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Leadership can simply be defined as the action of leading people in an organized environment or organization towards achieving goals.
Leaders in organisation do influence employee behaviors in several ways. A leader sets a clear vision for the organization, motivates employees, guides employees through the work process and builds morale.
Leadership involves leading others toward achieving clear goals.
A Good Leadership Model:
Practices self-reflection – They set exacting standards for themselves and others.
Is self-aware – They are open to learningand new ideas.
Shows empathy – They think carefully about the impact they have on others.
Has vision, courage and integrity – They communicate their vision and expectations clearly so people know where they’re heading.
Is ready to lead – They lead by example. They are honest, sincere and practice what they preach.
People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy. – Oliver Goldsmith
Leadership in Organizations
Setting a clear vision means influencing employees to understand and accept the future state of the organization. A unit of young soldiers may not believe in a particular mission ordered by their commanding officer. A good leader will influence the soldiers to perform their duties by explaining the vision and the importance of their role in the outcome. The soldiers will be more apt to follow.
Motivating employees means to find out enough about the needs and wants of employees, giving them what they need and providing praise for a job well done. Being far from home is lonely for a young soldier. A good leader knows this and will communicate with his unit to learn more about their needs and wants. It may be as simple as giving the soldiers a sweet treat for their efforts.
When guiding employees, it is important to define their role in the work process and provide them with tools needed to perform and participate in their efforts along the way. Some military maneuvers are difficult. Often, orders are to perform tasks that involve intricate details, like explaining how to dig a tunnel past enemy lines. A good leader will explain the tasks, provide the digging tools, direct the work and be available to assist the soldiers if they run into a problem.
Building morale involves pulling everyone together to work towards a common goal. Let’s face it – fighting in a war is stressful. Soldiers are often placed in high-stress situations. This can cause the unit to lose their focus or, worse yet, shut down emotionally. A good leader will let the soldiers know how much their work is appreciated. A simple gesture like throwing an impromptu party to recognize the unit’s small victories can reignite the soldiers’ spirits.
A Leader’s Role
A leader’s role in an organization can be formally assigned by his or her position, like manager or department head, and it can also be informally assumed by an employee who possesses a certain charisma that attracts others to follow.
A formal leadership role is an officially assigned position given to someone based on his or her ability to perform the job. It generally involves organizing and directing people to perform tasks, like the job of commanding officer (CO) in the military. The CO holds the highest level of authority over his unit. He is in charge of everything, from deciding how to fight the enemy to overseeing the day-to-day tasks of his soldiers.
Qualities of a Good Leader
A good leader understands that leadership is responsibility not power. … When leaders are accountable for things within their power and control, they are being responsible.
Leadership Role
The activity of leading a group of people or an organization or the ability to do this. Leadership involves: establishing a clear vision, sharing that vision with others so that they will follow willingly, providing the information, knowledge and methods to realize that vision.
Importance of Leadership
Leadership is an important function of management which helps to maximize efficiency and to achieve organizational goals. The following points justify the importance of leadership in a concern.
Initiates action- Leader is a person who starts the work by communicating the policies and plans to the subordinates from where the work actually starts.
Motivation- A leader proves to be playing an incentive role in the concern’s working. He motivates the employees with economic and non-economic rewards and thereby gets the work from the subordinates.
Providing guidance- A leader has to not only supervise but also play a guiding role for the subordinates. Guidance here means instructing the subordinates the way they have to perform their work effectively and efficiently.
Creating confidence- Confidence is an important factor which can be achieved through expressing the work efforts to the subordinates, explaining them clearly their role and giving them guidelines to achieve the goals effectively. It is also important to hear the employees with regards to their complaints and problems.
Building morale- Morale denotes willing co-operation of the employees towards their work and getting them into confidence and winning their trust. A leader can be a morale booster by achieving full co-operation so that they perform with best of their abilities as they work to achieve goals.
Builds work environment- Management is getting things done from people. An efficient work environment helps in sound and stable growth. Therefore, human relations should be kept into mind by a leader. He should have personal contacts with employees and should listen to their problems and solve them. He should treat employees on humanitarian terms.
Co-ordination- Co-ordination can be achieved through reconciling personal interests with organizational goals. This synchronization can be achieved through proper and effective co-ordination which should be primary motive of a leader.
– Comrade Danfulani Lukman
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