The huge volume of guidance for leaders

Essay title: The huge volume of guidance for leaders is a clear indication of the desire of those who can’t lead, to lead. In place of becoming leaders they become obedient followers of the latest ‘leadership’ fashions and fads.

There is no direct route for leadership. It requires so many years of hard work, time and lots of communication to high profile person in strategic positions. Leader is a person who finds out the right way for followers in which direction, they can get success. For example, teams in major league cricket matches won more games when players perceived the coach as an effective leader. In India, “Mahatma Gandhi” leads people together and got independence for country. According to Brigid Carroll and Lester Levy management and leadership can be differentiated by identity, to understand and define leadership, it can be taken as emergent and desirable which is intangible, unknowable and nebulous while management taken as default identity which is specific and pragmatic (Brigid Carroll and Lester Levy, 2008).

About fads and fashions of leadership, it is a growing issue. Fashions are not remaining stable how to appear or ways of working that are popular during certain periods while fads are usually understood to be short-lived fashions. There are lots of management fads and fashion after Second World War such as, Acceptable Risk, Assessment Centers, Business Ethics, Centralization, Computerization, Distributed Intelligence, Job Enrichment, Job Sharing, Knowledge Management, Outsourcing, Privatization etc. and they all flourished to a varying extent (Carl V. Rabstejnek). “Some fads were short-lived and others have stood the test of time “(Carl V. Rabstejnek, pg. 1).

GUIDANCE FOR BEING LEADER

The leader leads his people towards the goal. He is the person who can get his people to follow him. He is the one who is looked up to, whose judgment is trusted, and who inspires the people working with him and for him. Good leader should be motivating, inspiring and able to manage people. Leader should be charismatic and being visionary and have ability to acting decisively. There is very complex opinion about leadership either can take it as based on personality and physical traits or based on prescribed behaviors. Leadership can define in terms of power relationship between leaders and followers. As good leaders, they must try to get employees to concentrate around common goal and should have creative vision and strategic plan for an organization.

Decisiveness is very important characteristic because every leader has to be taking some difficult decision in job. They have to take decision that shows firmness and leads the team towards the desired goal. Great leader never take step back during the hard situation. They react according to the time and situation. Leader has to be aware about the surroundings, their people’s working style and nature, about their boss, about the company’s desired goal and strategy. So, leader can be preplanned what to do in future and in such type of situation. By understanding the problem and situation, leaders have to take wise decisions that lead team towards the goal.

Attitude of leader is also an important factor in team work because it determines the action and affects the people’s working style. Leader has to be optimistic and should be become the source of positive energy that inspires the others. Great leaders are always aware of their people’s thinking, their problems and needs. Leaders have to try to solve their problems which improve the outcome of work. People inspired by this because when they get positive response from leader, they feel satisfaction. This helps to make effective and efficient work environment in which people work together willingly.

To make leadership successful, engagement is necessary because by engaging the all team members together helping the team to share their ideas and contributions which lead the team towards the desired goal.

Empowerment and collaborations are also needed because by this team members do not feel suppressed and ignored and feel the part of team which leads the team to work together. They will show willingness to work together with positive attitude which take them towards the team’s success. Rewarding is also considering an important factor in leadership because it motivates the team members. When team member has been rewarded for their good work, they feel satisfaction which built the positive response towards the work. Team work output increases with this.

Self-assessment is also needed because by this, one can know his weakness and strength points. Leadership skills may be improved by concentrating on the weakness point. Knowing the organizational goals and purpose is also needed to lead the team towards the success. Communication between leader and their team members should be honest and open. Leader has to know the each team member members’ capacity, skill and working style so it will be more effective to distribute the work. Clear vision about goal and how to achieve it is necessary. Leader has to think analytically and leads the team with focused towards the main goal. Trust worthy, passion and dedication with maintaining the high standard are necessary to get success. Leader has to be calm, confident enough and should be enthusiastic about their work with great commitment towards the hard work for desired output.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST LEADERS AND FOLLOWER

To differentiate leader from follower is difficult; they have several similarities as well as also have some differences. In leadership, one should have to take risk and lead the team; have ability to see opportunity that other cannot see. Both should be able to learn from someone or something. Leaders must be independent and isolated and should not rely on anyone but himself and have to be entrepreneurial and make workplace culture better by working with generous purpose. Good leadership is needed to solve problems and to navigate unexpected circumstances Followers only need to be competent during the battle and must be able to carry out orders by their leader, with their own ability while at other times; they have no need to be that competent. They could ask for help from their friends but in contrast, Leader cannot ask for help from his followers or else his followers would consider him incompetent. Being a follower is easier than being a leader because leader has to be isolated and should have ability to solve his own problems.

Leadership can be as successful or effective or both.

1. Successful leadership but not effective- In this pattern, leader’s style may not compatible; but follower does the job because of leader’s power and position. They obey the command and follow his idea.
2. Effective leadership- the followers may do the job willingly to cooperate because the leader’s request satisfies the follower’s needs or goal.
3. Successful leadership-it emphasises upon position, power and close supervision.

There are lots of different views about leadership, either it is a product of individual that assume one’s behavior, styles, traits or a behavior rational, it may be taken as a socially constructed phenomena elsewhere some thinks that leader as a power holder (Neil Sutherland, Christopher Land and Steffen Bohm, 2013). Leadership position not hold s permanent role in organization ,instead of this, it gives opportunity to others who can take this role and lead in future, Individual leader has a crucial role for formation, growth and success, in certain situation when individual can take more than one active leadership role in organization(Neil Sutherland, Christopher Land and Steffen Bohm, 2013) .

GREAT FOLLOWERS

As leader, it is very important to know about that how to follow and how to lead. Many people believe that if you want to become a good leader then you must be a good follower.

Some characteristic about good follower:

• Well finisher- Good followers always concentrate on their task and complete their task according to preplanned.
• Clear vision-they understand their power and position and it is equally important to understand their role as a leader.
• Loyalty-Good followers always try to avoid telling bad things about their boss/leader in public. It does not means that they are completely agree with their boss/leader but only do not want to do things in public because to influence the public it is needed to become public loyal.
• Good followers are obedient enough and humble.
• Awareness of surrounding –Good follower is well aware of surrounding situations and people. They always try to learn about people behavior and their thinking and how they affect in his work and what is going wrong and then make changes according to demands.
• Own thinking-To becomes a good follower, you are able to think on your own and decide what is right and what is wrong. Good followers always take side to leader and support them when they are doing right.

GREAT LEADER AS A GOOD FOLLOWER

Many qualities are same between leaders and followers. A great leader follows the same trait as followers do but change their style and do some modification in it. Great leader knows their boundary and limitation very well. Good leadership is the golden key to get best performance. Need to imply your own clear sets of values and belief and also have to make clear vision for all. Develop some creative ideas for the organization to make changes and reach up to desire goal. From this perspective, leaders are always try that people follow the process and in this way leader always think themselves as a follower. There is very important reason to leaders that they have to follow because no one can do it alone and have to create and utilize the energy, ideas and full potential of everyone.

Leadership requires a close study of human behavior. It is the people who are the factors of importance. There are many different points of view about leadership. One belief is that leadership has to be taught while some are of the view that leaders can’t be made by teaching or training. In this modern age, new leaders are coming but most of them fail to cultivate their inner strength, ability to guide the people, to lead the people. There are three basic steps which are followed mostly in the process of training. Information is the first step, gets from simple reading and continuous study which then converted into knowledge. Wisdom is the transformation of knowledge. Trained person has to be able to transfer the knowledge into the practice. As a result of training, one should become more self-confident. On receiving training, knowledgeable person becomes capable of taking his own decisions and at this stage; person visualizes the truth-real understanding. There are few requirements to reach to the truth, in ascending direction that are desire to learn, listening to the teacher, learning, retention, understanding, reflection, rejection of false views and truth.

Human relationship gains the most attraction for a leader for the obvious reasons that the leader leads people. For any business, workforce is the basic requirement and for accomplishment leader has to understand people. Common logic reason behind the successful leader is the development of proper appreciation human nature. For this, one should have enough confidence and has to explain to other members about task and targets and how that can be accomplished. Leader should also explain the subordinates about their position and also impact of success or failure on the ultimate goal. If the goal achieved, that is a success of team not a success of leader alone. The leader has to do the required morale boosting apart from handling the work and must to be in touch with his people. It is necessary to show adequate interest in their personal problems. It is better for his people must perceive as their leader becomes the real guardian of their interests. This is necessity to do this as it helps to maintain respective distance from the people. This concept of distant has been mostly appreciated and understood by successful leader.

Thus, taking an overall view, the leader has to be a dynamic person and should have capability to turn the adversity in his favors and to gain this. The leader must have the capacity to concentrate and focus attention on the goal with an aptitude to take timely decisions and have to be sincere in his dealing. He has to show his faithfulness and loyalty towards his mission and the people and should possess a fair knowledge of his job and profession.

FADS AND FASHION

This broad category can be described as a type of collective behavior that is followed by people for period of time. It follows particular pattern. First is developed and then grows slowly and one time it reaches up to its peak level and remains some time and then gradually decline and disappear. For example: In late 1950s, hula hoop craze occurred in United States.

Fads and fashion in management is very confusing and ongoing debate to discuss in recent years because many rhetorical strategies affects them and shape the management and also have long lasting effect, while fashions are developed by the heterogeneous group of actors but doing this, some gaps and weakness may result (Sue Newell, Maxine Robertson and Jacky Swan, 2001).

It is important to know the role of fads and fashions in innovations and its diffusion because these two perspectives may benefit organization and helps to evolve efficient innovation by process of adopting and rejecting multiple fads and fashions (Eric Abrahamson, 1991). It may harm the organization by facilitating the inefficient administrative technology and adversely affect the economic performance of organization by doing prompt rejection of administrative technologies like job enrichment, strategic planning units (Eric Abrahamson, 1991). According to Abrahamson, fashion perspective is important because it disseminates new goals as beliefs to the innovations and help to settle down new organizational goals and adoption of innovation (Eric Abrahamson, 1991).

Fads and fashion has taken over many leadership positions like managers, board’s members, etc. in organization and they are changing with time (Carl V. Rabstejnek). Fashionable ideas are helpful to filter good thing which can be incorporated into healthy business practices. The bandwagon effect helps to understand why the fads so popular (Carl V. Rabstejnek). In current trade there are lots of things that helping in marketing like newspapers, magazines, journals as a mass media; television, social networking sites like face book, twitter (Carl V. Rabstejnek). Academic journals, business schools, organizations all follows the current trade in market (Carl V. Rabstejnek).

CONCLUSION

The foregoing discussion shows that training till today is one of the most important function as it is has potential for leading towards the excellence. Human resource development is directly affected by this.

Characteristics like honesty, decisiveness, positive attitude, trustworthy, loyalty, clear vision, self-assessment, confidence etc. may be found naturally present in person but can also develop and strengthen it with time and training because these are the foundation of great leadership. To become a great leader they should possesses such characteristic but to become successful, they have to follow latest fashions and fads in market and take decision accordingly.

REFERENCES

• Sue Newell, Maxine Robertson and Jacky Swan, 2001 ‘Management Fads and Fashions’ DOI: 10.1177/135050840181001
• Eric Abrahamson, 1991“Managerial fads and fashions: The diffusion and rejection and innovations” Voi. 16, No. 3, 586-612

• Carl V. Rabstejnek, “Management fads and fashions: Leading and Directing Companies by Popular Codified Methods”
• Neil Sutherland, Christopher Land and Steffen Bohm, 2013 “Anti-leaders (hip) in Social Movement Organizations: The case of autonomous grassroots groups” DOI: 10.1177/1350508413480254
• Brigid Carroll and Lester Levy, 2008 “Defaulting to Management: Leadership Defined By What It Is Not” Volume 15(1): 75–96