Leadership and the Qualities That Make Leading Effective - Essay Example

Name: Institution: Professor: Course: Date: Executive Summary This paper seeks to focus on leadership and the qualities that make leading effective and even at times a failure. The paper will identify various leadership aspects that I seek to enhance to improve productivity of my organization. Some of the aspects that the paper will focus on include delegation of duties, performance management, experiential learning and effective communication. It will also analyze modeling the way as a leadership aspect. Leadership involves the organizing of a group of people to achieve the common goal set. A leader may or may not have any formal authority. The paper seeks to get into details of how leaders can inspire their staff and encourage them by acting as their role models TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………2 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………4 Performance Management………………………………………………………………….5 Modeling the Way………………………………………………………………………….6 Experiential Learning………………………………………………………………………6 Delegating………………………………………………………………………………….7 Strategies for Delegation…………………………………………………………………..8 Communication……………………………………………………………………………8 Identifying Potential……………………………………………………………………….9 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………9 References…………………………………………………………………………………10 Introduction Effective leadership is more of the ability to direct people in the right direction and keeping in mind ways and methods of facilitating the achievement of the set goals within the time frame and in the best way possible. It therefore follows that theory alone can never be adequate in dealing with day to day challenges but requires the application element in making goals achievable which must be realistic and measurable. A leader should have a philosophy which is the way they view themselves as leaders. This way of life guides the leader’s actions, the behaviors, and the thoughts. Such way of life is determined and influenced by external and internal factors. Leadership philosophies are not fixed and take new directions as the person involved grows and understand themselves within the context of leadership. A leadership philosophy or the way of life comes from exploring and reflecting upon personal principles and attitude towards leadership (Goethals & Sorenson, 2004, pp. 17). Every leader has aspects that they value and realize the essence of ethical behavior. Those leaders considered the best display both their values and their ethics that they have both in their leadership life and actions. When setting goals, it is important for them to be specific and more so, to split them into smaller achievable goals which acts as a guideline towards achieving the overall objective (SMART). Performance Management One of my major goals is to enhance performance management by being more firm and assertive in the way of conducting leadership roles and responsibilities within the next 6 months. Of late, I have realized that I have not been very assertive in the way of managing arising situations which have manifested into a more flexibility approach to situations, which at times compromised the way of doing things. As nature dictates, human beings will most of the times prefer the route of less resistance, this has adversely affected the achievement of the overall goals more so when the methods of operations are compromised. To ensure that the goal is timely achieved, the overall goal will be divided into phases which at the end will enhance the achieving of the utmost objective. The phases will include; enhancing assertiveness in the decisions made, making the best decisions to enhance performance within the next 3 months and being consistent and systematic. Assertiveness is being firm on what you want to be done. It is one of the essential components of a leader and acts as a driving force on achieving results within the set time frame. To ensure I remain firm on what I think is the right course of action, I will strive to be more knowledgeable on the topic of discussion since one can not be firm on proponents that are not factual. Knowledge and skills play a vital role since they make one have an upper edge of convincing other people that whatever he is proposing will work for the organization positively. I have set my time frame to 3 months during which I will have read broadly on management related issues and the best skills to employ when dealing with human resource. My topic of interest includes communication skills, negotiation, positive influence, inspirational and confidence building. The strategy to enforce these skills will be by participating in outdoor activities which are said to be one of the best ways of imparting practical oriented skills to an individual who undertake it (Neil, 2003 pp 45-60). The theory part will come first, whereas the outdoor activities will be attended on the 3rd week of the third month at the outdoor education center. Modeling the Way As a leader I intend to act as a role model to my staff. Most leaders tend to be self-centered, a trait that makes them remain aloof on the situations of the workers. I will endeavor to listen to others and be considerate to other’s feelings. Failing to care about your workers is an attitude that is possessed. Encouraging others is important as it boosts their morale. Leaders who follow Model the Way aspect strive to inspire a shared vision, challenge the process and enable others to perform (Kouzes & Posner, 2010 pp. 16). When people are led well, they feel inspired, encouraged, empowered, recognized, committed to a goal and challenged. Leadership is concerned with encouraging others to look into the future. As a leader I will endeavor to make my staff competent in their fields of specialization and building their confidence. Experiential Learning Most people have appreciated how experiential outdoor education impacts on individuals who want to polish their management and leadership skills due to its approach. It is practical oriented and activities are tailor made to suit the needs of an individual in various areas of leadership. Kolb’s theory of experiential learning, further points out the value attributed to this kind of education by bridging the gap between the theoretical knowledge and the real life situation (practical). As mentioned earlier, consistency and being systematic are some of the core competencies in leadership and management. To inculcate this behavior, I will focus on having sub goals that are achievable in stipulated time. If it is communication, I will always make sure I prepare and understand the speech well before delivering it to the right audience. This will further be graced by having a clear objective of the speech and whether it is in line with what I want to convey. In order to do more practice, every week I will ensure I prepare a speech, video tape my self as I present it to an imaginary audience and thereafter review it for a better analysis of lapses made which will form a basis of coming up with correctional measurers. When it comes to other tasks that require execution, timetable of task completion will be the guiding criteria which will be adhered to in the next 3 months. According to John (1998, pp 87), goals are better achieved when there is a clear guideline on how they will be executed as well as the sequence at which they are prioritized. This means there is need to understand the goals that needs to be achieved and also a better understanding of what needs to be done, who needs to do it, where it will be done, why do it and how to do it. When these questions are adequately answered, there will be a systematic way of having an in-depth understanding of why being systematic avoids confusion and wastage of resources. By following this schedule, I believe to become more firm and tough when dealing with management and leadership task which will lead to good performance of the organization in realization of the goals and objectives set forth. Delegating assignments The other leadership attribute I look forth to enhance is the ability to delegate assignment. Of late, I have been taking too much work on my shoulders which in many occasions have resulted in breakdown of performance across the organization, more so when the task I have is dependent on completion of other assignment by the staff across the organization. Management is like a chain, it must be interconnected to the other part for a smoother and efficient operation. When one part of the chain breaks, it creates a gap. The same applies to leadership and management. There should be flow of information and interconnection of task which leads to the achievement of the overall objectives of the entire organization. One department can not operate on its own without the support of the others in the organization. All this can be achieved when there is collaboration and the will to achieve results that will have a positive influence to the organization. The way I have been operating is not the best since whenever there is a breakdown of the organizational structure, the ultimate goal is affected. This can lead to frustrated workers who depend on information from my side. Strategies for enhancing delegation Strategies that I plan to put into place to enhance my delegation include; enhanced communication, trust on people I can delegate to, being more hardworking and following the task schedule. Communication An effective leader presents ideas and opinions in a very clear, exact and in a credible manner. A good leader is able to present thoughts and opinions of the organization to any kind of audience in a very calm, certain manner. The effective leader is able to practice effective listening skills. This leader does not give orders only but is able to listen to the junior staff and the other leaders of the other departments in his organizations. To enhance my communication skills, I will encourage top-down and bottom-up communication whereby every member of the organization will be encouraged to freely air their opinions. Ideas are with people and no one should think that he can monopolize ideas. When people are encouraged to communicate, it makes it possible to solve most problems of the organization. I will also be more receptive to new ideas and this should be achievable in the next 6 months. To make sure it is achieved, during meetings, I will encourage people to feel free to air their opinions which should be in line with agenda of the meeting (Kolb, 1984 pp 78). Identifying People’s Potential On the side of delegation, within the next two months, I should be able to identify potentials of various people. This will help in determining who can handle which task comfortably. As put forward by David (2006, pp.345), people are endowed differently with life skills and they only require the right opportunity to exploit their potentials. I will also mentor those I find enthusiastic towards work so that in my absence, they can handle the assignments with ease and proficiently. I will start by delegating small tasks and within the next 6 months, I believe to be in a position to delegate even great assignment. In order to enhance performance and avoid backlog of tasks, best performing workers will get a reward after every 6 months to boost their morale and make them work harder to achieve desired organization goals and objectives. Conclusion To sum it all, a good leader is the one who will choose to lead others towards a common purpose and is the person others choose to follow. A good leader provides a vision for the future to the people he is leading and gives them inspiration. He is able to make other people feel important and appreciated and does not discriminate them against race, gender or position. The leader lives their values and behaves in a way that is acceptable to everyone within and without the organization. References David, J., 2006. Leadership Qualities - Is There a Perfect Leader? Norderstedt: Druck and Bindung. Goethals, G. & Sorenson, G. 2004. Encyclopedia of leadership. John, B. 2003 Strategic Leadership. London: Berkshire Publishing Group. Kolb, D. 1984. Experiential learning theory. New York: Sage Publications Ltd. Neil, M. 2008. Outdoor education .London: Sage Publications Ltd. Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. 2010. The Truth About Leadership. London: Jossey- Bass Publishers.   Read More