Leadership Qualities: Essential for Achieving Organizational Goals - Essay Sample

Introduction

A leader of any level in an organization plays a significant role in ensuring the realization of the goals and objectives of the organization. For a leader to effectively implement his or her responsibilities, he or she should possess certain qualities (Bass et al., 2018). These qualities or skills may entail the know-how of the requirements of certain tasks and how best to get them done. Leaders also require skills that help them relate with other team members, either lower or above them in the chain of management. The Three Skills Approach is one of the theories that explain the qualities that a leader requires in the process of leadership. The theory was developed by Robert Katz in 1955 (Zoller, 2018).

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According to the approach, leaders are supposed to possess some essential abilities that enable them to serve effectively. The model highlights three skills; Conceptual, Human, and Technical skills (Baltaci, 2017). Leaders require all of the three skills; however, the leaders may need more of some of the skills more than others depending on the level of management.

Human skill refers to the competence of a leader to work with other people. The skill enables the leader to relate effectively with superiors, peers, and subordinates. Smooth interaction between the leader and team members ensures the swift completion of tasks (Zoller, 2018). When leaders of higher positions possess good interpersonal skills, they are able to interact with subordinates smoothly, leading to the sharing of ideas that might help in growing the organization. Human skills instill sensitivity and empathy in leaders, making them easily understand the challenges of other team members and what motivates them. This creates trust between the leader and followers. Therefore, it becomes easy to motivate followers to implement organizational ideas (Bass et al., 2018). Apart from motivation, other examples of human skills include effective communication and the creation of team spirit and cooperation. Leaders of all Levels Require High Levels of Human Skill.

Conceptual skills equip a leader with the ability to put ideas to work. The leader is able to generate a vision for the organization and provide strategic direction to the actualization of the vision through skills such as creativity, problem-solving, and decision making (Zoller, 2018). Conceptual skills are more important for leaders in top management and least required by supervisory managers.

Technical skill refers to the expertise and knowledge in a particular type of work. It includes the ability to apply certain techniques and tools in a specialized area. Technical skills ensure that the company delivers the actual products that they designed (Bass et al., 2018). Examples of technical skills include knowledge of programming in a software company and accounting principles in an accounting firm. Technical skills are highly required by supervisory managers and least required by the top management.

Adaptive Leadership Case Framework

Adaptive leadership implies how leaders motivate team members to adapt to changes and deal with problems and challenges. The leaders adequately prepare people for a change, making them easily adapt when the change finally comes. Adaptive leaders undertake certain behavioral changes in a bid to prepare their organizations to adapt to change (Baltaci, 2017). The behavioral changes often occur consistently in stages that can be defined as the framework for adaptive leadership.

Get on the Balcony

It is a metaphor for going to a quiet environment that enables the leader to reflect on the challenges (Zoller, 2018). The adaptive leader steps away from the challenges to adequately reflect on them.

Identification of Adaptive Challenges

The leader diagnoses the challenges and differentiates the adaptive challenges from technical ones. Adaptive challenges would be suppressed by adaptive behaviors while the leaders can use their expertise to correct technical challenges (Bass et al., 2018). A wrong diagnosis of the challenges can lead to leadership failure.

Regulate Distress

Involves creating an environment that people in the organization feel comfortable to tackle problems. However, the environment should not be too comfortable to create avenues for people to avoid problems.

Maintain Discipline

The leader ensures that the people remain focused to tackle the challenges. It involves situations that would lead people to avoid the problem (Zoller, 2018); such as blaming coworkers or the authority on the problem.

Give the Work Back to the People

People feel secure when they actively participate in what they are doing. After giving directions and developing structures, the leader engages the people in solving the problems (Zoller, 2018). The people become empowered to act on problems by themselves.

Protection of Leadership voices

This is the final step in adaptive leadership. It requires the leader to listen carefully to the ideas of the subordinates (Bass et al., 2018). The ideas may come from the people feeling marginalized. However, another group might get upset when another expresses itself (Zoller, 2018). In this case, the leader is supposed to exercise more control on one group and relinquish some on another.

Conclusion

Good leadership skills are mandatory for leaders of all levels in any organization. Leaders are central to the formulation of the goals and objectives of an organization, and they are responsible to ensure that they are actualized. Only leaders equipped with the necessary skills can effectively deliver. Human skill is vital for leaders of all levels, complemented by technical and conceptual skills. Adaptive leadership is a strategic leadership that ensures adaptive challenges are addressed adaptively. The type of leadership largely employs human skills.

References

Baltaci, A. (2017). Complexity leadership: A theoretical perspective. International Journal of Educational Leadership and Management, 5(1), 30-58.

Bass, A. E., Lichtenstein, B. B., Milosevic, I., Poelmans, S., & Sipahi-Dantas, A. (2018, July). Leadership for Organizational Adaptability: Enabling the Adaptive Process. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2018, No. 1, p. 11322). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Zoller, K., Lahera, A. I., & Jhun, J. K. (2018). A MODEL FOR ADDRESSING ADAPTIVE CHALLENGES BY MERGING IDEAS. Crossing the Bridge of the Digital Divide: A Walk with Global Leaders, 95.