The Relationship between Leaders - Essay Example

?The relationship between leaders and followers impacts the leadership process. Explain? Leadership as a process requires a closer and richer relationship between the leader and the followers because without such relationship the overall success of a leader may not be possible. It is also important to note that the overall relationship between the leaders and the followers also depends upon how the leaders actually perceive himself among the followers. Leadership models such as servant leadership require extensive support from the leaders in order to ensure that the leaders get the required level of commitment and loyalty from the followers. (Northouse, 2009) Leaders enjoy the loyalty and support of their followers owing to the fact that the leaders derive their status and charisma through power. Some leaders tend to have better charisma and personality which can readily influence the followers and as such a leader becomes a source of inspiration for the followers. It’s because of this reason that the followers therefore tend to show their overall respect and loyalty to the leader and the leader in return reward such behaviors through motivating the employees either by explicit or intrinsic motivators. However, such things largely depend upon how the overall relationship between the leaders and the followers is shaped. If the relationship is based upon reward and loyalty the overall relationship would be rich enough to ensure that the leaders can develop a shared vision and achieve the common goals set for the organization as a whole and followers participate to achieve such goals. Recognition therefore is one of the key to the overall idea of relationship between the leaders and the supporters and largely defines how effective the overall leadership process would be. Since a leader is always required to ensure that a common ground is developed where everyone is required to know and practice the shared values and achieve the common goals set for the organization. As such this could only be possible when a leader has the ability to recognize the genuine needs of the followers and take action actions in order to ensure that such genuine needs and contributions are recognized at the different level within an organization. (MacArthur, 2006) Leadership as a process involves the development of a shared vision in order to achieve the common goals set for the organization. As such it becomes important to understand that leadership process requires subjects which can show the overall loyalty to the leader. The trait theory of the leadership outline that the leaders are often born and the leadership as a process has been defined as a set of properties required to be successful as a leader. Such conceptual approach to leadership therefore outline that leaders though may be born require to have the kind of traits which can help them to develop rich relationship with their followers in order to achieve the relative success for the organization as a whole. The formality of leadership i.e. leaders becoming leaders due to their position in the organization also entails a certain degree of relationship between the leader and the follower. One of the essential requirements of an effective leader is to cultivate loyalty among its followers and this could only be achieved when the overall relationship between the leaders and the followers are such that they generate the required level of loyalty from the followers. Under the servant leadership model, it is often assumed that in order to generate the kind of loyalty from the followers, leaders must serve them. (Sherry K. Schneider, 2011). Serving the followers therefore create the required level of loyalty and enrich the relationship between the followers and the leaders. This enrichment of the relationship therefore ultimately results into the success for leadership as a process also. Later research on leadership also outline that the authenticity of the leadership is probably the most important trait required under the leadership. Authenticity for the leaders however, is achieved when they develop better and more pro-active relationships with their followers allowing them to unleash the creativity and innovation required for the success. Authentic leaders therefore are considered as leaders who have the genuine urge to serve others and in doing so generate the kind of behavior and attitude require achieving the success for the common goals of the organizations. It is therefore critical that the relationship between the leaders and followers must be developed in a manner where the overall authenticity of the leaders play a greater role in determining such relationships and how they will actually culminate into the success of leadership as a process. (George, 2003) It is argued that leadership is focused on motivating people to achieve the desired level of objectives set by the leaders. However, in order to motivate people, it is important that the relationship between the leaders and the followers can help achieve such motivation level within the followers. It is argued that the leaders can motivate their followers through a sheer force however, this not translate into good leadership or authentic leadership and can worsen the overall relationships between the leaders and the followers thus resulting into the failure of the leadership as a process. (Cohen, 2010) Another important aspect of the overall relationships between the leaders and the followers is the degree of trust enjoyed by each. The loyalty of the followers can only be achieved when the overall level of trust is high between the followers and the leaders. A lack of trust from either side therefore can strain the relationships and resultantly can endanger the overall process of leadership. It is critical that the leaders while ensuring that they obtain the required level of followership must ensure that a certain degree of trust must emerge between them and the followers. Trust therefore generates the respect which is considered as one of the key ingredients to develop lasting and stronger relationships between the leaders and the followers. It is therefore important mutual trust and empathy must be developed by the leaders in order to ensure that the leadership as a process becomes successful and the common goals are achieved. (Topping, 2005) Leaders operate in a situation composed of three major components: leader, followers and situation. In such a case, the leader’s performance may be at stake. How do the leaders transform their organizations? Situational theories of leadership outline that the leadership as a process emerge out of the situations. True leaders are those who rose to the occasion and show the leadership qualities under different situations emerging without any preparation or which are not pre-meditated. It is important therefore to understand that the leadership can emerge as a result of the different situations under which the leaders can actually show their overall qualities of leadership. (Hay & Hodgkinson, 2006) What is however, critical to understand that in order to become successful as a leader, it is important for the leaders to understand and contextualize the environment within they operate. A leader normally operates in a situation which is composed of three different but major components of leader, followers and the situation. However, such level of operation can also put the overall performance of leader at a stake also because of the leader’s dependence on these components or elements. As such leaders therefore need to transform their organizations by transforming their followers and the very situation under which they operate in order to become successful. What is significant to understand that leaders need to transform themselves in order to achieve the relative degree of success as a leader and develop the capability to transform the followers and the situation in order to achieve the required degree of transformation within the organization. (Cohen, 2010) In order to transform an organization, a leader first have to transform himself or herself in order to become a kind of role model required to generate and common a certain degree of transformation within the organization. Transformation of a leader himself therefore would be based upon how leader actually contextualize himself within the environment in which he has to operate and command. This transformation however, could only be possible when the leaders engage into the practice of self correcting themselves before they can actually embark on to achieve the required level of support from their followers. (Parolini, Patterson, & Winston, 2009) It is also important to understand that the transformation in the followers can only be achieved when leaders are able to develop effective teams. Development of effective teams is considered as the vital step towards achieving the required level of cohesiveness within organization. As such the real transformation within the organization starts when leaders also acknowledge the contributions made by the teams and other individuals rather than just focusing on their own individual achievements. This however, does not necessarily mean that the leaders should lose their independence and real character necessary to achieve the same level of support and performance. Authenticity of the leadership therefore considered as essential in order to ensure that the leaders not only maintain their own individual independence and creativity. Social identity theory of leadership outlines that the leaders who are best fit within the identity of a group tend to become more successful. Accordingly as the group emerges so does the group prototypes and therefore as soon as the leaders emerge within the group they are accepted better if they are like the emerging group prototype. This aspect of leadership therefore suggest that in order to raise the performance , leaders have to ensure that the he or she must identify with the group in order to achieve the desired level of support necessary for the transformation. This also means that the leaders must not only develop themselves but they are also required to develop the group dynamics in order to ensure that the groups emerge according to the perceptions and vision held by the leader for its success. If organization is considered as a group- a collective group of people and processes, it therefore becomes more critical for the leaders to ensure that the organization as a whole must develop a unique group identity under which all the team members are aware of the dynamics of success and failure and must adhere to the vision shared by the leader. Leaders invariably however, have to ensure that this vision is properly communicated within the organization and every within the organization must subscribe to such vision to achieve the desired level of transformation. It is also significant to note that the leaders must also have the tendency and willingness to serve the group and take care of the needs of the group in order to ensure that the required level of motivation is achieved to make things happen within the organization. The transformation of the organizations and the followers therefore shall always be based upon the notion of developing the followers into successful leaders of the future. Leaders can only achieve the authentic level of transformation within an organization only when leaders develop the ability to actually develop their followers in a manner which can allow them to perceive themselves as the leaders. This would also require increasing the overall stakes of the followers in the organization to ensure that the followers actually contribute towards the achievement of organization’s overall purpose. (Charbonneau, 2004) In order to achieve the transformation, leaders therefore have to ensure that they give individual consideration to the needs of the followers. Individual consideration means leader must keep the lines of communication open and must show apathy and consideration to the needs of the followers. It is also important to understand that a good leader must develop the intellectual stimulation within the follower in order to start a turnaround for the organization. This would mean allowing the followers to unleash their natural creativity and innovative juice besides being more proactive in their approach. The vision developed by the leaders must also be inspirational enough to generate the required level of motivation from the followers. The level of inspiration therefore should be strong enough to ensure that followers readily accept this shared vision and develop the kind of attitude required to achieve the complete transformation of the organization as a whole and make leader of the organization as a success. Bibliography Charbonneau, D. (2004). Influence tactics and perceptions of transformational leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal , 25 (7), 82-89. Cohen, W. A. (2010). Heroic Leadership: Leading with Integrity and Honor. New York: John Wiley and Sons. George, W. W. (2003). Authentic leadership:rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting value. New York: John Wiley and Sons, . Hay, A., & Hodgkinson, M. (2006). Rethinking leadership: a way forward for teaching leadership? Leadership & Organization Development Journal , 27 (2), 97-104. MacArthur, J. (2006). The Book on Leadership. New York: Thomas Nelson Inc. Northouse, P. G. (2009). Leadership:Theory and Practice. London: Sage. Parolini, J., Patterson, K., & Winston, B. (2009). Distinguishing between transformational and servant leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal , 30 (3), 103-107. Sherry K. Schneider, W. M. (2011). Servant leadership versus transformational leadership in voluntary service organizations. Leadership & Organization Development Journal , 32 (1), 166-172. Topping, P. (2005). Managerial Leadership. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. Read More