Ways on Increasing the Quality of Leadership and Improving Teamwork Success - Coursework Example

Ways on Increasing the Quality of Leadership and Improving Teamwork Success The quality of leadership in an organisation is important because employees always look towards their leaders and their behaviour and attitude at workplace is also influenced by leadership style. Since the business environment is changing therefore, it has become essential for leaders to improve their leadership styles. Leadership theories, real world experiences and personality analysis of successful leaders can always provide support to the current leaders to improve quality of leadership. For the long term success of the company, high efficiency and productivity of employees and to improve organisation culture, leaders should learn the ways to improve quality of leadership and teamwork at workplaces. Being a consultant, I would tell you about different practices through which you can achieve these two aims and I would keep on giving your the examples of leadership of Bill Gates in Microsoft and teamwork practices at Microsoft will be given. Leadership Leadership can be defined as a process to influence the activities of a group of people for achievement of goals (citation????). In this process, the leader through his interpersonal skills seeks to influence the behaviour of others in a social context. The definition of interpersonal process of leadership shows that performance of workers at workplace is directly influenced by leaders. Therefore, this report will highlight the ways to improve leadership quality and teamwork success at workplace. To explain the ways three approaches will be used. First, by taking into consideration the theoretical framework, the best leadership style will be determined. Second, based on concepts of organisational behaviour, the recommendations will be given. Third, operational issues and real world practices will be taken into consideration. Review of Leadership Theories Knowing the leadership theories to improve quality of leadership is important because these theories reveal a series of schools of thoughts. The given theories will highlight how they have evolved from Great man and trait theories to transformation leadership theories. All of these theories have been presented to show how different leadership styles impact the behaviour of others. The difference between the early and new theories is that the early theories used to give more focus towards the characteristics and behaviour of successful leaders whereas; the later theories consider the role of followers and nature of leadership in a contextual framework (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison, 2003). Bolden et al (2003) summarises the leadership theories to give an idea about the evolution of these theories. Following the theories explained by Bolden et al. The Great Man theories argue that leaders are born with innate qualities and they are exceptional people. Since until the later years of twentieth century, leadership was being considered as a process associated with male, military and west therefore, Great Man theories were very famous. The Trait Theories discussed the traits that are associated with quality leadership. These theories generally discussed the traits of successful leaders. Behaviourist theories shifted the focus from qualities of leaders to what leaders actually do. Different patterns of behaviour of leaders were studied and they were categorised into groups of styles of leadership. These theories were very attractive for practicing managers. Situational leadership theory introduced the concept of flexible leadership styles that are exercised in specific situations. For example, a leader requires an autocratic style in one situation and participative style in other situation. To refine the concept presented in the situational theory, the Contingency theory was introduced which highlights the situational variables that best predict the most suitable leadership style in different circumstances. Transactional theory focuses on the relationship between leaders and followers, in which the leader gives reward or recognition in return to the loyalty and commitment of the followers. Transformational theory highlights the role of leadership in bringing and implementing the transformation process in an organisation to enhance the performance. Based on above mentioned theories, it can be argued that leaders are not born with exceptional qualities but there are traits which can be developed. Moreover, there is not any leadership style, which can be considered as a successful leadership style because style should be adapted according to the situations. Traits of Successful Leaders and Their Leadership Styles To improve quality of leadership in an organisation, the managers should understand that they need to improve their certain aspects of the personality because successful leaders are not born and they improve their traits through personality development. A pioneer in the field of personality assessment, Raymond Cattell (1654) introduced the Leadership Potential equation. He argued that good leaders should have the traits including emotional stability, dominance, enthusiasm, conscientiousness, social boldness, tough-mindedness, self-assurance and compulsiveness. He also highlighted the traits which a leaders needs to motivate and encourage people and these traits include high level of energy, intuitiveness, maturity, team orientation, empathy and charisma (U.S. small business administration, n.d.). Bill Gates is not a born leader but he took Microsoft to the heights of success through his adapted leadership style. The leadership style of Bill Gates is participative and he is a visionary leader. Various researchers believe that apart from leaders traits, the attitude and behaviour of leaders towards the staff at workplace, directly influences the efficiency of the employees. For example, Dr. Fazzi (1997) presented five traits of an ideal leader. He showed that an ideal leader keeps on striving for the developments in his area, has a clear vision for future of organisation, understands the importance of organisational culture focuses on outcome oriented approach and respect their staff (Fazzi, 1997). Different traits of a leader results in a particular leadership style and the styles can be categorised into four major categories including Autocratic, Bureaucratic, Laissez-faire and Democratic styles. In order to evaluate which leadership style is the best one, knowing the leadership styles of successful leaders is very important. The successful leaders such as Walt Disney, Etee Lauder, Sam Walton, Jack Electric etc adapted the participative leadership style. In the previous years, the authoritative leadership style was very common however; since the business environment is changing, participative leadership style is always encouraged in the organisations. No doubt, even after improving the quality of leadership, the challenges faced by the leaders are not reduced. However, the quality of leadership actually helps to deal with challenges and different situations in a better manner. Therefore, after knowing the traits and preferred leadership styles, understanding how to make the leadership style better becomes essential. For example, to improve his leadership quality in Microsoft, Bill Gats has always been giving great consideration towards his personal traits. For him, a successful leader should be a philanthropist and he adapted this trait (Microsoft, n.d.). Approach to Improve Leadership Quality For increasing quality of leadership, top management in an organisation should be encouraged to learn from the experiences of the successful leaders. Management should start from the development of personal traits and it can be done by attending workshops and trainings. Moreover, the scenario based discussion sessions and case studies can also help the managers to develop traits which can help them to make important decisions according to situations. NHS provided an excellent framework, which leaders can adapt to improve quality of leadership. NHS leadership qualities framework shows that a leader should first concentrate on his personal qualities including self belief, self awareness, self management, drive to improvement and personal integrity. These qualities cover the personal, social and cognitive qualities required by a good leader. Although adapting a theoretical model to improve the quality of leadership is actually an ideal situation however, such a framework does provide an idea to the managers about the desirable attitude and qualities. These qualities also give an idea about what kind of behaviour is expected from a leader in setting the directions. Moreover, practicing managers should also avoid the defensive, passive and aggressive attitude at workplace. According to Bill Gates, he has practiced four things to improve his leadership. He argues, a leader should take two retreats every year, he should read books related to broad perspectives, he should identify problems early by tracking them and he should analyse his efforts at the end of each day (Leadership Jot, 2008). Measuring the improvement in quality of leader is also a challenge for organisations however, nowadays, various tools are available which can be used to evaluate the improvement. One of the quality criteria is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Leonard, n.d.). The aim of improving quality of leadership is to develop a culture that may enhance the efficiency of employees. For an organisation to be successful, along with the excellent leadership, teamwork of employees is also essential. Therefore, in the following part of the report, the ways to improve teamwork success in an organisation will be discussed. Ways to Improve Teamwork Success Teamwork approach in organisations is widely increasing because of the changing business environment that requires the solutions to different problems in consideration to various dimensions. By promoting team building practices and teamwork, organisations ensure that multi-dimensional problems will be handled in a better manner. Teamwork allows the organisations to efficiently use the limited resources. Gibson et al (1980) argue that teamwork reduces the duplication of efforts, thereby, lowering the workload and enhancing the output. To develop teamwork culture in organisations, leader should evaluate the teamwork practices of successful organisations. For example, Microsoft organises various events and programs to enhance teamwork concept. The idea of teamwork is to increase the understanding an interaction of the employees and to encourage them in the achievement of organisational goals in a more productive manner. Therefore, it is not necessary for an organisation to only encourage teamwork practices by assigning organisational tasks. Interestingly, organisations should encourage teamwork practices through entertaining activities. For example, in 2008, 100 employees of Microsoft participated in a team-building event of pizza making (Doyle, 2008). Various such events are organised by the company every year or company also encourages the employees to participate in such events. Opponents usually argue that such events do not contribute to the output of the organisation however; they do enhance the inner desire of the people to work in teams. In order to increase the quality of leadership, the top management has to play an important role however, to improve teamwork success of an organisation, each member of the firm has to play role. Before promoting teamwork practices in an environment, certainty of employees is very important about the objectives and goals of the company. A successful team can only attain its goals, if the goals are unified. Therefore, a leader can play a very important role by properly communicating the mission and vision of the organisation. Once the goals are set, the next step is to organise formal programs that may increase the learning of people to work in teams. The formal programs should be organised before the creation of teams and assigning the tasks. The employees should have clear idea about the benefits of working in teams. After creating awareness, even the huge projects can be assigned to teams of skilled people. For example, Microsoft assigned the task to develop the next generation search engine to a team consisting of twenty people (Arrington, 2007). Teamwork approach can also be promoted by training the employees both in house or by outsourcing the services of training institutes. The large organisations are widely relying on outsourcing the services of training institutes because the professional services provided by training institutes are more organised. Scheuing et al (1996) did a research on the UK and USA-based firms and evaluated their teamwork practices (Teare, Ingram, Scheuing & Armistead, 1996). Through their research, they presented the best teamwork frameworks being followed in these firms. Organisations should widely implement such team oriented frameworks. To sustain teamwork culture, employees should get positive influence from team building. The experience of employees whilst working in team is influences at each stage of team development (Dyck & Neubert, 2008). Sometimes, the problems such as group thinking, free riders etc creates issue for the organisations and the employees therefore, before encouraging the teamwork practices, considering such issues is also important. Therefore, being a consultant of your organisation I would suggest you that to improve leadership in your organisation, each member of the top management team should encourage participative leadership style. Your organisation’s top management team should evaluate their personal traits with the traits of successful leaders mentioned above. Your organisation should arrange workshops, trainings and seminars for the leaders to enhance their desirable leadership traits. Furthermore, to increase teamwork success in your organisation, you should introduce formal and informal group work tasks. To increase collaboration and coordination among staff, the organisational structure should be more decentralised and for this you should reorganise your organisational structure. Therefore, if you really follow the practices such as those shown at Microsoft Corp you will notice a great improvement in the quality of leadership and teamwork success in your organisation. References Arrington, M. (2007) Microsoft: Silicon Valley Team Building Stealth Search Engine. [Online] Available from: http://techcrunch.com/2007/06/03/microsoft-silicon-valley-team-building-stealth-search-engine/ [Accessed 8 March 2010] Bolden, R., Gosling, J., Marturano, A. & Dennison, P. (2003) A Review Of Leadership Theory And Competency Frameworks. [Online] Available from: http://www.leadership-studies.com/documents/mgmt_standards.pdf [Accessed 8 March 2010] Doyle, C. (2008) Team Building with Microsoft. [Online] Available from: http://madpizza.blogspot.com/2008/05/team-building-with-microsoft.html [Accessed 8 March 2010] Dr. Fazzi, R. (1997) Five Traits of the Ideal Leader. [Online] Available from: http://www.fazzi.com/research/Five%20Traits%20of%20the%20ldeal%20Leader.pdf [Accessed 8 March 2010] Dyck, B. & Mitchell N (2008). Management: Current Practices and New Directions. Cengage Learning. Gibson, Terry, L., Moore, J. & Lueder, E. J. (1980) Teamwork: In Cooperative Extensive Programs. [Online] Available from: http://www.uwex.edu/ces/pdande/planning/pdf/teamwrk.pdf [Accessed 8 March 2010] Leadership Jot. (2008) Leadership Tips from Bill Gates. [Online] Available from: http://www.leadershipjot.com/category/vision/ [Accessed 8 March 2010] Leonard, D. (n.d.) Quality Leadership. [Online] Available from: http://www.texas-quality.org/SiteImages/125/Body%20of%20Knowledge%20(BOK)/Quality%20Leadership.pdf [Accessed 8 March 2010] Microsoft. (n.d.) Bill Gates. [Online] Available from: http://www.microsoft.com/PRESSPASS/EXEC/BILLG/BIO.MSPX [Accessed 8 March 2010] NHS. (2002) NHS Leadership Quality Framework. [Online] Available from: http://www.essexwdc.nhs.uk/leadership/Downloads/Intro%20and%20Overview.pdf [Accessed 8 March 2010] Teare, R., Ingram, H., Scheuing, E. & Armistead, C. (1996) Organisational Teamworking Framworks: Evidence from UK and USA-based Firms. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 8 (3), 250-263. US Small Business Administration. (n.d.) Traits of Successful Leaders. [Online] Available from: http://www.hispanicbic.org/docs/Leadership%20Traits.pdf [Accessed 8 March 2010] Read More