Developing Leaders

Peter F. Drucker once said, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things” (Famous-Quotes-And-Quotations.com, n. d.). Leading is a key function of management. Without leadership, valuable time spent on planning, organizing, and controlling can be lost with no productive end result. Because leadership is the core of management, a great deal of focus must be placed on its key components. “Leading means influencing other people to get the job done, maintaining morale, molding company structure and managing conflicts and communication” (Dessler, 2004, p. 3).

Effective leadership is the foundation for any business. Developing leaders, leading strategic planning, overcoming obstacles, and motivating and inspiring employees are major components of leadership. Many articles and publications have been devoted to these four components. In selecting the articles to be summarized, emphasis was placed on articles that discussed universal methods utilized by businesses, along with recommendations for promoting successful leadership.

Developing Leaders

From front-line employees to mid-level managers, expectations of employees in today’s organizations have become more demanding. “Today, employees are given leadership titles and expected to figure out how to handle their new roles, but aren’t effectively trained” (Gale, 2002, p.1). Companies benefit when they have leaders positioned throughout the organization. This positioning distributes knowledgeable and skilled employees to benefit all aspects of the organization.

In the past, leadership development was limited to executive employees. This training process must change as companies strive to become more adaptive to the competitive world. With the downsizing of staff, additional work responsibility with less guidance is becoming the norm. The need for leadership must evolve as the organization grows.

A great manager may not be a great leader. Great leaders must be able to communicate as well as motivate employees. “The manager administers; the leader innovates. The manager imitates; the leader initiates” (Bennis, 1994). Jon Katzenbach best described leadership “as a mind set of adaptive responsiveness” (Gale, 2002, p.2). Some will argue that leaders are born, while others will say leaders are trained. In either case, a qualified well-rounded leader must be found.

Sourcing and rec...

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...d tend to lead in smaller, more informal ways throughout the company. This natural progression allows them to gain the experience they need to become future leaders (Kotter, 1990).

Conclusion

There are a myriad of publications available to assist with leadership issues. Most consistently refer to the specialized skills and traits needed to be an effective leader. Choosing a leader with these specialized skills is only part of the challenge facing organizations today. Providing effective training for new and existing leaders is becoming increasingly important. Such training should include recommendations on how to plan for and address real-world scenarios as well as examples of situations that may occur in order to strengthen comprehension. Leadership training should be viewed as a process, not a one-time event. Training leaders on how to plan and deal with obstacles, as well as how to motivate and inspire employees is critical to organizational success. Leadership should be a focus at all levels of the company whether it would be individual, departmental, or organizational. The key to successful leadership is to create a sense of belonging by getting all parties involved.