Introduction
Leadership is defined as the social process under which a person can utilize the support of others to achieve a common goal and forms one of the most relevant and important aspect of organizations. It is also “a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent” (Gallos, 2008). The inability to impact on other in manner that improves their levels of productivity defines poor leadership.
Poor leader
Poor leadership involves the inability between on the part of a leader to influence his followers in achieving the aims and objectives of an organization.
Situation
One instance that I came across a poor leader was during my internship at Royal Airlines. As a new recruit, I was reporting directly to the assistant human resources manager. Within this company, the assistant human resource manager was responsible for the development of needs assessment within the company. This bestowed on him the important role employee training, satisfaction and appraisal. Whereas the company entrenched the culture of exemplary character, enthusiasm, confidence and commitment to excellence that define personal qualities of a good leader, none of these was apparent in the nature he discharged his leadership duties.
Lack of commitment to the realization of the company’s goals and objectives was manifested in the development of a totally irrelevant training needs assessment. The major problem within the company at that particular time was ethical standards among the employees that had not only led to waning customer confidence but had also led to numerous and expensive legal suits. Some legal suits were from the government as a result of poor presentation of company reports and taxation.
Instead of developing a training program that had the capacity to improve the ethical standards within the company, the assistant human resource manager developed a training program on the effects of alcohol and drug abuse in the work place. I am not insisting that this was wrong; the fact is that competition for resources within an organization demands that we allocate resources where they are most effective.
Lessons Learned
Thousands of dollars of Royal Airlines were pumped in a very unproductive venture. The need to carry out a relevant and effective needs assessment and allocate resources where they are most effective defines the levels of productivity of scarce resources.
Future Learning Objectives
The future learning objective is to analyze the effectiveness of two different leadership theories within same organization.
Competitive Follower
Different people demand different types of leadership just as a new recruit within an organization requires more supervision than an experienced employee.
Situation
Within the local community organization where I decided to volunteer after my high school graduation, I came across a very competitive colleague who was very ineffective in his leadership. Instead of focusing on the realization of the core objectives of the community organization, he followed the directions of the senior manager to the last word. This impacted negatively on his abilities to make critical decisions that had the capacity to positively impact on his performance.
Learned Lessons
The dynamicity of the working environment today demands very flexible leaders who can easily adapt to the specific demands of the moment. Strict followers of codes of operations may fail to achieve organizational objectives in situations that demand their own input.
Future Learning Objective
The future learning objective within this poor form of leadership will be carry out a case study on its levels of impacts on employee performance levels.
References
Gallos, V.J. (2008). Business leadership: a Jossey-Bass reader. New York: John Wiley and Sons.