Blog Post #5

As you reflect on what has been discussed in this chapter and your own leadership style, how would you describe your own style in relation to task and relationship orientations? What are your strengths and areas you can improve?

I feel as though both task and relationship orientations are relatively important. However, with that being said, I do see myself to be more relationship orientated over task oriented. I love interacting with people, so it is no wonder that I constantly find myself focusing on relationships. I think that one of my strengths is being able to relate to others often and if I have not found myself in a similar situation, I find myself showing support as much as I can and sympathizing with them in their situation. Confrontation was touched on briefly and that made me come to the conclusion that I believe that having strongly founded relationships causes for less confrontation and more “civil”, if you will, conversations and communication tactics with those you are working with. I think that when it comes to being task oriented the descriptors, in my opinion, often describe tasks that call for a more authoritarian leadership style. Now, this could just be my mindset on how I perceive authoritarian style and being task oriented. I think that an area I can improve on is being more clear from the beginning of what our end goal is, as that will helpfully explain why we are doing a task or assignment.

Reflect on the article. What were the most interesting elements? Which did you did you agree with? Hope to learn more about?

I feel as though more and more jobs are allowing people to work from home, especially with the advances in technology. I found it really intriguing that the people found the 30 listed behaviors as more important in virtual settings than face-to-face settings. As an individual who personally prefers face-to-face interactions over virtual interactions, I can see how this idea of virtual communication, behavior and leadership is prominent in today’s day. I hope to eventually become more comfortable with technology and learn how to make myself comfortable with working virtually as it may well indeed come in helpful with future careers.