Leadership Skills for Managers - Research Paper Example

Leadership “Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.” -Vince Lombardi When a person has a quality in him to get the other people follow him voluntarily, he can be the leader. Each and every organization needs competent leaders to attain many short scale and long scale goals. An ideal leader has a clear picture before his vision about the future and the right path which the organization should follow for the better prospects. He has a capacity to understand how to accomplish the targets and goals. Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric Co., said, "Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion." [1] Leadership can be defined as a process in which the person influences others to attain the organizational goals. Leaders carry out this process by adopting the following features such as knowledge, skills, beliefs, character etc. The basic qualities required for being a successful leader is the strong will power and enthusiasm, and a capacity to spread influence. Being an ideal leader is not at all easy. Marlene Caroselli, in her book, “Leadership Skills for Managers, says, “It is easy to make money. But leaders strive to make a difference. They are willing to make sacrifices and to inspire others to do the same.”[2] This is very true and with this regard Mahatma Gandhi was a perfect leader. He was a great Indian freedom fighter and his leadership is really unique and extraordinary. He was moderate leader unlike the other extremist leaders of the world. And his uniqueness lied in the doctrine of non violence which later was adopted by many other leaders from all over the world. If he alone took any decision the whole India would follow him and it is very difficult to influence the people in such a diverse country. But he did this Herculean Task very easily. Leadership is not a born quality, and one can be a good leader after a proper training and creating a right approach in his or her personality. Leadership has the different styles like autocratic leadership, democratic leadership and free rein leadership. And the popularity of the leaders lies upon what method he use in different circumstances. For being a good leader the person should have some qualities in him which he can attain with efforts. Let us discuss about the qualities of a good leader. Uprightness: There should be honesty in the leader’s behavior so that his followers can have the confidence in him. He should create trust for him among his leaders. His* dealings should be honest and candid. Well-controlled emotions, absence of tantrums and harsh outburst are some of the major characteristics which are related to the quality of uprightness. Allegiance: An ideal leader should set an example before his followers by his strong commitment towards his job. Through his actions he should teach his followers that the task once taken should be completed whole heartedly and with devotion. Thus if he shows the deep interest in his job obviously his followers also will do the work wholeheartedly. *His: the word is used for describing both genders. No gender bias is there Generosity of spirit: The ideal leadership lies in the generosity of spirit. It is always very easy to blame others but very difficult to admit our mistake. It is a great task to take responsibility of failure. Taking responsibility of the failure is also a great thing which makes the leaders popular among the followers who then understand the importance of the responsibility of job assign to them. Ingenuousness: Sincerity or openness is another major quality of a good leader. There should be a mutual openness between the leaders and his followers which make the task easier and simpler with no ambiguity. If there is no openness the entire team gets confused what to do exactly. Innovativeness: A good leader always thinks beyond vision to innovate something new. It is the ability to think out of the way to find solution. If the leader is creative he can give more and more creative ideas to his followers. The leader should create something which does not exist. Thus always adopting some effective new and creative ideas is necessary for the achievement. Only good leaders can do it. Evenhandedness: A good leader deals with everyone in a same manner. He should very well know that collective goals are more important than the individual goals. So he should treat everybody in a same way. Fairness with somebody and biased attitude with others is never expected from a leader. If the people start believing that they have been treated fairly they remain faithful and loyal to their leaders. Wittiness: The entire team in the organization constantly works under the pressure. To relieve everyone from the pressure the leader should relax them with his sense of humour. The leader knows that creating humor can energize his team. This constant energy must be there consistently in everybody. A good leader is the multilingual person. It doesn’t mean that he has ability to speak various dialects. Of course being aware of multi dialects is very necessary in the business scenario, where the people come from different regions and speak different languages. But here in this context the language means the different languages of business. While talking about the multilingual quality of a leader Marlene Caroselli opines that there are two major languages in corporate world, the “language of things” spoken by non supervisory employees and the “Language of money” spoken by the management. The success of any institution or any organization depends upon the leadership of that institution. Good leadership can shape the future while bad leadership can create disaster. Examples are two opposite leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Hitler. With an extraordinary unique and ideal leadership Mahatma Gandhi won the war of freedom. He fought the war with the unusual weapon of non violence and so his war is the only war which is known as a bloodless war. On the other hand Adolph Hitler’s leadership totally tends towards dictatorship, violence and bloodshed which led the people of Germany into anarchy and deterioration. The leader decides the future of his institute. Bad leadership is associated with the incompetence of the leader. While talking about the incompetence of the leadership, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, in his speech says, “Incompetent leaders are not necessarily incompetent in every aspect. Moreover, there are many ways of being incompetent. Some leaders lack practical, academic, or emotional intelligence.” Rigid leadership also is an example of bad leadership. The rigid leader is not ready to accept the changes. The changes are inevitable and they must be accepted and accordingly the leaders should adapt them. Adaptability means accepting the changes and adjusts ourselves according to the changing mode of circumstances. But if the leadership is rigid and refuse to accept the changes, the organization cannot survive in the modern world which tends to change consistently. Intemperate leadership is also dangerous for the organization. When the leader completely losses his control and is aided by his followers then he is no more capable of leading the people. Barbara Kellerman in her book “Bad Leadership,” says, “The leader lacks self-control and is aided and abetted by followers who are unwilling or unable effectively to intervene.” [3] While explaining the characteristics of bad leadership Barbara Kellerman also mention that the callousness, corrupt, insular and evil leadership which are the examples of bad leadership. But in reality no leadership is totally good or totally bad. There is no any leader in whom one can find all the qualities of a good leadership and vise versa. For example the corrupt leader can be very competent. An ingenuous leader cannot be necessarily creative, or a rigid leader has a quality of motivating the people. It means that nobody is perfect but it is the expectation from the leaders that they should take efforts to be the best leader and should try to be perfect as much as possible. Followers: To become a leader a person needs to have the followers. Followers are those who follow their leader. It is natural that everybody cannot be the leader but in being a follower also there should be a kind of maturity. The followers also have some expectations in their minds for their leader. They always get influenced by such a person who has well rooted human values and who will consider their talents. The success of the leader depends upon his popularity among his followers. It is the followers who assess the person before accepting him/her as their leader. If the followers get assurance that the leader is reliable then only they support him. So it is the first responsibility of the leader to fulfill the expectations of his followers. The leaders are also expected to develop in them the “followership” qualities as Kelly calls. The leadership context/situation: As a part of your leadership it is very necessary to know the context in which the leadership is being practiced four levels are there to understand the context of the leadership. Personal Leadership, 2. Team Leadership, 3. Business Unit leadership, 4. Organizational Leadership Personal Leadership: Personal leadership is the desire of an individual to take charge of his or her own life and to understand what his role is. In personal leadership this principle should always be there before expecting the change from others first of all I should learn to change myself and then the world. Personal leadership is all about giving a proper direction to your own life and guiding yourself. Personal Leadership is to choose a right path for your life Team Leadership Team leadership consists of the motive of building a strong team of competent, creative, energetic and talented personnel for attaining the certain goal. A good team leader creates a team in such a way that will consist of the individuals where each individual’s strength compensate for the weakness of the another person, assuring good performance from all the members of the group. Business Unit Leadership: Within the frame work of each corporate culture every business unit has its own culture and characteristic. The activity related to business unit leadership includes creating association across teams, ensuring the successful implementation of organizational plan. Organizational Leadership: Organizational leadership is a very comprehensive field in which effective interpersonal communication creative strategic view and ethical behavior are the basic qualities. Organizational leadership aims at developing the leadership which would be applicable to the entire organization and not to just a single section of the organization. Organizational leaders are mould to gain the skill through outstanding presentation skill and an ability of group collaboration. Leadership Skill: Leadership is a very decisive skill. It is the skill which contains of motivating the people to attain the common goal. It converts the ordinary employee into highly motivated and highly committed person. A skillful leader should understand his need as well as the needs of the other people who are the members of his team. This helps the leader to understand each individual and the individual also get the feeling of respect from him. Thus this understanding will help in planning the program for getting things to be done. This understanding will also help to create an atmosphere of transparency and confidence. For developing leadership skill the person has to learn things on different level. 1. Communicating 2. Planning 3. Controlling Group Performance 4. Evaluating 5. Counseling 6. Effective Teaching Communicating: This is the major skill in leadership. Skillful leaders have to be good listeners and speakers. They should communicate with each individual, listen to him carefully with full attention. While addressing to his team members he should speak clearly and slowly so that everybody should understand what he/she wants to say. He should solve the queries of team members by motivating them to ask questions. Planning: Effective leadership should have a proper and good planning. While planning things the leader should take into consideration the resources such as equipments, knowledge, skills and attitudes. He should also consider the alternatives to those resources. According to the resources available he then has to design the plan, execute and evaluate the plan. Controlling Group Performance: For keeping the entire group on a proper track it is very important to control the group. The group works together when it is given a proper direction. A good and skilled leader can control his group by observing the group activities consistently as well as the attitude of the group. The instruction given by the leaders should be clear and relevant. He should guide the individuals of his team for keeping discipline. Evaluating: A skillful leader frequently evaluates the job of his team members and guides them to increase their performance. He has to observe whether the job is done and whether it is don right and in time. Counseling: Counseling is the part of the skillful leadership. It is very important for solving the different problems the people face while doing their jobs. When anybody from the group is confused or cannot take the proper direction the leaders should properly counsel him. Before counseling the leaders has to understand the situation. After realizing the situation the next step is to find out the options or solutions for this situation and then encourage the person to solve the problems with the help of the options available to him. Effective Teaching: Effective teaching is also one of the facets of leadership skill. It is necessary to give the proper knowledge and training and skills necessary for the job to the team members which will increase the productivity. For making this process effective the leaders should chose the appropriate learning objective. After that he has to demonstrate or explain the skill. He should then motivate the learner to practice the skills and then he should measure the performance of the learners. Leadership and management: Management and leadership are the two different way of organizing the people and getting things to be done. While studying the concept leadership the question can arise what is the relationship between leadership and management. Management is a very vast field and leadership is one of its facets. Leadership is one of the most important valuable assets of a successful manager. The main objective of the manager is to attain the organizational goal and for this purpose he has to use the five basic functions of management, planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. The leadership is the major component for using these functions effectively. However there is a difference between the leaders and the managers. For doing things the managers use the policies which are designed by the company. But in case of the leaders they are more tend to use their own intuition which will be useful for the organization as well. As compared to the managers the leaders are more emotional. The members of the group are always loyal and close to the leader than the manager. This loyalty is gained by the leader by taking responsibility whether the team gets success or failure. He motivates the team members by giving them credit for their good work. Leaders are always vigilant and insightful. He knows his team very well and builds mutual confidence among his team members. One more major difference between the leader and the manager is that the people follow the leader enthusiastically and willingly while they obey the manager because they are imposed to do so. A manager is not necessarily a good leader. The authority and the designation are offered to him for his loyalty with the company or the organization not because he has proved himself as a good leader. Thus the major difference between manager and the leader is that the manager uses official rational tools to organize the people while the leader uses emotions and passions and thus enter in the minds of the people and get respect and affection from them which are not always possible for the manager. Unlike the leader the manager will give priority to the management and not to the employees or working people where as the leader is interested in his team first. Conclusion: Leadership is one of the prominent features in management. The purpose of this paper is to study the term leadership with different standpoints. It includes the factors like qualities of good leadership, and discussion on bad leadership, leadership context, leadership skills, Leadership and management. This paper will surely helpful for those who want to develop the leadership skill in them. Sources: 1. “The Top 10 Leadership Qualities,” by David Hakala on March 19, 2008 http://www.hrworld.com/features/top-10-leadership-qualities-031908/ 2. Marlene Caroselli, in her book, “Leadership Skills for Managers, Pg. 3 3. “Bad Leadership,” A book by Barbara Kellerman Read More