Global Leadership and Management - Essay Example

? Global leadership and management Introduction The leadership Assessment Tool Being a successful leader is never an easy task, it needs a lot of attention and evaluation from the part of a leader to prove him good. Leadership assessment tool is one such assessment process, which helps the leader in studying and evaluating their own negative and positive skills in leading a team. According to Gorham(2010)“Leadership tools are essential. Successful business leaders aren't interested in abstract, warm and fuzzy, "theories" about leadership. They look out for tools that achieve quality results”. Leaders always look out for genuine tools which provide them with accurate and realistic results. They understand that the leadership tools help them in solving complicated problems and thus give them way to be success. Those leaders who are best are certainly keen on learning more to sharpen their qualities and skill to be constructive and efficient .A leader can turn out to be disorganized and unfocused, if he does not evaluate and analyze himself at the right time and in the right manner. A stressed and unfocused leader can be a disaster and failure and can also de-motivate the team which he is leading. The performance standards of the leader can be enhanced only if he makes use of an appropriate leadership assessment tool. These tools provide assessment in various areas of management like sales, customer service, team building, and time management and so on. The overview of the proposed leadership assessment tool The proposed leadership assessment tool is focused on determining the ability of the person to work with tasks and people. In this assessment, a person needs to respond on 18 questions which evaluate their skill on task and people. This assessment studies the leader’s skill and ability in leading a project by giving attention to all areas of working. It also evaluates the person’s ability in achieving a task or objective in the appropriate manner Also, the person’ s ability to coach the team regarding new tasks and procedures are also analyzed in this proposed leadership assessment tool. His ability to carry out different complicated task at one time is also kept in consideration during the assessment. Managing the time is an important aspect of a successful leadership and this tool give much value to it. A leader can perform a task efficiently only if he is expert in analyzing problems and managing team work. He should also honor the limits and restrictions of his employees and plan things accordingly. However, if a leader can counsel his employees well, he has done half of his job. Once the person has responded to the questions listed, his scores are recorded on a form which has the two columns with a specification of task and people. The total marks for both areas are totaled and jotted on a chart. The graph has task has the horizontal axis, and people as the vertical axis. According to the intersection of lines on graph, the leadership will be categorized as team leader, country club type, authoritarian or impoverished. In the following pages we can see the results of 10 respondents who have used this tool. Leadership assessment results of 10respondents Respondent One : The first respondent is not very keen in involving the team in decision making process, coaching them , reading literature to training, leadership and psychology as the score is two .Although, he is averagely good with accomplishing tasks ,keeping accounts of minute details of projects, correcting mistakes, time management and encouraging employees, since his score is three. He has proved too competent with analyzing problems, multi- tasking, explaining the task to employees and honoring their limits as he scored four. The person has gives least importance in breaking large projects to smaller task and monitoring the schedule of the project, since he has scored one .However, the score is five in areas like building a great team, on counseling skills and carrying out and implementing innovative procedures. Finally, by entering the scores in to the columns resulted in a score of 6 in the people section and 5.6 in the task section. After plotting them on the graph chart ,it was found that he fell in to the category of a team leader .Being a team leader is a sign that he is more focused on people than task. He believes in his team and prefers to put more emphasis on them and their actions to achieve a goal. A team leader can be perfect if he motivates his team and be realistic in managing them throughout the project. However, this person needs to sharpen his skills with regard to task, to stay as a balanced leader. Respondent Two: This respondent has scored four for in encouraging his team in decision making process, in monitoring the project, in multi- tasking skills , in building team and also in reading professional literatures .With regard to accomplishing a task, challenge factor , accounting the details of the task ,correcting mistakes and maintaining the relationship and analyzing the problems the score is three .In coaching the members about new procedures and task and honoring the personal limitation of the team he has proven to be average with a score of two .However, he has scored one for encouraging employees in being creative with their job. In regard of counseling the employee, breaking complex projects in to smaller version and enjoying articles about training and trade he scored five. Once the scored were noted on to the columns he attained 6 for people and 6.4 for task, which is better result than the respondent one. The chart shows that the respondent fall in to the category of a team leader and has better skill with both people and task. He is a good reader and hence has better knowledge with skills, trade and decision making process However, he lacks expertise in coaching people and needs to enhance his skill to improvise himself. As per Marjorie(2007), “Coaching can nip potential problems in the bud while conveying to the employees that his or her performance and conduct matter to you and the company”(p.4). Respondent Three: This respondent has poor score which is one, with accomplishing a goal or task, analyzing problems and honoring personal limits of the employees. Hi scores in relation to multi- tasking is four, which is very satisfactory. .In regard to challenging a task, he has scored the best which is five. In involving the team in decision making process, monitoring a task during a project, correcting mistakes of the employees, time management, detailing task to the team and building a great team he has a score of three His score is two with coaching skills, encouraging employees in creative thinking, keeping details of the task through out the project, enjoying training and leadership materials. The same is the score with time management, counseling skills and reading journals and books about trade and profession. After putting the scores on to the columns with areas of task and people, it was found that he scored 4.2 with people and 4.6 with task area. This scores when marked on chart expressed that the person is belonging to impoverished category of leadership styles. He has high skills only with multi- tasking and challenge taking .on the contrary, in certain crucial areas like analytical skills, considering personal limits of team members and goal achievement this person is very low rated. He needs to be highly focused on people to prove to be a good leader. Foe example, Osterlind(2010) mentions that even though there is no consensus among leadership scholars of what constitutes good and efficient leadership, the majority argue that the leader plays a significant role in organizational success(p.3-9). Respondent four This person gained maximum score of five for correcting the mistake of the employees and for gaining knowledge by reading articles and books about training, leadership and psychology. His score was four, with regard to coaching skills, challenging the tasks and in enjoying with the detailing procedure of task. In encouraging team in decision making process and creativity, breaking larger tasks in to smaller ones, analyzing problems, counseling employees and enjoying professional articles, the score was three. Even for building a great team the score was three. He gained a score of two for accomplishing and monitoring the task, multi-tasking, time management and considering employee personal limits? The score was least for accounting the details of a task in an ongoing project. According to the scores, the respondent has 6.4 in people area and 4.4 in the task area. Once the scores were marked on the chart, the person fell in the category of country club leadership style. This explains that the person is more efficient in dealing with people than in task. It is very important for the leader to be efficient with both task and people. He should be also more alert with time management and other task oriented activities. Respondent five The respondent five scored one for encouraging employees in decision making, enjoying articles related to profession and explaining the details of tasks to the employees. The score was two for accomplishing the task, encouraging the team members for creativity, accounting the details for complex tasks and respecting the personal limits. The score was three with related to monitoring the task, challenging attitude ,coaching members, reading articles about leadership, psychology and training, breaking the tasks in to small and counseling the members. For correcting mistakes, time management, building a great team and analyzing the problems the score remained four. He excelled in the multi-tasking skill which is a very useful element in any leadership style. According to Duboise (2010) “Today’s business environment requires that a manager multitask continuously. To become an effective leader, you must do the tasks that need to be done – not the tasks you want to do”. The respondent has a score of 4.6 in the people area and 5.4 in task area .After charting the scores on the graph; it was revealed that this person fell in to an authoritative style of leadership. This shows that he is more people’s person and has lesser tactics with task management. Only area he excelled related to task was in multi-tasking and thus, he needs to be goal oriented and should motivate his employees more to be creative .It would be helpful, if he involves his team members in decision making process and also explain to them the details about the ongoing project. Respondent Six: This respondent has scored two for accomplishing a task, accounting for all details of the tasks involved in a project, multi-tasking, correcting mistakes of the employees and in being more challenging. His score was three, for monitoring tasks, coaching the employees, detailing the task to employees, breaking task in to smaller ones, honoring people’s boundaries. For encouraging the employee’s on creativity factor, time management, buiding a great team and analyzing a problem he came out with a score of four. He excelled for involving employees in decision making process and enjoying literature related to training, psychology and leadership. Nevertheless, in reading article and books of professional nature, he looked low rated with a score of one. After counting the scores, this person got of 4.6 for task and 6.4 for people area. After jotting down these score on the graph, it was shown that the respondent falls in to the dimension of country club leadership. This conveys that this respondent is a people’s person and is less tasks oriented. He needs to put more effort on task management to prove him to be a successful leader. A person in order to be a successful leader has to give importance to all the elements related to business. He should read more articles and books related to his profession and also should concentrate more on detailing task to his employees. Being challenging in nature and encouraging to employees can definitely enhance his capabilities to come up as a best leader. Respondent Seven: This person is revealed to be expert by earning a score of five, in accounting details of every task related to a project, building a great team and honoring the personal boundaries of the team members. He has got a score of four in accomplishing a task, motivating employees for being creativity, multi- tasking, analyzing problems, and reading articles related to leadership, training and psychology. However, he has got a poor score of one for correcting employee’s mistake and monitoring the project work. His score is two for detailing the task to the employees, for being challenging and breaking task into simpler ones. When it came to coaching the team members, reading materials related to psychology he had a score of four. Same goes with counseling the members, accomplishing a task and in time management. By compiling all the scores, the respondent managed to score 6 for people area and 5.4 for task area. This scores when recorded on the graph proved him to be a team leader. This person is both people and task- oriented and is a good leader .Although; he is more brilliant in handling people and needs to focus a bit more on task management. Apparently, he needs to more keen on correcting the mistake of the employees and allow them to grow in their field of work. He also must focus more on monitoring the different task involved in the project to be more efficient in achieving his goals. Foe example, Caroselli (2000)writes that “The true leader goes beyond vision to create a new reality. He actualizes a dream that he has inspired in others”( p.4). Respondent Eight: This person has a best score of five in areas like involving employees in decision making process, giving honor for their personal boundaries and accounting for every details of a task in a project. He denoted a score of four in coaching and encouraging employees to be creative, building a great team, accomplishing tasks, and analyzing problems and with reading professional articles. His scored three for reading articles which are business and psychology oriented, in explaining task to the members, monitoring task, time management, counseling and detailing intricacies of a complex task to employees. He appeared to be incompetent with a score of two, in fields like correcting mistakes of employees, multi- tasking and breaking down of task in to simpler form. Once the score was calculated for the people and task areas, he had a score of six and 5.6 respectively. These score were jotted down on the vertical and horizontal axis of the graph and gave the result of him being a team leader. He is a person more focused on people rather than task. This is a good sign, as people should be given much importance to achieve any objective or goal in an organization. According to McCrimmon (2007)“Being a skilled people manager includes having the integrity to foster trust and the emotional intelligence to deal with different people successfully. Effective managers are also good at empowering, coaching, motivating and developing people. Managers act as catalysts by bringing the right people together for a wide range of tasks” Respondent Nine: This person is very excellent in honoring the personal boundaries of the employees and in breaking the tasks into smaller ones as his score five .His score is four in reading professional literatures, analyzing problems, monitoring the tasks, involving team members in decision making process and multi-tasking. He scored three for coaching the employees, accounting details of task involved in a project, accomplishing a task, time management and counseling. In motivating employees for creativity, explaining details of task, challenging nature, building a great team, he scored two. However; the least score was for correcting the mistake of employees and reading of articles and books related to leadership, training and psychology. After calculating the scores in both people and task columns, he had a score of 4.8 and 6.4 for both respectively. This scores when indicated on the graph, revealed that he belongs to the authoritative dimension of leadership. He is more authorized in his nature of leadership and gives much priority to analyzing problems, involving employee’s indecision making process and multi- tasking. However, he needs to be alert on correcting the mistake of employees and give them opportunity to do a better job. Since he is reader of books and article related to his profession, his knowledge is at higher level. Being authoritative is good, but it would be better if he emphasis on people to create a better balance. The author Kase(2008) mentions that “To be an effective manager, an individual must first be a leader. A true leader, even with the commitment of only a few individuals, can ultimately become more effective than a manager who lacks these skills”(p.57). Respondent Ten: This person has scored five, which is an excellent rating for honoring the personal limits, correcting mistake of the employees, breaking task into simpler version and accounting the details of the task. His score is four in building a great team, monitoring the task, challenging capability, analyzing problems and reading professional articles and books.He has got a score of two for encouraging the team members, accomplishing the task, counseling the employees and explaining the details of task to them. He is having a score of three for time management, coaching the employees, reading literature related to leadership and training and multi-tasking. The overall scores when recorded in the columns of people and tasks area showed score of 6.4 and 4.6 respectively. Thus, he fell in to the category of country club leader when the scores were projected on the graph. This means that he is a people – oriented person and gives much importance to his employees. His scores are least for encouraging members, counseling them and explaining in detail about the task in the project. So, to be a successful leader he needs to give importance to both people and task simultaneously. Ibrahim(1996)writes in the journal that, “Your ultimate goal is to be a leader in your field. You may be the leader of a company of 10,000, a company of one, a family, a field of thought or something else. No matter what you lead, to do so with true confidence, you must be the leader of one thing: yourself”(p.89-92). References Caroselli, M., 2000. Leadership skills for managers. 1st ed. Wisconsin: Mc Graw –hills. Duboise, T. 2010. Do what you need to do, Not what you want to do.. [ONLINE] available at: http://seriesofdots.com/tag/multitask/. [Accessed 01 February 11]. Gorham,R. 2010. Leadership Tools forResults-Focused Leaders. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.leadership-tools.com/. [Accessed 31 January 11) Ibrahim, H., 1996. Leader or Manager? The Journal of Physical Education, 67/3, 89-92. Kase, L, 2008. The confident leader: how the most successful people go from effective to exceptional. 1st ed. U.S.A: Mc Graw Hills Marjorie, M.C. 2007. The progressive discipline handbook: smart strategies for coaching employees . 1st ed. California: Nolo Press. McCrimmon, M. 2007. Skills for Effective Management. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.suite101.com/content/skills-for-effective-management-a29271. [Accessed 01 February 11]. Osterlind, M, 2010. The Leadership Discourse Amongst. Advancing Women in Leadership Journal, 30/16, 3-9 This is the format of the assessment tool Leadership Questionnaire Instructions Objective: To determine the degree that a person likes working with tasks and other people. Time: 45 Minutes Instructions: 1. Have the learners complete the 18 items in the questionnaire section. 2. Next, have them transfer their answers to the two respective columns provided in the scoring section. Total the score in each column and multiply each total by 0.2. For example, in the first column (People), if the learner answered 5, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 5, 4, 3 then his or her final score is = 33 X 0.2 = 6.6. 3. The total score for the first column (people) is plotted on vertical axis in the matrix section, while the total score for the second column (Task) is plotted on the horizontal axis. For a sample, see the example on page 5. Finally, have the learners intersect the lines to see in what leadership dimension they normally operate out of: ??Authoritarian ??Impoverished ??Team Leader ??Country Club © Don Clark. Created January 27, 1998. Last update - February 24, 2002 http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/bm_model.html Brought to you by www.leadership-and-motivation-training.com Finding your Style Below is a list of statements about leadership behavior. Read each one carefully, then, using the following scale, decide the extent to which it actually applies to you. For best results, answer as truthfully as possible. Never Sometimes Always 0 1 2 3 4 5 1. ___ I encourage my team to participate when it comes decision making time and I try to implement their ideas and suggestions. 2. ___ Nothing is more important than accomplishing a goal or task. 3. ___ I closely monitor the schedule to ensure a task or project will be completed in time. 4. ___ I enjoy coaching people on new tasks and procedures. 5. ___ The more challenging a task is, the more I enjoy it. 6. ___ I encourage my employees to be creative about their job. 7. ___ When seeing a complex task through to completion, I ensure that every detail is accounted for. 8. ___ I find it easy to carry out several complicated tasks at the same time. 9. ___ I enjoy reading articles, books, and journals about training, leadership, and psychology; and then putting what I have read into action. 10. ___ When correcting mistakes, I do not worry about jeopardizing relationships. 11. ___ I manage my time very efficiently. 12. ___ I enjoy explaining the intricacies and details of a complex task or project to my employees. 13. ___ Breaking large projects into small manageable tasks is second nature to me. 14. ___ Nothing is more important than building a great team. 15. ___ I enjoy analyzing problems. 16. ___ I honor other people's boundaries. 17. ___ Counseling my employees to improve their performance or behavior is second nature to me. 18. ____ I enjoy reading articles, books, and trade journals about my profession; and then implementing the new procedures I have learned. © Don Clark. Created January 27, 1998. Last update - February 24, 2002 http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/bm_model.html Brought to you by www.leadership-and-motivation-training.com Scoring Section After completing the questionnaire, transfer your answers to the spaces below: People Question 1.______ 4.______ 6.______ 9.______ 10.______ 12.______ 14.______ 16.______ 17.______ TOTAL ________ X 0.2 = ________ (multiple the Total by 0.2 to get your final score) Task Question 2.______ 3.______ 5.______ 7.______ 8.______ 11.______ 13.______ 15.______ 18.______ TOTAL ________ X 0.2 ________ (multiple the Total by 0.2 to get your final score) © Don Clark. Created January 27, 1998. Last update - February 24, 2002 http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/bm_model.html Brought to you by www.leadership-and-motivation-training.com Matrix Section Plot your final scores on the graph below by drawing a horizontal line from the approximate people score (vertical axis) to the right of the matrix, and drawing a vertical line from the approximate task score on the horizontal axis to the top of the matrix. Then, draw two lines from each dot until they intersect. The area of intersection is the leadership dimension that you operate out of Country Club Team Leader Impoverished Authoritarian 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Example The Results This chart will give you an idea of your leadership style. But, like any other instrument that attempts to profile a person, you have to take in other factors, such as, how does your manager and employees rate you as a leader, do you get your job done, do you take care of your employees, are you GROWING your organization, etc. You should review the statements in the survey and reflect on the low scores by asking yourself, "If I scored higher in that area, would I be a more effective leader?" And if the answer is yes, then it should become a personal action item. People Task This example shows a score of 4 in the people section and a score of 6 in the task section. The quad where the two lines intersect is the leadership style, in this case -- Authoritarian section. © Don Clark. Created January 27, 1998. Last update - February 24, 2002 http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/bm_model.html Brought to you by www.leadership-and-motivation-training.com Notes People and Mission Some may ask, "In order to get a perfect score I would have to max out statements 2 (Nothing is more important than accomplishing a goal or task) and 14 (Nothing is more important than building a great team), but this would be a paradox." One of the mottos of the U.S. Army is "People and mission first." That is, nothing is more important than accomplishing the mission and nothing is more important than looking out for the welfare of the people. A good leader can do both! Relationships With Others For statement 10 - "When correcting mistakes, I do not worry about jeopardizing relationships," some people might believe that a "people-person" would put a low score to this question. They might believe that a "people-oriented" person would not want to jeopardize a relationship. But, if a leader really cared about the person, would the relationship (being friends) be more important or would guiding the person on to the correct behavior be more important? Lets put it in a "leader-teacher" relationship - If you did not correct your learner's mistakes, would that make you a more "people" teacher? Probably not. Good leaders do what it takes to build and develop the people around them. The "relationship" is not what makes them tick...guiding others onto greatness is what a "people" leader is all about. This question helps to separate the "country club leaders" who want to be friends with everyone; the "impoverished leaders" who are afraid they might make waves; and the real "people leaders" who are more concerned with coaching others so that they benefit the team. That is, if the leader lets one of her peers continue with the incorrect behavior, does this help or hinder the other members of the team? It is best not to picture a "people" leader as a friend, but as a person who is concerned with the growth and welfare of others. Read More