TASK 1
What is involved in being a successful leader
Leadership refers to the ability of a company's management to get work done from others by giving them motivation and confidence by providing training and other motivational programs. An individual can be called a good leader when he/she has attained leadership qualities and skills such as decision-making capabilities, confidence, appreciation, good communication, etc. It is further discussed under the below:
INDIVIDUAL
As an individual, there are the following points that need to be considered in order to become a good leader:
Traits: It refers to qualities if present in the individuals makes them a good leader. It can be further determined through the Big Five Personality model which contains five specific traits that are to be present in an individual to become a good leader (Carey, Philippon and Cummings, 2011). Such traits are described as below:
Big Five Personality model:
- Openness to experience: According to this, an individual should try to learn new things in order to expand the knowledge that makes them more capable to work under different circumstances.
- Conscientiousness: In this, an individual should acquire high level of thinking abilities with good impulse control and goal-directed behavior. For example, Focusing and spending time more to perform specific activities to achieve profitable outcomes.
- Extraversion: Leaders must be extroverts which means that they should always try to interact with others and share information and ideas so as to bring positive outcomes from others.
- Agreeableness: An individual must have such attributes which include trust, kindness, affection, etc. which help in maintaining good relations with others. Through this, an individual can easily get work done from them in an effective and efficient manner.
- Neuroticism: An individual must be stress-free so that he can deal with every situation in a calm manner without thinking about future outcomes.
Example: Sir Richard Branson is an effective leader of Virgin Group who represents the company in public in a better manner.
Skills
It refers to an ability that is either acquired by an individual through practice or acquired by born. Such can be further understood through the following:
Katz's Three Skills Model: It consists of three skills which are required to be present in an individual to become a good leader. Such skills includes Technical, Human skills and Conceptual. It is further discussed under below:
- Human skill: It is a skill that enables an individual to work with people through better communication.
- Conceptual skill: It refers to such abilities which enable an individual to generate and work with new ideas and concepts. It helps in understanding the actions which are required to complete task in an effective manner (Curtis and O'connell, 2011).
- Technical skill: It refers to a specific knowledge which help an individual to work on different computerised systems such as MIS.
Styles
It refers to the leadership styles which are required to be applied in order to perform allotted roles and responsibilities by leaders in an effective and efficient manner. Kurt Lewin's styles is one of an effective leadership style which includes three major styles which are given as below:
- Autocratic: In this style, an individual as a leader takes all decisions and formulate plans without getting suggestions and ideas from the subordinates. It enable leader to make quick decision in order to grab competitive opportunities for company.
- Democratic: In this, leader consider the suggestions and feedbacks of subordinates and on the basis of which decision are made for the betterment of an organisation.
- Laissez-Faire: In this, the power is given to subordinated to make decision on their own without consulting with their leader. This gives freedom to employees to generate new ideas to complete their allotted task in profitable manner.
CONTEXTUAL
Such approach is mainly concentrate on making an effective decisions and plans on the basis of different situations arises due to business environment. This enables leader to work under any circumstances and bring profitable outcomes to company. Same are discussed in brief below:
- Contingency model:The business environment is contingent in nature due to which lots of complexities arises which directs leader to make profitable decision with the help of their own skills and knowledge.
- Situational approach:There are different situations arises which forces leaders to make changes in their pre-determined plans and strategies in order to cope up with influencing factors in more effective and efficient manner (Dinh and et. al., 2014).
- Illustration:Mark Zuckerberg is one of the known and popular leader which contributes himself to reach their company, Facebook to one of the top companies in social media sector.
RELATIONAL
It is related with maintaining better relation with employees and other interest parties to company through better communication and involve them in decision-making process. It is further discussed under