Developing Skills for Business Leadership - Essay Example

Running Head: E-portfolio of Skill Development Activity. Your name Course name Professors’ name Date Developing Skills for Business Leadership: Skills Portfolio Theme One: Self Awareness and Development Topic Area Chosen: Leadership styles and Effectiveness Overview of Topic Area: Leadership is simply the ability to control or influence others. This term began with productivity law where an individual was awarded a prize in recognition of an achievement made. It was then succeeded by management law, which called upon people to manage others with a view of increasing productivity. This later revolutionised to leadership law. Leadership style can therefore be defined as an approach used to provide direction, execute plans, and motivate people. Leadership style falls under three categories authoritarian or autocratic, participative or democratic, and delegative or free reign. As a human resource professional, a person must be well versed with all these styles to increase effectiveness in a changing environment (Garber, 2007). Authoritarian or autocratic leadership style is the oldest and takes the form of a manager retaining much power in decision-making. According to this style, managers fail to consult employees or take note of their contributions when making decisions. In this case, employees are expected to execute manager’s decisions without challenging them. Motivation in this work environment is cultivated through a series of rewards and punishment. This theory has been criticised on grounds of high turnover rates and absenteeism among organizations pursuing this style. Additionally, this style does not trust employees. However, the style is effectively deployed when training new employees who are not conversant with tasks or procedures within an organization. Autocratic style is further applicable in supervision that calls for clear and detailed orders and instructions. Areas that needs high-volume production and where there is limited time to make decision can effectively utilise autocratic style of leadership. Conversely, this style is not favourable in an environment filled with tension, fear, and resentment or where employees expect to be heard. Moreover, a profession should note inappropriateness of the theory where employee morale is low and when the organization is experiencing high turnover and absenteeism. Bureaucratic leadership style requires work to be done according to organizational procedures. This means that management is about enforcement of rules. A manager deploys this style in an area where an employee is required to understand specific standards and procedures. Specifically, when working with delicate or dangerous equipment, employees must use specific procedures and standards. Other areas to apply bureaucratic style are tasks that involve handling cash, and safety or security. On the contrary, this style is ineffective in an area where employees do tasks that are expected of them and nothing more. Democratic Leadership Style is the third category and is classified as participative given that employees take part in decision-making. Leaders who value this style continuously encourage their employees to take part in decision-making. This leader consults employees when solving problems and during the process of making decisions. Briefly, a democratic leader gives employees a chance to establish goals, encourage employees to develop and receive promotions, and recognize and support achievements. Democratic style is most appropriate when organizational heads want employees to contribute in decision-making and problem solving. It is also appropriate during a period of change or when problems that affect employees must be solved. In opposition, democratic style is inappropriate in a situation that calls for fast decision to be made. The style is also not applicable where employee safety is of high concern and where business cannot afford mistakes. The fourth style is laissez-faire leadership style. According to this style, employees have freedom to determine goals, make decisions, and solve problems (Watson, 2010). This is effectively deployed when employees have sufficient skills, experiences, and education. When services of experts are employed, this style is effectively used. Furthermore, laissez-faire style is appropriate if employees can be trusted and when employees have pride and drive in what they do. On the other hand, laissez-faire should not be used when employees feel insecure in absence of managers or when managers cannot thank employees for conducting a task successfully. This literature on leadership styles and effectiveness is therefore vital for a human resource manager in any area since it determines relationship between managers, organization, and employees in both the short term and long term. Justifications for Choice of Topic Area: The subject of leadership styles and effectiveness is very appropriate to my own career developmental needs. Owing to the fact that I am focusing on becoming a future leader in human resources, it is imperative to be aware of the different styles of leadership and situations that I will deploy a specific style. In order to use a particular leadership style in my career, I must pay attention to my personality, knowledge, values, ethics, and experiences and what will be most effective to me. This topic will also expose me to nature of employees being supervised and activities taking place in the organization. The focal point here is that employees have different personalities and backgrounds that must be identified before deciding on a leadership style to employ. It is my intention to vary leadership style according to the nature of employees and work and the best response to get. The subject of leadership styles and effectiveness is also appropriate given that it exposes me to traditions, values, philosophy, and concerns of my organization. This in turn affects the way I will operate as a manager. How will the skill be developed? To develop skills in leadership during employment, I will always take responsibility for my own objectives. This therefore requires setting priorities and going an extra mile to achieve them. Besides, I will display a positive attitude towards any task even during demand situations. It is my intention to envision solving problems as opposed to passing them to others. When I encounter problems, I will always take ownership and move ahead to counter them. Introducing improvements, developing innovative practices, and developing new skills go a long way in developing leadership skills. Progress made from acquiring skills in leadership is measured by checking my own ability to control workers and how these workers are responding. Evidence to support this is high employee output, minimum worker strikes, and high level of worker participation. Skill Development Progress Over the duration of DSBL program, I have succeeded in using democracy to lead workers. Apparently, I always take into account views and thoughts of workers before making a decision that affects them. Of specific example is when I collected views of “shift program” before executing it in my organization. This allowed employees to be part of decision-making process. A critical factor that assisted me in skill development is collaboration that I received from top management and the will power among the stakeholders. However, development of this skill was hampered by time constrain. Learning the skill then deploying it in an organization takes a long span of time. Summary Conclusively, I have learnt that leadership styles and their effectiveness vary directly with organizational set. Whilst it is appropriate to use a certain style in one area, the same style may not be applied in another area. Nonetheless, a key outcome in this area of skill is gaining the ability to lead workers that is easily verified by worker output and happiness. Evidence Positive feedback from employers is the evidence in this area. Developing Skills for Business Leadership: Skills Portfolio Theme 2: Managing and Developing Others Topic Area Chosen: Conflict, Negotiation and Communication Overview of Topic Area: According to LeBaron (2003), conflicts are difficulties that people face when dealing with differences. Conflicts that occur due to cross-cultural differences may be addressed by conducting cross-cultural training, which leads to avoidance of destructive conflicts. Cross-cultural conflicts are further reduced by using metaphors, stories, and cultural wisdom to educate people on the value of diversity. Oetzel (2001) classifies conflicts into interpersonal and task categories. Interpersonal and task conflicts have the ability to dismantle group loyalty, commitment, job satisfaction, and the will to remain in an organization. A human resource professional must be well versed with knowledge on management of conflicts. Instinctively, effective communication is critical when managing conflicts. Effectiveness of communication is covered under four paradigms: encoder-decoder, intentionalist, perspective taking, and dialogic. These paradigms clarify the need for a professional to listen effectively and actively when handling conflicts. Other than this, a HR professional ought to understand issues, offer possible solutions, and lead conflicting parties to a common ground. Negotiation is part of measures taken to resolve conflicts. Agreements are often reached after a series of negotiations. Flexibility and quick thought during a negotiation are the basic ideals of a good negotiator (Krauss, 2000). Conversely, rigidity is not productive and often culminates to stalemates. Given that a human resource manager is vested with the task of handling and bringing together teams, this professional should be conversant with basic concepts of negotiations. Justifications for Choice of Topic Area: Conflict, Negotiation, and Communication have the greatest value for a professional in human resources. This is supported by the fact that organizations frequently encounter conflicts either between employees or between an organization and its employees (LeBaron, 2003). To be effective in handling these conflicts, I am obliged to develop skills on conflict identification, negotiation, and communication. I am also aware that business environment is affected by extraneous variables that can cause internal conflicts. Under this scenario, I should be able to negotiate for a common ground that works well for all people including the organization. How will the skill be developed? Activities to do to develop the skill The first avenue towards developing skills on conflict resolution is to attend a cross-cultural training, which will enable me to understand diversity in cultures and benefits that can be derived from this diversity. Secondly, I will go for training on the use of information technology to facilitate open and effective communication. Thirdly is to be very active in teambuilding and workshops that bring teams together. Teambuilding presents an environment for employees to air their internal feelings and appreciate that all people will be respected and listened to. Progress to be made: Through cultural training, I anticipate a change in mind-set to view cultural diversity as an asset. Secondly, training on information technology will assist me improve information flow in an organization. E-mail alert system, social network and other related features comes in handy to bridge communication gap. Evidence that will gather to support progress is an increased vertical and horizontal communication in an organization. Skill Development Progress Throughout the duration of DSBL, I have made insurmountable progress in bringing together employees and making improvement to communication. Skills that I gained on the use of messaging services in addition to email alerts have been very instrumental in improving communication between employees and between organizational heads and the employees. Besides, I have learnt to negotiate and put parties at a balanced situation. One factor that assisted me in gaining skill on conflict, negotiation, and communication is researching written materials. These materials present exceptional work done by renowned scholars. Conversely, development of this skill is hindered by time spent in library research. Many writers have presented different views on conflicts, negotiation, and communication, which then make it difficult for me to go through all these writings. Summary I have learnt that conflicts are present in all organization but what matters is how they are handled; either through negotiation and opening up communication channels. By enrolling for a short course on conflict resolution, I was able to serve well in my capacity as a human resource professional. This skill is critical especially in the constantly changing business environment that is often accompanied by conflicts. Evidence Feedback to support skill development in this area is high score allocated by academic staff. Developing Skills for Business Leadership: Skills Portfolio Theme Three: Applied Specialist HR Skills Topic Area Chosen: Developing and Implementing Policy Overview of Topic Area: During policy development, a HR professional spends time thinking and considering factors that influences policy implementation and the ultimate effect of these factors on an organization. Policy implementation simply highlights how an organization executes successfully policies introduced. Policy implementation further addresses practises that follow a recently introduced policy. A HR professional must develop policy such that it responds to organizational culture, operation requirements, and human capital. In the same vein, recruitment and retention of staff ought to be linked to policies, procedures, and practices of an organization. The third factor that a HR professional should consider when developing policies is provision of rationale behind any new policies. A clear relationship with mission and vision of the organization in addition to linkage with human and employment rights must be drawn. A HR professional is obliged to involve staff in policy development discussions by education and raising awareness of the new policy. Workplace partners such as unions will be consulted. Other areas that require consideration when developing a policy is to identify successful policy models from own network that can be adapted and deployed in an organization. When implementing a policy a professional will be looking at the following factors: organizational consideration, privacy and confidentiality, training and education, and access to human rights information. From this short literature, it is obvious that skills in developing and implementing policy are important for a HR professional given it ensures that all stakeholders are involved in organizational success. Concisely, any new policy affects the entire organization thus, it is essential for a professional to be sensitive of development and implementation stages of the policies. Justifications for Choice of Topic Area: I have chosen the subject of policy development and implementation simply because of my knowledge gap in this area. I need skills in policy development and implementation to be able to respond well to constantly changing business environment and also develop policies that are sensitive organizational culture (Cottrell, 2010). Individual and organizational productivity is also increased by concentrating on policy development and implementation. This is supported by the fact that engaged people feel happy and end up producing even more. How will the skill be developed? I will develop this skill by attending training on policy development and implementation. In my area of employment, I will review previously developed and implemented policies with a view of gaining knowledge on policy failures and how to avoid or rather improve on future policies. The expected progress is successful formulation and execution of future policies. I also anticipate a scenario where employees feel appreciated simply because they have been involved in policy development and implementation. Evidence to support progress made is positive employee response on effective development and implementation of specific policies. This response will be obtained by distributing questionnaire on whether employees are satisfied with the way policy has been developed and implemented. This statistic will also deduce worker involvement and areas that requires improvement. Skill Development Progress One of the progresses made in skill development within policy development and implementation is ability to develop a policy while ensuring that all employees are involved. Specifically, I developed a policy on time management by consulting all employees on how they want to attend work and allocate free time for their personal usage. The long run effect of this developed policy is that worker felt appreciated and recognised as human beings who needs free time for their own personal intentions. One of the factors that have assisted me in skill development is contribution from mentors and other workmates. Mentors in this case are the aged employees who are at the verge of retirement. These employees participated in previous policy formulation and implementation thus well versed with stages that can lead to success in policy development. Secondly is top management willingness to support skill development in policy development and implementation. However, there are some barriers to development of skill in policy development and implementation. The first one is unwillingness by some employees to change. New policies often bring new changes, which must be assumed as soon as the policy is implemented. Presence of resistance to change affects acquisition of skills in policy development and implementation. The other challenge in skill development within the area of policy is unwillingness of executives to divulge knowledge to junior staff. This is a great impediment to dissemination of knowledge. Evidence that has been gathered to support skill development is employee steadfastness even in times of rapid organizational change. Summary Policy development and implementation mainly deals with successful introduction of new policies. The key outcome of skill development in the aforementioned developmental area is bringing into being time management policies that is in line with organizational goals and mission statements. This has an impact on future career in that I will be able to deal or actualise my own career needs as well as increasing productivity of my organization. Evidence Employer feedback is an accurate evidence of skill developed in policy formulation and development. Personal Development Plan: Developing Skills for Business Leadership Summary of Collective Progress from themes 1,2 and 3. (Provide a short summary of how the three separate skills you have developed over the course of the programme link together to aid you in ‘developing skills for business leadership’). The skills that I have developed will enable me function well as a human resource manager. Starting with the first theme of self-awareness and development, I chose the subject of leadership styles and their effectiveness. Skills in this subject area will allow me deploy a leadership style while paying attention to organizational set up, type of employees, and business objectives. In the second theme of managing and developing others, I concentrated on the topic of conflict, negotiation, and communication. A manager is the head who resolves conflicts and provides appropriate directions. Moreover, I will be heading people from varied cultural background, which then validates an assessment of progress in the theme of managing and developing others. Lastly, development and implementation of policies is a task that rests with managers thus it is essential to assess this subject within the theme of applied specialist HR skills. Identified Development Needs (From the summary on the left, devise three further development needs in terms of ‘developing skills for business leadership’) 1. The first development need is how to lead people without making them feel discriminated. 2. The second development need is how to identify conflict 3. Thirdly is how to come up with innovative policies to cover on improvement of workers. Action Plan Steps to be taken and resources needed Timeframe for completion/evaluation Development Need 1: 1. Leading people without making them feel discriminated More research on leadership and effectiveness. Resource needed is a library or resource centre. Improving vertical communication and the resource needed is ICT. 3 months Daily basis Development Need 2: 1. Conflict identification Attend 1 week workshop on conflict identification and resolution Consult professionals in leading organizations 1 week 2 weeks Development Need 3: 1. Developing policies for worker improvement Conduct research on my organization and areas that require improvement Benchmark with successful organization Examine world changes in worker management 4 weeks 1 day 1 month Further Observations and Reflections (In this section please provide any further observation and reflections about your development plan. This might include how much support you feel is available in meeting your development needs (from your organisation or from outside of work); what steps you can take to increase the likelihood of meeting your development needs; how easy it is to decide and prioritise your development needs etc. Critical to my development is support from experienced personnel within the organization and commitment by top management to assist upcoming professionals. To meet my developmental needs I will conduct a daily appraisal of myself to check whether I am doing what I have indicated in my development plan. Reference List Cottrell, S., 2010. Skills for Success: The Personal Development Planning Handbook. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke. Garber, P., 2007. The HR Skills Series. HRD Press: New York. Krauss, R. M., & Ezequiel, M., 2000. "Communication and Conflict." In Deutsch, M., & Coleman, P. T. (eds), The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice San (pp. 131-143). Francisco: Jossey-Bas Publishers. LeBaron, M., 2003. Bridging cultural Conflicts - A New Approach for a Changing World. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Oetzel, J., et al., 2001. Face and Facework in Conflict: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of China, Germany,Japan, and the United States. Communication Monographs, 68(3): 235-258. Watson, G and Reissner, S. C., 2010. Developing Skills for Business Leadership. CIPD: London. Read More