Reflection on Valuable Lessons and Important Aspects of Leadership - Essay Example

Reflection on Valuable Lessons and Important Aspects of Leadership There must be efficient and effective leadership for any organization to succeed. Individual and organization leadership go hand in hand according to Michael (2008). Leadership has three categories: Individual, organization and collective leadership. William (2011) attributes organizational failure to lack of systems of effecting change, implementing strategic plans and forecasting future uncertainties. Therefore, the leadership approach of an organization is what determines its success or failure. Evidently, a talent gap is being created between the current, very talented leaders, and the next generation, which is not showing a breed of promising potential leaders emerging. It is a cause of worry since organizations must have continuity in good leadership to be able to maintain its productivity. An organization is safer when it adopts risk prevention measures, and equips current and future leaders with skills necessary to cope with any organizational changes. There are both formal and informal leaders. They all influence an organization towards achieving its goals effectively. Organizational success goes beyond an individual leader's will to achieve and the organization's chain of command. Most importantly, it is how all leaders relate together towards achievement of set goals. This is termed as collective leadership as William (2011) observes. In addition, James and Barry (2001) suggest that several things should be considered. They include: the number of leaders needed currently and expected in the future by an organization. This enables an organization base its leadership strategies on the expected turnover of employees in the organization. Leadership culture entails how leadership is practiced for example employee relations, discharge of duties and working together for a common purpose. The culture ensures that all factors affecting growth and performance of the enterprise are pooled together towards the same set targets. Demand and supply forecasting is crucial in ensuring the number of leaders employed is specific to the present and future expected needs Another factor to consider is the quality of leaders desired. Every organization must aim at employing high quality leaders for a competitive organization. Phillip (2010) sees a leader as a person who owns and takes responsibility for every action an organization takes and feels any loss incurred as his own. For organizational success, there must be leaders who are goal oriented and put all their effort and hard work to ensuring achievement of goals and organization’s success. To be able to meet the above, leaders need to be critical thinkers and good planners of the future so that every strategy implemented by the organization moves it to achieving the intended purpose. Diversity in level of leadership and reaching organization's target is the sole purpose of an organization’s existence. This is because it meets needs of different people, cultures and regions as Michael (2011) analyzes. In addressing different needs, management has to ensure that the leadership strategy adopted, lists characteristics of individual leaders required. They include age, gender, race, origin/culture, education and working experience. In fact, achievement and motivation of leaders is influenced by pay and financial security. A good leader has good problem solving skills. He is a person that understands how to relate and be mindful of employees. This comes in handy when solving problems arising and during decision-making. When choosing a leader, he/she should have the ability to improve communication and relationships between workers and management for unity towards achieving set goals. In essence, having a good leadership strategy is advantageous to an organization. It can be defined as the number, type, possessed skills and behavioral pattern of leaders chosen by an organization to work individually and as a unit for total success. What I will do differently at My Workplace In essence, having a good leadership strategy is advantageous to an organization. It can be defined as the number, type, possessed skills and behavioral pattern of leaders chosen by an organization to work individually and as a unit for total success. In making changes in the workplace, there are various issues I have to address. Firstly, I will ensure strategies formulated consider feedback from business results. This will help attract people to the organization and motivate leaders to work harder and better their performance. Secondly, I will concentrate on internal promotions and minimize external hiring. Reason for this action is to motivate promoted employees who are familiar with the leadership culture in use to improve the existing system while saving costs on new employee's training. Additionally, I will encourage leaders working for me to believe in their own self and aspire to achieve. This is more important than all other efforts I will have set as Bill (2011) states. Being able to get leaders to do so is better than commitment of all leaders together. As a result, individual leaders will be more motivated to concentrate on their work area and produce a maximum result that boosts organizational performance as a whole. Improvement of the business culture is something I must apply. Leaders will have to discuss and research on how the market trends and business culture needs to be changed. This will ensure that the organization adopts current and relevant ways of doing business to be able to cope with competition. Employees will also have to understand that anyone can be a leader. To maintain my workforce for a long time, I will come up with leadership development programs. These are internal and available to every worker. It helps each individual to improve on their potential and develop new skills necessary for enhancing organizational efficiency and effectiveness. The leadership programs will be unique to the desired skills and experience needed by both individual workers and the organization as a whole. Giving leaders in the organization time to pursue other courses, and providing counseling services and mentors is a tool I will take up. All these motivate employees, ensure individual, and job satisfaction, which in turn improves performance. Understanding stakeholder’s concerns, interests and ability to labor together for a common purpose will also be a priority. In developing a leadership strategy, I will consider the environment, location of the enterprise, and other external factors that will affect the activities to be undertaken. My organization will also consider some factors with negative impacts on the society which Phillip (2010) points out. They include chronic poverty and unemployment, education decline and other social ills. These negativities influence how an organization will set its goals and the expectations of a society on how the organization will achieve its goals and at the same time help tackle societal problems. All measures taken and the strategy developed will consider profit making as the main purpose of the organization existing and work towards reaching the same. Leaders to be employed should be good time managers because the organization will have to set its targets and allocate a specific time to achieve them. The manager will have to work and accomplish the goals within this specified time. From this experience, I will emulate various important things. First, it will be to ensure that there is a leadership strategy drawn from the business strategy. Secondly, flexibility to changes in the environment and culture is something I will put emphasis on. From the above two, I will be able to ensure the workflow and plan formulated is appropriate and in accordance with the organization’s goals and targets. The strategy adopted will target greater geographical regions and multilateral partnerships to ensure there is unity between nations and promotion of global business cultures. The society and government will do constant review of the implemented strategies and adopting appropriate changes regularly to ensure meeting of expected standards. Adding to this, leadership is everyone’s business as put by James and Barry (2001). It implies that it will be quite essential for every member in my organization is helped to understand that leadership is not a mystery but is a set of practices that is observable and learnable. Everyone in the organization contributes to the success of an organization and this is why all employees will be sensitized to work hard as individuals and collectively as an organization. Every activity conducted by the organization will be transparent to all employees so that all of them participate in decision-making and strategy formulation. When reviewing organizational achievements, I will consider more, the feedback from people the organization targets for example consumers. This will enable leaders know if the practices being employed are producing the desired results. By obtaining feedback, current and future methods employed can be improved to suit the needs of those benefiting from the organization. Feedback also helps in knowing what innovations and inventions should be made and the appropriate method of doing so. Discussing the feedback with others will be done to be able to maintain diversity of actions engaged. What I will commit to doing to ensure I do not lose what I learnt and Achieved In retaining what I have learnt, I will put into practice various things. I will consider economic, political, ecological and social factors affecting the business before coming up with any ideas for setting a business strategy. A framework to put these into consideration is suggested by Phillip (2010). It arranges duties of a leader from ensuring profit is made, meeting government policies and regulations, knowing surrounding environment and building relationships among many other factors that make a business grow. I will also identify all the mistakes made by the organization in the past and develop measures to correct them properly. As business leaders, it is important for us to use critical thinking in making decisions and embrace change in our views and values. With the ever-changing needs and wants of the society, we must change our norms and traditions of doing things to cope with the expectations of the society and remain competitive. Leadership should be more than just acquired knowledge and skills. Michael (2008) insists on the importance of noticing the changes that have taken place in the society and embracing change in our systems of governance and business. Many markets and businesses are emerging, implying that to become a good leader, one must be ready to study widely and familiarize themselves with various current business issues to be able to be on the forefront of everything. With increased risks and threats to businesses, leaders must be strategic in every decision made in the organization. Prevention measures should be invented to be able to counter such risks and threats. For a leader to achieve the above, the policies and guidelines formulated by collective leaders in an organization should put into consideration future uncertainties that an organization might face. A SWOT analysis can be carried out to ensure an organization focuses on its strengths while minimizing on it weaknesses and eliminating threats. Leaders should encourage the culture of self-belief in every worker and ensure involvement of all stakeholders in running the business. This promotes unity and a sense of common purpose in the organization. References Michael, F. (2008). Integrating Individual and Organizational Development. Ontario: University of Toronto. William, P. (2011). Developing a Leadership Strategy: A Critical Ingredient for Organizational Success. California, CA: Centre for Creative Leadership. Matthew, G. (2011). Developing the Global Leader of Tomorrow. Ashridge, UK: European Academy of Business in Society. Phillip, H. M. (2010). Responsible Leadership Emerging: Individual, Organizational, and Collective Frontiers. Boston: Boston College Centre for Corporate Citizenship. James, M. K., and Barry Z. P. (2001). Leadership Practices Inventory. California, CA: Wiley Company. Bill, C. (2011). The One Thing You Must Do to Develop Leaders. California, CA: Allonhill. Read More