Essay Sample on Good Leadership: Key to Enhancing Organizational Performance

Introduction

Good leadership is essential since, in as much as leaders are charged with the responsibility to lead a team, it is through their choice of management styles that organizations enhances its performance or fail to be productive. Leadership is not just a matter of occupying the top management position, but instead, it involves a combination of high-level practices of setting goals and visions, motivating team members to attain such goals and creating an effective working environment and culture for success. I have been given the opportunity to be a Director of a Marketing Research and Competitive Intelligence for a large Fortune 500 manufacturing firm. This is a very high position and crucial for the performance of the entire firm;however,I have the obligation of ensuring that the team members are well coordinated to meet the same set goals. The members of my team are different people each with unique experience, skills, attitude and expertise. As a leader, I will have to ensure that we work together as a team; and thus requires careful selection of a specific leadership style to use on each individual. This paper will try to illustrate on the most effective approach I will use to take charge of this group as their new Director. Moreover, it also highlights the specific steps and process that I will follow to establish myself as the leader of the group and turn this department into a high performance team once again.

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Managerial Leadership Style

Leadership and leadership style is an issue which directly impacts on the conduct of communities, teams, and followers. Most theories evolved, producing various styles of leadership, and each one of these styles results in distinguishing behavior within a particular organization. Leadership entails unique features such as charisma, personal traits, and situational interaction.

Many factors could affect a group, employees, or individuals' productivity. According to researchers, leadership is responsible for impacting various organizational aspects (Smircich and Morgan 257-273). Moreover, most organizations and companies are trying to attain the maximum possible of employees' productivity and performance, emphasizing mostly on financial rewards, and avoiding or assuming the essence of a leader in motivating and enhancing the subordinates' performance. My goal in this paper is to discuss on the effectiveness of leadership since, in as much as leaders are charged with the responsibility to lead and instruct a team, it is through their choice of management styles that organizations enhances its performance or fail. However, leadership is faced with various challenges; and as result, a leader has to carefully choose the approach to take to be in charge of a group; and the specific steps and process to follow to establish oneself as the leader of a group and enhances a high performance team.

Specific Steps Used to Establish Oneself as a Leader of a Group

I had been hired as a Director of a Marketing Research and Competitive Intelligence for a large Fortune 500 manufacturing firm. The department must have been facing challenges of leadership since position was now vacant for over 3 months. The office is composed of various team members each with unique experience, attitude, skills and expertise. I would use effective steps to ensure that the members of my team cooperate to facilitate performance.

Listen to Your Employees

It is essential to listen and understand the views of my team members at the marketing research department and put them into consideration since they may impact on the performance of the juniors. Therefore, listening skill is one of my effective abilities, as the Director of a Marketing Research and Competitive Intelligence for a large Fortune 500 manufacturing firm to influence my team members in the workplace. The capability of being able to listen and analyze the opinions or complains of my team members is crucial.

Be Accountable

As a manager, it would be practical to stand up and take the blame for any of the consequences and correct them in time. Again ensure that the other employees are also accountable by taking up the responsibility and rectify the mistake without pointing fingers on others in your team.

Be Positive

A good manager has to be humble and fair to all the members of his or her team to be able to perform effectively. The ability of a manager to be positive is by creating sense charisma and acting as a role model to the followers; however, the application of sanction to achieve some of the specific goals involves creating level of coercion; but needs to be handled in a way that do not compromise the existing good relationship between employees and manager (Conger et al., 747). Being the Director of a Marketing Research and Competitive Intelligence, I would need to be in a position to admire my attitude as a leader.

Empower Employees

In this case, the team members need to be motivated by either recognizing their efforts or rewarding where necessary as a way of empowering them. I will decide to use my power to delegate to the juniors to empower them when necessary. Therefore, a good manager uses effective available chances to build a good rapport with the team members to ensure they deliver to their full potential to attain the overall organizational goal by effectively empowering them.

Lead by Example

My primary strength is being open-minded. As a leader, I believe it is vital for one to try and keep an open mind at all times. As a leader, one may forget to keep an open mind. However, this is common because even leaders are human, and it is possible for them to forget what makes them suitable. In such cases, I always tend to react by apologizing and providing perceptions that display leadership. However, in such cases, it is not just my opinion as a leader that should guide what others do. There is a need to lead by example, for instance, doing my work conclusively and in time.

The Leadership Approaches

The Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid and Situational Leadership Style

The Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid is ideal in this scenario since the aim of leadership will be leading others to be productive and perform since a specific leadership approach may never be effective in all situations. The path-goal strategy is also useful in preventing controversies in leadership survey since it suggests the application of effective leadership method to a particular circumstance which builds trust and peaceful coexistence between the manager and the team members. The principle of the path-goal approach is to maximize the satisfaction of an employee and enhance the performance of an organization.

On the other hand, situational leadership is ideal since the Situational leadership will enable me, as the manager, to adjust my style to fit the development level of the followers that I would be influencing. Situational leadership would force a leader to alter style that best fits the current situation; and not to try and force the followers to adapt to that specific style. In situational leadership, the style aims to change regularly to meet the needs of the team members in the department of marketing research based on the situation.

Path-Goal Leadership Model

The principle of the path-goal approach is to inspire employees to attain a given task and to meet classified goals. In this case, employee motivation includes enhancing job satisfaction and also empowering the team members like Kim and Joe to promote their career development since they have relatively lesser experience as compared to other team members like Trish. Nevertheless, managers apply the path-goal method with an objective of at nurturing specific conducts among the team members which facilitate the attainment of the specified objectives and goals. Because the path-goal strategy emphasizes on the results and working environment, path-goal leaders' main aim is to determine and nurture desired team members' conduct. This would be effective to apply to Kim, who seems to be a less motivated but experienced employee and are still yet to learn about the requirement of the firm.

Authentic Leadership

Terry (1993) in his composition-' Authentic Leadership: Courage in Action'- terms authentic leadership as acting and knowing that which is right and real inside an organization and the leader. According to him, authentic leadership is also identifying and acting on that which is right in reality. From this understanding, it is evident that the authentic theory of leadership revolves around authenticity; where the leader is entirely authentic and in an authentic setting. The authentic theory of leadership rejects the presence of situational influences on how the authenticity of a leader is manifested. This specific leadership would be effective in dealing with Charles, who seems less motivate and may not be willing to work with a boss from outside. The type of leadership would assist in ensuring my legitimacy as a new manager.

Laissez-Faire Leadership Style

This specific leadership style would tend to help me as a leader delegate the responsibility to members of my team and allow them to work on their own with lesser or no interference. It increases the scope for innovation and flexibility. It works best with Trish who seems to be a creative and self-motivated and experienced team member.

Coaching Leadership Style

Coaching leadership would be effective in settings where performance and results require improvement. It will assist individual team member like Joe to advance his skills and benchmark his strength and weaknesses and provide guidance since he's still a new employee in the firm. Coaching leadership would assist me in directing and guiding and helping motivate other followers as well. Moreover, the style of leadership would help to create a positive work environment in which followers can recognize what's expected of them and comprehend the firm's overall strategy.

Challenges Expected to Encounter

As a new boss in a new firm, there is a likelihood of facing pressure as a manager. The pressure is due to new responsibilities that are bestowed on me as fresh blood in the organization, and thus, I would want to see the result that is so much expected out of me. Another obstacle would be hiring for my team; this would be an enormous undertaking. Hiring needs more consultative work, and as a manager, I first have to identify the gap that has to be filled in my team.

Resolving the Issues

As a manager, I would have to understand why I picked on the job and recognize the fact that leadership is a learning process. Always be ready to learn and get corrected where necessary. On the other hand, .hiring a new employee is a big step to take, and thus, I will have to continually consult with the HR department for more advice on the process of hiring. There is a need to look for the uniqueness of the selected candidate and any new input he or she is likely to bring to the team.