Effective Leadership - Research Paper Example

Effective Leadership Effective Leadership Being a broad term, leadership has drawn scholarly interest leading to a controversy in settling on a definite definition. Gerhard (2005) defined it as a process of social influence whereby an individual helps a group through ideas to work together towards achieving a common goal. Defining leadership as a process, as Gerhard does, therefore, shows that it is not a quality or trait residing in the leaders, but rather a transactional event that occurs between the leaders and those they lead. It emphasizes that leadership is not a linear one-way event, but rather an interactive event. This definition makes leadership accessible to everyone since it does not restrict it to the formally designated leaders in a group. Effective leadership is hard to realize. Although it is possible to give an unending list of leaders, this paper proves that a limited number of these many leaders eventually realize effective leadership. Effective leadership has been the focus of many of the individuals enlisted as leaders. However, John and Joseph (2009) collected data and their statistics shows that less than 30% of the leaders realize this long-term goal. It involves influence, as its principal concern is how the leader affects followers. Influence is the sine qua non of leadership, without which leadership does not exist. Groups are the context through which leadership takes place. Leaders engage themselves in influencing individuals in a group to a particular common purpose (Minja, 2009). The group in question can be a small task group, a community group, a faith based group or a large group encompassing an entire organization. Therefore, defining leadership as a process does not encompass training programmes, which teach people to lead themselves since the group aspect in leadership does not exist. Leadership can be categorized either as good or bad. Of all management concepts, good leadership is the most investigated but least understood by many people. In defining effective leadership, Barbara & John (2005) asserted that it must incorporate dialogue, conviction and delegation rather than issuing orders. In this regard, the two authors argue that genuine leaders recognise and achieve agreement to an exciting and challenging vision. They do not only promote performance of individuals but also of complete groups and obtain commitment within their own working group (Lok & Crawford, 2009). Effective leaders know what they want: they communicate their intentions efficiently, empower others and know when they should keep the way forward originally set and when not. Effective leadership realization involves proper planning and setting of short term and long term goals. Management experts observe that in offering effective leadership, setting goals is not the same as planning although many people confuse the two concepts. The difference is that setting goal calls for inductive thinking while planning is a deductive process. Worth noting, successful leaders collect a large amount of data and keep on the lookout for structures (Colella & Varma, 2001). They seek connections and networks to make it easier for them to explain the relations between the various elements. The part of leadership that shows the right path does not draw up any plans of action by developing visions and strategies (Barbara and John, 2005). These can describe a business, a technology or a company culture in the sense of what should be achieved over a prolonged period, and identify possible ways of achieving it (Lok & Crawford, 2009). For effective leaders to carryout proper planning, set vision will lead to realization of the goal. Visions do not necessarily have to be particularly innovative; indeed some of the best have their basis on ideas known for a long time (Minja, 2009). The leader must know the possibility of converting the vision into realistic and competitive strategies. These include taking account of the most important conditions of a business, which in this case include the customers, owners and employees. Simply stating the vision is not enough: effective leaders communicate the vision and motivate people to attaining it. A leader can attain this communication using speeches and understanding what makes people tick and fulfil their desire to belong to a certain group and work towards a common goal (John & Danny, 2005). Organizations’ visions, as the picture of what the organizational management has in mind help every individual within the organization to pursue dreams with the aim of realizing organizational goals. In the last few decades, people have had the attitude that visions are domains of senior management (David & Norman, 2008). However, today is a time of unremitting change, calling for an instant reaction to competition. Therefore, leaders should keep a close eye on what is going on outside their organization. In particular, their focus need be on customers, suppliers, competitors, public authorities, financial institutions and the media. For executives to offer effective leadership, they should always be on the lookout for new contacts outside their work groups while maintaining old contacts. This way, they discover new opportunities and emerging threats to their trade. The greater the turbulence in the outside world, the more time leaders should invest in observing the competition and communicating with people outside their working group (Barbara & John, 2005). Execution of assigned duties for every executive member and employee is crucial within the organization since it connects with individual’s passions and potentials. Most executive know the significance of fulfilling their leadership function effectively. Nevertheless, few of them sufficiently recognise the difference between supervising an individual and leading a group. Instead, they see their role in developing the best possible relation between themselves and each employee reporting directly to them. To avoid such problems, it is vital to think pro-actively. Effective leadership has the basic task of forming the group culture that involves the basic assumptions and convictions, which members of the group can rely upon never to change (Lok & Crawford, 2009). Creating an atmosphere that encourages the group to work towards achieving the common goal requires a critical thinking about the rapid changing environment, which is becoming more competitive every single day. Effective leadership consists of categories, which coming from different scientific disciplines; do not seem to have much in common. Only when combined intelligently do these categories lead to the desired company goals. These categories comprise of aspects like respect, prioritising, teamwork and appropriate action. David & Norman (2008) depicted that effective leadership comprises of clearly defined steps as listed below. 1. Company/organizational description: This involves streamlining the vision the company has in both the short-term and long-term. 2. Situational analysis in relation to the constituent elements: In the beginning of this step, it is important to avoid any problems, as many of the constituent elements are easily available. It is important to concentrate on the missing factors which if undetected will lead to the phenomenon not arising. The identification process involves use of critical success factors. 3. Element division: this step involves dividing the elements level by level until the lowest level elements cannot be produced because of simultaneous combination of activities but a sequence of activities. Specific steps can achieve each of these low-level activities form a goal, as it whereas phenomena will come out automatically once the company reaches its goals simultaneously. 4. Activity design: this step involves designing the desired activities including appropriate actions and strategies necessary to attain the goal. 5. Work assignment and duty delegation: Closer involvement of the group members better the chances of owning the process and assumption of responsibility for achieving the goal, as they become emotionally attached to what you are doing. The degree of commitment should be in proportion to reverse order of the above steps. 6. Implementation of work plan: As the categorical change from phenomenon to a goal take place between step two and three, the differentiated planning should take place from step three onwards. 7. Daily-work evaluation: it is essential to monitor organizational daily activities in relation to these plans. Monitoring should not be done as a prerequisite, but with a plan aiming at making a management decision. Evaluation will not be successful unless the leader bases it on comparisons. Planning is the only way to ensure that an effective leader has all the necessary information on disposal. 8. Monitoring the emergence of any new phenomena. Whereas, step seven checks the causes and effects between step four and seven and improves them iteratively, monitoring the phenomena reveals the effectiveness of step two and three execution. These basic steps are crucial in assuring that leaders in any project are effective. If followed correctly in relation to the specific project or group process in question, any leader can be assured of attaining effective leadership. Therefore, the success of any organization entirely depends on how effective the leader was hence the impact of positive psychology to work if felt within the organization (Page & Boyle, 2005). Conclusion Effective leadership, if not well understood could be a complex process. As a process that involves active participation and empowering of all group members as opposed to an event by people in senior positions, it is not easily realisable. It must incorporate dialogue, conviction and delegation rather than issuing orders to followers. Assertively therefore, an effective leader should therefore be able to communicate the group or organizational vision effectively and motivate group members into pursuing and achieving the vision. The most important aspect is to enable members to own the process and facilitate them to reach desired goals rather than moving them to the goals. This motivates the subordinate staff hence work together towards organizational goals (Colella & Varma, 2001). Each business executive, small group leader, organizational or community torchbearer at different levels should cultivate this important attribute in order to offer effective leadership. Although failure is not an option in organization, it is a common result due to lack of effective leadership. References Barbara, C. and John, M. (2005). Leadership for the common good: tackling public problems in a shared-power world. N Y: John Wiley & Sons. Colella, A. & Varma, A. (2001). The Impact of Subordinate Diversity on Leader-member Exchange Relationship. Academy of management Journal, 44 (2), 304-315. David, U. and Norman, S. (2008). The leadership code: five rules to lead by. N Y: The RBL Group. Gerhard, Z. (2005). The art of leadership: ideas and inspiration for effective leadership. Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag. John, B. and Danny, L. (2005). The Good Book on Leadership: Case Studies from the Bible. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group. John, H. and Joseph, F. (2009). The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers Into Great Leaders. N Y: McGraw-Hill Professional. Lok, P. & Crawford, C. (2009). The relationship between commitment and organizational culture, subculture, leadership style and job satisfaction in organizational change and development. Leadership and organizational Development Journal, 20 (7), 365-374. Minja, M. D. (2009). Ethical Practices for effective leadership: fact of fallacy the Kenya Experience. KCA Journal of Business Management, 2 (1), 2071-2162. Page, N. & Boyle, S. (2005). Putting positive psychology to work. Selection and Development Review, 21 (5), 18-22. Read More