Introduction
Strong leadership skills are imperative for every organization since employees are attracted by leaders who understand varied workplace situations and are able to design ways through which workers stay motivated. Three themes that are fundamental attributes of competent leaders include the ability to lead and influence actions of employees, ability to promote work-life balance and the need for leaders to impact positively in an organization such that their contributions to the organizations will forever be remembered. The three themes were brought forward by the guest speakers Mark Herley, Martin Plant and Michelle whose presentations provided useful insights on factors that promote effective leadership. According to Martin, the major role of a leader is to focus on maximizing output from employees through actions that depict charisma and strong personality. The outcome of effective leadership is that leaders are able to change how tasks are performed presently and in the future by creating a conducive environment capable of attracting and retaining the best talents. Leaders could play a huge role in enabling their organizations make people employable as suggested by Michelle who further emphasized the need for confidence among leaders. The essay therefore relies on the ideas brought forward by the guest speakers, that is, Michelle, Mark and Martin to discuss the concept of effective leadership as a critical factor that enables global firms cope with challenges in the industry.
Leadership theories
According to Michelle, some leaders may have the skills necessary to see them through their roles but others lack the mechanism to make them good leaders hence end up being forgotten for the role they played. The secret behind good leadership is on the need for individuals to identify ways through which they can continuously improve their competence levels and shape their personality in ways that make them role models among employees. Effective leadership involves taking advantage of leadership training and going the extra mile to practice the lessons learnt from the programs such that in the end, even poor leaders are transformed thereby able to make everyone committed. Over the centuries, emphasis has been on the need to have effective leadership with various theorists contributing to ways through which organizations could attract and retain competent leaders. The ability of leaders to influence the actions of employees is a major determinant of enhanced productivity. Leaders ought to positively influence the attitudes of subordinates in such a way that employees realize the need to be focused and dedicated to maximizing firm’s profits. Leaders who show poor personality and weak leadership damage productivity of employees since they create a culture based on laziness and are unable to influence subordinates to achieve their potential. Another key theory is the traits theory that emphasizes the need for leaders to have qualities that are inborn and key to improving the work place situation.
Traits of integrity, honesty, responsibility, accountability and trust need to be core elements of managers if they are to make workers adopt positive attributes. Behavioral theories emphasize the need for leaders to perform their responsibilities themselves in an ethical ways where employees admire their character and are willing to be influenced by leaders with desirable behavior. Michelle pointed out the fact that positive behavior makes leaders adjust to challenging situations such that they do not have to fear embracing difficult scenarios. According to the contingency theory on leadership, leadership styles need to fit into the current atmosphere and look for ways through which leaders could visualize the outcome of their actions in challenging situations to approach every task with courage.
Elements of effective leaders
Strong leadership skills are important in helping organizations cope with real world business issues such as workers dissatisfaction, high turnover rates and poor retention of best talents. Martin emphasized the fact that through effective leadership, an organization is able to design and implement innovative ways of improving work place performance through meeting financial and non-financial needs of employees. According to Martin, business issues are best solved when leaders are charismatic and have a strong personality that makes them interact with subordinates in ways that promote mutual respect and dependence. Leaders need to appreciate the fact that they can learn a lot from their close relationship with employees and that it is through effective communication that issues in the organization are better discussed and solutions reached at amicably.
Michelle and Martin addressed the need for competency in leadership to ensure leaders manage themselves in ways that show confidence, positive attitude and strong belief of achieving positive outcomes. Ambitious employees who would wish to be in managerial positions at some point in their career often observe the actions of their leaders. In the event where leaders lack the initiative to manage themselves, it becomes impossible for subordinates to perceive them as role models in their career advancements efforts. Mark Herley addressed the need for leaders to influence their subordinates positively in such a way that they get to learn a lot from the actions of managers. Employees in most cases observe and follow what their leaders do such that in the event where managers are incapable of adhering to the core values of the organization, subordinates may tend to develop negativity towards the same values hence interfering with ethical requirements at their work.
It is with no doubt that communication breakdown between leaders and subordinates is among the factors that lead to work place unrests. The implication of this according to the guest speakers is that leaders need to ensure they have desirable communication skills that keep them closer to employees such that they are able to identify any limitation in the performance of tasks. Through strong personality, leaders become individuals who are trusted such that employees are more than willing to be open on the factors that affect their performance. Trust between leaders and subordinates is therefore among key elements that keep employees committed to performing their tasks better such that in the end, everyone works towards making their organization competitive and strong enough to improve its long term growth and stability. Competent leaders visualize emotional feelings of employees and discuss the issues in ways that show concern and the willingness to help troubled employees cope with difficulties. Mark was keen to point out the role of maintaining work life balance since it paves ways for leaders to have a clear view of what they could do to improve the well-being of their employees.
Activities are best performed when managers have the capacity to create a culture where there are no forms of discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, race or ethnic belonging. Martin addressed the need for organizations to give women a chance to be in managerial positions in efforts to strike a gender balance. Limited efforts to address the value of cultural diversity have contributed to problems in business environment such that some employees would prefer to work in isolation as opposed to team work. Team work is a critical element for every global organization that wants to succeed both in the short term and long term such that leaders have to play their role in bringing employees together and avoiding any incidences that could lead to poor relationships among employees.
No one would want to work in a harsh environment where cultural diversity is not appreciated since hostile working environments are a threat to the emotional well-being of employees. This means that in order to implement efforts towards accommodating culture diversity, managers need to play the role of encouraging employees to share ideas in teams and strategically improve their interpersonal relationships to increase productivity. A friendly working environment makes employees perceive their jobs as interesting hence are reluctant to depart for greener pastures. Leaders need to provide everyone with an opportunity that nourishes them and makes them committed to the objectives and goals set. Leaders with great personality are able to identify weaknesses and threats and work towards transforming the two into strategic opportunities of the organization.
Change management is among the key issues affecting business in the modern era such that failure to have capable leadership could lead to the situation where employees are unwilling to accept changes. The fact that there is likelihood of resistance to change when the subordinates feel threatened by the changes implies that managers have to view such situations as challenge and design ways through which they could overcome the difficulties. Changes in the organization need to be tailored towards improving the conditions of the organization as well as enhance well-being of the subordinates. This implies that competent leaders need to identify the factors that could lead to resistance and discuss with employees to determine ways through which changes could be implemented without use of coercive means.
Ways through which leaders make employees committed to the organization’s objectives
Failure to yield expected results is mostly associated with poor engagement of employees such that workers are left demoralized at their work places. The result of disengaging employees is destructive since the organization may be forced to face issues such as high turnover rates and poor retention of best talents that add to the operating expense of the company. Leaders may end up handling hostile workers who lack the ambition and commitment to improve the competitive position of the firm. Martin argued that leaders need to know what drives employees to give all to their organization. When leaders identify ways to motivate their employees, functional operations are improved and hence the organization maintains a happier and dedicated workforce. For leaders to maximize the productivity of employees and be able to attract employable individuals, they have to ensure they have the interest of subordinates in their hearts.
While the economic situations keep changing and the fact that prices of goods and services keep rising, it is only appropriate that leaders realize the situation in the economic environment affecting employees and hence improve the remuneration of employees to make them cope with tough economic situations. Leaders need to have confidence in their staff and give them delegated responsibilities whenever possible. This makes employee feel that they are being prepared for higher roles hence make them committed to developing themselves professionally. Employees need to be offered the opportunity to contribute to the decisions taken by the organization either directly or indirectly through their representatives. When workers opinions are accommodated, it means that leaders recognize the need to recognize their employees and make them feel appreciated at their work places.
Conclusion
With the way global business operations keep changing, I believe that managers need to play great part in keeping employees committed and dedicated to long-term growth and stability of their organization. This implies that leaders have to identify ways through which they could embrace challenges and deal with issues surrounding employees and the organization with confidence and positive attitude. The concept of globalization creates the need for managers to ensure they change the nature of work currently and in the future to fit into the changing factors in the internal and external environments. I believe that every employees would want to associate with leaders who identify their socio-economic and emotional needs then go ahead to design and implement better ways of fulfilling needs and expectations of workers. Modern business environment calls for managers who have strong personality and the ability to influence employees in the right way.
Competence in leaders make them identify employable individuals who are willing and able to visualize the long term aspirations of the organization and help the organization to fulfill its goals and objectives. The implication of having competent managers in an organization is that communication between workers and their leaders is based on mutual trust and dependence such that in the long run, a healthy working environment is created that then prevents issues of staff turnover and improves retention of best talents.
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