Unit 2: Skills and Abilities of Successful Leaders

2a. Explain the role of leaders in creating and communicating a company's vision, culture, and goals

  • What managerial communication roles do you see in your organization? 
  • What is noise in communication, and how can it be reduced in communications? 
  • What methods of communication do you think are most effective?

One of the major roles of a leader is to communicate the company's vision, culture, and goals. The management communication process begins with the communicator, who encodes a message. The message is then decoded by the employee, who gives feedback to the manager (communicator). During the process, noise can take place, which is when a message gets distorted.

Organizations have a variety of ways to communicate, such as emails and texts. Daily interactions that managers engage in with regards to communication include speaking, reading, writing, and listening. Within these methods, managers can communicate laterally to a coworker, down to a subordinate, externally – outside of the organization, diagonally to a different department, and up to their supervisor.

As you probably already know, managers have to interact with many people on a weekly basis. One such interaction is as a figurehead – which includes ceremonial duties, for example, reading and responding to emails that relate directly to their status. Managers also have informational roles, where they gather, collage, analyze, store and disseminate information. In the decisional role, managers make decisions on behalf of the organization and stakeholders.

With communication skills, managers must communicate the vision, mission, and goals to employees in the organization. A vision statement is an expression of what a business's founders want the business to accomplish and is usually very broad. A mission statement is the why of a vision statement and focuses on how the firm will make its vision a reality.


To review, see Leadership Communication and Create a Vision and Mission.

 

2b. Motivate a team by applying the team development process

  • In what ways is emotional intelligence within teams important? 
  • What makes a successful team? 
  • What are the stages of the team development process?

There are several elements that make a team environment successful: common commitment and purpose, specific performance goals, complementary skills, commitment to how the work gets done, and mutual accountability.

Teams develop over time, going through each stage of the team development process. The stages include: Forming, storming, norming, and performing. The forming stage is the introduction of team members. The storming stage begins when team members begin vying for leadership and test the group processes. During this phase there can be frustration around goals – and is the job of the manager to reduce this frustration. During the norming stage, the team starts to work well together, and there is buy-in for the group goals. As the team builds momentum, they enter the performing stage. During this phase, they work well together and have pride. If a new team member is added, or if goals change, sometimes the team will start over in the forming stage.

When managing an effective team, there are a few components that are important to consider as a manager. First, the manager must ensure behaviors within the team build trust. Second, team members must promise, and follow through on expectations. Emotional intelligence is important too, which is the ability to recognize your own feelings, and the feelings of others.


To review, see Building a Team and What is an Effective Team?.

 

2c. Use change management models to shepherd change in an organization

  •  How are Lewin's and Kotler's change models similar and different?
  •  What types of changes have you experienced in your organization? 
  •  When do you think a top-down change is necessary?:

Change management is the process of designing and implementing change. Leaders are usually responsible for some degree of change management in organizations. There are a few different types of changes. A deficit-based change is one where there is a state of dysfunction or serious problems that need to be resolved. An abundance-based change is one where a high performing organization sees a need for change to continue to be high performing. Top-down change comes from the leaders in an organization, while bottom-up change relies on the investment of employees to make changes.

Structural changes relate to a change involving the relationships within an organization, such as a reorganization of departments. A technical change might be one where the company does a software upgrade. A cultural change is where the manager attempts to change the common patterns of thinking and behaving within the organization.

Lewin's Change Model is one model we can apply when making changes in our organization, which consists of three phases: unfreeze, move, refreeze. Kotler's change model has eight steps, which include establishing a sense of urgency, form a powerful guiding coalition, create a vision of change, communicate the vision, remove obstacles, create small wins, consolidate improvements, and anchor the change.


To review, see Change Management.

 

2d. Use innovation frameworks to encourage innovation in an organization

An entrepreneurial orientation refers to the processes, practices, and decision-making styles of organizations that act entrepreneurially. This type of orientation tends to create innovative organizations, who embrace innovation. In order to create such an organization, autonomy, competitive aggressiveness, innovativeness, proactiveness and risk taking must be the elements present.

There are several necessary elements and considerations to innovation, which include: innovation degrees, innovation direction, innovation risk, innovation thresholds, innovation criteria, innovation processes, innovation diffusion, innovation pacing, innovation value, disruptive innovation, and 

Degrees of innovation is another important consideration, which includes incremental innovations, evolutionary innovations, and revolutionary innovations.

To review, see Entrepreneurial Orientation and Encourage Innovation.

 

2e, Coach and motivate employees in regular times and in crises

  • What is the leader's role in coaching employees? 
  • What are some of the methods leaders use to coach employees?
  • How does talent development relate to employee coaching?

Coaching and motivating employees is an important part of leadership. Talent development refers to all processes and programs that an organization utilizes to assess and develop talent. Succession planning is the process for reviewing key roles and determining the readiness levels of potential candidates to fill these roles. When assessing talent, leaders look at employee competencies and behaviors, which may include business ,acumen, strategic thinking, leadership skills, people skills, learning and technology skills. They may also look at education, certifications, and accomplishments of those employees.

When coaching employees, there can be several roles that relate to performance of an employee, providing direction to them, supporting them and ensuring their personal wellbeing. This includes managing, training business coaching, life coaching, mentoring and counseling.

To review, see Developing Talent and Coaching Employees.

 

2f. Explain how power and influence within organizational leadership can drive company success

  • How do leaders apply power in organizations?
  • What is the best type of power to apply in most situations as a leader? 
  • How might a leader unethically wield power? How can this be avoided?

There are several ways leaders can apply power. The first referent power, which is used when person A looks up to person B, and as a result, follows them because they look up to them. Expert power is demonstrated when a person has expertise in a particular area. Legitimate power is like authority, where someone may have a job title or role that gives them power over another. Reward power occurs when a person has power because they control the reward system. Coercive power is based on fear – where if I do x, then y will happen. Referent power, in many situations, is the best one to apply as a leader.

There are ethical considerations when applying power as a leader. Being fair, making appropriate requests, administering rewards as promised, being credible, and being sensitive to employee needs are ways to apply power ethically. Applying power appropriately is important to ensure organizational goals are met.


To review, see Types of Power in an Organization.

2g. Use continuous learning methods to foster an innovative, learning organizational culture

  • What is a learning organization? 
  • Why are learning organizations important, and what is the leader's responsibility in creating a learning organization? 
  • How can you implement continuous learning in your daily life?

Lifelong learning is where someone continually learns throughout their lives, and they are never finished learning.  Thus, a learning organization is important to the success of an organization. It is defined as an organization where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, and where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured.

Successful learning organizations have five key aspects: systems thinking, mental models, personal mastery, building a shared vision and team learning.

Continuous learning also means lifelong learning, which means to continue learning throughout our lives, and never be finished learning.

To review, see Build a Learning Organization.

 

Unit 2 Vocabulary

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.