Significance of Communication in Leadership - Case Study Example

Significance of Communication in Leadership Introduction In a group of five students, we embarked on a three week leadership project to raise awareness on the need to protect the environment through cleaning the neighbourhood and planting some trees. As a leader of the group, my main task was to influence the fellow colleagues on the need to protect our environment for the sake of future generations. This was after the realisation that as the future leaders, we must be exemplary in the communities where we live. The project involved landscaping, face lifting the home of the elderly people as well as cleaning the playgrounds. It is everyone’s responsibility to protect the environment and I also realised that this kind of leadership project does not usually occur so my task was to choose the best leadership style so as to influence and motivate the members of the group to share my own understanding of the benefits obtained from environmental awareness campaigns. Against this background, this reflective report seeks to evaluate the approach to leadership as well as styles used in the project and the extent they were effective towards the achievement of the set goals. It also details the lessons learnt as well as measures that can be put in place to ensure success of such kinds of projects which are not very usual in our everyday lives. Indeed, there is need for the leader to be able to convince the other fellow colleagues on the significance of any leadership project. Style of leadership used In order to fully discuss the leadership style implemented in this project, it is important to begin by defining what leadership means. Leadership is defined as the ability to influence a group of people towards the achievement of organisational goals (Robins S.P., Odendaal A.& Roodt G. 2001). Basically, leadership is concerned with the vision of the organisation and there are different leadership styles that can be implemented. Simply put, leadership style is a way of leading people in an organisation. John Kotler of the Harvard Business School (cited in Robin 2005) argues that leadership is about coping with change where there is need to establish direction by developing a vision for the future. In this regard, the supporting style of leadership. Given that our project was not meant to generate benefits in terms of financial gains but to facelift our community, this supportive leadership style was seen as the most ideal. Blanchard & Zigarmi (1986) suggest that supporting leadership style effectively means that the leader facilitates and supports subordinates’ effort towards a task accomplishment and share responsibility for decision making with them. The main essence of supportive behaviour in our case was to listen and facilitate the efforts of the other members of the group to work towards the attainment of the goals set in our project. The leader had a task to facilitate the members to pull their resources together and implement a project that was meant to benefit the members of the community in which we lived. Given that our project was meant to transform the lives of the people through establishing a better and sustainable environment, the leader played a role in initiating a change project that could change the behaviour of the people towards the issues related to the environment. Thus, the transformational leader, who can also be described as a change agent articulates the vision of the group and inspires followers to adopt the vision as their own and to aim their efforts at realising it (Schultz et al 2003). In our case, a vision described the direction the group wanted to take and it served its purpose much better given that we developed it in a collaborative and supportive way. All the members of the group knew and supported the vision and they continuously and willingly used it as a yardstick to evaluate the group and their own behaviour. The leader played a great role in modelling the values of the group, their attitudes and behaviour which demonstrated that our collective efforts were leading us to the desired result. Practical implications of the approach Practically, the leadership approach taken by a leader towards a particular project has a bearing on the outcome of the intended goals. In real life situations, we discovered that aspects such as communication play a very significant role in any given project. Involvement of the members of the project also has a bearing on the actual project. Indeed, implementing a project is a process which requires concerted efforts by all the members who are involved otherwise failure to do that may negatively impact on the outcome of the project. Thus, communication and involvement of the members of a group in a project are basic tenets that can determine the success of the project. Significance of communication in leadership No organisation can function properly without communication (Kritzinger, Bowler and Goliath 2003). Effective communication entails that there is mutual understanding between the members of the group involved in a particular project. Indeed, information can be exchanged through communication which can be verbal or non verbal. It terms of organisations, it can be seen that they are structured in such a way to achieve organizational goals and this helps to make the flow of information or organizational communication more effective. Just like a group, communication serves the same purpose. Through communication, members of our group came to share the same understanding of the dictates of the project and we were able to pull our efforts in the same direction. It can also be seen that another major function of a leader in an organisation is to communicate effectively as a way of increasing the effectiveness of the group or any organisation through timely communication of important information. Members ought to be kept updated on all the developments taking place so that they will not get lost along the track during the implementation of the project. In real situations, there should be feedback from both ends to ensure that there is mutual understanding within an organisation. Where there is an open channel of communication in an organisation, there are likely chances of communicating effectively since the members involved would have an agreement on the major aims of the project. In this regard, open channels of communication in the organisation are meant to facilitate the free flow of information and the members of a particular group or organisation should take a role in contributing towards decision making as a way of creating a sense of belongingness. Communication is also meant to be constantly improved across the board so that all the people would share a common understanding about the project. This proposition taken emanates from the strong belief that under normal circumstances, no organisation can successfully survive without communication which involves dissemination or exchange of information between the employees, management and other stakeholders in real life situations (Werner 2003). Involvement of members in leadership project Apart from communication, the involvement of all members in a group in decision making has a strong bearing on this particular type of leadership approach. It can be noted that the participative path is primarily concerned with meeting the followers’ needs for making suggestions and involvement in the process of decision making. The leaders should engage the employees in the decision making process by listening to their ideas and suggestions and incorporating them in the project. This initiative is meant to stimulate the interests of the members towards the project to be undertaken and this would be beneficial to the organisation as a whole. The main advantage of involving the employees in the process of making decisions about a particular project is that they would have a sense of belonging to the whole project hence they would meaningfully participate fully knowing that they would also benefit from the initiative. By virtue of engaging the employees in the decision making process, they would feel to be part of the organisation and this would lead them to fully contribute towards the attainment of the set goals. This style of leadership would inculcate a sense of collective responsibility where everyone would put maximum effort towards the attainment of organizational goals. In real life situations, this is a recommendable style compared to those that seek to impose decisions on the other members without their knowledge or contribution as there will be likely chances of conflict. Indeed, it defies logic to exclude the people who are supposed to implement the project since they are the ones who will determine the success or failure of the project. Effectiveness of the approach To a greater extent, this approach to leadership works nicely for leaders who are serious and concerned about achieving their project goals. Leaders play a very important role in influencing the other employees to increase their performance so as to be able to achieve the organisational goals. Effective leading often leads to the organisation’s effectiveness in its performance towards the attainment of the organisational goals Robins S.P., Odendaal A.& Roodt G. 2001). Achieving a particular goal is not an event but it is a process that requires the concerted efforts of all the members involved. It can also be noted that this approach is effective given that we are living in a dynamic environment that is characterised by constant changes hence the need for the leaders to keep a close eye on these changes. Schultz (2003) suggests that the leadership and the employees ought to work hand in hand in order to achieve the vision of the organisation. Suppose the organisation has decided to expand its operations, there should be mutual understanding between the leaders and the followers to be able to implement the proposed changes. A leader often takes a leading role in developing and inspiring staff to improve their performance with the aim of achieving organisational goals. A leader should always display positive traits that can be emulated by the juniors who are followers in the organisation or group. A leader should always motivate the workers so as to minimise the chances of conflict in the organisation which can negatively impact on its effectiveness. Success story of the project From the experience detailed above, I am confident to state that our project was a resounding success. We achieved our goal and we got the much needed support from the members of the community and we managed to positively change their behaviour towards the environment. During that three week period, we managed to clean the surrounding environment and planted some trees. Our project was meant to raise awareness as well as to demonstrate our aims practically. All the members of the group pulled together their efforts towards the achievement of our goal. There was no conflict in our group given that the supportive behaviour we displayed towards each other greatly helped us to coexist as one entity with the same aim. I can also confidently point out that I learnt two very important lessons from being a leader. Firstly, a leader must always display supportive behaviour to his followers where he must always encourage the use of feedback as a way of showing if there is any progress towards the attainment of the set goals. A leader should always take a leading role in influencing and inspiring the members of staff towards the achievement of goals set. I realised the need for involvement of every member so as to reach consensus on the goals set. Once consensus is reached, every member becomes part of the goal and it becomes easier to lead a team that is determined as well as dedicated to achieve the goals set. When working in a group, the leader is not supposed to be seen dictating everything but should just lead discussions directed at achieving the goals set. This plays a major role in motivating the team members to participate which minimises the chances of failure of the project. Secondly, I learnt that a leader should always bear in mind that communication is very important as far as the achievement of goals is concerned. As a group leader in the environment cleaning campaign, I would always encourage an open door policy where every member was given the opportunity to air his or her views in a friendly environment without fear of being ridiculed. It can thus be noted that a two way communication method is very important as it would encourage the group members to be part of the learning process rather than passive receivers of information in a project they do not understand. It is relatively easier to achieve all the goals set if all the members are involved in the learning process as they would also have a sense of belonging to the project. Through the use of good leadership styles, I also observed that you do not need to work very hard but you just need to work in a smart way. This approach will not give the leader a burden of monitoring the behaviour of each individual member but it will allow him to just give direction and monitor if the project is complying with the set goals to be achieved. What needs to be learned about the approach? Though very effective, more knowledge is still required with regards to the supportive approach to leadership. In some instances, it can be noted that it is not that easy to reach a consensus about something given that some people may not want to be open. In this leadership project, I encountered some people oriented problems in executing my task as a leader given that the other members of my group felt inhibited from openly expressing their thoughts and feelings. I attributed this to what Lau and Shani (1992 :484 as cited in Schultz 2003) call hidden agendas which included rivalries, distrust, ambitions and critical attitudes. At first, some of the members were afraid of being assigned to minor tasks which was a bit challenging to convince them that tasks were supposed to be distributed in a fashion that would promote cooperation and sharing of ideas in an enabling environment. At first, some of the members were against the idea of being given tasks that were seen as inferior. It has to be established that there is certainly a link between leadership and group dynamics. It must also be established on what needs to be done when others are not participating but opposing to the ideas raised by the others. The other thing that has to be learnt is that people are not homogenous hence they cannot think alike and reach a consensus with unanimity. The other challenge I encountered working in this group during the early stages is that other members of the team were uncooperative by virtue of their display of a high degree of individualistic behaviour which almost negatively impacted on the decision making process. This was also attributed to the fact that some of the members of the group also wanted to hold equal positions with the leader. Indeed, the issue of equality has to be addressed given that not all members of the group can be equal and yield the same powers even if the supportive leadership style is implemented in a leadership project. In as far as the issue of group dynamics is concerned, I realised that there is need for members to desist from the attitude of giving precedence to their personal agendas as well as feelings at the expense of the main objective of the group which is to share ideas in a bid to generate knowledge about the intended project. I also realised that fair treatment of the members coupled with flexible practices and good leadership skills were vital but it has to be ascertained on the criterion that can be used which is likely to be accepted by all members especially with regards to choosing a leader. What also need to be considered is that this approach to leadership is dependent on the situation. A leader must learn to understand the situation first then decide on the appropriate measures to be taken otherwise the theoretical approach to this style of leadership may be a bit challenging to implement in real life situations. Summary and conclusion Our group embarked on a three week leadership project to raise awareness on the need to protect the environment through cleaning the neighbourhood and planting some trees. As a leader of the group, my main task was to influence the fellow colleagues on the need to protect our environment for the sake of future generations. The leadership style we used was the supportive style that was mainly concerned with involvement of every member at every stage of the decision making process. If properly implemented, we discovered that this style is very effective and it can be applicable to real life situations in other organisations. It can be said that our project was a success and this can be attributed to the leadership style we used where all the members of the group were pulling their efforts towards the attainment of the set goals of raising awareness on the need for protecting the environment. However, what has to be learnt with regards to this leadership approach is that people are not homogeneous. They do not think alike all the time hence it must not always be taken for granted that members in a group will reach a decision unanimously. Over and above, it can be noted that this approach to leadership is more ideal especially in changing situations as it gives all the members the opportunity to give their ideas in a free environment. References Blanchard K., Zigarmi P & Zigarmi D (1986). Leadership and the one minute manager. London. Willow Books. Kritzinger E., Bowler A. and Goliath D (2003), Effective Communication: Getting the message across in business, Afritech Robins S.P., Odendaal A.& Roodt G. (2001), Organisational Behaviour, Pearson Education Schultz et al (2003). Organisational behaviour. CT. Van Schaik Publishers. Wener et al (2003). Organisational behaviour. Pretoria. Van Shaik Publishers. Read More