Leadership styles and their role in organizational supervision and motivation

Leadership in an Organization / Leadership: A Necessity for Success

Leadership Styles

Supervision and Motivation

In the current global competitive environment, leadership plays a key role for the survival of businesses. As Peter Drucker popularly declared, the difference between leadership and management is that the former refers to doing things right, while the latter refers to doing the right things. Great leaders possess a passion for change, higher social intelligence and most importantly, a vision that allows them to concentrate on the things that truly deserve to be prioritized. For one to be an effective leader, he or she must possess a number of skills. Skills, such as the ability to interact with others in such a way to develop mutual respect, and to inject passion and motivate others, are usually highly sought after by executives. These skills enable one to effectively lead others. Different workplaces have many different leadership roles. Even outside the workplace, there are many situations that require leadership roles, including social situations and even family settings. Ideally, people become leaders because they are credible and because others want to follow them. In organizational settings, leaders are usually the people doing the right thing. They are not only the ones who are setting the pace for the others, but they are also creating a vision and encouraging others to believe it (Skills you need, 4-5).

Leadership Styles

Almost everyone has a different style of leadership or a mix of styles that can help to enhance an organization's current performance.

Laissez-Faire

This leadership style is characterized by a leader who not only doesn't directly supervise his workers, but also usually doesn't provide constant feedback to the people under his supervision. The kinds of employees who are best suited for this kind of leadership are those who are highly skilled or experienced, and require very little supervision (Johnson, 1).

Autocratic

Autocratic leaders are those who make decisions without incorporating the input of other individuals. Such leaders have total authority on their employees (Johnson, 2).

Participative

A participative leader is a democratic leader. He or she is almost the opposite of the autocratic leader in that they allow input from peers and team members, but still play the role of the final decision maker.

Transactional

A transactional leader is one who ties his or her workers performance with punishments or rewards; this kind of leadership often lead to better business performance (Johnson, 4).

Transformational

A transformational leader uses effective communication to inspire workers to meet the company targets. Such leaders motivate workers to see their visions and to work towards attaining it (Johnson, 5).

Supervision and Motivation

Supervision

The act of supervising another is defined as guiding a person who often doesn't have the full knowledge of what he or she is doing. This doesn't mean to control another person, but rather to monitor and provide feedback where necessary on the performance of workers that the supervisor is in charge of. Leadership skills necessary in a supervisor is to motivate those below him to follow his or her vision (Kokemuller, 2).

Conclusion

Even though leadership means different things for different people, it is primarily the act of motivating another to follow one's vision and to act in such a manner that can enable the leader to achieve that vision. Leaders create inspiring vision and also help to guide those below them towards better performance. While it is important to have the right leadership skills, one also requires management skills so as to steer their subordinates in an efficient way (Mind Tools Team, 2-11).

Reference

Btcrd.gov. "Leadership and Motivation." 2015: 1-15. Print.

Johnson, Rose. "5 Different Types of Leadership Styles." Hearst Newspapers LLC. 2015. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-different-types-leadership-styles-17584.html

Kokemuller, Neil. "The Differences between Leadership & Supervising." Hearst Newspapers LLC. 2015. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/differences-between-leadership-supervising-42168.html

Maslow, Abraham. "Motivation and Personality." New York: Harper & Row, 1970. Print.

Mind Tools Team. (as cited in Mind Tools). "What is Leadership." Mind Tools Ltd. 2015.

Peter Drucker (as cited in Psychology today). "Leadership." Sussex Publishers, LLC. 2015. https://googleweblight.com/?lite_url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/leadership&ei=xncdqG2k&lc=en-IN&s=1&m=101&ts=1446731100&sig=APONPFkVWxdf1ZdbddQ-xJybMr4Dh-xwbw

Skills you need. "Leadership Skills." 2015. http://googleweblight.com/?lite_url=http://www.skillsyouneed.com/leadership-skills.html&ei=qW68k582&lc=en-IN&s=1&m=101&ts=1446741824&sig=APONPFkrhu0PaxvMiqLH2EZiAPNJtxfg0Q