Assignment of human resource management

Leadership

A good leader makes sure he is surrounded by the right people.

“Success is not achieved totally by leadership alone,” says Gene Abbott, CEO of contracting firm Abbott and Associates. “A good leader makes sure he is surrounded by the right people, that there are open lines of communication in all matters, and that there is a strong commitment by all.

Treat your employees well.

“I have a simple management philosophy,” says Dan Amos, CEO of insurance giant AFLAC. “If you treat your employees well, they will take care of your customers and your business.

“Our first job is to take care of our employees. They, in turn, have always taken care of our business.

Focus on the work itself.

When asked to share his most powerful leadership technique, Bill Bonner, founder and president of Agora, a large international publisher of newsletters and other specialized information, replied: “I practice a technique that might be called dynamic indifference. I do not try to lead, probably because I am no good at it. Instead, I merely focus on the work itself.

“What needs to be done? Who’s got a better idea? Who’s going to do it? No attempt is made to lead.

“Just the contrary, people are ignored. Finally, they get tired of being ignored and turn to me for leadership. Then I tell them I can’t help them. This forces them to figure out the problem for themselves and resolve it.

For me a great leader is an enabler and a facilitator.

“My style of leadership is humane,” says Niranjan Ajwani of Ajwani Group. “I try to keep my leadership technique true to nature. If anything is not in harmony with nature and natural processes, it is not sustainable. I use this principle in making decisions in order to sustain happiness for myself and my teammates using our own natural strengths and rhythms to get the best out of our lives and also to sustain it.

“Leadership involves a lifelong commitment to self-mastery, to holistic living, and to a life of balance. A leader should not only harmonize his different needs, but also be an enabling and empowering factor in harmonizing the different needs of his teammates so that they enjoy work, play, love, relationships, and spiritual growth so very essential for a sustained joy.

“A great leader is an enabler and a facilitator. In actual practice we build teams with a shared vision and provide them with space, opportunity, and an environment for creativity and growth. We select members for their attitude and train them for their skills. Together we learn, we grow as a team, we create and contribute towards the progress of the enterprise—a cycle which brings workplace and personal satisfaction to each member.

“Leadership well exercised usually produces prestige, promotions, growth, customer satisfaction, business partner and associate satisfaction, stakeholder satisfaction, and win-win situations and smiles for all members of the enterprise.

“To achieve all this, a leader needs to have an integrative holistic global-vision for his enterprise and has to actively promote holistic thinking and humanistic behavior within the enterprise. A good leader inspires his people with a vision of further possibilities. He works to create value for society—transcending conflict with cooperation, and transforming problems into solutions, challenges into opportunities.

American Red Cross

Focus on the two or three issues that will effect the future of the enterprise.

Formerly CEO of the Toro Company, David McLaughlin finds himself-in a new leadership role as the nonexecutive chairman of the American Red Cross. (A nonexecutive chairman is a board chairman who does not also hold an executive position with the organization.)

“Leadership requirements of a nonexecutive chairman relate to keeping the board focused on the two or three issues that will affect the future of the enterprise, and working with management to implement the strategies that deal with these opportunities or challenges,” says David.

ArchivesOne, Inc.

Never let any relationship, internal or external, go stale or unmanaged.

When we asked A.J. Wasserstein, CEO of records management and storage company ArchivesOne, for his most important leadership secret, his immediate answer was: “Never let any relationship, internal or external, go stale or unmanaged.”

Why the emphasis on relationships? It’s based on the simple premise that virtually everything accomplished in the business world is done with the help of other people—especially true for

managers and executives who delegate tasks to others, or workgroup members who depend on their teammates for critical information or assistance in completing their own tasks.

“You never know when you will need help or support from a person,” says A.J. “If you actively manage those relationships, and keep the relationship warm, it is always easier to gain that person’s cooperation.” Relationship management is not restricted to customers and employees. All relationships—potential customers, vendors, suppliers, business partners, regulatory agencies, analysts, and shareholders—require nurturing.

AutoTrader.com

Challenge the status quo.

AutoTrader.com, the world’s leading automotive marketplace online, improves the way people research, buy, and sell cars by providing a comprehensive source of information and an inventory of more than 2.2 million vehicles for sale by private sellers, dealers, and manufacturers.

As you might imagine, building a leading-edge e-business requires an innovative mindset, and AutoTrader.com CEO Chip Perry sees fostering this mindset as one of his key leadership challenges.

“My most powerful leadership technique is to tell everyone who works for AutoTrader.com that one of their main responsibilities and obligations as an employee is to constantly challenge the status quo and relentlessly work to improve whatever product, process, or system they may use to get their work done,” says Chip. “Our company grew from zero to $100 million in revenues in just five years, and the main source of our success was the way our employees took the initiative to reinvent their part of the company at least once every six months.

“Most of the tools we use are created with software, which is inherently flexible and changeable. There is always room for improvement in how we help consumers shop for a car and help dealers and private owners advertise their cars for sale. It is the unending opportunity for improvement—melded with the creativity and drive of our employees—that spurs us to innovate everything we do for the benefit of our customers.

Types of leadership styles

The bureaucratic leader (Weber, 1905) is very structured and follows the

procedures as they have been established. This type of leadership has no space to

explore new ways to solve problems and is usually slow paced to ensure adherence

to the ladders stated by the company. Leaders ensure that all the steps have been

followed prior to sending it to the next level of authority. Universities, hospitals,

banks and government usually require this type of leader in their organizations to

ensure quality, increase security and decrease corruption. Leaders that try to speed

up the process will experience frustration and anxiety.

The charismatic leader (Weber, 1905) leads by infusing energy and eagerness

into their team members. This type of leader has to be committed to the

organization for the long run. If the success of the division or project is attributed to

the leader and not the team, charismatic leaders may become a risk for the

company by deciding to resign for advanced opportunities. It takes the company

time and hard work to gain the employees' confidence back with other type of

leadership after they have committed themselves to the magnetism of a

charismatic leader.

The autocratic leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) is given the power to make

decisions alone, having total authority. This leadership style is good for employees

that need close supervision to perform certain tasks. Creative employees and team

players resent this type of leadership, since they are unable to enhance processes

or decision making, resulting in job dissatisfaction.

The democratic leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) listens to the team's ideas

and studies them, but will make the final decision. Team players contribute to the

final decision thus increasing employee satisfaction and ownership, feeling their

input was considered when the final decision was taken. When changes arises, this

type of leadership helps the team assimilate the changes better and more rapidly

than other styles, knowing they were consulted and contributed to the decision

making process, minimizing resistance and intolerance. A shortcoming of this

leadership style is that it has difficulty when decisions are needed in a short period

of time or at the moment.

The laissez-faire ("let do") leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) gives no

continuous feedback or supervision because the employees are highly experienced

and need little supervision to obtain the expected outcome. On the other hand, this

type of style is also associated with leaders that don’t lead at all, failing in

supervising team members, resulting in lack of control and higher costs, bad service

or failure to meet deadlines.

The people-oriented leader (Fiedler, 1967) is the one that, in order to comply

with effectiveness and efficiency, supports, trains and develops his personnel,

increasing job satisfaction and genuine interest to do a good job.

The task-oriented leader (Fiedler, 1967) focuses on the job, and concentrates on

the specific tasks assigned to each employee to reach goal accomplishment. This

leadership style suffers the same motivation issues as autocratic leadership,

showing no involvement in the teams needs. It requires close supervision and

control to achieve expected results. Another name for this is deal maker (Rowley &

Roevens, 1999) and is linked to a first phase in managing Change, enhance,

according to the Organize with Chaos approach.

The servant leader (Greenleaf, 1977) facilitates goal accomplishment by giving its

team members what they need in order to be productive. This leader is an

instrument employees use to reach the goal rather than an commanding voice that

moves to change. This leadership style, in a manner similar to democratic

leadership, tends to achieve the results in a slower time frame than other styles,

although employee engagement is higher.

The transaction leader (Burns, 1978) is given power to perform certain tasks and

reward or punish for the team’s performance. It gives the opportunity to the

manager to lead the group and the group agrees to follow his lead to accomplish a

predetermined goal in exchange for something else. Power is given to the leader to

evaluate, correct and train subordinates when productivity is not up to the desired

level and reward effectiveness when expected outcome is reached.

The transformation leader (Burns, 1978) motivates its team to be effective and

efficient. Communication is the base for goal achievement focusing the group in the

final desired outcome or goal attainment. This leader is highly visible and uses

chain of command to get the job done. Transformational leaders focus on the big

picture, needing to be surrounded by people who take care of the details. The

leader is always looking for ideas that move the organization to reach the

company’s vision.

The environment leader ( Carmazzi, 2005) is the one who nurtures group or

organisational environment to affect the emotional and psychological perception of

an individual’s place in that group or organisation. An understanding and

application of group psychology and dynamics is essential for this style to be

effective. The leader uses organisational culture to inspire individuals and develop

leaders at all levels. This leadership style relies on creating an education matrix

where groups interactively learn the fundamental psychology of group dynamics

and culture from each other. The leader uses this psychology, and complementary

language, to influence direction through the members of the inspired group to do

what is required for the benefit of all.

Leadership associated with positions of authority

According to Thomas Carlyle, leadership emerges when an entity as "leader"

contrives to receive deference from other entities who become "followers". The

process of getting deference can become competitive in that the emerging "leader"

draws "followers" from the factions of the prior or alternative "leaders"

10 Ways To Improve Your Leadership Skills

Whether you are consciously aware of it or not, on some level you are continually leading yourself and others. As a result, it would only make sense that you strive to improve your leadership skills and get the most out of life for everyone in your sphere. If you desire to lead a passion-filled life wherein you are a positive influence to everyone.....you will enjoy incorporating the following practices to assist you in consistently living your life as a conscious and strong LEADER.

1. Have a clear vision of yourself, others, and the world. 2. Who are you? What do you stand for? What is your life purpose? Why and how do you want to

influence others? How do you want to contribute to yourself, your family, friends, colleagues, and the world?

Answer these questions to formulate a concrete vision of yourself and your world. Then, start living your life as the leader who makes your vision a reality!

2. Know and utilize your strengths and gifts.

You have unique gifts that you were born with and personal strengths you've developed over your lifetime. Realizing and utilizing these gifts and strengths will assist you in being a formidable leader.

3. Live in accordance with your morals and values.

Making choices and taking actions out of accordance with your morals and values leaves you with a nagging "bad" feeling. This feeling seeping in from your subconscious mind hinders your success in your career and your relationships. On the other hand, making choices and taking actions aligned with your morals and values helps you succeed almost effortlessly. People sense integrity and will naturally respect your opinion and leadership.

4. Lead others with inclusiveness and compassion.

The greatest leaders are those who include everyone in their sphere of influence by recognising each person's greatest value. To be one of these leaders, look beyond the obvious and see others with insight and compassion. Many of history's greatest leaders have admitted that they rose to the top because another leader recognised and harnessed their potential.

5. Set definitive goals and follow concrete action plans.

You have to know where your destination is before you can map out a plan to get there. To improve your leadership skills, first set specific life goals with appropriate timelines. Design your goals by moving backwards from the end of your life to the present week. Then, formulate action plans you can commit to that will get you to where you want to be.

6. Maintain a positive attitude.

No one respects a grumpy or negative person. With a positive attitude you are looking at the bright side of life. People are naturally attracted to you when you have a positive attitude. By being positive, you will lead a happier life, as well as be surrounded by other positive people. You will also magically attract exciting offers and possibilities.

7. Improve communication skills.

Having great leadership skills includes your being able to clearly and specifically communicate your vision, goals, skills, intentions, and expectations to others. This also includes your ability to listen to what other people are consciously or unconsciously communicating. To become a great communicator, continually strive to improve your verbal, nonverbal, and listening skills.

8. Motivate others to greatness.

A leader is as powerful as his team. As a leader, you will want to surround yourself with a powerful team by assisting others in recognising and utilising their strengths, gifts, and potential. Motivating others to their own greatness will improve the group energy....increase the vitality of your projects.....and move you forward toward achieving your goals and vision.

9. Be willing to admit and learn from your failures and weaknesses.

Face it ......No one is perfect..... and everyone has made a mistake or two in their lives! The most successful leaders know that the key to success is not in avoiding falling or failing, but in learning from their mistakes. As a strong leader, you will also be able to communicate your weaknesses to your team, so that you and your team can appoint someone who excels at that particular task or activity.

10. Continue to educate and improve yourself.

Great leaders continue to improve themselves in every possible way. The person who thinks he is an expert, has a lot more to learn. Never stop learning. Be receptive to everyone's perceptions and information from around the world and beyond.

Conclusion

The Top 15 Leadership Strategies of the World’s Most Successful CEO’s

1. Have a clear vision, a specific direction, and a goal for your organization2. Focus on the two or three things most important to your vision and goals. Don’t spread

your attention too thin3. Communicate your vision, strategy, goals, and mission to everyone involved—senior

management, employees, suppliers, vendors, customers, shareholders, and other stakeholders

4. Listen to what others tell you. Be willing to accept and act upon criticism and suggestions5. Surround yourself with the right people, a strong team6. Treat your employees exceedingly well. Help them become successful in their careers

and their lives7. Apply the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you8. Be in a business you love and are passionate about.9. Constantly innovate to gain and sustain competitive advantage and serve your customers

better10. Plan everything. Leave nothing to chance11. Be a leader and actually lead. Take responsibility. Make tough decisions12. Lead by example. Don’t expect your people to do what you won’t or don’t do yourself13. Listen to the people who are closest to the customers and the marketplace. They will give

you your best advice and input14. Set performance goals and establish metrics by which you can measure your performance

and results15. Be service-oriented. How can you make the lives of your employees and customers

better, easier, and more rewarding?