Leadership Styles: Psychometric Survey & Harvard Business Review - Essay Sample

Introduction

The psychometric survey, which identified three leadership facets, revealed the leadership styles which help understand leadership styles and what constitutes leadership. There are eight leadership archetypes. An assessment in the Harvard Business Review provides immediate feedback concerning a leadership style, including strengths and weaknesses. After the assessment, the identified go-to leadership style was "forecaster," and the two supplemental ones were "harmonizer" and "pilot" (West et al., 2015). Thus, the go-to style assists in understanding as well as articulating leadership focus. Additionally, this helps leaders play to their strengths, understand other forms of leadership, and be aware of potential pitfalls to heighten their vigilance.

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The go-to leadership style, forecaster, indicates one is a learning leader. It comprises a leader who often deals with the expansion of knowledge, collection of data, and increasing their subject-matter expertise. Such leaders also spend their time studying information which will impact business (West et al., 2015). Additionally, they rely more on intellectual ideas rather than emotional connections. One of the identified potential blind spots is the failure to "get buy-in." Leaders under this style don't favor interpersonal influence, which affects their engagement with shareholders as well as getting their buy-in. the next blind spot is shifting of gears. A leader using this style might face difficulties shifting gears if their facts and data used to support their ideas get rejected. The third blind spot associated with this leadership style is tolerating risk in unfamiliar situations. Leaders here often don't act unless there is sufficient data, which would end up making them lose opportunities to competitors. One area the leaders are likely to thrive when people look up to them for new ideas. Another area they thrive in is when their organization looks to be innovative. The firm stands to gain from the leader's insights. The third area they can thrive in is when they work in an environment that requires deep subject matter expertise. However, they struggle in circumstances that require the execution of short-term results. Another area they struggle with is the static environment, which upholds tradition and is reluctant to strategic change (Krupp et al., 2013). Also, leaders using this leadership style can struggle when they are required to provide direct input concerning topics they aren't familiar with and without data access.

One of the supplemental leadership styles identified was "harmonizer." This style involves leaders who have high standards for quality. Additionally, these leaders know how to get the right people, and they create environments that facilitate execution. One of the blind spots under this style is the acceptance of ambiguity. Leaders have a strong focus on performance, which may affect them through a loss of interest in exploring other methods of operating. Another blind spot is the failure to deliver a robust and constructive approach to conflict. One is likely to thrive when working in predictable and reliable settings, which allow for smooth execution. Leaders can also thrive when their role requires close adherence to processes. Another area they can succeed is in a situation where attrition is high since they can apply their relational skills to prevent employees from jumping ship (Dierendonck, 2011). However, these leaders struggle in cases where successful individuals resist conformity in an organization. Another area they struggle with is when a turnaround situation requires strategic thinking. Also, they struggle in instances that demand the delivery of persuasive messages.

The second supplemental style is the pilot. In this case, leaders cherish working in a complex and ambiguous environment. Additionally, they can generate compelling strategies and put them in action. One of the blind spots to this style is that leaders don't take time to reflect. They have a propensity to seek new challenges and is at the expense of failing to learn about the past. Another blind spot is that they find it challenging to manage the intense personal drive, which may affect people around them. Another blind spot is that they don't make space for others.

Moreover, these leaders don't step back and allow others to lead. One of the areas that they can thrive is when their organization is static and requires re-engagement of their workforce. The second area they thrive on is complex environments that need strategic leadership (Krupp et al., 2013). However, they struggle when working in controlled environments for micromanagers. They also face difficulties in organizations having conservative managers who appear reluctant, changing the status quo. They also struggle when less-seasoned people in their teams need support.

SMART goals involve the accomplishments one's goals. One of the self-improvement goals includes inspiring and motivating team members. The specific goals would consist of inspiring and motivating team members to increase productivity by a particular number, say, 25%. Others can include having the ability to work with teams, assessing situations, decision making, and provision of direction. Another goal would involve improving communication with units. For instance, the specific purpose would be to develop presentation skills that reduce questions by 30% in team meetings as the first under the acronym SMART. The measurable goal would be to minimize problems in meetings by 30%. The attainable goals would involve attending workshops that focus on presentation skills. The relevant purpose would include making sense of the project one works on. Ultimately, time is another critical aspect of the SMART goals, which would involve having a 30% improvement within six months.

Change Management

The success of every business in the whole world is entirely depended upon the formulation of strategies and management styles managers practice. It is in the public domain that leadership is a complex task which involves, among other functions integrating views of different employees to achieve a common purpose. Interestingly, technological advancements and innovations have given businesses a competitive edge over others. For instance, management functions such as decision making at every level of management in the organizational structure has significantly benefited from the application of management information systems. The executive information systems assist the chief executive officers in formulating short and long term strategies for businesses.

Additionally, middle-level managers make use of decision support systems to come up with informed decisions. The success of every business decision depends entirely on the quality of the information processed by every information system adopted by the business. To achieve this, at the operational level of management needs a competent transactional processing system that captures accurate data on transactions (Seenivasan & Talukdar, 2016). Therefore, to integrate and create a unified approach to all functional units of business needs proper implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Such a technology combines technology in the functional groups of a company, the management of human resources, the procurement of materials, and a central repository of data to creating ties with suppliers and customers. Therefore this essay would like to explore the benefits of ERP and change management in the success of businesses.

The success of any company has to be anchored on the sharing of the vision of sharing power among the workers. The leadership style where the workers feel part and parcel of the leadership and affairs of the company. This aspect fosters employee morale, which is translated to improved customer service. Additionally, the organization should deploy a successful enterprise resource planning system that integrates and unifies their respective. Successful management of internal and external customers ensures customer loyalty and hence, the success of the enterprise.

Characteristics of Change Management

Change is inevitable, and successful organizations embrace change often. The need for change has been driven by several factors such as the technological advancements that have seen rendered some data collection and processing obsolete within the organization, legislative directive to adopt a new system to operate, and the need to match or outdo the stiff competition in the market share. In light of these driving forces for change, change management has played a fundamental role in adopting a change strategy that will drive the mission and vision of the organization forward. According to (Naveed, 2017), the concept of change management involves selected and well-thought overhaul reengineering of business operations right away from the point of production management, inventory management and logistics to sales and marketing activities. However, change has always been resisted, and for change management to be successful, then it should possess salient characteristics as discussed herein (Naveed, 2017).

Firstly, consistent communication should be made to every participant within the organization. Managers who have the vision and mission of the organization must communicate consistently to the employees about the need and the benefits accruable to the business if the change is introduced. Failure to communicate effectively to the participants leaves them with unanswered questions; this can bring entropy to the success of implementing the change. Additionally, setting goals and training the employees will increase the likelihood of change acceptance within an organization (Seenivasan & Talukdar, 2016). Therefore the change managers should set achievable goals and empower the human resource through training to best achieve these goals. Employee training means that all the technical aspects of the change and disruption or usual way of doing business operations have been explained to the employees. Moreover, the success of change management will be realized through recognition of individual contributions. Periodical evaluation of the business milestone and deliverables by organizing meetings will foster increased employee support and commitment to the proposed change.

According to (Hayes, 2018), successful implementation of enterprise resource planning needs effective change management. Change management is required to prepare the employees within an organization to be ready to accept the reengineering of business operations brought about by the implementation of ERP. Business reengineering leads to complete fashion of carrying out business operations, and employees need to be prepared through timely communication and tailored training to ensure that they understand the technical aspect of the new technology involved in the business. Lack of technological literacy may pose the biggest challenge to the adoption of the proposed change. Change managers must, therefore, use their convincing powers to gain the majority of employee support for the success of ERP implementation (Hayes, 2018). The envisioned change should not be too disruptive and demanding to extend of sending employees back to class to acquire computer literacy. The managers should have a well-structured training plan on how to accommodate the different levels of computer literacy of the employees and ho to empower them without victimization. The internal IT support team should as well be equipped on the operations of the ERP to ensure that they offer user support when needed.

Over and over again, change in the organization has faced resistance. Some of the so far pinpointed reasons for resistance to ch...