EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
Contents
Introduction 2
Effective Leadership helps in Developing Organization 2
Conclusion 9
References 11
Introduction
In 21st century the leadership has taken a major shift from the traditional approach of leading just a few members of the organization to managing each and every part of the company internally or externally effectively and efficiently. The challenges for a leader have also become more complex and to deal them it is important for leaders to develop themselves as per the change and then take any approach in an organization. The world is looking up at leaders to lead, it is in hands of the leader to guide or misguide the followers. Responsibility has turned huge and same the compensation for which every leader is aiming to develop the leadership traits required by one to lead. The case study developed here is about using effective leadership in developing the organization and the issues one face while doing so (Hull, 2014).
‘Education Enclave’ is a small educational organization that runs a school of kindergarten to senior school level. Berry Stone, the owner and director of the organization aims to provide striving education to students with the help his team of employees and his experience in education field. Last six months were very challenging for the school as the employee turnover has drastically increased and finding right candidate for teaching student efficiently was becoming a difficult task for Berry. The other issue that he identified is the increasing politics amongst the employees which affecting the work and development of the organization on the whole. It is important for Berry to identify the reasons and use his leadership skills effectively to manage the working of the organization by retaining human resources and make the work as a team (Leavy, 2016).
Effective Leadership helps in Developing Organization
In the organizational development the main input is of the effective leadership conducted by the organizational leaders. The traditional approach of effective leadership was to lead the group of people aiming a single objective to achieve the organizational goal. But in today’s time there are many more responsibilities that a leader has to handle effectively. There are many skills that are needed to be developed by a leader to achieve the organizational goal and development with the help of the team he is leading. The first thing that is required in the case of ‘Education Enclave’ is to identify where the management is lacking behind in effectively managing the human resources and retaining them. Once the issues are identified the measures can be taken to solve it. The skills and traits of an effective leader need to be used to find the solution of the issue that the management of the Education Enclave is facing. An effective leader analyses the situation by going through all related factors and then come to a solution for the organizational issue (Ganesan, 2010).
To find a solution it is always important to identify the issues related to the situation. Berry decide to talk to the staff of the school and known how are they finding their work. Also, he decided to contact the employees that has left the school in last six months to know the reason of leaving their job. Berry started with the principle of the school Mr Richard Brown. A person who is highly qualified but lacks the persona of a leader, he told that he has tried some innovative methods to implement in the teaching techniques to make the education system of the school more advance and easy to understand. He has observed a school in Melbourne when he went there to attend the principals meet and find the concept of using innovative teaching methods very interesting. He has given Mr. Smith Joe, the vice principal of the school the responsibility to see that the process is being properly implemented and processed. Though, Mr Smith was not happy with the change of teaching techniques but he reluctantly agreed (Garrett and Camper, 2015). The reason according to the employee leaving the job does not want to work on the new teaching methods and better paying options. Next, Berry asked Mr. Smith to join him who is blunt and authoritative personality person. Mr. Smith has worked with much organization and has an experience of seventeen years in the field of education. He believes in making his point clear and do not wait others to speak. While discussing the matter with him Berry came to know that he has denied the idea of using new teaching methods in the school as it more of show-off rather than actual teaching. He said that he has asked teachers to take research on the topic and try and develop their own methods and if they cannot do it then they can look for another job. Berry understood that Mr. Smith never gave a chance to the employees to understand the requirements of the new method and threatened them so much that they left. This showed the communication gap between the management and the employees as the Principles initial idea never reached the employees and the employees misunderstanding never reached the principle (Hellmann, 2011).
Next, Berry called few old staff members to understand the situation better, and found that they are also not very happy with the change of techniques as it is difficult to learn the new processes of teaching. They agree with Mr Smith’s point of view of not implementing it in the organization. Berry saw the lack of enthusiasm and understanding of the concept in the employees. When he asked the new employees about the issue, then he got another picture. They were happy to experiment but the seniors and vice principle are not giving any support to them. When they tried to raise the matter, they were told that they will be thrown out of the job as things goes as the seniors wants in the school. Same scenario was with the employees that left the job. They were finding difficult to work under so much pressure and negative work environment. After listening to everyone the issues were clear in Berry’s mind and now he has to develop procedures that may help in managing these issues effectively (King and Peterson, 2007).
An effective leader not only leads the team, but also motivates them to give their best and achieve the organizational goal working as a team. The methods of effective leadership that can be used here to solve the issues of the company are discussed in the essay. The first thing that a leader should do here is Planning. A planned step is hundred times more effective than an unplanned one. It is important to plan the whole project of implementing the change in the teaching methods in the school. This will help the employees to become accustomed with the possible change. Second thing that is required here is to develop a training and development program, it has been identified that the senior employees are not ready to adapt new techniques and the reason behind it is the lack training and development (Hazle Bussey, Welch and Mohammed, 2013). The training and development program will help them in understanding the new concepts of innovative techniques and they will also learn the benefits it will provide to them as well as the students. The third thing that needs to be done is to employee a Human Resource Manager, after the conversation with the employees, principle and the vice principle it is clear that the level of hierarchy is not followed in the organisation effectively. The employees cannot directly take their issues to the management and management is also not having any communication with the employees. The Human Resources Manager will not only bring potential candidate for the job opening but also help in managing the issues arising in the company. It will identify the need of training and development, or rewarding an employee for the work done which will help in boosting the morale of the employees to perform better and create a healthy working environment at the workplace (Engel, 2014).
Fourth thing that a leader should do is reduce the communication gap between the management and employees and even between the employees working at the same level. This training for enhancing the communication skills of the employees will help them to communicate freely and bring any issue in front and try to find a solution for it with the help of colleagues and management. Fifth thing that Berry should do is to explain the roles and responsibilities of each employee working in the organization. Like Principle Richard Brown is ready to take new steps but he is not taking the responsibility of implementing it. His role is nil in the present case. Berry has to define the roles and responsibilities of his employees and also accordingly work to achieve the organizational goals and objectives (M. Randall, 2013). Sixth thing that an effective leader should always adopt is to involve the employees. While adapting something new in the organization it is important to involve the employees of the organization in every step of planning and development of the change. It will familiarise the employees with the change and they will feel comfortable in adapting the change easily. Last step needed to take by Berry is to take the feedback from the employees. Feedback is the step that allows the management the effectiveness of the project implemented. It also helps in assessing any risks of challenges one is facing in complying with the project. Suggestions on improvement of the procedure could also be taken that will help in making the plan more effective for the employees and the organization on the whole. After applying all the above-given leadership steps Berry will have an improved working environment and job satisfied employees. The employee turnover will also reduce by following the leadership steps (Xu and Cooper Thomas, 2011).
The aim of any organization is to gain success in any venture or the project it is attempting to implement in the organization. In this case also Berry identified that the idea behind bringing new and innovative ideas for teaching students will help the students to understand the subject better and studies will turn into fun for them and will reduce the efforts for teachers which they put on preparing long lesson plan for each subject. Though, every step taken is planned and researched by the leader so it turns out to be an effective and efficient step for the organization, but there could be some challenges that organization and its management can face while leading the organization (Drath, 2008). It is important that leaders identify the challenges that he may face while implementing a new change in the organization. One of the few challenges that a leader can face is resistant to adapt change. Many a times, employees do not want to accept the change that the leaders want to implement in the organization. They feel that these changes are not going to benefit them or they may feel that learning and adapting new changes will be very difficult for them. In such case leader should communicate with the employees and make them understand the importance of adapting the change in the organization and also the benefits it is going to provide to them. Another thing that a leader should do is to involve the employees in every step of planning and implementation of change, so the change will not be an unfamiliar thing for the employees and their resistance will reduce (Leavy, 2016).
Another challenge that a leader can face in achieving the effective leadership is the lack of communication. The people working in an organization come from different culture and beliefs and making a harmonious relationship in the organization is a task that an effective leader tries to handle efficiently. This harmonious relationship can be achieved by developing effective communication between the employees. If the employees are not talking with each other effectively then it will reflect on their working and ultimately on the revenue generation of the company. In Education Enclave it has been identified that there is high level of internal politics in the working of the organization. The leader should identify the players of the internal politics and then take measures to crush the increasing politics. It is important that the employees should work with each other as a team then only they could achieve the organizational goals (Wright, 2010). If internal politics will take the mind space of the employees then they will not understand the importance of the change the organizational management is trying to implement in the organization. Leading a team is the next challenge that can surface against achieving effective leadership. People join an organization and become a member of a team that has a single objective to achieve. For individual benefits, people aims to work as an individual and not as a team. An effective leader identifies this challenge and tries to make individual work as a team with a same goal to achieve. The above-given challenges are some the ones those are commonly found in any organization and a leader has to deal with them will all his compatibility and competence and prove to be an effective leader (Goffee and Jones, 2010).
Nobody is a born leader; one can develop skills which are found a miss in becoming an effective leader. With the changed definition of leaders and leadership in the modern era, it has become very important for a leader to assess what traits and skills are lacking in him and then work on them to develop. There are many procedures which can help him assessing oneself and the skills one masters and skills one need to develop for being an effective leader. The factors that contributes in being an effective leader starts with self-assessment. Taking a follow up of one’s weaknesses and strengths do not make someone weak but it helps in understanding the areas and skills that are in need of development. A leader who wants to lead his team has to change his weaknesses into his strengths. A leader acts as a guide to whom the team look up at the time of problem and if one is weak then he cannot provide effective guidance to the team (Taulbert, 2016). The factor that helps in being an effective leader is sharp perception. An effective leader perceives on what others think about him. He judges with the silence one gets when he enters a room of his team mates or the way come or do not come with the issues and problems they may having while completing a task given to them. Understanding the need and having an open communication helps in clearing matters and make employees comfortable in communicating with the leader making his presence effective. An effective leader always be responsive to the team and that is the next factor that contributes in being an effective leader. The perception allows the leader to understand the needs of his team and if he provides effective and creative response for the issues that may the employees are facing, then it will help in gaining the trust of the employees and help in being an effective leader. For providing effective leadership, correct perception, and guidance to the team mates it is important that the leader has full knowledge about the organization. If a leader has complete knowledge about the organization, its goals, objectives, mission, vision, roles, and responsibilities then he can develop effective strategies that will help in guiding his team members like what is expected from them and that will help in achieving the organizational goals effectively and efficiently. An effective leader is not limited to leading the team successfully but also achieves the success in the goals and objectives of the organization and that will ultimately generate the revenue for the company. Combining the given factors, a leader can become an effective leader and gain success that one always aims for in one’s career (Falter, 2011).
Conclusion
The nature of the business is changing as things are becoming global and major changes can be observed in the management of a business. Now the traditional methods are not proving to be effective for running the organization effectively. A leader’s role has changed drastically in last few decades. The roles and responsibilities that a leader was following in the past and in the present, has taken a drastic toll. One has to go through many phases to become an effective leader, whether it is doing a self-assessment and work on developing skills, or identifying the challenges of the organization and taking steps to overcome them. In the discussed case it is clear that Education Enclave was having issues that were in need of effective leadership. The undefined roles and responsibilities and lack of leadership skills in the people who were appointed as leaders the school was facing many challenges specially in retaining the human capital in the school.
The essay discusses the methods of effective leadership through which Berry Stone the owner of the organization can solve the issues the organization is facing. The issues are also identified and shows that there are many approaches that are working on traditional grounds and the organization is in need of effective and modern leadership management. There are certain factors that helps a leader to become a successful and effective leader. These factors include the processes like self-assessment, being a perceiver, learning about the organization and be responsive to team. These factors contribute a lot in making a leader an effective one who can develop and guide his team in achieving the organizational goals and objectives and generate revenue for it. Hence, after the whole discussion it is clear that in the present times leadership has changed and for being an effective leader one has to develop many new skills and gain knowledge of different factors associated with the leadership along with the risks or challenges associated with it.
References
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