WK7 ASSIGNMENT MGT547

Leadership Development Strategies

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Leadership Development Strategies

It was earlier pointed out that leadership is central to change management. In the case of MacArthur and associates, there is a need for teams to have leaders who will offer and portray leadership skills in line with established goals and objectives. Notably, there is a need for the managerial level to foster leadership through adopting best approach depending on organizational factors and culture. The following section looks into three leadership development approaches through analyzing their strengths and weaknesses that may be applied while recommending the best.

First, Situation Leadership Model (SLM) can be considered. It requires leaders to be situational in driving strategy and performance (Avolio, 2005). It can be seen that the SLM calls for leaders to put into consideration factors such as organizational needs, attitudes of followers, and goals set before decisions can be made. It is very applicable in guiding leaders through their leadership skills development processes as it makes them pay attention to various factors before making any decisions. On the other hand, the model of leadership is mainly based on observation, information, and complete understanding of a situation.

Further, the SLM enables leaders to fully consider the impact of a decision to progress and set goals. Hence, a leader is not supposed to rush into making decision without learning about various organizational factors and how they relate with each other. Hence, a leader must pay attention to details and must put other people’s viewpoints into consideration. It can be seen that the SLM is effective and has strengths especially due to its accommodative capability. However, it suffers some major setbacks such as more time consuming, it is issue-based and situational hence cannot be uniform in an organization, a leader may lack control of activities as must consider input of other parties, and the model is mainly dependent on various organizational factors hence assessments need to be done.

Second, Thomas Gilbert’s Behavior Engineering Model (BEM) is mainly focused on identifying barriers to improved performance or needed change (Avolio, 2005). Hence this approach is mainly about diagnosing underlying factors that have been lagging performance or resisting change. In many cases, organizations are mainly focusing on making changes and fostering a new culture but there are unexpected situations and factors that introduce challenges. BEM is a model that mainly focuses on addressing such factors.

The model is about in-depth analysis of causes hence provides a framework for examining causes of failure or challenges. Its strength mainly lies in its discrete approach is problem identification and solving which are highly important especially when an organization is implementing change. Additionally, the model also has a strength in its capability in carrying out an in-depth phase by phase analysis of causes hence enabling all possible issues to be learnt and addressed. Further, the model promotes creation and sharing of information relating to causes of challenges hence a very applicable model to MacArthur which is focusing on becoming a learning organization. On the other hand, the model suffers some major setbacks. One, the model requires a leader to be discrete and skilled in problem assessment hence additional skills are needed. Two, it leads to delay of progress as in-depth analysis are first carried out before embarking on progress. Also, it is not applicable at the start of a process or a program.

Third, the Performance Analysis Worksheet (PAW) is a leadership development model that mainly focuses on identifying the performance gap (Gillam, 2014). Hence, it focuses on explaining the difference between the current state and the targeted goals. It can be seen that the model is mainly concerned with identifying and addressing weaknesses and gaps hence applicable in the middle of a program similar to the BEM.

PAW has strengths in enabling an organization to identify needed modifications and support. It also enables a firm to examine the nature of relationship between various parties and elements. More so, it promotes task analysis which is critical to change management. On the other hand, the model has a few setbacks. It is not applicable at the start of the program. It is situational and time consuming. The model cannot be uniformly adopted by an organization.

When one considers MacArthur and Associates, it is evident that the firm needs to adopt the SLM model. It is situational hence pays attention to details that matter most. For instance, the firm needs to attain performance improvement and becoming a learning organization. In this regard, it needs to develop leaders who will guide teams in attaining the set goals. For instance, there is a need for team leaders who will portray leadership in learning and work teams. It is imperative to point out that SLM is situational hence leaders will be equipped with skills that are specific to areas which need improvement and change. Further, SLM allows a leader to consult hence the managerial personnel as well as junior employees will be involved in the leadership process.

References

Avolio, B. J. (2005). Leadership Development in Balance. New York, NY: Routledge.

Gillam, M. (2014). The CORE Leadership Development Model . New York, NY: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.