Traits of Good Leadership in the Emerging New Business Environment - Coursework Example

Traits of Good leadership in the emerging new business environment Leadership is an integral part of human social behaviour which is intricately linked with the followers. Leadership can be defined as a persuasive communication skill which inspires others to achieve a common goal. Leadership basically refers to people who have the capacity to bring about changes in other people. Organizations are characterized by the unique culture that is inherent in the overall working of the organization. Discussion of leadership with reference to large organization is as important as that of small one for the simple reasons that the leaders within the organizations, not only provide an intangible stability among the employees and facilitate integration with the system, but they have been known to promote collective vision of the organization and provide the necessary impetus to the employees to strive towards it. Leaders create visions and goals whereas the managers and administrators work towards achieving them. Leaders are not pre defined and moulded into certain stature. They are people who may be in the position to influence and motivate others to give their best. Organizational leadership assumes special meaning because it motivates and encourages others to strive towards common goals with renewed enthusiasm. It is equally important that certain basic assumptions about the organizational leadership qualities especially which relate to the individual approach of tackling issues and objectives, may create a vast difference to the results achieved. Leadership qualities and traits are not always inherent but they can be cultivated and polished to achieve exemplary leadership. Few of the important traits that a leader must have are: vision; good communication; adaptability towards change; creativity and initiative; positive attitude and committment; confidence and belief; integrity and ethics; compassion and caring nature. The leaders are visionary and the emerging new managerial leadership has encompassed a very important aspect of organizations, that of making effort to involve employees in the decision making process. Visionary leadership anticipates changes and recognizes the importance of people’s participation in the overall strategy of having collective goals through shared learning. Thus making it an intrinsic part of the work methodology which is characterized by the stability provided by the system and the integrated approach of the workers. In the fast changing socio political environment, which has opened a wide scope of professional and personal growth, it is imperative that one masters the art of communication. Good leaders are able to effectively communicate with others and instil confidence. Effective communication helps to foster good relationship and even make friends of the enemies. Artful communication helps to build bridges and improvise situations which could move towards dangerous outcomes. The need to effectively communicate a message at crucial time facilitates linkages that have vast scope of building relationships in areas that may otherwise seem futile. Effective communication must make people understand and inspire them to act on the basis of understanding of the issues. A good leader always leads by example and helps build relationship based on mutual trust which inspires others to give their best. Blanchard and Hersey have developed matrix model of leadership, better known as ‘situational leadership’ that analyzes the situation and then appropriate style of leadership is applied. It is especially relevant in the context of globalization which has promoted a multi-cultural work environment, comprising of people coming from different race, color and culture. They learn to interact with each other without racial prejudices. In an article from Leader to Leader Journal, Frances Hesselbein has said that ‘Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do’ (No. 41, 2006). Hence effective leaders are versatile and are adept at exploiting the potential of their followers or workers as per the demands of the situation. A well developed leadership within the organizational structure would facilitate integration of diverse ideologies and personal conflicts and help inspire and motivate each of them to work together to produce a cohesive output representing the organization’s unique objectives and goals. Sjostrand and Tyrstrup, in one of their article, have argued that managerial leadership needs to be approached as a relational, ongoing social construction process rather than as a single clear cut phenomenon (2001). Good leaders build relationships based on mutual trust and confidence which is the main reason that changes are accepted with equanimity. People observe and imbibe qualities that help them to evolve as an individual with strong character. The new leadership encourages creativity and innovative practices that give a unique perspective to participatory approach of management and employees. The motivating factor of managerial leadership that facilitates adaptability to changing equations, which occur due to rapidly changing environment of emerging business processes, have another very important attribute of recognizing the wide scope of emerging opportunities. The empirical relationship of leaders and the emerging changes are critical for a given situation and therefore, good managerial leadership demands a better informed leader who is capable of taking initiative and at the same time, he is also able to inculcate confidence in his people to move forward. As the Sjostrand and Tyrstrup reaffirm ‘leadership is all about managing creativity’. Christensen and Raynor assert that new leadership recognizes the dissimilarities of approaches and initiatives that different organizations adopt. While studies have shown the disastrous ramifications of blindly following strategies and planning processes of successful companies by new ventures, the need to recognize the inherent differences in policy framework, has become vitally important. They say that companies fail because they tend to follow the theoretical models and assumptions, without making any efforts to alter those models to suit their parameters and value system. Effective leadership recognizes their presence and makes concerted efforts to include or exclude those factors that are detrimental for the growth of the organization. Good leaders are optimistic and intrinsically believe in the goodness of human nature. That is reason that they are able to promote better understanding of cross cultural value system and help resolve workplace conflicts amicably. Their personal and professional ethics serve as example for others which inspire and motivate the people to achieve great heights. Workplace motivation is a remedy for dispelling monotony and infuses fresh enthusiasm and outlook towards the work. ‘To cope effectively and perform successfully, leaders must avoid doing harm — adhere to ethical rules — and also act virtuously—foster virtuousness and the best of the human condition’ (Cameron, 2008). Hence, effective leaders are versatile and are adept at exploiting the potential of their followers or workers as per the demands of the situation. Leaders possessing integrity and strong sense of care and empathy are better equipped to inculcate a sense of security within the organization during the changing dynamics of the current business processes. It is a fact that changing paradigms in the global business environment have brought forth a new set of uncertainties and risks that need to be addressed urgently. While it is good to think that organized structure of business management and operation would be able to tackle the emergency situations, it would be crass bad business sense not to adapt to changing environment of competitive business that is fast incorporating global values. Good leadership facilitates easy adaptability to changes and promotes collective decision making and participatory approach to corporate decisions. Last but not the least important is the fact that leadership has become extremely significant because the fast changing socio political environment has necessitated the incorporation of rapid improvisation in the organizational behaviour and work methodology. Leaders must be endowed with strong will to accept the challenge of creating a cohesive and encouraging atmosphere. The workers must get effective learning environment such that they are provided with a wider scope for professional growth in the area of core competencies. They are also responsible for advocating and nurturing a high standard of ethics and quality work while fostering a good relationship amongst them which includes the administrators, management and entire customer base. One can, therefore, conclude that the compulsion of emerging global competitive business environment is to promote effective leadership. It encourages innovative business strategies and creative practices to overcome the challenges of fast changing technologies and dynamics of economy. Reference Kim S. Cameron. (2008). Leading Change: Relying on fixed points. Leadership Excellence, 25: 12 Christensen, Clayton M and Ranor, Michael E. (2003). Why hard-nosed executives should care about management theory. Harvard Business Review. September. pp. 67-74. Hesselbein. Frances. (2006). Moving Peter Drucker’s Works and Wisdom Around the World. Leader to Leader Journal, No. 41, summar 2006. Available [Accessed on 16 October, 2008]. Hersey, Blanchard.(1969). Situational Leadership. Available from: [Accessed on 16 October, 2008]. Sjostrand, S and Tyrstrup, M. 2001. Recognized and unrecognized managerial leadership in invisible management – The social construction of leadership. S Sjostrand, J Sandberg and M Tyrstrup (eds.). Thomson. pp 1-27. Read More