Saturday, November 22, 2008

Leading the right way.

I have been busy, no time to post a post here. I am presently studying again. Up to doing my masters in business administration. I had written an assignment some time back; nothing to post recently so thought of posting this.

-------Leading the right way.------------
“The role of the leaders is to produce more leaders and not followers” Ralph Nader, American author and political leader. Leadership is a part of management, to be a good manager you have to be an efficient and effective leader. Many of the decisions that are made in an organization are mainly the brainchild of a single person. Even those decisions that are made by consulting a group of people; it comes to one person either to implement it or veto it. Even when implementing a certain plan in an organization; the leader under whom the plan is implemented can make all the difference in the success or the failure of the plan. It is thus important that organization have managers who are effective and efficient leaders.

There are no fixed rules or behavioural traits to define a perfect leader or manager. In my essay here on I will use the word leader for manager, though leadership is a trait in a good manager it is what that makes him\her standout in a group. The managers can acquire the management knowledge which is mainly planning, communication and organizational skills however leadership skills are personal and are built over a period of years or as argued by many are inborn i.e. leaders are born leaders. I believe that everybody are born leaders, they just need to realize their potential and channel their energies into being effective leaders. Not all are successful in doing so, leaders have to be self motivated only than can they motivate others. “Some people are born more naturally to leadership than others. Most people don't seek to be a leader. Those who want to be a leader can develop leadership ability. And many qualities of effective leadership, like confidence and charisma, continue to grow from experience in the leadership role.” Author unknown, available from http://www.businessballs.com/leadership.htm; (2000).
Hence it is important that organizations find potential leaders early mainly in colleges and university and train them to be effective leaders of the future. The sooner people are made aware of their potentials, sooner they will be effective leaders.

Why Choose leaders early?

In a study done on the West point cadets by Bartone, P.T., Snook, S.A., Forsythe, G.B., Lewis, P., Bullis, R.C. (2007), in "Psychosocial development and leader performance of military officer cadets", Leadership Quarterly relates the mental development of a person during college or university years to potential of leadership.
In their study they found that students that showed greatest psychosocial growth also
demonstrated specific leadership behaviour in their interactions with colleagues. Many a time academic marks are considered sole criteria for selections of candidates into managerial positions in an organization. However over the years this idea for recruiting candidates has changed. Many companies are looking at the overall performance of a candidate while selecting them for certain positions in the organization. If we find potential leaders earlier in their life and train them when they are in their college and universities, the organizations will be able to make effective leaders for them. Hiring and training people earlier in their career will not only guarantee quality leaders for them but also loyal leaders. Choosing students early and making them familiar with the process of the organization and bringing senior managers to share their experience and to train these students will put a sense of belonging into them. They will realize that the organization cares for them and realizes their importance thus gaining their loyalty and long term association towards the organization.

Training Leaders:

In a study done by Douglas A. Ready and Jay. A Conger (2003), “Why leadership development efforts fail”, in an era of instability and indecision many organizations depend on their leaders to make the right decision and direct their companies through the quagmire of issues. The decision of the leader often spells the difference between success and failure. If the leaders are not well informed and trained their decision could have disastrous effects on the organization. Citing an example of a gardener the authors explain that “how many keen gardeners have learned the hard way that tackling common weeds without thoroughly digging out the roots does little more than temporarily delay the next outcrop?”, thus a an inefficient leader might temporarily come out with a solution for a problem which may have detrimental effects on the organization in the years to come.

In an e-journal by Emerald group publication, Strategic direction (2008), Leaders are made not born, the author (not mentioned) highlight the point that training the managers in the company could make them better leaders. The author cites an example saying that many big companies in the world like HP(Hewlett Packard), GE(General Electric), Capital One and American Express are investing a lot of money and senior manager time in training their managers. This will help in creating a better working environment in the company and thus improving the efficiency and productivity of the organization. When senior managers share their experience and provide the junior managers tips on the working of the organization, I believe the chances of blunder and inefficiency of an organization will reduce to a large extent. With such training and experience sharing by the seniors the junior managers will be able to come out with better and innovative methods of functioning an organization.


Conclusion:

In the study by Neider L. and A. Schriesheim, University of Miami (1988); Making Leadership Effective: A Three Stage Model, say that many authors and researchers have tried to classify leadership traits of a leader into three distinct phases the intelligence phase, behavioural phase and contingency phase. The authors argue that even though leadership traits can be put into theory the application of these varies depending on the situation and background of the problem and the leader himself. Though these traits are broad and person dependent they still hold true to some extend in choosing an effective leader.

In my opinion leaders are the most important pillars in an organization. It is the leaders in an organization which govern the success or the failure of it. This does not mean that with good leaders the organization may not fail but truly enough the chances of its collapse will be reduced to a large extend. Thus to make an efficient leader from a good leader; organizations must train their potential and existing leaders. Training will further reduce the chances of a failure. Thus the earlier we train people to be efficient leaders the better.

Organizations should find potential leaders when they are students in college or university as this is the time in the life of people when they are ready to learn and ready to accept changes in their life. As researches has shown that the peak of psychological grown in a person is during his/her college years. Hence if organizations can recruit and train potential leaders when they are studying their degree, they could reduce their chances of failure, increase their profits and reduce costs of training.

Ninad Dighe.


  • Reference:
    http://www.businessballs.com
    http://www.emeraldinsight.com.eresources.shef.ac.uk/
    Bartone, P.T., Snook, S.A., Forsythe, G.B., Lewis, P., Bullis, R.C. (2007), "Psychosocial development and leader performance of military officer cadets", Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 18
    STRATEGIC DIRECTION , VOL. 24 NO. 4 2008, pp. 10-13, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    Ready, D.A., Conger, J.A. (2003), "Why leadership development efforts fail", MIT Sloan Management Review
    Linda L. Neider, Chester A. Schriesheim, Making Leadership Effective: A Three Stage Model; Journal of Management Development; Volume: 7 Issue: 5; 1988 General review.
    http://star.shef.ac.uk/; The University of Sheffield, library site.