The Leadership Challenge - How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations - Essay Example

Business Leadership Name Institution Business Leadership MODEL THE WAY Mr. Vincent McCain has demonstrated great leadership skills throughout his career. Serving as a manager at recently established publishing firm in the city, the leader has ensured that the publishing firm grows to its best by ensuing that there is teamwork in the workplace. He liberates everyone to do the assigned duties without criticising or condemning anyone. When he finds that someone has made a mistake, he humbly gives suggestions on how to make corrections and avoid future re-occurrence of the mistake (Kouzes and Posner, 2012). Despite the fact that most of the team members were largely interns, he inspired hope in everyone that they were likely to contribute to the growth of the company. He modelled the way to success by explaining how other firms rose to a high standard and how his firm could do the same through unity with the team members. The leader also sought suggestion from us on how best we could work together to improve the future of the industry. He also the challenged the process by seeking clients for the company to ensure that there was adequate work for everyone who was working in the place. At the same time, he encouraged us to remain focused despite challenges that emerged in the work process. When a problem emerged, he sought for immediate solution and advised us to take heart and continue working towards success. “Find your voice” refers to devising personal philosophies that work best for the company. It involves the search for principles that work best for the organization. INSPIRE A SHARED VISION A leader should become forward looking in order to inspire hope in others. Forward looking refers to the ability to have positive hopes about the future. It is about making others have certainty about the future by instilling optimism in those who look up on him. The leader should have a clear vision and share it with his team by encouraging them that there are more chances of success if they work in unity rather than individually. The leader should have the attribute in order to ensure that there is progress in the organization. The ability promotes support in the organization since the team will want to become identified with the future success of the organization. A leader can become forward looking by presenting a detailed plan that indicates the future of the organization. The leader does that by exploring the possibilities of making advancement through the available indicators in the group. For instance, if the company has experienced a financial loss in a particular financial year, a leader researches into the possibilities of reclaiming the lost glory and sharing it with the team. The leader will avoid shifting the attention of the team to the failure experienced in the past. Instead, the leader demonstrates that the organization can only learn from the past in order to advance. The leader can share his vision with the team through discussions on the ways of making improvements. In the process, the leader shares his aspirations and calls upon the team members to contribute in predicting whether the suggested formula will work. CHALLENGE THE PROCESS People give varied reasons as to why meetings are not effective way of improving the performance of an organization. First, some argue that they are afraid of sharing their aspirations with the leaders because they feel inferior. They state that their status is too low for them to contribute in the discussions about ways of improving efficiency. Second, some explain that the leaders should become creative and devise ways that work. The group further claim that the leaders should remain reliable and competent enough to find a working formula for the organization. Third, there are individuals who argue that the leaders ignore their contributions during the meetings. Therefore, the meetings serve no purpose since the leaders dictate the actions the company ought to take. Fourth, some people claim that the meetings are avenues for insults, derogative statements about some team members and threats against violating certain conditions. Fifth, there are individuals who state that there is nothing that the organization implements despite the agreements they reach during the meeting. Arguably, there is a tendency among many individuals to become shy towards their team leaders. Consequently, this leads to a meeting that centres on the leaders giving suggestions and directions on how to work. In the end, it seems that there was no purpose of holding the meeting since a memorandum could have served the purpose. However, meetings can help to inspire advancement in the organization. First, the management should acknowledge and proclaim that the organization operates through teamwork. The process involves demystification of the status of the leaders and inspiring a feeling among everyone that they have equal duty to suggest the working formulas. Second, all members should have an opportunity to speak what they have in their minds without fear of victimization. Third, the team members criticize the suggestions before reaching a consensus on what will work best for the company. In conclusion, the meetings should act as a convenient avenue for sharing aspirations about the organization, and therefore, everyone should get the opportunity to act as a leader. The leader should hence grant the members the opportunity to feel elevated. Leaders should never allow their constituents to fail because they are the role models of the organization. The failure of the constituents will equate to the failure of the leaders. Fundamentally, the leaders should ensure that the chances of success heighten rather than letting the constituents learn from the mistakes when they could have helped them to positively advance. In essence, the leaders should build their success by promoting the success of their constituents and offering them working techniques. ENABLE OTHERS TO ACT In order to ensure that people work together, there is a need to take time to understand the constituents and listen to what they have concerning the operations in the organization. Thereafter, there is a need to give a structure of the projects available and their goals and let the constituents know that it is their responsibility to work together s a team in order to meet the targets. However, I will allow them to decide on the best ways of devising a working formula while giving them the resources they need and coach them to promote competence. At the same time, I will start asking them questions on how they would like to do things rather than giving the answers on the working techniques. Due to the change in leadership forms, the ability for people to speak with discretion in the organizations does not exist any longer. There are some leaders who do not want to hear criticisms about their weaknesses. Others do not want other people to appear better than them. Consequently, the outspoken persons found their way out of the companies through dismissals leading to suppressed fear among the constituents. In order to revive the spirit, there is need for a leader to declare that there is no victimisation when people speak their minds. Additionally, they should show humility before the constituents and acknowledge when one of the constituents suggest an effective working procedure. ENCOURAGE THE HEART During one of the meetings, one of the constituents suggested that there was a need to introduce leaves to the constituents in order to ensure that a person does not strain to exhaustion. We had not established the idea because we wanted to cut on the wage bill and maintain the levels of profits. The constituent explained that if the organization leaders will give adequate time for rest, the performance was likely to increase. After thinking about the matter and sharing with other leaders, we agreed to implement the suggestion. In the financial year, we realized that there was a significant improvement in the service delivery of the industry and profits were high. The constituent who introduced the idea felt great after realizing that I implemented his suggestion. On the other hand, I felt humbled that such an idea could generate positive changes when I thought it was a burden to the organization. LEADERSHIP IS EVERYONE’S BUSINESS The statement means that everyone has a responsibility to contribute in the decision making in the company or organization. The statement is true because unity fosters positive progress since all constituent work with the knowledge that the organization entrusts them to deliver. In order to become a good leader, I should listen to what my teams members have to say concerning particular issues. Also, I should acknowledge the contributions that others make. Last, there is a need to ensure that I facilitate the processes that will promote success in the organisation. REFERENCES Top of Form Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Bottom of Form Read More