Management and Leadership
Business
Management and Leadership
In order to meet the requirements of the given task, I would highlight two aspects of leadership and then incorporate them into my personal leadership development plan. Although there are several qualities of a leader and a leader serves to provide the right direction to its followers whenever and wherever necessary, I will focus on two main areas of leadership which are motivation and transformational leadership.
There could be several ways to provide an explanation for the term motivation. However, the very basic idea about motivation is that it is a driving force which basically drives someone from within to reach a desired aim or goal. Motivation is that spark which makes people achieve even the hardest of tasks. Motivation is a positive energy which makes an individual feel capable of attaining goals and objectives. In organizations, it is a must for all employees to exhibit highest levels of motivation so as to promote a positive culture among organizational members as well as reach their personal and professional targets in an effective manner. If the employees within an organization are dissatisfied with their job and do not feel the internal drive to work towards the achievement of their goals, the entire culture of the organization would suffer and the performance of the organization will undergo decline (Peters, 2015). It is the duty of a leader to ensure that the workforce stays motivated and energized so that they could effectively contribute towards the betterment of the organization. There are two basic type of approaches which leaders can make use of in order to motivate employees. These are intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from within that is when the individual realizes his responsibility and work with effort and passion for achieving his targets. Intrinsic motivation is mostly related to achievement of personal goals and targets. On the contrary, extrinsic motivation comes from external factors such as incentives, rewards and recognition. When the goals of an individual or team are tied to some monetary rewards or winning recognition award among the team members, the person feels motivated to achieve further goals.
The role of a leader is to motivate employees not by force but through his captivating tone and words, his positive and sound actions, his strong character and overall charismatic personality. A leader is supposed to have a vision through which he is able to see where he wants to move in the future and then he communicates his vision to his followers. People who respect the leader and hold the belief that their leader will always guide them towards the right path, follow his vision and make others join the team in the long run. Not everyone can be a leader. The most important characteristic a leader possess is confidence in terms of his words and actions. A leader understands that whatever he say and do becomes an example for his followers so he takes every step of his personal and professional life wisely and ensures that he engages in such activities which other can achieve by taking inspiration from him. A leader also takes an active role in motivating his followers to attain their goals because he believes that motivation serves to be a soul in the body and without a soul, the body and mind are just useless organs.
There are several theories of motivation which serve as guidelines for myself as well as those who want to see themselves playing the leadership role. The basic yet, most significant theory in this regard is called the Maslow’s Hierarchy Theory of Motivation. According to this theory, human beings are designed in such a way that once their basic needs are fulfilled, then they can go towards the fulfillment of better and advanced needs. The human needs are arranged in the form of a hierarchy where basic needs are psychological needs such as needs for home, clothing and shelter. Once these needs are fulfilled, the next step in the hierarchy is taken by safety needs. This means that an individual has to ensure that his life is safe and he can experience no danger from outside environment. The third element in the Maslow’s hierarchy is based on social needs. It is clearly known that human beings are social animals and they cannot survive in isolation so they need to have interactions with people around them such as family, friends, coworkers and recognized as an effective member of the community. The fourth position in the hierarchy is secured by self-esteem needs. According to Maslow, every individual wishes to be treated with respect and dignity within the society. When one fulfills this need, he feels confident and develops trust in his capabilities to achieve better goals in life. Finally, self-actualization needs are present at the top of the pyramid. It is the highest form of human need where an individual feels that he has achieved in life what he has been capable of and he feels no regrets. At this point, the individual has achieved maximum growth and attained self-fulfillment.
During my two years of experience as a leader, I have realized that motivating the employees is one of the most challenging tasks. This is because every individual is different from the other with respect to personality and goals so the idea which works for one person may not work for another. I ensure that I incorporate strong traits of good leaders in my persona so that I can motivate my subordinates to acquire their goals in a smooth and efficient manner. Moreover, I make certain that I get a strong grip on the motivational theories such as those proposed by Maslow and Mintzberg. Factors which act as motivators may not actually motivate and satisfy the employees; the presence of hygiene factors is also necessary. As per my experience, I would suggest that a leader can make use of several methods to motivate his subordinates such as pay per piece, giving overtime for the extra effort employees put in their job, commission amount in relation to the number of sales an employee makes for the organization, bonuses in order to appreciate the achievement of a goal, profit sharing so as to make the employees feel a valuable part of the organization and fringe benefits in the form of small discounts etc.
In order to keep myself motivated, I would also set up my targets which are realistic and achievable while making sure that I have access to the required resources. I will try to motivate myself intrinsically rather than extrinsically because intrinsic motivation leads to a sense of personal achievement which has a key role in fulfilling the self-esteem and self-actualization needs as discussed earlier in the Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchy.
Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership is one of the most influential styles of leadership. This style of leadership when acquired by leaders not only broadens their vision but also make the leader a true role model in the eyes of his employees. Transformational leaders are held responsible for bringing about radical change within an organization or a community in general. History is full of names of such great leaders who took the challenge of bringing change for their people- they opened many new avenues for people to progress and brought them from the world of darkness to a better and lighted future. Similarly, when a change has to be introduced in an organization, it is a leader who recognizes the need to change and then develops a vision with respect to it and most of all, successfully ensures that his vision is transferred to all of his subordinates with the right intensity.
I have learned from my experience as a leader that inspiring the subordinates in an organization is quite a task which can be fulfilled if a leader stays strong and calm during challenging times. In addition, if a leader wishes his followers to attain a certain goal, he has to set an example for them by reaching the goal himself first. For instance, if a leader wishes all employees to exhibit their best qualities in a team setting, then he has to become a part of a team himself where he has to ensure that he contributes towards the effectiveness of goals and targets by making the most of his knowledge, experience and capabilities.
I would like to see myself as a transformational leader and I believe I have to have a proper path in my mind for achieving this status. Firstly, I will set up a vision for future. This vision can be developed by considering the organization's mission, vision, values, philosophy and past experiences as well as the goals which it wishes to achieve in the short term and long term. The competencies of the organization and resource availability could also act as active sources in setting up a leader’s vision. Then I would ensure that my vision is communicated rightly to my team members- for this, I will link the goals and tasks of individual employees to my vision and also make use of informal statements or storytelling to keep them informed of it.
In the next step, I would make sure that my vision is achieved. Most leaders fail because they are unable to give their vision a color of reality. I would ensure that I motivate my subordinates through my actions and words or put other motivational techniques to practice to make them feel they their contribution towards the delivery of vision is critical. Making use of proper communication channels is also necessary in this regard because if the significance of vision is not clear to subordinates, they would express little or no desire to achieve it. Setting up SMART goals for employees could also assist in transforming vision into reality. Lastly, developing strong and long lasting relationship with subordinates is also necessary such that they remember the leader even after he is no longer associated with the organization. Motivating the people by providing them feedback and guidance whenever they need it also helps in the creation of relationships which are based on trust and integrity.
In Dunham and Pierce’s leadership process model is based on the idea that goals can be achieved and strong visions can be realized only when there is a productive interaction between a leader and his followers. Moreover, a leader must put all the available resources to motivate his followers to achieve desired outcomes. If the results are achieved, one can say that the leader has been successful in inspiring his followers (Newstrom and Pierce, 2010).
There are certain qualities of a transformational leader which I would like to incorporate into my personality. Transformational leaders possess a charismatic persona; they are risk takers; they are enthusiastic and optimistic about their goals; usually have a team oriented approach; courageous; have high value for ethics and morality and; most of all, transformational leaders are the ones who lead by example (Smith, 2011).
References
Newstrom, J. and Pierce, J.L, 2010. Leaders and the Leadership Process, 6th edition, New York: McGraw Hill.
Peters, R.S., 2015. The concept of motivation. Routledge.
Smith, M.A., 2011. Are you a transformational leader?. Nursing management, 42(9), pp.44-50.
