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Lesson#16
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BECOMING A LEADER WHAT DOES IT MEAN HOW DO
YOU GET IT
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BECOMING A LEADER! WHAT DOES IT MEAN & HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Leadership is the exercise of influence by one member of a group or
organization over other members
to help the group or organization achieve its goals. Formal leaders have formal
authority to influence
others by virtue of their job/position responsibilities. Informal leaders lack
formal authority but
influence others by virtue of their special skills or talents.
Becoming a Leader:
The leaders of a group, team or organization are the individuals who
influence others behavior. Leader
effectiveness is the extent to which a leader actually does help a group, team
or organization to achieve
its goals. Leaders are either appointed by someone external to the group and
they are elected by group
members themselves. Some people take up role of leader by using their
influences. With the passage of
time, you can see that leadership will emerge over time. The group members will
assess with in the
group that who is leader worthy. In this situation, communication style will
play a dynamic role. A
group member can become a leader if he or she has following qualities/skills;
_ Think like a leader
_ Develop your judgment
_ Build leadership traits
_ Build your power base
_ Share your vision
_ Adapt your style
_ Pick the right
followers
_ Organize tasks properly
Foundations of Leadership:
Vision:
Leaders must have, and be able to communicate a vision. Leaders must make
the followers see what the
organization can become and the success that can be achieved. A Leader must be
effective that actually
does help a group, team or organization to achieve its goals. An effective
leader helps achieve goals. An
ineffective leader does not.
Mission Statement:
Every organization needs a mission statement, which is a statement of the
purpose of an organization.
The mission statement addresses the question: What is the organization’s reason
for being in business?
It broadly outlines the organization’s future course and communicates “who we
are, what we do, and
where we are headed. Mission Statement describes purpose of the organization;
_ WHAT – is expected to be
achieved
_ WHY – is it worthwhile
_ HOW – it can be done
_ Defines Core Values
Objectives:
Objectives are desired outcomes for individuals, groups, team or entire
organizations. The leaders have
to provide objectives--specific results that he or she wants the group to
achieve. Planning is the first
management function, but by providing direction, a manager becomes a leader.
Direction:
A leader must provide a direction for achievement of the objectives to his
or her followers that can
work toward. A vision is especially important in today’s volatile business
environment.
Steps to Leadership: The following are the key steps to leadership:
_ Identify what is happening
(identifying areas requiring leadership)
_ Account for what is happening
using behavior science theories and concepts
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_ Formulate leader actions based
on your knowledge of how to motivate employees and how to
resolve and manage inter-group conflicts
Leading: Leaders must choose a style to suit the situation in
organization to achieve the goals;
_ Employee oriented: a
leader may have an employee oriented style for its effective working with in
the group and team.
_ Participative: a leader
may have participative style to motivate other group members to involve in
other organizational activities or to motivate employees to support each other
in the achievement of
organizational goals.
_ Job centered: a leader
may have job centered style to play a hub role in the organization.
_ Autocratic: a leader
may have autocratic style according to the organizational environment exits.
The other factors also play a dynamic role to achieve the organizational role. A
leader must;
Influence organization culture: as we know that the culture is the set of
values, norms and beliefs
define by the organization environment or management, a leader must influence on
the organizational
culture for making a congenial working environment.
Motivate: Motivation is a frequently used but poorly understood in term
dynamics. There are over 140
definitions of the term motivation that have been used in various capacities.
Motivation is important
because it explains why employees behave as they do. Leaders need to understand
this so that they must
motivate the employees towards the organizational goals.
Influence communication: Communication is one of the most important
processes that take place in
organizations. Effective communication allows individuals, groups, teams and
organizations to achieve
their goals and perform at a high level, and it affects virtually every aspect
of organizational behavior.
Communication is good or effective when members of organization share
information with each other
and all parties involved are relatively clear about what information means. So
leader must focus on the
organizational communication. Good communication prevents many problems from
occurring and
serves the following functions in an organization.
Influence the group: A leader must have influence on the group or team to
achieve the organizational
goals. If the leader loses the influence on group or team he or she me lose the
game.
Have leadership traits and power: There are so many traits of leader ship
which can not be explained
and varies from person to person and style to style? But each leader must make
sure the achievement of
organizational goals in a best way.
Three competency of a Leader: there are three competency of leader;
Leading the Organization:
Leading the organization and put the organization on right path through
setting vision, direction and
strategy. They also involve in problem solving and decision making. They keenly
observe the
prevailing politics in the organization and influence other team members.
Leaders always try to create a
change culture in the organization. For this purpose they take the risks and
innovates the new things in
the organization by enhancing business skills and knowledge.
Leading others:
One of the leader’s competencies is leading and managing others. In the
organization, a leader manages
the effective teams and groups for achievement of organizational objectives by
building and
maintaining a working relationship between them. They motivate other and build
the trust on team
members. One of the major tasks of leader is to develop other, which is more
important factor. They set
a reward system in the organization and mostly link it with the performance or
achievement of goals.
Leading oneself:
This is also very important to leading one self. It is the responsibility of
the leader to adopt the changes
prevails in the environment. They also increase the self awareness for himself
that what is going on in
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the surroundings of the organization. They always try to lean as more as they
can. They also develop
the culture of ethics and integrity with in the organization.
Developing adaptability, increasing self-awareness, managing yourself,
increasing capacity to learn,
exhibiting leadership stature, displaying drive and purpose, developing ethics
and integrity.
Leaders always know about their strengths, weakness, opportunities, challenges
and know who they are
as an individual. They also know that “Positions do not possess leadership
characteristics, only people
possess leadership characteristics.”
“Leadership is not a matter of luck. The harder you work, the luckier you are.” |
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