Leadership, Innovation & Change - Coursework Example

Leadership, Innovation & Change Name: Institution: Success of every organization greatly depends on the type of leadership that the organization adopts. The organizational structure of the organization dictates the operations and responsibilities of every member of the organization. Of great significance to the operations of the organization are the leaders of the organization. Effective leadership is paramount for prosperity of any organization. In fact, though employees always play a great role in an organizational success, proper and appropriate guidance to these employees is highly significant. This is because without guidance and leadership, the employees, however smart, cannot lead to the success of the organization. Therefore, most organizations are always judged by the kind of leadership they present. Organizations such as Google Inc owe a major portion of their success to its leaders. Effective leadership is thus paramount to any organization. In that light, this Article aims at providing relevance of the importance of effective leadership to the success of organizations. It is thus also important to look at the qualities required to be a good leader too. Therefore, this paper focuses on discussing the relevant characteristics of good leadership. a) Mission oriented An organization cannot operate without having a mission. The mission defines what the organization strives to achieve. In fact, a mission statement of an organization is what defines the purpose of the existence of the organization. Therefore, in developing a mission, considerations must be put on the clarity and descriptiveness of purpose of the organization. This indicates that the mission of an organization needs to be stated clearly and should be abstract. The simplicity of the mission dictates a lot about the organization. In order for this to be achieved, the organizational leadership must ensure that they are mission-oriented. The leadership must define and know their mission. Every employee that joins an organization must learn from the organizational leadership he/she meets with. This therefore, indicates that every leader within an organization must act as an example to the employees in fulfilling the mission of the organization. The leadership of an organization must define the organizational mission. This is more evident in various successful organizations and corporations (Ocheni, et al, 2012). One of these great organizations is the Google Inc. Google Inc was founded in 1998, but any person looking at the progress of the company right now, will not believe that it actually started in this year. Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It is unimaginable how through the leadership of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the organization has strive to its mission. It is currently one of the most successful corporations in the whole world. This success is highly owed to the dedication of the leadership of this organization. As the founders, they act as examples to the rest of the employees. This did instil that culture to the employees (Ocheni, et al, 2012). The employees cannot manage to be mission-disoriented since the leadership is greatly mission-oriented. Therefore, for the success of an organization, being mission oriented is an effective leadership quality that must exist. b) Vision oriented There always tend to be a little confusion between the mission and vision of an organization. While mission defines why the organization exists, the vision simply states what the organization is striving to achieve and where the organization wants to go. Looking at or imagining the future of the organization is always a dream of every successful and an effective leader. An organization cannot exist without having clearly defined future goals or dreams. One of the greatest requirements for the leadership is ensuring that every person within and without the organization is on board to achieving this vision (Ocheni, et al, 2012). This therefore, greatly requires the involvement of leaders. Employees, clients, customers or any other partner or party to the organization cannot be on board without effective leadership. In achieving the vision of the organization, effective leadership is paramount. The leadership must ensure that it defines what should be done and when. This hence, requires that the leaders be actively involved in the daily operations of the organization. In order to help visualize this, it is relevant to use the same example, Google Inc. As mentioned above, in order for Google to ensure that it achieves it vision, the leaders must be vision oriented. Google provides the best example of this. The co-founder Larry Page up to date still works within the company. He is currently responsible for the daily operations of the company and was the president from 2001 to 2011 (Ocheni, et al, 2012). The other co-founder, Sergey Brin, also currently directs special projects within the organization. The Executive chairperson, Eric Schmidt, has a visionary dream in technology and he is using this in Google Inc. This is a perfect reference to how vision-oriented leadership is effective in the success of the organization. c) Competency An effective leadership must exercise competency. The involvement of the leadership in the daily operations of the organization is crucial. This is because, the leaders must be seen actively involved in the operations of the organization. Another factor that defines competency is the qualifications that a leader possesses. Indeed, in order for the employees to admire or even respect their leaders, the leaders must be experts within their fields of operations. This is important to the organization since it will enhance effective leadership (Ocheni, et al, 2012). One important aspect of leadership is gaining respect from the other employees. However, in an organization of professionals such as Google, the specialization experience or academic credentials play an important role in achieving respect. This therefore, calls for the leaders to have expertise in their area of specialization. In this context, competency is of great essence. The competency of leaders is important for realizing the vision and goals of the organization. As mentioned also, qualifications play an important role within the organization. This is more evident in Google Inc. The two co-founders of this corporation are qualified graduates with high academic credentials relevant to the fields (Ocheni, et al, 2012). Another observation of this is in the executive chairperson, Schmidt, who is considered as a global leader in technology. This therefore makes it easy for these people to manage this corporation since they are more competent in the various areas of their work. The fact that the management comprise of the people who founded the organization clearly indicates how competent the leaders of Google are. This is thus a clear indication that effective leadership is paramount for the success of the organization. d) Time management The issue of time is one of the most significant concerns to an organization’s operation. This is because every organization has to make sure that everything is done at the right time. Time management requires that every employee set time of work completion. The leadership of an organization must be in the forefront in ensuring management of activities. The management must set specific priorities according to periods stipulated. Time management is a tricky component of effective leadership (Ocheni, et al, 2012). This is because it is always not easy keeping track of time. Therefore, in coming up with goals to be achieved, the management should ensure that they consider the reality or viability of the time stipulated for specific activities. The time allocation should create allowance. Time is always a limited resource within the organization. This therefore calls for proper utilization of the available time. The essence of utilizing time is because time is not renewable. Time management is of great essence to companies such as Google. This is because the organizations have various activities and timelines to work within. For such companies, the leaders must ensure that every activity is done as scheduled. With various changes that such organizations are subjected to, the only way to ensure achievement of goals is for the management to ensure proper time management (Ocheni, et al, 2012). Due to the significance that the time management has to the leadership of Google Inc, it has stipulated in the “ten things we know to be true” that they understand time is of great value to people and thus, they believe in the fact that ‘fast is better than slow’ as one of their slogans. From this, Google management knows that even its users really value time management and so they stay on the forefront to ensure they incorporate that. This therefore proves the importance of time management as an effective way of enhancing leadership. e) Delegation Delegation is one of the factors that greatly require effective leadership though some organizations ignore. Some organizations are subjects to conflicts since the management does not invest properly in delegation of duties and responsibilities. In such organization, it is common to find that the leaders focus on telling people what they should do only. However, in effective leadership, the most important thing for leaders to do concerning delegation of duties and responsibilities should be providing relevant explanations to the logic behind what must be done (Ocheni, et al, 2012). This creates a better understanding to the facts behind the duties and responsibilities. Therefore, provision of answers and philosophy behind issues affecting the organization becomes one of the most important responsibilities of an effective leader. One important characteristic of delegation in Google is the relevance of the responsibilities to the expertise of the people given the job. A perfect example of this is the executive chairperson, Eric Schmidt. Eric was made the executive chairperson to ensure that he deals with the external matters of the company. This is because he has a legacy in building partnerships and in government outreach alongside being an advisory to the CEO and the senior leadership of the company. This clearly indicates that the company ensures effective leadership. This can easily aid them in delegating duties to the relevant people with a clear understanding of what they are required to do. f) Effective communications An organization cannot exist without proper communication. Without communication, there would therefore, be no essence of coming up with an organization. Another acknowledgeable fact is that communication has various components and can be in many ways. Effective leadership must ensure proper and effective communication in the organization. This covers all the channels of communication and considers all the different ways of information flow within the organization (Ocheni, et al, 2012). The management can achieve communication through utilization of various forms of communication such as written, and verbal. Notices and announcements must be communicated appropriately. Relationship between employees and even to management must enhance free flow of communication. The organization more importantly must ensure effective communication to its clients or customers. Communication within Google Inc is highly achieved through great relationship between employees and the management. Through various written and verbal forms of communication, the management of this organization ensures that there is a proper communication flow. Effective communication through the vision and mission statements, the “ten things”, ensures employees and customers get effective messages from the management. Taking an example of the ‘ten things’, it is evident that the employees and the users or clients can easily understand the purpose of the organization in an easy. g) Goal settings and customer centric Every organization must have a strategy for setting goals. This strategy is crucial since it will ensure that every part of the organization strives towards achieving these set goals. In goal setting, various factors must be ensured in order to realise effective goals. Leaders who are goal oriented are of great essence to the organization since they manage how various strategic plans of the organizations are executed and realised (Ocheni, et al, 2012). It is a common practice that in order for employees to be motivated, there must be a clear understanding concerning why they work in the organization. Another important concept is being customer oriented. Whatever any organization does, its goal should be to ensure that it keeps its customers, clients or consumers a distance closer than its competitors. Allowing freedom of choice to customers always makes them feel special and this shows effective leadership for the organization. Taking an example of Google Inc, the corporation is highly customer centric and has proper ways of setting its goals. Its effective goal setting methodology is evident in the corporation’s magic progress (Ocheni, et al, 2012). Comparing this corporation with other corporations that begun operation during the same time, it is evident that the corporation is highly growing. It is evident that through effective leadership, the corporation has come with various slogans that prioritize users. This is much evident in their first ‘ten things’ that the company came up with. The slogan “Focus on the user and all else follow” clearly indicates how serious the company is with its users. The goals it sets are achievable and are technology-oriented. All these show the quality of effective leadership within an organization. It is thus evident that the above-mentioned issues are critically important in ensuring effective leadership. Reference: Ocheni, S., Nwankwo, B. C., Atakpa, M. (2012). Reengineering Organizational Success Through Effective Leadership, European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, 1(3), pp. 119-130. ISSN: 2235-767X Read More