ROLES
Leadership is about getting results for your followers. If you get results, people will support you, often
without caring too much about how you got them; without results, all the style or charisma in the
world won’t retain the support of your followers for long. This is true for the leader of a Scout troop,
a sports team, a political party, a government department…and a business.
1. Understand and interpret the environment in
which the enterprise operates.
A leader has to be able to sense what’s coming up ahead, to see opportunities that should
be the target of action and to see threats before they materialize. And the view has to be well
into the future.
Business opportunities are often created or destroyed by both direct influences of economic,
political, societal and technological forces as well as complex interactions between these
forces. Leadership at all levels must be focused on the future as well as the present.
EXAMPLE- Those who foresaw the fall of the Berlin Wall, the emergence of China as one of
the world’s great economies, the resistance of many countries to genetically modified
foodstuffs, the dramatic realignment of the U.S. dollar against the euro and other currencies
in the early part of this century, made – or lost — fortunes.
2. Formulate winning strategies
If leadership is about getting results, then the role of the leader is to develop the right
strategies to get those results — winning strategies. Businesses make money by creating
value for a customer and then capturing some of it for themselves from what the customer
pays for that created value.
Strategies are much more than intentions; they describe what an organization is going to do
to achieve a defined end as well as the ways and means that will be employed to do that.
The what and the how are usually accompanied by strategic plans detailing who will do
what, with which resources, by when…and all the other details that allow for effective and
efficient capital and people allocation and coordination.
Strategies are needed at all levels of organizations, from the office of the CEO to the
individual salesperson’s strategy for their territory. And these strategies must be integrated
and coordinated if they are to be well executed.
3. Execute those strategies — brilliantly!
Strategies are only valuable if they can be executed well. And execution of any plan is only
valuable if the strategy is right. Arguing which is more important is, therefore, pointless. Both
are critical to success.
There are many elements that go into the execution of strategies. Key among them are:
The alignment of the organization’s various department and sub-unit strategies so
each and every unit and person is striving to achieve goals and objectives that
contribute to the overall mission, vision and objectives;
Performance management, at the individual, team, departmental and organizational
unit levels to ensure that the right people are recruited, trained, developed, motivated
and directed in ways that support the organization’s mission, vision and objectives
consistent with organizational values
Many excellent strategic thinkers and planners fall short when it comes to execution. They
may lack the attention span needed to concentrate on the details of large-scale
organizational change; they may not be persistent enough to see those changes through to
completion when faced with resistance to change; they may feel that to do these things is
“micromanaging” and that their role is to focus on the “big picture.” That is not my view.
Truly effective leaders derive strategy in part from a detailed understanding of their business
and how it works, and they drive strategy through each and every business decision and the
people who make things happen in the organization. They are as tenacious in
implementation as they are brilliant in strategic formulation.
TO DO-:
Recall any famous strategy. How it has
helped you.
4. He solicits support
leader is a manager and besides that he is a person who entertains and invites support and
co-operation of subordinates. This he can do by his personality, intelligence, maturity and
experience which can provide him positive result. In this regard, a leader has to invite
suggestions and if possible implement them into plans and programmes of enterprise. This
way, he can solicit full support of employees which results in willingness to work and thereby
effectiveness in running of a concern.
[Link] an Effective Role Model
Demonstrate the behavior desired from the rest of the healthcare team. Practice owners that
display outbursts of anger, make snap decisions with no regard to the potential outcome for the
staff, demonstrate uncaring attitudes, show favoritism for some employees, withhold information
from the staff, procrastinate on important decisions, tolerate lack of accountability, demonstrate
inconsistencies in client service or fail to listen to their employees will not be as respected by the
team and likely will not be as successful in achieving their business goals.
Leadership in Organizational
Development
Most of the organizations agree now days that
effective leadership is one of the most important contributors to the overall organizational
performance and development. Intelligent leaders are those who have a store of skills and
knowledge gained from experience that allows them to manage effectively and efficiently the
tasks of daily life.
Initiating and Coordinating change always requires well developed leadership skills. This is also
true that any change process mostly face the certain level of resistances, the effective leader
is one who can manage the resistance and implement successful changes. Recognizing,
addressing and overcoming the resistance is always lengthy and not an easy process. People
resist changes and especially they resist most to radical changes and it is only the leader’s
ability to overcome. A strong leader is required to solve the problem as the physician is required
to solve medical problem.
The role of leadership is also very important for
developing and managing change in any
organizationby creating the atmosphere within the organization to adopt change.
Organizational culture has also a role in development of changes in any organization, and it is
the leader who brings new strategies for developing or managing culture.
Top management can make the strategies to interconnect people working in
organization and its process (Appelbaum, 1998). The culture of organization may include
its beliefs and values and may lead organization from conservative to innovative. These
may be unwritten rules, disciplines, and externa l orientation, and the leadership role
may be instructive, consultative or supportive.
The leader can also motivate the employees by making different strategies and the best
way to motivate employees is reward system. The organization’s ability to motivate
individuals toward superior levels of performance is closely related to their reward
system.
Though the role of a leader is prominent in managing organizations and organizational change
process, but the importance of other factors can’t be denied. There are many internal and
external forces which have a significant role and affect the scenario, while
managing organizations.
