Discussion 7
One of the most critical factors of organizational management and its success is the leadership traits the manager shows. It is essential to set up a leader from a boss based on the traits they possess and their ability to influence the workforce towards a particular course positively. One of the most important leadership traits that any person in authority should showcase is communication. While most managers and authoritative figures in management prefer to communicate their commands in a vertical manner that does not encourage employee engagement, a good leader advocates for open communication lines. The leader not only finds it necessary to effectively communicate his missions and visions as well as goals to the rest of the team, but he should also learn to invite the rest of his team to contribute by giving their input. Therefore, an exceptional leader is one that ensures his employees are given enough room to express themselves.
Secondly, an excellent leader has to show integrity and accountability. A leader cannot expect his workforce to diligently follow in the commands issued and respect the authority figure when the leader has questionable integrity. Integrity entails leading through example and leading assiduously. An integral leader is not afraid to show his skills such as kindness and concern for his subjects, and working alongside his team to ensure their needs and visions are well accommodated in the organizational goals. On the other hand, accountability requires that the leader remains subjective to his team, accounting for his actions and the group’s operations. Accountability also demands that the leader takes responsibility for his team and works alongside the workforce to find amicable solutions whenever a disputearises instead of blaming others for the mistake they make collectively while working towards realizing the set organizational goals.
Leadership is a form of art since it involves the process of achieving progress through the involvement and action of others. By influencing a team to work towards a common goal and objective, leadership entails taking the necessary steps to not only implement the set objectives but also monitor their adaptation. As a continuous process, leadership involves a series of progressive steps to ensure the end goal is achieved. Typically, the end goal itself ushers the team into a new realm of responsibilities, which implies the continuation of suchleadership in a more dynamic manner.Compared to other processes involved in the organizational objectives, leadership requires that the leader adopt the necessary measures that start with the team’s recruitment, educating the team of their aim, training and equipping the team for the set objective, and then monitoring their performance. Therefore, as an art, leadership entails acting with a singular goal, result in mind.
One of the world leaders I admire the most is Jack Ma, the co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group. What I find most interesting about Ma’s leadership style is the fact that he is a transformational leader. Although he started business as an autocrat, Ma soon discovered the importance of empowering employees to make decisions regarding the company’s goals and visions partially. As a transformational leader, Ma encourages his employees both externally and internally by investing in their wellbeing. Like Ma, my manager is an exceptional leader who treats his employees as his partners. He involves us in the decision-making processes, which makes us feel appreciated and valued at the workplace.