Effective Leadership of a group Essay

One of the major challenges facing the leadership of the company is to develop effective mechanisms of management of the activity of a group, as an associations of people within the company. It is quite clear that well-coordinated team of specialists has a much better chance of success, in contrast to the situation if each person works alone. A leader is, first of all, a person who has ability to influence others, and from the use of leadership skills depends largely the effectiveness of work of the group. That is, one of the basic principle of leadership was expressed by Koontz and O’Donnel: “Since people tend to follow those in whom they see a means of satisfying their own personal goals, the more managers understand what motivates their particular subordinates, how these motivations operate, and the more they reflect this understanding in carrying out their managerial actions, the more effective leaders they are likely to be.” (Koontz & O’Donnell, 1976)
This statement is also connected with six-step model of leadership effectiveness, which was proposed by J. Clawson:
1) clarifying who you are (personal values and mission),
2) clarifying what you want (strategic vision),
3) clarifying what others can contribute (participative leadership),
4) supporting others so they can contribute (organizational redesign),
5) relentlessness, and
6) monitoring and celebrating progress. (Clawson 2007)
The model shows that for effective leadership and management of the group there should be a strong interaction and mutual understanding between. Without that the leader and members of the group just can’t find common language and combine their efforts for the common goal and strategy. It is from their cooperation and joint efforts depends the result of the work. But it should be one more time stressed that more on leadership depends the effectiveness of work of employees (for about 30-35%). As noted by H. Koontz and C. O’Donnell, “if subordinates are guided only by the rules and requirements established by management, they can run about 60 or 65% of their capacity, just to perform their duties satisfactorily enough to hold a job. To achieve full use of abilities of subordinates the supervisor should motivate them to work with a help of leadership” (Koontz & O’Donnell, 1976).
That is why, today a successful leader is the one who knows how to inspire others, to lead them to achieve goals and is able to convince members of his team to accept his values. The leader must possess certain qualities that are certainly describe him as a leading person: this is a set of managerial skills, especially thinking (the ability to work on several problems simultaneously, the stability in a situation of uncertainty), personality traits (persistence, vigor, sensitiveness). I believe that the leader must be able to adequately plan activities in conditions of instability and uncertainty, possess persistence in making decisions, and be understanding in relation to employees. One of the important factors of a successful leader is the ability to understand the personnel, the ability to help subordinates and the ability to rely on others. So, the leader should share his knowledge, best practices which he has, and always be ready to assist the professional growth of his subordinates. A leader is, first of all, a person who has ability to influence others, and from the use of leadership skills depends largely the effectiveness of work of the group. That is, one of the basic principle of leadership was expressed by Koontz and O’Donnel example of the leader, who should be a model of high self-organization.
Having considered the basic concepts associated with leadership, it is necessary to speak about organization of effective work of groups. In my experience I can say that the effective work of the group depends largely on the leader, that is, from his management of the team: his behavior in relation to subordinates, allowing to influence them and make them to do what is currently needed. In this case, the relationship between leader and group members may be based on the following:
1. Partnership and cooperation between the leader and subordinate group members
2. The joint work of all members and the leader
3. Delegation of authority to subordinates
4. Joint decision making
That is, the effective work of the group largely depends on the level of cooperation of the members, that is why one of the main tasks for the leader is to select the best methods of work with the staff. In fact, for the leader there are three main ways of motivating employees: 1) to make them work, 2) to find mutual agreement 3) create an environment in which the employee will be interested and motivated to work (self-motivation).
It can confidently be said that the best results of the work of the group can be achieved, specifically affecting the following factors of effectiveness:
– Motivation: in my opinion, it is the most important factor, that is why the use of targeted incentives and participatory stimulus is necessary;
– Management Style: management should contain the elements of partnership, cooperation, fairness, delegation of certain powers, relying on experience and responsibilities of the staff;
– The nature and formulation of the problem and tasks: concrete formulation, taking into account the novelty and complexity when distributing the work, and emphasizing the importance of implementing the tasks.
To know the factors affecting the work of employees means for the leader to have in his hands a powerful tool, but the main thing is to be able to use it, taking into account both internal (private) features of the group, and a number of common features of group work.
Conclusion
A group is a collection of people closely interacting and influencing on each other, united by common interests, profession, activity. Any organization is a collection of groups of people, and the work of each group directly affects the outcome of the whole enterprise. Therefore, the main task of leaders and managers is to organize an effective group work and lead it to high results.