Leadership and Profile Plan

Every leader whom has ever had control over anything has had some inherent strengths or weaknesses that drove their styles and actions. It is not until that leader takes to the time to understand their strengths and weaknesses can they really become effective. It is the contention of many that once they reach the role of leader, they will finally be able to make all the necessary changes to an organization or a process that is really going to move the needle and take the organization to the next step.

What happens when once you reach a leadership position, but you can't get people to follow you? Is it because you are not skilled in the position that you hold? Probably not, or the assumption is you really should have never gotten the position in the first place. Is it because all the people that work under you are bad employee's and can't do their jobs? Again, probably not or the person that put them in the position didn't know what they were doing, and they were able to hold on to the position once they got it by pure luck, or incompetence. The answer that we are looking for is probably something from within that we need to work on. It is possibly a lack of understanding about our skills and our weaknesses and what we need to do as individuals maximize our strengths and mitigate our weaknesses.

We are going to take the time to look at some very in-depth theories, and some powerful tools that are going to make us analyze ourselves as leaders, maximize our strengths, and identify our weaknesses. No leader takes a position and is 100% effective at everything they do; some of the greatest leaders over time had flaws to their approach and to their style, but were able to offset that enough to be successful. I as a person whom is looking to grow in my leadership responsibilities want to become successful at doing this as well, but before that can happen I need to understand these philosophical theories and learn how to execute them in my own professional life.

Behavioral and Contingency Theories

In order to give an accurate description of both behavioral and contingency theory examples, we first need to understand what they are and how they help shape us as a leader. First the contingency theory is defined as "a behavioral theory that claims there is no best way to organize a corporation and the organizational structure of a company, however contingent upon the internal and external condition of the company" (Business Mate, 2011). In other words there is no handbook hand book for a CEO that walks into a new organization, he needs to be able to adjust his management style to the organization.

A good example of this would be Dan Ackerson whom is the CEO of General Motors, he had to come in and center his ideals and style around where the organization is now and not necessarily where it was in the past. Could you imagine the residuals if Akerson