Analysing effective Leadership Styles and Organizational Success

As it is known that good leaders are made not born, if a person think that he has desire and will power he can be an effective leader. This leadership skill is developing through a continuous process of education, self-study, training and experience. It characterized by providing direction, applying plans and motivating people. Benesis, (2010) defined leadership as ” a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communication, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential”. There are many ways to lead and every leader has its own or style. According to the situation, the leader should know what is the suitable style to use. The aim of this paper is to describe different leadership styles and examine effective leader. Also, it aims to discuss how a leader can develop effective leadership and discuss how effective leadership impacts an organization’s potential to succeed.

Leadership styles

Servant leadership

Page 2 of 13 There are many different leadership styles that help the leaders to be successful. One of these style is the servant leadership. It based on premise that leadership originates from a desire to serve and that in the course of serving, one may be called to lead ( Sullivan & Decker, 2009). The servant leader serve other rather than other serving the leader by helping the followers to achieve and improve. The individuals who served by this leader will grow and become healthier and more autonomous. This leader benefit people who are least advantage in the society (Changing Minds Org., 2010). There are some skills in the servant leader like listening, awareness to the situation or individual needs, persuasion; to believe , foresight which is a visionary to create change, stewardship which is taking responsibility and being accountable, and commitment to the individuals growth (Sullivan & Decker, 2009). The servant leadership is very moral position, it puts the followers well-being before other goals (Changing Minds Org., 2010). The advantages of this style are emphasize collaboration and it is a long term approach to life and work that has the potential for creating positive change throughout society . However, the disadvantages are that this style is not quick fix approach and listening and empathizing too much with others may lead to lack of vision (Ewens, 2002).

Transaction leadership

Page 3 of 13 The second leadership style is the transactional leadership. “it is the traditional leadership process the emphasizes leaders influencing a process over followers” ( Murray & Dicroce, 2003). The relationship between the leader and the followers depend on the system of exchange. The leader notice the follower’s need and he will meet this need in exchange for meeting specific objectives or performing defined duties (Bennett, 2010 ). It is mainly set up a sequence of rewards and punishments to motivate the employees of an organization (Dollak, (2008). This style is a type of management and some do not consider it a true leadership style, because it focus on the short term tasks. Transactional leadership has limitations for creative work. Furthermore, this style start when the team members agree to obey their leader totally when they accept the job (Mind tools, 2010). Mainly it based on the principles of social exchange theory. When the individuals engage in social interactions, they expecting to give and receive social, political and psychological benefits. The transactional leadership aimed to maintain equilibrium by performing work according to policy and procedures and maximizing self-interests and personal rewards (Sullivan & Decker, 2009). For the transactional leadership to work, the leader and the followers should understand the important of the leader’s goal (Dollak, (2008). The advantages of this leadership that it is work in most of the cases where it is applied, motivate people by rewards and it work best only if the leader in the hierarchy is capable of making most of the important decision and is a strong personality. On the other hand, when the people get used to do whatever the leader want they will stop thinking and will create a stressful work environment. These are consider from the disadvantages of the transactional leadership (Ewens, 2002).

Situational leadership

Page 4 of 13 The third style is the situational leadership. This style “is one way to explain the leadership through taking account forces that occur in the situation, the leader and the followers. Leaders are determined by the situation” (Murray. & Dicroce, 2003). Leadership behavior is changed according to the ability and the confident of the followers in any given situation (Bennett, 2010). Here the leader change the style of leadership according to his analysis of the followers readiness. This readiness refer to the level of motivation and competence an individual has for an assigned task. The leader assess the motivation of the followers and provide the appropriate leadership behavior that best met the followers needs (Murray & Dicroce, 2003). In addition, the leader behaves in four ways, the first one is telling which means that the leader tell his followers exactly what to do and how to do it. Secondly, selling; the leader provide information and direction, but with more communication with the followers. Thirdly, participating; the leader will more focus in the relationship and less on direction. He will work with the team and share decision-making responsibilities. Finally, delegation which means that the leader pass most of the responsibilities to the followers and he less involve in the decisions (Mind tools, (2010). The advantages of this leadership is that it works better in different places and puts new leadership challenges. Also, both transactional and transformational leadership work better together. However, the disadvantage of this leadership is that with constantly changing strategies with time the leader will find it difficult to implement new strategies (Ewens, 2002).

Transformational leadership

Page 5 of 13 The last style is the transformational leader, it focus on merging the motives, desires , values and the goals of leaders and followers onto a common cause. Transformational leader aim to generate employees commitment to the vision or ideal rather than to themselves (Sullivan & Decker, 2009). Also they provide unexpected motivation by attracting the follower’s ideals and moral values and inspiring them to think in new ways. These followers have the feeling of trust, respect and loyalty for the leader who make their dreams reality (Buchanan, 2010).The characteristics of this leadership are expanding and elevating the interests of the followers, generating awareness and commitment to organizational values. With inspiration and motivation, the transformational leader should report better job satisfaction and lower burnout of the followers (Weberg,2010) . The success of the followers is used to measure the effectiveness of the transformational leader. Transformational leadership is a value-oriented relationship, because it is only arise in an environment of trust and mutuality. The fundamental strategy of this leader is to establish and maintain organizational and personal trust (Murray & Dicroce, 2003). This leadership is an interactional process between a leader and followers. The strength of the leadership rely on its focus on the empowerment of people. The leader leads his followers informally by consensus rather than by gaining power and authority through position in the organization (Ewens, 2002). The most important characteristic of the transformational leader is that they can create a vision. Most of the time the followers are attracted to the leader’s vision because this vision is well planed and the leader will help them to achieve it(Buchanan, 2010). The advantage of this leadership is that the people work through self motivation and this lead to guarantee higher output and efficiency. Also, it develop future leaders from the followers. The disadvantage is that this leadership based on the ability of the leader to inspire the work force to put their best in. Leaders of organization may not have the force to achieve that (Ewens, 2002).

The best style in the nursing field is the transformational leadership, because nursing has traditionally been driven by its social mandate and its ethic of human service. It can be used effectively by nurses with patients or coworkers in the work, at home, in the society , health care center and in the health care organization (Sullivan & Decker, 2009).

Traits of effective leader

Page 6 of 13 For the leadership to be effective, the leader should have important traits that help him in leading. These traits are differ from one style to another, however, there are basic or common ones in the effective leaders. According to Horton (2008), the effective leader should be respectful and treat people as human beings with respect and dignity in all situations. Also, he thinks that empowerment is important in leading and encouraging people. Furthermore, accountability is an significant trait as well as listening. In addition, rewards guarantees the high performance of employee, for example, saying “thank you” or shaking hand. Beside, communication, attitude and integrity are essential for the leader to be effective. A good leader should have high level of energy and stress tolerance. This help the leader to cope with long working hours and a raised problems. Also, self-confidence is important for the leader so he believe that he can do a task well. In addition, motivation power is consider one trait of the effective leader, by motivate himself and the followers to do tasks and facing challenges. (leading today org., 2001).

Additionally, good leaders should know themselves when they are facing challenges or problems. So that will help them to chose the right choice. Also, they should by committed to help, inspire and motivate the followers. Finally, open to change is consider one of the most common trait of effective leader. They should be able to accept the change, cope with it and encourage or help the followers to cope with this change (Dewey, 2004).

likewise, the good leader should be trustworthy to lead others. The leader need to be trusted and to be known that he lives his life with honesty and integrity. Also, in leadership role and leading, the leader should show confident in order to lead and set directions. In addition, commitment to excellent is very important traits in the effective leader. He should not only maintain high level of standards but also he should be active in more developing and achieving excellence in all areas (White, 2010).

How to develop effective leadership style

Page 7 of 13 Being an effective leader is essential to achieve a target goal, any good leader know that the leadership style is best performed when they generate from a tight bond with the followers. Having good leadership style means being able to be a visionary; have special goal to achieve it. It is very important for the leader to spend most of his time visualizing on how to lead his followers. The mental wellness of an individual influence in their thoughts which in turn affect their actions and lifestyles. For that, the mind is very important in developing leadership acts. In addition, knowing the power of low of attraction by having a positive confident towards a goal that the leader want to achieve is important to develop effective leadership style. So the good leader should be able to teach his people how to develop success through low of attraction in order to develop successful leadership style. (Cruz, 2010) . Furthermore, high-quality leader develop an effective leadership style through building teams that work efficiently to achieve a special purpose. Also, delegating effectively and developing the followers skills. In addition, motivating people and teams to use their initiative and being more active help in developing successful leadership style (Kurnik, 2010). Moreover, the good leader should put the important components that lead to effective leadership style in consideration. One of these component is knowledge that influence in the leader decisions. Another component is self-awareness; it means knowing and understanding the self in thinking, interaction and feeling. It is also means to be in touch with fears, values and principles. In addition, communication is consider one of the most important component of effective leadership style, whether it is verbally or written. As well as energy and goals. Finally, to develop effective leadership style the leader should be decisive and action oriented to implement the strategies that lead to success (Tappen, 2001).

How effective leadership impacts an organization’s potential succeed

Page 8 of 13 One of the most important role of the leader is to set a goal or direction for the organization over short, medium and long term. Brodie 2009, stated that the leader may face three challenges in order to lead the organization to success. The first challenge is that the leader should make major choices or directions that have an impact on the organization, the leader and the employees. These decisions should be scheduled in a sufficient time in order to develop strategy and make it continues process so that the strategy will be relevant and up to date. The second challenge is to answer the key questions such as, what the employees should do for the organization and what are the outcomes for it. The third challenge is to connect strategies. The leader should not just focus on the main strategy, but also on the sub-strategies.

Moreover, many factors of effective leadership style may lead to organizational success. One of these factor is communicating a common vision, the leader need to have a clear vision about a goal in order to lead the organization to success. When the leader share the values and the goals with the followers, this will impact on the employees productivity. Another factor is empowering other to lead. Leaders know that empowering other to make decision will have a positive influence in the organization on the long term. Cooperative leadership and team work keep the organization in the top of competitions. Also, managing performance is very important in organizational success. The effective leadership strategy should include a performance management system. This system should involve recruitment, selection, training and development (Venkatesh, 2008).

Effective leadership in the change management process is important because of all the factors that involved in organizational success. As the situation change, the leader must be able to adapt and motivate followers to decrease fear and loss of followers morale. Anytime the organization go through major changes by using the most effective leadership style. This will lead to organizational success (Jenkins, 2009).

Conclusion

Page 9 of 13 In conclusion, many leadership styles have been develop over years. Each style has its own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. According to some authors, the leadership style that work the best in nursing is the transformational leadership. Because it depends on the motivation and group work. In addition, the good leader have many characteristics that make him an effective leader and it differ from one leader to another and from one style to another. Moreover, the effective leadership style can be developed through many ways that the good leader do. These ways impact positively on the leader and the followers and lead to organizational succeed. Good leader often switch between styles according to the followers and the work’s need. Establishing trust is the most important point in balancing the needs of organization and the need of the followers.

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