Leadership as the Ability to Influence People - Essay Example

LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT STUDENT’S NAME: INSTITUTION: INSTRUCTOR’S NAME: DATE: Introduction Leadership is the ability to influence people or a group to work in one direction towards achieving the common goals and objectives. Any organization has to use the skills of a leader to direct utilization of resources in achieving the objectives. A leader should, therefore, be a person equipped with skills and has exceptional traits of leadership because not everyone can become a leader. Integration of management and leadership skills has been a blend that produces satisfactory results in an organization. Leaders are the tools for transformation and, therefore, an aspect of leadership is always regarded with integrity. According to the review of the international fire service management, carter has discussed the aspects of leadership and management. The two aspects have recorded high performance when they are used together. While a manager performs the role of ensuring achievement of objectives through the efforts of others and in this case the subordinates, a leader will influence these subordinates and feed them with the benefits of working together as a team so as to make the most out of the available resources (Hayes, 2007, p 60). Leadership is about the capacity to influence, set achievable goals and react to issues or agendas in a competent manner. It involves the ability to identify a problem and initiate some changes that could lead to improvements in the situation. It is about finding ways of making people contribute towards the accomplishment of the planned agenda. Leaders occur in three categories, the autocratic types of leaders make decisions without the help of subordinates. The second category is the participative or democratic leaders, these are leaders who participative, and they allow decisions to be made through participating with the subordinates, this involves consulting each other’s ideas and coming up with a decision that is supported by everyone in the organization. The third type is free rein leaders who give the subordinates the freedom to make their own decisions. Among the types of leadership styles, there are also groups of leaders. The first groups of leaders are true leaders who are not known and, therefore, are not acknowledged by people. The second group is comprised of those leaders that are known and admired by people, they tend to have more followers because they are influential. The third groups are those leaders that are known, but are feared; therefore their rate of influence will involve working towards winning more people. The last group comprises leaders who are despised by people, they are not influential at all, and their traits of handling people are not good. To understand the leadership and change management, DuBrin (2004, p 49) points out the importance of understanding the types of leaders as explained by fire service management unit. Understanding the theory of leadership helps in identifying the unique characteristics that should be applied to the success of management aspects. Charismatic leader is the type that has a vision and has devoted to working towards achieving the objective they have personality traits that the influence subordinates to follow their direction, they trust people around them and, therefore, giving the responsibilities. A leader with a vision is believed to be strong and has more followers because of the ability to motivate and energize their followers. The second type is the situational leader. This type of a leader is only needed during a specific situation. This comes in as a fact that not all the leadership styles are applicable in all the situations. The leadership aspect in those particular situations is the ability to influence followers to perform tasks under these specific situations. A competent leader should be able to identify their followers’ strength and weaknesses in order to determine the best ways of influencing their performance. The identified unique traits in followers could also be useful when tackling situations in an organization (Furnham 2005, P 63). Contingency type of leadership explains the relationship between the leader and the follower. When there is an appositive relationship, the outcome will be an impressive performance of tasks. This occurs due to the ability of a leader to influence the follower due to their positive relationship(Leonard et al 2013, p 94). At this point, the leader will be able to analyze the performance of the follower, and make changes that could help the follower perform higher by instilling more skills and knowledge on them. The follower, on the other hand, will be free to interact with the leader and thus ensuring efficient flow of information between them. The attitude of the leader and that of the follower determines how the two will relate. Citizen type of leadership is explained to imply those leaders that evolve from among the followers, it is more of voluntary than willing because a leader may evolve due to a difficult situation that has occurred in the organization, and since there is no leader to take the subordinates through the process of fixing up the situation, someone believed to act as a leader will be chosen. Also in some organizations, as explained, leaders are chosen from among the subordinates, this is inappropriate because the chosen leader might not have the competence and skills thus making inappropriate decisions that might draw back to the organization (Beerel 200, P 127). An organization may improve leadership skills of such leaders by training them in leadership and management. Servant leader is a type of leadership that is observed under the ability of a leader to serve the followers in acceptable and ethical manners. This kind of a leader is acknowledged basing on the judgments made by the followers. The followers always depict the traits of such leaders as always present and available to lead in any situation, they are useful leaders and perform their tasks in ways that lead to satisfactory performance, they have a positive attitude and, therefore, accept that they are in their position to serve people and influence their efforts, and lastly they are vulnerable and are willing to accept changes that are meant to improve their performance (Jeston & Neli 2014, p 70). These kinds of leaders are known to support the decisions of those whom they serve and involve in proactive activities that catalyze change and influencing more followers. The last type of leadership is the transformational leaders; they are derived as those leaders who are change drivers. They influence their followers at a higher level that involves bonding of the follower’s wishes and those of the leader and forming a team that aims at working towards attaining their wishes. This type of leadership focuses more on the importance of teamwork rather that individual performance of tasks. It also focuses on setting performance standards to the followers so that their performances are rated, and the high performer is rewarded and those who were not able to reach the targets will be accountable. Characteristics of transformational leadership are; the focus on the mission and development of strategies to accomplish the mission, utilization of available resources in order to achieve the goals, focusing on the long term goals and influencing human ability towards achieving them and realizing the potentials of employees and designing jobs in accordance with those potentials (Beerel 2009, P 99). Leadership and management Leadership and management are two aspects that work together. The manager performs the task of ensuring that the assets of the organization are kept running. It, therefore, means that managers have to work towards achieving the short term objectives, and it will consist of the managerial aspects of planning, budgeting, organizing, controlling and staffing (Chhokar et al 2013, p 82). Leadership, on the other hand, is the capacity of envisioning people on the future achievements and letting the people conceptualize the good recap of what they will get after their hard work. According to the above diagram, it shows how leaders and managers relate to in an organization. As we can see, there is a question on whether there is equality in powers between them. The powers are equal because both have to be responsible in one way, or another. The managers are responsible for the shareholder which implies that all activities performed under the manager are used by the manager to give an account to the shareholders. Therefore, the managers receive powers from the shareholders (Furham 2005, pg 45). When we look at leaders, they are responsible for the followers, which imply that the followers depend on the leader. The leaders are chosen to represent the followers and, therefore, success of a leader in an achievement to the followers. When a leader influences the followers to follow a certain direction, the consequences resulting from that particular direction will lie on the leaders. Therefore, the leaders obtain powers from their followers since they are trusted to accomplish the mission. The leaders, therefore, account to the followers of the performance of perceived objectives. Therefore, both have equal powers since they are all responsible. According to the fire service journal, carter’s describes the major activity of decision making in an organization to be the integration of both leadership and management qualities. According to Kotter (2008, P 81) Perhaps going through the decision making process will help us to understand this argument. The first step is developing or defining the problem. This involves analyzing the environment, both internally and externally by consulting the subordinates and the customers. The purpose of a manager is to identify the problems through consulting from the leaders of suspected deviations. This shows that the manager will depend on the leader for information purposes. The second step is analyzing the problem. After definition of the problem, there is a need to analyze it by relying on facts that are available to support the problem statement. Information regarding the problem is analyzed in a logical manner and this requires management and leadership skills to be able to succeed in the analysis (Storey 2013, P, 133) The third step is that of developing solutions that are alternative. This involves coming up with as many solutions as possible so that the best solution will be selected. This step requires the participation of subordinates who will help the manager to come up with solutions. The role of the leader is to influence the use of teamwork in developing alternative solutions. The fourth step is deciding on the best solution, and this occurs by encouraging participation. The best solution is drawn from the alternatives whereby all the members of the organization are required to contribute their ideas and opinions. This is a critical stage in every decision making process because it requires that the decision made should be appropriate and should merge with the overall objective of the organization. The last step is that of implementing the decision, and it involves influencing the subordinate towards taking action to ensure that the decisions makes are put into action. This stage relies solemnly on the ability of the leader to influence the subordinates. It is a crucial stage and the various tools of performance management and control should be applied to ensure the success of the implementation process. Subordinates should be motivated to work as a team so that the activities of implanting the decision will be achieved in an accurate manner. The question in an argument still remains on how the effectiveness of the leaders and the subordinates are measured. There are initiatives suggested by Carter’s for transformation in organizations. This is to improve the efficacy of the work and also instill more knowledge to the subordinates (Williams 2013, p, 41). These initiatives and programs are intended to transform organization culture and to enable the transformation process to ensure the objectives of the intended mission will be achieved as planned. The initiatives are as follows: Working conditions should be flexible; in any organization, there are conditions on how subordinates should perform their duties. These conditions have proven to have an impact on the performance level. For example, harsh working conditions will deter the workers because not all workers can manage to work in those conditions even if they are highly rewarded. When the working conditions are flexible, it will motivate the workers and thus the ability of a leader to influence the efforts will be simple because the workers are already motivated. Training and induction programs; these are programs that are intended to instill knowledge and skills to the subordinates. The purpose of training and educating is to enable the leaders and managers to adapt to the changing environment and apply their skills in any arising situations. A good leader is recognized by their ability to handle harsh situations despite the lack of ideas on handling it. Therefore, training will boost their morale and thus they will be able to keep in phase with the technological changes and the environmental changes that involve competition. The knowledge obtained in training will motivate the subordinates towards working together with their leaders (Avolio & Yammarino 2013, p, 58). This program also exposes the leaders and managers in the diversity whereby they will experience situations of different scenarios and therefore sharpen their skills. The exposure to working in an environment with different combination of cultures, this program aims at sharpening the skills of the leaders on how they will handle different cultures. Handling cultural diversity has been a challenge to many leaders because they have to find ways of ensuring the process of influencing is acceptable to all the cultures. This is an initiative that will enable the leaders to gain more knowledge on handling different situations due to cultural diversity (Oreg et al 2013, p 77). The leaders in this case will have to integrate their skills, competence and their personality for the purpose of coming up with the correct influential program. Programs for managing careers, this program applies to all the subordinates in an organization. Carter’s argument upon this program aims at opening up their minds on their career development. This involves enabling them to realize their fields of specialization and appreciate them by ensuring that they work according to their specialized fields. Leaders, for example, are believed to have unique qualities, and we may term these qualities like talent, therefore; career development involves a series of letting them identify their talents and hence find the appropriate job group. Mentoring programs are also initiatives that will be helpful to the organization. The program will aim at providing guiding and counseling to the members of the organization. When the leaders are faced with difficult situations, they will require mentoring programs to enable them to think straight since some may end up being confused on how to go about the situation (Huber 2013, p75). Also, the employees will feel motivated when they are offered with mentoring programs, it will improve their morale and thus influencing high performance. Mentoring helps employees to have the courage and conviction to perform their specific tasks and this generates satisfactory results. Barriers to the above initiatives The transformation of leadership and management through the suggested initiatives have been found to be accomplished in a slow rate because of the barriers that lead to slow transformation process (Rothaermel 2013, p 126). These barriers evolve from the organization decision to take the transformation process as a challenge or to embrace it. The first barrier is on the insufficient monitoring systems, when there are implementation programs in any organization; monitoring and evaluation is a necessary tool that ensures the implantation program is accomplished. Monitoring requires accountability of activities done, and this will force the implementers to provide an account of their progress. When there are deviations in the implementation, they will be corrected, and this contributes to the success of the initiative. Management control systems are used to ensure allocation of resources as required; this tool also ensures the implementation program will succeed. When there are insufficient monitoring systems, implementing progress will be slow, and you find that some programs will be left out. Another barrier is the lack appropriate model to be used in evaluating equality and diversity of the programs initiated. Evaluation of equality focuses on whether there is gender equality when it comes to assigning roles and responsibilities that aim at ensuring successful implementation. The recruitment of employees should also involve equality (Hannay et al 2013, p 36). The diversity is measured by the extent to which these initiatives will cover and also if there will be an encounter of multicultural dimensions. When there is no model used in evaluating equality the implementation progress will tend to be selective, and that indicates an inability to influence people because of inequality. Conclusion In conclusion, leadership change and management are, therefore, a process of ensuring that managers have both managerial and leadership skills. The manager should, therefore, have the skills on how to critically analyze the employees. This involves having the knowledge on how to handle different employee behavior and attitudes. The personality of the employee is also important because it will help the manager to identify good traits that could be helpful in achieving implementation programs. The ability of the manager to predict the future behavior of the employee through psychological research will enhance the understanding of employees. When a manager is able to achieve all the above objective concerning understanding the employee it will be easy to influence their efforts and hence the leadership aspect will be accomplished. Reference Hayes, J 2007, the Theory and Practice of Change Management, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, London DuBrin, A, J 2004, Leadership: research findings, practice, and skills (4th Edition). New York: Houghton Mifflin. Furnham, A 2005, The Psychology of Behavior at Work: The Individual in the Organization, Psychology Press, London. Beerel, A 2009, Leadership and change management, Sage. Anderson, D, & Anderson, L, A 2010, Beyond change management: How to achieve breakthrough results through conscious change leadership, John Wiley & Sons. Kotter, J. P 2008, Force for change: How leadership differs from management, Simon and Schuster. Storey, J 2013, Leadership in organizations, Routledge. Williams, C, 2013, Principles of management, South-Western/Cengage Learning. Avolio, B. 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