Introduction
Leadership is considered as one of the key aspects that defines the success of any given organization, as it creates a definite approach towards ensuring that companies are able to meet their set out goals and objectives (Dantley, 2003). Efficiency in leadership acts as a reflection of the performance among employees, as it creates a rather proactive platform through which to motivate and inspire enhanced performance outcomes. From that perspective, it is important to reflect on some of the key lessons to learn from two influential leaders within the business environment, Mr. Quiros, the current manager of OCI Company, and Mr. Lombard, the former manager of OCI Company. The analysis will focus on their responses during an interview with the sole focus being towards examining some of the key aspects to learn on how to build a proactive platform for positive leadership.
Leadership Theory
To help in gaining an in-depth understanding of the concept of leadership from the two leaders, I focused on the use of transformative leadership as the main theory that defined the questions used as part of the interview. Transformative leadership refers to a leadership theory in which leaders seek to establish positive frameworks through which to maximize on their employees’ performance in a bid to achieving positive results (Shields, 2010). In this case, it was clear that the adoption of this theory was important with the focus being towards understanding how leadership dynamics are changing within the workplace environment. Additionally, this theory was essential towards gaining a clear understanding of how leaders are expected to promote transformation as part of their engagement in the workplace environment as a way of guaranteeing positive performance.
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Mr. Quiros stressed on the importance of ensuring that a leader not only seeks to create employees with the capacity to meet set out goals and objectives but also pointed to the fact that a leader must promote transformation among employees. However, it must be noted that Mr. Lombard suggested his view of leadership, which he believed in the authoritarian system of leadership as a way of building authority in leadership. Wheatley (2006) highlights the value of competence, commitment, and effectiveness suggesting that these aspects would help towards ensuring that leaders are well positioned towards management of human assets. From this perspective, it is clear that the adoption of transformative leadership is seen as a key framework through which leaders are able to guarantee positive performance. Additionally, this also helps towards ensuring that leaders are able to define positive performance in everything that they do as part of their leadership.
The ideals associated with both transformative leadership theory can also be seen from the fact that Mr. Quiros pointed to the fact that the primary focus for any leader ought to be motivation of employees allowing them to achieve set organizational goals. Cooper (2009) builds on the understanding that transformative leadership creates a key framework through which leaders are able to motivate their employees towards performance. That means that the employees would find themselves in a rather effective position through which to maximize on their potential towards achieving specific goals and objectives. From a leadership perspective, this would mean that a leader find him or herself in a rather effective position through which to provide more for individual employees inspiring them towards improving on their performance expectations.
Relevance of Themes from Readings
The two readings that are essential in examining the aspect of leadership are the New Business Realities and the Thinking Habits of Mind, Heart, and Imagination. Both readings stretch the understanding of leadership from multiple perspectives with the view that a leader would be expected to define new dynamics within the business environment. Additionally, the readings also reflect on leadership from the perspective that it act as one of the key aspects of consideration towards building positive engagements in the business environment.
The theme selected in the New Business Realities is transformative change focused on highlighting the key expectation for individual leaders in trying to promote transformation among their employees in a bid to achieving set out objectives. Transformative change refers to new system dynamics that can be associated with the economy in which everything seeks to have gained momentum (Elias, O’Brien, & Weissberg, 2006). In the interview, it is clear that it sought to reflect on the dynamics of transformational change in complex systems with the view that leaders must be well positioned towards building their positions in the business environment. The two leaders selected for the interview are seen as being transformative and authoritative within their respective business environments. That reflects more on the fact that the leaders have been able to create a front through which to promote change within their complex business environments. Caldwell, Dixon, Floyd, Chaudoin, Post, & Cheokas (2012) argue that a transformative leader has the ability and capacity to empower others within the business environment with the view that this would enhance their abilities to make effective decisions. That is one of the key areas that the two leaders indicated during the course of the interview to determine their influence.
On the other hand, the theme selected from the Thinking Habits of Mind, Heart, and Imagination is conservational reflection. Conservational reflection refers to the idea of actual reflection focusing on the experiences occurring within professional practice touching on learning conservations (Weiner, 2003). A review of the questions suggests that they build on what would be considered as professional development with the view being that they create an enhanced platform through which to learn more about the changing dynamics in the business environment. The consequence of this is that it creates a significant platform through which to maximize on enhanced performance with the view that this would help in promoting personal mastery. Shields (2012) points to the fact that the changing dynamics in the business environment tend to play a critical role towards ensuring that leaders promote professional development as one of the key aspects defining positive outcomes. Generally, this is expected to create a platform through which an employee is able to achieve his or her set out goals and objectives from a personal perspective in the business environment.
Self-Reflection
From a personal perspective, as an interviewer, one of the key aspects that seemed to work was the fact that I had gathered as much information as possible to help me understand the context of the questions that I was asking. Thus, this provided me with a broad understanding of possible responses from the two leaders involved in the interview. One key aspect that I believe did not work was the issue of timing for the interview considering that one of the leaders, Mr. Lombard had just left the company. However, Mr. Lombard was able to talk about leadership from the perspective of his prior involvement as a former manager within OCI Company to help in matching expected outcomes.
In the event that I would engage in these interviews, in future, the main thing that I would do differently is finding employees within different workplace environments, which would provide me with a broader understanding of leadership in different contexts. I would also change my behavior during the interview with the focus being towards giving the interviewee an impression that indeed I am well aware of what he or she seeks to bring out as part of the responses. The main aspect that I was able to learn from the interview is that leadership is not all about personal expectations. Instead, it should always be about the influence that one has towards others.
Recommendations
The following are recommendations for leadership development initiatives for leaders at the production level of leadership. The first recommendation would revolve around ensuring that a leader understands the importance of inspiring others based on what one does rather that the decisions made. From a leadership perspective, leaders must understand that their role in leadership is driven by a significant change in proactive expectations touching on motivation and inspiration. In this case, a leader is expected to act as a source of inspiration towards others taking into account his or her actions. Thus, this would mean that a leader would only focus on actions that seek to create a positive dynamic towards defining progress within the business environment. The implementation of this will touch on ensuring that leaders understand that they are accountable for their actions regardless of the consequences and outcomes.
The second key recommendation would touch on the importance of having leaders influence others to work in teams, which would act as a guarantee for positive outcomes. Working in teams means that individual employees would be able to create a major shift in their proactive positions while ensuring that they enhance overall capacity towards achieving set out goals. Additionally, this would also mean that a leader would learn the value of having to influence performance with the view that this would help build or define ultimate performance outcomes. From a general perspective, this means a leader influencing others to work in teams would be considered as being effective in his or her position of leadership. The implementation of this would focus more on ensuring that leaders are well aware of the impacts that teams tend to have on ultimate performance outcomes.
Conclusion
In summary, leadership is one of the key determinants of success within companies and organizations, as it creates a new framework through which leaders are able to determine the nature and level of influence that they have towards their employees. The focus for this report is on the interview with two key leaders, Mr. Quiros, the current manager of OCI Company, and Mr. Lombard, the former manager of OCI Company. I focused on the use of transformative leadership as the main theory that defined the questions used as part of the interview. Mr. Quiros stressed on the importance of promoting transformation among employees with Mr. Lombard pointed to the fact that a leader would be expected to be an authoritative, which would help towards ensuring that a leader is able to build on his or her leadership expectations while promoting competence and commitment towards the leadership framework.
References
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Cooper, C. W. (2009). Performing cultural work in demographically changing schools: Implications for expanding transformative leadership frameworks. Educational administration quarterly , 45 (5), 694-724.
Dantley, M. E. (2003). Critical spirituality: Enhancing transformative leadership through critical theory and African American prophetic spirituality. International Journal of Leadership in Education , 6 (1), 3-17.
Elias, M. J., O’Brien, M. U., & Weissberg, R. P. (2006). Transformative leadership for social-emotional learning. Principal Leadership , 7 (4), 10-13.
Shields, C. M. (2010). Transformative leadership: Working for equity in diverse contexts. Educational administration quarterly , 46 (4), 558-589.
Shields, C. M. (2012). Transformative leadership in education: Equitable change in an uncertain and complex world . Eye on Education.
Weiner, E. J. (2003). Secretary Paulo Freire and the democratization of power: Toward a theory of transformative leadership. Educational Philosophy and theory , 35 (1), 89-106.
Wheatley, M. J. (2006). Leadership and the new science. Discovering order in a chaotic world (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
