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RAFIA MUSTAFA (MBA,B.ED).
What do you think can be the possible reasons for the failure of an Organisations?
As per research reports, these organisation failed to adapt to change, implement their strategies successfully, and prepare for the uncertain future. All these reasons are centred on one main cause that is ineffective leadership.
Leadership is a process wherein an individual influences the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviour of another individual or a group of individuals towards common goals. In today’s dynamic business scenario, long term sustainability of an organisation depends a great deal on effective leadership.
A leader sets a clear vision and stimulates people to contribute towards the accomplishment of that vision. A successful leader has ability to motivate people to excel in their respective operational areas.
Take example of Ratan Tata who set a new strategic approach for the Tata Group when he took it over in 1991. At the time, Tata Group had no mark in international business. Ratan Tata felt the need of going global in order to reduce the risk of dependence on an economy of a single country. He started acquiring a huge number of companies, such as the TETLEY group, the Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company and Boston’s Ritz Carlton hotel( now the Taj Boston)using a case by case, trial and error approach. The success of this going global move was not only due to the explicit and careful strategic approach but also by Ratan Tata’s personal vision for how to compete across international markets.
In an organisation, leaders are responsible for providing direction to employees and driving them to work collectively to achieve organisational goals and objectives. They solve problems quickly, engage employees in decision making, and take support from employees in implementing planned cross functional actions. For this, leaders should have a sense of responsibilities, strong values and an unbiased attitude.
Now I want to ask all those leaders who are working in educational institutes or any other organisation – do they really possess all these qualities? These days leaders take work from employees but keep the credit for themselves.
Don’t they realize that no organisation can run smoothly unless the employees are stable? In short behind every successful organisation, there is a major contribution from its employees.
In this whole topic, you will study the concept and importance of leadership in detail.
A leader is one who trains and influences people having diverse abilities and skills to work in a coordinated manner and achieve organisational goals and objectives. Traditionally, the term leader was used for an administrator who was responsible for managing office activities. However, over the passage of time, the scope of leaders has increased in an organisational setting. Leaders are now responsible for guiding, managing and controlling the performance of teams. Leadership nowadays is not confined to giving advice and issuing orders to subordinates rather it is all about coordinating with team members, understanding their issues, supporting them, and evaluating their performance.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A LEADER.
A leader has ability to influence a group of people towards the achievement of common goals and objectives. In an organisation, the performance of people depends a great deal on the efficiency of leaders. An efficient leader is said to be one who has a set of characteristics, which are given below.
Responsible
Unbiased
Ethical
With clear vision
Consistent and transparent
Let us discuss the characteristics of a leader in detail.
Responsible. A leader is a person who takes responsibility for every decision taken by him/her and set an example for others. He/she promote cooperative effort within team to ensure that the team works in direction of achieving set goals and objectives. In addition, it is also a responsibility of a leader to provide the team members with the skills and resources needed to do their job. It ultimately helps in creating an environment where the team members learn to take accountability for their decision and actions.
Unbiased. A leader needs to be responsible, ethical, and unbiased while taking decisions. Remaining unbiased is necessary as it helps in right decisions and influences people to implement these decisions.
Ethical. Leaders have specific believes and core values that they adhere too. A leader is a person who recognises the importance of ethical behaviour. He / she exhibits both values and ethics in his/her leadership style. Lack of ethics and values in leader’s behaviour and action leads to mistrust in the team and organisation as whole. Therefore, it is important for a leader to hold strong values and exhibit them in their behaviour and actions to encourage and influence others.
With clear Vision. An effective leader needs to have a clear vision or picture of where the organisation would reach in the future. For this, he/she should be well aware of organisational goals and should be able to align them with individual goals. Having a clear vision helps a leader to get the tasks and activities done within the stipulated time. It is the clear vision that enables leaders to motivate people to accomplish organisational goals and inculcate team spirit in them.
Consistent and transparent. Consistency indicates the extent to which a leader maintains the same level of commitment under any situation. A leader who is random in his/her approach would not be able to gain the trust of his/her team members. In addition, a leader should maintain transparency while communicating organisational goals and objectives to team members and assigning tasks to them to meet those goals.
Besides the above characteristics, a successful leader should also have ability to:
Plan and manage time for accomplishing tasks and activities successfully.
Guide employees in the right direction.
Bridge gaps between top-level management and people working at lower levels.
Allot the right tasks to the right people in order to achieve goals successfully.
Hold discussions with team members and understand their needs.
Manage change even under difficult situations.
Build good relationships between internal and external customers.
Importance of Leadership.
From the discussion so far, it can be said that leadership is an ability of a person to make other people together realise some goals that they may not achieve individually. In an organisation, leaders set a direction for people, communicate to people where the organisation wants to reach in the future; encourage people to achieve organisations vision. Without leadership, conflicts may arise among a group of people. This is because different people may have different perspectives of looking at things. Leaders drive people in the same direction and harness their efforts jointly. Moreover, effective leadership helps an organisation to quickly respond to changes in the business environment; thereby sustaining its competitive position. The following points explain the significance of leadership in an organisation:
1. Leaders establish a clear vision. 2. They communicate the same vision to others. 3. They resolve conflicts among individuals . 4. Leaders are responsible for managing and controlling organisational activities. 5. They organise and coordinate various economic resources. 6. They accomplish activities within the stipulated time.
To everyone who works in an organisation as a team leader(TL) and reading this article, I’m giving you a small activity.
Suppose you are a handling a project having stringent deadlines. Although you have very efficient team, you have limited resources to manage the project . List the necessary skills and qualities that you would require as a leader for the effective management of the project.
Once you complete it, if you still feel that leadership and management have no connection -think again. They absolutely do. They two are deeply interlinked.
The two terms Management and Leadership are used interchangeably. However, these two are different concepts. But are interlinked and complementary to each other. Management is all about handling complexity, while leadership is about managing change. Managers strive to bring consistency by formulating plans, designing a formal organisational hierarchy and measuring results against the plans. Leaders set a vision for the future, communicate the vision to people, and inspire them to achieve that vision.
Warren Bennis, an American scholar; provides the following difference between managers and leaders;
1. A manager does the administration work; a leader works on innovation. 2. A manager maintains; a leader develops. 3. A manager focuses on systems and structures; a leader focuses on people. 4. A manager relies on control; a leader gains trust. 5. A manger has a short -range vies; a leader has a long -term perspectives. 6. A manager asks how and when; a leader asks what and why. 7. A manager accepts and maintains the status-quo; a leader challenges and changes it. 8. A manager does things right; the leader does the right things.
In spite of the differences between leadership and management, in today’s competitive business environment, organisation need both strong management and effective leadership to achieve efficiency. An effective leader may set the vision of an organisation; however, a good manager defines what should be done to achieve that vision. Without efficient management, the vision set by
a leader cannot be sustained. Similarly, management practised without effective leadership would lead to a lack of creativity and innovation.
At last, in today’s business environment, organisation cannot imagine their success without effective teams. organisations need teams to produce good quality products and services, deliver these products and services to customers on time, expand business and so on.
Similarly, in educational institutes, the role of teachers is extremely important. Without teacher, a school simply cannot exist. From handling PTMs to making students efficient in every field, managing the class, maintaining discipline, and still giving their best even under stress- all of it is truly commendable.
Do team leaders even consider all these efforts and appreciate their employees?
Do employees ever receive bonuses in recognition of their hard work?
Are medical leaves sanctioned without any deductions?
Do employees ever get appreciated for being on duty and regular on time?
The ANSWER IS “NO”.
The Author Rafia Mustafa is MBA, B.ED & Educator at INGENIOUS SCHOOL SRINAGAR. SHE URGES TEAM LEADERS AND MANAGEMENT TO PAUSE AND REFLECT THAT WHEN THEY HIRE AN EMPLOYEE, THEY ARE IN FACT CONNECTING WITH AN ENTIRE FAMILY THAT DEPENDS ON THEM. WITH THIS THOUGHT, SHE CONCLUDES.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author in her personal capacity. They are not intended to target, offend, or discredit any individual, organisation, or institution. The article is written only for educational and awareness purposes, encouraging reflection on the role of leadership and management in organisational success.
