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"What is effective leadership within an organizational context?"

2 Introduction

Leadership is the process of social influences where individual is supporting others in order to accomplish a common task. Organization brings different kinds of individual who are engaged in working towards a common goal. It is much imperative to have an effective leadership in order to build on the existing strength of the organization. Leader helps the employees to develop their individual potential and to develop an individual goal and objectives. Later he helps them to align them with the organizational objective and goals. He is able to set a direction for the entire organization and he is able to influence his team members to follow them. There are many leadership styles from autocratic to transformational style of leadership. However the leadership theories used in the past are not much applicable in the present era. Leadership concept as well as theories have changed over due course of time. This paper analyses the effective leadership within an organizational context and it draws examples from the real life to support the discussion and analysis.

Effective leadership concept

Effective leadership function enables the leader to establish organizational vision and to develop strategies to meet them He also motivates and inspires his team members so that they are energized in order to overcome obstacles and satisfies human needs. Moreover he is able to create a positive change and create shared values and culture and helps others to grow (Peter 2001).

Developing a positive self image - Effective leaders are able to enjoy the benefit of the positive self image, he is able to create a positive self image and he is able to overcome negative

3 attitudes. I strongly consider that it is through his positive image he is able to convince his team members to follow his ideas..

Challenge of effective leadership - He is much aware about the purpose and organizational objective. According to me the greatest challenge lies in making the employees to understand the real organizational goal and work towards it.

Goal setting and organizational success - He is able to set the organizational goal and make his team members too to be committed to it. I feel that only when these leaders are able to set their goals and draw workable plans for their followers, the entire teams are able to follow them with a clear direction.

Human behavior and motivation I am sure that the organizational growth lies in the motivational climate found within the organization. Effective leader is able to create a positive climate were the team members are able to overcome the challenges.

Maximizing productivity I am sure these effective leaders are able to bring out the best within the team members and they are delegating the works according the individual capacities. I feel this delegation of work is most important trait which enables to utilize the employees potential. He is able to integrate the goals and measure the individual success and growth against the laid out organizational goals and objectives.

Minimizing stress In this competitive world, organizations are working under a great stress. I am sure with the help of the effective leaders the employees are able to identify their priorities and balance their stress.

4 Leading through communication and persuasion He should be able to have a power of persuasion. He is able to give clear instructions to his sub ordinates and communicates verbally very effectively about the real requirement of each situation. Through this trait I feel that they are able to create a personal relationship with each employee which eventually leads to a greater positive climate.

Using power and authority effectively - Effective leader is able to share his powers with his team members and I feel this improves employee morale a lot.

Decision making and problem solving - Effective leaders are creative in their decision making and problem solving traits. I feel that due to this effective decision making skill, they are able to lead the whole team in a very organized manner and with a great clarity for themselves as well as for the team.

Empowering people - Effective leaders are able to create a motivational climate which is a key to increase productivity. It is by his intensive training, I strongly believe that he is able to bring about result oriented actions in the organization (Kelley and wood 2006).

Leadership as a Process

It is my personal view that with the advent of globalization, privatization etc., there is a greater change seen in the business climate. Traditionally the approach to the leadership process was to develop the leaders quality and ability which will eventually lead to the development of his whole team work. Now I feel that the same traditional approach might not be very effective in this changed business environment. I strongly feel that the leadership model has now to be aimed

5 at a stronger organization as well as a greater community results. In this kind of process, there is a greater focus on the groups and individuals where they are able to connect, organize, system thinking, bridging as well as learning process which has lead to mobilize the actions among the team. Connecting with a greater openness would lead to a greater sense of purpose and there is a greater collection action which could be witnessed within the organization. I feel that through this connecting they are able to work on their conflicts as well as work on the accountability as well as on the shared commitments. Also the next step is organization and I feel that this step is involving to utilize the tools and create communication pathways in order to set a direction to the whole team. It is able to allocate the resources and engage in the skills of the individuals and it helps the team to get in to action. Next is the systems thinking and I feel that it is in this step, the team is able to identify the leverage points and they are able to experiment with by prototyping interventions within the system. Through the step of bridging, I feel that they are able to uncover their shared goals as well as frustrations across the differences found in the culture. Last comes the step of learning and reflecting and I think it is through this step the team is able to hold themselves together and be accountable for what they are doing and mobilize their action in a better fashion. I am sure that through reflection process the individuals are able to maintain awareness level to meet the collective purpose and to march towards their values and commitments (Jones and William 2010).

Evolution of leadership theories and concepts

Resins Liker in the year 1967 had theorized and propaganda four styles of leadership styles. In exploitive authoritative style, leaders are using fear based methods in order to enforce conformance, In the benevolent authoritative style, he is a dictator and he rewards his team mates in order to motivate performance, In consultative style, he is seeking consultations from his team members and in participative style he is including all the employees in decision making process so that they are feeling psychologically closer to the organization. It is said that moving the organization from exploitive authoritarian to participative style of leadership results in a dramatic increase in the productivity. In the year 1958, Hollander had propagated two way influence and social exchange relationship between leader and a follower. In the year 1993, Roost had seen a

7 coproduction of leadership of the followers and leaders which is an influential relationship which intend the real changes that is reflecting their mutual purpose. In the year 1977, Robert Greenleaf had propagated servant leadership concept and it was in the year 2005, Mesick had defined leadership as a mutually beneficial relationship which is based on the psychological exchange. However in the year 2006, Grant had propagated follower centered approach where the organization is beloved to become more occupied with he individual leaders and it states that we have to focus on the leadership than leaders. Collin sons had worked on the follower identities where he said that the followers are smarter than they appear to be and hence they have to given credit for what they contribute to the organization. McGregor Burns works on empowering employees which is one the ethical dimension of the organizational culture. By empowering them, the top management is able to make employees to take responsibilities in tasks and accomplishing them with dedication. This eventually leads to a happier state of mind. In the present era, servant leadership theory by Greenleaf too which states to help team mates in order to accomplish the goals. But I feel that in present era, there are few more leadership styles charismatic, transformational as well as level 5 leadership which are discussed in consequent paragraphs of this essay.

Stages of leadership theory 2

Charismatic Leadership theory - Charisma is one of the personal trait of the individual which is considered as extraordinary and he is treated as super human. I feel that in this leadership, the leaders are able to detect the unexploited opportunities and deficiencies present in the situation then they are able to find out the needs of the situation. I also think that this leadership is in a better position to communicate about the vision and they are able to motivate their leaders. They

8 are also able to build a greater technical expertise and take personal risk to do the task. I feel that they are able to empower their team for better performance.

Bill Gates co founder of Microsoft in the year 1975 and who is in the position of Chief Software architect is known to exhibit charismatic leadership style. His window operating system is running in the majority of the computers across the globe. He had found that the unexploited opportunities in the business world to be an apt windows operating system which is one of his successful product. He was able to communicate his vision to his fellow team member and he was so good in presenting about the new product that they were so attractive that made his team members to achieve it. He had trust on his team members technical expertise and he achieved grater leadership success by empowering his employees. I strongly feel that he was exhibiting the charismatic leadership style in his work (Jones and William 2010).

Transformational leadership theory - They are leaders who are able to motivate their followers and make them to achieve greater results. I strongly believe that this type of leadership has an idealized influence where the leaders act as role models and they keep personal interests behind the organizational interest and they are demonstrating a higher level of ethical conduct. These leaders are able to inspire other and make them to work as a team with commitment, they are having a great intellectual stimulation and they encourage innovation and creativity within their organization. Moreover they attend to the individual needs for growth and achievement and accept. Individual differences is a kind of leadership where one or more individuals are engaged with others in such a manner in such a way that the leaders and the followers are growing (Carcello 2009).

9 Murthy is one of the founders of Infosys, a giant in information technology field in India. He is known to have exhibited transformational form of leadership (Dowd and Schneider 2006).

He believed that by providing superior infrastructure to their staff, he could be able to get best out of their programmers. He is well known for distributing the profit of his organization among employees through a stock option program which is on elf the best corporate governance practices. This has certainly earned him praise and respect. AS a transformational leader he prefers action any time and he has a great value system. Infosys is a company as Murthy as a charisma which is a strong emotions like ability to communicate, strong belief in his plans and objective. I think he possesses the inspirational abilities to generate greater enthusiasm among these employees in order to make them feel confident to execute the tasks. I also have noticed that due to his greater intellectual stimulation he is able to appreciate the creativity of the employees and motivate them to think rationally. He has also shown individual attention to each of his employees which helps them to transform the reality from what they are in the present and to evolve in to valuable employees of the organization (Stace 2009).

Level 5 Leadership theory - Jim Collin has examined the features of the exceptional companies and he has shown strongest differentiating factors of these companies as termed as level five leadership, it is characterized by humility and shyness, willfulness and fearlessness. Through this effective leadership style, the leaders develop successors, gives credit to others, accept full responsibility for failure, ambitious for the company rather than for the self, acting with quiet, calm and determination. He also has unwillingness to settle for anything but the best, unwavering resolve regardless of any difficulties (Carcello 2009).

10 I think that US President Barrack Osama has climbed up the level hierarchy by being a highly capable individual with a greet knowledge about the legislative laws which is most important for his job, by contributing team members by having leadership with a good team work and by working in an organized manner towards the predetermined goals, He also builds the commitment of his team members to a greater vision and he has a greater personal humility and willfulness. President Osama had owed many individuals to contribute to the vision that he has drawn and it has made a significant difference in the foreign as well as domestic affairs. He has adapted a cross cultural approach which is the winning formula of the present business era and he considers not only his own nation or but also global nations before taking any steps. He is quite sensitive and in many of the occasions he chose to listen before speaking. He is able to make others too appreciate the real value of his vision for the country that he has already shared with his fellow men. I am considering him as a level 5 leader due to his great emotional intelligence, cognitive style, policy vision, political skill, organizational capacity, public communication (Rachel 2009).

Present era leadership concepts and theories

Focusing on the follower - in the present era, the followers are to be having a shared leadership in order to achieve organizational success. There is a great shift of organizational emphasis from leaders to followers. They have transited from the leadership influence, moderators of leaders impact, substitutes of leadership, constructors of leadership, and in the present era they not only share the leadership but they are the co producers of leadership (Nanus 2009).

Emotional leadership - Emotional intelligence is one of the critical components of leadership effectiveness and especially when they have to deal with more team members. They are able to

11 serve as a transformational influence over their team members. They are challenging their team members in order to work towards increasing their effectiveness and their performance. They are facilitating the team members in interaction dynamics, build interpersonal trust and inspire team members to implement the articulated vision. Hence I feel that emotionally intelligent team leader would induce collective motivation in their team members. Also they would use the charismatic authority and transformational influence in order to improve team performance (Weber 2009).

Ethical leadership - Ethical leaders have the following traits which could be summarized as being fair to each and every employee, to reward the ethical conduct, to strive for fairness, to take responsibility in their actions, to standup for what they believe is right, to have zero tolerance towards ethical violations. To serve others, to be honest and straight forward, to set the example for the followers. There is a greater need for ethical leadership which insists on connectivity. Ecology of leadership is focusing on leadership spirit, ethics and connectivity and it creates distributed leadership at the local levels. It also need to address the present issues like social responsibility, finite forces, climate changes etc., I strongly believe that this new

leadership is assuming that it is their responsibility to take care of the ecology not only with environment but also internal ecology of the organization too (Uhl-Bien and Patera 2010) .

I sense that the Fall of Enron which is due to its non compliance with its ethical responsibilities is one of the examples. Its share Enron scandal which occurred during the late 2001, which led to its bankruptcy is due to the unethical practices in its auditing practices. It was one of the biggest American based American energy companies which was based in Texas. It had a non

12 transparent financial statements which did not clearly state about the financial status with its shareholders and analysts. I am hereby putting forward my idea that in present, key stakeholders are much aware about the ethical responsibilities of the organization and they are willing to be associated only with the organization which takes care about the society and them.

Conclusion

As per the above discussion it is clear that when the organization is in the initial stages it might need authoritative and directive leadership style which provides a fair and just source of boundaries which provides stability and lays foundation. Later it ought to change to participative style of leadership where the employees are a part of the organization and who are empowered to do their tasks effectively. I strongly believe that the level 5 leadership has a greater impact on the younger generation which embraces ethical issues too in leading the people. I attribute self confidence of the level 5 executives that is inspiring all his followers and it is through his self confidence he is able to adapt to the shared leadership with his followers which is appreciated and supported by the present younger generation.

13 References

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