Traits of a Good Leader - Essay Example

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP Organizational leadership Name Course Institution Instructor May 3, 2011 Organizational leadership Introduction Poor leadership is the major problem facing different organization across the globe, and therefore, as time goes; more emphasis is being put on the need for leadership and the intricacies of efficient ethical leadership. In the current society there are prevailing corruption and chaos and hence there need for effective leaders to deal with these challenges. More organizations are being established while others are going out of business. Efficient and essential programs are eliminated while profitable programs which serve individuals with very little need find a solid share of market. Management is a combination of traits and behaviors. Some people are born with the leadership talent, but anybody can learn how to be successful in management career. A leader should be charismatic; the perception of charisma is only earned through accomplishment. Charisma is a natural component of personality in which a person is born with. If one not born with healthy charisma, one can practice his or her interpersonal skills that will develop to a point of influencing others. A charismatic leader makes people feel like following him; this will make the leader win confidence of his employers. A good leader gains the respect of the employees by actions. This action includes involving everybody in the organization when making decision. This will ensure that a decision reached in the organization satisfies everybody. No matter how smart we are as managers, we definitely don’t know everything. Many good ideas always come from the people who are in the front line in the day to day running of the business. Managers need to have a way in which people express their ideas and get appreciated for their contributions if the idea is worthy. Ethics is an important aspect in any leadership. For an organization to succeed well in term of political, social and economic stand, its leaders must maintain a high level of ethical standards. Leaders who maintain high ethical values must make decisions that will not benefit them alone but they must put into consideration how others will be affected. Ethical leaders must ensure that their values and ethics are known and must preach them in their actions and leadership style. Ethical leadership must adhere to important values such as efficiency, quality, accomplishments, teamwork, dedication and honesty. Ethical standards have been violated and they range from being self centered especially making decisions without consulting other stakeholders, unfair dismissal of employees and directors, undertaking mergers without the permission of the shareholders and spying on employees and the directors and their spouses. From a realist point of view, it is believed that leaders can’t afford ethics in the current society of rising number of responsibilities together with increasing economic and political intimidation. Alternatively, it is argued that leaders must follow the needs for ethics. Ethical leadership results in development of committed employees, empowered citizens and consumers, and quality human services. Human service delivery leadership brings about numerous ethical challenges situated in one particular situation: the organization. The ethical environment of human service organizations is of various dimensions, with responsibilities to employees, society and consumers. Possibly the greatest moral challenge is that which human services have, as their major purpose, serving the community. Leadership in human services is therefore linked to the ethical matters affecting individuals in serious means of changing life and going to public trust through the ethical agreement with society. The function of human service organizations is to enhance, protect and maintain personal welfare of persons through services that define and shape their individual attributes and characteristics. People consult these organizations in order to get their individual needs in areas that are vital in basic every day life, for example housing, food, health, employment, and social welfare. The contemporary world structured by the trajectories of histories and pertinent human challenges and realities, critically demands the essence of altruistic and sensitive breed of leaders. Societies nowadays have become a continuum of complex social dynamics shaped by science, technology, gigantic and rapidly mutating social values and norms. This phenomenon calls for radical shift of paradigms and clear cut revision of leadership philosophies that had premised the genre of leadership. As a leader in any organization one should look for senior managers, executives and other leaders to lead by example encourage all acquaintances to become recognizable with and to put up with the Code of Ethics and policies. Leaders are expected to be role models in each respect, to make sure that team members get the information they require to abide by appropriate standards, laws and policies, and the resources they require to deal with moral dilemmas. The most fundamental responsibility is to promote a culture within the organization that supports raising questions and complains without dread of retaliation. Leadership ought to uphold an "open door" policy. Business success is achieved through effective leadership skills that go beyond the common boundaries in ensuring an all inclusive development process. Outstanding business leaders are able to build a corporate culture that outstands of the whirl wind of today’s businesses. It is without any doubt that the leadership of a business determines its success and achievement in the business world. A well developed leadership strategy tied together in an integrated architecture for strategic leadership development is highly likely to be successful. A good leadership strategy involves every angle of the human resource; it achieves its leverage by judicious use of teaching expertise. Research shows that, 60 to 70 percent of organizations failing to achieve its strategic visions and missions, these companies have clearly surpassed the trend and achieved their strategic plans. The secret for their success is based on the leadership styles implemented by their leaders in times of challenges. An in-depth insight is given to the leadership of the organization. Most of the benchmark companies successfully aligned their leadership strategy with the strategic direction of the firm. The message behind the success of these benchmark companies is involving and ensuring that every individual in the organization understands the essence of the strategic plan. This integration process ensures that everyone is involved and therefore plays an important role in achieving the company’s strategic plan dream. Another aspect that ensures business success is teaching leadership. Leaders who teach using personal experience and tactful ways have been found to be more efficient and inspiring to their juniors. Because of the respect given to such leaders, there is a general ease of integration based on the teaching of these leaders. Another tactful approach to a lasting business success is the use of incentives to develop people. The human resource of a company should be constantly trained and rewarded in order to get the best possible effort from them. Rewards have with time proved a working tactic used by successful organizations. The best way for an organization to come up with an incentive plan that will benefit both the employer and employee is to involve all levels of staff in coming up with the incentive plan. It should not only be a decision of the top management but also of the middle and normal employees. If an incentive plan does not involve the employees it will most probably be ineffective. Involvement of employees also reveals other issues that the management might not be aware. For example the incentive plan the management want to implement may require some sort of training that the employees do not have and if implemented, may just be a source of frustration to the employees due to the inability to earn a payout. Conclusion For any organization to succeed, it must have a good leadership. A good leader recognizes people’s contributions; this is the best way to secure employees’ loyalty and to earn the perception that you are a smart leader who does not pretend as if he knows everything. Recognizing peoples natures the ego and differentiates people from their peers. If one is recognized, he feels good and stimulates the need to have it happen again. Managers that utilize the employees to help develop the organization goals will make the employees follow his or her ways. A workable and solid mission statement is important to company success, because it can serve as the beginning of decision making. Manager’s ideas should be within the mission statement and should stick to it. For example, if an individual start a software developing business, he is not suppose to open a restaurant to raise extra cash to maintain the business. That would not be within the mission statement. Manager’s tactical decision should always be within the mission statement. A strategic thinking leader should have at least six to ten year view of the companies’ future. Where should the company be in the next six years and what need to be done tomorrow, the following week or next month? He also fights for his people, each and every employee will know that outstanding performers are rewarded while underperforming employees are penalized or eliminated. Read More