Transformational Leadership by Rebecca Halstead

Rebecca Halstead's Leadership Style

Leadership is considered as the process of social influence were individual can enlist the support and aid of others mainly in the achievement of a corporate task. For a leader to motivate his or her team and achieve the optimal levels of performance, there are qualities that he or she must possess to create an organization that is extraordinary in the process. One of the traits includes decisiveness where leaders are expected to make tough decisions. They must understand that tough decisions must be adopted to suit the interest of the corporation. They should also show empathy to others and portray accountability. They take responsibility for everybody's performance. They monitor the effectiveness of the organization's procedures and policies. This report endeavors to explain about General Rebecca S. Halstead focusing on her leadership skills and strategies. It also endeavors to explain about the challenges she faced as a leader in military (Groysberg & Ball, 2011).

Rebecca Stevens Halstead was born in 1959. She is a retired Army Brigadier General in U.S. She joined the U.S. military in 1977. Rebecca was the first female general officer to graduate from West Point. Her early positions were operations officer, the platoon leader, and 69th ordinance. She was also given assignments such as battalion executive officer and support operations officer, personnel Assignments Officer, Support Operations Officer and Battalion Executive Officer. Rebecca has served 27 years in the military, and she played a major role as the Executive Director for a leadership consultancy company (Nanus, 1992). She gained a lot of experience in leadership, and many people are advised to learn a lot from her. She is the author of the book titled "The first person you must lead is you."

She has experience in training diverse, high-performing, and complex teams and proven record of building successful teams and leading change in environments that are demanding in South America, Germany, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She has also created innovative programs, solutions, and systems to complex problems. Many people that have interacted with her agree she is an experienced Logistician and leader, effective communicator and strategic planner with organizational skills that are exceptional.

Qualities and strategies

One of the traits that she possessed is optimism. She insists that a good leader should avoid pessimistic thinking and personal criticism. She used to look for numerous ways to get people to work together and gain consensus. Secondly, she had honesty as a leadership trait. She believed that honesty, reliability and effort are the basis of success. They avoid spin control and share information openly. Thirdly, she remained focused. She always used to plan and was extremely organized. She used to think through multiple scenarios, as well as, the possible impacts of the decisions made. Another trait possessed by Rebecca is inspiration. She used to challenge her team members by setting high but attainable expectations and standards and then giving to them tools, latitude, support and training to pursue goals (Nanus, 1992). She used to recognize and foster growth and success for all individuals in her team. Another important trait is that she has confidence. Her confidence is contagious, and her team members were naturally drawn to her. They used to seek her advice and in turn feel confident in turn. She was always disciplined and committed to her tasks. She ensured that she kept time in carrying out her duties. These traits made her achieve greatness and accomplish what many women would not have dared to venture. However, she also experienced some challenges (Groysberg & Ball, 2011).