Abstract
Good leadership is essential for the success of a business organization. Modern business has been diversified and new practices have been introduced. Even the most effective leadership techniques can end up being obsolete as far as new business models are concerned. Leaders should be flexible. They should strategize their leadership models in such a way that they can quickly adopt to change soon as the need arises. In order for business leaders to remain relevant as time goes by, they should be able to outline their main areas of organizational leadership that they intend to put their major focus on. This study will focus on three elements of leadership; team leadership, innovation and people development. These three were chosen based on the realization that they bring together all the other elements of organizational leadership. A discussion of how the three should be employed by business leaders will form the bulk of this study.
Leadership Competency Improvement Focus Proposal
Introduction
In my life, I have always believed in the power of transformational leadership as the key to success in business. There are different scales of business that exist today. In my case, I consider a business that employs many people as being more viable than a sole proprietorship. This is based on my belief on the essence of profit maximization, customer satisfaction and creating employment opportunities. In order to bring the significance of the above mentioned objectives into practice, realized that effective transformational leadership is a component that will have to be embedded in my life for as long as I wish to practice business. Transformational leadership is not just applicable in the business sector. It is applicable in my everyday life as well. My interactions with friends and family are made more efficient whenever I apply the ideologies of transformational leadership, values and ethics. Personally, this trait has garnered me a large amount of success and I intend to continue holding on to it.
Leadership Competencies
Innovation, team leadership and people development are the leadership competencies that will be addressed in this study. People development involves coming up with strategies to enhance the quality of employee output. Identifying the best people development strategies is one of the greatest challenges facing business leaders. Learning and development programs is one way by which leaders can practice people development. Many business organizations spend a lot of money on these programs.
Innovation constitutes coming up with new ways of doing things. Anyone can innovate. Employees have for a long time now been embedded in the misconception that business innovation is something that should be left to the executives. This is not the case. One way in which this mindset can be reversed is by implementing people development programs. Innovation brings numerous advantages to a business organization. For instance, it gives a firm the competitive advantage of growing and adapting the firm’s business in the marketplace. Organizations that employ innovation are likely to save time and money in their operations.
The success or failure of a business team is determined by the effectiveness of the team leaders’ strategies. A good leader will lead his or her team to success while a bad one will lead his or her team to failure. Team leadership is characterized by the size of the organization one is dealing with. Being the manager of a small company is not the same as heading a large organization. The two bring diverse challenges on the table. As such, it is advisable to view the two in the context of leadership in general.
Effective team leadership depends on the characteristics of the leaders. A good team leader is supposed to be flexible. The modern business environment keeps changing from time to time. An effective leader should be able to quickly adopt to these changes and unite the team around new and reversed goals. By so doing the leader ensures that the team does not get glued to old practices in a changing business environment. A team leader is tasked with the responsibility of developing the organization’s operational strategies. A good leader should not take on this responsibility independently. He or she should take advice from the organization’s funders, trustees, staff, service users and partner agencies.
Innovation, team leadership and people development are some of the main factors that define an organization’s success or failure. The success of a business is dependent on a number of factors. The core competencies of a firm are based on its leadership model. Innovation, team leadership and people development are three most crucial components of a leadership model. They encompass all the other factors that lead to organizational success. An organization that is able to come up with an effective strategy that will include these three is guaranteed to succeed even in the most unfavorable business environment. This formed the rationale for choosing these three.
Leadership competencies proposal
People development can be done in different ways. Managers play a crucial role in influencing employees. One way in which people development can be executed is by igniting the managers’ passion to coach their employees. Managers pass important skills, insights and knowledge to the employees through coaching and mentoring. Modern business has been globalized and as such, it has become more competitive and complex (Tipu, Ryan and Fantazy, 2012). This has led to managers being overburdened by new responsibilities. This has made it difficult for them to handle what they were originally tasked to do let alone offer coaching and mentoring.
The business world is changing. Knowledge and skills can be become obsolete in just a few months. Leaders should ensure that managers and their employees learn rapidly and regularly. Currently in most organizations, learning and people development is a once in a while occasion. This should be transformed to be a more continuous, ongoing campaign. Adopting new strategies of conducting people development can consequentially lead to information overload. This can be risky to an organization.
Enacting leadership strategies that will ensure that tech employees own their own career development is good way of performing people development. The organization cannot control the learning futures of the employees. It is the responsibility of every individual to own, self-direct and control his or her learning futures (Freeborough, 2012). Individual’s talent development is crucial for overall productivity. It is not only essential for the general organizational success but it is also important for self-development and one’s ability to innovate.
Most employees do not have trust in the leadership systems that guide them in their respective organizations. This study suggests building trust in organizational leadership as a people development strategy. Employees crave transparency, honesty and openness from their leaders. Research conducted by the American Psychological Association postulates that only half of the employees in the U.S. are certain that their leaders are being upfront and open with them (Green, Miller and Aarons, 2015). Leaders are supposed to share their ongoing learning journeys with their employees. They should conform to the old adage, “lead by example.”
Through research and planning, an organizational can be able to identify the respective areas that need innovation. One way in which this can be done is through conducting a market study. Business market environment keeps changing. New trends keep coming up with the wake of every new working day. In order to stay up to date with these trends, an organization should be able to analyze these new trends and relate them to customers’ wants and needs and those of the competitors. Doing so will enable the firm to stay ahead of its competitors or at least stay in the same level.
Leaders should be open to new ideas. They should be adoptive to change. In order for them to do this, they should be able to seek advice. A good organization should have advisors, grants and assistance. These are essential in driving innovation. Learning everything there is to know about local and international collaboration can help the leaders head their employees through efficient and reliable innovative techniques. There is need to protect the organization’s ideas (Salem, 2015). Seeking Intellectual Property protection can aid the organization in commercializing its ideas.
Team leadership is the foundation on which innovation and people development are practiced. In this case, what matters is the characteristics that make an individual a good leader. A good leader should be confident, respectful, fair, influential, delegate, should have integrity, and should be a facilitator and a negotiator.
References
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