Hiring well-rounded outside consultant personalities and agencies for consultancy functions in leadership skills could provide a whiff of fresh air into the organization and also allow management leaders to think effectively, from a fresh perspective, which surprisingly, could also aid in solving current issues besieging leadership.
This is because most leadership issues are focused from a standard direction, and this could be a primary reason why it remains unsolved. Thus it is possible that an out-of –the the-hat solution could ease problems, if not solve them.
“As times change, leadership skills must also change. What was successful in the past is still relevant, but may not be everything needed for the future.”
Leaders need to understand that best solutions and management practices could also evolve from outside the organization and not necessarily from cloned thinking. Since most management leaders try to solve issues from an inside standpoint and possibly have standard solutions for even fresh problems, why not try an avant-garde solution? Innovative thinking is the breeding ground for successful business endeavors.
Thus it is seen that constantly striving to develop revolutionary ideas and strategies for your independent business.
For instance, take the case of a company with high employee attrition. The standard practice would be to inject stronger doses of motivation, higher salaries, benefits, bonuses, and pep talk to keep people going; but an outside HR consultant would find the actual reasons not to be any such issue. It could simply be that management does not value employee suggestions or better work practices. This when these facts are implemented, it could solve the issue amicably and render major cost savings for the company. Thus, it is also important and useful to seek fresh solutions to standing problems in a bid to resolve them permanently. It would not be wrong to say that sometimes, outside experience and learning could be even better and effective than what is available from cloned leadership thinking, which could only think and perform from one perspective and not look beyond normally accepted practices.
With the fast-changing corporate environment, leader thinking needs to undergo a minor metamorphosis, to accept and overcome challenges as it comes along. One of the major factors could be to think laterally and dynamically with purpose and conviction.
Yes, our Company most certainly has a broad-based leadership development program designed and formulated to nurture and develop management performance and powerful mindsets.
More than the theoretical and conceptual knowledge gained about management theories and their application in corporate environments, what is more, significant is the attitudinal changes these programs are capable of instilling in minds of leaders, which triggers off their latent abilities and competencies to rise to greater heights.
Moreover, the identification of leaders both in the promotional procedures and hiring process could be in terms of applied intelligence, high risk-taking abilities, and the desire for achievements. Commitment, loyalty, and the willingness to make contributions for organizational development are also meaningful and contextually leader likes traits. With the use of evolutionary leadership, “Systems thinking will enable a more complete understanding of the context within which organizations operate, and thus inform the development of sustainable organizations.” Leadership is an evolutionary process, and most leaders sharpen their skills on the grindstone of situations, experiences, and challenging milieu. Exposures to innovative ideas, peer and superior influences, critical thinking, and the ability to turn adverse situations into advantages are the hallmarks of good leadership. “A crisis or important event may cause a person to rise to the occasion, which brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person.” Besides positive attitude and the will to succeed, characteristics like motivation, advanced communication skills, empathy, and group interaction skills are also indications of superior leadership. Leading from the front is important since followership evolves through leadership, and leading instills robust work and personality-related developments in peer and subordinate groups and stimulates them towards better work performance.
Introduction
Leadership is more a state of mind and commitment to goal achievement. Therefore, it would not be wrong to state that leaders are constantly evolving themselves to suit changing corporate environments and bracing themselves to face challenges through leadership in action. A leader also needs to be a thinker and a strategist.
It is about “clarity of purpose in a given context.” The leader needs to visualize and provide solutions to problems even before they occur, or at least, adopt strategies that could be implemented to tackle the problem efficiently and effectively on a pre-emptive basis, which is the crux of leadership in action. It could also be seen in terms of “improving subordinates’ perception of motivation climate, or satisfaction.”
Designing of perfect leadership development experience
The following are the rubric upon which this could be based:
- Cogent and realistic definition and understanding of the corporate strategy and how it could possibly be aligned to meet company goals. Making use of critical learning processes in order to put the corporate strategy into clear perspective. The need to set up competency structures that align with the vision and mission of the company and its perspectives on leadership values and its sustenance. A competency model could be seen as a balance sheet of skill sets in terms of “knowledge, abilities or other attributes” that are specifically necessary to succeed in a particular job or venture.
- It is very necessary that the company realigns its human resource management (HRM) policies to suit management designs. This could be in terms of standardized policies in interviewing, recruitment, selection, training, promotion, and retrenchment. Policies need to be clear and applicable to all, irrespective of hierarchical position. Since leadership is a team effort, all members need to be disciplined and work-oriented. “Often when a company grows and the market changes, it is difficult to keep pace with the workload or the changing needs of the HR Management. In order to obtain specific expertise within budget, time or staffing restraints, hiring an outside consultant team to manage the project may be a viable & effective solution.”
- Next, it is very much necessary that the company adopts well-documented and tested techniques for all facets of leadership. This also needs to be validated and upgraded from time to time to suit evolving and changing needs of demonstrated leadership.
- Finally, it is imperative to identify leadership and seek out its latent caliber and work performance along with the management assessment system in order to provide the right results.
In order to ensure leadership development, it is also necessary to subject oneself to qualitative and quantitative research systems so that the level of leadership vis-à-vis the environment in which it is used is beneficial for the organization.
Qualitative analysis
The qualitative analysis could be in matching leadership traits like courage, decision-making abilities, compassion, and excellent organizational and motivational faculties as reported in subordinate performance and their assessment of leaders. However, this being subjective, it cannot be determined with a fair degree of accuracy whether it is the leadership’s manifest traits and personality characteristics that produce positive results, or whether it is the highly positive and motivated subordinate performance and behavior patterns that lead to leader acceptance. In other words, whether positive leadership is the cause or result of follower ships is often blur and not accurately demonstratable. Coming to the context of quantitative analysis that could serve as studying leadership traits on subordinates and whether marketed improvements in their performance and behavior patterns could be ascertained from correlation studies, it is seen that this is more acceptable since it is based on accurate and quantifiable data.
Correlation studies for leadership performance
Correlation studies are meant to determine the statistical nexus between leadership traits and the feedbacks received from the managed, in terms of assessing leadership performance, attitudes, and impact on subordinate performance, attitudes, and conduct.
Thus there are three types of correlative results – positive correlation in that leadership traits do play a significant role in subordinate performance and conduct, correlation in that there is no difference manifested and finally negative correlation, in that leadership traits and characteristics have a negative impact on subordinates’ performance and behavior patterns.
Conclusion
It could be seen that the effectiveness of the leadership model could be seen in the attainment of the goals and objectives that it is designed for. In the case of a leadership development experience, it could be seen in terms of achievement of the identification and assessment of positive leadership, its potential, and performance in that the subordinates are satisfied and productive, or their organization is more profitable.
References
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MANGA, Manuel., and HOLLENHOST, Tirza. (2004). Evolutionary Leadership for Building Sustainable Organizations. [online]. Center for Evolutionary Leadership. P.7. Web.
Part 1: Leadership is a Process Not a Position: Chapter 4: Assessing Leadership and Measuring Its Effectiveness. P. 122.
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