Best Practices
Introduction and Philosophy of Leadership
Leadership study is an evolving field, which attempts to understand the role that leaders play within organizations, and how the best leaders accomplish their tasks. One branch of leadership philosophy specifically examines the leadership-member exchange, which highlights the different ways that leaders communicate their visions as a means of understanding effective leadership. Drinon (no date) argues that because there is no one set perfect leadership style, leaders are free to interpret the different elements of leadership to suit themselves, and to suit the organizations in which they work.
My own leadership philosophy draws on two main traditions. The first is a participative style, which allows the group to have input into the different decisions that they make. This is something that Kurt Lewin identified as one of the most effective leadership styles, because the different people within the organization have already bought into the idea. Either they contributed to its conception, or they were at least aware of the process by which the idea was developed. So any strategy or tactic that comes out of this style should already have strong support among the team members, even if the leader is ultimately the person with the final decision (Drinon, n.d.).
The other element of my leadership style is the transactional style. It strikes me that many people get caught up in the sexiness of transformational leadership, but that there are many instances where organizations thrive not because they are constantly being transformed, but because there is something that they do better than anybody else. An organization that can do something exceptionally well, and repeat that over a long period of time, is an organization built for success. I reject the idea that transactional excellence means standing still, or not being creative. In fact, a high level of creativity often goes into maintaining operational excellence -- entire programs like Six Sigma are built around the application of creativity and innovation to transactional excellence. I also reject the idea that transactional leadership is necessarily autocratic (ChangingMinds, 2016). The idea that operational excellence must inherently come from autocracy is completely false -- again, pointing to something like Six Sigma where a company's workers are highly engaged in the processes because they have made their own contributions and innovations to those processes.
Transactions are much more complex than the simplistic carrot-and-stick version of the transactional model; and the modern leader clearly understands that transactional dynamics can work quite well with higher forms of motivation. In fact, it is this higher forms of motivation at work -- working with teams of talented people the lower rungs of Maslow's hierarchy are a given, and your transactions are only related to higher order needs.
II. Core Leadership Skills
The most important leadership skill is communication. My personal opinion is that listening is the most important of communication skills. The best practice for any company is to have a team that is a well-oiled machine. When there are problems, or even just when there are opportunities to do better, it is important that the team communicates about these, both among each other and to the leader. A leader that knows how and when to listen is one who can work to solve problems more quickly, before they start to cascade. Listening is also a skill that can differentiate a good leader, because so many leaders seem to lack listening. They have bought into their own hype -- they know they have talent because they have been promoted, but ultimately that can create hubris. Listening is a good way to check one's hubris. Study after study has shown the importance of listening in leadership, but has also shown that many leaders are weaker at listening than other communication skills (Riordan, 2014).
Being able to formulate and communicate a vision is also essential, though. The leader needs to understand vision. This means being able to create a vision for the organization, or if there are other leadership higher up to translate their vision to the particular department of which the person is the leader. In either case, the ability to communicate the vision is essential, and this does not just mean telling people what the vision is. It means being able to communicate the vision effectively in terms of getting people to buy into the vision, knowing what role they play in executing the vision and ensuring that the interpretation...
Key ethical beliefs and values about one's self and others I am known as a socially aware leader, one who believes that the needs of society transcend the needs of any one person -- including myself. My idealism is also manifest in my style as a socially aware leader in that I believe the welfare of others, even when that may conflict with my own personal and economic self-interest, is more
This boss was lazy. Simply put, where Uncle Gail was prepared not only to do his job but to make sure everybody else was doing theirs as well, this boss at Hardee's was unwilling to even do his own job, much less help anybody else. The entire crew hated him for that. Many newcomers were there for their first-ever job, and some were new to the country. Most of us
Leadership Course No -- Leadership It had often been said earlier that leadership is an inherent quality in certain individuals, but there are also leaders who are made through management institutions, by organizations, through institutions like the armed forces and even through political relationships, etc. There are certain qualities that a leader must have or develop to be a leader and remain a leader and those are the subject matter of discussion
This is another circumstance, however, that is likely to limit the use of this text in management courses, which is truly a disservice to American industry and consumers. It is ironic that in living up to the principles of clarity and directness that it espouses, this tome will probably be read most by simple admirers of Powell and self-help fanatics, rather than put to extensive practical use in the
Leadership At the core of leadership is the interaction between the leader and the follower. Much of leadership theory can be understood in terms of how leaders and followers interact and what the underlying assumptions are with respect to the roles and nature of leadership. Because of the many different types of leaders, and successful examples thereof, leadership scholarship has developed multiple branches that seek to explain leadership, but no one
"Our leadership development and training programs push each and every delegate to gain a rigorous personal insight into what makes them tick and then, with that understanding of themselves, to stretch the boundaries of what's comfortable for them" (Leadership development - Leadership skills and training, 2008, Impact Factory). Leadership training through the organization stresses emotional rather than technical skills, unlike GE. Human perception, creativity and out-of the box thinking
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