The keys to being a great leader are: understand the nature of the task or job, being willing to oversee, carryout, and responsible for the required tasks, and knowing and being honest with yourself about your personal strengths, weaknesses, tolerances, and limitations. Great leaders implement and execute plans of action involving these points.
As this company grows, I am a great person to continue to supervise the growth of the company. My responsibility has been to grow the company. In order to grow the company, there are many factors that must be managed daily. My endurance, enthusiasm, collaborations, and perseverance has placed me in an excellent position to continue with the company’s growth process.
My leadership style proves I am a trustworthy person. I have the trust of families, staff, church members, and other professionals in the industry. Trust from others does not come easily without charisma. I do have areas of improvement, but every individual has areas of improvement. My areas of improvement provide me with opportunities of growth and development without sacrificing the company. An example of an area of improvement is discipline of subordinates. I provide my staff with a lot of respect as an adult and a person; therefore, I may not implement a stern disciplinary action immediately. This approach is not necessarily a critical flaw since the childcare industry has a high turnover rate.
Two leadership behaviors I utilize under the Ohio State Leadership Studies is consideration and initiating structure. Consideration “involves leader concern for people and interpersonal relationships. The leader acts in a friendly and supportive manner and shows concern for the needs and feelings of subordinates” (Yukl, 2006, p.51). Initiating Structure “involves leader concern for accomplishing the task. The leader defines and structures his or her own role and the roles of subordinates towards attainment of task goals” (Yukl, 2006, p.51).
In my opinion, I do not want to work for a company that does not care about me as an individual. I supervise people with the intent of knowing the individual’s personality. By understanding my staff, I am able to make sound judgments about the work environment such as promotions, delegations of tasks, work schedules, age groups, and any other factors impacting the entire work environment. Considerations towards people will assist with the structure of the organization. There must be a balance between the two behaviors. Realistically, the balance varies from subordinate to subordinate, team to team, and organization to organization.
There are three leadership behaviors according to the Michigan Leadership Studies. These behaviors are: task-oriented, relations-oriented, and participative leadership. The first two behaviors are similar to the Ohio State Leadership Studies; however, the last behavior in the Michigan Leadership Studies focuses on the role of the manager as a facilitator for subordinates as a group for communication, meetings, etcetera instead of individually. Although there are positive and negative factors of research, I choose to focus on the attributes of each leadership behavior.
Subordinates must feel inclusive and or influential on the decision making of the organization. Childcare centers require every employee to do his or her work so the center will run efficiently. There are numerous of state regulations that must be abided by daily. Subordinates must feel as an intricate part for resolving some risk management issues that pertain to their daily work. Participative leadership provides an opportunity for the supervisor to show support and understanding to the staff. I am a believer in not asking a subordinate to do anything I am not willing to do myself. I pride myself on my willingness and actions to do what I expect my staff to do. This requires me to stay humble and in touch with my staff and the work conditions. Besides, I miss working with the children from time to time. A quality leader knows this.
The cognitive resource theory focuses on the ideal of stress and being rational. Although stress can affect rational thinking; stress can also stimulate a leader to be at his or her best. Often times I work better under pressure. Too much stress or daily constant stress, would affect sensible judgment; however, this is the childcare industry when the organization operate a state funded program, county and local funding, multicultural families, unreliable staff, or the toilet overflowing during lunch time. The leadership of the center and the support of the subordinates alleviate the stress. The leadership and subordinates must learn to work as a team with a change of command. A leader of this type of organization should be teaching the staff as much as the staff can absorb.
A company does not grow without a vision, a plan, or implementation. In the childcare industry a leader must be willing to do what the subordinates are required to do, must be supportive, helpful, and know what has to be done, and how to be done, and when to be done, and by whom to complete. There are different types of leadership behaviors. All the behaviors have positive and negative factors; however, the balance of the factors provides an overall positive, productive, and stable organization. All this begins with a leader who is qualified and willing to provide vision, structure, autonomy, support, and stability to the organization. This person is I, Tiffany Crawford.
