Uncovering Leadership Styles

Uncovering Leadership Styles

Background Information on the Interview with the Leader

I interviewed 36-year-old Sam Klein, a pioneer in the insurance industry and currently

the branch manager, deputy president of the sales department, and the head of a local insurance

firm. He has a wide experience in analyzing risks, premiums, and assessing of claims.

Additionally, he is proficient in the marketing of programs, management of the agency, and in

administering day-to-day operations of the firm. His ten professional designations and unique

skills give him an added advantage as a leader since he can evaluate the insurance industry with

many perspectives.

As a leader, he considers supporting other employees (both subordinate and corporate) as

the most rewarding facet of leading. He believes that supporting associates enables them to

advance their full capabilities, becoming more productive, and eventually leading to an overall

organizational growth. Klein believes that true headship entails first becoming a “servant leader”,

a direct occupation of followership. In the insurance firm, he is placed at the bottom of the

organizational structure, and all employees are given opportunities to express themselves without

discrimination. He also understands that the staff has a choice on whether to follow a leader or

not. He points out that proper treatment of employees results to a committed workforce with

undivided loyalty. Additionally, he stresses on the philosophy of consistency and commitment.

In the interview, Klein admitted that to be a true leader, an individual has to not only

demonstrate what should be emulated but should also strive to win stakeholders’ hearts. Finally,

he outlined three leadership qualities that every head should possess including communication,

interpersonal, and negotiation skills. Basing on the provided information, this paper evaluates

Klein’s traits of a transformative and democratic leader.

Evaluation of Transformative Leadership Style

A leadership style is defined as an attribute of a leader’s conduct when motivating,

guiding, motivating, managing, and appraising a group of individuals (Uusi-Kakkuri, Brandt, & Kultalahti, 2016). Transformational Leadership Theory (TLT) is a popular hypothesis in the

corporate realm especially in the field of leadership and management (Mccloskey, 2014). Unlike

other previous theories, TLT emphasizes on emotions and values by demonstrating that a leader

has the ability to either influence his or her workforce positively or negatively. Furthermore, the

theory points out to that the skills and leadership traits of an organization head to a huge extent

determines if the employees will be motivated and their ability to realize success beyond

anticipated results (Uusi-Kakkuri, Brandt, & Kultalahti, 2016).

A Transformational Leader

As explained by Mccloskey (2014), a transformational leader exerts an effect on

followers, and these effects significantly aid in realizing desirable outcomes. Klein’s leadership

portrays a unique characteristic that makes the subordinates to feel admired, trusted, respected,

and valued, hence they are motivated to do more. Klein is portrayed as a leader who has a vision

for the future of the firm, encourages his followers, and considers each staff by advancing

training and development to each one of them. In relation to observations by Porter (2015),

Klein’s management style can be perceived as effective as he seizes opportunities, generates

visions, and permits other players who are mostly his juniors to accomplish this vision. His

commitment further reveals transformational traits including promoting the needs of each

stakeholder, fostering intellectual stimulation, demonstrating charisma, availing diverse

individualized consideration, and instilling inspirational motivation.

Impact of Transformational Leadership on an Insurance Agency

To fully understand the impact of leadership style on organizations’ wellbeing, it is

imperative to first understand the dynamics surrounding the Insurance business demands more

than just transactional approaches of giving and take and requires agents to give meaning to the

selling function. A sales agency is not expected to blindly sell premiums to reach a

predetermined goal but rather strives to attain a higher purpose that is more than the monetary

gains that are associated with good performance (Porter, 2015). Usually, insurance

environments are faced with risks of permanently elevated turnover rates and are subject to

scrutiny by the general public. Apart from the challenging work environment, the individual

responsibility and contribution of insurance leader can be termed as most wanting, and cannot be

ignored in the scenario of a deteriorated performance. The customer is always the king, and there

is a constant need to satisfy clients’ personal expectations and company’s goals. If the insurance

agency’s goals are not realized, the organization can simply dismiss responsible leader or agent,

sooner or later (Porter, 2015).

Great leaders are transformational and they cannot only inspire organizational progress

but can also initiate social and individual change. In relation to Klein’s case, his exemplary

leadership qualities have helped instill motivation, industry, and innovation (Mccloskey, 2014).

As a result of his guidance, Klein’s followers seem to be more committed, satisfied, and

empowered. As implied by Transformational Leadership Theory, a transformational leader is

one who initiates change in organizations, among individuals, and in other social categories,

setting more challenging expectations that are oriented towards realizing higher output (Uusi-

Kakkuri, Brandt, &  Kultalahti, 2016).

Assessment of Health Well-being of the Insurance Firm

Transformational leadership prototype tends to concentrate on the leader’ achievements

rather than his personality tendencies (Mccloskey, 2014). At Klein’s workplace, employees

across the sales, customer care, marketing, design, human resource, finance, and public relations

departments are encouraged to be keen and conscious of their results. Through Klein’s guidance,

the insurance firm is less chaotic, the departments are intrigued to continuously seek advanced

ways of generating and selling covers, the management is able to forecast and avoid on risky

operations, and most importantly, the agency has been able to maintain its stable status quo for a

long time. Additionally, personnel responds positively to alterations in both internal and external

settings. Klein’s wide knowledge and skills have become the basis of influence as followers

depend on him for strategic and operational advice, he is a role model, and a source of pride,

confidence, and devotion.

Due to Klein’s leadership, employees can now face challenges from various viewpoints,

question retrogressive business practices, articulate their ideas, and practice what is right without

supervision. Under Klein’s management, agents are valued and even though they are expected to

be consistent and competent, failure on their part is discussed with understanding. Insurance

agents perceive their duties to be more than just attracting high-end commissions, and instead,

they are trained to serve, help, and advise their clients as lifetime partners. Klein’s workplace can

be said to be a transformative environment. The management would rather underline the

importance of realizing few full-customers, who in total facilitate high cumulative commission

ratio, and are less prone to ending contracts aimlessly. In this case, Klein’s leadership evokes

followers’ confidence and self-efficacy and has managed to empower the staff to orientate their

self-concepts with the firm’s identity.

Conclusion

Analyzing the correlation between the health of Klein ’s organization and his managerial style, it

is affirmative to confirm that his actions have contributed to a conducive working arena. The

insurance firm can be termed to be stable as followers transcend their personal interests for the

purposes of team and self-actualization. Sales staff are open for better ideas and quality control

department are committed to over-performing to attain sustainability. The leadership style and

affiliated innovation have prepared the insurance agency for high sales (increased sale of

insurance covers). In line with this theory, Klein’s leadership can be termed to be more

transformational as his conduct and beliefs stress on attaining results that are meaningful,

acceptable, and sustainable for both the organization and to the staff.