Demonstrate Understanding of Leadership

Demonstrate Understanding of Leadership

Introduction

A leader is to an organization as a captain is to a ship. The leader steers the organization through sticky situations and makes sure that it is prepared for future uncertainties. Hence, the leader is inarguably the most important resource of an organization. He carries out a wide range of tasks and duties that essentially drive the human resource of the organization towards established goals while also motivating them to develop greater efficiency through maximization of potential.

Discussion

A leader is arguably the most important enterprise of an organization. This is because leader can be entrusted with a wide range of critical tasks, responsibilities and duties which are essential for the proper functioning of the organization (Lee, 2001, p. 578). The leader drives the human resource of the organization towards established goals and also motivates them to develop greater efficiency through maximization of potential. In the long run, all these functions are critical for the success of the organization (Lee, 2001, p. 578). Therefore, the role of the leader is important as far as the success of the organization is concerned.

Importance of leadership for an organization

Leaders have been identified as initiators of action. They are the ones who communicate with the employees and workforce of the organization on a daily basis and share with them important strategic moves that the organization plans to make in order to maintain a wide competitive moat (Chan, 2004, p. 39). It is partly the job of the leader to ensure that important policies and strategies are followed by all the members of the organization. This also entails sharing policies with the workforce making sure that they have no objections or qualms about them. At times, the leader may even review the feedback of the workforce and revise policies to make them more accommodating towards them.

Apart from this, one of the most important roles that a leader plays when working for an organization is that of motivating the workforce (Chan, 2004, p. 39). At times, the workforce may feel that sudden and unprecedented changes in organizational policies affect them negatively, such as by stripping them of certain privileges. While it is natural for employees to naturally resist change, it is also natural for a leader to be concerned about this resistance from the workforce and to devise effective strategies for motivating them to work in benefit of the organization rather than against it. Leaders mostly motivate through their word; one of the most important qualities of a leader is to be a good speaker who knows what to say and how to say it (Lee, 2001, p. 578). Hence, they are exceptionally good at motivating others to accomplish the tasks and responsibilities that are entrusted to them.

However, rather than simply being men of words and rhetoric, leader are also men of action. They are the first ones to take initiatives and drive changes that benefit the organization. Also, leaders have a hawk-eye view of the entire operations of the organization and are, ...