Leadership application: the life and success of leaders

Leadership Application

The life and success of any organization is hinged on the leadership of that organization. An effective can transform the potential an organization has with regard to human capital and the available resources into a reality. An effective leader has the ability to propose new paradigms when old ones have become ineffective (IAAP, 2009). Effective leaders can change the minds of their followers and in the process make an organization achieve its identified goals. This paper seeks to illuminate whether the leadership at our procurement department is effective from the perspectives of the situational leadership and contingency theory approaches. The paper establishes whether the leadership and the procurement department were directive or supportive. The paper finally captures the insights that have been gained from analyzing the leadership at the procurement department.

The leader I worked with at the procurement department knew his goals and had the power to influence the thoughts and actions of his followers towards achieving the goals he had established. These goals were not for his personal advancement but for the greater good of the entire organization. He was capable of analyzing a given situation in depth and offer leadership in appropriate manner that suits the prevailing situation. Before he arrived at any decision at the departmental level, he had to assess the competencies of the employees, maturity of the employees, the complexity of the task to be performed, and the leadership style. He was endowed with the four leadership styles namely the selling style, the selling style, participating style, and delegating style (Graeff, 1983). Depending on the prevailing situation he could minutely supervise the staff at the procurement department, constantly instructing them about why, how, and when tasks have to be performed. The leader could also provide controlled decision, be a little more open, and even allow two way communications between him and the staff at the procurement department. We in the process bought his ideas and worked towards the desired goals. The leader also sought our opinion and participation to establish how a given task should be performed. In this way he created relationship with the staff at the procurement department. Finally, he played a role in decisions that were made but delegated the responsibilities of carrying out the tasks to us. He however monitored and reviewed the process.

He had his own way of identifying the members of staff who performed specific task. He delegated responsibilities to members of staff who were highly competent and highly committed towards the task that was to be performed so that they turn out better than their leaders in performing these tasks. Here, the leader exhibited low supportive and low directive behavior.

To workers who were highly competent but with variable commitment our leader was highly supportive but exhibited low directive behavior, a manifestation of supporting leadership style. This category of workers was competent to handle the task that they had been assigned to do but their commitment level was inconsistent. They lacked the confidence to go out to perform assigned tasks alone. To workers who had some competence but had low commitment, the leader was highly directive. He; moreover, exhibited high supportive behavior. He applied coaching leadership style to this category of workers. These members of staff who were coached had certain level of competence which could be sufficient to do the job but were low on commitment towards that particular job. They seemed to rely on external help when faced with new situations despite of having specific skills required to perform a given task. To the staff members who had low competence but had high commitment our department head was highly directive. He exhibited low supportive behavior. This category of staff members at the procurement department did not have the specific skills required to perform certain tasks but showed high level of commitment towards the tasks they were assigned to be performed. They had the confidence and motivation required to perform the tasks. They were also motivated. The way the leader handled the workers in this category showed that he could also use directing leadership styles in executing his duties.

The procurement department head was able to implement alternative leadership skills as needed. He understood the maturity of workers with respect to their readiness to perform given tasks and apply the style that fits.