The Role of Character in Leadership Today Case Study

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Introduction

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Leadership is defined as capability of the organization’s management in order to make sound decisions and encourage the employees to perform well. In every organization, leadership is important because it helps in motivating the employees, communicate with them effectively and resolve conflicts and making the effective decisions. In the contemporary leadership practices the character is central part. In the context of leadership, character is significant because it lays focus on doing the right things for the right feelings and reasons. It is an exclusive combination of moral habits and internalized beliefs that motivates as well as reshapes in relation to others. Further, with regards to leadership, character also plays a vital role in aligning the followers and leaders relationships, increase their effectiveness, productivity & creativity. Apart from this, the report includes comparison of narcissistic and hubris leadership tendencies with models. It will also confer gaps in leadership practices and reflective leadership.

2.Character-Driven Leadership Comparisons

A. Narcissistic vs. Character-Driven Leadership: A Comparative Analysis

Narcissistic is a leadership style in which leaders are only interested in themselves rather than others. The behaviours of such type of leaders include hostility, dominance and arrogance. This type of leaders are only concerned with their social standing and own goals. In general, it is complicated for the business to have narcissistic leadership because they fail to see their limits, overemphasize their competencies and engage in excessive self-promotion and admiration (Steffens and Haslam, 2022). The leaders who have Narcissistic character then they are tend to be hostile, arrogant, feel entitled and self-absorbed in comparison to the hubristic leader. The narcissistic leaders represent a high degree of self-love and feel that they are special and allowed to administration & praise. On the other hand, the narcissistic leaders are featured by observing others as inferior and often are hostile and unresponsive towards others in contrast to hubristic leaders. Along with this, the narcissistic leaders are inclining to understand the information with a self-serving bias and their decisions lean towards improving their own reputation instead than the goods of others.

On the other hand, hubris leadership is when any individual in a position of power builds an overstated and magnified opinion of themselves and their competencies. The hubris leaders are having over-confidence and excessive pride in their skills, knowledge and capabilities. The leaders with hubristic character have an extreme sense of worth and incline to be very self-protective when they review the feedback (Norouzinik et al, 2022). The hubristic leaders are tending to question the ability of the assessor and undervalue the negative assessments. The hubristic leaders are engage in unreasonable decision-making because of exaggerated methods they view themselves. Apart from this, the narcissistic leaders are sensitivity, ruthlessness and arrogance to criticism. The positive features are connected with the narcissism leaders are creativity, charisma and unrealistic to drive a success. The leader of this character is loves one-self and have positive self-view.

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Narcissism is considered as bad type of leadership in comparison of hubristic. It is beneficial for the organization to have narcissist leadership because they are capable to take more risks because they are more thoughtless. The narcissistic leaders have an intrinsic self-belief that helps in attracting followers and quite convincing as well as encouraging the team members with the confidence. The charisma of narcissistic leaders helps them to make effective communicators and increase the capability to attract new talent and sell their vision in contrast to hubristic leadership (Gruda et al, 2021). The narcissistic leaders have high level of resilience in comparison to hubristic leaders and from this they can recoil speedily from failure or rejection. However, lack of empathy in narcissistic leaders cans outcomes in lack of consideration and understanding for the teams which ultimately negatively impacts their productivity and morale. The lack of fear of failure and ambition of narcissistic leaders can inspire the new ideas and promote the environment of innovation. 

Additionally, the hubristic leaders are estranging their colleagues, teams and clients. The leaders with hubristic character are make arrogance based decisions which leads to stressed relationships and breakdown in communication in between peers, departments and superiors. The hubristic leaders are overconfident in comparison to narcissistic leaders and they are solely based on the judgements and fail to pursue input from others. The hubristic leaders are not requiring paying attention to the valuable ideas and viewpoints from the team members which can lead to suboptimal decision-making and missed opportunities (Asad and Sadler-Smith, 2020). The hubristic leaders have narrow opinion and they overlook towards alternative viewpoints and critical information which results in limited understanding of better decision-making and complicated circumstances. Furthermore, the overconfident leaders are resist new ideas and change from which they are unable to adapt evolving circumstances. The hubristic leaders are missing the valuable learning opportunities because they require considering the areas of enhancement and limitations. It is crucial for them to put more attention towards useful feedback or seek new skills and knowledge to make the effective decisions.

3.Gaps in Leadership Practices

A.Challenges from Gaps Between Leadership Image and Practice

 Leadership gap is a circumstance where the leaders are not capable to accomplish the organizational goals and objectives and drive the missions effectively. The leadership gaps negatively impacts the organization’s productivity, employee morale and missed opportunities. The leadership gaps is a difference between the capabilities and skills of leaders which are require for leaders to perform their roles effectively. The leadership gaps are arises due to employee’s pressure, rapid changes in method of work and attitudes of leaders about the work-life balance (Sundermeier, Gersch and Freiling, 2020). The leadership gaps have an immersive impact on the organization’s growth potential and performance. Additionally, leadership gaps leads to demotivation and lack of direction among the workforces which lead to missed business opportunities, negative results and unsatisfactory customer experience.

The Role of Character in Leadership Today Case Study

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 Along with this, the leadership gaps are arises due to lack of succession planning, inadequate leadership development programs, failure to admittance leadership weaknesses and cultural mismatch. If the organizations have gaps in leadership then their employees feel unmotivated and discouraged to do work which ultimately negatively impacts the overall operation, performance and productivity. From the leadership gaps the organizations face several challenges. As critically said by ??M?EK and CO?AR (2023), managing the responsibilities are one of the biggest challenges that are face by the business due to leadership gaps. It is the responsibility of all the leaders to manage the all team members and overseeing the all tasks and projects. The all responsibilities are becoming devastating and putting pressure on the leaders from which they are unable to direct and supervise the employees effectively and efficiently. Due to leadership gaps, the organizations are also facing the challenge regarding communication. Due to lack of communication the leaders are incapable to interact or communicate with their team members and fail to build the strong relationship with them from which they feel unmotivated and discouraged. It is crucial for company to redress the leadership gaps by developing clear and reliable communication channels for information distribution (Berger et al, 2020).

This involves open-door policies, regular team meetings to promote the communication. To build the relationship with employees, increase operational productivity and improve efficiency it is crucial for the leaders to have effective communication. On the other hand, change management is another challenge that is face by the business due to leadership gaps. Successfully directing the changes the leaders are require communicating the reason behind the changes to the employees. It is important for the leaders to addressing and acknowledging the issues, providing training for new skills needed and promoting the sense of involvement in the process of decision-making which are significant part of effective change management. Maintain the open line of communication throughout the process of change which helps in mitigating resistance and build trust.

 Conflict management is another challenge that is face by the business due to leadership gaps. It is crucial for all the leaders to create the positive working environment by resolving the conflicts of the members from which they feel motivate and encourage to do work. It is responsibility of the leaders to overcome this leadership gap by focusing on finding the solutions instead of assigning blame. If the leaders are failing to manage the conflicts among the employees then they feel unmotivated and discourage which ultimately it negatively impacts on their productivity and performance (Iqbal et al, 2020). Moreover, understanding the conflicts permit leaders to manage it more efficiently and can easily offer a path to achieving the positive results. In the business, conflict management is considered as active force that will permit the leaders to build the strong and healthy relationships which can ultimately results in enhanced performance and effective productivity.

Development of employees is another challenge that is face by the business because of leadership gaps. As critically contended by Young et al, (2021), it is vital for business to enhance the leadership gaps by developing the employees. To grow and develop the workforce the organization need to develop employee development program to align the organizational goals and objectives as well as career aspirations of individuals.

4. Reflective Leadership Approach

A. Critically Reflective Leadership: Meeting Contemporary Stakeholder Needs

Reflective leadership is the constant practice of reflection that includes a cognizant responsiveness of situations, behaviours and significances with the goal enhancing the performance. In the context of globalization, the reflective leadership provides individuals and business the capability to understand the values and cultures of people and markets they oblige. Reflective leadership assist the leaders to make conflicted or unique circumstances, make sense of uncertain, fosters clarity to one’s identity, motives, values, goals which leads to information collection, visualization of success, improved thinking and goal setting (Specchia et al, 2021). On the other hand, reflective leadership facilitates leaders to learn and grow as well as being willing to adapt the new situations and challenges. In addition, the reflective leadership approach plays an immersive role in meeting the contemporary needs of the stakeholders and business.

 The reflective leadership encourages the continuous learning self-awareness and consideration of one’s own decisions and actions. Implementation of reflective leadership is beneficial for the business because it helps them engaging in the self-examination. The reflective leadership also helps evaluating whether they are support with the organizational values. The reflective leadership also helps in maintaining the awareness of leader’s strengths and other areas where enhancement is needed. Development of effective leadership is beneficial for the organization because it influence all the facets from employees to other stakeholders. As per the view of van der Steen, van Saane and van Dijk (2021), self-reflection permits the leaders to observe their assumptions, values, beliefs and understand the influence of decision-making and behaviours. With the reflection approach, the leaders are capable to determine strengths, recognize biases and patterns, improvement areas as well as better in determining of their own goals and motivation from which they are provide proper direction to team members.

 Self-awareness, adaptability, continuous learning, integrity and critical thinking are the core components of reflective leadership. According to Vilkinas, Murray and Chua (2020), it is vital for the leaders to have insights as their weaknesses, strengths, beliefs and values. This component helps the leaders to make the effective decisions in order to fulfil the organization and their stakeholder’s needs. However, the present business environment is dynamic so the reflective leaders need to adapt the changes and manage the challenges. The reflective leaders are nurture an innovation and embrace change as well as guide their team members through challenges by staying open-minded and flexible. It is crucial for the leaders to have the critical thinking from which they are capable to evaluate the circumstance and admittance the information in order to make the effective decisions. The critical thinking capability permits the leaders to estimate possible resolution alternatives, deal with intricate challenges and guide or supervise the team members with effective procedure of problem-solving (Shani and Coghlan, 2021).

Adaption of reflective leadership is valuable for the business because the leaders are lifelong learners and they are look for methods to learn and grow about more trends. With the help of reflective leadership, they can analyse the requirements of the business and its stakeholder’s needs as well as put all the efforts to meet them. As opinion by Sherwood et al, (2023), through reflective leadership, the leaders can discover their mistakes and then put more emphasis on improving them. Integrity is another factor that is crucial to the reflective leaders to have. The reflective leaders are capable to create the base of openness and trust as well as correspond to their behaviour with the principles and values in the business which ultimately positively impacts the operation. Along with this, the ethical behaviour commitment of reflective leaders helps in providing the good environment and enhance business environment. As critically opposed to Ezzani (2021), the companies face several challenges while implementing the reflective leadership such as time constraints, resistance to change and support. Apart from this, the reflective leadership style consists of record, relate, recap, respond and reflect. Implementation of leadership approach is advantageous for the business because it helps in improving the decision-making, problem-solving, develop learning culture, increase employee engagement and promote the innovation which ultimately positively impacts on the organizational productivity and employee’s performance.

5. Reflective Leadership Practices

A. Recommending how the ‘critically reflective’ leadership approach would be valuable to adopt

It has been recommended that, it will be valuable for the organization to adapt the reflective leadership style. The reflective leaders are capable to determine their weak areas and put all the efforts to improve them before negatively impacts. Implementation of reflective leadership is valuable for the organization because the leaders are continuously in a state of critical thought and self-evaluation from which they make effective decisions. Moreover, through past learning and experience, the leaders are capable to develop a bigger understanding of possible results which ultimately enhancing decision making. Along with this, adaption of reflective leadership style will be beneficial for the business because it helps in improve problem-solving (Batista-Foguet, Esteve and van Witteloostuijn, 2021). The reflective leaders are capable to manage the problems in creative and innovative methods. Being a reflective leader, capable to draw the comprehensions from the self-reflection from which I can develop the creative methods to solve the problems. The reflective leaders are considering the challenges as a opportunities for the improvement and growth which helps in improving their learning and capability to manage the uncertain events.

Organization will need to focus on reflective leadership because it is valuable for them. Adaption of reflective leadership style will be useful for the company because it helps in building the learning culture. The reflective leaders are playing massive role in developing the continuous learning culture in the business. By appealing in positive change, the reflective leaders are influencing the employees to adapt the learning for increasing their knowledge and improving the skills. The assurance of learning will develop the ability of the business to adopting the changes according to the patterns and trends in order to gain the competitive advantages. Building the learning culture will be valuable for the business because it helps in improving the employee engagement, attracting top talent, encouraging innovation and better employee retention (Korzynski et al, 2021).

The reflective leaders are putting more emphasis on the listening the perspectives of the employees which helps in increase their engagement. The reflective leaders plays crucial role in creating the positive working environment where the employees feel valued and respected. The reflective leaders are capable to meet the requirements of employees and motivate them accordingly. Adaption of reflective leadership will be valuable for the business because it helps in promoting the innovation. The reflective leaders are promotes the creative environment by influencing team members to take measured risks and discover new thoughts. 

b. Defining the implementation process of reflective leadership processes within the organisation.

To implement the reflective leadership in effectively it is crucial for the organization to focus on proper tactics and plans. For implementing the leadership style, the management of business will need to focus on self-reflection. The company will self-reflect by the reviewing, assessing and examining the decisions (Iqbal et al, 2020). In this the organization will also develop a general structure for the judgement and enhancing the capability for leadership and action. To implement the reflective leadership, the organization needs to determine the commitments. if the organization identifying the commitments of the leaders then they are capable to provide proper direction and supervision to the employees. To execute the reflective leadership in effective way it is crucial for the business to consider the accountability of the leaders. Apart from this, the traditional strategic leadership model majorly focused on needs and requirements of the leaders rather than team members. In this leadership, the leaders are set the culture and tone of the business then the followers are following accordingly.

Implementation of traditional strategic leadership is beneficial for the business because the leaders know how to make effective decisions and circumnavigate the complicated system. The traditional leadership are providing sense of constancy particularly at the time of crisis or change. Apart from this, reflective leadership is totally different from the traditional strategic leadership model (Young et al, 2021). In reflective leadership, the leadership are focus to meet their own as well as organization needs in comparison to traditional leadership model in this, the leaders are only put major emphasis on them rather than team members (Specchia et al, 2021).

CONCLUSION

It has been concluded that, character is central to contemporary leadership practices because it helps in doing the right things for the right reasons and feelings. The narcissistic leaders are different from the hubristic leaders. Narcissistic leaders are only concerned in themselves instead of others. Narcissistic leaders have dominance, hostility and arrogance behaviour. On the other hand, the hubristic leaders are over-confident and excessive pride in their knowledge, skills and capabilities. Leadership is gap where the leaders are incapable to achieve the goals and objectives in effective way. Due to leadership gap the organization are face various challenges such as managing responsibilities, lack of communication, change management, employee development and conflict management which ultimately negatively impacts the overall operation and efficiency of business. Implementation of reflective leadership can be valuable for the business because it helps in helps in improving the decision making, problem solving, promote innovation, build learning culture and increase employee engagement.

References

Books and Journals

• Asad, S. and Sadler-Smith, E., 2020. Differentiating leader hubris and narcissism on the basis of power. Leadership, 16(1), pp.39-61.
• Batista-Foguet, J.M., Esteve, M. and van Witteloostuijn, A., 2021. Measuring leadership an assessment of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Plos one, 16(7), p.e0254329.
• Berger, J., Osterloh, M., Rost, K. and Ehrmann, T., 2020. How to prevent leadership hubris? Comparing competitive selections, lotteries, and their combination. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(5), p.101388.
• Berger, J., Osterloh, M., Rost, K. and Ehrmann, T., 2020. How to prevent leadership hubris? Comparing competitive selections, lotteries, and their combination. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(5), p.101388.
• Ezzani, M., 2021. A principal’s approach to leadership for social justice: Advancing reflective and anti-oppressive practices. Journal of School Leadership, 31(3), pp.227-247.
• Gruda, D., McCleskey, J., Karanatsiou, D. and Vakali, A., 2021. I'm simply the best, better than all the rest: Narcissistic leaders and corporate fundraising success. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, p.110317.
• Iqbal, S., Farid, T., Khan, M.K., Zhang, Q., Khattak, A. and Ma, J., 2020. Bridging the gap between authentic leadership and employees communal relationships through trust. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1), p.250.
• Korzynski, P., Kozminski, A.K., Baczynska, A. and Haenlein, M., 2021. Bounded leadership: An empirical study of leadership competencies, constraints, and effectiveness. European Management Journal, 39(2), pp.226-235.
• Norouzinik, Y., Rahimnia, F., Maharati, Y. and Eslami, G., 2022. Narcissistic leadership and employees’ innovative behaviour: mediating roles of job embeddedness and job engagement. Innovation, 24(3), pp.355-380.
• Shani, A.B. and Coghlan, D., 2021. Action research in business and management: A reflective review. Action Research, 19(3), pp.518-541.
• Sherwood, G., Cherian, U.K., Horton-Deutsch, S., Kitzmiller, R. and Smith-Miller, C., 2023. Reflective practices: meaningful recognition for healthy work environments. Nursing Management, 30(6).
• ??M?EK, N.O. and CO?AR, B., 2023. A SCALE DEVELOPMENT STUDY ON HUBRISTIC LEADERSHIP: A MULTI-FACETED PERSPECTIVE. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, (55), pp.1-20.
• Specchia, M.L., Cozzolino, M.R., Carini, E., Di Pilla, A., Galletti, C., Ricciardi, W. and Damiani, G., 2021. Leadership styles and nurses’ job satisfaction. Results of a systematic review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(4), p.1552.
• Steffens, N.K. and Haslam, S.A., 2022. The narcissistic appeal of leadership theories. American Psychologist, 77(2), p.234.
• Sundermeier, J., Gersch, M. and Freiling, J., 2020. Hubristic start?up founders–the neglected bright and inevitable dark manifestations of hubristic leadership in new venture creation processes. Journal of Management Studies, 57(5), pp.1037-1067.
• van der Steen, B., van Saane, J. and van Dijk, G.M., 2021. Leadership reflective practices: Adaptive challenges, slow questions and meaningful relations in fluid and accelerated times. Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities, 7(3), pp.233-241.
• Vilkinas, T., Murray, D.W. and Chua, S.M.Y., 2020. Effective leadership: Considering the confluence of the leader’s motivations, behaviours and their reflective ability. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 41(1), pp.147-163.
• Young, H.R., Glerum, D.R., Joseph, D.L. and McCord, M.A., 2021. A meta-analysis of transactional leadership and follower performance: Double-edged effects of LMX and empowerment. Journal of Management, 47(5), pp.1255-1280.