Leadership Motivation Free Essays

Leadership is the process of motivating others to work to meet specific goals and objectives. â€Å"Leadership is deliberately causing people-driven actions in a planned fashion for the purpose of accomplishing the leader’s agenda† (Crosby 2). A leader motivates others to action. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership Motivation or any similar topic only for you Order Now Thus, it is the motivation of others and their actions that defines a successful leader. In other words, leadership is the art and science of getting others to perform and achieve a vision. Therefore, leadership is not only reflected in performance, no matter how good that performance is, but in accomplishment. As a leader one’s focus should be on accomplishing that leadership goals, whether in a personal, community or charitable, business, political, or industrial forum. In the business world, managers have a great responsibility of leading employees working under them. In order to achieve successful leadership, a leader or a manager should possess certain principles and essential skills. Leadership Principles, Objectives and Problems There are several principles a leader should follow to be successful. A few of the principles are as follows: The most important principle of leadership is ‘listening’. â€Å"A good leader is always an active listener† (Rausch, Washbush 143). Active listening shows that the leader cares, is interested and wants to be involved, enabling the n leader to benefit from the experience. The primary objective of a leader would be to adapt the principles of ‘listening’ into their own life. If the leader is not a good listener, then he/she should learn how to really listen. In addition to listening and carefully understanding what a team member is saying, leader should also make sure that every team member gets leader’s undivided attention (Normand, Jackson 111). Unfortunately, as a listener, leaders have their own problems to face with. Listeners frequently have too many sound and visual signals reaching them at the same time. It is difficult for the listener to pay attention to multiple speakers all at once. Also, there could be a number of other problems the leader could be facing in their own life. The leader as a listener will never listen with understanding until other matters are forgotten for the moment and attention is given to the speaker. Another problem involved with listening is the leader not being able to understand the words being spoken. Hearing what is being spoken is just a part of listening, but understanding some of the words could be tricky sometimes. To avoid problems involving listening, the listener should use good eye contact so that he/she can concentrate on the particular speaker. That helps the listener pay attention on the subject too. Leader should also learn the meaning of the words the speaker is using and if he is unable to understand, he needs to ask questions. This also lets the speaker know that the listener is unable to understand and the listener is paying attention. Planning is determining what you want to accomplish, working out beforehand how it is to be done, deciding who will responsible for each step, and having every phase written down. One of the leader’s objectives is to be able to appreciate the value of careful and complete planning. Good leader applies the steps of good planning to each part of life. The leader should visually plan the steps involved to reach a certain goal. For example, assume that an organizational agenda is â€Å"A return on assets of atleast 15 percent, revenues per employee over $155,000 annually, zero customer complaints, twenty new products†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Crosby 33). The first step is to separate the revenue-producing areas into those that are never going to reach that performance level, those that could with the correct investment of time or money, and those that are meeting it now. Things that can must replace those that cannot meet. This sort of planning is a regular part of leaders organizational life (33). The biggest problem with planning is it is time consuming and involves a lot of thought. In addition, it involved paperwork and other systematic procedures. Many people hate paperwork and following systematic procedures, which makes the planning process inefficient. To achieve good planning results without any problems, the leader should set a broad goal or objective and decide what form the project will take. Then develop a step-by-step course of action to completion (Lundy 13). Keeping all the other objectives in mind, the plan should then be put into effect while readjusting the plan as necessary. Most important of all the leadership principles is to be able to effectively manage time. The leader must determine not only how he will use his own time, but also how the group’s time will be used. Managing time effectively will allow the leader to achieve success, happiness and pride at the workforce. As a leader, personal time management is one of the chief objectives. At work place, the leader should manage meeting time more effectively. The leader should develop and follow his own personal plan for the effective use of time. Often times leaders find having trouble with managing time. Due to poor organization and lack of planning, time management becomes a tricky task. â€Å"Being unable to set the priorities will make time management process very ineffective and sometimes completely useless† (Washbush, Rausch 269). There are several ways to manage the group’s or organization’s time effectively. The leader should provide a job description to each person. To save more time, the leader should train or take key people further and commit to these key people when things need to be done immediately. These key people should be kept informed and the leader should have these key people take initiative to report back. The leader should utilize only the time needed for successful completion of the group project, event or activity. Every individual working in the team is important and every individual has varied talents and not to mention problems of their own. Knowing the person, understanding the person and identifying the strengths and needs of the individual are vital for the leader in order to be most effective with the person (Rausch, Washbush 233-235). Leader’s objective is to perform more effectively as a leader by getting to know and understand individual members of the group. Leader should be able identify the characteristics and needs of the members of a group. The leader should be able to look for and accept the strengths of each individual (Lundy 43-45). Getting to know a person is a very complex skill and there are several problems involved during this process. People are complex. An individual is like a mixed bag with different characteristics. Until many of the characteristics of an individual are identified, it is impossible to begin to know and understand that person. To overcome the problems of knowing a person, the leader should spend more time with his team members. The leader should make attempts to know the needs and characteristics of his team member and fellow employees. Every human being has need for love. If we love a person, we care for that person and we try not to hurt the person in any way. Love is expressed by doing things to strengthen, improve, support and defend the one loved. A good leader does what is morally and ethically right and does not abuse the management power or privileges he/she has over their sub-ordinates. A good leader loves and gives individual consideration, coaches, advises and gives help to those who need it. A good leader also treats newcomers with a lot of respect and love (Row). Leader should give love to each person he associates with. The primary objective is to overcome the fear as a leader by extablishing close feelings of love with the team members. â€Å"Leadership involves being as well as doing. Individual styles of leadership may be quite different, yet equally effective† (Lundy 76). As conditions and situations change, leaders need to change their styles of leadership. The challenge of the leader is not to follow one leadership style all the time, but to use the leadership style needed by his followers. Leaders should maintain the power or influence of their offices by being kind and knowledgeable. The primary objective of being the leader would be to recognize the qualities necessary for a leader to be successful. Leader should be able to recognize various leadership styles and understand when each would be appropriate. â€Å"Sometimes leader will have to follow their group member and in such situations the good leader will appreciate the leadership in other while serving the role of a follower†(Carlin). Leader often have trouble deciding what leadership style to be used at what given instance. Another problem with leaders is that some leaders tend to follow the same leadership principles all the time and this is not a good idea to tackle special situations. The leader must not consider himself locked into a style of leadership with any individual or group. To avoid problems leaders should always act accordingly and change leadership skills depending on the situation and need. At the same time leader should be confident enough to be able to deal with the new skills (Carlin). Every group needs a leader and the group’s performance depends on the leader either directly or indirectly. Whether it is a hospital, private practice, health maintenance organization, government facility, or university, or a business, they all need supervisors and leaders. The behavior as a manager has a direct impact on staff performance, productivity, satisfaction, and turnover. Proper Leadership skills are highly essential for a manager as well as the company or organization to become successful. The leadership principles mentioned in this paper are just a simple guideline for managers and leaders to follow; however, a good leader does not require any guidelines. A good leader inherits leadership qualities by inheritance of leadership abilities and characteristics from their own life. How to cite Leadership Motivation, Essay examples Leadership motivation Free Essays string(73) " perception of the leader towards his or her followers \(Stacey, 1992\)\." Organizations usually draw their driving forces from several sources. Some of these sources include good capital structure and most dominant is a good team of employees. The need for a good team of employees calls for the need for an organization to formulate a unique quality employee-resourcing plan. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership motivation or any similar topic only for you Order Now Employee-resourcing scheme calls for a reward scheme towards the employees, based on many factors including, merit, skills, as well asexperience. Therefore, employee resourcing refers to the process of acquiring employees by an organization. This process includes several steps for it to be regarded as successful and reliable. Employee resourcing is usually the duty of the Human Resource Management department in organizations. The task of leadership entails a mixture of skills and approaches in sourcing and managing the workforce. Human resource planning is essential in organizations, in that, it enables organizations and in this case leaders to be aware of the things that may lead to staff demoralization. Through realization of these causes, the leadership is able to save the organization much loss since it will work towards maintaining the key staff and human resource. Planning also ensures that the right employees are selected for the right jobs(Terry, 1960). This done through competitive interviews and this should be accompanied by merit. It is only through selecting qualified staff that an organization is able to succeed since the workers will be confident with their work. Human resource planning for instance enables the management in the organization to carry out continuous training. For instance, in- services training should be offered to the staff members especially those who have not interacted with computers before. This increases efficiency on the part of the staff. However, human resource planning can lead to collapse of the organization especially when selection of the staff and the managers is based on corruption grounds. Therefore, human resource planning should be viewed as the means by which organizations achieve their organizational success. The job of a manager is basically defined as â€Å"someone who works with and through other people by coordinating their work activities in order to accomplish organizational goals. The above calls for use of all the organizational resources which include financial, human and physical resources both efficiently and effectively where the manager uses what have been defined as the basic management functions of planning, organizing leading and controlling, utilizing their managerial skills which are conceptual, interpersonal and technical . Staffing,, sourcing, directing as well as controlling of employees if performed by applying the relevant managerial skills leads to attaining the organizational goals and objectives. The emerging trends in the global economy, stiff competition, increased level of awareness among communities on the role of the organization to the society, the need to maintain best staff as well to attract the best staff calls for management to reawaken their zeal for work so as management meet and overcome the emerging trends . In all of the above, leadership plays a very crucial role. The whole organizational momentum is decided by the top management, the style they adopt determines how decisions are going to be made, what kind of decisions the business is likely to make, the nature of policies which the company is going to adopt as well as how the organization will respond to management issues such as competitor activity, industrial attractiveness employee relations, public relations as well as corporate social responsibilities. The strategic fit of the organization is determined by whether the leaders are visionary or non-visionary whether these exercise foresight and how they balance risk taking and the drive for initiative. The momentum of a company is generated from the top management and perfected in bottom level, the success of an organization squarely rests on each and every single employee regardless of the role and position held in the organization. Therefore, to achieve a well coordinated and motivated team, the leadership and in essence, every single employee must be able to play their role effectively so as to achieve a synergetic effect. The company which succeeds is that which handles all departmental issues in regard to solving problems which arise and keep on arising. The challenges can serve as the source of de-motivating an otherwise motivated staff, if issues are not well attended to, while on the other hand, the challenges can afford an organization the opportunity to bond its workforce and reassure unity of purpose in the organization. Positive organizational behavior leads to organizational success while a negative corporate behavior leads to loss of profits and therefore organizational failure The process of leadership is basically dependent on the leader or the manager and their led leadership cannot be exercised without a person or persons providing leadership and someone or people being led. The form of leadership depends on the relationship created by the leader and the led. With a good relationship between these dependent group, leadership process ends up being very manageable. However in cases where relationship between the leaders and the followers turns sour, the leadership process ends up being an uphill task. A bad relationship between the leader and the led creates conflicts which end up as a limiting factor to a smooth leadership . Generally the leadership should be exercised under the assistance of certain values. These values are usually moral values, which emphasizes on maintenance of good relationships among individuals. When a leader handles his followers with the right moral attitude, the response from the led is usually favorable. On the other side a leader having followers who are guided by moral values, duties or information will be absorbed as required. Hence results expected are reached since influences them (Pitcher, 1994). Leadership takes many directions or forms. This forms of leadership are generated or determined by either: a) The attitude of the leader b) The attitude or behavior of the led c) The context or place of leadership. Attitude of the leader determines the forms of leadership mostly depending on the perception of the leader towards his or her followers (Stacey, 1992). You read "Leadership motivation" in category "Papers" The attitude of the led influences the form of leadership to be exercised on them in that: if followers behave recklessly, coercion should be used hence authoritative leadership. However if the followers of a leader behave or have an attitude of self-initiative the democratic form of leadership is likely going to be exercised by the leaders. Leadership is also likely to be influenced by the context or place where leadership is being exercised. For example in prisons, the nature of the activities or objectives requires that authoritative form of leadership be exercised. Other form of leadership emerges from combining guidelines advocated by the main notable form of leadership. These leadership forms are usually aimed at creating efficiency in leadership. Such of these is the transformational leadership. Transformational leadership entails the behavior of the leader in taking position. In transformational leadership the leader is believed to take a position, which creates a vision to the followers aimed at leading them in achieving their goals. The idea given to the followers is aimed at converting their efforts into efficiency likely to lead to the set objectives. Globalization has led to new challenges and therefore today’s organizations have evolved and different mangers are allocated interwoven duties which call for a multicultural approach. The field of management has evolved in the recent past with different management gurus coming up with management roles deemed fit for different categories of managers, depending on the prevailing business environment. While traditionally managers were seen as the source of wisdom and as knowing every thing, modern practices have tended to involve all staff. There is a wider appreciation of the fact that, even the very junior staffs in terms of rank such as messengers, drivers, and receptionists play a very critical role in organization. It is common knowledge that, stakeholders such as customers and suppliers are more likely to interact with them than they are with the senior management. This calls for careful integration of roles of managers to cater for the ever-changing management scenarios . Managers at al levels share one thing, that it is, they control, plan, direct, organize and play staffing roles. Depending on the level of the manger, different skills as well as expertise is required. The amount and complexity of the skills and duties largely depend on the type and complexity of the organization. In multinational companies such as coca cola, for example a line manger could earn as well as perform more complex duties than in a small organization with say for instance only two branches. Taking an example of a human resource manger in coca-coal for instance, if one is the head of HR in a country like USA, they are mandated to deal with a staff of over 8,000 staff. Clearly the nature of skills required for such jobs are less intense in an organization where by the HR managers less staff members. Organization should ensure that the employees’ requirement is handled with sensitivity. This requires the organizations to make sure that the employees’ complaints as well as grievances in the organization are handled on time and efficiently. This is the only way in which leaders ensure that, employees remain motivated and focused. Organizations should create very efficient systems of employee resourcing to ensure that the best is recruited. An organization should consider factors such as professional, qualification, skills and experience whenever resourcing for employees (Warneka, 2006). The Human Resource Department in the organization should be equipped with sufficient resources and facilities to enable it carry out its activities comfortably. The human resource department should be restructured overtime to adjust for the change in the employee market. For example changes in the required level o personnel qualifications should always be kept up to date. However the size and roles of the organization may call for integration of duties and responsibilities something, which explains why more and more organizations are recruiting well, rounded staff. Usually many departments will have to work in unison for instance production and marketing, production and accounts department due to the inter-linkage of each of the areas of the organization. There is no single department can afford to exist on its own for the organization is like the human anatomy, whereby every body part requires the next to perform better. In small organization, especially those entering the market for the first time in, may not need the services of so many line mangers, therefore a human resource manager may double as the accounts manger and sometimes the driver. This is necessitated by the need to perform as well as the need to save the costs involved in the recruitment of many skilled staff. Different roles as played by different levels of management contribute wholly to the success or failure of the organization( Pitcher, 1994). For instance, senior level mangers are usually concerned with dealing with stakeholders’ especially important clients. It would not be right to discuss on the functions of mangers and their roles without mentioning how information technology has come in to eliminate most of the jobs which some managers especially junior mangers used to. However it is worthy noting that in most cases the remuneration as well as privileges and benefits enjoyed vary across the market . Modern management has shifted focus from static job situations to encouraging well-rounded employees. As a strategic measurement, many organizations currently train their employees to be able to function in more than one department (Torbert, 2004). This helps in situations were there may be heavy work loads in one department in which case staff can be reallocated duties thus saving the organization money in terms of hiring from outside. Conclusion Leadership is an art which is usually relied on in the process of goal achievement in many areas. These areas can either be in secular or religious fields. Leadership should be exercised in a manner likely to give the desired yields. The leader should try as much as possible to apply the right type of leadership style depending on his context. This will be a good way of avoiding conflict and unnecessary difficulties in the leadership process. According to *the leader should always try to meet the expectations of the led. The position of a leader should be visionary to enable achievement of goals which is a dominant quality of transformational leadership explains why transformational leadership is supreme. How to cite Leadership motivation, Papers