The face of business has changed. Technology has taken over or enhanced traditional ways of communication such as face-to-face interaction and mail. It isn’t necessary to wait 7 business days to hear a reply from a customer anymore. In fact, it could take less than 7 minutes through the use of a phone, email, or fax. The Board of Trustees can have a video conference when they are 6,000 miles apart from each other. However, with the benefits of technology, has fundamentals such as leadership been overlooked? Leadership used to focus around personal interaction when meetings would be held in a conference room and tasks would be accomplished by people standing side by side to each other.
Leadership is a necessary component to the success of any business or organization. Leadership says, “I care about you'; to the customer. Used correctly, technology can enhance the practice of leadership in today’s businesses and organizations. It is necessary, though, that some personal interaction remain to show people that the business is still customer oriented.
Leadership can be divided into three categories: mentoring, risk-taking, and facilitating. Although there are many attributes and characteristics of a leader, these three are the most important in today’s business and organizations. Most other skills of a leader would fall under these three categories. For example, being trustworthy and loyal would fit under the mentoring aspect. Risk-taking would include courage. Being team-motivated and having the ability to make decisions would fall under facilitating. Technology can be applied to each of these categories to enhance the business or organization’s success. No business is complete without leadership and today, leadership is not complete without technology.
Mentoring
What is a mentor? In Homer’s Odyssey, Mentor was the teacher of Telemachus, the son of Odyssius. But Mentor was more than a teacher. He was half-god and half-man; half-male and half-female; believable and yet unreachable. Mentor was the union of both goal and path, wisdom personified. In today’s society, the same principles apply. Mentors teach and guide others. They inspire and convey a sense of vision to the people around them. Proverbs 29:18 reads that where there is no vision, the people perish. Effective leaders do not allow this to happen. They keep the team energized until the vision is no longer a dream, but a reality. Leaders walk the talk; and this creates the trust and respect necessary to achieve the team’s purpose.
I believe George Holden chose to focus on parenting styles because corporal punishment has become a common parenting approach, with over 70% of families participating. The speaker wants to introduce and convince families to a better parenting style. Holden presents a paradoxical argument that argues the way to empower children and parents is to disempower parents. He touches on the subject of corporal punishment and its unintended side effects . He transitions from speaking about a “traditional” parenting orientation, to what he considers a better option, “positive” parenting. He goes into further detail in regard to the lite and strong version of “positive” parenting and its core practices.
Each year, 52 million Americans have some form of mental health problem and out of those patients 60% are members of a managed care group. (Madonna, 2000, ¶ 8) Managed mental health care’s successes and failures now bear directly on the mental wellbeing of 32 million particularly vulnerable Americans. Initially managed care was intended to be a “comprehensive approach to healthcare that included balancing cost, quality, utilization, and access.” (Madonna, 2000, ¶ 23) In theory, this is an optimal approach to the delivery of health care and it has proven somewhat successful in the area of physical health, but it has not provided the same success in the area of mental health. Mental health is still being treated as a separate and less important aspect of health care despite the fact that some mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia, have shown higher success rates than those of common medical procedure, such as angioplasty. (Etheredge, 2002, ¶ 6)
Leadership plays a major role in determining the success or failure of an organization. Leadership skills can be developed, and learned. Everyone at some point in their life will be asked to be a leader. For instance, arranging an outing with peers, subordinate or family members. This person can be appointed or volunteer. To source for ideas, locations, shortlisting the ideal places and discuss with group members.
Leadership and the study of it has roots in the beginning of civilization, Egyptian rulers, Greek heroes, and biblical patriarchs all have one thing in common-leadership (THE HISTORY OF LEADERSHIP FOCUS,2005). There are numerous definitions and theories of leadership, however there are enough similarities in the definitions to conclude that leadership is the effort of influence and the power to induce compliance (Wren,1995).The organizational focus of the leader has evolved over this same period, early organizations with authoritarian leaders who believed employees were intrinsically lazy transitioned into way to make work environments more conducive to increased productivity rates (THE HISTORY OF LEADERSHIP FOCUS,2005).
Our leadership in this world has changed and affected us greatly. Leadership is being about to lead an organization with many people and to have control in the right way. “ The Leader of the Future” a book by Peter F. Drucker gives us information on why and how it is to be such a great leader. We need better leaders and we need them to guide us and help us along the way. Without leadership, our world would be in such danger and we America would be going through a lot.
Allen,N.J. and Meyer, J.P. (1990) `The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization' Journal of occupational Psychology in L. Fulop and S. Linstead, Management: A Critical Text, Macmillan, South Yarra, 1999, pp 259
Leadership is defined as the action of guiding an individual or group of people. Effective leaders shape the behavior and thought process of the individuals around them. As a result, the success of an organization is often impacted by the leadership style and approach of its leaders. Even when engaging with multiple people, impactful leaders maintain their own style of leadership but occasionally change their approach based on the motivational needs of each individual. However, regardless of the style, leadership within an organization is designed to drive the performance of their employees and it is done through proficient communication. This guidance influences the culture of an organization, which subsequently, helps to shape its leaders.
... Vandenberghe, C. (2004). Employee commitment and motivation: A conceptual analysis and integrative model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(6), 991-1007. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.89.6.991
Duboff, R. (1999). Loyal Employees Are a Key Link to a Firm's Value. Journal of Management in Engineering, 9.
Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1997). Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research, and application. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
In cultures that value loyalty to the employer, a kind of family relationship seems to develop between employer and employee. It is a reciprocal arrangement, which the employer is concerned with assisting the employee to develop to his or her full potential and the employee is concerned about optimizing the welfare of the company. The negative aspect to absolute loyalty to one company is that an employee may stay in one job that he or she has outgrow and may miss out on opportunities to develop in new directions. From the employer’s point of view, the employee may be burdened with employees whose skills no longer match the needs of the company.
Addressing the trials of operating in a continually changing environment and realizing forecasts can only
Additionally, employee satisfaction are directly correlated to employee commitment and the loyalty which again directly related with the business and work productivity (Papazisi, Raidén, and Sheehan, 1995). Smart leaders knows that keeping their employee satisfied and motivated are essential for their organization (Sher, Bakhtiar, Muhammad &Ali, 2010).
Leadership is a major way in which people change the minds of others and move organizations forward to accomplish identified goals.
Leaders are everywhere in everyday life, in our homes, places of work, in our schools and in our communities. Leaders are likely anywhere that influence and direction are essential and it is obvious when a beneficial leader is not present. Imagine if businesses were ran without managers or supervisors, would the business likely fail because there is not a person directing and assisting with goals of the business. Better yet, think of a country without any governing laws or leadership, there would be chaos. Not having a successful leader is almost as damaging as not having any leader at all. Leadership skills are beneficial in all areas of life, when utilizing these skills in a positive manner success is probable.