Characteristics of a Successful Business Leader - Essay Example

Characteristics of a successful business leader Traits are inborn characteristic of a person. In business, some characteristics enable an individual to be successful. Communication skills help in building of relationships. Therefore, the ability to pass information effectively is a personality trait that is critical in a business. Every business transaction involves either written or verbal communication, hence, a business leader who is perfect in this skill stands to benefit. Creativity in running of the business: The business environment is dynamic. To cope with these changes a business leader has to be creative. Creativity paves way for a new way of doing things and improvisation in the business operation. The most prolific business leaders have always been creative. Passion for the business: A business leader carries the vision of the organization. The success of the organization partly lies in the determination of a leader. The enthusiasm that the business leader has instills confidence in the rest of the organization members. They can see the viability of the business through the leader. The passion of the leader towards the business stimulates positivity in the operation of the business. Integrity and fairness: The goodwill towards a business is build based on trust. The integrity of the business leader makes others rely on him and be confident in the decisions that he makes. Together with this, treating others in an honorable way earns the business leader respect within and outside the business. Decisiveness: Operation of a business involves constant decision-making. The quality of business decisions determines the achievements of the business. The ability of a businessperson to make quick decisions is fundamental for the growth of the business. A business leader should be persevering. Sometimes things may go wrong, and it takes a big heart to stand tall and push forward with hope for a positive outcome. Self-awareness and knowledge: A business leader should have an understanding of strong points and weakness. The self-awareness enables him to capitalize on his strength and minimize the effects of his weakness on the business. The factual knowledge of the business is paramount to the success of a business. When a leader comprehends his business, it enables him to make sound decisions. The business environment keeps changing. The changes in business operation bring out the different traits within a leader. Therefore, the importance of these traits is contextual. However, they do not work in isolation as they interchangeably manifest within a leader. In discussing of traits, it is essential to note that traits are different from strength. Traits are inborn and lifelong characteristic of a person. Strengths are skills that a person acquires. After strengths are out of utility, they can be forgotten. Leadership styles Transformation leadership is a form of leadership that brings about a positive change in the business operation. In transformation leadership, there are transformational leaders. They inspire the group they lead and make them feel energized to achieve a set of goals. Transformational leadership is crucial in the change process of business. The business world evolves quickly. For example, changes in technology bringing about e-commerce. A business needs transformational leadership to be able to move from the traditional business that confines to geographical space into a world of endless possibilities through technology. Transactional leadership is the leadership style that concerns with the day-to-day operation of a business. This form of leadership has its orientation on performance of employees. It utilizes both extrinsic motivation styles and intrinsic style to ensure daily smooth operation. Transactional leaders use negotiation to accomplish organizational goals. This form of leadership is useful in having a task at hand done successfully. For example, it is useful in ensuring that an organization inventory is done. Charismatic leadership is a leadership style in which the leader arouses the emotions of employees. This leadership closely relates with transformation leadership. In this leadership styles, a leader shows great belief in teamwork and appreciation of team members. This is a form of leadership common among trade union leaders and human right activists. In business operation, it is useful when an organization wants to rally employees towards a certain cause. Motivation styles Positive intrinsic motivation is the motivation that emanates from an individual. It is enjoying of one task without expectation of external reward. As a call center manager I would assign tasks depending on the strength of those, I am in charge. The employees will have confidence about their performance, which will lead to satisfaction. Negative intrinsic motivation is means the self-esteem of an individual is low. As a manager, it is ethically wrong to utilize this form of motivation. However, assigning an employee difficult tasks then scolding them as incompetent can serve to trigger negative intrinsic motivation. This form of motivation leads to low performance and a high rate of job turnover among employees. Positive extrinsic motivation is a reward system that involves pay rise, bonus, and praise. This is a simple method to employ as a call-center manager. Giving of praise to employees can be a routine while high performance can always attract a bonus. This method should be used in moderation to avoid crowding of the benefits of positive intrinsic motivation. Negative extrinsic involves the use of threats and punishment. The call center manager can threaten to demote or fire an employee who is underperforming. In this method the manager, deduct the pay of an employee as a punishment for failure to comply with the companies policies. This method of motivation creates tension and anxiety among employees. Case evaluation of a janitor and executive assistant The executive assistant would feel demeaned. He has experience, which means he has been working for some time. The position of an executive assistant is a managerial position. Accordingly, it should attract a higher salary than that of a janitor. The assistant executive may also feel angry at the organization, as the janitor is a new entrant while he has been in the company. It is difficult to understand what justifies a janitor to have a salary that is equivalent to that of an executive assistant. The executive assistant might evaluate the qualifications of the janitor regarding his academic backgrounds and experience span. The terms and conditions of the janitors work such as longer working hours, which might mean more allowances. The janitors’ position would also be very demanding and critical to the company. Elements of communication The first constituent of communication is the sender who is the encoder of the message. The sender formulates the information to be sent. In the classroom, the teacher is the sender. The second element is the channel. The channel is the means via which the message is conveyed. In the classroom, the medium can take two forms, which are the speech that the teacher gives, and the textbooks that the teacher refers the students. The third element is the receiver of the message. The receiver is the decoder of the information. He extracts the meaning of the message. In the classroom, the students are the receivers of the message. They listen to the teacher and acquire knowledge. The fourth element is feedback. After the receiver decodes the message, he formulates a response and sends it back to the sender. This is the importance in the determination of how effective the communication has been. In the classroom the student, gives the teacher feedback in various forms. The students ask the teacher questions to get clarification on the meaning of information. Further, the teacher gives the students tests to gauge the level of their understanding. The teacher uses the students test results as feedback to measure the effectiveness of his communication. There are other elements of a communication process in the model. The communication is taking place within this context. In this case, there is the classroom, which is the place; learning becomes the event, and the attitude of the students and the teacher. Additionally, there are interferences to communication. These are the factors inhibiting the conveying of information. In the classroom, it includes noise, banging doors, falling books among others. Characteristics of an effective listener The non-verbal characteristic of a good listener is that he maintains eye contact with the person passing information. The listener smiles when it is appropriate, and nods to show they are following the conversation. The listener has good posture, and focuses on the speaker. The listener can summarize the progress of a conversation. In addition, the listener can give suggestions relating to a discussion. An effective listener accepts the ideas put across by the speaker. He is interested in hearing. An effective listener has empathy. He connects with the emotional feeling of the speaker in relation to the topic of discussion. The listener paraphrase what is being said. It helps ensure that he has gotten the correct information. Effective listeners probe the speaker to get an in-depth understanding of the discussion. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate myself at seven. This is because, as a listener, I have all the above characteristics except that I struggle with keeping my attention to the speaker. The activities in my environment distract me easily. Application of interpersonal skills Interpersonal relationship is vital in the workplace. In order to design new package for a breakfast it is crucial to have people skills. The skills are of use in both face-to-face teams and the virtual teams. Effective communication and listening are some of the people skills that are fundamental to any team. The accomplishment of this task depends on how the team working on it relates to each other. A team that cooperates, and listens to each other without prejudice will accomplish more within a short time span. The face-to-face team requires patience and courtesy in addressing each other. They will need to establish the strength and weakness of the team in order to be able to work together with little collisions. Creativity comes, as a result of openness to ideas and being able to empathize with each other. The virtual team also requires interpersonal skills. Creation of rapport with each other is vital especially with separation in distance. The major skill to the success of a virtual team is trust. The team has to establish that it is reliable in its operation. Further, effective communication is paramount. The team relies heavily on the information that they pass to each other. Thus, the accuracy of this information has to be high. The interpersonal skills required for the face-to-face team and the virtual teams are almost similar. The difference is the emphasis places on certain skills with regard to each team as demonstrated above Analysis of favorite sport My favorite sport is hockey. It has eleven players. The hockey team has a coach, a team doctor, first aid team, players, and a captain. In the field, the players are divided as middle fielders, wingers, defenders and the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper plays the specialist role. He cannot be easily replaced. The goalkeeper must be present and in full kit before the commencement of the game. The captain has a specialist role in the team. Every team has to have a captain. The captain is usually a player in the team. However, he has a unique identification during the match. The captain acts as a mediator between the referee and the players. It is the responsibility of the captain to report any irregularities in the course of a match. He defends his team from unfair treatment that may arise from the other team of referee. The middle fielder is the one who plays the socio-emotional role. He is allowed to play from any part of the field. Thus, he can easily inspire, motivate, and encourage all the team members during the match. The midfielder offers reinforcement to the defender, and the wingers as the match may demand. The middle fielder interacts with almost all the members of the opponent team. He is, therefore, instrumental in the creation of rapport with the other team. The unique character of the specialist role player and the socio-emotional team player is to carry the vision of the team. They are highly enthusiastic player and energetic players. Their passion inspires the team members and motivates them to keep doing their best in the field. The self-motivation of these players influences the other players to stay afloat even when the winning is low. Application of balanced scorecard Using of a balanced scorecard is beneficial to the organization as it provides a complete view of how the company is performing. It provides an organization’s management with a concise picture on business operations. It helps an organization to align the measure of performance with its business strategy. The company identifies areas where is should improve in order to increase its profitability. It enables the transformation of the organizations strategy into action. The use of this opens up communication channels in the business. It makes employees enthusiastic about their roles and duties. Effective communication helps in the understanding of the output expectations that the organization has. The strategies of the organization are easily passed on to the entire organization. Further, use of a balanced scorecard enhances the learning process within the organization through offering of feedback. The use of this methodology brings about creativity. The members of an organization can work as a team and encourage initiative from each other. This positivity benefits the organization. Additionally, the use of balanced scorecard reduces the amount of data that the organization has to process. This helps diminish the time taken to make decisions, and the processes of the organization. In developing a balanced scorecard for Walmart, there are various customer measures usable. Customer satisfaction is valuable in the measure of customer service. High satisfaction means a reduction in the number of complaints that an organization gets. Customer retention and the number of customer the organization loses are parameters that help to gauge customer service. The companies’ market share is also an indication of the service that the company offers. Additionally, the number of customers that the organization serves is a good balance scorecard measure for walmart. Customer loyalty is a key measure of customer service. The loyalty of a customer is built through services that are satisfactory. The prices of commodities in Walmart in comparison to competing organization also help measure customer service. The period taken for a company to respond to a customer’s inquiry and orders also matters. The rate of goods that are returned back after sales, and the cost of acquiring customers are also important measure that Walmart can use to measure customer services Measure of performance and its suitability The standard of measure that was used was one that the faculty members had set. Performance-based assessment method was used as a measure of my actual performance. The specific method used was portfolio. The method evaluates my progress as a student and gives the lecturer an overview of students understanding of the program. Class assignments, projects, and auditions were used as a measure of my skills and abilities. My performance was above average. In my opinion, measures of performance were fair. The reason I say that the measure was fair is because they were based on my daily work at school. The measure was developmental for me. It makes me aware of the areas that I need to improve as a student. It also exemplifies my strong point boosting my self-confidence. The only contention I have with this method is that it is involving and takes many efforts. The measure for performance was appropriate because the activities they measure relate to curriculum. The academic program was complex. It involved the integration of a variety of skills. Further, it was on the creation of tangible performances. The time and scope of the curriculum were ample, thus, making this measure suitable for the course. Read More