Leadership Style of the Senior Executive - Assignment Example

?Leadership Style of the Senior Executive Leadership style is an all-encompassing term that consists of various behaviors of an individual that motivates and influences his/her followers. A recent study has shown that the employee turnover in an organization is very closely related to the behavior and attitude of managers or leaders of the organization. In this part I will discuss the behavior of the managing director of my previous company. The MD of my previous organization has had a very high negative impact on me. The organization was a consulting firm which mainly deals with tax and audit consulting for companies. The main drawback of the manager was that he was very autocratic in his style. The company consisted of 100 employees then. Though there were divisional managers for each functional level, the decisions for the functional levels are taken by the MD himself. Even if the decisions of the divisional managers are worth, the MD hardly approves them. The second major drawback of his is that he is less concerned about the growth of his employees. In other words, he is highly afraid of being dethroned by other talents in the company. When an employee aims for taking accreditation tests, he de-motivates them by saying that it is not required at their stage and they could think of it on some later years. Overall he wants the employees to progress very slowly in the organization. But there is one good quality that he possesses. He takes quick decisions. There were many instances where the company required immediate decisions to sustain business. He was good enough to take decision at the right time and sustain the business. Though decision making is one of the best skills of a leader, its sole possession cannot make a person an efficient leader. Organizational Structure and Culture The organization which I worked for was a partnership firm. The company had a very informal culture. As per the firm’s objectives, there were no strict hierarchies to be followed. Everybody from the associate staff to the top directors of the firm are to be addressed each other’s by their first name only. Even an associate staff has the liberty to report anything directly to the chairman or director. Every individual who is recruited to the company is being given orientation program about the organizational culture and practices. This one week of orientation program is given in order to make the individual learn and unlearn various things. The culture of the firm has definitely helped me to enhance my relationship skills. The only hindrance for growth was the attitude of the managing director. My role in the company was a consultant. A consultant is just one level next to the associate staff. I am a person who likes to interact and mingle with people. The company’s culture helped me to be in constant interaction with the divisional managers and even the managing director. I could always interact with them on work or non-work related matters. The workforce of the firm was divided into various groups based on the companies for which the consulting is performed. A group is not permanent and each group will have members based on their team requirements. For instance, the team for Kraft Foods consulting will be different from the team for John Deer consulting. Both the teams may or may not have common members in them. Therefore, the team system enables an individual to be connected with various people in the organization. The team will also undergo minor re-shuffling every year. Each team will also have a person as a team lead who will manage the smooth flow of work in that team. Therefore, it gives an individual the opportunity for enhancing their leadership skills. Performance of the selected leader As discussed before, one of the good qualities of the managing director was his effective communication skills. He always communicated well with the employees. In that way he has helped me to motivate me on my communication skills. I always like to interact with people. I could always talk to him about anything. He always encouraged people to talk and communicate well with each other. He creates the client allocations in such a way that every individual has a chance to interact with many others in the office. Encouraging free communication is a very good quality of a leader. In fact, this is one quality of my managing director that motivated me. He scored well on the ethical side too. Ethics is one of the core values of the firm. The firm was ready to forego any prospective contracts if those contracts were expected to cast shadow on the firm’s ethical values. The same culture was reflected in the behavior of the managing director. He was very ethical in his conduct. In many organizations, ethics are being seen as something which can be compromised for better profits. It depends a lot on the manager or the managing team at the top of the hierarchy on how well ethics is practiced in the day to day activities. 3 Best Practices The three best practices that organizational leaders can use to motivate employees are effective communication, proper delegation and appreciation. Effective Communication: Effective communication is one of the most important practices that a leader should perform. Effective communication can work well in motivating the employees of an organization. In most organizations, the employees lack the chance to interact directly with the managers or other top level executives of the organization. Such an atmosphere will not help to enhance the creativity and productivity of employees in the long run. The employees feel highly motivated if they are given a chance to interact more with the top executives. This makes them feel that even their decision is being valued by the management. An employee, irrespective of his/her position may have better ideas and innovative mind. Such attitude of the employees can be brought out only if they are given a good platform to interact each other. Proper Delegation: Proper delegation of authority is another important practice that a leader should follow. Delegation of authority is highly important in terms of the productivity of an organization as well as the productivity of the employees. A good leader hardly does works by him. Instead, he gets them done by his followers or sub-ordinates through planned and effective delegation. Delegation also helps the lower level employees to contribute their knowledge and skills to the overall objectives of the organization. Employees feel more motivated and committed when they are given a chance to be an important component in achieving the objectives of the organization. Effective delegation also enables smooth flow of work in an organization. Appreciation: Appreciation is the third best practice that a leader should follow. A small appreciation email or just a pat on the back can be a good motivating force for an employee. Appreciation need not always be in the form of monetary rewards. Representing an employee among a huge crowd for some of his achievements can also be a good motivational factor for the employee. A good leader should possess a mind to appreciate his followers for their good conduct and performance. The above three practices can be used by a manager to motivate his/her employees. They are beneficial to the organization in such a way that it improves the employee morale and productivity. Challenges to be encountered Managing diversity is one of the greatest challenges for many leaders, especially in multinational organizations. The major challenges to be encountered by a leader while managing diversity are communication and resistance to change. Communication: In a diverse organization employees in an office may be from various cultural and ethnical backgrounds. A typical multinational organization may contain people from various regions, ethnical and cultural backgrounds. Therefore there is more likelihood that people from same regions will communicate each other in their own regional language. Such tendencies will naturally lead to the formation of informal groups in an organization. Managing such informal groups is a big challenge for a leader. Informal groups can be beneficial for an organization. At the same time it can also lead way to organizational politics. Resistance to Change: Resistance to change is another major challenge that a leader should face in a diverse organization. Resistance to change is some kind of a fear of unknown. People are scared of getting accustomed to changes that happen in an organization. Resistance to change differs from one person to another. In a more broad way an individual’s attitude to change is influenced by the ethnical, social, and cultural factors. Diversity helps an organization to better compete in the market. In a diverse organization the people come from various cultural, ethnical and social backgrounds. As such, the knowledge pool in an organization is very high. A better knowledge pool will help an organization to be innovative in the market place. In the global market environment what is required for businesses is out of the box ideas. Business Strategies to Address the Challenge A leader can employ certain strategies in order to curb the issues that can develop in a diverse organization. The two major challenges that are identified in the previous section are communication and resistance to change. Some of the strategies that can be used to overcome such challenges are as follows. Conduct Language Workshops: An organization to design various language workshop programs to enable the employees to improve the language skills. This includes reading, writing and speaking skills. Link communication to the performance review: Organizations should link communications skills to final performance evaluation. Advanced services of companies like Global English can be used for this purpose. Works Cited Greenburg, J. (2010). Diversity in Workplace. Retrieved February 27, 2013. From: http://diversity.sdce.edu/content/diversity-workplace-benefits-challenges-and-solutions McArthur, E. (2010). Managing Diversity for Success. Retrieved February 27, 2013. From: http://www.workforcediversitynetwork.com/res_articles_managingdiversity_mcarthur.aspx Michaels, C. (2013). Relationship Between Organizational Leadership and Diversity Management. Retrieved February 27, 2013. From: http://www.ehow.com/info_8477841_relationship-organizational-leadership-diversity-management.html Smith, E. (2013). The Importance of Communication in the Organizational Structure. Retrieved February 27, 2013. From: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-communication-organizational-structure-24390.html Read More