Leadership, Self and Creating the Future - Essay Example

Introduction Academic research proves that leadership forms a key factor in regard to the performance of individual and the organisation as well as health and effectiveness. Research has also shown that leaders have a personal effect on the values, culture and the dynamics of the. Leaders greatly matters in regard to organisational outputs, in terms of values, structure and culture that the organisation holds organisation (Giberson et al 2009). Effective leadership and management of people are core components of high performance and are linked to enhanced performance of the business. Thus, such statements brings forth the following points; first, leadership is very essential for development of high-performance working and it is required to ensure high-performance working practices across the organisation in order to deliver results. Second, leadership and frontline managers are very crucial in regard to implementation of HR practices which results in generation of high performance of an organisation. Therefore, leadership is a core driver of the performance of organisation and there is an indication that the distribution of leadership and management across the organisation are essential. It also becomes clear that leadership and engagement of managers is the key to engagement of employees which is an indication that trust within an organisation is based on the behaviour of leaders and managers and they shape the trust and perception of an organisation. The well-being and health of employees is also connected to leadership and management of people in policy and practitioner domain. This is based on the idea that the capability of managing people is the key to managing and preventing the absence of employees and ill health at the place of work as well as supporting employee back to the place of work after illness (Purcell et al 2003). This reflective article is aimed at demonstrating my understanding and application of various theories and thinking tools in regard to my experimental learning that I gain through leading others within the complexity and change in the organisation. This will include problem solving, diagnostic tools and techniques, reflexivity as well as critical thinking. Change and complexity I have realised that modern leadership requires have improved by engaging all the stakeholders at all levels across the organisation. In the process of ensuring that employees are well engaged in regard to their power and responsibility and in ensuring that the organisation is highly performing, modern research has led to emergence of more areas of leadership theory: relational leadership; value-based leadership and contextual leadership. In modern organisations, I have noted that the importance of employee has increased significantly leading to emergence of various theories to accommodate such changes. Modern organisations ensure that all the team members at all levels are involved in leadership where they leaders engage team members, understand their different contributions and ensure leadership becomes a collective entity. This is enhanced through shared leadership theory (Hernandez et al 2011). For an organisation to be high-performing, I have realised that successful organisations develop different relationships with their employees where they are treated differently according to their capabilities. As a result organisation is experiencing positive outcomes such as job satisfaction, performance and commitment to the organisation. This is enhanced through Leader-Member exchange theory (LMX) (Graen, & Uhl-Bien, 1995). In addition, employees are currently categorising leaders by matching their behaviour with that of ideal leader. As a result, there is new direction of leadership where employees are not gauging leadership based on what a leader does, but they consider effective leadership based on what they expect the leader to do or say. This is has really improved the quality of leadership and performance based on Social cognitive perspective (Lord, & Alliger 1985). Modern leadership is also value-based where the quality of leadership is based on display behaviour such as integrity, honesty and strong moral and ethical principles. Such conduct is important especially in the way leaders conduct themselves before the employees in regard to their communication and decision making (Brown, Trevino, & Harrison, 2005). It is also noted that contemporary leadership is based on better understanding of contextual factors that embed leadership. That is, more individual leader-employee relationship and more parties are being involved where unpredictable and dynamic agents are now interacting well with each other in a complex feedback networks. This is based on the fact that current organisational needs and context are becoming more complex, a factor that I find well address by Complexity leadership theory (Uhl-Bien et al 2007). From the emerging theory that attempt match with the current changes in organisation leadership and management, I noted that leaders should always focus major problems of the day which are rapidly changing, on higher aspirations and more importantly, the needs and wants of their followers. An effective contemporary leaders needs to be able to cope with an age of uncertainty. Even though they will not always have all the information, leaders must set priorities and make decisions in order to be truer in the future than what they have been experiencing in the past. I have also realised that the current tremendous revolution of information has led to enlargement of opportunities as well as frustrations for leaders due to the complexity in involvement of followers and other agents at all levels and the need for high-performance (Uhl-Bien, Marion, & Mckelvey, 2007). As a result, a creative leader will be willing to explore and experiment possible strategies even under the face of uncertainty. It is also crucial that the leaders have the ability to view things in a different way as well as trying to reach for more as well as better advice. In addition to all, such complexity in organisations calls for the ability to admit errors and learn from such mistakes. I have also realised that the need for a considerable self-confidence is crucial an effective leader, but at the same time, one must have an amount of self-doubt. As a managerial leader, I realised that there are challenges where I need to deal with complex issues that require problem solving and decision making even at situations where the future is uncertain or unclear. However, I found out that critical thinking and innovation are crucial skills. My ability to handle such complexity lies beyond strategic planning because as a leader and a manager, I also need to increase the ability to deal with the complexity. I realised that effective strategic plans cannot be executed unless I have skills to think critically, make decisions, manage the complexity of the organisation, innovate as well as solve problems. The decisions that I need to make must address the current issues and those that may arise in two more years to come. In order to make decision during change and complex times, employees must be engaged at all levels across the organisation. The senior staff must have the capability of understanding the systems that are more complex and translate them to lower level staff, and then ensure that there are necessary resources and ability in lower levels of management to complete work. There are various outcomes that I found which were associated to the above. First, there was a gain in competence in complexity of information which will lead to improved problem solving and decision making. Second, I gained competence in the complexity of the problem which will result to significant success organisational innovations and long term goals. Third, due to proper delegation, I was able to increase quality completion of task assignment and goals. Finally, I was able to use tools as well as methods for coaching and mentoring subordinate in order to increase their own ability and potential to handle change and complexity. This was focused on better organisational succession plan in regard to its future. Self- leadership I have learned that leadership needs to be earned and it is all about motivation of people in order to achieve various objectives. It is more of recognising that the people that I am dealing with have feelings and ideas. They moment you motivate people, they end up accomplishing more complex tasks even without being directed. Most of the people like technical work and sought development careers because they doing things that are challenging and require creativity. Everyone needs to see the results of their labour, especially when things go as expected. But if there is no energy as well as the creative spark, people feel withdrawn (De Dreu, 2010). This is where leadership comes in order to manage some routine or motivate teams to be sure of consistency in production of the best results. Leadership is personal, you cannot order it, and leadership cannot be evaluated and is not measurable. But it is more of a trust or loyalty and it must be earned especially through experience. In leadership being committed will animate you and also motivate your followers. Thus, it requires drive and energy for personal commitment in order to accomplish your objective. It is something that you feel so strong about and in order to achieve it, there is strive with sufficient commitment to your goals so that you can encourage your followers irrespective of all the barriers. When armed with leadership, I can excite creative people in regard to the rewards and challenges of coming up with something original and new. Self-leadership is very essential as I have learned that it leads an individual to personal excellence. It is important to note that there is a person with whom I spend most my time that any other, a person with more influence over me, and with the ability to interfere with my growth that any other person. I have realised that this companion is my own self. Leadership is not only about leading others but there is also self leadership which is more powerful and fundamental. It is all about that leadership that I exercise over myself. This means that if I have a hope of being an effective leader for other people, then I must be an effective leader to myself in the first place. It is very important to understand self leadership process since it is possible to increase our capability in this field. This is because self leadership is a process of influence (Manz, & Neck, 1998). Based on self leadership, I realised that deeply considers the importance of the influence of a human in determining what we do and what we are and it also recognises the complexity of leadership, that is, it involves many parts but it is not an isolated event. What we cannot put aside in regard to leadership the influence exercised by a person over others, that is leaders on those who follow. This really helped me a lot in understanding self leadership since it involves taking an initial step in order to improve and understand my own self leadership that is, I can and do lead myself. This mean that the greatest potential influences and leadership comes from within me, but not from an external leader. In practice, self-leadership is a process that is meant for influencing oneself in order to establish motivation and self-direction which is required in order to perform. In practice, I have realised that if a leader effectively applies self-leadership, then the employee or the people that are being led will result in a variety of benefits such as improved mental performance, self-efficacy and job satisfaction (Manz, & Neck, 1998). In my practice of leadership, I realised that self-leadership is essential as I need to lead myself through utilization of mental and behavioural techniques. Such behavioural techniques in self-leadership include: self-goal setting; self observation; modification of consequences to behaviour such as self-punishment and self-reinforcement; management of antecedents in regard to behaviour such as cues; and finding natural rewards in regard to performed tasks. The techniques of self-leadership include: alteration and examination of self-dialogue; thought patterns that is, habits in one’s thinking; mental imagery; and beliefs and assumptions. I also noted that effective self-leadership cannot be founded on employee behaviour that have total disregard to organisation or workgroup. Rather, I found out that effective self-leadership consist of a well coordinated effort between the organisation as a whole and the employee. It is also understandable in this view that there is a balance between an individual employee’s self-leadership and self-leadership of the organisation as a collective. This suggested that a self-leadership that is effective involves achievement of equilibrium between focusing on the identity and the value of every individual employee and focusing of the cohesiveness of the organisation or a work group (Parikh, 1991). Based on the above, I realised that self-leadership does not entirely require autonomous behaviour without regard to the organisation or a team. It does not also require entirely putting aside the value and identity of every individual employee in favour of the organisation. But, the perspective of an effective self-leadership would lead to encouragement of individuals in finding their own mode of contribution and own personal identity as part of establishment of an organisation which produces a synergistic performance. Based on such statements, self-leadership can be said to provide considerable promise in regard to taking the pursuit of the effectiveness of employees to the next level. Indeed, I noted that effective self-led employees in a cognitive and behavioural way may provide the best design for the achievement of organisational and employee effectiveness. In regard to situational self leadership and for the benefit of creating self-employed leaders at all levels within an organisation, the demands for the new workforce calls for individuals who are self-motivated and are willing to handle extra responsibility to lead themselves as well as others and embrace change (Manz, & Neck, 1998). I find situational leadership very important given that it is designed for individual at all levels of organisation in order to ensure effective transition from being responsive to responsible as well as taking initiative in innovation, generation of idea and problem solving. This process provided the individual contributors with effective strategies that helped in gaining more satisfaction in regard to their work through challenging their belief of leadership. As individuals learned what really builds their confidence, skills and knowledge as well as what motivated them, they were able to make the leap to peak performance at every level within the organisation. Thus, fro situational self-leadership, I could be able to identify various results. It leads to clarification of the goals of an individual and tasks required to drive performance, it enables individuals to shift from be reactive to being proactive and improves accountability and problem solving as all levels in the organisation. In addition, it creates empowerment and engagement throughout the organisation as well as accelerating the learning cycles in regard to enhanced job productivity. Reflexive leadership In regard to reflexive leadership I realised that the following elements are important; awareness, creativity, accountability, reflection, knowledge, access to resources and vision. In addition, I noted that reflexive leadership is on the ground of increasing awareness of self-reflection value in practice. Such a practice occurred due an attempt to either conquer the rising challenges or to learn any new skill. As a practitioner, it is worth noting that if something challenging your performance may arise, it is not your lack of knowledge or skills in most of the time but I found out that the challenge may be based on two main elements; something relational and something outside your awareness. First, in regard to relational problem, something is affecting you, your clients or colleagues and has an impact. There is the possibility that the problem is not related directly to your current objective or delivery. Such matters may seem to be distractions that are unprofessional, but we end up ignoring them at our peril. However, if such matters can be cleared, there may be unblocking of various obstacles, a move that would put your delivery back on track. However, if this cannot be performed by you as a leader, then an acknowledgement of this as a genuine support can be very successful in ensuring an increase in the performance of your team. Second, the challenge is based on something outside your awareness which is affecting the issue. For instance, as a leader, you may decide to hire a structure for exploring the diversity in your team. It may happen that some of the people may just feel intimidated by in regard to the structure that you hired. Without knowing the reason, you may notice that some people are irritated. As a result, the minority people may be experiencing oppression either directly or indirectly and as result, your selection of the venue may lead to an unintended impact on the day. This does not really mean that as a leader, you should not make a decision to use such structures but it means that an awareness of such need to be brought on board. In addition if such awareness is made well, then it can lead to transformational discoveries. In addition, I realised that team reflexivity is very essential and organisations that rely on teamwork which enable organisations to face the requirement of a very dynamic environment due to the adaptation and flexibility of the team. As a result, I found out team reflexivity to be essential in determination of the effectiveness of the team and in turn the entire organisation (De Dreu, 2002). Through team reflexivity, I realised that the members are in a better condition of discussing their objective, development of strategies and plan as well as making changes accordingly. It also leads to better solving of problems and support for the growth of the members. However, if the teams are non-reflexive, there will be little awareness in regard to the strategies, environment and objectives in their operations, a factor leading to failure of the teams as well as the entire organisation. Based on such statement on non-reflexivity, the productivity and the effectiveness of the teams is directly related to reflexivity Critical feedback Critical feedback from others is very essential to development of my leadership. The need to learn how to communicate in case of a need for a help and advice, being a creative listener, how to understand and empathise is very crucial to me. Through feedback, I have also learned that in order to overcome complexity and consider all the stakeholders, my first thought should not be my only thought and it is essential to think if there can be some other way. In such an environment that have maximised the leader-follower engagement, to think that surely my own the only wisdom, and mine the only word will betray a shallow spirit and an empty heart. Personal plan Goal identification Details Duration 1. Building self confidence Developing my expertise, using positive imagery, helping others and becoming uncrowned leader. 3 months 2. Motivating those that I lead Giving priority important things first, treating others with respect, making my work interesting, recognising good work and providing followers with an opportunity to develop their skills 2 months 3. Learning to take charge in high risk situations Establishment of my own objective at once, communicating what I want to be done, being decisive, acting boldly, dominating the situation, leading by example and doing away with those who cannot perform. 4 months 4. Facilitating or bringing together diverse know-how. To convene, to steer conversation in order to provide way for everyone to contribute, listening to different perspectives, guiding people through joint decision making and problem-solving 4 months Conclusion Through this reflective practice in leadership, I have been able to improve my leadership skills as I reflected how different aspects of leadership can be improved in regard to contemporary organisations. I have been able to acknowledge my personal values especially because I have agreed and in some time disagreed on my own personal values in regard to self-leadership. The reflection has served as evidence that deep learning has taken place for me as a leader and it has helped in making connections between what goes around in leading and different aspects of leadership. It has contributed a lot in problem solving skills especially by concentrating on the arising problem such as the complexity and change in contemporary organisations. By considering and analysing such issues, I have improves my capacity to find solutions. I have been able to take charge and think well through critical thinking as I have been able to adjust and recognise what I thought to take into account, thus, being better equipped to find workable solutions. Finally, through this practice, I have found the need to make decisions in regard to what do nest as a leader as well as improving my own organisational skills and managing personal change. References Brown, ME, Trevino, LK, & Harrison, DA 2005, “Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing”, Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 97, pp. 117–3 De Dreu CKW 2002, “Team innovation and team effectiveness: The importance of minority dissent and reflexivity”, Eur. J. Work. Organ. Psychol., vol. 11, pp. 285-298. De Dreu CKW, Carsten KW 2010, “Team Innovation and Team Effectiveness: The Importance of Minority Dissent and Reflexivity”, Eur. J. Work. Organ. Psychol., vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 285-298. Giberson, TR, Resick, CJ, Dickson, MW, Mitchelson, JK, Randall, KR, & Clark, MA 2009 “Leadership and organizational culture: Linking CEO characteristics to cultural values”, Journal of Business Psychology. Vol. 24, pp. 123–37. 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