Leadership Challenges in Organizations and Their Solutions - Coursework Example

Name Instructor Class Date Leadership Challenges in Organizations and Their Solutions Introduction Leadership is an integral element that shape the effectiveness of any organization. Today, organizations with effective leaders tend to perform better than those with ineffective leadership do. Because of leadership, organizations are placing more emphasis on leadership, which explains the significant expenditure on leadership development among corporate organizations. Leadership vary from the concept of management, but managers are slowly accepting that leadership is essential for their success in managing business organization (Robbins et al. 77). While there is consensus that leadership is a critical component that informs business success, many organizations are facing problems with leadership. There is a widespread failure among organizations in building and enforcing effective leadership, which guarantees an effective workforce and realization of business goals (Kouzes and Posner 235). More often than not, organizations face leadership that emanate from internal or external forces, as well as form the demands of leadership. Even with these leadership challenges, managers who use leadership models can transcend these challenges to build a robust leadership environment. Why Is Leadership A Major Issue In The Workplace? There is no doubt today’s workplace has changed considerably necessitating that businesses change fast and appropriately to the forces that influence business entities. The globalization of business and government activities have left many organizations with the option of aligning with pressures facing business or lagging behind though as losers (Sirisetti 47). This reality has never emphasized the need for leadership in the workplace, because many managers face issues that require elaborate leadership skills to succeed. The change of environmental factors have created pressure on organizations and developed the need for leadership as a solution to many challenges. In today’s workplace, leadership remains essential to the realization of business goals, designing of policies, coaching and enhancing the functioning of managers. The role of an organization’s mission, vision, and core values cannot be overemphasized. These components are the core factors that inform the success of many organizations today. Despite their importance, effective leadership creates the motivation towards their realization, as well as owners (Adair 99). Leadership in the workplace serves as the primary means of workers learning to the mission and goals of the organization. Without effective leadership, it is unlikely that employees will appreciate the value of the organization’s mission and goals. This implies that lack of leadership in the workplace will galvanize business failure, as the employees are likely to work while paying little attention to their needs of the organizations. In business environments where the missions, goal, and core values of organizations change, the value of leadership has never been this significant. In addition, workplaces require constant review of policies, structures, and strategies that give rise to business decisions. Creating an enabling environment necessary for the realization of these objectives necessitates that leadership exist. This explains why workplaces require leaders who can help transform organizational policies into business ideas. In addition, the application of business strategies to meet business goals would be incomplete without the role of leadership in issues such as downsizing (Holland 1). Though manager may have a grasp of how to direct employees in the workplace, it is how best they wield leadership skills that influence the overall success of an organization from the workplace. Some workplace needs and challenges require organizations to apply leadership practices. Managers have the potential of addressing many aspects of employees or needs in any workplace. However, there are some needs such as coaching and guidance, which simply need extensive leadership. It is leaders and not managers, who can promote learning through coaching (Kouzes and Posner 194). This is because today’s workplace requires people who can learn and gain insight from current trends and business patters that can help the organization run well. While managers have an important role in enabling learning, it is leaders are the best coaches with the ability of facilitating learning at the workplace. Today’s workplaces have many pressing demands, which requires leaders who can serve and lead by example. With rapid changes in the organizational environment, employees in the workplace require managers who can lead by demonstrating what they expect from them. While serving is desirable, only leaders can provide employees with the motivation they need to see how an action is accomplished (Adair 116). This implies that leadership has never been this vital in facilitating success in the workplace environment. Current need for stewardship in the workplace has undergird why leadership is a critical issue in many organizations. Factors Contributing To the Challenges of Leadership Leadership is a challenge is itself a challenge, but factors internal and external to an organization make leadership an immense challenge. The first set of factors are external and emanate from the environment where the organization reside. For instance, an organization may face resistance from the community, which may hurt the leadership. In addition, there could be social or economic issues that affect the leadership of the organization. Even political forces, which are external, may have a severe effect on the running of the organization. These external factors may challenge leaders in an organization and affect the effective realization of business goals. An organization facing external factors such as resistance or competition may have less focus on leadership development. Internal factor also brings a challenge on the leadership of an organization. Some internal factors contribute to the leadership challenge making it difficult for organizations to realize leadership benefits. Some of the internal challenge include lack of confidence among managers who are supposed to lead. Impatience and intolerance are some of the internal traits likely to create leadership problems within an organization (Kelly and Jay 200). While these factors are internal, they tend to reduce the ability of leaders in demonstrating their leadership skills within the workplace. Consequently, such leaders tend to underperform or meet the needs of the organization possible through the leadership. Only leaders who overcome such internal factors emerge as effective leaders and can serve in any workplace. The demand for leadership can sometimes be a challenge to leadership. Leading in the workplace requires a solid grasp of the organization’s mission and vision. However, there are time when leaders cannot have a grasp of these aspects of the organization making it a challenge for them to become effective leaders within the organization. Understanding the mission and vision of an organization is vital because it gives the leader an opportunity to uphold standards within the organization that demonstrates his master of leadership skills. For example, a leader versed with the organizational mission, vision is likely to give employees the necessary leadership on the issue of purpose, and direction the organization pursues. Leadership has several responsibilities that can prevent some leaders from delivering their best within an organizational framework. Leaders are responsible for motivating other workers and giving them a reason to pursue the business objectives of the organization with enthusiasm. In many organizations, that embraces diversity; the issue of motivation is severe and could cripple manager’s role of handling motivation for people from diverse backgrounds (Adair 116). Evidently, the demands for leadership are a critical factor that contributes to the many leadership challenges organizations face today. Theories /Models Managers Could Use to Inform Their Leadership There is significant literature on leadership, which give vital insight on many aspect of leadership. Given the importance of leadership, leadership theories and models have never been important than they are today. With many organizations facing leadership challenge and with the need of leadership being on the high, managers who use these models or theories are likely to improve their leadership skills. These theories are behaviorist theory, situational leadership theory, and contingency theory. Managers who are keen on leading employees could gain immense insight from behavioral theories of leadership. This theory is fundamental to learning and assumes that individuals become leaders rather being born leaders. This theory also postulate that leaders are people who develop behavior through learning. This theory has a profound impact on leadership because it encourages manager to learn from the action of other leaders and emulate them. This is a vital aspect of the theory because it creates an environment where managers can learn to lead perhaps by observing what other people do in other successful organizations. Apart from noting that anyone can learn to become a leader, this theory place focus on people, as well as production because of their intricate connection with the organization success. Situational theory is another leadership paradigm that can transform manager’s commitment of providing leadership within their organization. The most significant trait of this theory is the assumption that effective leaders are those who focus on the situation taking into consideration all unique factors (Adair 25). In this theory, leadership places a variable demand on what leaders can do. This implies that succeeding in leadership requires a variable reaction to a situation. As an illustration, the application of leadership skills would vary when one has knowledge of a work process from when a manager lacks the technical skills to achieve a task. The conduct of a leader that aligns with the situation within the workplace is central to the success of leadership, this theory asserts. Similar to the situational theory, the contingency theory assume that leadership is variable and meant to respond changes within the environment. In most cases, this theory assumes assume that the action of leaders stems from forces operating within the leader, the followers, and situation. These forces interact to influence the outcome of a leader’s action (Adair 26). On what managers should focus, the contingency theory underline the need of leaders to work in favorable work environment where their leadership skills would be most felt. As an example, task-oriented leaders take charge of tasks because of their ability to lead tasks oriented sessions and develop a positive relationship with the workers. Lastly, transformation leadership underscore the need for leaders to develop a vision and sell the vision to their followers. This theory offers a robust framework, which requires leaders to begin with a vision that provides a view of the future. With the vision at hand, the theory also requires a leader to sell the vision to the followers immediately and continually (Kouzes and Posner 122). This is because immediate action on the theory will contribute to the success of the leader in meeting the theory. Other element of the theory is trust and integrity where leaders strive to achieve these values among their followers. Most important, the theory gives leaders the latitude to explore the future with their followers. How Managers Can Overcome Leadership Challenges Managers can benefit from the wealth of insight from the above theories to not only become effective leaders, but also overcome some of the leadership challenges facing organizations today. Firstly, learner can overcome many leadership pitfalls if they learn from the action of other leaders. The behavioral theory proposes that leadership is learned and observing that action of other leaders is essential to the learning process (Kouzes and Posner 41). This implies that leaders who learn from other leaders are likely to overcome the problems facing them. With excellent case studies on leadership, it is possible for leaders to apply best practices in leadership to overcome the challenges facing them. In addition, leaders can overcome leadership challenges by focusing on the situation facing them. While some leadership practices are universal, there is a significant value in changing leadership practices to suit the demands of a named situation. For instance, the contingency theory assert that leadership must respond to leadership tasks basing their action on forces influencing them. This means a leader must consider the needs of the followers when making an action. In most organizations, managers who consider the needs of the employees are more likely to succeed in creating positive synergy in the workplace. Overcoming leadership challenges thus calls for suitable actions that match situations leaders face. Lastly, it is possible for leaders to overcome leadership challenges by developing appropriate vision and articulating it to the employees. Some organization face leadership challenges because they do not respond to the need of their followers. Managers have a role of creating a purpose and enabling others to act in the direction. As per the transformation theory, manager who create and sell the organizational vision to employees are likely to create unity of purpose that would enable an organization achieve its business goal. Importance of this information to people managing organizations Managers who have leadership skills remain an essential component of organizations because they are likely to succeed in leading their followers and enabling others to act. The solutions this paper proposes align with the principles of leadership theories and models. Notably, the information is essential in enabling leaders model the way and provide the right direction to the teams following them. This is because leaders who do the right action help other employers to learn from them, which helps create a shared vision. Consequently, practicing leadership skills using the guideline foster the realization of a shared vision. Through a shared vision, managers can work with employees to achieve the set business objectives. Works Cited Adair, John E. Leadership and Motivation: The Fifty-Fifty Rule and the Eight Key Principles of Motivating Others. London: Kogan Page, 2006. Print Kelley, Holland. "After a Downsizing, How to Motivate?" New York Times [New York] 23 Aug. 2008: 1-3. Print. Kelly, Louise, and Jay M. Finkelman. "The Psychologist Manager: Uniquely Qualified To Address 21St-Century Leadership Challenges?." The Psychologist-Manager Journal 14.3 (2011): 196-210. Kouzes, James M, and Barry Posner. The Leadership Challenge. New York: Wiley, 2010. Print. Robbins,S., Millet,B., Boyle,M., and Judge,T.Organisational Behaviour. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W: Pearson Australia, 2011. Print. Sirisetti, Suresh. "Quality Leadership In The Public Sector: Strategies And Challenges." Journal Of Commerce (22206043) 3.4 (2011): 45-48. Read More