Discussion of leadership issues from two articles
According to transformational leadership theory by Warrilow (2009, para. 1-5), there are four vital components that are required for one to effectively manage changes within an organization. For effective changes in organizations, leaders need to spur consciousness within their subordinates so as they become aware of their value to the organization and also know what the organization expects from them. Changes within organizations can not be achieved without the leaders winning the trust of their staffs.
This calls for leaders to ensure that they devise transitions to be followed when adapting changes in organizations. During this time, leaders deserve to portray high degree of integrity so as to get support from their staffs. Generally, people within organizations are reluctant of accepting changed due to fear of their effects. It is the role of the leader at this time to ensure that he or she induces positive energy into his or her staffs.
Zaccaro and Horn (2003, pp. 771-778), most of the current leadership theories are based on limited investigations. The available leadership theories and models are not compiled based on real issues affecting organizations. As a result, most of the leaders approach problems affecting their organizations through trail and error method. Despite this problem, limited studies have been made to identify the barriers that limits establishment of leadership practices and theories based on information corrected from organizations.
Analysis of the issues
As a convention, it is the role of leaders within organizations to instill the sense of consciousness among staffs. They have the role of ensuring that their staffs understand organizational goals and objectives as well as their roles in ensuring that these goals are attained. Warrilow argues that leaders achieve this through communicating to staffs the organizational goals and looking for ways to motivate them. This is logical as staffs are never willing to work hard if their effort is not recognized.
Giving employees rewards after they have realized a specific organizational objective makes them become conscious that their role is acknowledged thus striving to work with the organization. Employee motivation is one of the methods of encouraging their participation in organizational activities. The moment employees realize that they are awarded based on their contribution to the organization; they stage a competition leading to them being more committed to the organization’s activities. Reminding the staffs on their value to the organization makes them committed to the organization.
The move encourages innovation within the organization as staffs try to look for ways to simplify and improve their performance (Gill, 2006, p. 213). Based on this idea, it is possible for one to develop skills required in employee motivation. One understands the need for raising consciousness among the employees thus being able to ensure that his or her leadership responsibilities bear fruits.
To ensure that all staffs participate in change realization within organizations, leaders ought to ensure that they have won trust from the staffs. When staffs trust in their leaders, they are willing to participate in any activity introduced by them. Failure to win trust of the staffs may lead to them participating in the project unwillingly. This may lead to the organization taking long before realizing the changes or not realize them at all. In an environment where staffs do not trust in their leaders, they are reluctant to participate in any project or issue rose by the leaders. Staffs are unwilling to come up with innovations to facilitate in enhancing of organizational efficiency.
Winning employee trust makes them have the perception that by embracing changes within the organization, their life and working environment in the organization will also be transformed to the better. This leads to them sharing ideas on how to enhance changes introduced in the organization. This idea from the article is vital for inexperienced leaders or those intending to introduce changes in their organizations (Gill, 2006, pp. 221-243). Through this one can gain experience on methods to use in winning employee trust. The argument presented in this article may help a leader in being able to win employee trust thus realizing his goals or targets within his or her department.
For leaders to win employee trust, they need to carry themselves with high degree of integrity. One requires leading by example rather than ordering people to do things without his or her participation. The success of organizations depends on the level of integrity portrayed by leaders. If a leader becomes open to his or her staffs, they become more attached to him thus willing to work with him or her.
However, if staffs suspect to be shortchanged by their leaders, they become rebellious making it hard for an organization to experience growth. Most of the o0rganizations experience low growth rate due to employee rebellion. Most of the rebellion results due to leaders’ dishonesty. Staffs develop the notion that the leaders are taking the opportunity to enrich themselves at their expense. This makes them fail to commit themselves to organizational activities. Based on the discussion in this article, one understands the importance of acting with integrity when leading. One also gains experience on some of the actions that can make one show that he or she is leading with integrity.
Changes within organizations are never readily accepted by staffs. There are those who fear that by embracing changes, their jobs will be at risk while others fear that changes may make them overloaded with work (Northhouse, 2010, p. 437). Transformational leaders need to be prepared to overcome opposition which may arise from staffs as they try to introduce changes. It calls for the leaders to inform the employees of the intended changes and their importance to the organization. Leaders need to instill positive energy to their staffs for changes to be achieved.
This can be through assuring them that the changes will improve their working conditions rather than putting their jobs at risk. The information offered in the article may be beneficial to leaders wishing to introduce changes in their organizations. This is because they gain experience on ways of instilling positive energy on employees before introducing changes. Consequently, they would be able to succeed in making changes within organizations with the help of their staffs.
Zaccaro’s and Horn’s assumption that most of the available leadership theories are based on assumptions rather than feasible information gives the reason why most organizations fail to have good leadership. Failure by scholars to compile their leadership theories based on real life situations within organizations makes it hard for leaders to address problems facing their organization. Attempt to implement some of the prescribed measures in the available theories proves futile to organizations as the measures were established based on speculations (Northhouse, 2010, pp. 465-483).
There have been cases of organizations experiencing leadership challenges despite the management keeping to the prescribed measures given by various leadership theories. This has led to leaders addressing their problems based on try and error method. This poses danger to the organization as the implemented remedies may have negative effects on the organization without the knowledge of the leaders. Through this article, leaders can understand some of the barriers that lead to organizations failing to overcome leadership challenges despite them following the stipulated steps. One understands that relying entirely on the available leadership theories when solving leadership problems in an organization may lead to the organization experiencing more problems as some of the measures are not feasible.
Conclusion
For leaders to effectively achieve changes within their organizations there are various qualities they need to observe. Leaders need ensure that they have spurred conscious among the staffs. This is through briefing them on what they are expected to do as well as their importance to the organization. Leaders ought to ensure that they have won staffs’ trust to be guaranteed of their participation. Leaders who do their duties with integrity are more likely to get support from employees. To avoid facing opposition fro employees, leaders need to ensure that they have induced positive energy in staffs before introducing changes.
This can be achieved by formulating feasible transition stages to be followed when introducing changes. Failure by scholars to use contextual information in coming up with leadership theories has been the reason why most organizations fails to control leadership problems despite them following the prescribed measures.
Reference List
Gill, R. (2006). Theory and practice of leadership. California: Sage Publications, Inc.
Northhouse, P. G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice. London: Sage Publications, Inc.
Warrilow, S. (2009). Transformational Leadership Theory – The 4 Key Components in Leading Change & Managing Change. Web.
Zaccaro, S. J. & Horn, Z. J. (2003). Leadership theory and practice: Fostering an Effective symbiosis. The Leadership Quarterly, 14, pp. 771-778.