Effective Leadership Essay

In an increasingly competitive world, organisational structure and effectiveness within companies are key concepts. Effective leadership skills can enhance the growth and success of an organisation as well as on an internal level, create a healthy and functional work environment for employees. It is important to recognise the importance of good leadership skills and how they affect the working process in an organisation. This essay will identify leadership and provide definitions and how it is assessed. It will furthermore identify the commonly known traits of a successful leader and importance of emotional intelligence. Lastly, this essay will explain ‘contingency theory’ in order to gain an understanding on other factors, besides personal traits and characteristics, that can influence the effectiveness within a leader.

Defining leadership

All organisations require management and management in turn, require a certain level of leadership abilities. The long-term success of an organisation depends on its ability to take advantage of the competences and knowledge of its employees. In an increasingly competitive environment, organisations must motivate its employees and encourage initiative within the organisation. This new organisational climate requires more than a traditional manager and organisations must find ways to develop leadership skills in order to increase effectiveness and to stay competitive. In any organisation leadership is often argued to be a critical factor for success or failure. It can also be said that a leader can be a manager but a manager is not always necessarily a leader (Gandz, Crossan, Seijts & Reno 2014). It is therefore vital for organisations to recognise traits and techniques that defines a success...

... middle of paper ...

...rson & Rowland 1973, p. 407). Leaders can be divided into two categories of relationship-oriented and task-oriented leaders and depending on the situation and setting, one of the two will be more suited for the specific environment. The task-oriented leaders are focused on result and the relationship-oriented leader is more effective in communicating and creating relations and long-term goals. The relationship-oriented leader is one that would potentially possess a higher level of EQ, due to the empathetic aspects. It is therefore argued that depending on the leadership style and the situation of the organisation and the setting that makes one leader more successful than another. This means that one leader may have attributes that will be more suited for a certain setting or organisation and will therefore work more effectively towards the goals (Hunt 1967, p. 302).