Leadership and Management

Leadership and Management

1-What is involved in being a successful leader?

This helps the leader to connect better with felicitating the communicative strategies, growth, development, and feedback. Leaders chart outs the abrupt vision and necessary courage into action, besides this, a successful leader has clarified vision, decisiveness, and passion. Various theories portray the potential of becoming a successful leader like an individual, contextual and relational theories.

Individual

(Great Man Theory)

This theory refers to the impact of great men, efficient leaders, and humans with wisdom, intelligence, and impactful manner (Hunt and Fedynich,2019). The great man theory was coined in 1804 by Thomas Carlyle

The great man approach is a call for certain qualities like leading. Courage, risk management, persuasiveness, and commanding personality. This theory approaches by the charismatic leadership style. According to the great man leadership theory, the leader is inborn with the qualities and it is not just learned (Vergauwe, 2017). Leaders come forward when the need for them is essential, especially in the time of crisis. They display certain traits that resemble the leadership quality. This theory is usually from the aristocracy and is inherited with particular traits. Thus the theory states that leaders are born because of the inherent trait and not just merely by the learning process.

Contemporary introspections are highlighted in the theory in addition to the influence of a particular environment that is not socially biased. However, this theory is largely criticized by the emphasis which is more on traits and replicates the biases of gender, social environment, and ignorance.

Contextual

Path-Goal Theory

Path goal theory is developed by Robert house. Path goal theory describes how the leaders motivate their followers and achieve the organizational goal and variants in behaviour that encourages the followers. This theory provokes the followers and helps accomplish the specific aims. The leaders can enhance the performance of the employees by their satisfaction with motivation. In respect to the utilization of correct motivational spirit the leader must meet the follower to constantly inspire and characterize in the assorted work setting. Determining the subordinates by enabling the outcomes keeps the achievement at transition. Rewarding the subordinates for better performance helps to believe and obtain working goals through better performance. The leadership behaviour in path-goal theory is directive, supportive, achievement-oriented and participative (Sadegur and Marr, 2020). This theory assumes that the leaders are flexible and exhibit the behaviour based on the situations. Subordinating characteristics of this theory are affiliation need for supportive leadership, control for desire, and preference of achievement based leadership. The path-goal theory runs from the subordinate path to the final goal wherein the path-goal leadership is spatially distributed like goal defining, removal of obstacles, provision of support, and defining goals. There are certain working principles of this theory like leaders' behaviour which is categorized as a directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented leaders, while it assumes the team members to be dogmatic, autonomous, and clarified. The task characteristics are ambiguous, challenging, and complex.

Relational

Transformational leadership

Transformational leadership style engages one or more people in a way where leaders and followers assist one another to the highest level of motivation and morality. In addition, Transformational leaders motivate to achieve extraordinary outcomes with the development of the followers with the leadership capacity. The leader of the group helps the followers to grow and develop a certain skill set to dignify and approach the goal (Bernart et al., 2020). This technically aligns with the leading management and transformational leadership. A major goal of transformational followers is to inspire the followers and share the leaders with values and get in contact to match up to the leader's vision. Transformational leadership is a process that changes and transforms along with higher values, ethics, and long duration goals. The transformational leader provokes the followers to achieve the specified goals and plays a powerful part in achieving success. This type of leadership consists of idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation. Components of transformational leadership include the inception of creative ideas, planning and processing of the achievement-oriented goals, congruence of the processed information and identification of the team leader, and extracting the best out of the potential follower. The working of transformational leadership is set out to empower the progression of the followers. The goal is to become a strong role model for a leader with the potency to have a creative vision. Therefore, the leaders act as an initiator that implants the new directives and acts as social transformers.

2-Can good leadership be developed, and if so, how?

Can you develop leadership?

Some humans are born leaders, anyone who needs to master the skill has to put forth and devise the skills by experimenting. Demonstrating the practical implications by meeting the ends is a crucial task however implementation is important (Iordanoglou, 2018). In respect to develop as a good leader one needs to have that trait within and the potency to drive the inter challenging and risk management capabilities. Below are the ways stated as to how good leadership can be developed.

Being an inspiration:

The leadership predicament is dependent on how influential the leader is and the inspiring way that is emphasized by the aspiring. Some leaders motivate the followers to become efficient in the work-oriented attributes.

Lifelong learning:

Learning is a lifelong process with the implementation of an act to regain experience. Every human learns and grows every single day. The learning chain works abruptly to invest in leadership skills. Leaders always develop the responsibility to absorb effective learning skills.

Visionary:

A good leader always signifies the countable past experiences in alliance with the future-ready. This helps the leader to overcome the unpredictable challenges and makes the leader geared up to take on the challenges. A good leader is always a visionary and foresees the ability while providing suggestions at a proper interval of time.

Besides this, the soft skills that are mandatory to become a leader are team player, problem solver, risk-taker, providing empowerment to the follower and decision-maker. These qualities certainly prepare a leader for leadership responsibility.

How can you develop leadership?

Leadership is a discipline that enhances the professional career and life on an individual. The traits that can enhance the leadership quality of individual help in the progression of one's personality development process (Hersona and Sidharta, 2017). The development of leadership can be done by enhancing communication skills. Communication skills play an important role in the delivery of a speech. An individual should be able to attract the crowd with their speech for becoming a good leader. Integrating creativity will lead to people admiring and respecting the character. The collective approach of technical skills and creativity will lead to innovation insinuating a successful leader for the future. Leadership can be developed by paying attention to the feedback. Constructive feedback allows the individual to understand their weak points and provides an opportunity to work over them. Positivity and motivation help in the sustained execution of leadership (Hawaas, 2017). The development of intrinsic motivation for a task will help the leader to make the right choice. The above-mentioned traits and activities will help the individual to implement effective leadership.

The Uber CEO is one of the best examples of Transformational leadership. The CEO OF Uber started his tenure in the year 2018 and spent the first months of this leadership travelling and listening to the managers all over the centres. Dara Khosrowshahi wanted to understand the problems and identify the key areas for further transformation of the company (Mann, 2017).

Ken Murphy is the CEO of Tesco and his leadership style is an example of situational leadership. Ken Murphy joined the company in October 2020. The leader has rightly executed operation that combats the Covid-19 situation by imposing policies. Likewise, the delegation of processes, the coaching and mentoring of subordinates, the supportive behaviour and the directive authority of Ken Murphy has transformed the business model of Tesco.

Justin Trudeau is a Canadian politician that is serving as a prime minister of Canada. He is known for his dedication towards his country and the actions that are taken by the Prime minister for the betterment and development of Canada. Justin Trudeau encourages collaboration and teamwork which makes him a good example of Servant leadership.

3-What distinguishes leadership from management?

• Define management

The management function of an organisation is the activities that control the affairs of the business. The management function determines the planning, decision making, organising, controlling and directing function (Burgess et al.,2021). In respect to the administration of business activities to oversee the productivity within the business environment is the responsibility of the management function. The reporting of the projects is done to the concerned manager to ensure efficiency.

• Define leadership

Leadership is the source of motivation in the business environment. The authority that influences the employees and the business community through the executive position determines the productivity levels and motivation in the workplace. Leadership is an important aspect in the community to establish a role model that the people look up to. A leader is an influencer whose authoritative decisions mobilise the resources of the company.

• Identify the key differences

The management and leadership function is a different principle of business. However, the key differences between the two functions have been outlined below with relevant explanation.

Table 1: Differentiation between Leadership and Management

Example 1: The CEO of Marks and Spencer, Steve Rowe has implemented a new strategy that has enabled the company to form strategic alliances with third party brands. In respect to the company bought the intellectual property that allowed it to sell the goods that are manufactured by the brand Jaeger (Jolly, 2021). The formulation of this strategy required a strong and analytical leader that could forecast the implications of the same. On the other hand, the management team of Marks and Spencer was instructed to provide resources that will support the new strategy implementation. The management function was not involved in the core strategy formulation but instructed to provide support for the same. This organisational context of the counting and creating value for the company can be seen in the operations of Marks and Spencer.

Example 2: The CEO of Nick Jeffery has introduced a new strategic plan that will cover more UK landmasses to provide mobile coverage. However, the CEO of Vodafone stresses on the UK 4G mobile networks (O'halloran, 2021). The strategic implementation of the company requires the contribution of the respective managers to execute the plan. In addition, the CEO has directed the visions and the managers will be asked to execute the vision by increasing the productivity of their team. This is an example of the difference between the operation of focus strategy among both the functions.

Example 3: Jeff Bezos is the CEO of Amazon that has a wide circle of influence. He is also among the most influential people in the world (Ponciano, 2020). The story of Jeff Bezos is inspiring depicting how he started his business in a garage and how he established a multibillion-dollar company throughout the years. Thus, in respect to the circle of influence of Jeff Bezos is supported by the circle of power by the managers of the company. The managers execute the strategic plan within the business environment.

4-What have you personally learnt about leadership from your own experiences, on this course and elsewhere?

Leadership is an important trait for succession the academic as well as the professional career (Bake, 2019). The leadership development is based on the original experiences that have been faced by the individual in the academic and professional career. Therefore, the following details the experience and learnings from the experiences where the situation has been evaluated accordingly.

In my academic career, I needed to form a study group to achieve successful results in my semester. The formation of the study group required someone to take the lead and make a plan to manage everybody's schedule. The effectiveness of the plan depended on the integration of analytical skills that I possessed at the time. Thus, the study group was formed with the help of coordination between all the team members. I had to ensure there was effective and efficient communication between all the members of the study group. The members of the study group were selected according to the performance and will to study in a particular learning environment. Furthermore, the selection of candidates for the study group was one in such a way that suited and conformed to the needs of all members of the team. In respect to the transformational leadership style can be seen in this situation where I had to consider the needs and ants of all the team members to make the necessary changes. Transformational leadership style determines the integration of the needs and wants of all the members of the team and organisation (Buil et al.,2019). I created the study group with a brainstorming session by taking an initiative. The initiative led to the formation of protocols that had to be agreed by the team member to achieve successful results in the semester. In addition, the study group aimed at reducing each other weaknesses and enhancing the effectiveness of the strengths possessed by everyone by amplifying the attributes that supported learning.

The next experience that I had encountered was in the field of Sports. Therefore, the coach of the team was an ideal person to exemplify situational leadership. Situational leadership determines the phases of leadership when the individual requires a coach, mentor, director, delegator and supporter. The coach of the team rightfully delegated tasks that were important by at a less priority to the team members that could efficiently execute the task. The support from coach showcased his ability to support the team when the members of the team lost their morale. In addition, the support boosted the confidence and motivation in the team. The motivation in the team improved the efficiency and productivity in the team (Chakrabarti and Chatterjea, 2018). The sports team coach was good at mentoring the team members during a match preparation. Therefore, the sessions taken by the coach while preparing the team were known as rigorous. Moreover, it requires a lot of time in coaching and mentoring his pupils. He focused on amplifying the strengths of each member of the team and reducing the weaknesses of the team members. The coach rightly identified the situations where he had to play the role of a team leader and the coach for the execution of his strategies. Therefore, leadership of the sports team coach lastly was also directive in nature that made the people respect him for his decisions without questioning their authority. The directive nature on the field was necessary to control the emotions of the team on the field. Thus, in respect to matches were played under a lot of pressure which required a directive authority to make decisions (Weese and Chelladurai, 2017). The decision making capability of the coach was tested in the middle of the match. Likewise, the sports team won many matches due to the situational leadership of the coach.

My perspective on the concepts of leadership has clarified by encountering the above examples of leadership situations. The above examples were a critical representation of experiencing a leadership position and learning from a position of authority. In context to learnings identified the application of the respective theories that have been mentioned above. The clarity gained by the experience determines the scope of leadership in the academic and professional career. I can gain a defined and analytical strategic thinking for my future execution of leadership. Thus, the identification of the practical execution of the theories has enabled a practical and analytical view of leadership.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it has been observed that the significance of leadership in the professional, as well as the academic career, is immense. The report details the traits that are required by a successful leader. In accordance to the traits have been exemplified with the use of various theories. The organisational context of these theories has been explained in a visionary aspect explaining the transformational leadership, servant leadership and situational leadership. Thus, the differences between the management and leadership function have been outlined in this assignment. The differences have helped determine insight into the operational responsibilities of the managers and leaders. In respect to the personal experiences regarding the leadership have been detailed in this report. The learnings from the leadership experiences have helped develop the clarity in the execution of leadership theories and leadership styles.

References

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