Module 5 Critical Thinking – A Resilient Communicator
Despite progress being made in alleviating the gender gap, and breaking the ‘glass ceiling’, gender continues to play a role in the perception we have of the ability a leader has to be successful and have an equal share of the real power in our country. Three women that have pioneered changing this perception are Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and Sarah Palin. These three women have displayed true, successful leadership throughout their careers. All three women are of strong character and display a high level of self confidence. These ladies also are driven by their deep-rooted values and beliefs. This is Self-Concordence. In the text Organizational Behavior, the authors described self-concordance as the degree to which peoples’ reasons for pursuing goals are consistent with their interests and core values (Judge & Robbins, 2011). Believing in one’s self is critical to being a leader. Being confident that one is capable of meeting the goals that have been established for her and by her, improves her motivation and this can be perceived by others positively, making the ‘can do’ attitude spread. This is called Self-Efficacy Theory- An individual’s belief that he or she is capable of performing a task (Judge & Robbins, 2011).
These three leaders all share a common, specific, powerful characteristic that propells their leadership style. Ms. Clinton, Ms. Rice, and Ms. Palin all are extrodinaary, persuasive, resilient communicators.
Being an effective communicator is the key to success for a leader. Communication is defined by the authors in the text Organizations: Behavior, Structure, and Processes as transmitting information and understanding, usi...
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... create an inspiration to women around the world. These women have shown success in leadership with a specific, predominant and common characteristic; resilient communication skills. These superwomen are resilient leaders.
Works Cited
Bumiller, E., (2007). Condoleezza Rice: An American Life. New York, NY: Random House.
Donnelly, Gibson, Ivancevich, Konopaske, (2009). Organizations: Behavior, Structure,
Processes. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Holland, D. A., Mansfield, S., (2010). The Faith and Values of Sarah Palin. Lake Mary, FL:
Front Line.
Judge, T.A., Robbins, S.P., (2011). Organizational Behavior. New
Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Shambaugh, R., (2010). Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton. New York: NY: McGraw Hill.
Northouse, P. G., Rowe, W. G., (2010). Leadership: Theory and Practice.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
In relation to leadership and women, historically women who wanted to seek leadership roles were often seen projecting the traditional masculine model of leadership. This model means to be rational, unemotional and analytic. It also, means in order to succeed traditionally women needed to look and act like a man to be taken seriously in leadership positions. Women in the past often dressed up in suits and ties and anything feminine was seen as an internal “weakness”. To be a leader in power meant to exude confidence in masculinity and shy away from anything remotely girly. As opposed, to the feminine model which casts power as focused on connection and harmony instead of power over something, someone. This power can be skilled through collective gain or physical attractiveness (Kruse 22).
Lashinger et al highlights the need for communication within leadership as effective communication is essential to influence change and motivate others. Emphasising the need for communicating effectively towards all staff members, whilst undergoing change to ensure all staff feel supported and understand the process, allowing implementation to be more successful.
Leadership is an important attribute in individuals such as managers, academic experts, and researchers. The topic of leadership continues to gain popularity and importance in almost all sectors. The way leaders in managerial positions communicate determines their effectiveness and success in achieving high levels of performance and success in their organizations. There are numerous books that provide an insight into effective leadership and communication. One of such books is by Atwater and Waldman (2012). This paper provides a summary, contextual analysis and critique of the book.
The reading assignment for this unit included reading several articles and one book in particular, The Female Advantage, by Sally Helgesen as an introduction into varying leadership styles. Leadership, as a honed craft is practiced continually in different ways and varying circumstances, no two individuals will have the same leadership style. Certain distinctive traits brought into the forum and on display for followers to observe. Some traits can be visible, clothing or skin color as examples, others, however, are not as visible such as upbringing or family situation. Each of these factors could play a role in the leadership style of a leader. One trait that the author of the book uses to distinguish leaders is gender. As much as men and women must be treated the fairly and equally, it cannot be denied that outside of the biological aspect, men and women are slightly different. Each gender brings a unique approach to leadership situations.
“Your employees come first and if you treat your employee’s right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that.” This quote from Herb Kelleher, co-founder of Southwest Airlines, embodies the attitude of leadership at the airline. Southwest dares to be different from other airlines because their philosophy revolves around people both internal and external. Communication, culture, and leadership are the cornerstone of their success. This paper explores key leader’s communiqué tactics, the role communication plays in daily operations, how the mission, vision, and culture reinforce the goals, and the importance of efficiently connecting to
...tional obstacles to those faced by male counterparts. One common predicament, identified by the former Equal Opportunities Commission, is the requirement for women leaders to spend extra time and energy not just leading, but ‘proving’ that they can lead. Women leaders are penalized whether they confirm, or contradict a specific stereotype. A female leader can expect to be viewed as less competent when her behaviour is consistent with stereotypical ‘feminine’ behaviour, and as ‘un-feminine’, when her behaviour is inconsistent with stereotypes Ritvo et al (1995).
Throughout humankind, communication has been used from sending firer signals to the pony express; communication is a very important part of our world today. Team Leader and member should always know their audience. Managers have all the tools necessaries to get their message across from meeting, email, office bulletin board, using FedEx. No matter how they chose to get the message across effective communication is important.
Wilson, Marie C. Closing the Leadership Gap Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World. New York: Viking Adult, 2004. Print
Communication strategies pose a direct influence on job performance, degree of job ability, and career development of employees, and thus have a direct association with leadership effectiveness (Argyris, 1962). Several challenges arise from communication deficiency , including the consequences of differences in cultural value, language, and situatedness. SAHC leaders can conquer these difficulties by striving to comprehend the root causes of the difficulties and integrate appropriate communication skills to manage the
Communication – Strong leaders know how to speak viably with staff at both higher and lower levels in the organization. Seeing how to obviously disclose errands and tasks to staff while conveying the significance of your area of expertise's work to managers is an urgent ability that takes practice. Great communicators keep staff educated when changes or redesigns to undertakings happen, are promptly accessible to staff and hold consistent gatherings to guarantee that all colleagues are mindful of the status of activities.
Furthermore, excellent communication skills are essential for effective performance management [U.S. office of personnel management 2016]. The need for continuous dialogue is essential. Managers should create an atmosphere which is conducive for interaction and work. So that colleagues can be able to share information on the organization’s mission, values and objectives. This leads to efficient and effective performance which contributes in meeting the goals of the organisation
Effective business communication is central to the success of an individual’s career and consequently to that of the overall business entity. It would be imaginable therefore that there is some form of correlation between effective communication skills and such success. To put this into context, University of Kent (2011) has placed Verbal Communication at the top of the ten skills that employers most commonly look for. On the same note, anything that hinders effective communication is bound to have a negative effect not only on the specific message delivery, but also on the overall success of a career. In this paper, some of the barriers to effective business communication are discussed, with a few examples of how they affect the process.
Madlock, P. E. (2008). The Link between leadership style, communicator competence, and employee satisfaction. Journal of Business Communication, 45(1), 61-78. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Interest in the impact of gender on leadership is relatively new. The first studies were conducted in the US in the early 1970s when male managers at nine insurance companies were asked to characterise ‘women in general’, ‘men in general’ and ‘successful managers’. Successful managers were overwhelmingly identified exclusively with male traits. Many similar studies have been carried out since that time and all have demonstrated that the successful managerial stereotype remains male.
Commanding the workplace, women outnumber their male counterparts, but are often overlooked for holding leadership