Leadership as the Essence of Any Successful Venture - Essay Example

? Is Leadership Failing? Leadership is an important aspect of social life. Levels of leadership differ from national to corporate to family. In corporate world leadership makes a huge difference. Current corporate leadership is facing tough time. Slow economic growth has exposed weaknesses of corporate leadership. Current corporate leadership is facing a daunting challenge of restoring economy as well as its image. Many feel that current leadership crisis is the product of poor vision and low trust. Both these aspects of leaderships are discussed. Poor vision is manifested from lack of planning and ignoring excellence. Low level of trust is evident from the results of different studies and surveys conducting in the field. From different articles and works of scholars it is clear that trust is important factor which is missing in current corporate leadership. It is requirement of current corporate leadership to develop trust in order to make leadership effective. There is no doubt in the abilities and potentials of leadership the things they need are to foster trust and show vision. Keywords: Corporate Leadership, Vision, Trust. Is Leadership Failing? Importance Leadership is the essence of any successful venture. From national level to corporate level, everywhere the importance of leadership needs no illustration. Good leadership is must for the development and growth of business. In corporate world there is lot of emphasis on good leadership skills and qualities. There are lot of studies and theories regarding effective leadership. These materials help us understand different trends and styles of leadership. The question regarding the quality of leadership is one of the oft discussed issues of corporate world. There is growing concern regarding quality of leadership and this concern is added by the findings of different surveys and studies. There are many issues related with poor quality of leadership. Leadership is a complex phenomena and no single factor can fully explain the complex issue. The value of good leadership in corporate sector in hard times is immense. Many factors contributed in current tough time for business community and one of them is poor leadership. If we are to give any judgment regarding current economic situation the top most factor would be leadership. The concern regarding declining standards of leadership is genuine and there is dire need to look into the matter before things get out of control. Leadership is related with people therefore there is no single theory to explain leaders and leadership. Different scholars have tried to explain these terms with their own field of study. Development of management science has contributed a great deal in the study of leadership. The main focus of management scholars is corporate and business sector. The emphases of scholars remain on the study of leadership and its different styles. No single theory is complete in itself but help us understand different aspects. There are many aspects of leadership and factors responsible for the decline. The main focus of current review will be on vision and trust. These two qualities are very important for effective leadership and current crisis in leadership is to a large extent because of the low level of vision and trust. Vision Vision can be defined as a structured insight or inclination. It is an anticipated or supposed model of joint possibilities to which others can be attracted, given the necessary interest and impetus on the part of the leader who is disseminating that vision. Vision of a leader makes him different from others. The ability to foresee and then act accordingly is must for any effective leadership. Unfortunately majority of US corporate leadership is lacking in vision. They fail to see future world or they are far too much occupied in their mundane affairs. Decisions are made in short term and there is little focus on long term and durable policy for future. This speaks volume of lack of vision. It was lack of vision which is responsible for the shifting of manufacturing sector from the US. In corporate world the situation is never static and every moment offers new opportunity to the leader. Only a visionary person can see beyond the current situation and predict future. Different things can help in making a person visionary. It can be natural but importantly it is through hard work and constant study that a person can become visionary. Any person can be visionary but for leader it is important to attract and convince others of his vision. This ability makes a leader an effective leader. As stated earlier majority of US leadership lacks in vision and this is a serious issue for all including corporate world. This lack of vision in the corporate world is manifested by the following: Vision regarding Excellence Excellence is the ultimate goal of any organization. Leaders strive to achieve excellence as it is pivotal for the development of any organization. Unfortunately in USA there is lack of manufacturing excellence in corporate organizations and this is causing unemployment in the US. The decline in excellence is due to the unreasonable promises made by corporate leaders to the customers. These unreasonable promises force middle management to compromise on quality. It is unfortunate that despite all the abilities the American industry has lost its manufacturing ability. In order to get back on track it is important that leadership should have vision. The first and the foremost in this regard is the vision for manufacturing excellence. This excellence would ensure that US economy stays on strong footing. Excellence in manufacturing is not taken seriously by industry leadership. The reason for this is lack of vision. Even at national level there is no realization of the fact that without this excellence it would be impossible for the US to continue to dominate globally. The inability of national leadership is a big worry because the decisions and vision at the top can make or break things at lower level. National leaders are to be probed by the media regarding issues of creating job, excellence in research and inspiring common people and business leaders to support national vision regarding improvement of economy. Without visionary leadership it would be impossible for the US stop the decline, which has prevailed in different sections of its society. Trust The importance of trust for any society, organization and individual needs no mention. All human actions are based on confidence of trust. Lack of trust can be damaging for any leadership. Therefore if there is decline in leadership then we cannot overlook the trust factor. In fact an important aspect which is responsible for decline in leadership standards is the lack of trust among employers and employees. The main reason for this attitude is the lack of transparency in leadership communication. Work ethics for any organization are set by the culture which is promoted by the leadership. Good values can only be incorporated if there is transparent communication and leadership is consistent in its words and works. Employees can only trust that leadership which is doing what it is preaching. Trust at Workplace Studies have shown that 72 % employees feel that their employers support them while 77% executives say that they support their employees. These findings are very encouraging as they reveal a good environment at work place. This encouraging development can be attributed to younger generation, who believe in flexible work-schedule as well as to the modern technology which is giving option of working from anywhere at any time. 60% of employees give credit to modern technology which is helping them and building trust. But the role of social networking as trust builder is not encouraging as only 34% employees think that social networking can prove helpful in creating trust. This notion is supported 49% executives, while 32% employees regard social networking as a threat to their career. These findings show that effective use of technology can help in making the work easy as well as give confidence and trust to employees. High level of trust results in efficient and smooth functioning of any organization while low level of trust results in unnecessary delays and procedures. Trust involves characteristics of individual, which combine with other psychological factors determine the level of trust. Main focus of all the researches and studies is on the issue of trust. There is hardly any effort or work to demonstrate how to develop trust. This attitude of scholars is due to their emphasis on defining the term “trust” rather than explaining how to develop it. Different leadership theories agree that trust is must for effective leadership but none show how to develop this important aspect. Trust in Difficult Times The real test of leadership comes in difficult time. For corporate sector the difficult time is recession time. Recent recession has tested our corporate leadership and majority has been found lacking. The reasons for the failure of leadership could be many but the most important one is lack of trust. Majority of leadership was engaged in the monitoring of their employees rather than looking at the ways to manage crisis. This explains to a large extent the attitude of distrust in leadership. There are other factors also, which have contributed a lot in deteriorating the image of leadership. The pain of employees has increased manifold by finding that his job is lost and his company CEO is getting bonus. This mistrust does not mean that employees also want to be leaders. This lack of ambition is not surprising for some researchers and experts. They want to do work and want to be recognized for the work. Such feelings are normal but in recession these feelings tend to be more glaring. Young people are also overwhelmed by such feelings and it is leadership failure to recognize such attitude. Charisma and Trust Modern concepts of leadership are focusing on “charisma” as the main factor for effective leadership. These concepts fail to appreciate the importance of reliability and trustworthiness. Even the original concept of “charisma” has spiritual background and modern theorists advocating “charisma” do not include spiritual aspects in leadership. Spiritual concept such as generosity, compassion and care are very helpful in making trustworthy and effective leadership. Reliability is must for building trust and for any leader it paves the way for moving ahead. For any effective relationship to establish it is imperative to have element of trust in it. Effective leaders are followed because they are trusted by people. All charismatic personalities are trustworthy personalities. Building Trust Building trust is a slow and time consuming process. Small actions can prove helpful in developing trust. It is true that some people have natural traits of leadership but even these people have to build trust. Personal traits such as honesty, compassion, tolerance and care help in building trust. These traits are even more helpful in professional competence and ambition in making a good leader. Trustworthiness has two dimensions; affect-based and cognition-based. In this cognition-based is more effective and is necessary for affect-based trustworthiness. The need for developing trustworthiness is admitted even by modern business leaders’ e.g. Jack Welch Ex CEO of General Electronics. This fact is generally ignored by the modern researchers, who in their work try to find qualities of charismatic leader but ignore values like “generosity” and “forgiveness”. It becomes more glaring when it is said by the researchers that charismatic leaders tend to have spiritual qualities which are common to all human beings. In recent times there is a change in the attitude of researchers and the focus of the research scholars have emphasized the need for making shift towards “social man” approach than “economic man” approach in management. Similarly the focus on “ethics” and “spirituality” has also increased considerably. The need for developing “relationships” is now considered vital for good leadership. It is normally assumed that in business relationships are established on the basis of calculations. This aspect may be true for small or short term relationships but when it comes to long term and sustainable relationships the focus is shifted from calculations and is more on “values and virtues”. It is through them that a leader is able to get the desired respect and trust. This trust helps the management in acceptance of different decisions by employees. Trust & Inspiration Leadership has failed to inspire because majority of them are not showing their expertise to their subordinates. They are not inspiring their subordinates with their professional skills and competency. They are not teaching young how to do a job? The challenge of recession has provided ample opportunities to corporate leadership to show their skills but unfortunately majority of leadership was not in the right frame of mind. The priorities and vision of leadership has let down many specially the younger generation. The eagerness and passion of promising youngsters suffered severe blow by the attitude of leadership. The inability of leadership to fully utilize the potential of youngsters creates distrust. This negative feeling at the start of a career is never going to help the individuals or organizations. Trust and Empowerment "Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him."--Booker T. Washington. Leadership inability to show trust in employees is evident from low level of involvement of workers. The worker is not feeling that he is part of organization and this disengagement is not a good omen for leadership. The low level of involvement is manifestation of dissatisfaction, distrust and low empowerment. For successful completion of any task in an organization it is important to develop the atmosphere of team-work. Trust in any team is manifested by how much control the team has in doing its work. Empowering of employees gives the feeling of power, satisfaction and togetherness. These factors help in efficient and smooth working of any organization. They also ensure optimum performance from employees. The main reason for lack of empowerment is that it is a risk in itself. Any successful leader will be able to take this risk as without this it is impossible to involve subordinates. Involving employees in decision making is a risky venture as leader is responsible for any decision including any poor decision. Empowerment is also a test of any leader because the leader has to convince others why their idea is rejected or why others ideas are accepted. This involves reasoning and sound logical arguments. This helps in fostering cognitive-based trust. It is already mentioned that trust is cognitive-based as well as affect-based. The importance of rational and logic needs no illustration. In order to develop trust it is imperative that decisions made by a leader must be rationalize and acceptable to the employees. The level of trust is related with how much a leader is able to influence logically and rationally his subordinates. In corporate world the involvement of emotions is very low therefore any effective leader will hardly use emotions to influence his subordinates. Emotions can prove helpful only in long term relationship but the chances are still very low. Lack of Self-Criticism Evaluation of others is an easy job. Self evaluation is a tough job and it requires lot of guts and courage. Successful leaders are always engage in the process of self evaluation. It is must for personal development. Current corporate leadership is not doing self evaluation nor is it listening to the criticism which is directed towards them. This aloof attitude is responsible for downfall in the quality of leadership. This attitude also generates distrust, which is harmful for any leadership. Successful leadership involves different traits and characteristics. Leaders are confident, different, enthusiastic, risk taker, future focused, sensitive and accommodative. These qualities are must for any successful leader but current lot of majority corporate leadership are lacking in these qualities. This is true for national leadership as well, which has failed to inspire the nation. All these will again point to lack of trust. In heart of all the failures of leadership lies this fact that subordinates do not trust their leaders. Much has been said about trust regarding leadership. This element is greatly responsible for good or bad performance of an employee. Studies have shown that performance of employees increases with increase in trust level. Job satisfaction of employees is also directly proportional to the level of trust. When employees feel trust in their leadership they feel positive about their job and their working environment. This trust means a great deal to the employees, who feel confident that leadership is trusting. Recommendations Corporate leadership has an uphill task of restoring its image. It will require lot of effort and persistent work from the leadership to restore image of corporate leadership. In order to motivate people it is important that leader must know what followers are looking for in a leader. People will follow the leadership which can offer hope and who can give solutions to the problems. In order to be effective leaders current corporate leaders will have to Erickson, Amanda L (2006) ” be --and be perceived as--honest, forward-looking, competent, and inspiring.” She further explains these by stating that honest leadership is truthful, ethical and principled. This leadership does not deceive others nor it betray. Similarly forward-looking leadership is able to show direction and concern for the future. Competent leadership is the one, which uses its experience in achieving the goals of an organization. While inspiring leadership is the one which is enthusiastic, energetic and full of vigor in telling their vision. Conclusion Our current corporate leadership needs to adopt one of the four above mentioned characteristics and they will get the others without any effort. It is amazing but the power of effective and trustworthy leadership can perform miracles and during this tough time of recession and poor growth we need such people. Our future depends on good leadership and without solid contribution of corporate leadership we will never be able to continue our global domination. Current corporate leadership is able and talented. During the study of different available material it becomes clear that our current corporate leadership is not maintaining the high standards of the past because of the wrong focus. By channelizing the talent and ability the current situation can be changed. The responsibility on the shoulders of current corporate leadership is to restore public trust and this will take time. We have to trust our corporate leadership that they can deliver. References Bass, B. (1990), "From transactional to transformational leadership: learning to share the vision", Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 19-31. BRUNE, C. (2000). Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A64568692&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=vic_liberty&version=1.0 Douglas, Ceasar, and Suzanne Zivnuska (2008). "Developing trust in leaders: an antecedent of firm performance." SAM Advanced Management Journal 73.1. Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A177101798&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=vic_liberty&version=1.0 Erickson, Amanda L(2006). "Ethical leadership and the public trust: Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A146634827&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=vic_liberty&version=1.0 Gupta, Praveen (2008). "Excellence in national leadership: we need to create a vision for the U.S. economy that includes manufacturing excellence." Quality 47.5: 20. Harris, Paul (2010). Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A220639578&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=vic_liberty&version=1.0 Holbrook, Stephen (2011). "Corporate leadership."Harvard International Review. Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A116179827&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=vic_liberty&version=1.0 Lester, Scott W., and Holly H. Brower (2003). "In the eyes of the beholder: the relationship between subordinates' felt trustworthiness and their work attitudes and behaviors." Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A111769213&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=vic_liberty&version=1.0 Martin, Mirta M (1998). "Trust Leadership." Journal of Leadership Studies 5.3: 41.. Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A65357195&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=vic_liberty&version=1.0 Moore, T.W. and Casper, W.J. (2006), "An examination of proxy measures of workplace spirituality a profile model of multidimensional constructs", Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 109-18. Morden, Tony (1997). "Leadership as vision."Management Decision 35.9-10: Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A20531638&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=vic_liberty&version=1.0 Pace, Ann (2010). "Distrust can be costly: as the economy improves, talent will walk out the door due to a lack of trust in employers." Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A239271338&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=vic_liberty&version=1.0 Poston, Dave (2009). "The qualities that matter."Strategies: The Journal of Legal Marketing 11.6 : 3. Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A224768213&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=vic_liberty&version=1.0 Ruppel, C.P. and Harrington, S.J. (2000), "The relationship of communication, ethical work climate, and trust to commitment and innovation", Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 313-28. Zeffane, Rachid (2010). "Towards a two-factor theory of interpersonal trust: a focus on trust in leadership." International Journal of Commerce and Management: Retrieved from http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A241412108&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=vic_liberty&version=1.0 The Relationship of Communication, Ethical Work Climate, and Trust to Commitment and Innovation by Ruppel, C.P. and Harrington, S.J. (2000) Recently, Hosmer (1994a) proposed a model linking "right," "just," and "fair" treatment of extended stakeholders with trust and innovation in organizations. The current study tests this model by using Victor and Cullen's (1988) ethical work climate instrument to measure the perceptions of the "right," "just," and "fair" treatment of employee stakeholders. In addition, this study extends Hosmer's model to include the effect of "right," "just", and "fair" treatment on employee communication, also believed to be an underlying dynamic of trust. More specifically, the current study used a survey of 111 managers to test (1) whether "right," "just," and "fair" treatment influences trust, both directly as well as indirectly via communication, and (2) whether trust influences perceptions of commitment and innovation. Strong support for the study's hypotheses and Hosmer's (1994a) model was found. Such findings support those who argue that moral management may be good management. The Central Role of Communication in Developing Trust and Its Effect On Employee Involvement Communication plays an important role in the development of trust within an organization. While a number of researchers have studied the relationship of trust and communication, little is known about the specific linkages among quality of information, quantity of information, openness, trust, and outcomes such as employee involvement. This study tests these relationships using communication audit data from 218 employees in the oil industry. Using mediation analysis and structural equation modeling, we found that quality of information predicted trust of one's coworkers and supervisors while adequacy of information predicted one's trust of top management. Trust of coworkers, supervisors, and top management influenced perceptions of organizational openness, which in turn influenced employees' ratings of their own level of involvement in the organization's goals. This study suggests that the relationship between communication and trust is complex, and that simple strategies focusing on either quality or quantity of information may be ineffective for dealing with all members in an organization. Bass' Transformational Leadership Theory Assumptions Awareness of task importance motivates people. A focus on the team or organization produces better work. Description Bass defined transformational leadership in terms of how the leader affects followers, who are intended to trust, admire and respect the transformational leader. He identified three ways in which leaders transform followers: Increasing their awareness of task importance and value. Getting them to focus first on team or organizational goals, rather than their own interests. Activating their higher-order needs. Charisma is seen as necessary, but not sufficient, for example in the way that charismatic movie stars may not make good leaders. Two key charismatic effects that transformational leaders achieve is to evoke strong emotions and to cause identification of the followers with the leader. This may be through stirring appeals. It may also may occur through quieter methods such as coaching and mentoring. Bass has recently noted that authentic transformational leadership is grounded in moral foundations that are based on four components: Idealized influence Inspirational motivation Intellectual stimulation Individualized consideration ...and three moral aspects: The moral character of the leader. The ethical values embedded in the leader’s vision, articulation, and program (which followers either embrace or reject). The morality of the processes of social ethical choice and action that leaders and followers engage in and collectively pursue. This is in contrast with pseudo-transformational leadership, where, for example, in-group/out-group 'us and them' games are used to bond followers to the leader. Discussion In contrast to Burns, who sees transformational leadership as being inextricably linked with higher order values, Bass sees it as amoral, and attributed transformational skills to people such as Adolf Hitler and Jim Jones. An Examination of Proxy Measures of Workplace Spirituality: The purpose of this paper is to suggest a theoretical foundation to operationalize the constructs of spirituality from existing established measures. Several constructs from existing literature - perceived organizational support, affective organizational commitment, and intrinsic job satisfaction are used to measure aspects of workplace spirituality. As a result, a profile model of multidimensional constructs is used to explain the conceptual relationships. The writer has explained his point of view by giving data from different studies and surveys conducted at different organizations. The relationship between effective leadership and charismatic qualities is discussed by the writer in good detail. It supplements our point that majority of writers are focusing on charismatic qualities regarding leadership but they fail to appreciate the spiritual aspect of effective leadership, which is linked with charismatic leadership. Read More