Essay On Leadership Development

 

There is different consideration that a great leader poses and according to me the first and foremost consideration is the Vision where a leader must see a big picture about where an organization can reach. A leader called Howard Schultz who is the CEO of Starbuck follows the leadership approach of Kevin Johnson, the former leader of Starbucks. According to this leader, managing the workers comes with a proper vision of knowing the key people who can manage the activities and can help in business development and this is considered to be one of the qualities that a leader must have. Another most crucial aspect that I think a leader must have is the skills of communication. A leader can be judged based on the speech the leader gives to their subordinates or followers (Matthews, Kelemen & Bolino, 2021). The confidence within a leader in terms of communication helps the subordinates to learn and follow the same path to have effective growth in personal and professional development. The leader of Starbucks does not only follow the rules and regulations to meet the needs of the consumers, but with proper communication skills, the leader ensures where the workers are lagging. Accordingly, proper measurement in terms of meeting the basic needs of workers uses to be done within the organization which upgrades the morale and motivation among workers. Critical and strategic thinking is another quality that a leader must have according to me because the chosen leader is capable enough to think strategically about the workforce and the activities within the organization. This is because the leader has the confidence and awareness about the capabilities of workers. So, guiding them in a proper way can lead to a better and expected outcome and that is the quality the leader is maintaining for more success for Starbucks

 

 

Prioritizing the workers is one of the characteristics that a leader must process as the leader of Starbucks does because a leader knows that workers are the key stakeholders who are capable enough to transform the business operations which can provide better results for business development. Thus, motivating the workers for personal and professional development is one of the traits that help each and every worker to increase and maintain their effective productivity for better organizational growth. Giving chances and opportunities and treating everyone equally is another trait which can ensure a positive workplace environment (Laustsen & Bor, 2017). This is because the role of a leader is not only to lead the followers but to guide and provide them with a good culture in order to keep them motivated and encouraged for business development. Self-awareness and communication skills are other key considerations that a great leader such as the leader of Starbucks is having in order to understand where and how to input for better performance within a workplace. Encouraging creativity and innovation and permitting or allowing the workers to input in the decision-making process is another characteristic of the chosen leader where the leader ensures about collecting the view point of every worker and accordingly effective decision is considered. Encouraging teamwork and cross-cultural communication is another skill that a leader must process because, in an MNC like Starbucks, people from a different background is working. Thus, in order to reduce conflicts and discrimination, promoting cross-cultural communication and teamwork is crucial which can help in having a positive and effective culture within a workplace. The more workers will be satisfied with the work, the more they can serve their consumers and that is what the leader of Starbucks believes. Understanding the emotional aspects of workers is another competency that a leader must process. This is because often due to demotivation or stress conditions, workers are unable to perform and therefore knowing the reason without asking can help a leader to provide a solution so that the performance of the workers does not hamper.

 

 

According to my knowledge from the course, there are certain key aspects that make a leader effective and in this part of the research, I will discuss different factors to becoming a good leader. The first and foremost consideration to become a leader is characteristic, because without having proper traits and characteristics a person or an individual cannot be a leader where these characteristics mean communication skills, self-esteem, awareness, understanding people in terms of emotions and behaviour, decision-making skills and many more other things (Koo & Park, 2018). These are required because if a leader will not have communication skills, then the followers and subordinates will not take that leader seriously in terms of communication. So, bold and strong communication skills can help a leader in terms of maintaining self-image and can handle the workers as well. On the other hand, understanding the emotions of workers is also necessary to ensure providing them opportunities and basic facilities for better productivity and performance.

 

 

After the characteristics and traits, according to me, a leader must have enough education to understand what real leadership is. The theories, management skills and many other aspects come with learning different areas of leadership. Therefore, education can be considered as one of the factors that can help a leader to have adequate skills and knowledge about leading people. Alongside that without practical implication, theoretical knowledge is not enough and thus with effective training within an organization, people can become effective leaders to lead different members within the team (Budur, 2020). Knowing the perspective of cross-cultural people and the way of handling them can be done through proper training and evaluation programs.

 

 

With experience in the corporate field, a leader becomes effective. This is because no such organization wants to hire a fresher as a leader because they do not have any experience in leading people. Thus, with the experience of leading team members, a leader becomes qualified to work for big companies. A leader does not only mean to successfully complete a task within a team but also needs to manage the activities and guide workers which can be done with a few years of experience. Personal and professional development in terms of increasing knowledge and skillset are the other factors which help in becoming an effective leader. A leader gives training and feedback to the workers or followers, but often a leader also must need proper feedback from employees and management in order to make betterment in leadership skills and attributes.

 

 

At the present time, I am focusing on understanding the concept of mission and vision which are the key traits in leadership. Knowing where and how to work in future is the aspect that is making me motivated to become a leader (Frunza, 2017). In addition to that, in my personal development of leadership, I am in the moderate stage of communication where the way professionally I must communicate needs to be understood. Communication with an individual and communicating in a group of people is different and the nervousness factor is there which I must overcome in order to be a leader. Currently, due to having less experience in the professional field, I am working on communication, self-awareness, and focus factors in order to meet the role of a leader.

 

In terms of strength, the first thing as a leader I have is communication skills where I use to listen to the query or issues of people and after understanding each and every aspect, I use to ensure about suggesting proper measurements. While talking with someone, I make sure that the opposite person is understanding my points and I use to collect feedback from people to know whether they have understood me or not. My emotional intelligence is another strength that helps me to find the needs and desires of people and that helps me to provide people with suitable services (McFadden, 2021). Additionally, I know how to keep my surrounding people motivated because the more the people will be motivated, the more effective the work process can be and this strength ensures expected outcomes from each people. Along with that I also know how to manage people in terms of reducing cross-cultural conflicts among people. With the help of teamwork and allowing participants to have their own field of work can ensure effective outcomes and can also generate motivation for them.

 

In terms of weakness, I have less patience where I cannot stick to one area for a longer period such as if an individual is not capable enough of understanding a concept one time, I can let that person understand 2-3 times by using different methods of explanation. But if that person is still unable to understand then I often lose my patience and let others understand that individual. But with less patience, I can complete a task in a faster way and that can be one of the advantages. On the other hand, I must work on the decision-making skills where I am lagging. In order to make an effective decision, I can collect the input from workers within an organization but later making decisions from those vast inputs becomes challenging for me.

 

 

There are a few areas that I have to work on which have been mentioned above but that must continue for a longer period of time because those factors will be needed each and every day of personal and professional development. The skills of communication are one where I have to work in a continuous manner because if I incorporate myself within the corporate world, then I have to deal with different people each and every day and therefore dealing with cross-cultured people needs proper communication. The role of a leader is not limited to the four walls of the workplace, but as a leader, I also need to be activated all the time to solve the issues or queries of subordinates (Roupnel, Rinfre & Grenier, 2019). Thus, I have to maintain that communication trait and have to work hard so that I can be understandable to all and my skillset must need to be developed in such a way so that followers can get enough confidence to follow my path. On the other hand, creative and strategic decision-making is another area where I have to work continuously. This is because, with the changing needs and demand in the professional world, organizations are hiring candidates who can input creative and innovative thinking for business development. Alongside that having the power of strategic decision-making can also keep me separate from others because the more I can deal with activities strategically, the more I can ensure securing my position within the competitive environment. Thus for leadership and professional development, I have to work on these areas for continuous development for better performance and outcomes in future.

 

 

There are certain traits that will be helpful for my leadership development among which one is having a vision for the future perspective. Knowing about the present trends and predicting the future trends along with creating certain goals and mission is the key consideration that can help me to have a better future as a leader. In addition to that, fostering innovation and creativity is the thing that every leader wants to incorporate because in order to keep an organization ahead having knowledge about technical areas and input in terms of creative thinking can support better decision-making for different activities (Earley, 2020). Along with that being an effective communicator is another trait that I want to incorporate into my personal and professional development. As effective as my communication will be, that much I can feel confident and can guide my subordinates accordingly in both personal and professional spaces. Promoting teamwork and team building is considered to be another trait that I want to build up in order to ensure managing an effective team for better business outcomes. Self-managing capabilities are another factor that every leader wants to have where I myself alone must manage activities and must face challenges to make betterment in the strategical perspective.

 

Budur, T. (2020). Effectiveness of transformational leadership among different cultures. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 7(3), 119-129.

 

 

Earley, P. (2020). Surviving, thriving and reviving in leadership: The personal and professional development needs of educational leaders. Management in Education, 34(3), 117-121.

 

 

Frunza, S. (2017). Ethical leadership, religion and personal development in the context of global crisis. Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 16(46), 3-16.

 

 

Koo, H., & Park, C. (2018). Foundation of leadership in Asia: Leader characteristics and leadership styles review and research agenda. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 35(3), 697-718.

 

 

Laustsen, L., & Bor, A. (2017). The relative weight of character traits in political candidate evaluations: Warmth is more important than competence, leadership and integrity. Electoral Studies, 49, 96-107.

 

 

Matthews, S. H., Kelemen, T. K., & Bolino, M. C. (2021). How follower traits and cultural values influence the effects of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 32(1), 101497.

 

 

McFadden, M. (2021). Examining and comparing good and bad leaders based on key leadership characteristics: A leadership case study. International Journal of Organizational Innovation (Online), 13(3), 275-281.

 

 

Roupnel, S., Rinfre, N., & Grenier, J. (2019). LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: Three programs that maximize learning over time. Journal of Leadership Education, 18(2).