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 organization
2. Focus on the two or three things most important to your vision and goals. Don’t spread
your attention too thin
3. 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 suggestions
5. Surround yourself with the right people, a strong team
6. Treat your employees exceedingly well. Help them become successful in their careers
and their lives
7. Apply the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you
8. Be in a business you love and are passionate about.
9. Constantly innovate to gain and sustain competitive advantage and serve your customers
better
10. Plan everything. Leave nothing to chance
11. Be a leader and actually lead. Take responsibility. Make tough decisions
12. Lead by example. Don’t expect your people to do what you won’t or don’t do yourself
13. Listen to the people who are closest to the customers and the marketplace. They will give
you your best advice and input
14. Set performance goals and establish metrics by which you can measure your performance
and results
15. Be service-oriented. How can you make the lives of your employees and customers
better, easier, and more rewarding?