Implementing the Leadership Strategies - Essay Example

1.0 Background Software development is a passion I acquired in late life as it was Greenfield industry in its nascent stages and attracted attention due to its innovative nature in problem solving for business. However I was keener on implementation of the process rather than the development. I have always believed that designing the architecture was more demanding and fulfilling in comparison to writing the software as it required in-depth understanding of the process and flow of transactions. In an organisation, it is the leadership that is responsible for directing the efforts of its resources towards its ultimate objective. Strategies are planned and executed by leaders. Only a clear vision can ensure the success of a strategy. Delegation of responsibility and supervision are possible only when the strategy has been clearly laid out in accordance to such a vision. I work for a software company as its chief architect and design software for clients according to their requirement. My role is to understand the requirements and process flows in order to design an application catering to the needs and enhancing it to the level of expectations of the client. This is a demanding task and requires flexibility and adaptation. It also calls for innovative practices and experimentation with new ideas. Altogether it is a creative assignment with a lot of stimulus. It also requires me to lead a team of qualified software developers, to make them understand the requirements and to excite them to convert innovative ideas into user friendly applications. After the completion of the application and having tested it, the most daunting task is the implementation of the software at the client place. This too requires building teams and directing change policies on site to ensure that the application is understood, accepted and used for the benefit of the organisation. The entire process calls for great leadership and to be able to handle obstacles and resistance with the ease of a polished politician. But unlike a politician a business leader has to deliver on promises and make life better for all stakeholders. For me the leadership issue is crucial and clarity of vision and flexibility are the two sustaining elements of success. Leadership Traditional Leadership roles have been fearsome and ruled by diktat rather than reasoning. The maximum a leader would do was to provide for training and would consider it to be his benign gesture and would expect a far higher value for this investment. The humane feeling was limited to the extent of providing some extrinsic rewards. Recognition was a remote concept and the employee was expected to keep improving by experience and to offer his loyalty in return for wages alone. However there is perceptive change from the Taylorist and Fordist mould of yester years in modern leadership roles. A great amount of writing is available about management techniques, strategies, change management and competitive advantage by a variety of authors but it has been acknowledged that the central role in all these theories is that of a leader. In turn the leader has been described as one who leads from the front, has a vision and a plan, believes in teamwork and someone who is a great believer in the power of the people and has the ability to harness this power into generating a successful organisation. Kevin and Jackie Freiberg (2003) have portrayed the leader as a person with Guts. They have analysed this to be the result of some exceptional qualities of those successful leaders who have said a go-by to conventional wisdom and pursued different methods to achieve their vision and goal. They have shown remarkable versatility and have produced startling but effective results and they have managed to make their organisations role models of excellence. Amongst the outstanding qualities mentioned by them is that Gutsy Leaders have a firm conviction of their belief. But this does not make them arrogant. Their flexibility is not a show of weakness and their ability to accept opinions of smarter people is a fine example of their humbleness. They are capable of overriding the opposition while they have the guts to admit their mistake and to make remedies. The leader described by the authors is an individual who believes in confiding with his subordinates to earn their loyalty and offers recognition of their performance as the paradigm of their deep commitment to the organisation’s, and the leader’s, cause. He will encourage the employees to take pride of ownership of the result of their efforts to sustain their motivation. He aspires to build an organisation that offers hope, love, service, freedom, communication, fun, and trust. He believes that these are the fundamentals to build great and sustainable organisations. He is steadfast in his belief that this is the way to attract the best talent for his company. It is very important for him to be able to communicate easily with his team. Jerry Porras and Susan Hoffer (1986) opine that open communication meaning sharing of intentions, listening and collaborating through making team decisions were most relevant for success in organizational development efforts. Transactional - Transformational Leadership In a different approach to leadership an interesting proposition was made by Burns (1978) and was further developed by Bass (1985). He made a distinction between transactional and transformational types of leadership. He stated that transactional leadership was the traditional leadership which involves the leadership-subordinate roles where the subordinate is rewarded for compliance with the leader’s wishes (Doherty and Danylchuk, 1996). As against it in case of transformational leadership the subordinate is encouraged or motivated by the leader to improve him, raise his bar in order to serve the organisation better. (Doherty and Danylchuk,1996; Soucie, 1994; Yukl, 1989). Bass (1985) offered a differentiation between transactional and transformational leadership. The transformational leader influences the sub-ordinate to do more than they were originally expected to do, whereas the case of transactional leadership this influence does not exist. These are two different dimensions and cannot be said to be at the two extreme ends of the same continuum. (Doherty and Danylchuk,1996). But Bass maintained that leaders have both qualities at the same time as some rewards are given to sub-ordinates even by transformational leaders. Obviously transformational leadership is what can bring about changes n the organization as it is the dynamism of the leader that will both motivate and reward the employees to adapt to changes. Characteristics of Transformational Leaders According to Armstrong (2001) the four main characteristics are ethical behavior, sharing a vision and goals, improving performance through charismatic leadership, and leading by example. However, Bass (1990) had a more comprehensive description, his four Characteristics are: Intellectual stimulation which refers to the leaders capability to inspire followers to be more inquisitive and inventive in thinking and problem solving Individual consideration revolves around interaction between leaders and followers on two dimensions. First is developmental orientation wherein tasks are assigned to enhance an individuals potential, abilities, and motivation; second is individual orientation where the leader accentuates shared understanding and experience through one-on-one dealings and two-way communications. Inspirational leadership, refers to the idea that leaders inspire and encourage subordinates to create greater emotional attachments to leaders and greater identification with leaders visions of organizational goals Idealized influence refers to the fact that the charismatic traits of a leader will be idealized by followers through their commitment and will tap their full potential. In yet another description the four characteristics have been referred to as the four "Is" by Avolio, et al 1991 with which transformational leaders stimulate and engage their followers. Individualized Consideration: The leader gives personal attention to others, making each person feel outstandingly valued. Intellectual Stimulation: Encouraging a new look to old methods, inspiring creativity, encouraging others to look at problems and issues from a different angle. Inspirational Motivation: By increases optimism and enthusiasm the leader communicates higher expectations and points out new possibilities. Idealized Influence: The leader provides a vision and a meaningful role thereby gets respect, trust, and confidence from followers. Change and Competitive Advantage Change is necessary for retaining or developing competitive advantage. Leaders are crucial for any change effort. They also need to be seen as transformational leaders for bringing about effective change. More open communications at all level are called for and the leader must establish this to motivate the sub-ordinates to obtain their commitment to the vision and mission of the company. Suitable intervention programmes under change management are to be devised and supervised by such leaders. The charismatic leader will be able to motivate his followers to improved quality and better their performance. It is also important to have an agile organisation that will empower the workers and motivate them to raise their standards. This too can be brought about by a visionary leadership. At the end of the day most people are not motivated by being pushed. The motivation comes out of the desire to meet their own needs, to achieve something that holds value for them, to be in control, to be recognized, to have self esteem and the satisfaction of having achieved their personal objectives. A successful leader connects with these human values and excites people with his vision that will help them achieve their personal objectives through his visionary strategies. This involvement must be real and for this the leader has to formulate a vision that takes these aspirations into account. The results of this vision come out in the shape of recognition and both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for the people. This calls for empowerment. Empowerment Explained The new work environment and work ethics need to give back some planning and decision making power back to the worker. This is the real way he can be motivated to perform better. This need is understood as the new methods of work need more skilled worker and such skills need planning and decisions even at the execution stage. By default such empowerment also raises the performance and it is conceded by management that strict deskilling has indeed killed performance. While it has been proclaimed that empowerment is good there are some fundamental issues that will have to be dealt with first. Every organisation has some method of working called the culture of the organisation. This may be defined and planned or may come about through practices adopted over a period of time. This is an influential factor on the level and degree of empowerment. The individual worker has to fit in the organisation’s cultural pattern and the empowerment has to be within its confines. Therefore understanding the culture becomes important. The real test of the individual fitting the organization, or the person-organization fit, is tentative at best and has been defined as the similarity of patterns of the organizational values and individual values. These may be further defined as those things that the individual values in an organization, such as being team-oriented or innovative (Chatman, 1989). Values are fundamental building blocks in most definitions of organizational culture (Barley, Meyer, and Gash, 1988), and culture plays a key role in determining how well an individual fits into an organizational framework (Rousseau, 1990). When individual values and priorities match the values and priorities of a particular organization the individual is happier and more likely to maintain an association with that organization. Value systems offer detailed and comprehensive justifications both for suitable associate behaviour and for the activities and functions of the system (Enz 1988). Organizational values are often considered as a group or collective product (Schein 1985: 7), and while all members of the group may not hold the same values they will support a given value. A central value system exists when a number of key values concerning behaviours and the way things are done or are shared in an organization across units and levels. Besides, it has been observed that strong organizational values are those that are both intensely held and widely shared. There is however great disagreement on the level at which values are considered to be meaningful to individuals (Enz 1988). These values have been theoretically measured by Hofstede et al. (1990) at the subunit level and OReilly, Chatman, and Caldwell (1991) have done the same at the organization level. Within the organizational context, an individual has to understand that he has to uphold the organizational values and therefore these values guide his actions, attitudes and judgments beyond the immediate or distant goals (Rokeach, 1973: 18). Both the organizations and people influence each other’s behaviour and attitudes; the person-organization fit is a therefore a consequential way of evaluating the person-situation interaction. This is because values are fundamental and relatively enduring and both individual and organizational values can be directly compared. Person-organization fit focuses on how the content of a persons values will affect that individuals behaviour and attitude, when put side by side with the value system in a particular organizational situation. This then becomes the limiting factor of the worker’s empowerment. In other words the empowerment is organization led and oriented. If the organization culture is overpowering then the workers’ creativity is curbed and the organization will loose an opportunity to gain from it. This becomes relevant in creative jobs that abound today. Empowerment therefore becomes a subjective issue. Indeed it may be said that the worker is coerced into a situation of compliance with the organizational demands. Empowerment means offering flexibility to the worker. It also means power sharing, information sharing, upward problem solving, task autonomy, shaping of attitudes and self management (Wilkinson 1998). Legge (1995) sees it as a promoter of trust and collaboration between managers and workers. This relates to relationship between manager/worker as well as promotes motivation for improved performances. The perception of empowerment becomes meaningful only when it is perceived as an enabler by the worker. The psychological advantage is phenomenal as he perceives it as power, self-control, efficacy and competence (Psoinos and Smithson 2002). The four dimensions explained by Lee and Koh (2001) elucidate this concept further. Meaningfulness, competence, self determination and impact are the results and can bee seen as powerful measures to improve performance. Assessment There has always been an ongoing debate about the validity of the above arguments on leadership and an assessment is desired to conclude the real worth of a leader. Among the many methods of evaluations a method is that evolved by Jimmy Collins (2001). He calls them the 5 levels of leadership. It is his view that all organizations can raise their levels if their leadership raise their bar and change their approach to the objective of leadership. All persons have been classified by Collins in a 5 level framework. At level one is the highly capable person but he can work best on individual only and is not a team man. At level two is the team member who can contribute to teamwork. At level three is the person who is able to manage the team and has planning capability. At level four such a person has the ability to execute plans through building consensus and creating a visionary path that is understood by subordinates. At level five is the extraordinary individual who is able to give credit of all hard work to co-workers and raises their self esteem. He is the most successful leader of all. This perception of a leader, perceived by Collins, has evolved over the last five decades. Earlier writers had theorised that the scientific management as perceived by Taylor in the last years of the 19th century had robbed the skilled worker of all his decision making powers and transferred it to the management. While it worked well to boost production through division of labour, this method lost relevance with advance in technology that required a different kind of worker known as knowledge workers. Apart from this, widespread education and globalization of work also brought in awareness. Under these changes it became necessary to bring back the worker into the management loop. Some empowerment was necessary to motivate him. Extrinsic rewards became important. This is what was followed by leaders who thought differently and built teams with extraordinary visions. However such leaders became legendary and were considered heroes of their times. They got recognition and fame but they also got replaced by others when the time came for them to retire. The successors were often not equal to the task of their predecessors and the organization that had risen to new heights again receded to its previous condition and sometimes was even worse off. An outstanding example is that of Chrysler. In the sixties it was the number three car manufacturer in the world and slipped badly in the seventies. Lee Iococca took over as CEO and transformed the organization through his out of the box thinking and by making excellent teams out of everyday managers. However when he left in the eighties the company could not fill the vacuum created by his absence and has since declined to a stage where presently it needs to be taken over by a rival for survival. As against this Ricardo Semler who inherited a faltering Semco of Brazil from his father converted his company into a model that is unique in the world. Semler has a unique strategy, that of empowerment. He inherited a company that was unable to face competition and that had several layers of hierarchy that could not use the aspirations of its labour force to overcome the difficulties faced by it. He therefore decided to reposition his company and took the enactment route to empower everyone on the rolls. He believed that in the importance of values and relationships with his workers as a critical part of success for his organisation. The biggest stake was that of the employee and it was him/her that needed assurance that their jobs are safe but in return they had to ensure that the company was managed successfully and at a profit. The workers have been empowered to hire managers who they believe will lead them to growth of their company as well as their careers. They have equal say in all appointments and at any one time as many as thirty five people interview candidates at least four or five times before confirmation. This gives both sides an equal opportunity to assess each other and find a proper fit. The workers also have right to fix their own wages and the salaries of their managers. This could have been a contentious area as each person would then look after his well being but the answer lay in the open access policy of revenue earning and distribution and that sobered up everyone as it was realised that without equitable distribution of wages the company would not make profits nor could face competition. It was the same in case of working hours and output. Groups of workers undertook to be present at specific times in order to see that the assembly lines were kept in motion and targets as well as quality matched each other. Flexibility was the watchword and a Sunday or holiday was equally important like any weekday; the priority in all case was work and productivity. As a result Semco is a truly democratised company with hardly any attrition. While Semco is a closely held company and owned by the Semler family, he was elected to be chairman due to his leadership abilities and not due to his shareholding. He has one vote like any other person and his recommendations have sometimes been turned down. Yet the workers realise that his contribution to decision making is vital for the company although not essential. Numerous decisions are taken in his absence. In fact he does not have a regular office in the company premises and works out of wherever he is. When a few years back he met with a serious accident and was in intensive care on account of multiple surgeries, the company carried on business as usual and there was neither a dip in the profit/growth path nor were the suppliers or customers worried over his absence. Semco does not face succession problems unlike most other corporates of the world. Conclusions My position in my company is comparable to the level four leaders as described by Jim Collins. I am capable of inspiring my team to deliver on the promise and to even out perform themselves. I would very much like to emulate the level five leadership; and that is the worthwhile cause. It is also concluded that under the current circumstances, and in view of the evolution of knowledgeable and aware workforce the older theories of leadership need to be revised. 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