Key leadership concepts essay sample

As a general manager at air conditioning service repair and Installation Company, leadership is all about integrity. To be an effective leader one should do whatever you ask other people to do. Lead others by example. Although to be an effective leader one requires to have the knowledge and skills, showing others what to do is the best way to lead. Others might argue that great leaders are born but great leaders are also created. The ones who are willing to learn and put into practice whatever they learn.

Blanchard and Hersey have classified leadership styles into four depending on the development levels (maturity). The development levels are labeled form d1 to d4 with the one with the least maturity been at d1 and the most developed been at d4. The levels of leadership usually put great/ less focus on the relationship between the leader and the follower and on the task. The styles include telling (s1), selling (s2), participating (s3), and delegating (s4) in that order.

In the first level telling/directing (s1) the follower has low commitment, insecure, unable and unwilling to perform the task on his own and of low competence. The leader according to the situational theory has to put emphasis on the task and have minimal focus on the relationship. The relationship is given minimal concern by the leader. The leader might also go ahead and provide a structure for working instructing how the person is to be controlled. The leader as part of his work has to learn about the follower. He has to know the reason as to why the person is not motivated and if the person has the ability and skills to execute the task. He has to learn about any limitations in ability that might be existing within the follower. This is evidenced in situations when the person lacks the self-confidence and believes in not able to do/execute what is expected of him. In this situation, the person might be in denial or other coping. The leader avoids concentrating on relationship since the person might confuse the intentions of the leader and assume that the doing and completing the task is optional. The leader thus must insist on do this and this to ensure that he/she is clear on what needs doing.

Selling/coaching (S2) is the second level of motivation. Here, must also provide loads of information and direct the follower. Here the leader puts more on a communicating with the followers. Thus, the leaders find themselves selling the message to the team to ensure that they all get on board. The followers have some variable commitment and some competence but are unable but motivated and willing to execute the task. The case here is that the follower is over confident and telling them what to do will demotivate them. A new methodology needs to be adopted whereby the leader has to sell other ways of working clarifying decisions and explaining issues. The leader here spends tremendous amount of time listening to what the follower has to say and advising where they go wrong. Where appropriate the leaders help the follower by coaching to gain the necessary skills. The telling and selling levels of the situational leadership theory are leader driven (Northouse, 2007).

At supporting/participating (s3) level, the leaders focus much more on the relationship with the followers rather than the directions. The leader shares decision-making and the work with the team. At this level, the follower has variable commitment, high competence, has the ability, but is unwilling and insecure to complete the task. The follower here has the ability and thus the leader is not to worry about whether the follower can do it. He has to concentrate his efforts on knowing why the follower does not want to execute the task that has been awarded. The leader has the task of persuading the follower to cooperate and carry out the task. The leaders here are concerned about motivation and nothing else. When the leader finds the causes that are making the follower not to work the leader can then address the issue. Thus, the leader here spends a lot of time praising, listening, and making the follower feel good about him/herself the point they make the required adjustment and start cooperating.

Delegating/observing (s4) is the final level of situational leadership theory by Blanchard and Hersey. Here the leader delegates most of the responsibilities and monitors the progress. The leaders here are less involved in the decision making process of the task. Here the follower has high commitment, high competence, able and willing to carry out the tasks. Here the leader has low task, low relationship focus. The leader know that with the motivation and ability to complete the tasks at hand the follower requires less focus and they should be left to carry out the tasks but they should be constantly on check to ensure that everything is going according to plans. Although the followers here need less praise and support, they also need occasional recognition as with everybody else. The third and fourth levels of situational leadership theory are follower led. In the Air Conditioning and Repair Company, there are workers who have had previous experience in other companies. These workers know what is expected of them and thus fall in this category.

Leadership is an essential part in the management of any organization and handling any task. The issue of power is highly controversial. Power is derived from many sources that include intelligence, information, hard work, and money. Bertrand Russell specifies that power is a fundamental concept in social sciences compared to how energy is a fundamental concept in physics. Leaders ought to understand that the way they use the power they have determines whether it is harmful or useful. This is because people have the notion that power is evil. But it is neither bad or good. The leaders must have the integrity to be able to handle power and use the power in a way that they can benefit a larger group. With power, the leader has the ability to control all the decision-making in the company. He might come off rubbing cold shoulders with other people at his work of exercising the powers he has (Northouse, 2007).

A leader’s influence depends on many factors and personality is one of them. Power is defined as the influence a leader has over his followers. Through exercising powers on the followers, leaders get to be respected, feared, disrespect, praise, imitate and one might even become a role model for others. All this depends on how the leader handle the power granted to him/ the power he/she has earned. There are different types of powers and followers will react differently to these powers.

Rewarding power is the power where the leader promises a reward for well-executed tasks. The reward has to be appeasing to the team of the follower for them to be motivated to execute the task to perfection. The team also has to believe in the leader that the reward promised is to be awarded. The power has to be used cautiously since the followers might not work well when the presents and rewards are withdrawn. The followers might also get tired of the rewards being offered as they might be accustomed to. The token might also be very small to trigger the motivation required.

Coercive power is the direct opposite of the reward power. Here the followers have to belief that the leader has the powers to execute the penalty that are the consequences of not working as instructed by the leader. The penalties range from withdrawal of privileges to the followers losing their jobs. The leader has to choose the powers carefully and ensure that he/she does not have to face the employment tribunal. The penalty has to be proportionate with the action done by the follower.

Referent power is usually created when the followers have faith in their leader and appreciate the fact that he is a true leader. The leaders have referent powers on the people they lead but not to everybody. Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi did not have referent powers over the leaders they led. They led through their charisma and personality.

Those who have knowledge and skills more than the rest exercise expert powers. People can have expert powers even though they are not the leaders. Can be a member of the group who happens to be knowledgeable than the rest of the team members.

The situational leadership is essential and advantageous than other strategies. This is because the strategy helps deal with different groups of people in the appropriate manner and not in a universal way. Thus, the followers all fell welcomed in the new work place. As a general manager, adopting the strategy has been beneficial and every worker is appreciative of how they are handled. No complaints are brought forward and the motivation among the team is great.

Leaders might adopt numerous management styles as a way of motivating of employees. The different ways include facilitative techniques, relatively hands off, micromanaging styles. Transformational and transactional styles of management are the complete opposite of each other. Burns and Bass developed these two leadership styles. The transactional leadership deals with ensuring that the normal flow of operation goes on as expected. They are mostly concerned with how to marginally maintain and improve quality and quantity of performance. They also look for options of how to substitute different goals for others for forward movement of the business. Decision implementation is also necessary while at the same time looking for ways to reduce the resistance on some of the actions they are to carry out. The leaders who use this method have to approach the followers with the notion of exchanging in mind. The leaders who adopt the style use the disciplinary powers and many incentives to get the best out of the employees (Avolio, 2002). The leaders here apply the reward powers and coercive powers to motivate their followers and the team. The leaders here are not strategists and are only concerned with ensuring that the day-to-day business of the organization run smoothly but does not aim acquiring market leadership. Through transactional leadership, the businesses are able to build a strong reputation in the industry and the employees are always on the frontline. Applied by small organization those lack a lot of capital to strategize on growth. They include the fast food restaurants and the retail shops.
Transformational leadership on the other hand goes beyond running the daily operations but also designing how to take the organization to the next level in business. The leaders here are motivated in taking market leadership and being at the top of everything. The leadership style is based on more attributes other than the compliance of the followers. These leaders advocate for motivation, team building, and employees collaboration at different organization levels with a solo goal. They set incentives and goals and push the subordinates towards achieving the goals. They also lay a foundation and platform for those employees who want to grow. The leaders using this style of leadership are able to make businesses to reach the great heights and rapidly thus making a big name in the market place. Through transformational leadership styles, there is a mutual stimulation of the relationship between the followers and the leader and intern converts the leaders to moral agents. In the process, the followers can also be converted in to transformational leaders. Transformational leaders also try to attempt and raise colleagues, followers, subordinates, and constituencies to greater knowledge of the repercussions of their actions. For a leader to have such awareness he/she has to be a leader of self confidence, vision, inner strength. He also has to be acceptable by his/her followers. They have to be regarding him/her highly and they have to acknowledge his wisdom. This is applicable in large organizations with CEOs or managers (Avolio, 2002).
Effective team leaders should have the traits that ensure the success of the team. They should have self-control that helps them to take control of the situation even at worst times (Giuliani, 2002). They should be guided by the saying that when one loses the temper the team also loses.
The leaders must have that competing factor whereby they always aim to be the best and come out on top at every time. This way they have to instill these principals to their followers and the rest of the team and preach to them that losing is not an option however easy the task might be.
They should also be caring to the team members. They should also show and having a caring attitude towards the organization. This way they ensure productivity.
The leader has to be able to make resolute and wise decisions. For them to be effective team leaders they have to be willing to listen to counsel. They also need to have unwavering determination and of strong character. They should be effective and clear communicator and motivational not backing down from challenges. They should be visionary and lastly have a sense of humor (Giuliani, 2002).
The situational leadership in no doubt supports the vision, strategy, and mission of the organization. This is because by interacting with the different workers in a way that ensures they are able to work they are able to achieve the set targets of the organization. Delegating different duties ensure there is a group that helps in strategizing in the organization. This way they are able to look into the future and set goals and objectives to be achieved then.

Being an employee, there are many complaints from fellow colleagues that if they were checked it would result to tremendous changes in the organization. The same employees who make these complaints have workable solutions to the problems the company faces. The problem is there is no one who is willing to hear them out and try their suggestions. In case the management and leadership was handed over to me this is one of the changes I would make. Ensuring that the employee’s complaints and ideas are heard and experimented. Innovation is key in ensuring business success and thus promoting innovation among the employees will ensure that the company competes with the most prestigious companies in the country. It will also help in getting the best out of the employees.

References

Northouse, P. G. (2007). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Giuliani, R. W., & Kurson, K. (2002). Leadership. New York: Hyperion.
Avolio, B. J., & Bass, B. M. (2002). Developing potential across a full range of leadership: Cases on transactional and transformational leadership. Mahwah, N. J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.