Leadership is an attribute of a person with the capability of organizing a group of people or workers for a common goal or objective. In leadership, power pays less influence as compared with the influence. Leaders are visionary, with viable ideas and strategies aimed at achieving a given set of objectives predetermined in the activities. In today’s management leadership plays crucial roles in influencing the managerial processes to be adopted by an organization. Without key strategies of motivating workers or influencing them for a common mission, the organization performance trend is likely to be in a decreasing trend. Leaders in an organization are required to be charismatic and focused who identifies possible forces that may affect the organization performance. For instance, in the current world economies, much advancement is experienced in many organizations, in terms of working environment and marketing strategies. This ideology is a factor that leaders should incorporate in their management skills, such as interpersonal skills, to meet the motive of their leading group and the organization benefits. Thus, leadership entails knowledge that incorporates all elements in an organization. The leadership trait and strategies are of much effect on the success of the organization. Therefore, leaders should not be based on power or authority but influential and leadership traits which are gained through learning or inherited.
Why leadership for quality management?
According to Snyder and Graves, leadership for quality management entails focus on three elements or factors. These factors include the vision, courage and values. A leader who is visionary is a leader who focuses on some organization aspect and develops ideas that will help in solving the prevailing organization problem. The leader is visionary in terms of idea development and management attributes. This factor makes the process of management feasible with efficient and sufficient results that lead to high performance in the organization. The guidance in the formulation of vision strategies forms the organization conduct and structure. They depict the organization performance in the market thus making a leader to focus on ideas that influence the market or industry performance. The value in this situation is the aspect the leader takes his work with. The leader should be focused on the prevailing working condition in the organization and take the value of the activity by formulation of value based strategies. The formulation shouldn’t be unreliable but should be guided by rational decisions, to achieve the set strategies.
Vision and values inherited by leaders in their leadership strategies helps in designing an organizational framework that focuses on quality solutions. Courage is another aspect of leadership that influences the achievement of the set objectives. In this case, courage is taken as that attribute that makes leaders face problems in the industry, organization or market and devise effective measures of developing the required results. This is an indication of facing the reality and finding a way of coming out of the situation. The analysis by Snyder and Grave was done through the use of the competition as a battle ground. They argue that, without effective leadership, no quality strategies or programs can succeed in any organization. Several leaders in many organizations have embraced these attributes and have made their organization renown the best in their industry. For instance, the success of Wal-mart organization is by large contributed by the leadership skills embraced by Sam Walton. The same situation is experienced in Motorola Company, which was lead by Robert Galvin among other successive company such as Xerox.
Value and beliefs are the main stimulants of a quality management. Many leaders who are superior in their performance incorporated these attributes for the success of their organization. A good example is Ray Kroc, who was obsessed with high quality and inexpensive food in a clean environment. Courage helps in persistence for a success of a certain management aspect in many organizations. Through courage, many factors that influenced the performance of the organizations are incorporated in the performance process. For instance, Sam Walton had a high perseverance in the mass marketing retailing business, whereby the reality is experienced now. Wal-Mart is renowned as one of the main food retailers in the world. Therefore, the Snyder and Grave are elaborating on these elements for a quality management in an organization. These are values, visions and courage which should be accompanied by the leader’s loyalty to the employees. The author focus on these elements is an indication that leadership is not power or authority but the influential skills with the leader. The factors in leadership are different in managers. Not all managers are leaders, but all leaders are managers. This means that management should be guided by leadership traits as much of management skills are required.
Why strategies in leadership?
Strategies can be defined as the set steps that are used to solve a given identified situation or problem. In leadership, many problems prevail in the leadership process. These factors need an advanced measures that will help the organization survive the conditions. According to Luecke, in his book scuttle your ship before advancing is a clear indication that strategies need to be formulated for a smooth encounter of a problem. Luecke used an example of the crush of the Japan’s elite strike force loosing its carriers and aircrafts by Americans. What lead to this situation was an ingenious plan or strategy formulated by Japan’s Admiral Yamamoto. Despite their operational plan, the strategies that were set were ineffective to help to conquer the fight. This is an indication that, the strategies can be set, but they are ineffective. The leaders should focus on the viability and efficiency of the set or designed strategies in their leadership work. Another situation described by the author is the gamble that was conducted by Hernan Cortes and his small band by risking everything in bold gamble for Aztec empires. They act elaborated lack of entrepreneurialism which was combined with decisiveness in their action. In today’s management, decision making influences the conduct and performance exhibited by an organization in a market or industry. For instance, the approach the organization adopts in conducting its activities has much effect on the prevailing demand in the market. If the ineffective strategy is taken into place, then the success of an organization is at stake.
The competition level in the current world situations is increasing, an indication that every organization is competing for a market share. This shows that the strategies applied in venturing into the market will determine the competitive advantage of the organization. From the lessons learned from the Japan and American warfare in the year 1942, it is clear that the leaders should set strategies which are SMART. This means that the strategies should be Simple, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. The strategies used by Emperor Hadrian in the consolidation of Roman Empire serve as a guide to today’s leadership team. In the management process, various factors are included. These are such as innovation and attitudes. These attributes serve best when leadership traits are also incorporated. The leadership process is a complex situation which requires elaborate measures to succeed both in the organization perspective and workers welfare gain. To handle these different aspects, then strategies, which should be SMART, requires to be formulated. The success of an activity depends on the steps or procedures taken in place in the process of achieving that success. Luecke clearly differentiates between success and failure in the leadership process. In a summary of his analysis, the success or failure is contributed by the strategies or plans adopted by an organization. In the leadership process, human conflict should be avoided at all chances. This is to lead to a well structured organization with firm frameworks of strategies that make success realistic. This is an indication that, before advancing, the organization should focus on earlier failures that they have had experienced before. This is to evaluate whether the factors that lead to that failure contributes to the proposed plans. The plans need to be well based with rational decisions that evaluate the real nature of the situation at hand. This is a clear path that should be followed by all leaders.
Conclusion
References
Luecke, R. A. (2000). Scuttle Your Ships Before Advancing: And Other Lessons from History on Leadership and Change for Today's Managers. London: Oxford University Press.
Neider, L. L., & Schriesheim, C. A. (2002). Leadership. Kühlungsborn: IAP.
Snyder, N. ( 2010). Vision, Values, and Courage: Leadership for Quality Management. New York: Simon and Schuster.
