A leadership style is an approach and manner used to provide direction, ensure proper implementation of plans and motivate employees in an organization (Tittemore, 2003, p. 12).
Leader A is a level 5 leader. When he became the CEO of the corporation a few years ago, the company was not only losing two million dollars every year, but its stock price had also plummeted to a low of $ 23 a share. Leader A managed to increase the stock price of the corporation by 128 % during his tenure as the CEO. Although the media attributes the success of the corporation to leader A, nevertheless, he has been seen to shy away from this attention, and instead, he has opted to give credit to the success of the organization to other leaders within the corporation. When the company posts poor results, leader A does not apportion blame to others, but instead, he takes responsibility for the poor results.
The ambition that characterizes a level five leader is for their organization, and not for themselves. As such, they often opt for superb successors when their tenure in office is due. This is because they are determined to see their organizations attain additional success in the years ahead. They appear comfortable even when a majority of the people fail to appreciate the fact that they are mainly responsible for the success of the organization. Other than manifesting extreme levels of humility, level 5 leaders have also been seen to exhibit profound professional will. Besides possessing inspired standards, they do not also stand any form of mediocrity.
Leader B uses a transactional leadership style to carry out his duties. According to him, implementation within the organization of a chain of command is the way to go. Nonetheless, leader B recognizes the accomplishments of the employees and accordingly, rewards them.
On the other hand, leader C uses transformational leadership style to carry out his duties. The expectations set for subordinates by leader B are way too high, even as he endeavors to instill within the employees a certain sense of pride. This can be explained from the way they carry out themselves in the organization as they undertake their day to day obligations.
There are certain forces that guide the way these leaders carry out themselves (Tittemore, 2003, p. 15). Leader C values the goals and expectations that Executive A has already established. According to leader C, inspiration and being passionate about a vision often leads to the achievement of great success. A transformational leader is not only proactive, but also establishes new expectations that their followers are expected to abide by. For example, leader C continually sets high expectations for subordinates.
Transformational leadership is also focused on others and us (Tittemore, 2003, p. 19). This is as far as success is concerned because this leadership style ensures that more attention is laid on groups and the organization as a whole (Tittemore, 2003, p. 20). This is what Executive A seems to be doing by acknowledging group work. He seems to take a lot of pride in developing leadership within the organization for continuity and success.
This is the main building block of this leadership style where the general well being of the organization is taken into consideration. The only way a leader can be an inspiration is by accepting mistakes and poor results. Executive A takes full responsibility for poor results instead of coming up with blames games. In this case, he is able to come up with better ways of running the organization by learning from his own mistakes. Leader B believes in a transactional leadership style.
This leadership style lays more emphasis on having things done under the umbrella of status quo (Tittemore, 2003, p. 24). He later on guides subordinates in the direction of this goals. By doing this, he believes in status quo where things have to be done uniformly with other organizations. Transactional leadership style believes in bureaucracy. In this case, a leader works within the organizations set rules (Tittemore, 2003, p. 26). From our case, leader B believes in the chain of command but also on other hand recognizes employee accomplishments and rewards good performance. By insisting that employees take full responsibility of tasks, he is fully committed to the principles of transactional leadership style.
Leader B does not accept full responsibility for poor results and mistakes but instead blames subordinates. This is in relation to tasks that they have been assigned. By believing in the status quo, he seems to imply that all employees should be perfect in whatever they do. This is not possible considering the diverse backgrounds of employees. Instead of correcting employees by listening to them, leader B issues punishments for any failure.
The leadership style of leader B would affect the organization in one way or the other if he were appointed as CEO when the Executive A retires. The organization might not register high profits as it is currently doing. This will be brought about by his approach to leadership. By guiding subordinates in one direction, they will see him as an authoritative leader and hence may not be free to express themselves. In a broad perspective, employee productivity will be greatly affected. Leader B believes that employees should follow a clear chain of command and this will increase accountability in the organization as they will know what to do at a particular time.
A good leader should take full responsibility for poor results and come up with a way of correcting mistakes. Leader B believes that subordinates should be personally at fault when things go wrong. In the long run, the organization will loose skilled talent as some managers may fear blame games. Although this can make employees to be more responsible, they may end up repeating the same mistakes every now and then. This can end up being costly in one way or the other. Employees are not supposed to be punished for mistakes but instead there should be good mechanisms to know why a given mistake was done in the first place.
Leader B’s style of leadership can not mould subordinates to become future leaders in the organization as they will always be cautious and fearful not to cross his path and line. This style of leadership does not allow employees to explore their talents and improve their skills as they are tied to their specific tasks and responsibilities in the organization. As a matter of fact, the organization might not enhance innovation and flexibility. Because employees were used to Executive As leadership style, they will find it hard to adapt to leader Bs approach to leadership. This will greatly affect employee satisfaction. Differences in leadership styles will affect employees’ productivity because of changes in the organizations approach to responsibilities.
The leadership style of leader C would also affect the organization in one way or the other if he were appointed as CEO when Executive A retires. Employee productivity will be enhanced and increased. For instance, he believes in guiding subordinates in the right direction and this will enable the organization to be more efficient. Employees need to be guided on their day to day tasks so that they can come up with the most efficient ways of carrying out their activities.
The organization will have a good working relationship because leader C believes in instilling a sense of pride in the cooperation of all employees. This will ultimately increase employee satisfaction in the organization. In this case, they will be able to understand each other well and come up with a good working formula. In addition, employees’ will be highly flexible and innovative in their daily undertakings. Employees and workers will be motivated to work harder because their leader remembers their birthdays and special events. In this case, they will see him as a mentor who means well for the organization and their well being.
If leader B is to succeed leader A as the CEO of the corporation, his transactional leadership would impact on the organization in a number of way. To start with, as a transactional leader, leader B would be fully aware of the existing relationship between on the one hand, effort and on the other hand, reward. As a result, he is more likely to introduce a program within the organization that seeks to regard those employees who have exhibited exemplary performance in their work, and this is more likely to boost their morale, and increase productivity.
In addition, leader B is more likely to make use of the standard forms of reward, inducement, punishment as well as sanctions, in a bid to control the employees of the organization. Since transactional leadership responsive in nature (Homrig, 2001, accordingly, leader B is more likely to be oriented towards the issues that affect the organization at the moment. The type of motivation that leader B is more likely to embrace as the CEO of the corporation is one that establishes goals that employees needs to accomplish, at which point they are rewarded for achieving the desired performance.
A transformational leader has the ability to bring about changes not just among individuals, but in social systems as well. If at all leader C was to succeed leader A as the CEO of the corporation, he would help in bringing about positive and valuable change in the other employees at the organization, thereby creating a sense of synergism. In addition, as a transformational leader, leader C would be in a position to enhance the morale, motivation as well as the performance of his/her followers.
In order to achieve this, there are a number of mechanisms that leader C may decide to employ. Some of these mechanisms include the ability to connect with the sense of identity not just of self, but to the entire organization as well. As such, they are often regarded as role models due to the inspiration that they instill in others. As a transformational leader, should leader C become the CEO of the corporation, he is likely to challenge his followers so that they may be more accountable in their work. As a result, he is more likely to transform the corporation to greater heights of increased profitability and growth.
Reference List
Homrig, M. A. (2001). Transformational leadership. Web.
Tittemore, J, A. (2003). Leadership at all Levels. Toronto, Canada: Boskwa Publishing.