Good A Research On Different Leadership Styles Essay Example

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The Working Environment

I had the chance to lead the business process management area of a multi-development bank in Asia. This organization, composed of more than 3,000 employees, spearheads the spread of assistance to developing member countries in the world by providing grants, equity investment and loans. Primarily, this bank intends to lessen the poverty around the Asia Pacific region. The business process management section is a sub-unit within the Information Technology (IT) Department of the bank. The IT Department develops implements and manages several IT projects lead by different project managers. These projects involved different technologies, thus, managed by the project managers through different approaches, standards and framework.

Challenges within Working Environment

Two years ago, the bank took a step of revisiting its business process for better project delivery. Apparently, although the bank’s mission is admirable and inspirational to various public and private sector, the way it executes its projects and processes is taking a toll on the bank. Slow process, non-integrated technologies related to core business process and duplicated information are among the different complaints of the involved stakeholders. Because of this, the bank embarked on process improvement and management as a strategy to address these concerns. The President of the bank demanded the review and improvement of its business process and especially revisits the technologies that manage the automation of the related processes. As the designated business process management champion, I, together with the assistance of the IT experts in our department, assessed the current process, related technologies and methodologies within the department.
A thorough two months assessment and evaluation of the process, people and technologies within the department revealed that most of the project managers who handle and manage the core business related applications employ different and non-integrated approach in addressing the bank’s technology related issue. The result of the study, interview and investigation divulged a silo mentality among the main players of the projects and, more often than not, does not follow defined procedures and implement diverse standards and framework. For the longest time, the silo approach has been a growing pain within the department as most of the supposed leaders refuse to share essential information that led to operational inefficiency, diminished morale and slows down the productivity of the company traditions. Working on an individual and silo approach appears as one of the main challenges within the department. As a the point person leading the business process management, this need focus and must remain included on the top of the least of what to address, otherwise, it will have a chain reaction that will eventually lead to inefficient delivery of projects within the bank. The continuous silo mentality within the environment resulted to duplicated efforts, wasted resources and time, interruption of communication and negative impact on collaboration. A by-product of this mentality is prone to error, reduced employee morale and de-motivation of the employees.

Leadership Model and Addressing the Challenges

This kind of challenge about silo mentality and lack of communication within the bank requires different leadership styles. As the champion for business process management, I juggled various leadership hats from democratic, transformational to servant leadership manner. With the support of the executive sponsor of this project, my team and I scheduled series of workshop to understand the current situation and approach of the project managers. During the workshops, I particularly wear the hat of a servant leader to listen and empathize with the project managers and make them understand that we are on the same goal and that we will work on the same path to achieve the directive of the president. While I listen to the needs of the project managers, I sought to understand their objectives and assist in clarifying their mission. I ensured that all members of the working group will have their time to relay their thoughts about this project and made them feel acceptance and recognize their skills and contribution.
As needed, I also wore the hat of a democratic leader as the IT environment is a fast changing environment where we recognized each opportunity for improvement to keep the entire group from being out-dated . I facilitated conversations from different groups, at the same time; persuade every member to share their thoughts and ideas. In the end, we agreed to combine all contributions and available information to arrive at the best possible information. In order to maintain collaboration, I ensure that the member of the group is knowledgeable about every gathered information and decision. Also, as a group, we keep an open communication, explain different perspectives and maintain focus and respect to push for a creative environment. While adopting a democratic leadership hat, I keep my transformational leadership hat open to determine the required changes within the environment and develop a vision that will serve as guidance for the organization as we execute this together with the project sponsors. Being a leader with transformational approach, I ensure that the attention needed for the social aspect of the needed work is present. I interchanged the transformational and servant leadership style to create and manage a collaborative environment while providing a solid sense of direction among our peers in the IT department to achieve our goal .

Works Cited

Bhatti, N., Maitlo, G., Shaikh, N., & Hashimi, M. (2012). The Impact of Autocratic and Democratic Leadership Style on Job Satisfaction. International Business Research, 192-201.
Stone, G., Russel, R., & Patterson, K. (2004). Transformational versus servant leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 25, issue 4, 349-361.