Attributes of Effective Leadership in reference to Steve Jobs of Apple - Case Study Example

RUNNING HEAD: Attributes of Effective Leadership Student Name Student Number Unit Title/Number Attributes of Effective Leadership Due Date Unit Coordinator Executive Summary Effective leadership is fundamental for the success of every organization. Organizations and leaders exist to provide direction on the organization’s operation to ensure quality production of goods and services and thus profitability and effective achievement of organization goals and objectives. Initially, leadership implied leading others. However, with transformation in leadership, there is the need for certain attributes and skills that ensure the effectiveness of a leader in accomplishing the expected tasks. This paper aims at discussing the attributes of effective leadership in reference to Steve Jobs of Apple. The first session of the paper identifies the attributes of effective leaders while the sections that follow thereafter discuss such attributes in detail and offer a discussion of how leaders acquire such skills. Additionally, the paper will also discuss the training and necessary development programs that are necessary for effective and aspiring leaders. Finally, the paper carries a conclusion of the entire findings. Introduction Leadership attributes are fundamental for the success of any operating organization. Effective leadership involves many activities such as staff motivation and promotion of staff. A leader with a greater attributes and personal character always decides on incentives offered to staff and always maintains a good rapport with juniors and other leaders involved. By their good leadership attributes, leaders can tap into five sources of motivation, in the case where pay-based motivation systems tap into only instrumental and self-based external sources at best (Miner, 2005). Leadership attributes are qualities that every leaders need to have for effective performance in their respective fields. These attributes include creativity, good communication skills, creativity, proper planning strategies, and good interpersonal skills, proper public relations, sharing opinion with junior members and other fellow leaders and setting as a good example to juniors and having the best evaluation approaches (Miltenberger, 2004). Leadership is exhibited throughout all stages of life sine everybody is likely to face a situation that needs employment of good leadership kills and attributes. Without taking into consideration of whether one has substantial leadership skills or not, there is always the inherent need to have a situation resolved. Steve Jobs for instance effectively led Apple for a long time to see the success of the company and therefore, this paper considers the attributes of an effective leader like Steve. Good leadership attributes are not based on leading followers but also comes along with different responsibilities and proper training programs to bring about an effective leader (Maxwell, 2005). Additionally, effective leadership attributes cannot be put into practice without followers because they are the people led to either success or failure in every organization or project activity. Steve Jobs as an Effective Leader The model of management and effectiveness shown by Steve at Apple is so impeccable. The leader took apple through a series of innovative and managerial activities to see the introduction of iPad and iPod into the market. Effectiveness, through good leadership attributes, made Steve Jobs to steer ahead the success of Apple Company (Woods, 2010). Steve’s emotional intelligence, leadership behavior and skills, good communication skills, effective conflict management, humility, and the sought for help from juniors made Steve one of the greatest leaders emulated across the globe. This paper discusses effective leadership attributes in reference to Steve Jobs of Apple. Leadership Attributes Leadership attributes are qualities that every leaders need to have for effective performance in their respective fields. Leadership attributes that define an effective leader implies some inherent abilities possessed by the leaders. Such attributes define the effective leadership behavior that helps the leader to lead followers in a good manner and thus the effective realization of management objectives and goals. These attributes include creativity, good communication skills, creativity, proper planning strategies, and good interpersonal skills, proper public relations, sharing opinion with junior members and other fellow leaders and setting as a good example to juniors and having the best evaluation approaches (Miltenberger, 2004). Leadership Behavior Leadership behavior is an attribute of effective leadership nurtured through realization of self-control, learning from individual’s mistakes, and emulating successful leaders. Leadership behaviors vary greatly in line with the individual’s personality. Various scholars through the trait theory base measurements of leadership behavior on some developed literature. For example, research improvements of the round robin research methodology enabled academic researchers to establish that individuals can emerge as leaders across a variety of circumstances and tasks (Maxwell, 2005). Additionally, during the ancient statistical advances of the mid 1980s, researchers were able to conduct meta-analyses, in which they could quantitatively analyze various leadership behaviors from individual personality. This advent gave trait theorists the insight to create a comprehensive picture of ancient leadership research rather than making them rely on the qualitative reviews. New methods of leadership research indicate that leadership behavior vary according to personality traits such as intelligence, adjustment, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness and general self-efficacy (Arvey et al. 2006). Consequently, leadership behavior becomes an important factor in determining the effectiveness of a leader and their relationship with others. The broad topic of leadership behavior incorporates factors like competence, skills, personality traits, values, attitudes, experience, knowledge, and interests. An effective leader will always have a positive attitude towards any situation in order to encourage followers. Similarly, individual personal traits play an important role in defining effective leadership behavior (Maxwell, 2005). This implies that a leader with good personal traits such as respect for followers and other leaders within the organization is effective and can easily attain follower loyalty and thus effective relationship within the workplace. Individual behavior also defines the leader’s integrity, honesty, humility, courage, commitment, wisdom, sincerity, compassion, and determination in carrying out daily activities. Therefore, Steve Job’s behavior is a crucial attribute that played a crucial role in determining his effectiveness and thus success of Apple. Emotional Intelligence Emotional intelligence scale is a short strategy of self-measurement scale developed by Meyer and Salovey (2004). The scale contains 33 items that has 133-item load (Salovey et al., 2004). Its general reliability and validity reported well since its inception. Although Meyer and Salovey believes that the scales they offered provides a one dimensional measurement of emotional intelligence, other studies (for example: Woods, 2007) has been expressed that these scales drawn by Meyer and Salovey and their team measures other scales that range between three to four other micro scales. Goleman clearly identifies that while IQ is a common requirement for leaders, emotional intelligence that makes a great leader and the factor that differentiates him from common leaders. IQ and technical skills are the primary needs for leadership positions whereas emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership. Goleman breaks down emotional intelligence into five categories that include Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Motivation, Empathy, and Social Skills (Goleman, 1998). The author also points out clearly that while emotional intelligence is important for all levels of leadership, it becomes increasingly important to use at higher levels of leadership and management. Additionally, Steve Job’s emotional intelligence in the management of Apple is through deliberate learning and consistent feedback. The ideas put forward by Goleman are important in organizational behavior because individuals will view on-the job interaction as a means of gaining more opportunities to practice. In addition, a self-aware leader like Steve Jobs will know his limits and yet still challenge himself (Maxwell, 2005). Self-regulation means that leaders will have a full control of their feelings and thus effective leadership. Likewise, motivation, empathy, and social skill are equality important attributes of effective leadership and organizational behavior (Goleman, 1998). Leadership Skills Leadership skill is the learned ability to figure out the pre-determined results that often come with the minimum outlay of time and energy (Yukl, 2006). In other words the abilities possessed by a leader I more determined by the behavior that one portrays at work place and even beyond there. Leadership skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For instance, in the domain of work, some skills that appear general would include time management, self-motivation, and communication skills (Yukl, 2006). However, domain-specific skills remain useful only for a certain jobs and various fields of leadership. Leadership skills normally require certain kinds of environmental stimuli and circumstances to analyze and asses the very level of leadership skill being shown and applied. This leadership attributes is also important in defining the effectiveness of a leader. Finally, leadership skills are acquired through experience of on-the-job training since it is a special tool in enhancing their management activities. Conflict Management In any situation of conflict management, leaders with the ability to reflect before acting and on the best approach to conflict should have the ability to control their emotional expression and remain open to other people’s ideas and suggestions. It is not surprising to note that leaders with a tendency toward destructive conflict behaviors are less effected by their seniors, fellow leaders, and direct reports (Yukl, 2006). These destructive behaviors may include approaching conflict with a manner of "win at all costs" idea, demeaning other individuals involved in the conflict management, and displaying anger. Such behaviors are quite destructive and ineffective in conflict management. The ability of a leader to be an effective one has a great relationship to effective conflict management skill alongside self-management ability and self-control. If an individual aspires to manage conflict within any organizational set up, then it is more obvious that the individual leaders need to be effective and efficient in their behavior. The individual leader has to exhibit good leadership skills in handling a variety of conflict management measures. The most famous strategies an individual can apply include domination, compromise, suppression, avoidance, and integration. Despite the astonishing figures in Apple’s cashbooks resulting from a conflict and misunderstanding within the top management, Steve Jobs alongside John Sculley resorted to perfect conflict management strategy that saw a boost in the sales of Macintosh computers. Therefore, without good conflict management skills, a leader may be deemed ineffective since conflict management is a daily phenomenon in an organizational set up. Through facilitated training on conflict management and combination of other attributes such as good interpersonal skills, leaders effectively learn how to resolve conflicts within their organizations (Noe & Winkler, 2009). Good Communication Skills Managerial and leadership roles entail constant communication in explaining procedures, instruction, communicating changes, values, mission, and targets among other issues. Although effective leadership and management can result in success of an organization, there is the need for good communication skills in order to allow room for clear understanding of the business direction, the expected results, and the collective goals (Yukl, 2006). However, overriding objectives of any communication program need to effect a change in behavior between labor and everyone affected by the information. An effective leader ensures that communication skills are at improved levels and thus smooth running of the organization’s processes. A good communication skill is an attribute acquired through constant practice and training on self-control, psychological understanding of audience and emotional control of oneself. Humility Effective leaders like Steve Jobs possess undisputed humble behavior. They appreciate that humility is important for creation of a great company, and they make sure that they understand at a great and emotional level how and why arrogance destroys the creation of a great company. Effective leaders ensure that they always behave in a humble way. A better way of expressing their humility is by crediting their success to others for their hard work (Collins, 2001). They Ask for Help In most cases, effective leaders are sometimes mistaken as "weak," because they seek for help when they face some unusually difficult situations. However, the art of seeking help is a genuine and a highly respected strength, because it lets the leaders call upon the capability, skill, and knowledge of someone stronger in an area they feel incompetent (Collins, 2001). The result is that the entire group or organization gains a lot from the contribution. More often than not, effective leaders apply the use of questioning to gain understanding of any prevailing situation. They spend most of their meetings and conferences trying to gain an insight of the situation facing the organization. During informal meetings, effective leaders like Steve Jobs move among groups of the organization’s managers and employees discussing the emerging and current issues in the marketplace and the organization they manage. In such a manner, the effective leader applies the use of democratic leadership style (Collins, 2001). Learning to seek help from others emanates from leader’s appreciation of its follower’s abilities to solve certain issues and the appreciation that an organizational labor works as a team to achieve its collective objectives. Training for Effective Leaders Leadership training and development program is an important aspect in every organization. Most organizations design their leadership development and training programs to address inherent issues like leadership tension and conflict or crisis management. Human resource departments develop leadership training and development programs to improve their effectiveness attributes and prepare them for promotions and higher levels of leadership positions (Smith, 2002). Such programs are also aimed at improving the general behavior and attitudes of leaders to enable them to handle stress and burnout and thus improving their efficiency. In most cases, training and development programs involve the use of on the job training to gain more experience, seminars, workshops, and classroom training. Such programs are aimed at equipping leaders and prospective ones with knowledge of management, improving skills, and leadership attributes of effectiveness. Additionally, such training and development programs are useful in putting more emphasis on goals and work facilitation (Smith, 2009). Such programs are also useful in building job-oriented dimensions of behaviors. Goal emphasis is applicable for the leader’s need to motivate juniors to accomplish the tasks at hand while work facilitation emphasis are applicable for training leaders on role clarification, acquisition and allocation of resources, and reconciling organizational conflicts. Conclusion This paper discussed the attributes that define effective leadership and training and development programs to prepare leaders and prospective ones to improve their effectiveness attributes and prepare them to take up higher levels of job and leadership positions through promotion. Among discussed attributes of effective leadership, involve good communication skills, personal behavior, emotional intelligence, humility, conflict management, leadership skills, and seeking for help from others. Through literature research, the paper argues that such attributes, as exhibited by Steve Jobs, are typical for making a leader effective in steering ahead the organization’s pursuit for efficiency and profitability. The paper also discussed training and development programs aimed at improving the attributes of effective leaders and people aspiring to be leaders. The paper analyzed the importance of seminars, workshops, on the job training, and classroom training for leaders to be prepared for higher positions and promotion. Such training programs are also important in equipping leaders with the skills necessary for running an organization effectively. Reference List Arvey, R.D., Rotundo, M., Johnson, W., Zhang, Z., & McGue, M. (2006). The determinants of leadership role occupancy: Genetic and personality factors, The Leadership Quarterly, 17, p.1-20. Goleman, D. (1998). ‘What makes a leader?’ Harvard Business Review, vol. 76, no. 6, pp. 93-102. Maxwell, J. (2005). The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc. Miltenberger, R. (2004). Behavior Modification Principles and Procedures (3rd ed), Belmont, CA, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Miner, J. (2005). Organizational Behavior: Behavior 1: Essential Theories of Motivation and Leadership, Armonk, M.E. Sharpe. Noe, R. A. & Winkler, C. (2009). Employee training and development: For Australia & New Zealand. North Ryde, N.S.W.: McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd. Salovey, P. et al., (2004). Emotional Intelligence: Key Readings on the Mayer and Salovey Model. New York: Dude Publishing Inc. Smith, A. (2002). Training and development in Australia (2nd ed.). Sydney: Butterworths. Woods, A. (2010). Democratic leadership: drawing distinctions with distributed leadership. International Journal of Leadership in Education, vol. 7, no. 1, p. 3–36. Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in Organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice-Hall. Read More