Organizational Behaviour - Essay Example

Organizational Behavior Assignment Strong leaders are important whether they are d as a President of a country, the CEO of a major corporation, or the manager of a small business. It is, often, a lot easier for people to point out what is wrong with a manager or what makes a leader weak rather than what is, ideally, positive. So what makes a good leader? There are many qualities that could identify strong leadership within businesses. John Hamm’s article, “the Five Messages Leaders Must Manage,” defines five particular messages that a manager, as a leader, must embody and convey in order for his or her leadership to be, ultimately, successful.

However, these five he presents are not the only important messages that good managers or strong leaders may need. There are a lot of attributes, skills, and behaviors that good leaders will need to manage and managers will need in order to lead if they hope to be successful. Hamm’s article offered five “messages” that he believes are those that are most essential for a manager to learn if he or she expects be good leaders, which included organizational structure and hierarchy, financial results, the leader’s sense of his or her job, time management, and “corporate culture.

”(Hamm 1) Each of these “messages” are very logical and definitely beneficial for any manager or individual placed in a position of leadership to consider, but, as stated, they are not the only relevant messages and not everyone may agree with the author’s top five. For example, financial results, time management, and adherence to corporate culture are a necessity of any manager, they are requirement of the occupation and achieving of those results may not, necessarily, identify a good leader.

Hamm demoted the importance of customer/client relations, but that seems shortsighted. How customers or clients are treated by your staff, how the staff is treated by the clients/customers, can tell you a lot about the general “goings-on” in the company. Doing this regularly can be hugely important in determining areas for improvement, need for change, and any positive things they may be observed that are worth encouraging in the future. Many managers delegate responsibilities, but have little direct idea of what is happening on the floor where the handling of their business takes place.

For this reason, a manager that is “hands-on” with the staff, public, and the job is essential to being identified, not only, as good managers, but as good leaders. There are many managers that make a point not to directly speak to customers or clients, they, essentially, see themselves as strictly “back of the house;” their jobs are behind the scenes and supervisory at a distance. This mentality creates huge gaps between staff and management and management and customer/clients, this is hardly beneficial.

This is why strong leaders that manage know that their place is to be involved in all aspects of the business. For most businesses having clients and customers are the overall deciding factor of a business’s successes, therefore having management that is willing is very important. Positive leaders are the kind of managers that, like a good captain, goes down with the ship. Simply meaning, a manager who wishes to lead his or her team or staff as a whole, then he, or she, must participate as if they are a member of the team and not just the leader.

In other words, it is very easy for a manager to blame those who work beneath them for failures that may occur and save their own status and reputation. More so, these are the same sort of untrustworthy managers that who, when things go very well, are quick to absorb the majority of the possible positive feedback. A good leader stands at the head of the project, whether the outcome is good or bad, and takes the same responsibility for that success or failure like any other member of the team.

Staff and team members, may start to realize that regardless of the job that they do, their efforts are not significant or appreciated. However, a good leader brings an aura and attitude that expresses true teamwork; a sense of shared success, shared mistakes, and shared failures. When team members, staff members, and employees see that they are all in it together the sense of trust and desire to succeed increases and failures become less likely The third and final message that a manager must learn to exude involves being innovative and encouraging of suggested innovation by others.

The article talks about embodying “corporate culture” as being essential to successful leadership.(Hamm 1) It is true that company rules and decorum are important, but sometimes “corporate culture” can be a bit outdated and restrictive. Sometimes revamping the corporate culture can be beneficial, nothing can stay the same forever. The outline of corporate cultures may be limiting the amount of potential creativity that may be entirely contributory to any business; a good leader recognizes these kinds of things, at least they should.

Meaning, today’s businesses are quite a bit different that it used to be. Managers no longer just manage face-to-face teams that works together daily on projects and business goals. Much of today’s business occurs with the aid of technological advances, allowing leaders to lead teams hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles away. Changing, adapting, and being willing to innovate, even if it means defying or rewriting some of those traditional corporate ideals. It is these kinds of creative and advancing ideologies that signal the involvement of a strong manager and a potentially great leader in the future of their business Ultimately, as businesses change so will the styles of management, as well as, the determinants of good leadership.

The article provided some positive management goals; however, there are many others who would claim different qualities are far more important. All the same, if one wishes to become a good leader, then personal reflection, research and experiences is the best way to develop the best leadership skills. Finding which approaches and styles work best to allow them to lead those they manage. As the world of management becomes more globalized and technologically dependent then there is a need for stronger, innovative, and creative management personnel to be the leaders of the future.

Works Cited Hamm , John. "Five Messages Leaders Must Manage." Harvard Business Review. May (2006): 1. Web. 13 Apr. 2013. .