A military commander leads a very organized group of followers who are ready and willing to follow precise instructions with finality. The president of a social network, on the other hand, leads a very diverse group of people, some of whom may not even be aware that they are being led . The social network leader will need to be different kinds of leaders to suit the different circumstances of the leadership position. The military commander and president of social networks are both leaders, yet their approach to leadership will vary exponentially because of their respective followers. When the leader has to change to adapt to the followers, situational leadership ensues (Lynch, 2015) . Diversity within the followership and the changes that the leader has to undergo in situational leadership not only comes with several benefits but also a few challenges. This research paper delves into the cause and effect of situational leadership by looking at situational leaders and the diversity of their followers.
Discuss Characteristics of Situational Leadership
Flexibility is key to situational leadership with the leader not being stuck to one leadership style. Instead, the leadership style will adjust and adapt depending on the situation. Being particular in directions as and when the situation demands is another prerequisite (Lynch, 2015) . Most leaders will only inspire the followers, but in some situations, the situational leader might need to go into detailed and give very precise instructions (DuBois et al. , 2015). Coaching is another prerequisite for situational leadership where the leader combines leading the team and trying to transform the team members into what they are supposed to be. A situational leader also participates in the activities of the followers for multiple purposes. Among the activities include learning more about the followers to evaluate what kind of leadership they need while at the same time superintending what the followers are doing. Courage and humility are also fundamental perquisites of situational leadership. The leader will, more often than not, be called upon to leave the comfort zone and act innovatively and outside the scope of traditional leadership (DuBois et al. , 2015). It is humbling for the leader to play the part of a follower to inspire, coach and direct the followers. The situational leader must also have a clear vision of the ways and means of achieving the objectives of the team, since the focus of the leader may be diverted from this vision most of the time. The leader may, therefore, not be able to work on the visions and lead contemporaneously (McCleskey, 2014).
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Benefits and Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace
The simplest definition of diversity in the workplace means the existence of differences between the different members of an organization including its employees. Among the most, basic differences include gender, race, and culture, but several other differences may also exist. For example, a leader may have both employees, and members as followers and this groups vary exponentially. A leader may also have employees and volunteers, which will also result in very valid followership. The impact of the traditional forms of diversity such as gender, race, and culture is also critical
Benefits
Diversity in the workplace has been considered as a competitive advantage in the commercial world. Modern cutthroat competition in the business world is so intense that being very good is never good enough to beat the competition, which is also very good (Hult News, 2018). An excellent team needs to be able to see all angles and consider all perspectives, and diversity enables this. In a team with different genders and different cultural affiliations, for example, the perspectives of all these groups will be brought together leading to a higher level of clarity and more informed decisions. A wider talent pool is also a benefit of diversity as different people are better than others in some activities. A wider pool of members and employees bring in a higher propensity for the presence of critical talent (Hult News, 2018). Finally, the modern workplace has a lot of specialization within it which might lead to boredom ; diversity creates a diversion which is a welcome respite more so on long-term projects.
Challenges
The need for situational leadership is one of the greatest challenges of diversity in the workplace. As outlined above, situational leadership is complex and requires an exceptional leader with great leadership skills. The cost of such leadership is also a burden to the organization. The propensity for friction and lack of harmony is another challenge relating to diversity in the workplace . In the modern workplace, the challenge of friction and lack of harmony is mainly driven by gender, racial and cultural issues. Balancing etiquette may also be a challenge in a diversified workplace as the different members of staff will have a varied opinion on what is right or wrong (Hult News, 2018).
Situational Leadership Illustration
In the modern commercial world, Mark Zuckerberg who is the President, and CEO of social network Facebook stands as a textbook example of situational leadership. Facebook has twenty thousand employees spread across all six continents and approximately two billion members from across the world (Facebook Inc., 2018). Most presidents and CEOs of multinationals do not need to employ situational leadership because they are only in charge of a small group of top executives. However, Mark has employed his social media to create a presence at all levels of the organization (Mochari, 2016). As with any president, Mark leads a team of highly qualified, educated and experienced executive who run the multi-billion dollar empire that is Facebook Inc. Leading this small clique calls for a very different form of leadership than it takes to be the leader of the 25 thousand members of staff. For the top leadership, for example, Mark is known to be a stern and no-nonsense technocrat whose presence is intimidating in high-end conference rooms.
With the 25 thousand plus employees, Mark plays the part of a colleague (Mochari, 2016). Mark regularly conducts an online version of management by walking around which allows him to interact with different members of staff including those in the lowest echelons. Mark acts as an inspiration, a coach, and instructor (Stachtou, 2015). Mark also uses the social network to solve divergence based disputes a good example being the dispute between employees during the white and black life matters debate. At the same time, Mark is also a leader to the billions of Facebook members across the globe since their conduct reflects on the company. Among the recent issues he has had to solve amongst this members relates to fake news and pornography. The members may not even recognize the authority of Mark, but he is still able to influence and coach them with a level of success (Stachtou, 2015).
Conclusion
Any aspiring leader in the future world must be faced with a great divergence as the world is transformed into a global village, as gender lines continue to be blurred and as different generations meet together in the workplace . As an aspiring leader, I would also want to work in a global marketplace where divergence is high as in the Facebook example given above. The ability to be able to adjust as become the kind of leader that the followers need is critical to the success of such leadership on a global scale. Being able to be the serious technocrat in the boardroom, yet the friendly but stern coach in the workstations is critical to the success of any future leader. As the workplace keeps on changing, it is fundamental for the leader to change along with it. It is on this basis that situational leadership is the leadership of the future.
References
DuBois, M., Hanlon, J., Koch, J., Nyatuga, B., & Kerr, N. (2015). Leadership styles of effective project managers: Techniques and traits to lead high performance teams. Journal of Economic Development, Management, IT, Finance, and Marketing , 7 (1), 30-46
Facebook Inc. (2018). Company Info. Retrieved February 06, 2018, from https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/
Hult News. (2018, January 25). 13 benefits and challenges of cultural diversity in the workplace in 2017 Hult News. Retrieved February 06, 2018, from http://www.hult.edu/blog/benefits-challenges-cultural-diversity-workplace/
Lynch, B. (2015). Partnering for performance in situational leadership: a person-centered leadership approach. International Practice Development Journal , (Suppl. 5 ), 1-10
McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly , 5 (4), 117-130
Mochari, I. (2016, May 06). The one thing you should do that Mark Zuckerberg already does. Retrieved February 06, 2018, from https://www.inc.com/ilan-mochari/mark- zuckerberg legacy-relationship-builder.html
Stachtou, M. (2015). Leadership of Mark Zuckerberg. Retrieved February 06, 2018, from http://www.academia.edu/10320099/Leadership_of_Mark_Zuckerberg
