Leaders come in many different shapes, sizes, races, cultures and backgrounds. We look to our leaders for guidance, opportunity and hope. What makes someone a great leader? Being a contractor puts you in a unique situation, you are held accountable by different levels of leadership. The onsite director of the contract, the president of the contracting company as well as the directives of the company you are contracted to work. All of whom have a say in how proficient you are in your job. It amazes me that under the same umbrella of employment one leader can instill a sense of job dissatisfaction, while at the same time another leader can promote a sense of job satisfaction. The “trait theories of leadership differentiate leaders from nonleaders by focusing on personal qualities and characteristics.” (Robbins and Judge, 2009, p. 386). I had the opportunity to be a part of a problem-solving team that included two leaders, one leader from my contract company and the other from the organization that hired us. Each leader projected very different leadership traits.
The director of the contract was someone we might call a moody person. “Work moods are pervasive and generalized affective states that are not explicitly linked to particular events or circumstances which may have originally induced the mood” (Morris, 1989). There were days when she would be demanding and belittling. You did not know from day to day, sometimes hour by hour, what type of mood she was going to be in. Because of her moodiness, interactions you believed would be pleasant would end in confrontation. Other times, when you have had to work up the nerve to approach her regarding a bad decision or a setback in the project, she would be very congenial and friendly. This had staff walking on eggshells and becoming disenfranchised with their jobs. Often times her behavior led to office gossip and rumors. The worst part is I don’t believe she was aware of how she came across. Many began to wonder...