Effective Leadership Qualities

INTRODUCTION

The report has been prepared using material, videos, and case studies depicting leadership roles in tackling issues in different organizations.  The greater emphasis was to inculcate leadership qualities and to apply that in our approach in future that needs to work systematically to build trust, promote motivation, and relationship between employer and employees to achieve goals and profit for organization. Various techniques/case studies having proven value were discussed in detail so that emerging issues could be solved with this knowledge and understanding. Emphasis has been given to develop strong interrelationship to create positive working culture in organization.

Influencing Others

Persuasion has taught me that the decision-making process needs to be carefully examined after exhausting all the tools available. People's experiences and suggestions help you to arrive at a decision. Dr. Robert Cialdini’s principles are fault free and provide you the confidence to persuade others for better outcomes/goals. A confident approach and knowledge help you inculcate leadership habits. The experience was important to me because I got an opportunity to use Cialdini’s persuasion techniques to reach an outcome. I used three principles- Principle of Liking, Principle of Social Proof, Principle of Authority which were very effectiveto change the mind of my friend ethically by making him go a little over-budget which made him get an SUV which he desired, and a better car package compared to the one he selected, the result of which benefited him. Besides, all the Cialdini’s principles/techniques are helpful to persuade customers with a systematic approach to reach an outcome. Persuasion becomes easy and less time-consuming provided we understand the needs of people, what influences them, and what they expect. To encapsulate, persuasion is a slow process that demands multiple steps and ways in contact with the customer.

Furthermore, in future, I would carefully present my argument, speak confidently, clearly, and concisely to explain to people the benefits that affect them specifically. I would use data, evidence, and body language to support the case so that it has a significant impact on my ability to persuade.

Team and Culture Dynamics

Givers sacrifice themselves but make the organization better. Team and culture dynamics taught me the concept of organizational culture, for example, the concept of givers and takers culture and how do we create a giver-oriented work environment. Givers suffer the most in an organization even after spending a lot of time trying to help other people and improving the team. However, givers are valuable people and need to be protected from being burned out. For example, Adam Rifkin being a successful giver helped many people and his 5-minute favor exercise proved to be critical as it provided the boundaries to the givers to remain protected. Takers tilt reciprocity in their favor and their interests ahead of others. Matchers maintain even balance of give and take in interactions.

This lesson was important for me as it provided me inputs that could help me in my job profile as my qualification entails managerial skills. My knowledge and input tools would enable me to reach an outcome and take decisions regarding welfare of workers/organizations. It has given me knowledge to decipher people, maybe takers or disagreeable givers, and act as parasites. I will try to communicate vision to co-workers to make them know what they are to produce, what they will get, how to keep and maintain relationships. I will create trust, commitment,

consistency, clear vision for organization and convert every failure into opportunity for the benefit of organization. Once strong vision is created the clients will always approach you for service. 

Motivation and Performance

Job crafting results from dissatisfaction of the employees, need to improve team, enlarge the employability, and increase adaptability. To implement it properly, the employees should focus on the area of job tasking. This lesson taught me to allow job crafting positively and giving preferences to work tasks that suit my skills and interests by introducing new tasks, organizing special events in workplace, and making friends who have similar interests to strengthen the relationship. Thinking about how your work positively impacts your life and importance of your work is seen in broader community. I even got an opportunity to implement this in my previous job role which brought many favorable outcomes such as job satisfaction, flexibility, hence changing the meaning of work involved in various tasks.

This learning was really important to me as having your job crafted differently gives satisfaction, commitment, happiness, and motivation to perform well for the organization. Henceforth, I will modulate my approach that revolves around workers who have different levels of approach to work as they desire for their benefit and welfare of organization. These people need to be motivated regarding the career, time management, work-balance involving other related works, acknowledging their contribution and providing them opportunity to improve their expertise to rise in organization. I won’t use one size fits all approach because if I can motivate co-workers at all levels using their skills, passion, and vision in life, it will result in happiness at workplace and contribute to organization for achieving the desired goals.  

Stress and Well-being

This lesson enlightened that employers always need managerial support to create a thriving culture of wellness and must enable behavior change otherwise companies face large burnout. Managers have power to form healthier workplaces and have opportunity to steer their employees by example. Managers use their leadership skills to encourage and enable healthy behavior around workplace. Numerous companies are looking to cut back healthcare costs, while also fostering happy and productive employees. Employees must understand the values of their jobs so that they can decide whether to take meaningful work or with high perks. Any deviation from true value could result in negative well-being, increasing stress level, and a cost to the company. In the future, I will review the determinants of stress in everyday life, negative outcomes of stress on health and will seek social support from other people. I will focus on helpful and realistic thoughts. Make a plan of action to break stressful problems into manageable chunks and take self-care and care of relationships and values of life. Gratitude helps to make people greater and promote well-being.

CONCLUSION

The organization should identify the triggers at work that impact well-being and cause stress for any individual. Organizations should demonstrate as well as reward those individuals who can balance their lives in a good way. Launching wellness programs helps employee’s from falling into depression and improves their multi-tasking ability. Effective leaders stand out and get noticed by others in pursuit to create opportunities. Leaders with the help of networking generate new experiences, develop persuasion skills, and understand the skills and vision of

others. Some leaders consider give and take a good policy but cannot be too strict on this as this might end the kindness in this world. For leaders to have their own vision, possessing persuasion skills is very important. People are pleased to work with leaders who are more receptive to their influencing. Job crafting can be prioritized because it provides an opportunity for the employees to maximize what interests them and which promotes specialization, as it is necessary for the organization to enhance the organizational processes efficiently.

REFERENCES

[1]   Cialdini, R.B. (2007). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

[2]   Marc Schenker (2020) How to Use Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Persuasion to Boost Conversions, Available at: https://cxl.com/blog/cialdinis-principles-persuasion/ 

(Accessed: November 11, 2020).

[3]   Robert B. Cialdini (2001) 'Harnessing the Science of Persuasion', HBR Article Collection, (R0109D-PDF-ENG), pp. 1-8.

[4]   Wayne Baker (2014) 5 Ways to Get Better at Asking for Help, Available at: https://hbr.org/2014/12/5-ways-to-get-better-at-asking-for-help (Accessed: November 11, 2020).

[5]   Adam Grant (2017) Are you a giver or a taker? Available at: 

https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_grant_are_you_a_giver_or_a_taker/up-next (Accessed: November 11, 2020).

[6]   Louise Lee (2016) Should Employees Design Their Own Jobs?, Available at: 

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/should-employees-design-their-own-jobs (Accessed: November 12, 2020).

[7]   Jane E. Dutton and Amy Wrzesniewski (2020) What Job Crafting Looks Like, Available at: https://hbr.org/2020/03/what-job-crafting-looks-like (Accessed: November 12, 2020).

[8]   Jon M. Jachimowicz, Joyce He, and Julián Arango (2019) The Unexpected Benefits of Pursuing a Passion Outside of Work, Available at: https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-unexpected-benefits-of-pursuing-a-passion-outside-of-work (Accessed: November 12, 2020).