This paper presents a personal leadership portrait centered on understanding team members' personalities and adapting leadership style to individual and situational needs. The author outlines a primarily democratic and supportive approach grounded in open communication, goal-setting, and strategic flexibility. Key practices include maintaining accessible channels for feedback, adjusting between democratic, laissez-faire, and autocratic styles based on context, integrating discipline with praise and motivation, and managing workplace stress through transparent communication during change. The paper concludes with a self-assessment of strengths—particularly communication ability and style adaptability—and acknowledged weaknesses, particularly in authoritarianism and handling severely disciplinary situations, while arguing that communication-centered leadership builds greater trust and compliance than harsh approaches.
The most important thing in team leadership, for me, is understanding the different personalities I deal with in my team. I base all my decisions upon both the voiced and apparent needs and concerns of my team members. I strive to keep a channel of open communication with my team, encouraging members to visit me with questions, problems, concerns, or even just a friendly chat. I like to get to know my team members not only as workers functioning under me, but also as human beings. In this way, I can work to bring out the best in them and their work, and consequently my work.
I also understand that some team members will be uncomfortable visiting my office personally, and therefore I like to give them the option of a suggestion box. Members can place either anonymous or signed suggestion notes in the box, which are dealt with at team meetings. They do this with the understanding of the inherent disadvantage that they will not be able to discuss their suggestion with me personally unless they choose to do so.
My basic leadership style leans towards the democratic and supportive. This means that all my decisions are made upon the premise that each team member has something valuable to contribute. Generally, before I make a decision, I would call a meeting with my team and discuss the decision with them. They are given the opportunity to discuss the decision with me and to vote on its outcome. I then take all suggestions into consideration before making my final decision.
I also like to give my team members a fair amount of autonomy in their work. When I am confident that a team member can accomplish a task with competence, this person is allowed to work with minimal supervision. This tends more towards the laissez-faire leadership style. However, I also believe that leadership styles other than the democratic or laissez-faire are in order when the situation demands it. The autocratic leadership style is, for example, more appropriate for certain personality types and for workers who are new to the team. A worker who functions best with specific instructions will be subject to the autocratic leadership style. A worker who is new to the job will obviously also have to be given this type of leadership in order to learn the correct procedures for his or her specific functions in the team. In such cases, I would probably delegate leadership to an experienced member of my team. Personally, I would do this in a democratic way, nominating a number of experienced people who are willing to take on an autocratic leadership position for this purpose.
Goal setting is another very important aspect of leadership. In my personal democratic leadership style, the team and I would discuss and set goals together. Our agenda would include which goals enjoy the highest priority and the amount of time in which we can reach such a goal. Of course, deadlines entail a certain amount of stress, which is another aspect that needs to be handled as a team. Each team member will be required to monitor him- or herself, along with each other, very closely during specifically busy times. All problems are to be reported to me right away, so that they can be dealt with in an appropriate manner. This is part of the communication paradigm mentioned above. If I cannot help by communicating with workers under stress, these team members will be provided with a period of compulsory leave and contact sessions with an appropriate professional.
It is very important to me to meet deadlines and reach goals. I therefore tend to become somewhat autocratic in my delegation when under pressure for time and quality. However, I always remain open to communication from my team members. If each team member is not functioning optimally, the job will suffer, and this to me is unacceptable. It is therefore essential that they monitor themselves and each other and communicate effectively with me.
Discipline is also a very important issue in team leadership. If a team is not disciplined in their work ethic, the goals and vision of the team are compromised. Discipline is integrated with the self-monitoring I expect from my team members. If a discipline problem is reported, I visit the worksite myself to determine the causes and possible remedy. The next step is a conference with the team member who caused the problem. During this conference I would ask a series of questions to determine whether the behavior is a symptom of deeper problems in the person's life. If this is the case, the necessary counseling and downtime are scheduled. It is very important to me to handle such matters with as much discretion as possible to save not only the team member, but also myself, from public embarrassment.
In terms of discipline, it is also important to help the rest of the team understand that personal problems should be handled before they manifest themselves in unacceptable, detrimental, or possibly dangerous behavior. Once a team member has been placed on disciplinary probation or leave, I would call a team meeting, explain the situation, and ask for comments or suggestions to prevent similar situations in the future. For me, discipline is therefore not as much concomitant with punishment itself as it is to keep the root core of the team healthy enough to function optimally at the workplace.
On the other side of discipline, or the other side of the same coin, as it were, is praise. I strongly believe that motivation, praise, and discipline go hand in hand. I therefore like to implement a system by which team members will receive full praise for work well done. Team members can, for example, be eligible for rewards on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. Team members can also be encouraged to nominate each other for rewards during a particular period. This will place a more positive paradigm on the idea of self-monitoring and motivation. The negative connotation of discipline is therefore mitigated by the promise of reward.
While disciplinary problems can ensue from personal stressors away from the workplace, it is also possible that workplace stress can cause such problems. The greatest source of workplace stress is change. Change needs to be managed effectively in order to mitigate its effects and highlight its benefits. The main problem with change is the amount of uncertainty it causes. Once again, for me the most effective way of dealing with such pressure is communication. During times of elevated stress caused by change, I would call a meeting with my team. During the meeting, I would fully disclose all the details of the impending change. Then I would invite comments or questions. When I am sure all questions have been addressed, I would issue an invitation to speak to me or to team leaders regarding any further concerns. Being open to communication from team members is essential to help them make the transitions during change.
Stressful times such as change or tight deadlines require discipline and consistent motivation. While I see my job as team leader to some degree as one of motivation, I also feel that team members should be able to motivate themselves. Rather than therefore addressing the motivation issue on its own, I would integrate this element with other factors such as discipline, praise, and communication.
Generally, I feel that a team leader should be open-minded and ready to face any challenges in terms of both the human beings on the team and the situations presented to them. As such, there is no single leadership style that can be universally applied. Rather, it is important to remain eclectic regarding the leadership paradigm most appropriate to each particular situation.
In building and managing a team, I have a number of integral strengths and weaknesses. My goal in team management is to use both of these in a way that would optimally accomplish the goals that I set for my team. I would therefore use my strengths to mitigate my weaknesses in order to adhere as best I can to the vision set by the team.
My greatest strength is not only my ability to communicate, but also my willingness to do so. I would therefore make use of this from the first day of meeting my new team. My first means of communication would be oral, by means of a meeting. The first meeting will entail an introduction of myself and the goals of the team as I see them. These will be fully discussed until I have ascertained that each team member understands the goals and his or her function in reaching these.
My second communication strategy will be a personal meeting with each team member. During these sessions, I will ask a series of questions to determine each team member's motivation levels and possible problems that may arise as a result of personal stress factors. Furthermore, these meetings will also be used to ascertain each member's ability to reach goals and any specific talents that could help the project we are working on.
Any further problems in terms of discipline or stress will also be handled by means of oral communication, either at meetings or through personal contact sessions with the workers. Workers are also encouraged to meet with me personally in order to discuss any questions, concerns, or suggestions they may have to further the optimum function of the team.
I will also use written communication in the form of circulars, memos, and a general document stipulating the rules and regulations of the team and the work at hand. Each team member is presented with this document in order to clarify the responsibilities that need to be adhered to. Other written communication will occur by means of a suggestion box. In the event that team members are not sufficiently confident to take the liberty of a personal meeting with me, they have the option of the suggestion box for any suggestions, problems, or concerns.
I would also encourage communication among team members themselves. Team members will be encouraged to communicate any problems or suggestions to each other and bring these to me if authorization is necessary for implementation or if further steps are needed in the case of any problems.
Discipline and praise, as mentioned above, are part of managing a team through effective communication. A written memo will be handed out to specifically explicate these to each team member. Team members are invited to offer suggestions for specific rewards or for any part of the document. Any worthy suggestions will be brought before team meetings, discussed, and possibly implemented. Suggestions will also be encouraged via a reward system, with rewards handed to those with specifically worthy or useful suggestions.
Discipline will also be handled via open communication. The goal of my disciplinary practices is not punishment, but rather a strategy to help team members deal with disciplinary problems. In case of such a problem, I would have a personal conference with the disciplinary offender and then offer my help in whichever way the person may see fit. If the offer is refused, I may put the person on compulsory leave, depending upon the seriousness of the offense. Such a person may also be warned and placed back upon the team, under strict supervision of the rest of the team members.
Another strength is my ability to adjust my leadership style to the requirements of every situation. It is widely recognized in the business world that an integration of the various leadership styles is often necessary in order to optimally manage a team. The different personalities within a team, for example, need to be taken into account. Other factors that need to be considered in this regard include the specific situation and level of workers in each team. New workers, for example, need to be managed with a more authoritarian style than those with more experience. Experienced workers are placed in leadership positions, and more responsibility is delegated to them.
Finally, one of my strengths in leadership, which could also be a weakness if not handled correctly, is my patience. I am extraordinarily patient, especially during times of stress. My concomitant ability to remain calm under the pressure of tight deadlines and stressful situations tends to communicate itself to the members of my teams.
"Patience as liability, difficulty with authoritarianism, and delegation workarounds"
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