Leadership Concepts Related With the Effective Leadership Essay

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leadership concepts related with the effective leadership development. It chooses and evaluates the transformational leadership style. It addresses the following questions. What are the qualities associated with transformational leadership style? How to motivate the followers? How to master communication skills? What is the importance of emotional intelligence? What is the concept of empowerment? All these concepts in respect of transformational leadership style are evaluated along with ethical issues inherent in them.

A definition of leadership is:

"Leadership is a process of social influence in which one person is able to enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task."(Chemers, 1997, p. 1)

This definition suggests that leadership is a group activity, has a social influence and revolves around a common task. Leadership is a complex process in reality. Both intrapersonal factors (thoughts and emotions etc.), and interpersonal processes (communication and attraction etc.) interact together in a complex dynamic environment.

The concept of leadership is significant. We do not just expect it of people in positions of authority but in other settings too, such as students in school or people in sports. We admire those who have this quality. It affects how organisations from social clubs to corporate entities perform. It is an organisational quality. It is not just possessed by a few figures in authority rather everyone in an organisation can have leadership, making it a systematic process (Crawford, Kydd & Riches, 1997).

The essence of leadership is that a single individual cannot achieve a goal, rather a group of people are to be coordinated to achieve a task (Chemers, 1997).

Transformational leadership style

This essay chooses transformational leadership style. It is defined as, "Leadership that motivates followers to ignore self-interests and work for the larger good of the organisation to achieve significant accomplishments; emphasis is on articulating a vision that will convince subordinates to make major changes."(Friedman, Langbert & Giladi, 2000, para. 4) Transformational leaders have a huge impact on their followers' beliefs about what the organisation should do, where it is directed to be in the future and also on the values of the followers. These leaders also provide guidance to followers which will help them achieve their goals. Bill Gates of Microsoft and Steve Jobs of Apple are examples of transformational leaders. However, individuals with this transformational leadership potential are also prone to making serious mistakes losing this opportunity. Transformational leaders shape and elevate followers' interests and values. It pools the interests of leaders and followers and brings together diverse members to common goals. Transformational leadership motivates its followers to make large changes. It leads to higher productivity and higher satisfaction with the job at hand.

"The bottom line is that transformational leaders are individuals capable of motivating and inspiring followers by appealing to higher goals and the common good, rather than individual needs and self-interest; e.g., financial gain."(Friedman, Langbert & Giladi, 2000, para. 9)

Leadership qualities

Effective transformational leadership is characterised by certain specific qualities. These are as follows.

Charisma: It is defined in two ways. "An extraordinary spiritual gift, or grace granted to individuals for the benefit of others."(Smith, 2000, p. 3) Another definition is, "A unique personal power conceived of as belonging to those exceptional individuals capable of securing the allegiance of large numbers of people."(Smith, 2000, p. 3) In other words, charisma is the ability to influence a large number of people in a particular setting. Transformational leaders inspire followers to make a change by listening carefully to them, empowering them and leading by example (Friedman, Langbert & Giladi, 2000).

Vision: 'Having vision means being able to articulate your own philosophy to a range of people.'(Moyles, 2006, p. 28) A leader needs to believe very strongly in his vision, should articulate it and communicate it clearly to the followers, so that they will also confide in and get stimulated by it. Then, the leader will work towards devising strategies to accomplish that vision because without it, the vision is useless. The leader must be very passionate about his/her vision and provide followers the means of attaining it. They will need empowerment to achieve the vision (Friedman, Langbert & Giladi, 2000). The leader needs perseverance in that everyone will have different values and will take time to commit to the shared vision. Vision needs shared values and a shared philosophy among people who will commit to it (Moyles, 2006).

Flexibility: It means having the ability to cope and adapt to a range of circumstances and conditions.

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This is because leaders need to be risk takers and to push themselves and others towards achieving set goals and vision (Moyles, 2006).

Managing change: Change is the hallmark of transformational leadership. Change needs to be seen as an opportunity rather than a threat or challenge for teams. It requires information sharing and commitment from others. Leaders should provide control opportunities to teams and build their confidence during periods of change. Change will be empowering in this way and manageable (Moyles, 2006).

Creativity: For a revolutionary change, transformational leaders will inspire followers to come up with new innovative ideas. They will encourage followers to think through new problem solving strategies and replace old ones. Followers will be encouraged to challenge the status quo and go against it. Subordinates will be optimistic with positive thoughts. Transformational leaders will take risks after careful analysis to improve the organisation (Friedman, Langbert & Giladi, 2000).

Individual consideration: A transformational leader identifies every follower's special talents and abilities and assigns them to jobs which best suit their individual capabilities and flare. Giving individual attention to everyone will also motivate people by making them feel special. (Friedman, Langbert & Giladi, 2000).

Honesty: An effective leader needs to be honest and ethical. Subordinates will not follow the vision of the leader if he/she is not trustworthy. Securing trust of the followers is imperative otherwise they will not follow the leader's vision because they will not know where this vision will lead them (Friedman, Langbert & Giladi, 2000).

Confidence: A leader has to confident and optimistic about his vision. Followers need to see that the leader believes firmly in his/her vision and can implement it. Additionally, the leader has to have confidence in the followers too. Mistakes should not let the leader lose confidence in subordinates (Friedman, Langbert & Giladi, 2000).

Motivation

Transformational leaders motivate subordinates through the quality and emotional appeal of the lofty vision (Chemers, 1997). The follower is motivated to share the goals of the leader. The leader uses the vision to inspire the followers and secure their commitment. Individualised consideration in transformational leadership further motivates subordinates. The followers are motivated because the leader targets their individual needs and assigns tasks to them according to their capabilities. The followers are coached and provided with learning opportunities.

Transformational leaders transform the personal needs, values and aspirations of followers into collective team interests. These leaders cause the followers to become committed to the leader's mission and to make a lot of personal sacrifices in the interests of the mission. Transformational leaders achieve this by involving the self-concepts of followers and linking valuable aspects of those self-concepts with the mission. In other words, the motivators are tied to the follower's self-concept rather than external factors such as personal gain. The path goal theory describes how followers are motivated to perform well (Chemers, 1997). The path-goal theory is expressed as:

P1 P2

IVb-> IVa -> EV

Where IVb is the intrinsic valence of behaviour or effort, IVa is the intrinsic valence of goal attainment and EV is the valence of extrinsic outcomes. P1 is the probability that the efforts will lead to the achievement of goals and P2 is the probability that goal attainment will lead to achieving extrinsic outcomes. The leader increases the motivation of followers by increasing the expected valence of outcomes and by making the achievement of outcomes easier by clarifying the means of goal achievement and by removing obstacles. The leader secures follower's motivation by defining goals in a spiritual manner and raising the importance of combined goals as compared to personal goals diminishing self-interest. The individual's desire to have an enhanced self-esteem and personal identity raise the intrinsic value of effort and goal attainment and reduce the value of extrinsic outcomes. The individual's own self-esteem and self satisfaction motivate him/her to self-regulate and to monitor their own performance and alter efforts where needed (Chemers, 1997).

Communication

Communication is one of the key characteristics of transformational leadership. Communication is the process whereby information is exchanged between parties so that it can be understood, assimilated and acted upon where necessary. Because transformational leadership is marked by innovation, creativity and change, communication is of significant value. Transformational leadership requires open communication between team members. It entails trust development and exchange of information among team members to achieve goals. It fosters a culture where information flows openly and evenly across all departments so that everyone has a chance to come.....

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