Leaders play a pivotal role in guiding their followers so that they can actualize organizational goals and objectives. In the past, leaders have been focusing on doing all they can to ensure that their respective organizations achieve exponential economic growth and rake in huge profit margins. However, this kind of thinking and approach to leadership is being phased out as there is a shift to social change as the true measure of leadership. The global business and economic scene are turning its attention to efforts on corporate social responsibility initiatives. In particular, leaders are focused on addressing issues that are related to climate change environmental conservation, gender equality as a way of giving back to society. An analysis into modern leadership indicates that leaders are agents of social change and their actions are new more humanistic aimed at developing society, people and their conditions.
Leaders as Social Agents
Modern leaders are aware of the changing global business environment, which is a departure from the traditional and economic-oriented environment. With businesses expanding into other nations and infiltration of communication, technologies, leaders are becoming conscious of the social issues that determine the business environment. Yuniarto (2017) establishes that leaders should adopt a servant-leadership model, which allows for caring about the dynamics of their followers as well as their communities. This model seems to resonate with the need to be social agents as servant leaders tend to concentrate on serving the followers and community interest before they pursue their ambitions. In line with this objective, leaders ought to encourage internships for individuals who aspire to be leaders in the future. Starr-Glass asserts that while internships are not costless, "they often bring together different perspectives, knowledge, and outlooks." (2006, p. 288). In this case, leaders ought to view internships as long term human and social capital investments that could be used in achieving social change.
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Today's global business environment requires leaders with particular personality traits that can be used to bring about the much-needed relief from the prevailing social problems. Leaders need to realize that they cannot operate outside of society, considering that they are products of the same society. Biological elements could be used to establish the factors behind leadership as well as characteristics of effective leadership. According to Arvey et al. (2014), there is a growing literature that supports biological influences on leadership when it comes to effectiveness. Biological perspectives help in linking leaders to their environment, which then shapes leaders' social skills and personality traits. In such a case, leaders are likely to perceive the social needs of their followers as crucial and from here address them. Goleman &Boyatzis ((2008) echoes these views by establishing that leader-follower relationship does not espouse independent minds, but rather they are fused into a single system. What this means is that leaders are in a position to be empathetic to their followers' social needs, especially when they develop a genuine interest in their followers. Leaders must develop emotional intelligence so that they can understand the followers in their social context to be able to have meaningful relationships.
Leadership education aims at instilling requisite skills in individuals so that they can take up a leadership position. In the past, this education has been confined in class, and a focus on traditional leadership theories and structures has made it quite rigid. However, recently there has been an insistence on moving beyond the classroom to equip leaders with a hands-on approach to leadership. Dunn et al. (2019) insist on the need for student affairs leadership educator who helps move leadership education beyond the classroom. Multiple studies indicate that the first-hand experience is the best way to learn leadership, as students are encouraged to participate in informal and formal educational opportunities. Sessa et al. (2016) add that an understanding of leadership and leader identity development contributes to students'" constructive development. What this means is that students tend to think that since they are in leadership positions, they are leaders automatically. This kind of thinking is skewed since of these leaders depend on others to affirm their position. The modern global business environment requires leaders to believe in their capacity to bring about social change instead of waiting for confirmation from their followers.
The global business environment is quite dynamic as it is a departure from the past, where leadership was usually hierarchical and ascribed. Today leaders who are working in variable and dynamic environments must possess top quality and management competencies irrespective of individual personality traits. Zadel (2006) asserts that modern leaders are not only concerned with managing and directing activities but must also motivate followers to work at their optimum. If the leaders are to achieve this objective, they must possess social, methodological, standpoint, specific-work related and learning competencies. Yoshida et al. (2013) establish that leaders who demonstrate such competencies tend to adopt a servant –leadership model. These leaders are cognizant of the need to foster team innovation and employee creativity to deal with modern global business needs. In this case, leaders need to identify from among their followers' potential leaders and nurture them to take over leadership positions.
Leadership is becoming a humanistic concept that is focused on developing societies, people, as well as promotes ethical standards that can help to improve the human condition. The modern business environment is full of challenges, and now more than ever, individuals are looking at their leaders for direction and motivation. Kolditz (2011), a behavioral psychologist, indicates "followers believe that leader behavior will influence their physical well-being or survival." For this reason, seek out the leaders' guidance. In such a case, leaders must understand the concept of crisis leadership that requires them to be innovative to instill trust and loyalty in their followers. Lewis-Morrill & Aldrich (2018) insist that leaders must develop a vibrant corporate culture that is founded on enhancing employee engagement as a way of managing people. This proposition is indicative of a modern global environment where there is an overemphasis on the centrality of the employees. The leaders can no longer take credit for the achievement of organizational goals since their role is to motivate employees in their role as social agents.
References
Arvey, R. D., Song, Z., Wang, N., & Li, W. (2014). The biology of leadership. In David, D. (Ed.), Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations (pp. 73-90). Oxford University Press.
Dunn, A., Moore, L. L., Odom, S. F., Bailey, K. J., &Briers, G. A. (2019). Leadership education beyond the classroom: Characteristics of student affairs leadership educators. Journal of Leadership Education, 18(4), 94-109. 10.12806/V18/I4/R8
Goleman, D., & Boyatzis, R. E. (2008). Social intelligence and the biology of leadership. Harvard Business Review Online . https://hbr.org/2008/09/social-intelligence-and-the-biology-of-leadership
Kolditz, (2011, January 23). Tom Kolditz: Extreme leadership expert, crisis specialist, behavioral psychologist, keynote speaker. [Video] YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuLn1dyMd3I
Lewis-Morrill, K., & Aldrich, A. (2018). People-Management Skills: 7 Leading Competencies. [Video]. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KukRn5D6dUs
Sessa, V. I., Ploskonka, J., Alvarez, E. L., Daurdis, S., Dixon, C., & Bragger, J. D. The relationship between student leaders’ constructive development, their leadership identity, and their understanding of leadership. Journal of Leadership Education , 15, (1), 15-30.
Starr-Glass, D. (2006). Enhancing the transformative potential of business internships. Managing Global Transitions International Research Journal, 4(4), 285-298.
Yoshida, D. T., Sendjaya, S., Hirst, G., & Cooper, B. (2013). Does servant leadership foster creativity and innovation? A multi-level mediation study of identification and prototypicality. Journal of Business Research , 67(7), 1395 – 1404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.08.013
Yuniarto, P. (2017). Effect of organizational citizenship behaviors as a moderation between servant leadership on employee performance. Journal of Applied Management, 16(2), 264-270.
Zadel, A. (2006). Impact of personality and emotional intelligence on successful training in competencies. Managing Global Transitions , 4(4), 363-376.
