ERIC CURRY

Organizations and corporate firms have recently placed a strong emphasis on leadership styles that are successful and efficient in achieving company goals and visions. Leadership is the capacity to organize organizational operations in order to accomplish organizational goals (Gopee & Galloway, 2017). Planning, organizing, staffing, guiding, and encouraging the personnel within an organization are just a few of the many tasks that go under the umbrella of leadership. The success of a company is heavily influenced by leadership. In recent years, various leadership expositions and conferences have been held across the globe to promote effective leadership skills in management among leaders who are tasked to lead organizations. According to Kouzes & Posner (2016), effective leadership involves; being able to create a way for others to follow, inspire and share a vision with the other team members, challenging the organizational setup of the organization to ensure goal accomplishment, enabling others to take action and encourage the workers to be committed. The main aim of this task is to interview, provide an analysis and reflection of the leadership skills and values of Eric Curry, the head of a pediatric care center based on the Kouzer’s and Posner theoretical model.

Summary of interview results

During the Interview with Eric Curry, I was able to learn that Eric Curry is a leader who largely focuses on the accomplishment of the organizational goals at the healthcare facility. According to Eric, leadership largely involves being able to influence other members of the organization to work towards accomplishment of goals and vision through being able to integrate activities within the organization to achieve the overall goals. The activities put across by Eric Curry Include; planning, organizing, directing, supervising, delegating and motivating the staff members at the facility. Further, Eric suggests that being able to act and model the way for the junior staff at the centre to follow plays a significant role in goal accomplishment at the healthcare facility. The main identified leadership strength possessed by Eric Curry is the unique ability to be able to inspire others and act as a role model for the others to follow in his footsteps. Eric Curry further has the ability to motivate the staff members at the facility to work towards goal attainment through providing a clear insight into the vision and goals of the organization.

Through the interview, the identified weakness of the leader was unable to question the status quo within the organization. According to Curry, being new in an organization makes it challenging to question the programs and code of conduct which have been in existence within the organization for long periods of time. Further, Curry suggests that changing the status quo promptly may lead to disorganization within the pediatric care center. Leadership instead should focus more towards working to improve the already existing systems. Curry also suggests that it is essential for a leader to motivate others and to provide new challenges to the workers in a facility. Curry identifies duty delegation as one of the key approaches towards improving the skills of the workers in an organization. Improving workers skills consequently aids in making others more strong and confident in undertaking new tasks. Empowering others in the team also involves to inspiring them throughout their respective ventures within the organization, acting as a role model to them and to instill proper leadership skills.

Hard work, discipline and trust are the main core values that Curry believes are effective towards providing proper leadership in management. Hard work is reflected in Curry’s ability to set up tasks and work with commitment towards the accomplishment of the set task. Discipline, on the other hand, is reflected through Curry’s ability to always keep time in activities relating to work. Finally, trust is depicted through Curry’s ability to remain allegiant towards the goals of the organization and also fulfill promises made to the workers such as assuring them of job security.

Leader Critique

Leaders are supposed to be able to effectively discover his strength and weaknesses which may have an impact on modeling the way for the others to follow the individual in a leadership position. Discovering individual strengths involves assessing both strengths and weaknesses of the leader and ensuring that the rest can align their code of conduct about the leader’s strength (Kouzes & Posner, 2006). In this particular case, Eric Curry fails to improve his inability to question the status quo within the organization. This consequently results in the promotion of negative behavior which may have been in existent for a long time within the organization.

This further minimizes the authority that the leader may have within the organizational setup. Inability to question the status quo of the organization may lead to the failure to achieve goals that had not previously been achieved. It is the role of the leader to be able to identify specific problems within the organization and develop a problem-solving approach to solve the problem (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

Eric Curry further fails to provide descriptions of the appropriate motivation techniques that the pediatric facility has embraced to ensure that the staff members are constantly motivated towards working to achieve the organizational goals in the organization. According to Kouzes & Posner (2016), proper leadership involves the ability to encourage the workers to work with heart and commitment. This is achievable through organizing celebrations, praise positive moves in the organization and showing appreciation and recognition for work well done. This consequently helps in fostering good deeds among people. In the healthcare sector, it is worth noting that less emphasis has been placed towards the appreciation and recognition of individuals who have positively impacted the organization or the society at large. It is the role of a leader to set up health forums which are geared towards recognition and appreciation of health workers.

In relation to the strengths of Eric Curry, it is commendable that Eric Curry can apply personal tributes such as hard work and trust in providing effective leadership within the organization to inspire others in the organization. Leadership involves the ability to stay focused on the achievement of the organizational goals; this is attained through the various core values expressed by the Leader, such as discipline and hard work. Further, developing trust as a leader facilitates effective communication within the organization (Kouzes & Posner, 2013).

Trust also enables other workers in the organization to be able to confidently take up tasks without fear of punishment; this helps to foster the ability of the workers to take up new challenges that creates empowerment. Eric Curry also attains the ability to enable others to act by delegating duties to various personnel within the organization. Delegation refers to the handing over of tasks to the employee’s n an organization, the main aim of delegation is to enable accomplishment of a task as well as challenge the tasks and skills of the employees during leadership.

It is also worth noting that Eric Curry has successfully been able to devise an effective approach towards problem-solving in the pediatric facility. According to Curry, conducting an in-depth analysis prior to conflict management as well as ensuring fairness is effective towards solving conflicts that may arise within an organizational setup. Conflict management plays a huge role in fostering collaboration and teamwork as it enables everyone to act (Long, 2017). Further, conflict management in leadership also helps in ensuring that there is teamwork in the organization to promote goal attainment in the facility.

Recommendations for Improvement

To improve leadership skills, it is important for Curry to integrate his strengths appropriately as well as improve on his weaknesses. Curry should explore on other new approaches to model or lead the way for the workers; such new methods could include ensuring that his tasks are accomplished efficiently; Curry should also align his actions to be in accordance to the shared visions and expected values in the organization.

Curry should also adopt more techniques to inspire others within the institution. According to Williams (2013), enlisting other workers in the goal to achieve the vision of the care center helps in creating and fostering personal responsibility and commitment. It is also important that Curry learns to challenge the already existing status quo in the organization that may cause derailment in the achievement of the goals and vision of the care center, despite the status quo being in existence for long durations of time.

Leadership should also have a positive impact in enabling others to work with utmost commitment through frequent encouragement. For instance, Curry could place positive expectation among the workers at the healthcare facility; this enables the workers to work wholeheartedly towards the achievement of the positive expectation set up. Curry should also be able to display compassionate when handling the workers; this helps to enhance affiliation to an organization among the workers. According to Goetsch & Davis (2014), enhancing commitment to tasks involves the leader freely walking around, setting up good examples as well as making some fun to allay anxiety among the workers.

Interview Reflection Essay

From the interview with Curry on leadership skills, I was able to learn new leadership skills that are not reflected in the Kousez and Posner model. The learned skills are depicted from Eric’s personal attributes and values which He has been able to integrate into leadership; such skills include developing trust as well as discipline in leadership. It is essential for leaders to be able to identify their good value and try to apply the same in providing guidance. Further, I was able to learn the commitment that various managers have towards ensuring that they can provide effective leadership in the organization.

However, most of the skills I was able to learn from the interview revolved around the Posner and Kousez model of leadership as learned in class. Posner and Kouzes provide an appropriate approach in the provision of effective leadership. The depiction of leadership according to Kouzes and Posner is not only based on tasks accomplishment and goal accomplishment; it also focuses on the general well being of the workers in any organizational setup. Kousez and Posner place much emphasis on the ability of the workers to work out of will rather than through supervision.

The model is aligned with the democratic style of leadership. Personally, I perceive effective leadership as a leadership that is based on the commitment geared towards the well being of workers; this provides more motivation for the workers to work towards goal accomplishment. On the contrary, dictatorial leadership style may result to the demoralization of workers leading to lack of inspiration to work towards vision accomplishment as well as the ability to work from the heart, as Posner and Kousez insist.

Through the interview, I was also able to learn that it is essential that leaders are in a position to provide effective leadership in the management of an organization. According to Eric Curry, effective leadership in the pediatric facility has so far played a huge role in ensuring that the facility has been in existence and remains in existence for a long time.

Leadership within the organization should be transformational; leadership should be able to shape the attitude of the workers within an organization to works towards the accomplishment of the goals and vision. Further, I was able to learn from both interviews and the leadership models that leadership should be wired towards ensuring that other individual members of the organization are equipped with leadership skills as well. It is essential for leaders to ensure that they can train their juniors to be in a position to take up leadership roles at the different levels of management.

In my own leadership experience, I will try to incorporate skills such as being a role model to the other employees within the organization. Further, I will ensure that my leadership deviates from the normal traditional leadership skill which largely focuses on task accomplishment without placing any considering for the employee’s attitude and drives. I will also try and ensure that as a leader I can sufficiently motivate my workers to put more effort and commitment to the organizational needs. I will achieve this through organizing organizational meetings and recognizing and appreciating the workers.

In conclusion, the interview together with the theoretical class work on the Kousez and Posner model has played a significant role in shaping my perspective of ideal leadership and what it entails to provide effective leadership.

Appendix

1. What does leadership mean to you?

Leadership means being able to integrate activities within the organization to achieve the overall goals of the organization through planning, organizing, staffing, directing, supervising and motivating of the various resources within the organization particularly the Human resource within the business organization. Most importantly it involves leading the way appropriately for others to follow.

2. What strengths do you believe you have as a leader? Weaknesses?

My unique strength as a leader is being able to mobilize and inspire the staff members at the pediatric facility to work towards the attainment of the organizational goals and vision through providing a clear vision of the future and exploring possibilities.

My identified personal weakness as a leader is unable to confidently question the status quo within the institution since I have been in leadership for less than two years in an organization that has been existent for over ten years.

3. What has been your greatest influence as a leader?

My greatest influence as a leader has been to provide an effective platform to enable others to be compassionate about working for the organization and generating an appropriate environment for sharing ideas that are wired towards sharing ideas.

4. Do you think leaders should make other people feel strong and confident? If so, what do you do to make others feel this way?

Yes, I think leaders should enable others to feel strong and confident enough to undertake tasks within the organization. Personally, I have been able to make staff members at the facility feel strong and confident through delegation of duties to the staff members. Promoting communication through listening has also ensured that the staff members are confident.

5. Do you think it is important to delegate? If so why?

Yes, it is important to delegate duties to the various staffs within the organization. Firstly, delegating duties enables the workers to feel challenged and try to accomplish new tasks. Secondly, delegation of duties ensures creativity and innovativeness among the employees. Finally, it enables accomplishment of tasks even when other workers are on leave or vacation break.

6. What are three or four actions you believe are essential to enable others to be successful?

To enable others to be successful, you have to inspire them throughout their ventures, act as a role model to them to instill proper leadership skill, Challenge them to try out new tasks to advance their skills and enable them to act frequently.

7. What are your core values and how are they reflected in what you do as a leader?

My core values in leadership include discipline, hard work and being trustworthy. Discipline is reflected in ensuring that time is well maintained as well as commitment. Hard work is reflected through various sacrifices such as working overtime to ensure that all tasks are accomplished. Trustworthiness is reflected in the accomplishment of promises made to workers and allegiance to the organizational goals, vision, and mission.

8. How do you manage conflict as a leader?

As a leader, I have been able to manage conflict largely through looking deeper into the problem and ensuring there is fairness in solving a conflict.

References

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice Kogan Page Publishers

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Gopee, N., & Galloway, J. (2017) Leadership and management in healthcare

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2006) The leadership challenge (Vol. 3). John Wiley & Sons

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2016) Learning leadership: The five fundamentals of becoming an exemplary leader John Wiley & Sons

Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2013) The five practices of exemplary leadership model. The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership Model

Long, A. (2017) Leadership and management ABC of Clinical Leadership, 5

Williams, C. (2013). Principles of management South-Western Cengage Learning

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