Managerial Dilemmas, Research Paper Example

Covey’s principle-centered leadership skills allow managers to be effective in their ability to guide and motivate their workers through both their short-term and long-term goals (Covey, 1991). Principle-centered leaders are characterized by several traits that enable their ability to do so. Among these are their ability to continually learn, behave in a service-oriented manner, and they radiate positive energy. In addition, they lead balanced lives, see life as an adventure, lead synergistic lives, and exercise self-renewal. All of these factors combine to allow managers to provide their workers with the tools they need to achieve success.

Of utmost importance, principle-centered leaders are lifelong learners (Edgeman, 1998). It is important to consider that many ineffective managers refuse to stay up-to-date on the latest technology and techniques. Therefore, when employees consult this individual for advice, they are provided with outdated information. It is important for managers to continue learning both about their field and about how to effectively lead a team. The individuals that demonstrate concern for this are those who allow their workforce to be the most efficient. If a manager is knowledgeable, his or her workers will become inherently knowledgeable as well. Thus, it is the manager’s responsibility to facilitate the learning process by providing workers with relevant experience.

Principle-centered leaders are also service-oriented, meaning their work goals are their personal life goals. These are individuals who entered their chosen career because they believe what they are doing contributes to the greater good of the organization and of society. As a consequence, their work is more driven and employees are motivated by this drive (Fry et al., 2009). Other aspects of their personality encourage employee motivation as well. These leaders tend to show joy instead of sadness, which helps create a positive employee attitude as well. In addition, they are concerned with recognizing the full potential of their workers. Therefore, they ensure that the workplace allows each individual to have new learning experiences so that they are able to accomplish personal growth.

While one would believe than an effective leader focuses mainly on work, this is not the case. Principle-centered leaders create a balance between their life and work, which allows them to be happy. It is likely however, that the hobbies and interests of these individuals intersect to some extent with their work life. However, it is important to emphasize that these activities are done by choice and for enjoyment rather than for requirement. As a consequence, these leaders are able to use their knowledge and expertise to improve the situations they get into which results in great productivity. Lastly, they use these aspects of their personality in order to ensure that self-improvement occurs, which helps them both at home and in the workplace (Sergiovanni, 1992).

In my experience, ineffective managers do not exhibit the leadership skills outlined by Covey. Specifically, I have encountered managers who tend to be more demeaning and totalitarian regarding their requirements. For example, in the workplace, I and my coworkers were given a specific command by my supervisor through e-mail. We intended to fulfill this request, but several minutes later, an employee who had worked with the supervisor for several years came to give us an alternative command. Since we had believed that the new command was altered information from the supervisor, we chose to follow this new instruction. However, there was a lack of communication between the work team, the supervisor, and the senior employee and the supervisor was very irritated that the initial command had not been followed. As a consequence, the supervisor came around to talk to each employee separately to scorn them for not following the original command and insulting their intelligence for thinking that the senior employee had authority to change the information.

It is important to consider that this situation was not addressed in a constructive manner and led to a decrease in employee morale. In my personal opinion, it led to a direct decrease in productivity for the day and left me with a feeling of resentment for the supervisor. In fact, it made me want to find another job immediately. This experience presented the idea that this type of totalitarian authoritative management behavior is not conducive to a positive work environment and may actually hinder the progress of an organization. After discussing this situation with my coworkers, I learned that they shared my opinion. Ultimately, I believe this failure to address the situation in a more effective manner will lead to reduced employee retention.

A principle-centered leader would not have addressed this situation in this manner. In order to prevent such a scenario, it would have been necessary for the supervisor to communicate effectively with the team, assigning them specific roles in the instruction so that there would not be a need for the senior employee to delegate responsibilities. Since principle-centered leaders have a high level of experience and education, they would have been able to predict this potential dilemma before it occurred. In addition, a principle-centered leader would have recognized their own flaw in the execution of the information and worked to decide how to best prevent this from occurring in the future. While the employees were partially to blame in this situation, this also situation occurred as a consequence of a failed ability to communicate directions in detail. Rather than allowing employees to take full blame for the situation, it is therefore important to discuss the situation with each individual in a manner that clarifies the direction for them in the future, as this event was a clear consequence of miscommunication.

In work situations, I would like to employ principle-centered leadership qualities because the communication skills that these individuals have will help prevent problems before they happen and help resolve them as they occur. It is important to avoid conflict in the workplace so that employees remain motivated and therefore productive. Failure to behave in a manner that is supportive of employees is detrimental to an organization because this could lead to decreased employee, retention, which is costly because it requires the hiring and training of new employees. It is therefore within an organization’s best interest to ensure that managers have sufficient leadership skills that will facilitate its shared goals. Since the business world is constantly evolving, there is no longer a place for ineffective managers. Projects must be accomplished quickly and effectively, and ineffective managers are not able to accomplish this. Therefore, it is likely that the world will see a significant transition from the traditional totalitarian manager to principle-centered individuals. This transition will mark a great benefit to society, as worker happiness will improve in addition to their performance in terms of accuracy and efficiency.

References

Covey, S. R. (1991). Principle-centered leadership. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Edgeman R. (1998). Principle-centered leadership and core value deployment. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/09544789810214783

Fry L, Kriger M. (2009). Towards a theory of being-centered leadership: Multiple levels of being as context for effective leadership. Retrieved from http://hum.sagepub.com/content/62/11/1667.short

Sergiovanni TJ. (1992). Moral Leadership: Getting to the Heart of School Improvement. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED364965