Leadership one of the key elements of success Essay

Leadership is considered to be one of the key elements of successful operation of any company. It is possible to say that in modern conditions of strong competition succeed those organization that have a more dynamic and effective leadership. In the modern management under the leadership is meant any individual (manager) or team (management team), or the process, that is the way of management of the organization.
The nature of leadership may be better understood if compared with the actual management or governance. Manager in his influence on the work of subordinates and building relationships with them primarily uses and relies on the power and his competencies to manage. Leadership, as a specific type of relationship management, is based more on the process of social interaction, or rather interactions in the organization. The manager does not automatically considered to be a leader in the organization, since Leadership is largely characterized by informal basis. A person can occupy the first position in the organization, but not to be its real leader. The process of influence through the abilities and skills or other resources on people is called informal leadership. The informal nature of leadership is based on the use of personal qualities and power. Thus, people with power in the organization can be divided into three categories: the formal manager, opinion leader and formal leader.
Leadership is the process of influencing a group of people to lead them along for the joint implementation of management decisions to achieve certain goals. This implies that a modern leader must be strategist. Leadership is associated with the part of management of the organization, which occurs in the field of personnel management, the formation of the will of managers and strategies, implementing and maintaining of the goal achieved.
Analysis of the nature of leadership shows that it derives from the specific needs of individuals to follow leaders. More details on the nature of leadership are revealed in various theories. The theory of traits explains the phenomenon of leadership due to his certain qualities, which make person outstanding, such as: mind, will, dedication, organizational skills, competence, etc. According to the concept of charismatic leadership the followers must experience the inspiration from a leader and strive to emulate him in everything. Developers of situational theory proceeded from the assumption that the specific circumstances determine the selection of a leader and determine his behavior. Psychological theories describe how the internal motives of man to take leading position affect the formation, nature and direction of activities of the leader. (Montana 2008)
It is possible to say that there are cetain traits that are common to all leaders: possession of intellect and knowledge; good looking; honesty; possession of common sense (the leader should not be dogmatic); initiative; high degree of self-confidence; high performance.
The effective leadership is directly connected with the ability of leaders to lead organizational and interpersonal communication while working with group of people. From this aspect it is possible to point the following kinds of leadership:
– Leadership on the basis of power, strength (P). this kind of leadership include: relationship of inequality, pressure on subordinates, focus on achieving the goals of leadership, the predominance of coercive power over the power authority. The problem of followers.
– Behavioral concept of leadership. Leadership behavior is the act of coordinating the work of the group (distribution of responsibilities, motivation, criticism, etc).
– Leadership through technology collaboration. In this case the leader is recognized the one who has a program for the entire group, and who knows how to achieve results with minimal resources. The most efficient member of the group becomes a leader.
– Leadership as an influence. Leader is one who has the most important influence on others. This leadership relies on interpersonal influence and communications.
– Leadership through persuasion, which is based on influencing people’s believes.
– Leadership as to reach an agreement. Leader reaches obedience, respect and loyalty of employees by achieving agreement between them, which implies the maximum co-operation with minimal controversy.
– Leadership as a center of all activities of the group. Leader in this situation is always a “core” of the group. (Montana & Charnov, 2008)
The role of leader in the management of personnel is determined by his efforts to identify worthy candidates for working in the group, to send a group energy to organizational goals. Leadership also finds expression in action of the group members, encourages them to demonstrate their strong personal qualities and restrain the manifestation of weak character traits. The performance of the leader is also manifested in his ability to manage social conflicts: managing of the social conflict includes activity of the leader to constructively influence the situation that caused the conflict, to the conflict participants and the nature of the interaction of all stakeholders. Depending on the nature of the conflict and the peculiarities of its participants the leader can choose the role of a mediator or judge when managing the conflict.
In the literature, there is also a classification of types of leadership styles:
– Authoritarian;
– Democratic;
– Neutral (anarchist).
The leader of an authoritarian type is characterized by rigid one-man decision-making for the group, little interest to the employee as an individual. The leader of the democratic type tends to develop specific solutions, while demonstrating an interest in the informal aspect of human relations. The neutral-type leader is characterized by a complete detachment from the affairs of the collective.
It is possible to say that the democratic style, according to most researchers, is more preferable, because such leaders are usually considerate, respectful and objective in dealing with members of the group. Such leaders initiate maximum participation of everyone in the group’s activities, do not concentrate responsibility and try to distribute it among all members of the group, create an atmosphere of cooperation. Information is not monopolized by the leader and is available to team members. With this style are enhanced personal commitment of followers to work, however, the decision-making requires much more time than under the authoritarian style . (Nohria 2010)
The leader performs a variety of social roles, which require specific knowledge and skills. Among the issues under the competence of the leader the main ones are:
– adoption and development of a certain type of organizational culture,
– building effective communication in the organization,
– formation of working groups and management,
– conflict management,
– building coalitions and developing partnerships,
– timely response to the dynamics of the environment and management changes
– creation and management of organizational culture, etc. (Tittemore 2003)
Effective leadership is directly connected with the ability of leaders to lead organizational and interpersonal communication while working on her character. The strategy of organization development and effectiveness of leadership are associated with objective and subjective possibilities of the leader, his ability, firstly, to govern coalition, and secondly, to establish and strengthen collaborative relationships and partnerships with organizations, interaction with which is essential to the effective operation.
As a conclusion we can say that the leader of the group can only be the person who can lead a group to solving of one or another situations, problems, challenges, who bears the most important for this group traits and skills, who shares the values ​​of the group.