Strong Leadership in Busines Organizations - Example

Client inserts his/her name Name of tutor Name of institution Course title Date of submission STRONG LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS ORGANIZATION Introduction According to Den Hartog & Koopman (2002), organizational leadership entails the activity of an individual or individuals leading a group of people with the aim of achieving certain set organization objectives. As an organizational role defined by the organization, leadership involves establishing clear a clear vision and sharing it with others such that they work towards achieving it willingly. A strong leader is supposed to provide necessary information and knowledge required for members of the organization to realize the vision. Usually, the methods used to achieve any organizational objective need to be well coordinated by a good and strong leader who has the capacity to balance the conflicting needs and interest of all the members of an organization. A strong leader is known to be at the forefront in case of any predicament that occurs in the organization and should always think and act critically and creatively especially in intricate circumstances. Management is a skill that can be learnt unlike leadership which is derived from the core of one’s personality. However, leadership can be nurtured and advanced through mentoring and coaching activities. (Kaiser et al, 2008). The pose of a strong leader in an organization The members of an organization who are both anointed and appointed need to be empowered at all levels to share and regard leadership responsibilities. The role of a leader in an organization is incontrovertible and it is precise that strong leaders create successful organizations. On the other hand, mediocre leaders create common place organization with minimum chances of improvement or expansion. The decisions made by leaders therefore define the position of an organizations culture and situation in regards to the entire business arena. As a matter of fact, creating a strong leadership is not one easy or straight path. It is such a versatile undertaking that needs much dedication, ethical conscious and creativity for correct answers to be arrived at. (Kaiser et al, 2008). Many organizations rely on the quality of leadership to succeed. The effectiveness of leadership strategies determines the performance levels of an organization as argued out by Huczynski and Buchanan (2007). He also considers how the various departments in an organization are managed as a very critical ingredient towards the success of the entire organization. According to Bolden (2006), the impact of leadership in any organization has a complex impact. The aspect of effectiveness comes up in the opportunities available in feedback, discussion and management processes that are supportive to ensure that organizational goals are attained. The qualities of openness, integrity and self awareness are core requirements of a more participative type of leadership. Organizations are made up of three major components. The structure of any organization gives it a specific form that defines the way it will go in its line of business. The members of followers just respond and follow the structure as well as the leaders. The leaders are vital since they are the ultimate determinants of the success of an organization since the character and skill they apply in leading others define how problems will be solved and how tasks will be managed. Therefore, strong leadership in a business organization is a good thing and should always be emphasized (Den Hartog & Koopman, 2002). Characteristics of strong leadership in business organizations a) Visionary Strong leaders create an organizational vision which entails a clear picture of how an organization should look like in the future. This indicates that these leaders know exactly where they want to take their organizations. The leaders further strive to improve the quality of their vision by making it acceptable to the members of the organization. This is made possible by forming alliances with peers, executive teams and senior employers all around the organization as well as through external consultants. Strong leaders understand that people support what they understand best through their participation in its creation hence they involve employees throughout the vision advancement process. Moreover, they consider the workers’ ideas, needs and interests in matters at hand (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2007). In regards to the contingency theory of leadership, when strong leaders are making decisions, they must first look at all aspects of the existing situation and act on key aspects that are available in the current situation. The current environment impacts the firm and leaders must be flexible to react to environmental changes. b) Inspirational and Persuasive In strong leadership business organizations, once a vision has been established and brought to the table, the leaders take the step of motivation every employer or stakeholder to get involved. Since the employees are passionate about everything that they do, they join hands collectively with the aim of achieving the vision established. According to Antonakis (2009), the motivation is extended to everybody who is part of the organization such as the customers, investors, suppliers, directors’ board and all stakeholders. In this way, everybody strives towards attaining the vision at hand and with time the organization is positioned where it should be with the effort of all. Though not all leaders are charismatic or good public speakers, they inspire people by example or through other motivational methods. Strong leaders act or speak in a manner that demonstrates their zeal for the vision they want to establish. Good leaders bring the members of an organization their point of view by using logical illustrations, reason, emotional intelligence and force that comes within their unique personalities. Workers thus feel inspired through persuasion rather than bullying(Knutson & Mirando, 2000).  Effective leadership does not require technical or intellectual capacity alone, but it needs ingredients such as good attitudes and behaviors which relate to humanity. These attributes are addressed and acquired when one is well conversant with social intelligence and emotional intelligence as well. Good leadership generally is all about attitudinal traits rather than managerial processes as described by Antonakis (2009). It is factual that the strong leaders are in a position to employ survival adaptation and emotional-social expressions. As a leader, one has to exhibit interpersonal intelligence with the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. Intrapersonal intelligence is important as well because it endows one with the capacity to understand oneself, appreciate one's feelings, fears and motivations just as what strong leaders engage in(Knutson & Mirando, 2000).  c) Strategic and Tactical Strong leaders clearly and unswervingly address their strengths and weaknesses while analyzing the external threats and opportunities that may hamper smooth running of their organizations. They think of maximizing opportunities by setting strategies that help them gain a larger market advantage as compared to the competitors. They leverage market shares by creating alliances and partnering with other business organizations with the aim of making numerous sales or advancing their business to higher levels. They also ensure continuous learning and development of the workforce by acknowledging the organization, team and individual skill diversity for better results. The tactical and strong leaders are result oriented and are committed towards achieving the best. They therefore use facts and data to get into the best ways of achieving good results. Organizations with tactical and strategic leaders have minimum financial challenges since business forecasting and planning for uncertainties is done on time. d) Focused A business organization with strong leadership has a clearly stated statement of the reasons, aims and objectives for its existence. The mission and vision help the leaders to strive to achieve what they plan to do before embarking on any new initiatives. On the contrary, weak leadership business organizations have numerous conflicting programs which make it impossible for successful accomplishment of tasks. Precisely, strong leaders have priorities that govern and direct all the business ventures within and outside the organization (Antonakis, 2009). Smith & Mraz (2001) argue that goals obviously set directions, provide challenges and should require genuine effort to be achieved. It is simply one of many things to be done on an on-going basis. A goal must be an objective that you must constantly work at to achieve. Therefore, strong leaderships understand the parameters that lead people towards goal achievement and constantly remind and direct them towards success. Business needs and priorities move and change so fast hence the leaders need to handle all of them simultaneously and efficiently. Strong leaders possess achievement drive. They set challenging goals and exhibit a high drive to them and also yearn to improve their performance by reducing the uncertainties that may hinder achievement of goals. They have the ability to set goals and show perseverance in striving to achieve them with optimism, sacrifice and hope, even in the face of setbacks. This includes finding a sense of purpose and finding opportunities to fulfill core values in the organization (Smith & Mraz, 2001). e) People-Centric Strong leaders are likeable to the people they lead. Therefore, interpersonal skills are paramount since they help in creating and maintaining health relationships within and outside the business organization. The leaders display a high level of emotional intelligence which makes them fine and likeable. They really seek to be liked and they gain that because of great charisma that is inside them. The systems theory of leadership suggests that good and strong leadership entails the collection of individual components and unifying them to accomplish an overall goal. In this situation, leaders cannot work alone but rather works with other employees in the various departments with the aim of getting the best results. Synergy can be achieved in a coordinated system of leadership(Goleman, 2000). The most difficult aspect of the strong leadership role is to refrain from making operating decisions. This is when the delicate art of strong management skills comes to the fore. If the leader has selected and developed his or her team properly, given them real responsibility, established a climate of confidence and professionalism, and motivated them, then his or her direction and suggested alternatives will allow subordinates the courage, wisdom, and confidence to make decisions. This is what a strong leadership organization is made up of (Knutson & Mirando, 2000).  Strong leaders aim at offering a conducive working environment for a diverse workforce with a variety of skills and experience. This is also applicable to creating a strong connection with other organizations. Nevertheless, they focus on creating an all inclusive culture that caters for diversity and positivity which may obviously eliminate negative behaviors by promoting a tolerable culture. The leaders Promote and maintain a consistent workforce through proper planning and application of procedures that support sharing of best practices (Den Hartog & Koopman, 2002). f) Decisive Strong leadership business organizations are made of good leaders who have the capacity to make appropriate and critical decisions quickly. Even with incomplete or unclear data, these leaders are able to shoot up from the hip and save situations that otherwise could bring the organization down tumbling. They believe that any decision made at any moment is right and it is the best thing to do rather than doing nothing at all. Leaders are not supposed to get 100 percent information for them to make decisions but work towards the right direction using the available 60 percent (Goleman, 2000). As innovators, the strong leader is constantly charged with the responsibility of finding better and less expensive ways to do the job, and thus he or she must be an innovative, flexible administrator. The term creativity is apt because the exact phrase sparks one’s imagination while innovation means experimentation and risk .There was a time when the leader’s tasks tended to become an entrenched, routine , safe, tried and true. However, strong leaders in today’s business world tend to discover successful formulae for solving a problem and then sticking with it until the expected results are achieved. g) Ethical Strong leadership is often direct and straight forward. Clear performance expectations are set which are assigned to people held accountable. The principled leaders have no problems being direct and truthful in all that they do. It is tough to beat the truth hence being sincere is the way to go. Providing leadership means setting the right climate, pointing out directions, suggesting alternative solutions to problems, and encouraging and nurturing the growth of subordinates. Precisely, strong leaders practice right and acceptable behaviors (House, 2004). In order to be successful, strong leadership business organizations endeavor to demonstrate fairness when carrying out their functions. This entails ensuring clear communication, giving attention to peoples’ opinions or concerns, following all policies and laws as well as maintaining respect and privacy. In order to win the trust of employees, these leaders delicately balance between advocating for employee concerns and enforcing top organization policies on management (House, 2004). Dual focus is an important ethical aspect of strong leadership organizations. The skills ensure that the focus of good leaders is on the needs of both management and employees. There comes some situations whereby one must make decisions aimed at protecting an individual, while in others, they should make decisions aimed at protecting the organization, its values, policies and culture. Some employees may misunderstand these decisions and blame those responsible for their implementation. Despite being misunderstood, one should never try to explain these choices because it may entail disclosure of information that is confidential. Ethical leadership remains paramount in such critical situations (Miner, 2005). h) Open to feedback According to House (2004), strong leadership organizations are governed by the urge to learn for a lifetime. Lifelong learning and experience are hastened through the feedback obtained about the performance of the organization. This information can be obtained through direct question and other objective tools that can be applied during performance evaluation reviews conducted periodically by the business organization. This makes continuous improvement and advancement possible in the strong leadership business organization because it is not easy to repeat previous mistakes. i) Team orientation Unlike in the past where business organizations constituted hierarchies of workers, with supervisors as their heads, teamwork is the major focus of leaders and professionals in today’s business arena. As a result, strong leadership business organizations understand the dynamics associated with teamwork and device ways of solving disputes among team members to ensure their unity and make a working team. The main aim of this practice is to ensure that there is continuous innovation, improvement and remediation among workers (Goleman, 2000). Strong leaders who are thinking in the forward direction aspire to influence the strategic path to follow in management. In evaluating and replenishing the company’s labor needs, making compensation schemes and introducing novel sets of skills that lead business growth, they are able to effectively demonstrate that “people” is an asset that they value most. Weaknesses of strong leadership organizations Leaders are very powerful individuals in an organization because they make decisions that dictate how the organization grows. Their power comes about in different ways. Since they control the human resource function in an organization, they can hire or fire employees if they deem it necessary or even promote or demote employees accordingly. Because of this power and the influence, they have on all employees, the leaders may find themselves engaging in activities that are political and aimed at retaining or gaining more power (White & Ronald, 2005). They may engage in politics by developing strategies that will ensure their popularity is maintained among employees or the company stakeholders. This is often dangerous because it makes them concentrate on power gain at the expense of the employees’ needs, company laws and policies. As a result, the working environment becomes unfavorable and may affect the overall performance of the organization. In order to carry out their functions fairly, leaders should avoid engaging in political activities. Besides politics, the ethical behavior of business leaders directly affects their performance. For example, it is their duty to ensure confidential information regarding the company or employees remains as confidential as possible. In this way, organization leaders act as the company’s conscience and keepers of the information that the organization regards as confidential (Miner, 2005). Furthermore, it is their role to ensure that officers at a junior level observe ethics. Therefore, while serving management needs at the top, leaders should also monitor all the approaches other officers use on employees to ensure strict observance of ethics. Therefore, if leaders are strong but fail to observe ethics, their influence can easily bring the organization down tumbling (Kaiser et al 2008). Conclusion Strong leadership is significant in the successful operation of a business organization. Good leadership entails initiative which is the ability to mobilize others to pursue goals and opportunities which are beyond what is expected of them. These types of leaders are ready to seize opportunities even if it means going against the rules. Optimistic leaders never quit once they set certain goals. They have hope of success rather than fear of failure. They see opportunities for success in every barrier and challenge (Cote & Miners, 2006). In order to carry out their functions and achieve company objectives effectively, leaders should acquire skills such as multitasking, dual focus, employee trust, fairness, strategic orientation, focus on continuous improvement and team orientation among others. To acquire these skills, they should focus on education, training and experience at work. Above all, they should avoid politics, which arises from the powers they possess because politics negatively affect the working environment. They should also observe ethics and ensure that all officers handle perform their duties in an ethical manner (House, 2004). It is prudent for every stakeholder in a business organization to strive towards developing commendable leadership levels. This can be done by encouraging and adopting agreed frameworks of leadership skills and expertise for those people holding senior positions. In order to sustain good leadership and management systems within a business organization, it is very momentous to support progression in planning by maintaining competitive staff that shows prospective leadership skills. Succession may be managed through talent management, multi-level entry, offering placement opportunities, giving leadership management programs and creating centers that nurture leadership potential within the present staff members. In this manner, all organizations can manage to nurture and achieve strong leaderships that are very vital(Bolden, 2006). It is precise that how we feel about ourselves and others can intensely affect our ability to concentrate, remember, think and express ourselves. The best indicators of effective and successful leadership are social and emotional capabilities to develop attachment to work place aspects and the ability to decrease troublesome behaviors. This is possible through demonstrating a sense of belonging, perceiving those being led as supportive and caring, developing friendships and being engaged in their progress (Robbert, 1997). References Antonakis, J. 2009, “Emotional intelligence”: What does it measure and does it matter for Leadership? In G. B. Graen (Ed). LMX leadership--Game-Changing Designs: Research- Based Tools (Vol. VII) (pp. 163-192). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing. Bolden, R. (ed) 2006, Leadership Development in Context, Leadership South West Report, Exeter: University of Exeter. Cote, S. and Miners, C. 2006, "Emotional intelligence, cognitive intelligence and job Performance", Administrative Science Quarterly, 51(1), pp1-28. Den Hartog, D. & Koopman, P. 2002, Leadership in organizations. In N. Anderson, D. S. Ones, H. K. Sinangil & C. Viswesvaran (Eds.), Handbook of industrial, work and Organizational psychology, Volume 2: Organizational psychology. (pp. 166187): Sage Publications, Inc. Goleman, D. 2000, Leadership that Gets Results, Harvard Business Review, 78(2), p78-90. House, R. 2004, Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks. Huczynski, A. & Buchanan, D. 2007, Organizational Behavior. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall. Kaiser, R., Hogan, R., & Craig, S. 2008, Leadership and the Fate of Organizations. American Psychologist, 63(2), 96. Knutson, K. & Mirando, A. 2000,  Leadership characteristics, social interest and learning Organizations.  Journal of Individual Psychology, 56(2), 205-21 Miner, B. 2005, Organizational Behavior: Behavior 1: Essential Theories of Motivation And Leadership. Armonk: M.E. Robbert, N. 1997, Management Fundamental Concepts, Applications, Skills and Development. South Western Publishing College Smith, P. & Mraz, S. 2001, Communication holds global teams together  Machine Design, 73(14), 70-74 White, K. & Ronald, O. 2005, Organizational Politics. Sage Productions Read More