Management Leadership: A Tool for Organizational Effectiveness

Management

Leadership: A Tool for Organizational Effectiveness

The effectiveness of leadership is vital in transforming an organization into competitiveness. Leaders are the key ingredients who guide an organization onto the path of success. In an organization, the leader must have some unique qualities that help in achieving world-class competitiveness. Nowadays economies, business, social problems, etc., all these issues have become more and more complex. So, greater skill and knowledge will be beneficial for the organizations that develop and retain the leadership talent. This article focuses on a leader's most significant job of creating a working environment that motivates and develops people to perform their best for the accomplishment of organizational goals.

Leadership is nothing but looking through the other person. `How' to do work may be well-known to the employees at any level of management. In fact, on the basis of their knowledge, they are selected for the job but many may not be knowing clearly about what for the `work' is, its importance and when it is to be done.

Leadership is the critical factor which helps an individual or a group to identify its goals and motivates in achieving the organizational goals. Within the organization, there may be many leadership roles. Work groups have different leaders to perform different functions. Every member of a group can be a leader. People may withhold their participation either due to a lack of self-confidence or because of lack of opportunity or since the situation does not call for their leadership. All people are potential leaders. Given the desire and opportunity, they can develop into effective ones.

Leaders who can harmonize with the new leadership style which converges the organization with the global market can effectively maximize the benefits. The leader acts innovatively by moving a step forward towards the goal of an organization.

The word `leadership' refers to:

• The process of leading.

• The concept of leading.

• Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading.

We can express leadership in management terminology as: Capability + Effectiveness = Leadership.

That means leadership is the ability to influence others and acts as a catalyst which transforms potential into reality yielding positive results.

Leadership Actually Means

Leadership is a skill, which can be achieved by continuous practice and experience. The one most important word: `We' and the least important word `I' is the most important concept in leadership. Leadership is a way of calling `We' not `I' because no leader is successful as an individual. If we consider the word `leadership', it consists of ten letters and these 10 letters stand for:

L - Loyal, Likeable, Laborious.

E - Energetic, Economist, Enthusiastic.

A - Active, Advisory, Authoritative.

D - Dynamic, Dutiful, Disciplinary.

E - Efficient, Effective, Ethical.

R - Realistic, Reformer, Responsive.

S - Stable, Studious, Sensible.

H - Honest, Humble, Humanitarian.

I - Idealist, Inventor, Informative.

P - Pacific, Prudent, Proficient.

The connotation of these above 10 letters expresses the meaning of leadership as a whole.

Leadership is a process by which a person encourages and motivates others to attain an objective which makes an organization progress uniquely and innovatively. According to management guru Peter F Drucker, management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things that means management deals with how efficiently the work is done whereas leadership deals with how effectively the work is done. The characteristic difference between a manager and a leader is shown in Box 1.

For the smooth functioning of any organization, it is necessary that certain rules, regulations, procedures, practices, and conventions are followed. As such organizations need leadership. Just as swimming can only be learnt by swimming, leadership skills can be learnt only by leading others. Leaders emerge from within the groups. Leadership effectiveness depends upon one's will and wish to lead.

The following factors differentiate leaders from non-leaders:

• Adaptability

• Sociability

• Knowledge

• Originality

• Confidence

• Judgment

• Initiative

• Alertness to situation

• Desire to excel

Leadership Skills

Leaders may differ in their approach and pattern of working. Leadership effectiveness depends upon the three important things such as leader, followers and the situation. All the three variables are interdependent and affect each other.

LE = f (L.F.S.)

LE = Leadership effectiveness is a function (f) of L- Leader, F- Follower, and S- Situation.

So leadership effectiveness is not something that can be taken for granted, it has to be aimed at and attained. A leader must know both his strong and weak points, capabilities and drawbacks. They are to be enlisted and analyzed. Here is a checklist of qualities and abilities to know about how we measure leaders on the path of leadership. (Refer Box 2)

Effective leadership depends on having the right qualities at the right time. Successful leaders gain experience built on their natural talents and develop a wide range of skills they need as they progress.

For a successful leader, the three important things to know is:

• Teamwork and cooperation are acquired mainly through group activities.

• One can learn the skills of serving others only by working with them.

• One can be a successful leader for most of the time if only he can learn to be a good follower for some time.

Ten Principles of Leadership

• Be technically proficient.

• Make timely decisions.

• Keep workers informed.

• Train as a team.

• Use the full capabilities in an organization.

• Set the example.

• Know the people and look out for their well-being.

• Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised and accomplished.

• Develop a sense of responsibility in workers.

• Seek responsibility and task responsibility for action.

Role, Task, Responsibility and Source of Power of a Leader

• The role of a leader is to create followers.

• The task of a leader is to bring about constructive and necessary action.

• The responsibility of a leader is to bring about the change for all.

• The source of power of a leader is the trust that comes from faithfully serving followers.

So it is very clear that leadership is important for an organization to:

• Motivate employees.

• Build morale.

• Create confidence.

Characteristics of Good Leadership

• Leadership is a process of influence.

• Leadership is related to a situation.

• Leadership is a function of stimulations.

• Leadership is a form of guidance to attain common goals.

• Employee must be satisfied with the type of leadership.

Leadership Process

Leadership is a continuous process of influencing behavior. A leader breathes life into the group and motivates them towards their goals.

Leadership process is nothing but comprises of four things:

• To be is the source of leadership.

• To do is the style of leadership by personnel experience.

• To see indicates that a leader must be in complete touch with the realities of the situation in which he/she is operating.

• To tell is communicating with others what the leader wants them to do.

Leadership Development Process at Wipro Technologies

The main business of Wipro is information technology which is a knowledge-based industry. The importance given to leadership development at Wipro can be explained by the statement given by its CEO Azim Premji, "Creating leaders has a personal pay-off." The leader development program of Wipro is known as Wipro Leaders' Program which was started in 1988.

Through this program, leaders develop eight qualities i.e. Vision, Customer orientation, Aggressive commitment, Global thinking and acting, Self-confidence, Commitment to excellence, Building star performers and Building future leader. Each year management employees are chosen to take part in this program, which gives participants a sense of focus. In such programs, efforts are made to:

• Create awareness and understanding of Wipro leaders' qualities.

• Identify the relevance and importance of Wipro leaders' qualities.

• Enable participants to assess their current status in comparison to Wipro leaders' qualities.

• Provides inputs to guide participants for continuous development in Wipro leadership qualities.

Wipro leadership program has helped to develop personnel in the company and many participants have reached the level of chief executive in their business units. This program made a difference in modern India which leads the organization towards global competitiveness in the current period.

Leadership Development Process at BHEL

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is India's largest public sector engineering company which provides various development programs for updating knowledge, skills, and techniques in the sphere of management, behavioral science, functional leadership, productivity, etc., providing facilities of audiovisual aids, photocopying , reading material, stationery and other administrative assistants through training manual at BHEL.

The process adopted by BHEL is:

• Assess organization's direction and current state, the speed at which business results must be achieved and implications for leadership.

• Assess organization's culture, define required shifts and create action plans for leaders to change the culture to enable new business goals to be met.

• Create executive communication strategies for key constituents.

• Coach individual executives on personal behavioral actions and communication by focusing on what they do today with what is needed tomorrow.

• Coach executive teams also on individual leadership and effective teamwork.

Generally, corporate level leaders are challenged by a number of strategic alternatives for engaging in global competition. In the age of information technology, it is the responsibility of the corporate leaders to build organization by continuously expanding their capabilities to shape the future by creating the social infrastructure and learning environment. The leader acts as a teacher as well as a designer who has the capability to establish shared vision and designing systematic patterns of thinking so that an organization is built to last. Planned leadership programs well return values to the organization in terms of increased productivity, greater organizational stability and flexibility to adapt to changing external requirements.

So leadership must be systematic and organized on the basis of organizational and individual levels that means leadership is an organized procedure for increasing the knowledge and skill to influence people for a definite purpose.

In order to make the leadership program more effective in improving organizational as well as individual performance, it is important that perception regarding effectiveness of leadership be made positive which can be done by employees' involvement in leadership and development-related activities; by creating good learning environment, by providing encouragement in terms of promotion or increment and by linking leadership more closely to work practices.

Through leadership an organization can go `green' which means that leadership is nothing but encouraging efficiency in reducing waste. This greening refers to how leadership in an organization reduces waste to leave the greatest `footprint' on their employees.

Based on the information gathered from evaluating a leadership program, managers can make important decisions on changing or altering the same by eliminating the shortfalls and coming out with a better approach.

Managers can use employee surveys and propose contemporary models based on ideas drawn from the process of leadership to understand how far they have been successful in achieving their objective of developing future employees to work in this challenging and highly competitive environment.

Reflecting on future leaders, Beckhard (1996) says: "Truly effective leaders in the years ahead will have personas determined by strong values in the capacity of individuals to grow. They will have an image of the society in which they would like their organizations and themselves to live. They will be visionary and believe strongly that they can and should be shaping the future and they will act on these beliefs through their personal behavior. Leaders acts as an input, they are responsible for making good decisions and committed to its future plans."

Conclusion

To achieve success in the competitive world, organizations need fabulous leadership talent which can be fulfilled only from a learning organization which enhances the culture that motivates the attainment of shared visions and strategies, while creating value and maximizing customer satisfaction.

A good leader will be an inspiring factor for the employees in an organization and the main asset for motivating and making workers knowledgeable for the accomplish-ment of its objectives in an efficient manner. Leaders create the road with delegation and these roads are always followed by the managers.

A leader is one who needs to acquire and create vital skills to lead a dynamic environment. So, it is concluded that right people + humanity + professional will = successful leader who achieves organizational effectiveness. Leaders must use all of their talents in a constructive manner to ensure organizational success in the long-run in this competitive world.

-- Itishree Mohanty
Faculty,
Kanak Manjari Institute of
Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Rourkela, Orissa.
The author can be reached at
itushree_mohanty@rediffmail.com