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What makes a good leader & how might the performance of leaders be measured

Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance


Author

Torsten Mayer
1 Text

Excerpt

Category
Essay
Institution / College
Grade
1,2 (A)

Thinking Skills and General
Management
What makes a good leader
&
How might the performance of leaders be
measured
What makes a good leader &
How might the performance of leaders be measured
2
Contents
1. What makes a good leader
Communication
The
communication
process
Removing
barriers
Motivation
Challenges
Herzberg's motivation and hygiene factors
Finding
the
right
leadership
style
Autocratic
leadership
Democratic leadership or participative
leadership
Laissez-faire
leadership
Transformational
leadership
The
leadership
continuum
Contingency theories or situational
leadership
Improving
the
leadership
qualities
2. How might the performance of leaders be measured
Performance
appraisal
program
Performance
plan
Progress review
Performance
appraisal
The
balanced
scorecard
3. Conclusion
What makes a good leader &
How might the performance of leaders be measured
3
1. What makes a good leader
Probably everybody will agree that a good leader is very important to any
successful business. But what makes an effective leader and how can
someone develop her or his leadership qualities? Indeed there are many
factors that affect the leadership qualities. And one thing is sure, anyone can
be a good leader, even if he or she isn't yet. Discover in the next paragraphs
"my" major elements that affect the leadership quality.
Communication
One of the most important factors of good leadership is communication. It
doesn't matter of what size business it is ­ a large organisation, a small firm,
or even a home-based business ­ well developed communication skills are
indispensable for success. If good communication skills don't already exist,
they have to be built up to become a good leader. The goal of communication
is to get an important message clearly and unequivocal across to others.
Doing this requires effort from both the sender and the receiver. If employees
have no idea what is on the supervisor's mind, the leadership is going to
falter. When this isn't detected, it can cause very big confusion, wasted
exertion and missed opportunity. In order to transfer the massage clearly, a
manager should use an effective communication. As stated in the course book
thinking skills and general management (University of Leicester, 2007)
following points have to be considered:
· What is the purpose of the communication?
· Are the occasion and timing of the communication right?
· Will those receiving it be able to follow it from one stage to another?
· Is the medium (usually language) suited to the audience?
· Has the purpose of the communication been achieved?
What makes a good leader &
How might the performance of leaders be measured
4
The communication process
Communication problems can appear at every stage of the communication
process (which consists of sender, encoding, channel, decoding, receiver and
feedback - see the diagram below) and may create misinterpretation and
confusion.
Diagram 1.1: The communication process (Kryder, 2006)
The sender starts the communication process and than encodes a message,
and selects a channel (written, oral or visual) for transmitting the message to a
receiver. The receiver is the person or group to whom the message is
directed. He or she decodes or interprets the meaning of the message. The
feedback of the receiver back to the sender controls whether he or she
understood well the content of the message.
Removing barriers
In each stage of the communication process exist barriers that disturb the
smooth transfer of the message. To deliver the message without
misunderstanding, it is important to pull down these barriers.
Let's start with the message. If the message is too long, disorganized, or full
of errors, the message can be misunderstood and misinterpreted. Poor verbal
and body language can also confuse the message and therefore shouldn't be
used.
Decoding
Channel
Encoding
Sender
Receiver
Msg
Msg
Msg
Feedback
Msg
What makes a good leader &
How might the performance of leaders be measured
5
The sender shouldn't offer too much information too fast. It should be always
in consideration, that less is oftentimes more. Paying attention of the demands
on other people's time is worthwhile, particularly in today's ultra-busy society.
In the next step, it is important to understand the audience's culture. A good
manager creates and adapts the message to the audience's background and
culture which may differ within the organisation.
Motivation
Motivation is another important factor that effect good leadership. Motivated
employees show greater willingness to work accompanied with higher
performance and quality. Some leaders still try to motivate through fear. (You
must do what I say or I will punish you) This is not advisable, because it
mostly leads to only short term results and the performance of the work in the
long run even decrease, due to the feeling of insecurity resulting from the fear
tactic.
Challenges
A fresh challenge always creates excitement and increases creativity. The
idea is to challenge the employees with tasks that may be slightly out of their
range and let them at it! This increases motivation.
If they can't get the next step, it will help to guide them back to the way
without offering the complete solution outright. The employees should find the
solution by themselves. After successful completion, their self-confidence will
grow, thereby raising their motivation level.
Herzberg's motivation and hygiene factors
One of my favourite theorys to explain the needs of the employees and the
duties of the management was developed by Frederick Herzberg (1959). He
published the two-factor theory of motivation. Herzberg described certain
Excerpt: 6 of 18 pages -  scroll top


Description

Title:
What makes a good leader & how might the performance of leaders be measured
Event:
MBA
Author:
Torsten Mayer
Year:
2007
Pages:
18
Archive No.:
V86906
ISBN (eBook):
978-3-638-05922-0
ISBN (Book):
978-3-638-94989-7
DOI:
10.3239/9783638059220
File size:
226 KB
Language:
English

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Torsten Mayer, 2007, What makes a good leader & how might the performance of leaders be measured, Munich, GRIN Publishing GmbH

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