Leadership Issues 'Leaders must shape up if they are to be successful in the new global village'

Effective business leadership is critical for meeting employee, customer and business needs.

Good Leadership ensures active participation of stakeholders, facilitates transparency and must be about accountability at all times. Issues in Leadership in International BusinessFacilitating transparency Facilitating transparency is achieved through introduction of business plans and related action plans. The drafting of business plans ensures that employees are in full knowledge of their own part of the work portion, the boundary as dictated through terms of reference or position description as well as the financial scope or budget allocation. It ensures that they assume responsibility for their actions and that they are fully accountable for the actions. Present day Leadership must engage in information and knowledge sharing. It is not enough that Leadership thinks it is right; it is not enough that it is right; what matters is that employees, the public, the people agree that it is right. This is a fundamental reality of democracy. Responsible Leadership will take trouble to sound out public opinion, listen to concerns raised even when they may not be correct. Communication Challenges It is not uncommon in the Public Service to find that within one Ministry knowledge of activities or business direction, is confined only to Leadership, and the rest of staff is in the dark of what is happening and what should be happening. Employees are often concerned about not being informed and Leadership is far too busy to devise ways of communication strategies with them. The result on inadequate internal communication is that the employees, who are far larger in numbers than Leadership itself, usually resort to despondency which in turn leads to poor service delivery, exhorbitant costs of electricity bills (where heaters are left on throughout all winter and autumn seasons), telephone bills, stationery, absenteeism, incessant sick leaves, theft, rumour mongering and playing truancy etc. Ensuring proper flow of communication is essential in between and outside the organization.

Live the Mission When Making Leadership Decisions Live the mission by constantly communicating the mission so that everyone of the team understands the mission and acts to live the mission. Ask team members the following question, What did you do today to live the mission and achieve the goals of the mission? Develop clear and concise team member descriptions so that everyone understands how they make a difference. Motivate and reward team members based on how well they lived the mission. Maintaining powerful leadership values within and outside the organization.

The best leaders exhibit both their values and their ethics in their leadership style and actions. Lack of trust is a problem in many workplaces. If leaders never identified their values in these workplaces, the mistrust is understandable. People don't know what they can expect. If leaders have identified and shared their values, living the values daily, visibly will create trust. To say one sentiment and to do another will damage trust possibly forever.

Leadership behaviors Academics and business thought leader shape developed countless leadership models over the ages to identify the key behavioral attributes required for success. Which leadership behaviors are most relevant in corporate settings? Which tools and model (Like Team leadership, Operational leadership, Strategic Leadership)should be opted by the leader for a specific business? Four pivotal leadership behaviors Visioning Setting a vision for what that organization can be in the future Evaluating Gathering information to determine strategic risks for the organization Collaborating Leveraging the value of connections and relationships to overcome organizational barriers and accomplish key activities Executing Getting the most out of followers and achieving desired results. Leadership issues in virtual Business Virtually all of the leadership behaviors were perceived as valuable in both the corporate and internet settings. While the relative importance of each of the behaviors was slightly lower for gaming leadership, overall, these behaviors were still found to be highly relevant. leadership behaviors are universal, but the relative importance of those behaviors shifts in a virtual world. Virtual leaders must focus on developing trust among people who may never physically interact. Visioning will remain the most important behaviors for leaders of globally integrated enterprises to master while communicating to a global workforce engulfed in constant change.