead of procrastinating. The autocratic approach can be viewed dictatorial in this case since he did not set a good example as a leader and only did things in his own ways.

2.1.2 Hersey & Blanchard’s Situational Theory
Alex adopted the delegating style of leadership, which can be effective when followers have high level of readiness and are able to accept responsibility for the own tasks. Our team was committed to contribute and as alumni, all of us as the required skills to perform the required task with ease.

However in this case, Alex displayed slight bossiness and indolence as he only delegated work to others except for himself. This resulted in resentment among the committee as our voices were not valued upon and it is difficult to follow the lead of someone that is controlling yet does not display competency in his scope of responsibility.

He could have done a better job by relaying the messages from the main committee to the team promptly so that we would have ample time to share our views and accomplish the task our own pace. Clarity of direction is important from the leader in enhancing motivation and performance of the followers and how they may contribute to the larger context of the event. This will reduce any resentment that we may bear against Alex.

2.2 Janice, stepping up as a true ‘leader’
In view of having a disorganized team, Janice stepped up and took the initiative to ask the Project Director what the team could work on to contribute to the event. Even though Janice was not the legitimate leader, her efforts were later recognised by the main committee since she was evidently more influential and effective. A leader may not necessary hold an official designation, but has the power to influence in support of others in accomplishment of a common goal. This shows that a follower may also assume the role of a leader under certain circumstances and is not mutually exclusive.

2.2.1. Janice as a follower
Janice was an effective leader – both active and possesses critical thinking. She had the courage the initiate change and assumes risk in order the serve the best interest of the committee and the event. By disregarding the hierarchy and approach the main committee directly, Janice puts herself in risk of challenging Alex’s the authority. She stood for what she thought was right by assuming the responsibility that Alex failed to accomplish.

Rather than serving the leader blindly, Janice displayed good followership by serving a common purpose to contribute to the greater goal. Her courage enabled her to bring light to the situation when the main committee realises the issue and helped to orientate the group by relaying instructions directly through Janice instead.

1.2.2      Janice as a leader
Janice should be considered a leader since she was able to influence and lead the remaining of the committee and gradually accomplished the tasks more efficiently. Instead of conforming to the norm of obeying Alex blindly, she was willing take the risks and encouraged the team to do so as well. She was not afraid of speaking her mind to the main committee in letting them aware of the prevalent issue and wanted improve the situation, fighting for what she believed that could benefit the outcomes as a whole.

Janice has a high internal locus of control as she believe that she has the power and responsibility for what happens to the team instead of leaving it to Alex and follow helplessly.

As a woman, Janice is better able to deliver more idealized influence to motivate the team inspiringly as a leader. Janice recognizes the followers’ desires to contribute and encouraged us along the way. Being a female leader, her focus on collaboration and participation gave us a sense of belonging and self-worth and we were more inclined to make a difference to the event.

3. Analysing the Leadership Moment

This moment was worth exploring as it shows the universality of leadership in today’s world. This is especially prevalent when different individuals work together and differences emerge, a good leader is crucial for a team to perform on task. The moment explored displayed how an ineffective leader could adversely impact the morals of the team and the possibility of an emerging leader amongst the followers in dire circumstances.

This moment is a ‘leadership’ moment as Janice assumed the role of leadership seeing that Alex failed to be an effective leader.

As Alex’s followers, it felt exhausting to keep up with the pace due to his lack of time management. It feels unfair that as a leader, Alex was credited for the things his followers have done despite his lack of commitment.

Ethical leadership involves treating its followers with respect and dignity, demonstrating sense trustworthiness to gain support from the followers in achieving to be people-oriented and serve the greater good. Alex did not exercise unethical behaviours but certainly did not perform ethical leadership, as he was neither people nor task oriented since he was only concerned about his self-serving interests.

As contributing to the event was a voluntary act, it affected how Alex prioritised it to be of less importance since it will not hold any adverse effects on him should he perform badly and the main committee would not be able to hold anything against him.

It is vital to match leadership style based on individual context as things evolves over time and leaders are challenged to constantly attain visions understanding how different context such as culture of organization may require a different leading style.

I would have acted like how Janice responded by stepping up as a leader if the team remained silent about it. The incompetency of Alex calls for the need of someone else to step up and reverse the situation and I would take the initiative should no one else wanted to assume the risks and responsibility. The best way I can perform well as a good follower is to have courage to challenge the authority when the leader does not act in our best interest. Thus, taking a leap of faith to make a difference would be most appropriate.

Leadership and ethics is universal and it helps us to evaluate the leaders around us. Indeed, anyone can be a leader presented an opportunity, but to determine how to be a good one requires certain outstanding traits and behaviours to differentiate one from another in order to be influential to the followers.

I believe it is important to determine the right mix of behaviour towards handling task and people to be a good leader. As illustrated in the Ohio State Studies, a good leader may possess a mix of consideration and initiation characteristics in shaping his behaviour. In this case, Alex possessed none, as opposed to Janice who not only inspired us to propel forward to perform the tasks effectively and also motivated us.


4. Other selected Leadership Moments

4.1   There was a booth in school where my committee was sell bakes to raise funds for charity and my friend initiated an idea to bring the bakes around to sell instead of staying put and led us to garner great sales than expected.

4.2   An old lady fainted on a train ride and someone took the initiative to calm the crowd and got help from others to facilitate communication to the train driver via the emergency button and kept the crowd away from the old lady for better ventilation till help was provisioned.


4.3   A freshmen seek to run the position for the be the next Freshmen Orientation Project for NUS Bizad club, campaigned and garnered opinions on how to better serve the cohort when he successfully get his position in the club.

Bibliography

Cherry, K. (n.d.). What Is Autocratic Leadership? From About.com Psychology: http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/f/autocratic-leadership.htm

Daft, R. L. (2011). Leadership. South-Western Cengage Learning.

Lancaster, H. (n.d.). Leading in Context. From Helen Lancaster: http://www.helenlancaster.com/Documents/Leading_in_Context.mba.pdf

Williams, N. (2013, September 23). What makes a good follower? From Inspiring Partnerships: http://www.inspiringpartnerships.co.uk/2013/09/23/what-makes-a-good-follower/