Characteristics of Leadership, Research Paper Example

Supervision is a fundamental part of a successful manager, therefore since leadership is one of the most important criteria’s which defines a great manager, it is drirectly related to supervision as well. Leadership has been a popular topic for theoretical research, economists and psychologists have made substantial breakthroughs in this field. Leaders have been characterized to exist in different types, and peculiarities. Depending on what type of leader a supervisor-manager is he may rely more on his subordinates or more on himself. Theorists have identified separate factors of being a leader, which depend on communiction, situations, the leader himself and his followers. With such extensive research there have been identified a number of different leadership models, key principles of a leader, attributes of leadership, the environment where a leader can function, the culture and climate of different leadership types, and the basic processes peculiar for great leadership. After such identifications of various styles of leaders there have been identified specific “secrets” for successful leaders in our modern societies where supervision is one of the factors which a successful leader depends on. It would also be important to notify the importance of supervision for a manager when speaking of cases when managing absenteism and the responsibilities of a supervisor in an organization. It is important to go throught the qualities a leader should have and his characteristics. Afterwards the notification of the importance of leadership and the presence of a leader will also be acknowledged. Thus in most cases supervisors are the people hired by managers to keep track of all the processes taking place in an organization. Supervisors are required to work with the rest of the employees; unqualified supervisors will result to loss. Thus, the employees in an organization require some specific leadership traits from their supervisors in order to continue a confident working process, and they are: honesty, knowledgeable supervisors, caring, and listening supervisors which could always give an advice.

Leadership is about ascertaining a method for people to contribute so that it can result in a significant achievement. It is a process that enables a person to influence others to achieve a goal and directs an organization to become rational and consistent (Shukla, 2009). Leaders implement these processes by influencing their leadership traits such as values, ethics and knowledge. Good leaders are built through the course of their lifetime. They cannot be born. A person can become a leader if he at least has the willpower and ability to learn, only then he can become a successful leader. A true leader is always engaged into self-development through education, training and experience. Such a person continuously studies to improve his skills and never rests on past glory. When a person is in the position of a manager or a supervisor, he has the authority to achieve the desired results, while handling the responsibilities, meaning that he becomes the boss of the situation. What is peculiar for leadership is that it is capable of inspiring followers to ‘raise the bar’ and set higher goals for themselves. Psychologists and theoretics of management have studied the traits, characteristics, peculiarities and everything related to leadership, thus many theories on eadership have correspondingly appeared. The Trait Theory explains that some human personality traits may even spontateously lead people into leadership roles.  The Great Events Theory claims that difficult situations or even crisies may psychologically push certain people to display latent leadership qualities. Today however, the most accepted theory onleadership is the Transformational Leadership Theory. This theory approaches the matter, claiming that people who wish to become leaders can correspondingly master leadership skils. A peculiar notion is that people which respect any individual as a leader assess the actions done by that individual, rather than his personal attributes. Such observations are imporatant because the person evaluates whether the leader is trustworthy or selfish as an individual. An acceptable leader is characterized by his activities; he serves selflessly and takes his collegues along in his quick stride in helping develop the organization. The employee’s opinion towards leadership is that it advances and improves the organization itself, while taking care of the well-being of the employees. Thus, from the psychological view-point, people like to be led by individuals whom they respect, and they respect leaders who are moral and principled. Leaders are capable of forming a vision of the future and the direction in which to go with one’s followers. Therefore belief and confidence in leadership is a key indicator of employee satisfaction in the organization, making it one of the two important components of effective leadership. The second component exclaims the importance of communication for leadership inmaking the followers understand the business strategy of the organization. This component makes it possible for the followers to help understand as well as contribute to the achievement of objectives and the exchange of information about the organization for benefit of the employees themselves and for their guidance. Thus, a leader should be aware of who he is and what he does in the organization, which is why leaders are always in search of self-improving possibilities. A leader is required to know the environment where his employees work, and their tasks. This is why the leader is so important he sets an example for the rest of his collegues, he inspires the employees and encourages them to increase their personal performance in the direction of his vision. According to the Blake and Mounton “Managerial Grid”, also known as the Leadership Grid, variable of concerns, depending on concerns for people or concerns for task and results leaders are determined in four different psychological types. A leader can be an Authoritarian, a Team leader, a Country Club leader, or the impoverished leader. The Authoritarian is the most concerned in the high task getting done, and his personal relationship to subordinates does not matter. The Country Club leader’s concern towards task and result is low, while his concern towards the relationship with subordinates is very high; therefore he is afraid of using his power for employment because his relationship could be jeopadized. The Impoverished leader has low concerns in relationship and in task, their style is “delegate and disappear”, therefore their team is allowed to function independently and detached. Today the Team leader is the best types of leaders; they succeed in building a working environment and a successful team. They have high concerns as for relationship, and as for task.

The term “supervision” has a number of interpretations, but most often we understand supervision as the activity carried out by supervisors in the organization to observe and oversee the progress and productivity of the employees who are subordinates to the specific supervisor. Therefore, first-level supervisors oversee entry-level employees, then middle-managers supervise first-level supervisors, and finally chief exectives supervise middel-managers, etc. From here we can claim that supervision as an organizational process is a management activity, making supervisors have a managing role in the organization. Supervision after a group of employees includes a number of fundamental responsibilities. The supervisor has to conduct basic management skills, which include decision making capabilities, problem solving, planning, and delegation capabilities, and meeting management. Supervisors are required to organize their department and teams in the organizations; they must be able to notice the need for as well as designing new job roles in the group if they are required. Supervisors also have to cope with the hiring of any new employees; correspondingly they must manage the training of the new employees to the required level in theorganization. Another important task for supervisors includes the managemant of employee performance, meaning that the supervisor is required to go through such steps as setting goals, observing the working processes and giving feedback to his management, addressin performance issues, firing employees who are slowing the organization behind, etc. Finally the supervisor is obliged to conform to personnel policies and other internal regulations. He must maintain that the corporate regulations are being followed by all of the organizations participators (McNamara, 2010). Since 1999 abseteeism has been a growing problem in the practice of business, causing a great loss on productivity and revenue. The responsibility for absenteeism management in most companies lies upon immediate supervisors. They are the most aware of the absence of certain employees, and their position is the best in the organization for handling such circumstances especially in the early stage of progress.

The importance of supervisory leadership is that it helps maximixe the productivity and efficiency of achieving orhanizational goals. Thus, a supervisory leader is characterized through initiating action, motivation, provides guidance, creates confidence, builds moral, builds the work environment, and co-ordinates organizational processes. The initiation of action is characterized by the abilities of a leader to start the work of the organization through communication, policies and plans that the leader provides to his subordinates. The leader plays an incentive role in the organization; therefore he creates motivation for the employees by providing different kinds of rewards, in advance recieves work from his subordinates. The next characteristic is about the leader’s role as a guid for the rest of the employees, where the leader instructs the employees on how to effectively perform their tasks. An important factor of leadership is the confidence that the leader creates in the working environment. Such confidence is achieved by explaining the subordinates their roles and providing them guidelines to achieve their goals. An important matter of the confidence characteristic is that the supervisor has to regard the complaints and problems that are heard from the employees. By building morale, the successful leader-supervisor denotes co-operation of the subordinates, the supervisor attains their confidence and trust and can even be a morale booster. By being so influential and having the required power in the organization the leader-supervisor can build the work environment. Management involves getting work done by subordinates, so the effective managers help the organization develope sound and stable. This characteristic makes leadership important as long as the supervisor maintains contact with the employees through listening and solving their problems, and treatment. Co-ordination can be achieved through reconciling personal interests with organizational goals. This synchronization can be achieved through proper and effective co-ordination which should be primary motive of a leader (Management Study Guide, 2009).

Resources

Shukla A., 2009. “What is Leadership? What are Components of Effective Leadership?” Entrepreneurship.Retrieved July 29, 2010 from             http://www.paggu.com/entrepreneurship/what-is-leadership-what-are-components-of-effective-leadership/

Management Study Guide, 2009. “Importance of Leadership”. Retrieved July 29, 2010 from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/importance_of_leadership.htm/

McNamara C., 2010. “Free Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision”. Authenticity Consulting LLC. Retrived July 29, 2010 from http://managementhelp.org/mgmnt/prsnlmnt.htm/

Blake, Robert R. and Mouton, Janse S., 1985. The Managerial Grid III: The Key to Leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co.

Heathfield S.M., 2010. “Secrets of Leadership Success”. About.com Guide. Retrieved July 29, 2010 from http://humanresources.about.com/od/leadership/a/leader_success.htm/

Northouse, G., 2007. Leadership theory and practice. (3rd ed.) Thousand Oak, London, New Delhe, Sage Publications, Inc.