Important Aspects of Leadership - Coursework Example

Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Abstract 2 Definition 4 Introduction 4 Report Aim and Objectives 6 Workforce Diversity and a Competitive Advantage 7 John Howell 10 Core leadership behaviors 11 Unsuitable behavior pattern 12 Leader style 14 Ethical Problems 15 Recommendation and Conclusion 17 References 20 Abstract Good leaders are very hard to find, good leaders know how to get the best out of others and good leaders are those who keep others motivated and focused at all times. These qualities are very hard to get in an individual but the most successful leaders are all well equipped with these great qualities. Definition Leadership is a very important skill which is not possessed by all; hardly very few people are blessed with this skill. Being a leader is not easy; it poses many challenges and the person who overcomes these challenges make a successful leader. A leader instills confidence and provides motivation to the employees, motivation is an extremely important factor and motivation can easily transform an employee within no time, ones the transformation of the employee takes place, the goals of the company would become much easier to achieve. This is why motivation is considered to be one of the most important factors and all most all the companies look for new methods to motivate the employees and to bring out the best out of them. This paper will focus upon the different leadership behaviors and the best leadership behavior which should be adopted to meet the company’s goals. Introduction Horses for courses refers to recruiting the right people for the right job, not every person can do every job and even the most astute of all managers sometimes recruit people who fail to deliver, it is extremely important to recruit the right people only then can an organization grow and achieve great things. A leader is a person who leads from the front; he is fully aware of the challenges that lie ahead and is completely mentally prepared to take them head on. There are several leadership styles, a leader has the right blend of all the styles. A leader never castigates his sub-ordinates because doing so would inevitably strain the relationship, instead a leader finds alternative ways of doing the right thing. A leader inspires others and motivates them to work like him, motivating the people is extremely difficult these days but this quality comes naturally to a leader and this is what makes his special and different from the rest of the people. A leader is never impulsive; he takes decisions when he is in the right frame of mind. Impulsive decisions hardly work and decisions must always be taken with calm and a composed mind. The world has seen many great leaders, Warrant Buffet, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and so on, they have different qualities but are greatly successful as leaders and this makes them special. They have inspired countless people and continue to do so. The late Steve Jobs has left a legacy behind him, Apple has become a great brand and there is a great brand value attached to it. To conclude it is very fair to say that leaders are born with ability to motivate people and with experience they get better. Report Aim and Objectives This report aims to examine the important aspects of managerial leadership; this report will be divided into sections so as to simply this procedure. Recruitment and workforce are very closely connected, workforce diversity is one very good thing, when employees who come from different backgrounds are selected, the organization prospers and this is how they become diverse but when there is no diversity, the organization has little or no options whatsoever. Recruiting people from diverse backgrounds gives an organization an edge over other organizations and this also makes the difficult task of managing the workforce much easier than others think it is. Workforce management refers to having a productive workforce in place and keeping them motivated at all times, this is quite an arduous task and only the best managers can do this, it becomes easier when the right employees are recruited by the HR. Another term which is of importance is workforce optimization which again depends on recruitment, only those employees can be motivated who can concentrate and who understand the gravity of the situation, fickle minded employees and non-serious employees can never be motivated and they can never deliver results, workforce can be optimized when the right people are recruited for the job, this is how recruitment and managing a workforce effectively are closely connected. Companies aim at retaining their employees after recruitment so as to form a core and they also ensure that this core always works in unison, this is again dependent on recruitment, a company would not want to retain employees who are incapable of matching the requirements of the company and as a result of which it will also take a toll on the workforce development. Workforce Diversity and a Competitive Advantage Workforce diversity is really important according to me and implementing it is as important as the concept itself. It is implemented to maximize the economic benefits which usually exceed the implementation cost. Every company aims at getting more than their implementation cost and diversity is a very powerful tool which ensures the same when implemented by an organization, this is the only reason why more and more organizations are implementing workforce diversity in their organization. More and more organizations are investing huge amounts of money in workforce diversity in order to keep pace with the customer requirements and customer satisfaction. Workforce diversity often plays an instrumental role in satisfying the needs of a customer. Diversity also provides good social value to an organization and this is another reason why it is implemented. Diversity workforce is pivotal in the success of a company when considered from a perspective of long run; it generates constant cash flow which in turn satisfies the shareholders of a company. This whole process is extremely important for any organization looking to expand or for that matter looking to sustain its growth. Workforce diversity has also become a legal requirement these days, companies have to stick to a policy of non discrimination and recruiting people from diverse backgrounds also satisfies the legal requirements of an organization. Diversity focuses upon the maximum utilization of the resources, the labor market has changed completely these days, it is no longer dominated by the whites, the talent available is huge and if discrimination takes place in an organization it would lead to devastation so implementation of diversity also satisfies a company’s resource requirements. By recruiting people from diverse backgrounds an organization makes sure that no discrimination takes place and the organization utilizes the resources at hand to the maximum extent possible. It is extremely important as a marketing tool also, only diverse individuals can satisfy the needs of diverse customers and there are no two ways about this so considering this, it becomes inevitable for an organization to recruit train and develop diverse individuals who can take the organization to places. Diversity begins right from recruitment; leaders have to look out for the most diverse individuals who can really make a difference by being a part of the organization and work towards the betterment of the same, next is the promotion of those diverse people. The leaders have to make sure that those diverse people should not take a back seat upon joining the organization; the leaders should make sure that the diverse individuals are given enough chances to showcase their talent. The last step is to retain the diverse individuals because it is very important to hold on to the diverse individuals because they really can a make a difference and no company can afford to let go of these talented people. Even the people who recruit should belong to diverse backgrounds to pick the most efficient and diverse individuals. Retaining employees can sometimes be a difficult task for organizations because each day new businesses come up and new offers are made to the diverse people and holding on to these diverse people becomes a challenge. To retain these employees, a company must first of all provide a friendly environment to work in, because the work environment often plays a key role and acts as a deciding factor as to whether an individual changes hi/her job or not. So it becomes very important for a company to provide its employees with a good environment to work in. The next is to promote these employees, promotion will give a good and much needed boost to these employees and this will also make sure that the employee has a good image of the company in his/her mind. The last step of retaining includes monetary benefits wherever possible, for instance reimbursement of any expenditure made by the employee on an official trip. All these needs have to be realized by an organization if they are to retain the most diverse employees. “Buying power, particularly in today’s global economy, is represented by people from all walks of life (ethnicities, races, ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, etc.) To ensure that their products and services are designed to appeal to this diverse customer base, “smart” companies, are hiring people, from those walks of life - for their specialized insights and knowledge. Similarly, companies who interact directly with the public are finding increasingly important to have the makeup of their workforces reflect the makeup of their customer base.” (Work Force Diversity) The paper threw light upon several important concepts like recruitment, managing workforce effectively, managing a diverse workforce and its several advantages. Everything starts from recruitment; this important point has been highlighted throughout the paper, organizations these days are keen on cutting the dead wood out but all those organizations hardly realize that keeping those employees for all these years has hardly done any good to them, when employees start becoming a liability to an organization, the profits automatically come down. The paper also shed light upon the importance of a diverse workforce, employees who are recruited should be recruited by managers who themselves are from diverse backgrounds and this should go on for several years until the organization reaps healthy rewards generated by this healthy practice. The following part of the paper will shed more light upon some of the most important managerial leadership qualities. John Howell “Jon Howell in an interview with Sun-News (January 29, 2001: 7) states "A leaders' behavior must match the situation, and the news of his or her followers." And his summary is very appropriate here: Leader effectiveness is determined by what people do, not by some inherent personal characteristic... I'm not saying personal characteristics don't help; they certainly do. But leaders have to adapt their behavioral styles to fit the situations in which they find themselves" (p. 7).  Howell says the good news is most people can learn leader behaviors and learn to recognize situations in which certain behaviors are most important.  Howell and Costley (2001) argue for the match of leader behavior, leader traits and characteristics, follower characteristics, and the situation at hand.  And there are seven leader types, fit for various behavioral processes and situations in my read of their leader theory: 1. Supportive Leaders (those considerate, people oriented leaders). 2. Directive Leaders (fit for repetitive or work spread between sites and for cultures such as Mexico that prefer status well defined. 3. Participative Leaders such as Dwight Eisenhower who could tame the Primadonna generals and politicians of WWII, and by careful listening to many voices craft an alliance.  4. Reward and punishment leaders (transactional). 5. Charismatic (heroic) leaders 6. Boundary spanning (network) leaders 7. Leaders who build and forge social exchange (also networkers).  And now we have left the obsession with one best style of leadership. There is no universal style. There is as I have suggested, a dimension of behaviors running between Transactional and Transformational. The behavior school to this point is fixated on the transactional. To find transformational we must sail to the Isle of Situation.” ( Howell and Costley). The same principles of Howell and Costley are elucidates in the paper. Core leadership behaviors There are mainly five major behavior patterns namely, supportive behavior, directive behavior, participative behavior, reward and punishment behavior and charismatic behavior. Every behavior pattern has its own pros and cons. But the behavior pattern which works out the best is undoubtedly reward and punishment behavior. In this the terms and conditions are made very clear to the employees, any breach of these terms and conditions result in punishment, on the other hand if the employee performs well, he/she is rewarded suitably for his/her work. This is probably the best behavior pattern, simply because everything is made crystal clear to the employees. The harder the employee works more will be his/her chances of getting rewarded. This pattern also has some risks involved like if an employee is punished for some mistake, the employee may leave the organization or will keep underperforming for the organization but the biggest positive of this behavior pattern is that if an employee is rewarded that will surely boost the confidence of that employee and with more confidence the employee will be motivated to surpass the expectations of the leader ones more and this whole process will go on. Reward works like a stimulus and makes the employee work harder, the appreciation shown by the leader to the employee becomes a huge positive for the employee and gives the employee motivation of the highest order. The main goal of any leadership behavior is to make sure that the company achieves its goals and reward and punishment behavior acts very effectively in making sure the same, this is exactly why this type of behavior is the most appropriate and suitable in all situations. Unsuitable behavior pattern Directive leadership behavior is not preferred in today’s world. This type of behavior has very less pros and has many cons this is the only reason why it is unsuitable in today’ world. Directive leadership behavior involves many things, as the name suggests, it’s all about giving directions to the employees. The main role of the leader following this type of leadership behavior is to pass directions to the employees. This involves telling the employees what to do and even how to do, not only the leader tells the employees what to do and how to do, but also where to do and when to do. The most unsuitable thing about this behavior is that involves keeping a close look on the employees which can sometimes yield undesirable results. Supervising the performance of the employees is also one of the main roles of directive leadership. Directive leadership restricts getting the best out of the employees; it also restricts their growth by not allowing them to use their creativity. If an employee is not allowed to use his/her creativity, he/she can never develop and directive leadership hampers the growth of the employees. Impatience is one of the biggest limitations of directive leadership, this is quite natural because directive leadership is full throttle and aims at achieving the goals of the organization. For instance, a leader passes instructions and the employee fails to understand the same, this type of situation becomes worse because the leader gets impatient and may start shouting at the employee or may even react very violently because of impatience. Another major drawback of directive leadership is that it can sometimes turn out to be insensitive to others, for instance even if an employee is sick and cannot work for long hours, the leader would still want him/her to work for long hours and this is when the leader becomes insensitive to the need of the employees. So this is also a very big drawback which can affect the employees thinking and can discourage him/her to work for the betterment of the organization. Another major drawback and one of the biggest drawbacks is that the communication which takes place in directive leadership is just one way and the employees cannot even clear their doubts, this can create many problems and impatience is also created because of this. The same concept can be understood with the help of an example, if a leader tells the passes the instructions which are partially clear and the employees come back to the leader realizing that the instructions were half clear at a later stage, this situation can create a lot of trouble because the communication is just one way, had the communication been two way, this problem would have never cropped up and because of the same impatience of the leader also takes its toll on the employees. One way communication is never good, employees also should be given a chance to speak, so that the leader can get to know the thinking and the mindset of the employees and in directive leadership this fails to take place making it the most unsuitable leadership behavior. Another big problem with this behavior is that the leader can get irritated when he/she feels that the things are not going according to plan, for instance, if an employee is slow when it comes to working but is a highly skillful person, the leader may get irritated by the activities of the employee and the employee may even quit the organization, this is a very big problem which comes up when a leader follows directive behavior. Had this type of leadership taught the leaders to be patient with the employees then this type of leadership behavior would definitely have been better than what it is now. All these drawbacks make directive leadership behavior the most unsuitable. Leader style “Howell said, Dwight Eisenhower was a superb example of "participative leadership," especially in his role as supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II. Eisenhower treated the other Allied leaders with patience, gave each a chance to state his point of view fully and was able to convince his counterparts he approached problems objectively. As a result, he succeeded in uniting the other commanders -- several of whom were flamboyant, egotistical men unused to sharing decisions -- to reach a common goal.” (NMSU) Eisenhower is a classic example of a leader, he handled everything with ease and made sure he reached his goals, this is how a leader should be. Patience is the key in leadership, had Eisenhower not shown patience, he would not have been as successful as he was. Patience is the key for any leader and without patience it is highly improbable for a leader to be successful. The behavior pattern followed by Eisenhower was participative behavior, in this the leader gets actively involved in the thick of things, the leader sets example in front of the other people and provides motivation of the highest order. Some leaders do not opt this type of leadership thinking that if they involve in themselves in the activities which will also have the employees, it would give an impression that they are weak, so to project themselves strong some leaders never choose participative leadership behavior, but Eisenhower never thought about the negatives of participative leadership and set an example in front of all the leaders of today. Ethical Problems “Many executives and business thinkers believe that ethical leadership is simply a matter of leaders having good character. By having “the right values” or being a person of “strong character,” the ethical leader can set the example for others and withstand any temptations that may occur along the way. Without denying the importance of good character and the right values, the reality of ethical leadership is far more complex and the stakes are much higher.” (Darden) There are ethical problems which the leaders face; these problems arise when the employees forget the ethics which should never be forgotten, ethics in other words are values which an employee is expected to stick too in any circumstance. In financial institutions ethical problems arise because the employees may involve themselves in various scams and other undesirable activities, solely done for the purpose of money. Such problems can be treated by having a code of ethics, one ethical standard should be followed by everyone and there should not be double standards, meaning that the code of ethics should not treat employees of different position unequally, all the people working under the leader should be treated equally and the code of ethics should be followed. All these things can be done by a leader if he/she consciously involves in reflection, in the sense that looking back at ethical issues and keenly finding a way out to deal with the same. It is highly important that the people stick to their morals in order to avoid any ethical problems, a leader can make sure that this happens by reflecting upon the ethical issues and also by talking to the employees. Recommendation and Conclusion According to me leadership is a quality which not many people have, it is a unique quality which sets leaders apart from the rest of the pack. The paper shed light upon some of the most important aspects of leadership; according to me it is very important for a leader to have control over the employees. Motivating them is perhaps as important as controlling them in the right way, according to me a good leader never misuses his power because doing so would easily turn the employees against him and the same would have devastating consequences on the organization. According to me it is also very important for a leader to lead from front and let the employees know how capable he is in every sense of the world, only then would the employees get motivated and their performance would get better. Every organization aims to get the maximum out of the employees but it becomes difficult when the employees are not motivated, a leader uses modern techniques to motivate the employees and attain the goals set by the organization. Leaders are in heavy demand these days because more and more organizations are looking to get the best of the employees and this is where the role of leaders and their leadership ability comes into play. References Developing Ethical leadership, In Darden. Virginia. Org. Retrieved from: Howell, JP, Costley, DL 2000. Understanding behaviors for effective leadership NMSU Professors. In nmsu.edu. Retrieved from: Work Force Diversity. Diversity World. n.p., Retrieved from: Read More