BECOMING A LEADER! WHAT DOES IT MEAN & HOW DO YOU GET IT?:Mission Statement, Leading oneself

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Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

Lesson 16

BECOMING A LEADER! WHAT DOES IT MEAN & HOW DO YOU GET IT?

Leadership is the exercise of influence by one member of a group or organization over other members

to help the group or organization achieve its goals. Formal leaders have formal authority to influence

others by virtue of their job/position responsibilities. Informal leaders lack formal authority but

influence others by virtue of their special skills or talents.

Becoming a Leader:

The leaders of a group, team or organization are the individuals who influence others behavior. Leader

effectiveness is the extent to which a leader actually does help a group, team or organization to achieve

its goals. Leaders are either appointed by someone external to the group and they are elected by group

members themselves. Some people take up role of leader by using their influences. With the passage of

time, you can see that leadership will emerge over time. The group members will assess with in the

group that who is leader worthy. In this situation, communication style will play a dynamic role. A

group member can become a leader if he or she has following qualities/skills;

Share your vision

Think like a leader

Adapt your style

Develop your judgment

Pick the right followers

Build leadership traits

Organize tasks properly

Build your power base

Foundations of Leadership:

Vision:

Leaders must have, and be able to communicate a vision. Leaders must make the followers see what the

organization can become and the success that can be achieved. A Leader must be effective that actually

does help a group, team or organization to achieve its goals. An effective leader helps achieve goals. An

ineffective leader does not.

Mission Statement:

Every organization needs a mission statement, which is a statement of the purpose of an organization.

The mission statement addresses the question: What is the organization's reason for being in business?

It broadly outlines the organization's future course and communicates "who we are, what we do, and

where we are headed. Mission Statement describes purpose of the organization;

WHAT is expected to be achieved

WHY is it worthwhile

HOW it can be done

Defines Core Values

Objectives:

Objectives are desired outcomes for individuals, groups, team or entire organizations. The leaders have

to provide objectives--specific results that he or she wants the group to achieve. Planning is the first

management function, but by providing direction, a manager becomes a leader.

Direction:

A leader must provide a direction for achievement of the objectives to his or her followers that can

work toward. A vision is especially important in today's volatile business environment.

Steps to Leadership: The following are the key steps to leadership:

Identify what is happening (identifying areas requiring leadership)

Account for what is happening using behavior science theories and concepts

Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

Formulate leader actions based on your knowledge of how to motivate employees and how to

resolve and manage inter-group conflicts

Leading: Leaders must choose a style to suit the situation in organization to achieve the goals;

Employee oriented: a leader may have an employee oriented style for its effective working with in

the group and team.

Participative: a leader may have participative style to motivate other group members to involve in

other organizational activities or to motivate employees to support each other in the achievement of

organizational goals.

Job centered: a leader may have job centered style to play a hub role in the organization.

Autocratic: a leader may have autocratic style according to the organizational environment exits.

The other factors also play a dynamic role to achieve the organizational role. A leader must;

Influence organization culture: as we know that the culture is the set of values, norms and beliefs

define by the organization environment or management, a leader must influence on the organizational

culture for making a congenial working environment.

Motivate: Motivation is a frequently used but poorly understood in term dynamics. There are over 140

definitions of the term motivation that have been used in various capacities. Motivation is important

because it explains why employees behave as they do. Leaders need to understand this so that they must

motivate the employees towards the organizational goals.

Influence communication: Communication is one of the most important processes that take place in

organizations. Effective communication allows individuals, groups, teams and organizations to achieve

their goals and perform at a high level, and it affects virtually every aspect of organizational behavior.

Communication is good or effective when members of organization share information with each other

and all parties involved are relatively clear about what information means. So leader must focus on the

organizational communication. Good communication prevents many problems from occurring and

serves the following functions in an organization.

Influence the group: A leader must have influence on the group or team to achieve the organizational

goals. If the leader loses the influence on group or team he or she me lose the game.

Have leadership traits and power: There are so many traits of leader ship which can not be explained

and varies from person to person and style to style? But each leader must make sure the achievement of

organizational goals in a best way.

Three competency of a Leader: there are three competency of leader;

Leading the Organization:

Leading the organization and put the organization on right path through setting vision, direction and

strategy. They also involve in problem solving and decision making. They keenly observe the

prevailing politics in the organization and influence other team members. Leaders always try to create a

change culture in the organization. For this purpose they take the risks and innovates the new things in

the organization by enhancing business skills and knowledge.

Leading others:

One of the leader's competencies is leading and managing others. In the organization, a leader manages

the effective teams and groups for achievement of organizational objectives by building and

maintaining a working relationship between them. They motivate other and build the trust on team

members. One of the major tasks of leader is to develop other, which is more important factor. They set

a reward system in the organization and mostly link it with the performance or achievement of goals.

Leading oneself:

This is also very important to leading one self. It is the responsibility of the leader to adopt the changes

prevails in the environment. They also increase the self awareness for himself that what is going on in

Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

the surroundings of the organization. They always try to lean as more as they can. They also develop

the culture of ethics and integrity with in the organization.

Developing adaptability, increasing self-awareness, managing yourself, increasing capacity to learn,

exhibiting leadership stature, displaying drive and purpose, developing ethics and integrity.

Leaders always know about their strengths, weakness, opportunities, challenges and know who they are

as an individual. They also know that "Positions do not possess leadership characteristics, only people

possess leadership characteristics."

"Leadership is not a matter of luck. The harder you work, the luckier you are."

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