Talking About Leadership

A leader is someone with commanding authority or influence. Leadership is a group and social phenomenon; there can be no leaders without followers. Leadership is about others.

‘The task of the leader is to get his or her people from where they are to where they have not been’ (Kissinger) Leaders move others toward goals and actions.

Leadership is goal-directed and action-oriented, they play an active role in groups and organizations. The presence of leaders assumes some form of hierarchy within a group. In some cases, the hierarchy is formal and well defined, with the leader at the top; in other cases, it is informal and flexible. ‘Being an engaged leader means you must be reflective while staying in the fray- the hectic, fragmented, never-ending world of managing’ (Mintzberg)

Effectiveness VS Success

Effectiveness can be defined in various ways. Some people judge by group performance; some consider follower satisfaction as a primary factor; some define by their success of the implementation of change in an organization or some finding a meaningful story that can create new company value or culture.

According to Luthans, effective managers are those with satisfied and productive employees, whereas successful managers are those who are promoted quickly. Effective managers spend their time communicating with subordinates, managing conflict, and training, developing, and motivating employees, the primary focus of successful managers is not an employee. Instead, they concentrate on networking activities such as interacting with outsiders, socializing, and politicking. Maybe we should think about the real managers’ scenario in our workplace

Why do we need Leaders?

Leaders are effective when their followers achieve their goals, can function well together, and can adapt to changing demands from external forces. They able to keep groups orderly and focus, accomplish tasks, making sense of the world, represent the team, and symbolize the team’s culture’s ideals and accomplishments to ensure achieve the same goal. Most importantly, smooth internal processes and external adaptability. Sometimes, must be able to foresee the future and lead the change.

Significance of Leadership

·      Leadership is one of the many factors that affect the performance of organizations.

·      Leadership can indirectly impact other performance factors.

·      Leadership is essential in providing vision and direction.

·      They able to identify the situations in which leadership matters are essential.

·      The combination of leaders with followers and other organizational factors makes an impact.

 Why some of the good leaders only behaving as a manager in an organization nowadays?

Obstacles to effective Leadership

 1.      Organizations face considerable uncertainty that creates pressure for quick response and solutions. External forces, such as voters and investors, demand immediate attention. In an atmosphere of crisis, there is no time or patience for learning. Ironically, implementing new methods of leadership, if they are allowed, would make dealing with complexity and uncertainty easier in the long run. Therefore, a vicious cycle that allows no time for the learning that would help current crises continues. The lack of learning and experimentation, in turn, causes the continuation of the crises, which makes the time needed to learn and practice innovative behaviors unavailable.

2.      Organizations are often rigid and unforgiving. In their push for short-term and immediate performance, they do not allow any room for mistakes and experimentation. The rigidity and rewards systems of many institutions discourage such endeavors.

3.      Organizations fall back on old ideas about what effective leadership is and, therefore, rely on simplistic solutions that do not fit new and complex problems. The use of simple ideas, such as those proposed in many popular books, provides only temporary solutions

 4.      Over time, all organizations develop a particular culture that strongly influences how things are done and what is considered acceptable behavior. As leaders try to implement new ideas and experiment with new methods, they may face resistance generated by the established culture.

 What is the difference between a leader and a manager?

Leaders have long-term and future-oriented perspectives and provide a vision, mission, and goals for their followers to look beyond their immediate surroundings. Managers take short-term perspectives and focus on routine issues within their own immediate required result.

You can also say that a manager’s role is to bring order and consistency through planning, budgeting, and controlling. Leadership, on the other hand, is aimed at producing movement and change. Of course, sometimes the above-mentioned obstacles could possibly change a leader to a manager, just for surviving.

 Having said that, leadership is a complex process that is a journey rather than a destination. All effective leaders continue to grow and improve, learning from each situation they face and from their mistakes. Perhaps, we should always remind ourselves, ‘do not forget the original intention’. Always find your passion, learn about yourself, experiment with new behaviors and situations, get comfortable with failure, pay attention to your environment, remember that it’s about others, and don’t take yourself too seriously.

-Written by Kathryn Wong