What is Leadership?
Leadership is the capacity of an individual or a group of people to determine and direct followers or members of an organisation, society, or team. To establish a shared understanding of leadership within an organisation, it is essential to define leadership, linking leadership vision, language, and behaviors to critical business needs. Leadership is often tied to a person’s title preference, or ranking in a hierarchy. However, it’s an attribute anyone can attain even those without leadership positions. It’s a developable skill that can be enhanced over time. Leadership is important in driving productivity, competitiveness, and responsiveness to change within organisations.
Leaders are found and required in most aspects of society, including business, politics, religion, social, and community-based organisations. Leaders are seen as people who make sound, and sometimes often difficult compromises. They articulate a vision, institute achievable goals, and provide followers with the knowledge and paraphernalia necessary to achieve those goals.
Types of Leadership
Visionary Leadership
Visionary Leaders motivate others to work toward a vision for the future, they encourage creative thinking and innovation by challenging the status quo and promoting new ideas. While this is a great framework, they can face difficulty communicating their grand vision, which can result in misunderstandings or turbulence among team members. Visionary Leaders may also establish ambitious goals that can be demanding to achieve potentially creating pressure and fostering unworkable expectations.
Transactional Leadership
Transactional Leaders use social exchange to influence others to achieve their goals. These leaders establish clear expectations, goals, and performance standards, ensuring that others understand what is expected of them, thus promoting liability. They utilise rewards and recognition to motivate and boost their team members, fostering productivity and performance.
However, this type of leadership primarily focuses on maintaining existing progress and achieving established goals. Needless to say, this can potentially suppress innovation and creativity within the team. The transactional approach of this leadership style can also lead to more obligation for more personal and professional growth opportunities for team members.
Charismatic Leadership
Charismatic Leaders inspire and motivate others to behave in a specific way by being enthusiastic, energetic, and charismatic. These leaders can inspire and motivate others through their enthusiasm, energy, and charisma. They also create an optimistic work atmosphere, fostering high morale and engagement.
Despite that, their persuasive abilities can be utilised for self-serving purposes without considering the best interests of the organisation or team and the focus on inspiring and motivating may obfuscate the practical aspects of execution and implementation.
Transformational Leadership
Transformational Leaders transform others, nurturing them to achieve greater success and growth. This type of leadership promotes motivation to their employees, helps maintain workplace integrity, define a clear vision and goal, encourage professional development, improves loyalty and decreases turnover.
Transformational leaders’ high expectations and drive for excellence can sometimes lead to increased pressure and workload for employees. In addition to this, transformational leaders, driven by the pursuit of organisational goals, may overlook the constructive needs of individual team members.
Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic Leaders make decisions and give orders without seeking recommendations from others. This enables swift and decisive action in crises Moreover, this leadership style provides clear direction and instructions, minimising uncertainty.
However, this can have limited engagement in decision-making. This may leave team members feeling separated or undervalued and the lack of input from others can also impede the generation of fresh ideas and divergent perspectives.
Bureaucratic Leadership
Bureaucratic Leaders rely on established rules and procedures to guide their leadership approach. This focuses on minimising risks by following protocols and guidelines in which they establish clear structures, rules, and processes that promote efficiency, flexibility, and order within the organisation. However, these leaders tend to prioritise adherence to established rules and procedures over adaptability, thus making them inflexible and rigid in their approach.
Democratic Leadership
Democratic Leaders involve others in the decision-making process and embolden collaboration. They include team members in decision-making and foster a sense of partnership and commitment in the team. Moreover, this leadership approach helps employees feel valued and have a voice. In essence, this leads to increased job satisfaction and motivation.
Though a majority of companies have this type of leadership, a democratic style of leadership can be lethargic due to discussions and consensus-building. Democratic Leadership can lead to misunderstandings, and conflicts among team members that may also arise. Thus, requiring effective conflict solutions.
Laissez-Faire Leadership
Laissez-faire leadership provides the privilege and autonomy to individuals, allowing them to make their own decisions. Laissez-faire leaders empower individuals with autonomy, encouraging creativity and initiative. Encouraging employees to take partnership of their work, resulting in increased self-motivation.
However, this leadership can lack the framework and guidance, leaving employees feeling lost or uncertain. The freedom and autonomy granted in Laissez-Faire leadership can also lead to a lack of liability and a decline in comprehensive productivity.
How to Become a Better Leader?
The workplace has changed dramatically, with the increase of remote work and the growing importance placed on employee touchpoints, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion. Here are some tips on how to become a better and effective leader:
Become more Cognisant
Great leaders know their strengths, weaknesses, and effects on the people they lead. They set a good example and parade good behaviour. One way to become more cognisant is to seek feedback from others.
Refine Communication Skills
Leaders should be efficient and coherent in their communication; they must also have coherent perceptions. Communication should be based on broad-mindedness, fairness, and clarity. This involves setting coherent goals and expectations and giving regular feedback to employees.
Consociate with Team Members
Connections build confidence, understanding, and bonds that are critical for lucrative leadership. The best leaders should get to know the personalities and capabilities of their team members.
Bolster Growth
The best leaders encourage their own, their colleagues, and their employees’ or followers’ personal and professional growth. Encouraging growth strengthens bonds boosts confidence between leaders and team members, and increases what teams can score in their accomplishments.
Be Open to Change
Change is inevitable in business; being susceptible to it and encouraging new ideas and perspectives from team members can aid leaders in becoming more effective.
Develop Positive Attitudes
Responding to pessimistic situations and problems with positive approaches and encouragement is a great way to model and improve problem-solving skills.
Seek Out Growth Opportunities
Great leaders look for opportunities for continuous improvement and education. This can involve attending a colloquium, finding a mentor, and reading books on leadership.
How can a Leader Determine the Best Leadership Style to Use?
Develop a Deeper Knowledge
Professionals in leadership roles should take the time to understand their vigor, vulnerabilities, and leadership preferences. Reflect on personality mindset, communication style, and decision-making approach. Moreover, self-awareness is imperative in determining which leadership style aligns best with one’s natural tendencies.
Define One’s Core Values
Consider how different leadership styles may align with one’s values and make sure to address the challenges that may come.
Try Different Leadership Styles
Try out various leadership styles in different positions or projects. Equally important, be open to adapting the approach based on the needs of the team and the specific prospects.
Console for Feedback
Seek feedback from team members and colleagues regarding the leadership style. Create a culture of accessible communication where people feel complacent in sharing their sentiments and observations. Furthermore, this feedback will provide beneficial insights into how the leadership style is perceived and influence others.
Learn from Other Leaders
One must look to leaders whom they admire and respect. Examine their leadership styles and the influence they have had on their organisations. Additionally, identify the aspects of their leadership that resonate with you and could be applied to one’s leadership approach.
Training to be an Effective Leader
Having inadequate training isn’t great for the bottom line of the company. Sending unqualified leaders can lead to more damage, lower morale, and a toxic culture in the workspace. This can cancel out the positive effects of one’s health and wellness programmes by making employees unsatisfied and being burdened by the adverse effects on their well-being.
Leadership training needs to be tailored to the organisation’s particular needs. Transforming the training by taking an ongoing, collaborative approach creates leaders better prepared to manage and ensures that learning programmes are a good fit for the pace and people inside the organisation.
Using Bersin’s 4 E’s of Leadership Development can provide the framework needed:
- Education - leaders need to know the basic principles of the business, how to establish the goals, and develop people.
- Experience - learning how to lead by actually doing results to an augmented performance, each time the cycle is completed.
- Exposure - valuable leadership lessons can be learned by watching others guide employees, talking to other leaders, and receiving feedback.
- Evaluation - new leaders may benefit from regular discipline or learning, peer reviews, and objective counsel.
Mentorship
Having a well-experienced and reliable mentor can remove the guesswork involved in becoming a leader. They get the experience, guidance, and feedback that prepares them to manage their company. Mentorship is good for addressing the gray areas and complex situations. Providing access to someone with the much needed experience can have major value to become an effective leader. Mentors can share their successes, failures, and lessons learned, allowing mentees to achieve a much deeper understanding of real-life journeys of leadership.
This helps mentees avoid pitfalls make precise and informed decisions, and navigate complex situations effectively. Mentors can help them hold accountable for their growth and development, providing constructive feedback, and offering guidance on how to enhance their skills. Mentors also contribute to professional and personal development. They can help mentees identify their values, strengths, and passions, that align their inclinations in their leadership.
They encourage their self-awareness and emotional intelligence, precise traits for effective leadership.
Skills for an Effective Leadership:
- Communication - this is processed by knowing how to actively listen to the employees and have an understanding of their perspectives having the ability to openly convey the information and procedures ensures a streamlined work process.
- Strategic Thinking - this involves knowing how to align daily objectives with a broader mission, set team, and individual priorities, and course correct as needed, emphasising the bigger picture for everyone to keep the team aligned together and ensure massive productivity.
- Time Management - Having proper time management is not just about being efficient but also about knowing how to prioritise tasks properly and effectively. First, focus on the team that aligns most with the set goals while at the same time, looking for more opportunities to optimise and enhance productivity.
- Problem Solving - precisely knowing or identifying the root causes, that come up with effective short and long-term solutions and putting them in place for preventative measures so that the problem won’t happen twice.
- Decision Making - building a framework for searching out information that are need, such as knowing who to ask questions, weigh out different opinions, and being good at considering multiple different possible outcomes against the broader goals of the team.
- Conflict Resolution - having this skill means to keep the conflict from escalating into something more serious. This requires for actively and respectfully listening to both perspectives, then knowing how to come up with a resolution that is both fair and equitable.
- Adaptability - ability to recognise the need for tremendous change and making the adjustments needed, in other words, being consistently aware of the situation, how the needs of contributors may be changing and what is happening in the larger context of the industry.
Conclusion
Having Leadership is a gift that requires a set direction. It’s about knowing your strengths, weaknesses, and passions can provide wisdom for others who want to become good leaders. Every leadership has it’s successes, failures, lessons, and contributions in every part of society. As the quote says, “With power comes great responsibility.” Prioritising your responsibilities and being open to your employees can benefit the company into becoming a successful company.