LEADERSHIP (CONTINUED) - Essay Example

Leadership Leading is a very important component in the management functions, as leadership manages with change compared to management which copes with complexity (Kotter, 1998, p.40). For this reason, it is important to include leadership in an organization including the concept on how to ensure change. In fact, today leadership is viewed as a significant component for corporate success (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010). However, there is a potential contribution of setting a culture that is conducive for leadership activities.

It is therefore important in an organization to come up with a culture that is flexible enough to embrace change. If an organization is not willing to accept change, then it is not also ready to embrace the vision (Hill & Jones, 2009, p.380). At Apple Incorporated, Steve Jobs was a remarkable leader for setting up a horizontal hierarchy despite of its associated risk. Integrating the concept of leadership with his company was his main competitive edge, as both manager and leader. What Jobs had done was integrate with his organization a culture that is highly flexible towards change so that he could freely implement the vision and allowed everyone to embrace it.

On the other hand, leading is not just a management function that involves the use of influence, but it includes how to inspire, initiate and motive the human resource (Carpenter, Bauer & Erdogan, 2009). Part of the leadership activity is to ensure higher influence that the leader should have over his followers. This influence allows the leader to make sure everyone is achieving something even though they might not want to have done that. It is not about forcing them to do something, but they must have necessarily embraced the vision, making them move and walk on with the same direction the leader takes.

Another important component in leadership is on how to inspire the entire team to achieve certain goals for the achievement of strategies and vision. If a leader knows how to inspire the team, then he is capable of leading every follower to the right direction he would want everyone to walk on. A leader is also a decision-maker at some point, but what is clear is his ability to set directions at the same time. For this reason, he must initiate the best probable moves that could eventually lead to the fulfillment of the vision.

Knowing the needs of the entire team and each follower is another important part of the leader’s obligations. Knowing the needs of the human resource for instance could lead to understanding the best moves that could motivate employees and the entire team. Motivation is a very important part associated with the success of one’s leadership. This would make sure that everyone is motivated enough to pursue achieving the vision. Motivation is associated with forming influence as this would basically involve the need to cultivate one’s eagerness to achieve and be part of the vision.

In leadership therefore, the primary goal is on how to let everyone move with change and accept what is necessary to be achieved as stated within the actual vision (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010). References Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., and Erdogan, B. (2009). Principles of Management. Irvington, NY: Flat World Knowledge. Hill, C., & Jones, G. (2009). Strategic management theory: an integrated approach (9th ed.). Mason: Cengage Learning. Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. (2010). Organizational Behavior (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Kotter, J. P. (1998). Harvard Business Review on Leadership: What Leaders Really Do? Boston: HBS Press.