Importance of Good Leadership and Management Essay

Introduction

Leadership and management are two concepts that intertwine. Primarily, the role of good management is to facilitate the provision of basic goods and service to the respective communities. By so doing, the management must ensure that there inequitable, efficient, sustainable and appropriate allocation of these resources. Hence, the manager should bring together the necessary facilities like the human resources, hardware, and finances at a play for the sake of the subjects. Theories of management underscore the importance of good leadership skills in a manager. There exist a number of leadership styles, but this paper will fundamentally focus on the transformative leadership style and its importance in management. Transformative leadership style is the kind of leadership that majorly associates with charisma. A charismatic leader is that leader who has a greater influence in the society and has subjects who look up at him for major decisions because he is dependable in terms of decision making. Because of this, the leader can easily influence social change and take the community to the positive direction. Transformational leadership is always appealing to the subject because the leader knows to appeal to eh ethos and the pathos of the subjects (Bass & Riggio, 2006). If the managers replicate this in their management duties, they can influence, to greater extent, the performance in their organizations. Hence, the paper assert that good managers should always be on the run to make good leaders. In a nutshell, the managers should exhibit the role of initiating good ideas and communicate this to the followers. This paper looks at the positive aspects of transformational leadership style and makes recommendations of why it is important in the management.

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Good leadership and management

As discussed earlier, there is no good management that can succeed devoid of good leadership. This makes the two concepts of leadership and management overlap on each other (Bohoris & Vorria, 2008). According to Hersey, Blanchard & Johnson, (2007), the society can only afford good and healthy services if the management adopts good leadership styles. The primary role of a leader is to come up with a vision on behalf of the subjects and communicate the way forward in achieving this vision. In this process, the transformational leader makes deliberate efforts to motivate the people who also look upon him for the better things. It is also important to note that as the leaders motivate the people, they also marshal the resources theta are necessary for the achievement of these goals. This six primarily why the leaders have influence over their followers. After getting the resources, the leader now applies the managerial skills of ensuring that the resources are put into the right use and that they achieve the greater objectives. The daunting task of the manager hence is to ensure that the resources are put to correct use for the benefit of the people. From the foregoing, therefore, it is logical to conclude those good leaders must be good managers and vice versa. It is important to note that as the manager exploit the resources on behalf of the community, hey must take into consideration the fact that the resources are scarce. This knowledge allows the managers to use the resources with great care and tranquility. This is the characteristic that is common among many global leaders who are considered charismatic and transformational.

The qualities of Transformational leaders that are important in management

From the earlier discussions, it has been clear that the transformational leaders are like muses to their followers. According to Tichy and Devanna (1990), transformational leaders are those leaders who are not satisfied with tiny achievements and are always on the move to make their leadership qualities better. In as much as these leaders exert control on their followers, they as well act as inspirations to the same people. The transformational leader has impeccable qualities which attract the followers at all time. Specifically, this type of a leader ensures that there are no communication barriers in his area of control. Communication is one of the most important aspects of leadership or management. There is no amount of change that can take place without the facets of effective communication. In any enterprise, the managers must embrace both horizontal and vertical communication to ensure that they have a smooth running of their organizations. A transformational leader promotes down-up communication and allows for immediate feedback through up-down communication channels. This is one of the reasons as to why the subjects do not shy away from making inquiries and communicating any change message to him. When managed poorly, change may work against the success of any organization. The strength of a transformational leader is that he makes the people own the change through effective communication and motivation. According to Dvir, Eden, Avolio, and Shamir (2002), the leader appeals to the emotions of the followers and makes them understand the necessity of the change. By so doing, the people unconditionally accept the change message and take it upon themselves to facilitate it.

Other than the communication strategies, the transformational leader has a rich endowment of talent in management and persuasive communication. According to Tichy and Devanna, (1990), these leaders have energy and a strong sense of self that are worth emulating. Because of this, the people always have the desire to be like them and do everything like they do. They make endeavors for the society and the followers. As a means of reciprocation, the followers tend to take every bit of instructions from them and implement them without haste. It is quite fascinating to understand how much the followers count on their transformational leaders. If applied in the management sector, the manager with transformational leadership style can easily influence the attitude of the employees positively and make them work without much supervision (Burns, 1978). A motivated employee is more productive than an employee who is under strict supervision and commands. Transformational leadership qualities can help in organizations which are service oriented rather than profit oriented. For instance, charitable organizations and non-governmental organizations whose main objectives are service delivery should employ transformational leaders as their managers. The employees in such organization must have the personal drives to work in such environments without much supervision. To fully achieve the motivation to work under difficult conditions with less pay, as always is the case on charitable organizations, the employees must have a deep sense of personal motivation to work. This is effectively achievable under the management of a transformational leader. However, transformational leadership can also be effective in profit-making organizations if carefully applied (Nielsen, Yarker, Brenner, Randall, & Borg, 2008). The reasoning is that an individually motivated employee can work comfortably and own the vision of the employer thereby increasing the profit margin due to increased productivity.

Charisma is an attribute that is fundamental to the success of any leadership. According to Bass (1985), there are specific characteristics which are universally important for any kind of leadership. A transformational leader exhibits all these characteristics. For instance, a transformational leader has a clear sense of mission, charisma and they are decisive as well. The leader is also creative and as such, many people always desire to be like him. The positive regard that the people have for the leader makes it easier for the leader to tune the followers. A good manager, on the other hand, needs good team management skills, respect for the staff, knowledge and clear understanding of the tasks, and good planning skills. A manager who can effectively delegate the authority is a good leader because the juniors show likable attitudes towards him. If a junior employee can step in the place of a senior manager and perform his tasks effectively, it shows that the manager established a good precedent. A transformational leader who is a manager can easily achieve this because by default, the juniors do things the way he does and they wish to be like him. The transformational leaders facilitate the training of their junior so that they can easily take up senior positions if there is a vacuum. The diligent coaching and deliberate efforts to mold other leaders make it possible to achieve a smooth transition in case the leaders vacate the offices.

The management of employees does not necessarily succeed through the scientific management. In the year 1945, the German sociologist Max Weber elaborated the role of transactional leadership in the management of employees. He noted that an effective employee management entailed three things: controlling, organizing and short-term planning. Reward and punishment play serious roles in this discourse. Basically, the employees need either motivation or punishment as they undergo their duties. The facets of transactional leadership style are antithetical to the transformational leadership styles. A transformational leader positively influences the people instead of threatening them with punishments and negative feedback. However, there is an interplay between the transactional leadership and transformational leadership styles. This is specifically common in terms of issuing rewards and influencing behaviors. However, as the transformational leader goes about this, he is not interested in preserving the status quo but to make the thing work differently. Instead, they adopt more proactive and methods to make changes work. As the transactional leaders strive to punish those who do not work according to their expectations, the transformational leaders put things in place to ensure that there is a favorable working environment for everyone to achieve the organizational goals. The leaders ensure that everyone in the team is benefiting from any initiative and does not discriminate against those who cannot measure up to the expectations. This approach eliminates the need for punishments which sometimes deject the employees or the subjects.

In their definition of visions, the transactional leaders ensure that they do everything within the constraints of morality. The value they set for the employees are high and they also define the ways through which these values can be achieved. Accountability is no exception in the management and the bigger picture of the origination is majorly a common understanding of every person. The belief among the transformational leaders is that every employee has a unique talent and is capable of achieving much given the opportunity.

The importance of transformational leadership in my future career

As earlier mentioned in my statement of purpose, I have a strong will to work with the people who are downtrodden and the minorities. My passion has been to work with women and impact positively in their lives. In the field of technology, women are still a minority due to some of the historical injustices. To help lift the lives of these women such that they can shine in this field, the women need a figure to embrace. My role, as women in the field of IT, is to ensure that I am a good example to the rest of women. Being in this position, I am already like a leader and there are people looking for me to achieve their visions. I embrace the transformation leadership style in order to influence my people positively and change their lives without any misjudgment.

In my recommendation on how the IT fraternity can change the lives of the respective women, I suggest...