Leadership and Communication
President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives" (Business News Daily, 2015). In one simple statement he captured the essence of what it means to be a leader. In order for a company to be successful there has to be leaders in charge, not bosses. Over the course of my career I have worked for leaders and bosses. I have found that things run much smoother with a leader in charge. Communication is key in effective leadership; this requires a leader to be transparent, accessible and consistent. If a leader does not possess these skills there will most certainly be a breakdown in an organization.
The Importance of Communication in Leadership
When it comes to leadership there is nothing more important than communication. There are very excellent communication strategies that are associated with effective leadership. Over the course of my career I have worked for and with many different types of leaders. I first joined my current department two years ago. When I was first hired, my manager was very much a boss instead of a leader. You had to prove to him that you were worthy of his leadership. This led to chaos within the group. Information would fall through the cracks and the staff was left to try and figure things out on their own and being that I work in a call center that is a less than ideal situation. Thankfully, that manager decided he wanted to retire so we
In this essay, I am going to discuss how practices of leadership contribute to managing communication in the post bureaucratic era. This essay shall discuss the effectiveness of leadership approaches in the post bureaucratic era in managing communication in organizations. In section 1, I shall discuss leadership in terms of communication by drawing upon the article by Barry B. (2007). In addition, I shall also discuss the use of communication in running an organization in a leader’s desired way (Jack, G., 2004) and the need of contingency approach (Browning, 2007, pg 190) while communicating with employees. In section 2, I shall discuss how management stimulate loyalty in employees through embedding organizational identity (Gagne, J.F.,
Diana Lee, I think that a majority of significant issues that many people tend to run into is poor leadership skills and abilities. Moreover, a lack of respect for one another and sometimes lack of respect for ourselves. Although, the lack of communication has become problematic in itself. The essentials to having a good healthy company have to have an abundant of leadership skills and abilities. Once the leader fails, the followers will gradually have failure as well. Similar to the same "when the blind leadeth the blind all will fall into the dark hole." Without having trust and honesty what does a group of people have? The group has a massive pile of poop and failure. Repetition is how we learn and sometimes repeating what has become said
According to Lussier & Achua, (2013, p. 192) Leader is a person who represents his/her workers and motivates them to reach company goals, communication and effective leadership skills play best roles when leaders try to achieve goals. Leader has to deal with number of people on day to day basis such as workers, customers, investors, media people etc. The success of leader depends on communication skills because, if the leader able to create a good communication with employees can accomplish lot more than leader expected (Shukla, 2011)
A leader’s age and generation plays a significant role in the way they communicate. When different generations come together they bring with them their own worldviews and expectations. An effective leader is able to step out of their generational preferences and customize the way they communicate to the other generations. By effectively addressing and taking advantage of those unique generational differences they can bridge the generations together to create a collaborative, innovative and exciting work environment resulting in a highly productive and performing workforce.
Ineffective communication is often cited as the number one reason organizations are not as effective as they could be (Coughlin, 2014). For an effective leader, interpersonal communication skills are one of the most critical leadership skills to master (Marquis & Huston, 2012). Communication within an organization can be very complex and at times difficult to navigate; the effective leader will be assertive and will display active listening in their interpersonal communication style (Marquis & Huston, 2012). Assertive communication does not infringe on another person’s rights and allows for open, direct and honest communication (Marquis & Huston, 2012). Active listening requires that the leader allow for the entire conveyance of the message before formulating a response; giving both time and attention to other participant (Marquis & Huston,
A well-researched knowledge-base is a necessity. Organization is also key to being a leader. A leader must plan thoroughly to properly direct the group. Even though careful planning is crucial, a leader must remain flexible when problems arise. Remaining humble is also important. Once a leader raises her/himself above the group, s/he will lose respect and will be seen as a ruler - and not a leader. A leader must see eye-to-eye with the group to retain an effective role. To manage the needs of the group, a leader must be trusting enough to allow others to help. If a leader makes all the decisions without the group’s input, or does not allow the group an active role, the group will no longer agree with the leader and will not feel valued. The leader’s effectiveness and respect form the group will the drop. The group must also trust the leader to make wise decisions. Despite the fact that these qualities are mostly seen when leading a cause, they can be extended to other roles of leadership.
I find communication the most important concept on Module 6, Leadership and Followership. It is important because it builds connection and inspiration to all members of a team. It also builds trust and when you have trust in your followers, it increases credibility and supports effective communications. Lack of communication creates a chain of problems from arguments, failing relationships to mission failure. Communication is only good if it is shared to everyone.
According to Yukl (Yukl, 2013) one of the many definitions of leadership is “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable other to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization”. Therefore it is of importance to have an effective leader in an organization to guide the company in the correct direction, in order to achieve the company’s’ main goal.
Good leadership is also important to run a business. Usually, in companies, management stresses more on decision- making skills. They believe a timely and smart decision will help their company to succeed. They forget that implementation of those decisions are as important as making those decision. Without a proper implementation , there will be no results. Like there is a saying that, it’s easier to said than done. Similarly, making a decision will change nothing, its how to get things done in a timely and an effective way will help an organization to accomplish their goals. Leadership is crucial in implementing decisions correctly and successfully.
Leadership is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as the “action of leading a group of people or an organization.” Leadership is also the ability to set trends, inspire, motivate, and sway others to produce desired results. There are different styles and ways of performing leadership and a good leader has the ability to take ordinary people, put them all together, and hopefully yield successful results. For organizations to have sustained results from their performance there must be a good balance of business insight, technical and interpersonal skills, and good team dynamics. A leader must know how to use all these areas as well as trust and communicate with their people in
Throughout high school, I was fortunate to hold several leadership positions. Being in the leadership group taught me the importance of having a vision and taking initiative in order to lead effectively. But most importantly, it taught me that effective communication is key to good leadership.
Within any organization the elements of leadership, motivation, and workforce commitment are inextricably meshed with the effectiveness of communication. Organizations develop their respective cultures through communication among leadership and with all employees, regarding their mission, values, and goals (Robbins & Judge, 2007). Formal and informal leaders within organizations use communication to motivate others, and to create loyal and trustworthy employees. Such an organization is Southwest Airlines, whose company culture has been characterized over the years by unique leadership and communications styles (Schnoberger, 1992).
Communication is vital for human connection. As leadership practices in the post bureaucratic era, have changed from a notion of command and control (hard power) to an environment of empowerment and trust relationships between employees and their leaders (soft power), more transmission of messages take place due to these practices such as engaging in discussions, feedback, decision-making and team building. Acknowledging and managing easier means of interaction in organisations results in improved productivity, job satisfaction, loyalty, commitment and more.
It is impossible for business, government, non-profits and any other organizations to lack of leaders. If the organization lacks of leaders, it will be messy and inefficient. As a result, an outstanding leader is very important to organization.
Leadership is defined as the ability to accomplish a set goal(s) due to the act of inspiring and motivating a group of your peers. Former United States president Dwight D. Eisenhower made famous a quote that stated, “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” (Notable-quotes.com). One of the most important aspects of the work area is leadership. Without leadership, there will be no guidance to for teamwork and the percentage of successful goal will be slim to none. Becoming a great leader is no easy feat however. An exceptional leader must lock in on specific attributes such as intellect, moral character, and human