Simply stated, a leadership style is effective when it fits most of the requirements of the situation. For example if the business circumstance is a desperate turn-around situation, the leader's style has to be decisive, single minded, tough, confident, fair, bold, motivating, inspiring, and patient. To remain successful, this style would eventually have to change as the improved desired state is reached. Why? Because the situation is changing and so to must the leadership style move from a command-and-control/crisis approach to a more cooperative, team building approach characterized by longer range vision and competitive strategies.
I was given three opportunities at turn-around leadership roles in my career and found that the effective style that helped me successfully turn-around a poor performing operation was not the style that would nurture the level performing operation after the turnaround. Once the excitement and pace of the turnaround was over, I had to re-energize myself, my staff, and employees. I had to create a long-range vision, mission, set of strategic initiatives, and enthusiastically communicate that vision to give my employees another reason for coming to work besides saving our own jobs.
In his research on business situations and leadership, Victor Vroom created a working definition for leadership based upon a process orientation versus a set of properties belonging to the leader. Vroom indicates that a more process-oriented definition of leadership involves the following:
1. The process involves a particular form of influence called motivating.
2. The nature of the incentives, extrinsic or intrinsic, is not part of the definition.
3. The consequence of the influence is collaboration in pursuit of a common goal.
4. The "great things" are in the minds of both leader and followers and are not necessarily viewed as desirable by all other parties.
Vroom also sites the Leadership Contingency Model by Fred Fiedler as representative of a shift in thinking about leadership as a function influenced by the leader, the followers, and the situation. Fiedler suggests the most successful leadership outcome is a result of matching the leader to the situation. As an executive, the concept may be as intuitive to your way of thinking as it is to mine. However, I would take the concept a step further to propose that the most valuable leadership stock in your organization is those leaders who have proven they are able to adapt and lead successfully in a variety of situations.
If as a leader, you have the capacity to size up a leadership situation quickly, and the versatility to modify your leadership style, you can handle a variety of assignments and be effective. This is so very important for business leaders to understand and master since over the course of an entire career, you will be faced with a variety of complex leadership situations. The approaches and style you successfully used before may lead to only marginal results or worse.
Hoppe, M. W., (September 1970), Leadership Style and Effectiveness Of department Chairmen In Business Administration, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 3
Fiedler, F. E., (September 1977), Job engineering for effective leadership: A new approach, Management Review, Vol. 66 Issue 9
Khan, O., (Fall 2005), The challenge of adaptive leadership, Leader to Leader, Vol. 2005 Issue 38
Vroom, V. H.; Jago, A. G., (January 2007), The Role of the Situation in Leadership, American Psychologist,Vol. 62, Issue 1
Mr. McCarty has a proven record of accomplishment in strategic leadership roles for fortune 500 companies. He is an award winning performer in the areas of large-scale operations leadership, strategic planning, senior project management, and significant contributions to the bottom line. Michael has successfully leveraged his leadership skills to provide keen insight, vision, direction, and executive support to financial services firms, information technology firms, and the automotive, credit, and insurance industries. He has been particularly effective in start-up and turnaround situations.
Insisting on integrity, self-reliance, resourcefulness, and ingenuity, Mr. McCarty is an action and solution oriented leader capable of making strong financial contributions to the bottom line. Operational leadership in the areas of process improvements, cost analysis, and innovative revenue generation characterize soundly this veteran executive's distinguished career. For more on Mr. McCarty, please refer to http://www.leadershippinnacle.com
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น