Deliverable 3 - Developing Organizational Effectiveness

Leadership Essentials

To be an influential leader and to make an impact, it is imperative to know and understand leadership roles and responsibilities. One must know how to elevate as a leader and have a positive reflection of practices and behaviors to influence a group to be high performers. Leadership is more than being the individual in charge. As an individual, a leader must know how to take charge, help a team develop interpersonal skills, and be the primary support system for individual growth.

The leadership essentials are the building blocks of various skills, behaviors, and practices that promote an idealism. The ideal leader would allow one to envision reality, identify and address one's concerns, encourage ownership of a situation, and create an environment of trust. Leaders must support ethical standards of themselves and within the organization while taking the initiative to implement motivational techniques to encourage high-performance.

Leadership Essentials

· Action Plan: Focus on the ideas and decide the steps needed to reach the goal. 

· Review Progress: Review processes and procedures for success. 

· Document the Plan: Create a visual aid to document the progress. 

· Commitment: There is a requirement for commitment and dedication as a leader. 

Leadership Actions

Just like practices and behaviors, Leadership actions and their context vary in different ways. Some of these leadership actions are more common than some may think. Below are some examples of leadership actions:

· Effective managerial responsibilities – strategic thinking, time management, performance efficiency, prioritization, and decision making.

· Inspiring and motivating others – inspiration and motivation ensure job satisfaction and better performance.

· Change management – understanding change, adjustments, how to mitigate any consequences, and handle any resistance. Knowing how to manage, mobilize, and lead during these periods.

· Leading a group – team building, development, and managing require the ability to inspire, support, guide, and to lead both small and large teams.

The actions listed can be viewed as leadership essentials, but these actions can also be a challenge for some. Confidence within your skill set as a leader will support the actions that you may need to take.

Leadership essentials and delivery are critical to the success of an organization. A firm understanding and practice of using essentials of leadership are incredibly beneficial to an organization. Having the knowledge and confidence can also strengthen a leader’s ability to handle one of the most common but sometimes challenging responsibilities, which is leading and managing change within an organization.

Leadership Selection

The success of the organization depends on the quality and depth of leadership. The best investment of an organization is leaders. Therefore, organizations must recruit leaders with a consideration of their leadership growth potential. Along with potential, the leader must know how to implement leadership essentials, develop and support organizational values, strengthen employee engagement, and manage the organization's success. There is also the need to build an influential culture and that hold individual accountability for violations of core values. A creative way to make an influential culture is to develop a talent-management culture. A talent-management culture is the practice of hiring, training, and retaining leaders that have excellent skill sets and talents. The selection is made by carefully reviewing internal leaders that can encourage the entire team to be talented employees.

Impact of Leadership

The successful impact of leadership starts with a process of identifying the leadership style, and continues with the emulation of the employee’s behaviors and beliefs expressed from an adapted culture. Good leadership enables the company to effectively and efficiently move forward. A good leader motivates, builds confidence, and supports employees. Leadership can inspire employees to try new tasks that will help develop professional and personal skills. Guiding the employee, team, and organization in the right direction will also build trust and loyalty.

The effects of a leader that lacks the essential skills to motivate, influence, and manage the progress of the employees can be detrimental to the effectiveness of the organization. Employees submerge themselves in the cultural structure, and since culture is built to be encouraging, and supportive for all employees this provides a unified movement towards a higher goal. However, if the leader sets forth a burdened, less positive influence, the culture will respond negatively, moving in a downward spiral.

Some performance of employees is based on the actions of leadership. Therefore, the leader must be ethical in their habits and mindful of their influence on employees. The impact that the leader has determines the rate of the development of the employees. The transmitted behaviors of the leader should be the equal to the behaviors of the employees, therefore the beliefs, ethics, and practices that drive the organization are all reflected in the leader.