Transformational And Charismatic Leadership – Characteristics, Traits, And Theories

Observation

Discuss about the Transformational and Charismatic Leadership.

The main aim of the assignment is to specify the skills and abilities of a leader. The author prepares an interview questions for the leader of an organization to know the skills that the leader posses and the how it is used for running the organization successfully. A leader is the one who guides the employees and other members of the organization to work better. The leaders have many responsibilities. There are many leadership theories that have been developed by various authors (Baker 2013). The author in this essay specifies the characteristics of the leaders and their leadership traits, behavior, attitude and the role of a leader in an organization. A leader is observed and considered as a medium of change.

Leaders have different roles to play in different professions. For example, a leader in an educational institute is responsible for helping the students gain knowledge and see check whether the students are able to maintain discipline. In case of business organizations, the role of leader is to manage the working of employees, guide, and motivate them to work better. The role of leaders in a sports organization is train the people and encourages them to win. Leader is also responsible to provide the students or other people with their needs (Chemers 2014). Many factors make leaders effective. An effective leader is the one who is able to manage work efficiently in an organization. Leader is responsible to keep all the employees happy and satisfied. A leader is a risk taker (Goleman et al. 2013).  

The leader of an Entertainment company in Singapore is very inspiring. The role of Mr. John in the Broadway internationals is that of an assistant manager. The employees of the organization look forward to his speech due to the way of presentation. Handling the entire team and managing the work efficiently is some of the qualities that a leader should posses. Mr. John is aid to be very efficient in delivering and managing the entire team in the organization. The main aim of the entertainment industry is to entertain people. Hence it is the responsibility of a leader to check that employees are taking or delivering the task with diligence and according to the psychological needs of customers.

Many common factors are found in all the leaders. The fifteen things that the leaders do in a workplace are as follows:

Leadership Theories

A leader encourages employees in an organization to speak up. The employees at a workplace are encouraged to put forward their queries and share the opinions and the concepts. A leader is the one who is approachable so that employees are free to voice their opinion. The most important thing a leader in an organization does is to make the decision (Gächter et al. 2012). It is the responsibility of a leader to take decisions as per the objectives of the firms. A successful leader is the one who is able to make the decision at any point of situation. Formulation of strategy based on the decision taken is also the thing that a leader does.

A leader is also responsible to convey all the information to the employees at a workplace. For this, a leader should have a good communication skill. Conveying the mission and vision statement of an organization to its employees is also necessary. The leader is in an organization always helped the team to stay focused and presents a path by communicating the expectation of the organization.

Leaders are the one that practice what they preach. A leader is also the one who is accountable for the behavior and actions of its team mate. Once an employee had failed to deliver the task on time for which the leader of the organization was responsible to management. Leaders are responsible for measuring the performance of employees and rewarding them in form of compensation and recognition. The leaders observe the efforts. The relationship of employees with its leaders is trustworthy. Leaders are responsible to take continuous feedback from employees and check the contribution of employees towards the organization.  

The other important thing that a leader in an organization does is try to solve the problems that the employees in an organization face. Leaders are responsible for tackling the issues efficiently and effectively. The biggest role that a leader in an organization plays is to encourage and motivate it employees work better. For this, the leader is required to have a positive attitude and energy. A leader makes the uncomfortable situation comfortable in workplace. Maintaining the work culture and the culture of the organization is also the responsibility of a leader. Efficient leaders are always efficient and focused on obtaining result. The result such obtained is beneficial for all the stakeholders of the organization, customers and employees as well. Leader sets a particular that the employees follow. The path focuses on achieving the mission and objectives of the organization.

Leadership Styles

An effective leader is the one who is passionate in its working. Effective leader should have good communication skills and zeal to encourage people with it positive attitude and work. A leader should be polite and have a good personality. Leadership implies values. An effective leader is the one that has clear vision and is creative in nature. Good confidence, honesty is some of the skills and values that make a leader effective. It is the behavior, interpersonal skills, attitudes, traits and behaviors of a leader that makes them effective. Leader in the business organization is efficient because of the nature that he holds. The leader is very friendly in nature. Employees feel free to talk about their problems to the leaders. This allows and inculcates a sense of belonging to the employees. 

There are various leadership theories developed by various authors such as:

The Great Man Theory is a leadership theory where the main point is that leaders are not made but are born. The values that leader holds is intrinsic in nature. The critics of Trait theory believe that the leaders are born or made with certain values and Characteristics. The Behavioral theories of leadership focuses on the behavior of leadership and the values that the leaders posses. The Contingency leadership theory specifies that the leadership style is not same and varies according to situations and profession. Transformational leadership theory specifies the relationship between the leaders and employees and the way leaders interact with others. The main aim of the leader is to transform the personality of its employees. The role of leaders is different from that of management. Management is responsible for technical aspect of organization while leaders are responsible for interpersonal aspect of organization. Leaders have followers while management has subordinates.

Leadership style is a style that the leaders adopt to provide direction, implement plan and motivate people. There are various types of leadership styles that a leader can follow. These include:

Autocratic or authoritarian leadership style: The autocratic leadership style is a style where the leaders act as boss and has a major controlling power. The leaders are the dictators of employees. The decision-making is a sole responsibility of the leader. It is said to be efficient leadership style because the decision-making is a quick process (Ciulla 2014).

Democratic or participative leadership style: it is a leadership style where the leaders make decisions with the advice of a team. The leaders have no sole responsibility and the leaders and the teammates work together (Grant and Hartley 2013).

Laissez- faire leadership style: this is a leadership style where the decision making process is done by the subordinates. The employees are given total freedom to work independently and themselves are the leaders.

Task oriented leadership style: this is a leadership style where the leaders are just focused on completing the task efficiently. Relationship oriented leadership style: this is a leadership style where the leaders ensure that they maintain a good and trustworthy relationship with their subordinate.

The traits that leaders should posses are self-confidence, trust, good personality, self esteem, flexibility, good judgment skills, good verbal ability, self assurance, commitment, loyalty, positive attitude, assertiveness, social integrity and ability to control the employees.

The leader in a business organization believes in authoritarian type of leadership style for effective management of business. The experience of the leader shows that authoritative type of leadership encourages a negative culture in an organization. Either leadership styles can be cultivated or people are born with the leadership traits that are required for proper management of an organization (Schoemaker et al. 2013). The leadership styles, behaviors, traits and skills that a leader in organization posses is as follows:

An effective leader is the one who is honest in his work. Honesty is the important trait that makes and forms an effective leader. The leader of the chosen organization has very good communication skills. This is observed because the employees of the organization have up to date information of the expectations and vision of the organization (Johansen 2012).  The leader also believes in reward and recognition to the employees that work hard to achieve the goals of the organization. Reward and recognition method encourages and motivates employees to work hard. Rewards can be in any form such as compensation, certificates and other benefits. This action of the leaders is taken to influence the workers to work better. It helps in improving the efficiency of the organization (McCleskey 2014).   

Recently, the leader of Broadway internationals Mr. Johns has undertaken the programme of women empowerment where the female participants of the organization will be encouraged for taking the higher position. This step of him is to reduce the gender inequality at workplace and promote the brand name of the organization. This is totally in compliance with the leadership theory as mentioned in the observation part. A leader is the one who takes a step forward to take new responsibilities. Mr. John believes in working as a team. That is why he follows democratic leadership style where the employees of an entertainment organization play an essential role in decision-making process.  The traits that the leader of consultancy firm posses complies with the traits and styles of leadership as mentioned in the observation section. Few leadership skills and styles define who the leader is. It is hence necessary for the leaders to inculcate the skills and style that is required to become a leader (Ehrhart 2015).

Mr. John was has good leadership skills and attitudes. He is fair in solving conflicts at a workplace. The communication skills are nice as the employees of the organization are found to be up to date with all the information that has been circulated. The customers of Singapore are happy with the use of this service the response of their queries is fast from the company. the customers like the service and the company as the demands and needs of the company is always kept in mind. Hence, this suggests that the leader is very efficient in managing the team and the task that is delivered by the employees. The problems that the organization face is also solved in short period due to great problem solving skills of a leader. Recently the company had encountered a problem regarding the fake use of a character in particular entertainment show. Mr. Johns solved the problem in no period. His efficient and motivating speech inspired the mind of the customers in such a way that they never raised the same controversy against the organization.

If the leader encounters a problem in the organization such as late delivery of task, increase in absenteeism, or increase in turnover of employees then the best leadership style according to the leader of the organization is to use transformational leadership style. Transformational leadership style is a style that is used to motivate employees to work hard (Avolio and Yammarino 2013). The workers and the employees of the organization should also be given freedom to voice their opinions that the leader deliberately follows. This is so done to make the employees feel a sense of belonging towards the organization and keep them happy. The work of leader is not only to encourage and motivate workers but also to take decisions, solve the problems, guide the employees, set vision and formulate strategies that are better for the effective working of the organization (Branch et al. 2013).  It is also the responsibility of the leader to encourage team leadership and help the employees work together work as a single team together. Solving conflict at workplace efficiently is one of the complex tasks of a leader. A leader should be able to solve the problem in such a way that it maintains the interests of both the conflicting parties (Rost 1993).

The characteristics of a good leader as given by examples and stories are:

Good communication skill- For example the board members decided to change the shift timings of employees. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the leaders to convey the information efficiently without any fail (Du et al. 2013).

Efficient decision making- the leaders make decisions quickly. For example, it is the leaders that make decision on who should get an award and who should not (Miner 2015). 

Honest- a leader should be honest in its work. For example if a leader sees that a particular individual is, not working efficiently it is the duty of a leader to guide the employee (Treadway et al. 2013).  

Positive attitude- a leader should always have a positive attitude towards work. This keeps the employees stay encouraged and influenced (Daft 2014). 

The characteristics that are presented by the leadership theories do apply in practical world as well. Leaders face many challenges and complexities in real world. According to the theory, authoritarian leadership style is good as it encourages faster decision-making. The reality shows that many leaders do not adopt authoritarian type of leadership (Hargreaves and Fink 2012). The leaders prefer democratic leadership style where even the workers are included in the important decision making process of a firm. This is so because authoritarian leadership style discourages workers and rate of turnover increases (Khalili et al 2015). According to the leadership theory motivation is one of the major characteristics or traits that a leader should posses. In reality, many leadership traits are essential to form a leader. The main responsibility of a leader according to organizations is to encourage workers to work better and communicate them all the information (Spillane 2012). Not only this task or responsibility of a leader is to allocate the tasks based on specialization and check, whether all the people in an organization are working in harmony and peace. There are various challenges that leaders in an organization face. The complexities of leadership are handling culture conflicts, managing work between local and corporate worlds.

The interview with the leader of the organization helped in gaining knowledge as to what are the techniques and skills that the leaders apply in organization for effective management of work. It also helped on knowing the situations that the leaders come across and the ways that helps them in facing the situation. The leader is an essential part of the organization. Different leaders uses and applies different leadership techniques in problem solving and effective management. Various theories have been developed by various theories on leadership. It mentions the behaviors of leaders and its application in the organization. The experience and examples given by leader helps the other leaders gain knowledge from the work of others. It helps in gaining practical knowledge. Leadership practice can be improved from the experiences. It is also essential for the leaders to learn from their own mistakes and act wisely in a complex situation. Advice from the team members, management team also helps the leaders deal with situations effectively.  The above interview Mr. John’s gave an idea that a leader is not only the one who has good leadership skills but also is ready to take responsibilities and start a new trend in an organization that is beneficial for the society.

Conclusion

Leaders in an organization play an important role. There are various leadership skills, traits and styles that is required for an effective leadership. Various factors help the leaders lead well as can be seen from the stages above. Leadership traits and behaviors helps the leaders lead well in an organization. It is essential for the leaders to develop values that a leader should possess.

References

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