Leadership concepts - Dissertation Example

Running head: leadership concepts Introduction Leadership entails the process of influencing or supporting others in order to achieve a certain goal. It is vital to note that for any team to be effective and achieve the predetermined objectives, it must be effectively coordinated by a focused leader. For a leader to be effective in his duties he or she must posses certain traits. These include significant level of intelligence, conscientiousness, self-efficacy and openness to experience among others. In their effort to develop their teams and organizations, leaders emulate various styles. Some of these include democratic style, Laissez-faire style, Autocratic style and Narcissistic style among others. This paper seeks to discuss seven notable leadership concepts, different ethical aspects of the concepts as well as how I plan to incorporate the leadership concepts in my leadership development. Leadership traits Leadership traits entail personal characteristics that make an individual to be effective in his or her leadership process. According to the research that has been conducted by various scholars, successful leaders are different from other people based on the personal aspects that positively contribute to the success. This implies that an organization must be at a position of identifying the key traits possessed by their leaders in order to come up with unique ways of leader selection, training as well as other skills development aspects. One of the major leader’s traits is being determined and strong drive. Individual with high level of determination tend to extensively pursue their goals as well as working for long hours. Additionally, leaders who are determined are in a better position to formulate sustainable solutions. Self-confidence is another major trait that makes an individual a successful leader. Some of the major aspects that are related to self-confidence include emotional stability, self-esteem and self-assurance among others. A leader who has self confidence is not only in a position to build trust among the workers but also he or she is able to create the spirit of commitment among the team members. As an individual who has self confidence, my future leadership plan will entail sharing these values with my followers. Notably, my focus will be on ensuring that the virtues of trust, loyalty and not being deceptive are castigated among my employees. Servant Leadership Servant Leadership entails not only leadership philosophy but also leadership practices that differentiate traditional styles of leadership with the current strategies. Servant leadership aims at building better firms, improving the lives of individuals as well as creating a caring world (Trevor, 2007). One of the notable aspects of a servant leader is that he or she focuses mostly on the growth as well as well being of the communities and the people within the organization. While the traditional leadership styles aims at exercising and accumulating power, a servant leader intention is to share power while at the same time putting the needs of other people in the organization at the first place. It is vital to note that if a strong organization and society is to be achieved, the employees must be trained on how to work as servants as well being trained on the benefits of caring for others. In my future leadership plan, I will be employ servant leadership style as a way of ensuring that members of my team feel as part and parcel of the organization thus enhancing their performance and increasing the organizational productivity. Motivation Motivation entails the driving force that results to a strong desire. Having originated from social, behavioral, physiological and cognitive areas, motivation is a major aspect that makes a team to achieve its goals. This implies that a leader must be in a position to enhance the performance of the employees either extrinsically or intrinsically. Intrinsic motivation refers to a kind of motivation that is due to enjoyment or interest of doing the jobs (Weightman, 2008). This implies that the workers performance does not significantly depend on external sources. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from outside. For example, by providing the team members with training, bonuses, promotion and rewards among other aspects, a leader is able to enhance the performance of the workers thus increasing the firms output. Leaders who are focused at attaining their goals as well those of the entire organization can apply the incentive theory of motivation. This means that by receiving a reward on the spot after good performance, there is greater impact. If a leader delays in giving the reward, the effect continues to decrease (Kanfer, 1990). It is ethically fit for a leader to recognize the employees being the key assets in a firm. It is vital to note aspect such as denying employees free time to relax or be with their family members does not result to increase in output but rather it negatively affect the performance of the employees. This includes not making the employees to achieve their goals. According to Abraham Maslow, a renowned American psychologist, employees are motivated by unsatisfied needs. The needs range from the basic ones to complex ones. These needs include physiology for example thirst and sleep, safety, belongingness, self-esteem and self actualization. As a leader, my major goal will be maintaining a strong positive relationship between the managers and the employees. Thus, I aim at establishing an integrated benefit scheme that consists of training, annual bonuses, promotion, self evaluation, holidays and annual gifts. In this way, the employees will feel motivated thus improving their performance and the firm’s productivity. Communication One of the major factors that make a leader to be successful is proper and adequate communication within an organization. Based on the various challenges that face an organization that relates to human resources, finance and customer relations among others, it is imperative that effective communication is maintained. An effective leader must ensure that a feedback system is maintained thus ensuring that the employees among other stakeholders can give their opinions on the performance of a company. A leader must have an open mind as one of the communication aspect. This implies that a leader must be in a position to accept dissenting opinions. In this way, the leader will be able to identify areas that he or she needs to improve. In addition, an effective leader should be in a position to listen (Judge et al, 2006). In this way, they are in a position to identify the problems faced by the employees and come up with effective solutions to address the social and economic problems in the organization. As a leader, my objective would be to initiate effective communication through traditional means such as brochures and face to face interviews and meetings, as well as by use of social media. Notably, I will ensure that all members of the team participate in forums and meetings thus ensuring their grievances and ideas reach the top management. Team development Team development or group development is where activities are designed and engaged to make sure that all the participants are involved in the task of recreating the issues that will help and hinder the effective working of the team. Through experimental learning in the workshops that is provided by the facilitators and trainers, leadership skills can be acquired. For effective team working, the team developers or group developers must incorporate the following team skills. First is effective listening where all the participants in the team must listen carefully to the leaders and other members. The second skill is planning and objective setting if one does not plan then the next step is to fail. Goals must be set so that members of the team will work towards the objectives. The third skill is sensitivity and respect for others as team member’s respect must be portrayed so that conflict is hindered. The fourth skill is being aware of the team roles which will contribute greatly in attainment of the goals. Team development must incorporate job design and is commonly seen in businesses that need large teams so that the production and operation will be easier (Beyerlein and Johnson, 2001). Team development incorporates four stages. They include forming, storming, performing and adjourning. The decision to the stages of developing the team is carried by top persons in the company where decisions are first made by those who are at the top management. As a leader, I will employ team development to make sure that goals of the firm will be attained through team work where it should be developed for the like minded individuals. Leadership and diversity As leader, diversity must be the key pillar of the organization since in large companies diversity is the lens that the leaders like managers, CEOs among others who are top management use to look at, identify, develop and advance talent. Through training the leaders can educate the recruiters of the company so that they can consider diversity of the population that will be part and parcel of the company. Being a leader of one is supposed to ensure that accountability in the systems is acquired. It is the work of the leaders like managers to take the responsibility and create a diverse and a good working environment that the workers will embrace. The top management together with middle management must be accountable for diversity and inclusion. As the top managements or the employees, it is important to look diversity in our workforce so that we can learn from our own diversity thus attaining the customer requirements. Any organization that uses diversity has the capability of increasing the cultural competence of their workforce rather than to have legitimacy with the clients. It is the work of the leaders either being the managers or supervisors to lead others where the responsibility is assigned to different individuals so that attainment of the goals will be achieved. The leaders are the one who are supposed to develop the team that will attain the organization goals. As a leader who values his employees, my focus will be to ensure that our organization emulates diversity by recruiting employees from various backgrounds. Strategic leadership The style that the leaders of organization use to provide the vision and direction for the growth and successes of the organization is termed as strategic leadership. Since change is not easily accepted in organizations, strategic leadership ensures that all the executives of the organization will work with the skills and tools that are needed to make sure that the change and strategy formulation and implementation are attained in the organization. Strategic leadership is not easy since change in the organization is not easily accepted and thus it is the work of strategic leaders to provide a sense of directions and communicate with the employees (Rothwell, 2008). This is because as a strategic leader, one must first build ownership and work together with the work groups to implement the change in the organization. The purpose of change in the organization is to make sure that the objectives of the organization are known. Additionally, the organization must be able to measure, analyze and address the strategic issues. In my leadership style, I would incorporate the abilities like anticipating, challenging, interpreting and learning to make sure that strategic leadership is attained. For change to be accepted in the organization I would challenge the employees or the managements on the same and later I would interpret the challenge thus accepting the change. Conclusion Based on the above discussion, it is clear that as firms adopt various strategies in order to remain competitive, it is imperative that leaders emulate appropriate policies that will ensure the success of their companies. Similarly, organizations must identify the leadership traits that their leaders have in order to bring about success. On their part, the employees should be supportive to their leaders either by giving ideas and following up the company ethics during the performance of their duties. This paper has discussed the seven leadership concepts that include leadership traits, servant Leadership, motivation, communication, team development, leadership and diversity as well as strategic leadership. Additionally, the paper has indicted the ethical aspects of the concepts and how I will incorporate them in my leadership style. References Beyerlein, M and Johnson, A. (2001). Team Development. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Judge, A., Woolf, F., Hurst, C., and Livingston, B. (2006). Charismatic and Transforma- tional Leadership, A Review and an Agenda for Future Research. 50(4), 3-21. Kanfer, R. (1990). Motivation theory and industrial and organizational psychology. CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. Rothwell, W. (2008). Human resource transformation: demonstrating strategic leadership in the face of future trends. Mountain View: Davies-Black Pub. Trevor M. (2007). Becoming Authentic: The Search for Wholeness and Calling as a Servant Leader. London: Sage. Weightman, J. (2008). The Employee Motivation Audit. New York: Cambridge Strategy Publications Read More