Introduction
The objective of this study is to evaluate the different leadership behaviors at organizations around the world. In addition, the study focuses on revealing the importance of effective leadership to help an organization to achieve the desired success. Leadership has become an integral part of an organization due to which examples of two leadership styles at different organizations have been taken into consideration. It is important to acknowledge here that the subordinates tend to follow what is done by the leader. For this reason, it is important for the leaders to pursue healthy and productive behavior. The behavioral approach allows the leaders to identify and explore the leadership behavior and skills which are important for success. With the help of this approach and 360 degree feedback the leaders can work on their personal development plan and further enhance their leadership qualities.
Leadership is the art of giving hope to the people while influencing them to work towards a common goal (Winston and Patterson, 6-66). Leadership has been considered, as a process to motivate and encourage people to move in a single direction for the accomplishment of shared objectives (Martin and Ernst, 82-94).
In simpler terms, leadership is about influencing others to make an average team of individuals transform into superstars. This reflects that leadership is the ability to motivate the employees, sub-ordinates and peers to achieve greatness in every second of their work (Gastil, 953-975). According to Horner (270-287), leadership is a dominant function that involves understanding oneself and communicating the vision to the employees for the creation of trust and loyalty among the employees while realizing the leadership potential through effective actions.
Leadership is less regarding personal needs, and more about the people that are being influenced. This implies that leadership is an act that ignores personal needs for the accomplishment of organizational goals and objectives by influencing others to work towards a common goal (Rost, 91-110).
LEADERSHIP STYLES AND BEHAVIOR
Leadership is about influencing others to work towards a common goal. This is the reason that each leader has a distinct style through which he/she tends to be an effective leader. The leadership styles reflect the overall leadership behavior and practices (Sosik and Godshalk, 365-390). Some of the leadership styles that help in the effective accomplishment of plans are as follows;
- Autocratic Leadership
As the name suggest, autocratic leaders tend to work alone. They provide the followers with clear expectations about what needs to be done, when should it be done and how should it be done. In this leadership style, there is a clear distinction between the leader and the followers. The decision making authority rests with the leader, and decisions are made independently without the input of the group. This style has often been criticized for being abusive and unprofessional style and has often been related to bossing people around (Sosik and Dionne, 447-462).
- Participative Leadership
Participative leadership is often related to democratic leadership. In this leadership style, the leaders offer guidance to the group members while allowing them to participate in the group without any discrimination. As input from the group members is taken into consideration, participative leadership has become the most effective leadership style.
This leadership style encourages the group members to participate. As a result of such encouragement, the group member’s contribution has always remained outstanding. In addition, this leadership style helps the group members to feel engaged in the process eventually helping them to be motivated and creative (Sosik and Godshalk, 365-390).
- Charismatic Leadership
Charismatic leadership tends to inspire enthusiasm in the team members while motivating them to continually move forward for the accomplishment of the task. This leadership style has helped in the creation of excitement and commitment among the members of the team. But the overconfidence of charismatic leaders puts them at a great disadvantage over other leaders (Sosik and Godshalk, 365-390).
- Transactional Leaders
Transactional leadership style focuses on paying the team members in return for their efforts and outstanding work. This leadership style implies that the team members are to obey the leader at all cost. In return, the team members are provided with some benefits including the clarification of roles and responsibilities, and provision of external rewards for outstanding performance (Sosik and Godshalk, 365-390).
- Transformational Leaders
This leadership style is often considered the best in businesses. This leadership style expects the best from every member of the team, leading to high productivity and engagement. Through this leadership style, the team members are empowered to take control of the roles and responsibilities assigned within the team (Leban and Zulauf, 554-564).
- People-Oriented Leadership
As the name suggests, this leadership style focuses on the development of team members through effective organizing and support. People-oriented leadership focuses highly on encouraging team work and collaboration for the effective completion of tasks. In this leadership style, the team members are treated equally due to which every individual wants to become a part of this team (Sosik and Godshalk, 365-390).
This leadership style is exactly opposite to people-oriented leadership style. Leaders following this style clearly focus on the completion of tasks. Task-oriented leaders are often autocratic leaders and provide the team members with clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the achievement of the desired outcome (Sosik and Godshalk, 365-390).
LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR AND SUCCESS OF THE ORGANIZATION
For an organization to achieve its desired success, it must have effective leadership. Leaders have the ability to challenge their employees to accomplish a challenging task while exploring and unlocking the employees’ potential. Successful leaders and their styles are the key to organization’s success. One thing that is shared among successful leaders is that they tend to influence people around them for reaping maximum benefits through the resources available. Each leadership style can result in the organization’s success (Kaiser, Hogan, and Craig, 96-110).
Some of the factors that can help in the assessment of leadership style in the success of the organization are as following (Ogawa and Bossert, 224-243);
- Communication
Communication of goals plays an integral role in the success of the organization. Leaders tend to communicate the goals and objectives of the organization to the team members for their support. This helps the leaders to earn the commitment and loyalty of the team members. As a result, the effective communication helps the team members to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization in more profitable manner. In addition, the vision of the organization is well communicated to the employees through effective leadership style which eventually results in the enhancement of performance and productivity of the employees.
- Employee Input
Employees within an organization are considered to be the most valuable asset for an organization. The organization is provided with pertinent information to improve the organization’s performance and processes by providing employees with an opportunity share their ideas and opinions. This implies that the organization can significantly improve its work processes along with significant improvements in productivity by taking employee input into consideration.
- Morale
Leaders tend to provide the organization with profitable outcomes from time to time. In order to do so, the leaders rely on their leadership style to make the staff feel motivated and confident. The leadership style directly impacts the morale of the employees. As a result of leadership style, the organization is provided with satisfied and motivated workforce that works for to increase the organization’s performance and productivity.
- Goals
Leaders are solely responsible for setting and communicating the goals of the organization. The leadership style can affect the goals setting and communication of goals within an organization. In addition, the leadership style at an organization can also help in creating and setting clearer goals by empowering the employees. For instance, transformational leader will tend to inspire the employees to achieve success. As leaders are the ones leading the team, the possibility to accomplish the organizational goals significantly increases.
EXAMPLES OF LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR AND STYLES
Tim Cook, the CEO at Apple Inc., is one of the greatest examples of democratic leadership style. Under the supervision of Tim Cook, Apple and its employees have been provided with significant opportunities to accomplish the desired success. It has been observed that the employees at the organization are extremely satisfied and motivated due to the democratic leadership style of Tim Cook (Reidinger). As a result, the organization has witnessed extreme improvements in performance and productivity over the years.
On the other hand, Larry Page is also one of the most successful leaders in the world today. Larry Page, the CEO of Google Inc., exhibits a supportive leadership style (i.e. Democratic leadership) and is highly flexible. Under the leadership of Larry Page, the employees at Google are considered to be an essential part of the family. Being a part of the Google family for over decades, Page has been able to communicate the vision and goals of the organization very clearly and concisely to the employees (Elmer). This eventually has resulted in the job-satisfaction and motivation of the employees ultimately leading to the creation of distinct products that directly challenge the competitors.
CONCLUSION
Leadership at an organization plays an effective role in the success of the organization. Leaders tend to motivate and satisfy the organization’s need by practicing different leadership styles. The leadership style taken into consideration by the leaders helps in gaining the employees’ trust and commitment, and eventually helps the organization for improving its overall performance and productivity.
The most frequently adopted leadership style or behavior is the democratic leadership style as it tends to involve the people within the decision making and encourages them to participate equally for the completion of tasks. The rapidly rising importance of democratic leadership style can be clearly witnessed through the success of Google Inc., and Apple Inc. Both the leaders at the organization tend to focus highly on democratic leadership style as it helps in encouraging employees to work for the betterment of the organization.
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