Today, there isn’t any organization looking to develop leadership skills or to grow tomorrow’s leaders. In an organization, success and failure are dependent on the manager, and the manager’s success and failure are based on his leadership qualities.
Leadership is the process of influencing and supporting others to work to achieve objectives. It is a continuous process of behavior and non-coercive.
“A leader with vision has a clear, vivid picture of where to go, as well as a firm grasp on what success looks like and how to achieve it.”
A leader is any person who influences a group towards obtaining a particular result. He gains some power over the people compared to the other group of people. Here we are more concerned with the manager as a leader. Without a good leader, an organization cannot function efficiently and effectively.
As a leader, employees are to be motivated always. Higher the motivation better would be the performance. A good leader can create confidence in his followers by directing them, giving them advice, getting through good results in the organization. The leader should be able to build morale. Morale is expressed as attitudes of the employees towards the organization. High morale leads to high productivity and organizational stability. Thus, good leadership is essential in all aspects of managerial functions whether it be motivation, communication, or direction.
There are many theories defining different types of leadership like charismatic leadership theory, trait theory, behavioral theory, and situational theory. Besides that, there are many leadership styles. Leadership styles are the patterns of behavior that a leader adopts in influencing the behavior of his followers. These patterns emerge in the leader as he begins to respond in the same fashion under similar conditions, he develops habits of action that become which become predictable to those who work with him.
Whenever a person becomes a leader he gets some power as compared to the other persons in the group. We can also say that some degree of power is needed for a leader to influence the people. “Power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes one wants.”
The leader can influence the behavior with power
- Coercively with threats
- Inducing them with payments.
- The attractor co-opts them.
Otherwise without commanding it, if the objectives are legitimate. Persuading the employees to do as one wants, without threat or inducement.
The politics in the organization is an inescapable and intrinsic reality. “Organizational politics can be described as self-serving and manipulative behavior of individuals and groups to promote their self-interests at the expense of others, and sometimes even organizational goals as well.”
Understanding the politics in an organization is necessary for a leader to achieve the company towards the goals. The internally developed leader knows the prevailing political conditions in general. From the outside, the leader must put effort to learn and understand the existing organizational politics through keen observation and interaction with a different group of people.
“Decisions are at the heart of leader success, and at times there are critical moments when they can be difficult, perplexing, and nerve-racking. However, the boldest decisions are the safest”
Thus a good leader should make decisions at the correct time using their power. They should have the capability to avoid or reduce politics in the organization.
One of the good leaders who have the good qualities of a leader in my firm is Mr. La King Shing chairman of the world-famous Hutchison Whampoa Company and the Chueng Kong Holdings.. The reason behind the selection of Mr. Shing was because he has risen to his current position by sheer hard work, vision, acumen and leadership qualities. He is all the more respected because he was a poor immigrant family from China who settled in Hong Kong along with his parents. It was his dedication towards the work and the true leadership quality to possess a good position. I have seen many qualities of a good leader in him which are in books only.
He uses his power up to the level which he needs to get perform his work. The politics are timely removed by him, as he is interacting with people always. The most attractive capability in him is his timely decision-making skill. He conducts studies on the changes occurring in the organization. He is the person who inspires people into action by creating clarity and unity of purpose and build synergies through organizational values.
But beyond this, the current environment needs creative and innovative leaders who follow the leadership theory and concepts but in a new way. The leaders should understand the changes coming in the organizational culture or behavior. They should be able to add in the old concepts and theories. They must be able to develop their own style of leadership. That means as business organizations are getting more and more complex the demand for leadership skills increases.