THE LEADER IN ME

This blog seeks to analyse the overview of leadership based on my previous blogs and also term my vision as aleader.Through my leadership lessons for this term, I am sure I have become a great effective leader.

Some of you may start asking what leadership is. What does it take for one to be a leader? How does one know that they are great outstanding leaders in an organisation?
Well we all have different ways of defining leadership. For example; some of us may define leadership as the authority to guide others and complete particular tasks. (Helmrich, 2015)
Leadership is reminding people about the company’s potential and vision to hit their target without forgetting to encourage and motivate them to work as a team in order to achieve their mission. (McBean, 2013)

 

Anyone can be a leader but an outstanding leader should have the following qualifications;-
• Genuine. You need to be clear on what your values are and must be consistent in applying them. As part of that, you need to have the courage to hold true to them. You must not lose sight of reality. Lost values may be one of the biggest causes of downfalls. (Farrell, 2011)

• A leader also needs to function in an orderly and purposeful manner in situations of uncertainty.

• Capacity to motivate, good leaders are meant to be good at motivating their employees so that the employees can also feel they are part of the company.(Oswald,2014)

• Be Customer Focused. For good results, leaders have to know the kind of customers they have and their wants. (Hewes, 2014)

I was inspired by the late president of South Africa Nelson Mandela (RIP) who became stronger after being jailed for his fairness and equity. However he didn’t try to revenge his jailors instead he forgave and continued to being the leader he was before. A leader who believed that people were all the same no matter the colour. Therefore he managed to balance his emotions hence being an outstanding leader. (Jovanka, 2013)
Nelson Mandela preferred leading from behind and let his followers in front most especially when celebrating success. Then he takes the lead when in crisis. After people will give their thanks as a result. He was the kind of leader who minded about everyone’s interest accordingly. (Ray, 2013)
I have come to a conclusion that Iam A participative leader and I wish to maintain it because in this kind of leadership, employees feel the control of their own destiny, job satisfaction and motivation plus the employees’ skills get developed though this leadership happens to be slow but it’s always better considering quality than speed.

 

In my leadership class team, we give feedback to each other since we all had chances to lead the team. I volunteered to be the first leader and as the week ended, I received feedback from my team members where most of them said they would like to be led by me because my humanity and problem solving skills. It’s always better create treating each other equally because you never know who you will work with in future no matter the culture difference.
Finally, I have come to realise that it’s always good to be confidence because without confidence, you will never know your weaknesses and strengths. I am capable of balancing my emotions though I was so weak at this at the start, when I commit myself to do something, I make sure I do it no matter what.Forexample when I promise giving feedback and I find the phone network poor, I find other ways of communicating to you accordingly.

REFERENCES

Jovanka (2013) 7 leadership lessons inspired by Nelson Mandela (online) available http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jovanka-ciares/7-leadership-lessons-insp_b_3427796.html<(20.March.2016)>

Ray (2012) why Nelson Mandela was a great leader (online) available https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201312/why-nelson-mandela-was-great-leader<(20.March.2016)>

Hewes (2014) Top ten traits of great leaders (online) available http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/top-ten-traits-of-great-leaders.aspx<(20.March.2016)>

Oswald (2014) the 14 qualities of great leaders (online) available http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2014/04/11/the-14-qualities-of-great-leaders-how-many-do-you-have/<(20.March.2016)>

Helmrich (2015) 30 ways to define leadership (online) available http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3647-leadership-definition.html<(18.March.2016)>

Farrell (2011)23 traits of good leaders (online) available http://edition.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/08/03/good.leader.traits.cb/index.html<(20.March.2016)>

McBean (2013) Characteristics of leadership (online) available http://www.fastcompany.com/3004914/5-characteristics-great-leaders<(20.March.2016)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

 Change is nothing new and a fact of life. Some people actively thrive on new challenges and constant change, while others prefer the comfort of the status quo and strongly resist any change. It is all down to the personality of the individual and there is little management can do about resistance to change. (Mullins, 2010:753)

According to Mullin (2010), change has both advantages and disadvantages which are as follows;-

Advantages

Development of manpower: Manpower training and development is a continuous process. If this process is undertaken in a planned way that can help the organization to gain long term benefits. (Rasel, 2014)

Reduced costs, some leaders like wasting the organisation’s resources and when they are sucked or transferred to other posts, it reduces the wasted organisation’s resources. Therefore change resistance is great to some point at a time. (Lewis, 2014)

 Though change resistance has some good advantages, it has disadvantages at the same time. It all depends on how a leader announces the change. Out of the variety reasons, these are some of them;-

• Threat to position power, some people lose their jobs when some changes are made. For example when a leader is transferred may be to another organisation branch.
•  Norms and Culture; in most cases people prefer being led by leaders from the same culture than from different cultures.
• Misunderstanding — if administrators do not understand why change is needed, what can a leader expect from other employees? Of course resistance!
• Fear of the unknown —in most cases people resist to change because they fear what will happen after things like standing risks. In other words they fear the unknown since they don’t know what will change after accepting change.
• Lack of trust — this happens mostly when team members don’t trust the team leader and therefore they can’t accept change before the team leader grantees them. (Rick, 2011)

• Not informed —most team members like they should be informed before any change in the team because in that way they feel more valued than not being consulted.

 

• Change of routines — People resist change thinking if they accept many things won’t be done like before. For example when a sports’ leader is sucked, players don’t score goals like before and that’s one of the reasons why people resist change in teams. (Kanter,2012)

 

Leaders should do to avoid resistance to change

Changes strive to improve organizational performance. Organizations force resources to gain understanding into their changes of their systems, steps, and human capital, and obtain expert opinion on what is wrong, what is no longer used, and what can improve.

Promoting equity among the workforce. Such changes, while creating fear at the first results in better employee support, motivation, and confidence. (Scheid, 2011)

Share how you will prepare people to take on new tactics of working. They also react negatively to little or no support. Make sure there is enough help available, that leaders have all what it takes to assist their team members so that they are able to know the input being made to help them. (Miller, 2013)

Due to the above reasons, change should always be applied where necessary and not changing for the sake of changing.

Major roles of managers during resistance to change

• To carry out the effective communication with employees;
• To understand their attitude and perception of Manager’s actions;
• To be continuous improvement and motivation.
• Communicate clearly and effectively. Communicate every detail required for action and in multiple directions. Follow up on the communication and get verbal and if possible, face-to-face acknowledgement. Effective communication is as important as the communication itself.
• Be transparent. It is human nature to fear what you don’t understand – especially if it seems like a threat to you. Be as transparent as possible. Start from the beginning and lay down all the details. No one will win and garner continual respect from secrecy. People will question you and managements’ motives if you are not completely transparent with your own organization.(Scheid,2011)

 

Well there are many change management models people can follow to manage change in organisations. Due to the reason of word count, I was able to give the following;-

 

• Kurt Lewin’s Change model.

This has its own stages;-Unfreeze, this is where managers create the right       environment to enable change. Change, at this stage people support change to achieve their desired Organisation, Refreeze.

 

• Kotter change management. This includes; creating climate for change, engaging the whole organisation, sustaining change.

 

• Traditional change model. This includes;Time,exploration and commitment

 

• ADKAR change management. This includes; Awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and supports change.

 

• Our change management model. This includes; Assess, Align, engage, communicate, support and sustain.

 

To my own point of view I recommend people to follow Kurt Lewin’s change model because leaders communicate to employees before asking for their support to make changes in an organisation and this helps the organisation to achieve its change targets.

 

While doing different activities with my team, we used to always analyse, act and the sustain what we have analysed. For example when we were given an activity of choosing an industry of our choice, we chose aviation in India and before we attempted anything, we had to first interview some of the aviation employees in India in order for us to have a hint on what we were about to do. With that information, we were able to achieve our goal of performing well in our presentation. Therefore it is always a great deal to collect data before change.

 

In conclusion, Indian aviation can manage change by being united as a team and comparing its ranking level with other different aviation industries in the world in order to achieve its desired goal as a result.

 

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Lewis (2014)10 benefits of an organisational change management plan (online) available http://www.consultparagon.com/blog/10-benefits-of-an-organizational-change-management-plan<(11.March.2016)>

Rasel (2014) advantages of planned change in an organisation (online) available http://bankofinfo.com/importance-of-planned-change/<(11.March.2016)>

Scheid (2011) Do employees benefit from organisational change (online) available http://www.brighthub.com/office/human-resources/articles/115707.aspx<(11.March.2016)>

Rick (2011) Top 12 reasons why people resist change (online) available http://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/change-management/12-reasons-why-people-resist-change/<(11.March.2016)>

Kanter (2012)10 reasons people resist change (online) available https://hbr.org/2012/09/ten-reasons-people-resist-chang/<(11.March.2016)>

Scheid (2011) Dealing with resistance in change management (online) available http://www.brighthubpm.com/change-management/34940-overcoming-resistance-ignorance-and-denial-in-change-management/<(11.March.2016)>

Miller (2013) 5 ways to overcome resistance to change (online) available http://people-equation.com/5-ways-to-overcome-resistance-to-change/<(11.March.2016)>

 

MOST EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP STYLE

Which leadership style should leaders bring up to make success? What is the most successful approach to managing the work of team members? These are perhaps the questions that come in peoples’ minds when someone talks about leadership.

“Management is a set of steps that keep a team active. They make it work today – they make it hit this quarter’s numbers. The steps are about planning, set an estimate of income and expenditure for a period of time, organising employees, specifying jobs, measuring performance, and sorting issues when results did not go to plan.”(Ingram, 2015)
Leadership is very different. It is about arranging people to the vision that means proper communication, reasons for performing and being stimulated (Ratcliffe, 2013).
Management is getting people to do what is supposed to be completed. Leadership is getting people that want to do what is needed to be accomplished. Managers authorize while leaders pass on ideas. (Bennis, 2011)
Sometimes the differences exist but the duties extend over to cover partly as follows:-
 Managers and leaders both motivate employees.
 They both monitor the employees’ performance in a team.
Transactional leadership is termed as setting clear opinions for the team members and advantageously use of rewards to support cooperation with these objectives (BusinessDictionary.com 2015).
Transformational Leadership gives moral and gives quality to team members. (Cherry 2015).

People-oriented leaders are so much into organizing, supporting and developing team members. This style of leadership produce good teamwork and creative action of working as a team. Equity is done through Leaders treating team members and this causes members to be happier and more productive. (Vella, 2013)
Laissez-faire leadership style is where the manger observes group members whether they are working well or not so that they can be assisted in one way or the other. A manager allows employees to practice their freedom of action i.e.. ‘to do as they think best’. Manager believes not to interrupt and is always available if asked for any kind of assistance. (Pallav, 2015)
Action-centred leadership this simple and practical model which is based on three extending over the circles. These are; the individual, task and the team (Webmaster).

The model may be found a little bit hard for team leaders to use in their teams probably because it is the necessary forming model that gives details on what leaders should practically do

.
According to John Adair (2012) action centred leadership is better than the rest because it minds much about the growth of the team, how to achieve the task and developing employees. A pure balance between all these needs is what is required so as to achieve the maximum target for the team. As it’s a true saying, unpleased team member can never do any task that is worth. (John, 2012)

Due to John(2012) statement, I disagree to the view suggested by the CMI 2013.Since in an organisation no matter what happens, team growth ,individual development and how to achieve the task have to be considered not only individuals because every organisation has its own targets.

 

Finally to my own point of view action centred leadership style is better for you to follow in your team since it focuses on all the three aspects in a team that is;team members,team itself and individuals.Below are some of the steps a leader should take to adapt action centred leadership style and reasons why you should ;-

•  In order to produce better results, every team should note that motivation is a very important leadership skill because when employees aren’t motivated, they work for their own targets not the team’s targets and this may affect the team in a long run
• .Producing better results, team leaders should outline the team’s mission.
•  Creation of the time deadline should be complied to achieve the given task because that helps in time management skill.
• Supervising the employees’ performance either weekly or monthly in order to know where to improve or maintain accordingly.
• Leaders should consider employees decisions accordingly because sometimes employees are customers at the same time in an organisation

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

Business Dictionary (2015) What Is Transactional Leadership? Definition and Meaning (online) available <http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/transactional-leadership.html&gt;( 4. March 2016)

Beenis (2011) Leadership and management differences/similarities (online) available http://www.petebrookshaw.com/2011/07/leadership-and-management.html#.Vt8irkKLQ_M<(8.March.2016)>

 

Cherry, K. (2015) How Do Transformational Leaders Inspire? (Online) available http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/a/transformational.htm&gt;<(4. March 2015)>

 

Adair (2012) Adairs three circles (online) available <http://www.chimaeraconsulting.com/adair.htm&gt;<( 4.March 2012)>

 

Ratcliffe (2013) what is the difference between management and leadership (online) available http://www.theguardian.com/careers/difference-between-leadership-management < (6.March.2016)>

Vella (2013) which leadership styles are more effective (online)http://smallbizclub.com/leadership/people-skills/which-leadership-styles-are-most-effective/<(6.March.2016)>

Pallav (2015) most leadership and management styles (online) https://pallavi07culc.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/most-effective-leadership-management-styles-approaches/<(6.March.2016)>

 

Webmaster (2012) Action centred leadership (online)http://www.youracp.org/john-adairs-action-centred-leadership/<(6.March.2016)>

Ingram (2015) Transformational vs transactional leadership (online) available http://smallbusiness.chron.com/transformational-leadership-vs-transactional-leadership-definition-13834.html<(8.March.2016)>

 

 

CHALLENGES IN DIVERSITY TEAMS

This blog analyses the Ibarra and Hansen 2011:71 statement on how a team brings people from different cultures, backgrounds and displines together and leverage all they have to offer.

 

The blog provides answers to the questions such as;-Is managing diverse teams important? How can leaders use knowledge of diversity to produce better results?

 

Research states that dissimilarity between members of the team cause challenges as well as opportunities for the team functioning (Liu n.d). This justifies the description of diversity as a ‘double edged sword’ as it has both advantages and disadvantages. (Choi, 2011)

The bad thing about diverse teams is that it leads to unnecessary fighting and misunderstandings as each team member from different backgrounds would have different thinking which may not work out. Therefore trust has to be made between the team members by a team leader which may not be an easy task for the leader. The leader should also possess conflict management skills so that they can lead the team a manner as to achieve a desired result. (Andre 1995)

A manager in Air India aviation that People in top leadership positions misuse their great amount of motivating power. Lohani went ahead and made his target of turning a net profit by the year to March 2019 which is three years ahead of the current schedule. (Travel and Tourism, 2015)For example during my group team challenge, we had a leader who guided us on when to meet and discuss about our presentation. Therefore he used his power of motivation (Travel and Tourism,2015).

The following are the importance of managing team diversity:-

The schedule advantage, here the team has to commit some time to do some specific tasks.(Cheah,2013) For example during my team challenge, as a team we suggested to complete our presentation four days before the presentation day and of course we did it because we focused since it was our target. Therefore it’s very important for teams to set targets because it helps them to aim higher (Cheah,2013)

Adaptation, here team members will adapt to different circumstances since they are from different cultures and backgrounds (Johnston, 2016). For example while doing my group challenge, we were members from different countries and this helped us to complete our challenge. Therefore when a team is combined with members from different countries and backgrounds, it helps them to explore by exchanging different ideas to boost the group accordingly (Johnson,2016).

However, perfect teamwork would not become reality if perspective of members could not be tuned. A team will become only a group of people who just join together with some similar attitudes. In other words, group members might only aim at achieving general purpose because individual purpose is more important. Meanwhile, team members will response to their roles in order to achieve the team’s purpose.

Belbin (2000) defined six differences between a team and a group in the table below. Generally. In addition, perfect teamwork is supported by the different job role comprised in a team. Belbin (2013) also stated that each team has to be composed of different characteristics to take responsibility in different roles. Therefore everything to be perfect will have to take action. You can turn something bad into something better. But you can’t turn something left undone into anything (Belbin,2013).

 

How to use diversity to produce better results

Since a team involves many different types of people, making the best of everyone’s talents promotes diversity in a team. For example in my class group challenge, we had a member has ever worked and wish to work in aviation again. This made my group presentation easier. (Kokkong, 2016)

Finally,teams should have different people from different parts of the world in order to attract different customers. Therefore diversity should be led towards the achievement of organisational goal by knowing the value of each member in order to make a greater team and the uniqueness of each specific ability in order to do better in the organisation.

 

 

                 

 

 

REFERENCES

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP

According to Bill Grace (1999), Ethical Leadership is knowing your core values and having the courage to live them in all parts of your life in service of the common good.(Bill,1999)

Ethical Leadership according to Brown et al (2005) is conceptualized into three building blocks among which include the following;

1. Being an ethical
2. Treating people fairly
3. Actively managing morality.(Brown,2005)

According to Kenneth Chenault (2015), the CEO and Chairman of American Express travel related service company he joined in 1981, stated that “Focus on the things that you can control and the only thing you can control is your performance”(MBA,2015)

According to Graham (2011), on the morning of September ,  while the American Airlines Flight 11, along with 10 crew members and 81 passengers departed from Boston’s Logan Airport at 7:59 am on route to Los Angeles. The plane was hijacked within 15 minutes after departure. His first concern after the tragedy was the safety of his employee and customer service. The company catered transport for the stranded cardholders and donated one million dollars to the employee’s families who died during the tragedy.(Graham,2011)

According to Barton (2011), this taught me that I must have a combination of humanity and confidence for me to be a good Ethical Leader (Barton,2011).

• Ethical Leadership Theories,

The main principles of Ethics are Teleology and Deontology.

According to Emelda, Deontological is derived from the Greek word “Deon” meaning duty which guides us to be fair and unselfish while Teleological suggests that as long as you achieve the intended results, whatever you did to a person is acceptable.(Emelda,2011)

Additionally, many moral theorists would argue that morality requires an analysis of my motives that brought about that behaviour of stealing. However from a teleological perspective, motives really have nothing to do with the rightness or wrongness of the act. What matters are the pleasures associated with short-term and long-term.

During my course of study both in Uganda and UK, I have learnt new leadership skills of approaching situations in team work, delegating and offer chances to team members. I therefore believe in the skills attained to express myself effectively.

 

• The 4-V model of the Ethical Leadership

 

 

 

 

According to centre of Ethical Leadership (2014), the 4-V model includes 4 sides of Ethical Leadership among which include; values, vision, voice and virtue. That value act as the primary factor within the model hence leader should begin with understanding the individual core of values.

According to vision which is the ability that the leader possesses to incorporate their action within frame of what ought to be.  For voice, it should be claimed as to articulate the vision of others so that they can be motivated to action.(centre of ethical leadership,2014)

Additionally, virtue is the common good fostered by the leaders by practising virtuous behaviour.

Thus it shows an example of power and if he/she is unethical, it gives a wrong signal to the followers. The employees as well are inspired by their Leaders actions in the organization. His/her behaviours can influence the entire organization’s culture in various manners.

 

 

 

REFERENCES

Aflac official website (2014) World Most Ethical Companies (online) available  “http://www.aflac.com/aboutaflac/pressroom/ethisphere.aspx?WT.mc_id=Ethisphere Ad_B2B_Redirect_ethisphere_Print_+_&gt<(12.Feb.2016)>

The Centre for Ethical Leadership (2014) ‘Ethical Leadership’ [online] available  “http://ethicalleadership.org/about-us/philosophies-definitions/ethical-leadership”definitions/ethical-leadership< (12.Feb.2016)>

BBC news (2002) ‘Andersen guilty in Enron case’ (online) available  “http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2047122.stm&gt”gt;< [10th.Feb.2016)>

Emelda, M. (2011) Difference between Deontology and Teleology [online] available from  “http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/politics/ideology-politics/difference-between-deontology-and-teleology< (12.Feb.2016)>

Brown et al. (2005) ‘Ethical leadership (online) available A social learning perspective for construct development and testing’, Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes< (11.Feb.2016)>

Wood, B (2011) what is Ethical Leadership? (Online) available http://www.mbs.edu/go/news/what-is-ethical-leadership<(11.Feb.2016)>

Howard Schultz (2012) Video (online) available <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY8gxJcKtjM < (13.Feb.2016)>

MBA (2015)10 most ethical CEO s of 2015(online) available  “http://www.onlinemba.com/blog/10-most-ethical-ceos-in-corporate-america/<(16.feb.2016)>

NBES (2013) National Business Ethics Survey (online) available <http://www.ethics.org/nbes/ < (12.Feb.2016)>

Barton (2011) the quiet Lion: Kenneth Chenault (online) available  “http://www.tnj.com/career/rose-grows-concrete<(16.feb.2016)>

Graham (2001) what really happened (online) available “http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/redux.html<(21.Feb.2016)>