Introduction
This company is a major consumer technology corporation with rich business networks across the world. Moreover, it the contemporary consumer technology industry has stiff competition for the existing market share. Many players in this industry are always implementing new technological innovations and advancing the existing products in order to meet the emerging needs of consumers in the market and attract them. The numerous physical locations of this corporation across the world need proper coordination and organization for them to operate in a cohesive and effective manner. Therefore, this corporation must consider a leader who has the many qualities demanded to meet the unique needs of this corporation. While searching for the right leader to lead this organization, it must be noted that the president selected and given the job should have a personality of rich and diverse leadership ability, skills, styles, expertise, talent and ethics.
What being a leader is about
Being a leader in an organization like this one,is about managing and influencing followers who are mainly other executive managers, employees and the customers in the market (Erhard, Jensen & Granger, 2013). Being a leader is about influencing people to pursue a given goal and objective with great dedication until they achieve it. It must be noted that being a leader means managing to initiate and implement progressive reforms the organization. Finally, being a leader implies showing the right direction to the followers and making sure each employee advances in terms of personal capacity. The incoming president must be a person who espouses these true meanings of what being a leader is about. He or she must be a person who reflects the true meaning of leadership when he stands up to express himself or herself. He or she must be able to state the clear perspective of what being a leader is all about before the selection.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Traits needed to be an effective leader
Psychologists have been able to make important contributions to the business field by researching and defining the true traits of an effective leader. Through psychological tests, these characteristics that make up a good leader have been tested and found out to be commonly present in all successful leaders (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). The need to have clear definition of the traits of effective leaders emerged because of the increased competition for customers within the business field. Companies needed to understand these common traits that such knowledge informs their selection decisions on the best organizational leaders. Today, it is easy to choose the right leader for the corporation because the traits needed are always known hence it becomes a matter of just observing the person.
The first trait of an effective leader is being visionary. An effective leader must be a person who can create and pursue a specific vision for the organization. Vision, in this case, implies being able to establish an achievable goal and influencing the workers as well as managers to pursue it through collective efforts. An effective leader must be able to set targets for a given period of time and influence the workers towards achieving them (Fisher & Robbins, 2015). To be an effective leader, one must be able to foresee and tell what is highly likely to come in the future within the business world. It is forecast events and dynamics about the future that should inform the vision of the leader for the corporation. It is important to note that the president to be considered for this corporation must be a person who can predict the future of the consumer technology industry and formulate a realistic vision for this company. Predicting future dynamics in the business field simply involves studying the past and present trends in the market and then projecting them into the foreseeable days to come. The consumer technology is characterized by constant changes in the market because of massive innovations and product upgrading aimed at meeting the new needs of the customers. Moreover, the changes in this industry are also caused by the stiff competition for market share, which exists. Therefore, without a visionary president at the helm of this corporation, it may become very difficult for it to survive in the future.
The second trait of an effective leader is being transformative. An effective leader initiates change in the organization and manages to rally the whole stakeholders in the company to back it until it is successful. It is important to note that most people in the organization are always opposed to the implementation of change. The case is even worse when the intended change involves introduction of a new technology meant to increase the speed of production for the company (Fisher & Robbins, 2015). Employees tend to resist the implementation of technological change because they always feel it is a threat to their jobs. Therefore, an effective must be willing to always initiate progressive change in the organization. After initiating this change, the leader must be a person who has the skills of transformation able to make him or her convince all stakeholders in the company to support it. A transformative leader will always influence the workers and shareholders into accepting the intended change and win their full support. It must be noted that the new president who will be considered to lead this company must be a transformative. His or her level of transformation acumen can be established through the track record built over the course of his or her practice in leadership within other organizations. As noted earlier in this paper, the consumer technology industry is marked with stiff competition; a factor leads to constant change in companies. Therefore, this particular organization must also use transformation as a competitive strategy.
The other trait of a good leader is that he has good reputation and is a mentor. The good reputation makes a leader to be a mentor to the followers. Leaders who have good reputation among people earn respect from their followers in the organization. The employees view such a leader as their main source of inspiration (Fisher & Robbins, 2015). This inspiration they get from the leader encourages them to work hard and be highly productive at the workplace. Possessing the trait of a mentor to the employees makes a leader to easily influence them into the desired direction. Employees who consider their leader as a mentor hardly resist his or her plans for the organization. The employees give him or her all the support because of the respect they have for him or her. Equally, this board must realize the fact that reputation is a trait to consider while vetting the person to be selected as the president of this company. The new president must be a person who has built a high and good reputation for himself or herself. It is this high reputation that will earn him or her the much needed respect from the employees. Employees will regard him or her as a mentor and follow the instructions given without any resistance. Moreover, this is the trait that will enable the new president to easily implement change in the company.
The other major trait of an effective leader is emotional stability and self-control. A leader must be a person who has the ability of controlling his or her emotions regardless of the situation at hand. Being overwhelmed by emotions may make a leader to make ineffective and poor decisions for the organization (Fisher & Robbins, 2015). To be an effective leader, a leader must be able to have self-control and refrain from engaging in some things, which would soil his or her reputation. Importantly, it has to be noted that leaders take responsibilities of many things in the organization. When a given department in the company fails to perform well, the whole blame I directed at the leader at the helm of the entire organization. When a manger swindles money from the company, the resulting scandal is directed at the overall leader of the organization is made to take vicarious liability of the embezzlement mistake done by another person (Fisher & Robbins, 2015). For this reason, it must be noted that organizational leaders usually come under hot criticism on many occasions. Quite often, the overall leader of a large company like this one is asked to resign for mistakes committed by junior employees. With a weak emotional control, a leader can succumb to the huge criticism and lose direction in his or her work. Some may be prompted to quit the organization because of the criticism. However, an effective leader must one who has the ability to brush off the huge criticism and resiliently marshal the emotional strength needed to continue with his or her functions normally. This company must select a president who has this quality considering the fact that it is a very huge corporation with physical branches in different locations across the world.
Leadership style and skills
There are various styles of leadership, which a leader may use in the organization. The style of leadership refers to the way of leading people within an organization. The first common style of leadership is the autocratic one. Autocratic leaders usually make decisions without consulting their team members regardless of whether their input is useful or not (Fisher & Robbins, 2015). Many leaders choose this style of leadership because it makes the process of decision making in the organization short and fast. However, it is a style of leadership that entrenches patriarchy in the organization and kills creativity as well as innovation (Giltinane, 2013). Creativity and innovation are killed in the organization with this style of leadership because it does not allow the employees to give their input in the decision making process. Its end result is a very high level of demoralized workers and huge employee turnover in the company. It is a style of leadership, which should not be applied by the president to be chosen for this company.
The second style of leadership is the Laissez-faire one. In this style of leadership, leaders accord the employees and work teams the all freedom to control themselves and make their decisions (Fisher & Robbins, 2015). For instance, employees are allowed to set their deadlines and choose work targets. They only consult the leader for advice. This style of leadership leads to a very high level of creativity and innovation in the company. Workers are highly motivated and feel happy to stay in the company. Therefore, there is very low rate of employee turnover. However, where the employees are lazy and rogue, this style of leadership may lead to great loss and poor performance in the company.
The style of leadership that is the best of them all hence should be used by the new president of this company is the democratic one. Democratic leaders usually give employees and other stakeholders the chance to add their input in the decision making process of the organization (Giltinane, 2013). Therefore, it is a style of leadership that encourages creativity and innovation since it develops partnerships in the company (Fisher & Robbins, 2015). However, the ultimate decision is made by the leader hence lazy and rogue workers cannot survive in an organization led by a democratic leader. It is the recommended style of leadership for the incoming president of this company.
There are various leadership skills needed by the incoming president of this organization. The leader should have good and effective interpersonal skills. Effective interpersonal skills will enable the leader to associate well with the employees of this organization. Moreover, the leader will need to have effective communication skills. Communication skills will make the leader able to persuade and successfully convince employees as well as company stakeholders into adopting and embracing important organizational business projects and reforms (Fisher & Robbins, 2015).
Importance of attending to tasks and relationships
It is vital for the president chosen to be a person who will always attend to tasks and relationships in the organization. Attending to tasks enables the leader to identify problems and weaknesses in functions within the right time for timely correction and improvement (Sun, 2013). Attending to relationships helps the leader to solve conflicts in the company and build cohesion, which is necessary for good teamwork.
Following and communicating a vision and setting the tone
Following and communicating the vision as well as setting the tone for the company enables the leader to provide and influence clear direction to the other stakeholders in the company such as the employees.
Good out-group member skills as well as the ability to handle conflict and overcome obstacles
The importance of having good out-group member skills and the ability to solve conflicts as well as overcome obstacles makes the leader to build professional friendships and enhance cohesion in the company. Overall, the leader is able to create a friendly working environment, which is healthy for high productivity.
The needed ethical leadership traits
This position demands various ethical leadership traits on the part of the president. These traits include empathy for others, which makes the leader to be considerate. Honesty, transparency and accountability are the other ethical leadership traits needed for this sensitive position (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). The leader must also be faithful and trustworthy in order to succeed in this position.
Conclusion
The company must understand that the president selected and given the job should have a personality of rich and diverse leadership ability, skills, styles, expertise, talent and ethics. He or she must have the important common leadership traits, which have been proved to be effective in producing success in organizations through psychological research.
References
Erhard, W., Jensen, M. C., & Granger, K. L. (2013). Creating leaders: An ontological/phenomenological model. Phenomenological Model .
Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases . Ontario: Nelson Education.
Fisher, K., & Robbins, C. R. (2015). Embodied leadership: Moving from leader competencies to leaderful practices. Leadership , 11 (3), 281-299.
Giltinane, C. L. (2013). Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard , 27 (41), 35-39.
Sun, P. Y. (2013). The servant identity: Influences on the cognition and behavior of servant leaders. The Leadership Quarterly , 24 (4), 544-557.
