Business Leadership
The global economy is undergoing many changes every year and organizations need to retain the personnel that have talent. The management of businesses continually seeks to define and understand what it means to manage and lead people. Organizations spend many resources trying to understand the whole idea of leading a business successfully and ensuring that it meets its objectives. Leaders need to navigate through many challenges and at the same time lead the organization. Leadership is the ability to create a direction and influence people to follow the direction without much friction. Leadership is comes from leaders and they inspire the followers to get the job done. Business leadership involves adaptive change. This is because it is a complex process rooted in knowledge, skills and the parties in leadership think. Business leadership helps us understand the reality and develop a reality from it. Through leadership, the society is able to see opportunities and manage the interactive processes of business. Leadership supports the growth of the society both collectively and of the individual. Leadership is the ability to transform and change the business organization. It works from the top leaders to the workers in the business organization.
Business leadership is often confused with business management. Management primarily concerns itself in directing and accountability for a group of people, functions and resources. The primary focus of management is getting the things done in the organization. The managers must possess some unique knowledge, experience and skills to perform the functions of management. Business leadership is a field if not checked well by the organization will lead to losses. This will force the business to close down because the primary aim of a business is to make profit. Effective business organizations that know this is always in search of a person who will steer the organization towards achieving its targeted objectives within a set span of time. The selected person should be in a position to influence the employees of the organization to work in a common direction.
The person who will lead the business to success must possess the traits. The leader is a respectable person. He should command respect from the rest of the employees. This is very important because juniors who do not respect the leaders do not work well for the organization. The leader also should respect the employees and assist them in everything they come to him for. This ensures cohesion and the business activity will move without problems. A business leader is someone organized. Organization means order and cleanliness. Business leadership entails planning of activities in the organization to facilitate smooth flow of operations and tasks (Smith, 2005). When the leader organizes these activities, the achievement becomes easy. There is no stress experienced in organized work and little conflict exists. Business leadership needs responsible employees. Business leadership entails a lot of responsibility. The business owner or the leader is someone who is accountable for every employee and every action that takes place in the organization. The leader should own up to the duties and the repercussions that the duties carry. The employees also have the same duty of ensuring that their actions correspond to what the organization requires them to do.
The pace at which the business organization moves comes from the leader. A successful business leader is able and self-aware to exploit and use his strengths to lead the business to success. The leaders surround themselves with people who will influence the business positively. Business leadership requires motivation to accomplish the objectives. The subordinates look up to their leader to provide them with a clear direction to follow. The direction might be faced with many obstacles and for the subordinates to follow to the end they need motivation. It is the duty of the business leader to identify the employees and ensure that they get motivation. Giving the employees a discussion about their respective roles in the attainment of the business goals is a very god way of doing this. Interaction with the employees also gives the leader of the business to know the weak points of the employees. This will help the leader to know how to motivate that employee who is of low morale.
Business leadership requires transparency in the operations and activities of the business. The leadership of the business should ensure that the dealings of the organization do not conflict with the society’s expectations. The leader should be approachable by both the employees and the customers of the business. The employees and the customers are the most important assets that the business activity has. This necessitates that the business leadership does all that is within its reach to ensure that the wishes and requirements of the customers and employees are satisfied. Time management is of great importance in business leadership. It is important that the leader plan for the timelines for the achievement of the objectives of the business activity. A business leader deals with many people in the organization. The business deals with suppliers of the business, the customers, the owners and the new employees (Martlew, 2004). The business leader should plan for all these activities and how the organization will meet the targets. The business must allocate appropriate time to all the stakeholders of the business activity. Time management ensures that everything that the business organization intends to do happens within the specified time.
The skills of business leadership come from varied sources. Some people were born with the traits of leadership while other people undergo a training to develop the business leadership skills. The skills are very important because it enables the business activity to move from simply having a vision to acting. The planning aspect of business leadership enables the organization to obtain the finances the business needs. Leadership must design ways of knowledge management within the business organization. Leadership maintains the workforce of the business. Business leadership determines how it is going to pay its employees and how it is going to sell its products in the market. The training of business workforce rests upon the leadership of the organization to determine who needs the training.
The business leadership must establish the policies and procedures in the business organization. The business leadership also functions to introduce change in the business organization. After introducing change to the organization, the leadership of the business must also device ways of managing it and ensure it does not conflict with the values of the organization (Shackleton, 1995). The leadership of the organization ensures that every activity it undertakes conforms well to the set regulations of set. The corrective measures applied to the activities of business must center in achieving the objectives of the business activity. It is also the responsibility of the business leadership to do research. The technology changes rapidly and this calls for the business organization to keep up with the innovation if they have to still maintain its market share. The taste and preferences of the customer change quickly and the business needs to come up with the products and services that meets the needs of the customer.
The business leadership determines the success or the failure of any business organization. It is the prerogative of every business leader to provide a clear direction on how the organization will move. The objectives and goals of the organization determine the extent to which the organization should go in pursuing them. The business leadership formulates the strategies the organization takes. It also focuses on empowering the employees of the business organization. Leaders should have charisma that will enable them forge ahead towards the attainment of the goals.
The leaders must invest in communication. The communication between the leader and the employees influences on the performance of the business. Business leadership must allow teams in the organization to help the achievement of the objectives. The business leadership should allow for freedom and responsibility.it is out of responsibility that freedom will come. The responsibility of the self, colleagues and the whole business organization leads to the overall achievement of the objectives of the organization. The business leadership must consider also giving back to the society. The organization can engage in charitable activities. The business can engage in the conservation of the environment. This makes the business relevant to the society. To achieve all the objectives of the business it calls for responsible business leadership that will deliver the needs of the customer.
References
Martlew, C. (2004). Leadership recharged Business leadership & organizational architecture. Leicester: Troubadour.
Shackleton, (1995). Business leadership. S.l.: Thomson Learning.
Smith, A. (2005). Leadership in Business. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.