Introduction: The importance of effective leadership
Leadership is an art of leading people as well as convincing other people to follow the same path in order to attain desired goals and objectives. With regards to the introduction of leadership, every organization requires effective leaders so that the employees could be influenced as well as work towards the attainment of organizational set goals and objectives (Hollenbeck, DeRue & Nahrgang, 2015). In relevance with this, it is necessary for the organization to adopt appoint appropriate leaders who could be able to evaluate requirement of leadership in the organization so that the functionalities of organization could be executed in an appropriate and effective manner (Bolman & Deal, 2017).
In relation with this, the major objective of a leader is to show right path to the employees of the organization so that organizational targets could be met and to attain these goals, leader adopts various strategies such as executing interactive sessions and other team building exercises for the purpose of building a team in order to execute the functionalities of the organization to attain the desired goals and objectives (Fairhurst & Connaughton, 2014).
For instance, Jeff Bezos is one of the giant leaders in this era and he has certain unique leadership qualities and traits through which Amazon has attained sustained growth and development in the e-commerce industry. In relevance with this, organization has suffered with various challenges because in the initial period, Jeff Bezos faces lot of criticism with his own team mates and employees because he was following centralisation decision making strategy under which every single decision was taken by him. Due to this, company faced lot of issues as well as losses in terms of financial as well reputational goodwill. Later on, he realised the failure of company and switched towards decentralisation decision making strategy under which employees have given authority to take decision at their own end and as per their functionalities (Antonakis & Day, 2017). This has lead the organization to sustain in the e-commerce industry for so long and this strategy has also helped the organization to gain competitive advantage over other firms as well along with acquiring the leading position in the e-commerce industry in terms of market capitalisation and revenues in the world. Apart from this, Jeff Bezos is also acquired position in the top 30 richest men across the globe which is one of the greatest achievements for him in his entire career and this has lead him and his company to sustain from all issues as well as to survive in the competitive and dynamic business environment for so long period (Ward, 2016).
The role of leaders in achieving organizational goals
Following traits, behaviour as well as maintaining relation for leaders is quite difficult task because leaders needs to interact with number of employees and clients in a day. Thus, it is not possible for him to establish appropriate relationship with everyone in order to gain positive outcomes. This resulted as the biggest challenge for the leaders as well as for the organization because they did not attain outcomes as per their expectations (Heifetz & Linsky, 2017).
Traits of a leader indicates his behaviour, nature, way of communicating information, treating employees, etc. Behaviour of a leader described as the nature to deal with particular task, communicate with the employees, transforming information to them, etc. Apart from these two attributes, the major attribute is relationship because it is one of the most crucial and significant factor through which organization could attain its desired goals (Champy, 2018). Developing relations is one of the main requirement for an organization and the people responsible for developing relations is leaders and managers. With regards to this, they are required to take appropriate steps for the purpose of establishment of relations with the employees as well as with the clients. Developing relations with the employees helps the organization to build positive image, encouraging them towards work as well as for following the same path as directed by leaders (Houpt, Gilkey & Ehringhaus, 2015).
For instance, Steve Jobs was the co-founder as well as CEO of Apple Inc. but later on he was terminated from his own company due to his unique style of leadership. Afterwards, he was re-appointed in the company because Apple Inc. was not able to perform as better as they were able to perform at the time of Steve Jobs. Although, Steve Jobs was not good in developing relations with his employees and teammates but still he was good in originating opportunities for the organization through which Apple Inc. stands on the peak position in terms of smartphone market (Ghasabeh, Soosay & Reaiche, 2015).
It is necessary for a leader to adopt appropriate leadership style as per the organizational situation. In the traditional times, it was meant to be that leaders could only be born and they cannot be created. But as far as business as gone, leadership theories and perception regarding leaders has also changed which states that leaders could also be created (Steinbach, Holcomb, Holmes, Devers & Cannella, 2017). Every leadership theory has different traits, qualities and perceptions and with regards to the attainment of desired goals and objectives. There is no theory of leadership which could tackle all situations, thus, leaders are required to adopt various leadership theories through which every situation could be tackled along with without affecting organizational performance. Primary objective of an organization is to attain sustained growth, overall development and competitive advantage in the particular market and with regards to this, it is required for the leaders to adopt relevant and appropriate strategies as per the external and internal market conditions (Vargas, 2015).
Challenges faced by leaders in building relationships
Contingency theory of leadership is a universal concept because it also exists in the management concept as well. With regards to this theory, it is estimated that there is no best way to execute the functionalities of organization. It totally depends on a leader to take decision as per the situation as well as on the basis of circumstances on which decisions needs to be taken for the better of organization (DuBois, Koch, Hanlon, Nyatuga & Kerr, 2015).
Contingent leader develops his own way to lead the team in order to attain the desired goals and objectives and in relation to this, it is important for the leader to evaluate every single aspect of internal and external conditions in the organization so that appropriate strategies could be adopted in order to attain higher results. Contingent leader could get success only if he is able to differentiate between the normal and inappropriate market conditions as per the functionalities of organization (Fiedler, 2015).
The major objective behind adaption of contingency theory of leadership is to sustain in every type of market condition through which desired goals and objectives could be attained. Some of the crucial categories in terms of contingency theory are:
- Technology
- Consumer interest groups
- Suppliers and distributors
- Government
- Unions
- Customers and competitors
As the major task of a leader is to convince his teammates to follow on the oath directed by him in order to attain the desired goals and objectives. Although, this strategy is not useful in every situation, thus, leaders are required to analyse the market conditions and with regards to this, they are also required to take feedbacks from their teammates so that relevant options could be originated through which the issue and challenge faced by the organization could be mitigated. This helps the organization as well as leaders to determine appropriate and all relevant solutions through which challenges faced by the organization could be mitigated along with accomplishing organizational set goals and objectives (Chemers, 2014).
Sometimes, leader following contingency theory predetermine certain set of solutions through which organizational issues could be resolved along with gaining positive outcomes. In relation to this, this strategy get succeeded several times whereas it gets fail many times but when organization gets failed, there are many ramifications which arises due to which organization needs to suffer. This affects the performance of employees as well, thus, in relation with this, it is recommended to the leaders is to adopt contingency theory of leadership along with appropriate ideas and predeterminations so that appropriate outcomes could be attained (Dinh, Lord, Gardner, Meuser, Liden & Hu, 2014).
References
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Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
Champy, J. (2018). Reengineering Management The Mandate for new Leadership. Harper Collins.
Chemers, M. (2014). An integrative theory of leadership. Psychology Press.
Dinh, J. E., Lord, R. G., Gardner, W. L., Meuser, J. D., Liden, R. C., & Hu, J. (2014). Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), 36-62.
DuBois, M., Koch, J., Hanlon, J., Nyatuga, B., & Kerr, N. (2015). Leadership Styles of Effective Project Managers: Techniques and Traits to Lead High Performance Teams. Journal of Economic Development, Management, IT, Finance & Marketing, 7(1).
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Houpt, J. L., Gilkey, R. W., & Ehringhaus, S. H. (2015). Personality Traits and Leadership. In Learning to Lead in the Academic Medical Center (pp. 35-44). Springer, Cham.
Steinbach, A. L., Holcomb, T. R., Holmes Jr, R. M., Devers, C. E., & Cannella Jr, A. A. (2017). Top management team incentive heterogeneity, strategic investment behavior, and performance: A contingency theory of incentive alignment. Strategic Management Journal, 38(8), 1701-1720.
Vargas, M. (2017). Investigating the Influence of Personality Traits and Leadership Styles. Angelo State University Social Sciences Research Journal, 4(2).
Ward, J. (2016). Keeping the family business healthy: How to plan for continuing growth, profitability, and family leadership. Springer.
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