Leadership in Business - Essay Example

Leadership in Business Faculty Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Interpersonal Skills in Management III. Leadership in Management IV. Conclusion V. References I. Introduction Leadership is one of the crucial aspects of managers today in the business world. The stiff competition within market whether it is job market or product market have forced the organization to focus more towards the human element of the organization. The interpersonal skill of mangers includes various leadership, networking and team related skills. The leadership styles also differ from organization to organization, particular situations and individual managers. The first part of the paper describes various interpersonal skills and the relationship among these skills. The next section deals with leadership in management, wherein various aspects of leadership and management have been discussed together. II. Interpersonal Skills in Management A manager needs to work among people and with people with different talents, qualities and behavioral patterns. These require a certain sets of skills. These skills altogether are called interpersonal skills. Skill varies in different individuals. Different individual may possess different skills to a greater or lesser extent. According to Robbins and Hunsaker (1996:7) a skill is a system of behavior that can be applied in a wide range of situations. The various interpersonal skills required in management and organization behavior are as follows: Leadership Skills Networking Skills Teamwork Skills Interpersonal Skills According to Robbins and Hunsaker (1996:7-8) “To become competent at any skill, a person needs to understand it both conceptually and behaviorally; have opportunities to practice it; get feedback on how well he or she is performing the skill; and use the skill often enough so that it becomes integrated with his or her behavioral repertoire.” Leadership Skills The ability to lead and show people a way to go ahead or impact or change their behavior in a particular direction is called leadership. Leadership qualities can be seen in group, family, work place or even in difficult situation. Leaders motivate their people, mentor them, delegate tasks and make decisions for them. They have trust of their people. People follow them due to this trust element and listen to their leaders. Mentoring Mentoring is a process by which leaders influence their people. They show them a way. They provide people a direction and help to solve various issues. Mentoring is being trusted by people, actively supporting and guiding people to achieve personal and professional goals. The mentor relationship can be formal or informal. It involves mutual respect and commitment towards each other in a mentor and particular individual s/he is supporting. Motivating Leader in any organization keeps on motivating its members for the positive results and outcomes. Leader maintains positive attitude and enthusiasm in the work environment and keeps on encouraging others in finding solutions and maintains a collaborative environment. Leader’s listening skills and constructive feedbacks support others in decision making processes. A good leader always provides each member equal opportunity and motivation to participate. By good leadership organizations facilitate teamwork. Delegation Delegation is an important decision taken by corporate leaders. This is a way to distribute responsibility and authority in a group according to workload, total responsibilities and individual’s ability. Decision Making One of the crucial aspects of any leader is decision making. Decision making process starts with identifying various choices by gathering, assessment and analysis of various outcomes and taking appropriate decisions. Leaders take responsibility for a decision and its outcomes. Networking Skills Networking skills are other interpersonal skills required in present business and management scenario. A successful manager has an ability to communicate effectively and will have self confidence within him. Through this he will be effectively able to communicate his objectives and goals. The networking helps people to get their work done. It provides an effective mode of reaching out people and references of their need. Networking also helps in various ways like to get better dealers, better deals, good opportunities and many others. Maintaining good network is not an easy task as it requires time and energy as primary inputs. Somehow a good manager will always be able to manage this along with other interpersonal skills. Teamwork Skills Business today requires good teamwork skills. To deliver good result an organization and its members work as a team. The responsibility of good or bad results and outcomes goes to each member of the team. A good manager promotes group work by mentoring, listening and supporting his team members. The decision making process involves inputs from each team members. The delegation is sound and without much of conflicts and misunderstandings. The overall work culture promotes the collaborative work environment. For each of above listed interpersonal skill sets the common thing is listening skills. As rightly quoted by Robbins and Hunsaker (1996:35), “If you arent an effective listener, youre going to have consistent trouble developing all the other interpersonal skills.” III. Leadership in Management There is a difference in leadership in political context and managerial context. As there have been various contributors, writers and authors with different viewpoints on the same Robbins and Hunsaker (1996:110) describe leadership as follows: "Leadership occurs any time one attempts to influence the behavior of an individual or group, regardless of the reason.” In a managerial leadership the organizational goals have the topmost place. Leadership in organizational context requires meeting market challenges in the multicultural environment. The competition is stiff whether it is job market, product or service markets or maintaining customer loyalty. Effective leadership is required for the success of any organization whether it is consumer electronic company like Sony Corporation, Transportation Company like Airbus or retail organization like Wal-Mart or any other organization. The leadership and an environment for effective leadership get promoted by the top management level. The lower management supports the managers and leaders of the middle and top management. In the global work conditions leaders are required to understand and act according to the cultural differences and market needs. This requires a high level of understanding of the markets and socio-cultural aspects of the area where organization functions. There are various models given to understand the types of leadership in a managerial context. One of these is Managerial Grid Model (1964) developed by Blake and Mouton. The five different leadership styles based on the concern for people and the concern for production can be understood by this model. The optimal leadership style is explained in this model. It is based on Theory Y. Managerial Grid Model On one grid of this model the concern of people is being represented on the scale of 0-10 on the other grid concern of production is given on the same scale. The manager with low concern of people and productivity is considered to have “improvised leadership style” which is neither good for people nor for productivity hence bad for organization. People following this kind of attitude lack any effective leadership style or interpersonal trait. They are usually least motivated with negative approach towards everything. On the other hand “Produce or perish” style is followed by some of the managers where the people concerns are least. These results in low motivation and enthusiasm among the team members and they lack trust and mutual respect for their leader or manager. In any given scenario they are more motivated to switch their jobs as compared to the people working under managers of other leadership styles. Country club style leaders concern about people more than anything else. This kind of leadership does not have effective productivity and the low concern towards productivity results in the loss of organizational outcomes and growth. The ‘Middle of the road style’ leaders have moderate concerns about productivity as well as people. This kind of approach neither supports organization productivity fully nor have concerns for people completely. All together the Team style is the best style as described in the Grid model which is concerned about the people and productivity at the highest level. It is an ideal situation where leader tries to find out ways to satisfy both the aspect of the organization at the best. Profile of 21st Century Leader As mentioned in one of the websites a leader of 21st century need to have integrity, should be customer focused, build relationships, should be result focused and values people. The leader ought to be culture builder. IV. Conclusion Leadership is an important aspect of managers in a present glocal (Global and local) business scenario. A good manager needs to have effective communication skills. He should be a good listener to utilize all his interpersonal skills. The interpersonal skills of any manager are his ability to lead people, network and working ability within and with team. The leader should know the way to delegate task and take effective decisions for his team. He should be able to convey the organizational goals and create a work culture for growth and development. The environment of encouraging and supporting effective leadership starts from the top level of any organization. Any organization can achieve its goals and objectives with effective leaders. Every successful organization has history of effective leadership. Leadership is an essential business skill in business. V. References Watson; Dr. Sally Director of Management Development at Lancaster University Management School., Airbus UK: World Class Leaders Program retrieved on 12 September 2006 from Galvanek and Konczal “Simple Stories for Leadership Insights in the New Economy ” University Press of America, INTEGRITY – The new leadership story retrieved on 12 September 2006 from Robbins, S. and Hunsaker, P. (1996) Training in interpersonal skills: tips for managing people at work (2nd edn), New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Bavaria; 2005 “Twenty-First Century Leadership?” 12 September 2006 Leadership Last modified 13 September 2006 accessed on 13 September 2006 Social Skills Last modified 13 September 2006 accessed on 13 September 2006 Interpersonal Skills 13 September 2006 Managerial Grid Model, Last modified 13 September 2006 accessed on Read More