Leadership styles

Term "Leadership style" is used to define a way in which senior officers in a company complete their tasks and the way they behave to their subordinates. It is a pattern behavior and it does not change during a longer course of time. One person can influence other peoples behavior by position he holds or by his personality. And that is the basic difference between types of authority.

In modern literature about this topic, there are two types of view on styles. First one is the classical term of Leadership styles, and the second one refers to special styles of leadership. First one comes from oldest conducted studies on this topic such as Hotorn and Iowa studies. Second one comes from the stand that we should no longer look at what qualities people have, but instead what do they do.

In this post, I will focus on the Classical term of leadership. This classical term consist of three leadership styles: 1-Autocratic, 2-Democratic and 3-Liberal.

Leadership style

1-Autocratic style comes from rigid, non-confident and non-flexible behavior of leaders in organization. His subordinates have no participation in decision making and they should only conduct what he decided. He uses his formal authority and he does not adapt a lot. This style is adequate for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

2-Democratic style is based on cooperation with subordinates. They are included in the decision making process and this improves communication between people in an organization. Person who is a leader in this style doesn't make a decision on his own but instead he consults his colleagues which makes them feel like a part of the company and not just simple work force. This is proven to increase productivity and this style is usually used in larger companies and corporations. 

3-Liberal style is a style of individual freedom. Leader in this case is more a coordinator than a boss. He tells what tasks should be done and in what deadline, but it is on the people to choose the way they will complete it and that is why they have full responsibility for their work. Leader has great confidence in the people he leads and lets them decide how they will do things. This type is usually used on some projects or researches where there is clear division of labor.

Leadership definition

Leadership is a term that is very hard to define and it has many meanings. But in its basic usage it represents two things. 1-It is a power one person has over a group of people. 2-And on the other hand it represents ability to accomplish tasks through others. 

Leaders can become Leader because they have Power or because they have Authority. Those are two different concepts that will be explained in some other post. But the main difference is that person who is a Leader can be that because of the position they have and that is simply it. He holds higher position and he is our superior and we obey his tasks. On the other hand, authority comes from a person, not the position that person has. They are simply good at doing something and that is why other people listen to them and follow them. Or they have good leadership skills and they stand out of the mass.

The first usage of term Leadership mentioned refers to a person that dominates other people in a certain group. This definition of Leadership simply implies that a leader is supposed to have dominating power over his subordinates. He is a person that is in charge of all things and he has the last say about things. This concept of Leadership is closely related to a position one holds and the power he has because of that position. It requires a group commitment from subordinates that they will obey the rules. This kind of leader does not necessarily has to have good leadership or interpersonal skills. 

The second usage of this term states that "Leadership is ability to accomplish tasks through others". This means that a leader can (but doesn't have to) hold some position but that him being a leader does not come from that position, but instead from his skills or his qualities and that people are ready to follow him because of that. This type of leadership focuses on achieving results. If a group of people were given an assignment to solve, and if they do not have a formal leader, who would be a leader? A leader in this case would be a person that steps out and organizes others in order to accomplish given goal. That person can step out on his own, but can also be promoted to leading position by other people from that group because they think he would be the best person for that task. He would tell people what to do, but they will follow and listen to him because they trust him, not because he has the power.

This is just some basic scratching the surface about leadership. Hope you have some clearer picture about what is stands for. I will soon get more detailed about Management and Leadership, some other Leadership theories, real life examples of Leaders and a lot more.

Life is changing fast

Life is changing fast, is it really? Well for me it is. I have started a journey called USA 8 months and 5 days ago. In those 8 months I have changed a lot. But everything looks like it happened yesterday.

When I remember, tests and interviews, round after round. And then I got a phone call saying "Congratulations Nikola, you are going to the USA for one year. You passed all the tests". Like it was yesterday, I am saying goodbye to my parents. Airplane for the first time in my life, night in Washington and then coming to Iowa. And from then until now, 8 long months have passed. I think I changed in that period of time. Hopefully it is a good change.  It is a change in mental way. I have different perception and understanding of the world around me. When I came here I was just a regular teenager, with all typical problems one teenage boy can have. But after being here, I realized how shallow some of my thinking's were. I was thinking what phone to buy or something irrelevant like that (Not to offend anyone, phone choice can be really important to some people). But now, after being separated from my love ones for 8 months (It was my choice to come here, just to make it clear) I have different vision of what is really important in life. People are! After staying here, I realized how much my parents and my friends meant to me and how valuable they were. I did not understand it at the time, but that is what you remember when you feel alone. You do not remember phone you had, you remember people you loved and that loved you, and all the good feelings you had when close to them.

I am thankful for the opportunity to come here, I know it will help me a lot in future life. One thing is for sure, it made me stronger. Now from this perspective, if I had chance, I would do it all over again the same. This trip that is coming to its end, for me meant a great deal. I am stronger for experience, for connections and for friendships. And it also made me realize significance of some things in life. It made me realize that even tough we argued some times, my parents are irreplaceable for me. When thinking there was a chance not to see them again. And I had so many things to tell them. But one thing is most important-Thank you! Thank you for raising me and trying to make a good person out of me. Thank you for always keeping me on correct path. Thank you for everything you did for me! I love you! I am still just a regular teenage boy, only difference is that I have learned important life lesson on time, while I still have all the people I care about. Some people do not learn that lesson on time. That is why you should always show appreciation for everything people do for you. It is not hard to be nice!

All best,

Communication principles

This week we are continuing on our project to help kids with special needs that are going to our school. Besides that, we are learning about attitudes and exterior look that can reveal a lot about us.

People are approaching us and talking to us, and it is in great measure determined by look on our faces, our external look or by gestures we do. If you have your arms crossed or in your pockets that can mean to some people you are not in good mood to talk and they wont even try to do so. But if you have you hands next to you, or only one of them in your pocket, that can mean that you are happy and opened to talk. Our look is in great measure determined by our mood, and our look is actually opinion we have about our selfs. If we are sloppy that can mean we do not care about how we look or what is going on. If we are too dressed up tough, it can mean that we think we are the best and that we are always right.

There is no ideal behavior and people will always have ticks, or gestures or something else. But if we realize it we can try stop it when it starts happening. I think we are learning this because of our upcoming start of work with special education students, and that we should know this because to them it means a lot more than it means to us. If they do not see you are interested in them, it will not be good and even tough it is not always on purpose it can seem like that to them. So always be aware of your gestures and actions and people will have a good opinion about you.

Friendship/help project

Today one teacher that works with special education kids came to our class to talk about those kids, and how we can be engaged in process of helping them.

He explained us what are situations with every kid at this moment, and what are difficulties they meet every day. He explained what are ways of helping every kid individually and what kind of help they need. He said that it is not gonna be easy in beginning but that we have to have patience and that soon kids will like us. All in all, everything these kids need is attention. They want same things we wanted a few years ago. They won't to be able to talk to someone, instead of being rejected; they want to be included in conversations and classes because  they are able to be, it depend on us will we except them or not. And if we have any sense for people, WE WILL. Same way as we wanted to be accepted when we were on their intellectual level, now we have to accept them and try in to help them develop, both intellectually and as persons. We will continue working on this project  and soon I hope we will start working with those kids.