The article discusses traditional and new approaches to identify the best performers in companies. Finding a new generation of business leaders is exceptionally troublesome for any organization. Most of the companies rely on development programs built around such indispensable attributes of leadership as integrity, ability to collaborate, focus on results, and customer-oriented behavior. Many employees, however, prefer to be silent about their accomplishments, and managers may often overlook their attainments.
Leaders who deal with human resources are the most likely to deal with the issue of ensuring that organizations reach the optimum level of performance. This is so because they are the ones to hire workers that will ultimately bring value to companies. HR managers have to develop a system where the performance of employees is accurately and regularly measured to reflect the latest achievements. They have access to databases that contain information about the education of employees, their work history, and management experience outside the organization. This information puts HR managers in a suitable position for correctly identifying silent leaders.
Executives are responsible for hiring managers that are capable of objectively analyzing performance and motivating subordinates. Those managers that fail at identifying hidden talent are not competent enough for their positions. The top managers should prevent incorrect decisions from being made concerning silent leaders.
There could be many reasons why talented individuals are often overlooked. In large organizations, talent can go unnoticed because of the complexities of organizational processes. Such people can be quiet and reluctant to take on leadership roles as more energetic personalities can overshadow them. They can, however, do their job exceptionally well, collaborate effectively with colleagues, have extensive connections throughout the organization, and informal influence among co-workers. They demonstrate leadership potential, but these prospects are not used since top managers do not notice these people.
The leader-member exchange (LMX) theory perspective states that high-quality relations facilitate more positive leader results. Based on this theory, issues of talent identification indicate inferior ties between managers and their subordinates.
Transformational leadership theory sees leadership as a way of changing organizations and their employees (Northouse 27). The fact that many workers have troubles with fulfilling their potential points to a leadership problem within the organization: management which is incapable of transforming its people to better (Northouse 28). Servant leadership points to another issue within such organizations: managers and executives who do not focus on their followers (Northouse 28). According to the path-goal theory, if employees lack the motivation to emerge into leaders, then managers are not giving the workers an incentive to take a step forward.
After acknowledging that more active efforts are needed to find hidden leaders, managers must be prepared to change leadership culture, develop existing talents, save on recruiting costs, and increase employee retention rates. Regular surveys must be conducted to identify the best performers. Managers are often the ones that do not know who is more effective and base their decisions on mere subjective opinions. Such bias must be eliminated by incorporating a more transparent process for measuring employee performance.
The challenges that companies encounter are endless, but their management capabilities are generally limited. This explains why it is necessary to understand what is most important for a company at the current moment. The most crucial step towards becoming an innovative organization is to have a vision about where the company will go and where it has more potential to develop. The goal of any manager is to create an adaptive company that is continually being rebuilt, looking for new markets or creating them itself. Business models cannot be considered permanent, and the pace of their shift in recent decades has increased dramatically. The more rigid and authoritarian the structure and management style becomes, the lower the ability to adapt to changes.
The newspaper industry is failing because its leaders did not have a vision and strategic plans for further growth, which caused stagnation and decline. The article is concerned with the lack of vision and how the industry has been unsuccessfully struggling to improve its situation. For sustainable prosperity, companies must be able to abandon the strategies which cease to bring success, but many newspaper companies did the opposite. Only a few companies, such as the New York Times, switched to a digital subscription model, which brought them new audiences while keeping long-term newspaper readers.
Company executives represent the group of leaders responsible for failures because they are the key decision-makers in companies and should consider the implications of their solutions for the business overall. The top management thinks over tactics, mission, programs, business plans, and estimates. Top-level managers authorize actions that can affect any employee of the company, and at the same time, they are responsible for the success or failure of the business. The most impressive results are achieved by those top managers whose thoughts are not limited by the boundaries of ordinary logic. Creativity arises only when one departs from generally accepted concepts, which is why those companies that welcome progress and innovation are most likely to succeed.
To explore the problems further, it is important to connect them with various leadership approaches. According to the LMX theory, the absence of vision indicates that there is no effective communication between the board of directors and top-level managers. If to apply the theory of transformational leadership, this issue may point to a leader who is an ineffective communicator because of the inability to share the vision with subordinates (Northouse 191). Managers do not empower and encourage their employees, who would otherwise have been capable of generating relevant and innovative ideas (Northouse 412). This issue is reflected in the servant leadership framework. Finally, according to the path-goal theory, the lack of vision turns into the absence of clearly stated goals and a decline in performance.
Organizations that are experiencing stagnation need to hire better managers and better leaders in order to overcome the challenges. The top manager is obliged to provide a stable activity in the market and sustainable growth. Failure to predict potential obstacles may designate the incompetency of the chosen manager. Ordinary employees may also play a crucial role in the company’s growth. Sufficient motivation and encouragement on behalf of the management, however, are necessary.
Uber Cuts Third of Marketing Staff; Lyft Chief Operating Officer Exits
Employees and the organization of their work is a critical factor in the success of any company. The presence of highly qualified employees alone is not sufficient to achieve prosperous results. It is imperative to organize the work of teams and to use the skills and competencies of employees effectively. Not only professional skills and experiences of each new member of the group are of great significance. Improperly organized work processes may lead to unnecessary expenditures and inefficient operations.
Progressive and productive activities cannot be achieved without a proper division between employees and organizational units. It allows the assignment of personnel to jobs while taking personal abilities, and professional and business qualities into account. It also makes it possible to increase the degree of job satisfaction, reduce fatigue, and increase the operational capacity of the workers.
The article discusses the issues of ineffective team management and the absence of a clear separation of duties. Uber had to lay off about 400 workers only because many of the employees had overlapping work. It shows inefficient use of human and financial resources and poor organization of work. Lyft, on the other hand, realized that the position of Chief Operations Officer was unnecessary and decided to spread the roles among other managers. It is an indicator of indistinctness on the matters of organizational structure and functions.
All managers starting from executives are responsible for these leadership problems because they are multi-dimensional. They are the ones creating teams and assigning tasks and roles, which makes them key decision-makers. A business must set a clear and common goal, and aims must be given for each team to facilitate good organization. Thus, collaboration represents an essential aspect of dealing with poor organizational performance because of the need to ensure that everyone is on the same page. When two teams have overlapping objectives, managers must rethink how the groups and activities are planned.
The lack of team and work organization indicates that there is no effective communication between the team members and between managers, as reflected in the LMX theory. Based on transformational leadership theory principles, this issue may point to a team that is incapable of making a difference, because no work could be done when it is not organized correctly (Northouse 88). Based on the principles of servant leadership, top-level managers do not teach and coach their subordinates (Northouse 28).
Incompetent mid-level managers are not capable of leading a team because they lack the required knowledge, which can prevent them from transferring to advanced leadership positions. Senior leaders are responsible for the development and growth of their subordinates (Northouse 412). As applied to the path-goal approach, there are no clearly stated goals and designated paths for achieving the desired outcomes in mismanaged teams.
All managers must possess the required skills and knowledge to manage small groups appropriately and effectively. This knowledge must encompass leadership abilities, task allocation, and separation of duties. Team building begins with a clear idea of what a company wants to achieve and what it will require. It is necessary to understand the strategic goals of the organization clearly in order to form productive teams and establish collaboration within and among them.
Each employee must know that all daily tasks are part of the overall corporate mission. The leader demonstrates the contribution of their team to the goals of the organization by thinking through the structure of each project and making detailed plans and schedules. All the goals that the manager sets for subordinates must be clearly defined, measurable, and feasible in a given period.
Work Cited
Northouse, Peter. Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice. 4th ed., Sage Publications, 2017.