Strategies for Building Successful Leadership - Research Paper Example

Strategies for Building Effective Relations Introduction Leadership skills involve tools, behaviours and capabilities required for an individual to succeed in inspiring and leading others. There are traits that every successful leader has to have, failing which a leader is prone to be miserable, fail to complete his or her work, team members leaving and losing respect from team members. The traits for successful leadership include the desire to lead, without which I would not be comfortable with playing the role of a leader in my uncle’s company, as a product development manager. Another trait to ensure that I am successful is commitment to the organization’s vision and mission, which involves convincing others to perform their best to accomplish what they believe, is in accordance with the organization’s vision and mission. Moreover, to be a successful leader, I must be of high integrity, which simply means doing what I say and behaving in a way that I expect the team to behave. Basic Leadership Skills to Succeed As with any other job, resisting the work of leading makes it difficult to be effective and makes it impossible to find fulfilment or enjoyment in whatever an individual does. Therefore, lacking the desire to lead makes an individual unwilling to perform the work that pertains to a leader of a team. If a leader does not like the work he or she performs, chances are that the leader is not inspired to lead others to perform the tasks. In such a case, a leader is unable to reach his or her potential as a leader unless the leader works for an organization he believes in, as my uncle’s business. Commitment to the organization’s mission and vision is crucial since the first leader of the organization, who is my uncle, had a mission and vision about the company functions, service and changes that the company would bring to the industry. My uncle had to hire other people who could share his vision and believe in the mission of the organization; therefore, as a leader, I would have to coach newly hired employees to help them learn what would move the organization toward its objectives. In an ideal world, each employee works as if fulfilling the organization’s vision and mission were his or her personal goal; however, we do not live in an ideal world, hence as a leader, I have the task of remaining committed to and promoting the company’s vision and mission. Integrity is a crucial trait for a successful leader and it involves being true to one’s word, being authentic in actions and speech and demonstrating a behaviour that a leader needs employees to emulate. Similar to other leadership skills, integrity requires practice and involves an effort to honour an individual’s word each time as well as remaining an example to employees even when under stress or when having a personality conflict. As a leader, the gains of integrity are enormous in comparison to the harm that can result from lack of integrity within the workplace. To develop integrity as a leader, three areas that are essential and demand concentration include sincerity, consistency and substance. For a leader, sincerity involves accepting responsibility for my commitment and striving to achieve them, being honest about my limitations, accepting responsibility for my mistakes and telling the truth. Consistency for leaders involves demonstrating this feature of integrity by treating employees equally, following through on promises and working as hard as, or even harder than, other employees. Substance in integrity refers to what I am regarding work relationships and includes keeping private employee information private and doing what is right for the team and not merely for me (Reina D. & Reina M., 2006). Successful leaders are entrepreneurial and, therefore, able to recognize opportunities and organize resources to tap into the advantages of the opportunity. As a leader, I intend to develop and use the best talent for the new product development project with the aim of producing extra leaders instead of producing more followers. Being a business leader encompasses the ability to understand the business environment totally and includes understanding financial skills, customer awareness, industry and business knowledge. Moreover, people leadership encompasses the ability to motivate others, communication skills, human resource skills, networking and development. In business leadership and being the leader of new product development, I have to make strategic decisions, have the ability to solve problems, ease in managing complexities, and remain flexible. Therefore, as a leader, I have to adapt a leadership style that fits in various situations such as innovation and creativity, and maintain a strategic / visionary mind-set to generate new ideas (Pierce & Newstrom, 2000). Methods to Build Effective Relationships As I interact in the business world, I will soon realize that habits, behavior and personalities make people distinct from one another. To build my foundation at the organization, I will use my interpersonal success of being real, responsible, extending respect and developing relationships. As a leader, I will have to apply five strategies that include: collaboration, compromising, going head to head, coaching and caring for self in urgent situations such as deteriorating relationships with co-workers or the boss. I have respect for the company since any organization has a hierarchy of relationships in roles, regardless of whether they are written or unwritten rules, history and values. Therefore, I will have to learn and adapt to the organization so that when my boss frustrates me, I do not go over her head and try to undermine her position, but rather I would do all in my position to ensure that my boss succeeds. Moreover, to be successful, I will have to build relationships in order to network with others, obtain input, seek solutions useful to all, express compassion, build and protect self-esteem (Clay & Olitt, 2012). My Role Participatory Management in the Business In participatory management, I will be concerned with structural relationships and the significance of developing people’s capabilities and skills, as well as negotiating and seeking resources and changes required in order to improve employee lives, which consequently affects their involvement in the company. Moreover, I will be involved in methods and techniques where local people have a stake in development programs. These activities are of equal significance with the latter offering immediate access to benefits of development and the former seeking to secure long-term and sustainable development for poor employees (MDT Training, 2010). Conclusion In summary, leadership involves strategic thinking, collaboration, communication, motivation, tough conversation, and coaching. Moreover, leadership implies interaction that links members of a certain group such as employees in product development in my uncle’s company, and often necessitates structuring or restructuring of a condition and views as well as expectations of members of the group. Participatory management involves addressing relationships linking the company to its workers and its stakeholders and addresses basic issues such as governance in an organization and the role of employees and stakeholders in organizational decision-making. References Clay, C., & Olitt, R. (2012). Peer power: Transforming workplace relationships. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. MDT Training. (2010). Leadership skills. London: Bookboon. Pierce, J. L., & Newstrom, J. W. (2000). Leaders & the leadership process. McGraw-Hill Irwin. Reina, D. S., & Reina, M. L. (2006). Trust and betrayal in the workplace: Building effective relationships in your organization. California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Read More