One of the renowned leadership trainers, John C. Maxwell, once said that almost everything depends on leadership. Moreover, how the leaders of the company work to influence the employees is very significant in determining the success of the company. It is therefore important for the company to have a thorough audit of the company’s leadership style used in the company right from the executive to low level leadership within the system. Leadership of the company should start by determining the company’s needs and establish the level of stuffing that the company actually requires. It is important to recognize that leadership is not constant. Those who occupy leadership in the company will at one point in time exit the company and leave a vacancy that will need to be filled immediately. The only way to ensure a smooth and viable transition is the company’s current leadership, or successive leaders to cultivate, amongst themselves, the culture of mentorship leadership.
In the culture of mentorship program, the senior leaders engage the junior stuff and train them on leadership and how the company’s leaders make decision. The leaders should identify hardworking, focused and critically thinking employees and start grooming for future leadership in the company. In the recruitment or hiring process, the company should ensure, first, that amongst the current employees there is not a single one who can fill the position that needs to be filled. However, in the case where employees are mentored as leaders, it will be beneficial to hire one amongst them for the position to be filled. The importance of this is that the company employees who have stayed for long in the company already have the vision, mission, goals and objective of the company at the fingertips. The hiring from within as a first priority will ensure the company saves hiring costs that which may be raised by the need to train new employees, orient them and give them time to adjust. This scenario requires expert kind of leadership where junior stuff members are trained on different aspects of the company’s leadership.
When the current president of the company is leaving, then it means a lot to the company as a whole, that is, in terms of performance and transition. It is crucial that the transition be as short as possible so as not interrupt the core business of the company’s operations, especially at the time it needs to recover from the effects of the 2008/2009 economic slow-down. Replacing the president will definitely present a number of significant challenges because there are certain features of the company that requires preservation, certain relationships need to be kept within the company and also the company may risk running its business down if the new president do not catch up fast with the strategies of the company’s business.
One of the most important theories that are important and appropriate to the situation of the company is systems theory of leadership management. Systems theory is a great advancement in the process of managing transitions in organization and will therefore be appropriate to the company during this period when it is just about to exit the current president and hire new personnel to fill the position. This theory requires that the leadership of the company understands the whole system of the organization which includes how all the departments are linked together, how the activities of the company are in line with the policies and strategies of the company. With such a background of the company, it will be possible for the company to hire the right person whose personality, expertise and experience are in line with the total system of the company. This theory will also help in the future leadership training in which the trainings will be done on the basis of encouraging the employees and junior leaders to internalize the company’s system as a whole. The benefit of this will be that the employees will be ready to take up leadership positions in the company hence preserving the organizational operations that are subject interruptions if new leaders are to be hired from outside the company.
The other important theory in the case of this company is the Human Relations theory. It is worth mentioning that the drivers of a company or organization’s success are the human resources. The company cannot work without the involvement and actions of human beings. The recovery and success of the company will depend so much on the quality of the relationship that exists amongst the employees, leaders and between the employees and the leaders. Understanding this theory will help the board of directors to hire a new president who will cultivate the spirit of team work amongst the company employees and establish a good working relationship between the top leadership and the workers. The future leadership training will also depend so much on the internalization of this theory since it will assist in understanding the need for a working relationship in the company and also integrate the idea of teamwork as part of future training on leadership.
The appropriate theory of leadership that will best assist the directors in looking for a new president for the company is the theory of behavior and style. By understanding how this theory is applicable, the board of directors will be able to evaluate the behavioral traits of the potential new president of the company. The most important thing about leadership is not just the ability to perform and meet the company goals and objectives, but the strength of personality coupled with an appropriately developed positive self-esteem. The board will also be able to evaluate the understanding of the potential new president on the various types of leaderships that may be appropriate to several situations the company may find itself in while in the process of its core business.
The process of hiring a new president for the company there are several factors that must be taken into account if the core business of the company activities are to be kept moving smoothly. First it is important to look for somebody who have different leadership style and can apply the appropriately in different circumstances, especially when he company experiences low economic or finance al performance. Such an individual should have high self-esteem in order to be able to influence the employees and other leaders of the company. A person with high self-esteem is, in most cases, always optimistic and is able to spur enthusiasm amongst workers; such a person is also able to take decisive risks when a company under their leadership is faced with a dilemma. The capability to apply different styles to different situations is debatably the most powerful ability an individual cans ever poses. The understanding of the theory of behavior and style should enable the board of directors to hire a new company presidents whose style of decision making takes the bottom-up approach and is ready to listen to the view of the junior officers in the company and should also be performance oriented. The new president should be one who will be concerned with the development of human resources and establish incentives that will motivate the employees to be committed in achieving the company’s goals and objectives.
The most inappropriate definition of leadership is the situation in which leadership is associated with position or title. There are many instances where leadership has been defined on the basis of position and title. This kind of definition is remote and limiting in terms of organizational development. It creates a notion amongst the employees that they can only perform as leaders when appointed to apposition or an office and given a specific title. This kind of definition is dangerous to the prosperity of the company. Leadership is simply an influence.
The most detrimental leadership training theory is situational leadership training. Training leaders to take care of certain situations whenever they arise is the worst form of leadership training. This implies that the leaders will only be able to take care of circumstances on which they have been trained to handle. The best leadership training theory is one where the potential leaders are trained on different methods of leadership and situations in which the methods can be uniquely applied.
The first thing that is wrong is the fact that the company is not meeting its goals and objectives, a fact that is blamed on the current president of the company. This has subsequently led to mistrust of the president by the board of directors who want to replace him. The fact here is that the expression of displeasure by the board of directors must negatively affect the company. The president has also instructed the departmental manager to fire employees in their departments by 10% annually. This will definitely affect the commitment of employees to the company as they are not sure of their job security.
There are three most important questions that should be answered before coming up with recommendations: what is the ratio of employees to the available resources? It is imperative to observe that the available resources are proportionate to the number of employees who use them. Should it be the case that the company has relatively less resource as compared to the number of available employees, the company must be spending on an unproductive labor force. To this extend, it is recommended that the company retrench some of its unprofessional staff and hire such on an ad hoc basis. This will ensure that the number of employees is proportionate to the amount of work at a given period of operations.
Additionally, it is important to inquire the type of leadership which is practiced within the organization and how communication takes place. This is important because the relationship that exists between the workers and the headship of the company seems to be one of the problems that ail the company’s performance. For the operations to be smooth and the company achieve its goals and objectives, there must be a mutual relationship between the employees and the top management. It is therefore appropriate that the company develops a free interaction between the two groups and there should be teamwork where everybody exercise leadership. Communication should also take a bottom-up approach.
The last question worth asking is, “Are employees given enough incentives to perform?” As much as it is important tom employees that they have jobs, it good to mention that their motivation is not only based on the salaries they get alone, neither does it depend on their fear to lose their jobs. Employees should be given sufficient incentives to perform beyond their expectations. The incentives can be in the form of salary increment, paid leaves, team building activities, medical cover and bonuses.