Leading in a Changing World - Essay Example

Leading in a Changing World By Candi s FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (This page intentionally left blank) Introduction Accordingto McGarvie (2009), effective leadership is about always working to meet the challenges of a changing world and effective leadership is even more important today than ever before because the world of today presents rapid change. McGarvie (2009) goes further to suggest that the world of today is far more interconnected than ever before, with rapid advances in technology affecting people and organisations. Markets are now global and it is now important for leaders to win the battle for resources and talent, while confronting the new realities of supply and demand, increased volatility and inflation, new financial reporting criteria and global enterprise. McGarvie (2009) suggests that today, leaders should be able to attract multidimensional capital flows, read the roadmap for future innovation and participate in new markets, while effectively leading their organisation and their people. We now live in an era in which short- and long-term mismanagement of our environment, work worlds, economies, political situations, cyberspace, care priorities, family lives and values, natural disasters, and capabilities for mass destruction present new challenges for those who must lead in a changing world (Klein, 2009, Pp. 1 – 5). However, it is important to understand that an effective leader must not only select the right vision and the right strategy for attaining a shared vision for the future, but the leader should also effectively influence followers to achieve a shared vision (Boseman, 2008, Pp. 36 – 37). Although personal traits were emphasised earlier by those who researched leadership, Boseman (2008) suggests that the way in which leaders use leadership traits effectively to influence followers decides about effective leadership. Thus, leading effectively the group to attain a shared vision is important for leaders who must lead in a changing world and it is worth discussing how leaders should lead in a changing world. The Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Leadership According to Goethals (2004) and Yukl (2010), organisational research domain often discusses leadership in terms of the use of interpersonal influence exercised in situations and directed, through communications processes, towards the attainment of a specific goal or goals. Thus, effective and practical leadership must emphasise the capacity for influencing followers and follower satisfaction is important. Goethals (2004) goes further to suggest that an effective leader has the capacity for influencing a work group to perform and that transformational leadership is more positively related to leadership effectiveness compared to the laissez-faire leadership styles. Thus, effective leaders communicate effectively to motivate their followers to exert their efforts correctly and it is more likely that a group will select those that occupy a central, rather than a peripheral position in a group’s communication structure, as leaders. Boseman (2008) states that followers want leaders who are honest, forward looking, inspiring and competent. Because leaders are responsible for achieving performance through the efforts of others, they must possess positive energy, the ability to energise others, possess the courage to make difficult decisions and the ability to execute these decisions (Boseman, 2008, Pp. 36 – 37). Heifetz (2009) states that in the present day and age, the practice of leadership involves deciding about how an organisation should adapt to rapid change. Diagnosis followed by action should present the right results and this means that a leader should have the capacity for implementing a plan based on their diagnosis. Thus, leaders should be able to present the correct diagnosis with the correct treatment and they should be able to observe, interpret and intervene to move the group in the right direction. Leadership Styles in a Range of Organisations Goethals (2004) suggests that those researching leadership have identified a number of leadership styles, including autocratic, democratic, dysfunctional, innovative, invisible, laissez-faire and tyrannical leadership etc. An autocratic leader makes all the decisions, while a democratic leader shares decision-making with followers. The laissez-faire leader permits followers to make all the decisions and this implies a lack of leadership. An autocratic leader is concerned with accomplishment of a task with little regard for the happiness or welfare of followers, but a democratic leader permits the wishes of followers to impinge on leadership decision-making. Goethals (2004) states that transformational leaders encourage their followers to adapt to a vision and these types of leaders have held an interest for researchers because transformational leaders bring about change. However, Goethals (2004) goes further to suggest that in the real world, quality of leadership often depends on context in which a leader operates and the leadership qualities that they possess. In the army, an inability to make a decision is a fatal flaw and even a mediocre decision is superior to an inability to decide. However, business organisations and knowledge-based industries often require well-considered decisions and their implementation that can ensure victory in the market. Yukl (2010) suggests that leadership in creative companies required entrepreneurship, coalition building, and bargaining and negotiation to accumulate the information, support, and resources needed to proceed with innovation. However, for service-oriented industries, it is important to respond to customers quickly and this requires empowered people selected by the leader. In a distributed enterprise, leaders cannot succeed without the success of others and this means that leaders must empower others. Leadership and Organisational Change Harvard Business Review (2008) states that to cope with the rapid pace of change, organisations are now adopting a far flatter management style as opposed to the traditional command and control hierarchies. Thus, according to the Harvard Business Review, leaders of today should excel at persuading others. Goethals (2004) suggests that adaptive challenges demand that leaders successfully engage people in confronting challenging realities and then change at least some of their priorities, attitudes, and behaviour in order to thrive in a changing world. Wheatley (2009) states that today leaders must be able to see through complexity and effectively persuade their people to change their thinking at their most fundamental level, their worldview. According to Burnes (2009), while managers focus on small, localised change, leaders focus on the more radical organisation wide change and those leaders with a transformational approach to leadership who exhibits a high degree of innovation are especially useful for bringing about change in an organisation. Because a leader cannot be everywhere at once in a large organisation, it is important that leaders persuade and motivate managers and other organisational members to own the change to embed the new into an organisation. Leaders who want to bring about change today must have a vision based on the new realities and they must encourage their followers to foster adaptation for the new world realities by inducing people to embrace change, but not to fight or to flee (Heifetz, 2008, Pp. 64 – 65). Leaders must now encourage everyone to devise solutions and distribute leadership responsibility, while taking care to ensure that they can survive to accomplish their mission for implementing change. The Key Tensions of Leadership and their Impact According to Goethals (2004), the key task of a leader to motivate followers to realise a vision, or to accomplish a task, to achieve the objective of realising a shared vision for a group present tensions as followers maintain an inertia. Thus, being too forceful can endanger the leader, while maintaining an excess of focus on the socio-economic interests of the group can cause the vision to be lost. Leaders must not only present a correct vision that is achievable, but they must also find the right ways to bring about change at a sufficiently rapid pace to ensure that a vision is achieved, without causing excessive stresses and strains on their followers. Clearly, if leaders cannot sell their vision and convince followers of its value, change is likely to be difficult and rebellion may ensue. Goethals (2004) suggests further that followers often demand that leaders are aware of their abilities, needs and desires, with a sense of fair exchange prevailing and followers benefitting from leaders. However, accomplishing that which is in the best interest of a group is often the desire of leaders and this means that it may not always be possible to satisfy everyone when trying to accomplish a vision. Because leaders have the overall responsibility, they are the ones who will get the blame if a group fails to achieve a correct vision and its implementation to bring about maximum benefits. Leadership and Ethics Wheatley (2009) states that often, leaders have been encouraged to consider the impact of less material forces on organisations, including ethics, values, culture and vision. However, Goethals (2004) states that leaders can get their hands dirty if they engage in behaviour generally regarded as morally wrong for the sake of a “higher cause”. According to Wheatley (2009), although leaders may get their hands dirty for the sake of others, it is important to understand that followers are likely to respond with less commitment to leaders and the hierarchy if a leader is involved in controversies involving ethics. Thus, even though values, vision and ethics may be too soft and too ethereal to serve as management tools it is best for leaders to avoid involvement in ethical controversies and to maintain ethical and moral standards. Even though we live in a world in which leaders are morally disappointing, leaders can ruin their position if they clash with a religious tradition, especially when injustice and harm arises to others. Thus, those leaders who indulged in unethical conduct for their self-interest and not for the interests of their group of followers cannot remain leaders because it is important to understand that perpetuating unethical conduct often compromises the interests of a group to bring harm rather than benefits. Surely, a group which accepts dishonesty as the norm, thieving and stealing as virtues and murdering as fitting cannot thrive and it is likely that ethical values are timeless. Conclusion It is possible to conclude from the previous discussion that although leadership has always been a distinctly interpersonal phenomenon involving leaders and followers, in a changing world the effective leader must be able to solve increasingly complex problems that confront a group and respond to rapid change by persuading a group of the worth of a vision and a strategy. Because leaders must now persuade followers to alter their priorities, attitudes, and behaviour, it is important for leaders to possess knowledge, creative problem solving skills and social skills. In addition, leaders must decide about the pace of change required to achieve a vision while considering the burden of change imposed on followers despite the fact that in a rapidly changing world, bringing about a rapid change in a group is sometimes necessary so as not to miss the vision. However, it is important to remain ethical and to remember that leaders must always assume responsibility for how things turn out. (This page intentionally left blank) Bibliography / References Archer, David and Cameron, Alex, (2009), Collaborative Leadership: How to Succeed in an Interconnected World, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann Bolden, R., Gosling, J., Marturano, A. and Dennison, P., (2003), A Review of Leadership Theory and Competency Frameworks, Exeter: Centre for Leadership Studies at University of Exeter Boseman, Glenn, (2008), Effective Leadership in a Changing World, Journal of Financial Services Professionals, May 2008, Pp. 36 – 38, retrieved: December 8, 2010, from: EBSCO Burnes, B. 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