The Traditional Tendencies of Leadership

There are several behavioral competencies that can be identified in a high-performing leader. Carson F. Dye and his co-authors identified more than 100 personal attributes that define what an exceptional leadership requires. The primary leadership competencies include a compelling vision, properly cultivating self-awareness, relating with other people, and a master of a style of execution. A leader must first have a natural feeling, urge or desire to lead the people. Richard Green coined the term “servant leadership” to define leadership focus on the well-being and growth of the communities they belong and the people they serve. Servant leadership is normally attributed to traditional leadership; servant leadership involves accumulation and exercise of power by the person at the top of the pyramid while providing service to the people (Mac Donald, 2016). A servant leader puts the needs of the people first, shares power and helps the people under him perform better than they currently are. To do this, a leader has to have the following attributes, which include empathy, listening, awareness, persuasion, stewardship, healing, conceptualization, foresight, commitment to see his people grow, and building community. Whereas some traditional tendencies of leadership are still practised in the modern world, by modern leaders, the leadership style turnaround after they left their posts informs the current needs of leadership. Profits and figures of growth do not always imply that sound leadership is taking place. Rather, getting the best out of servants is a key factor in accompanying huge margins in terms of operating profits, revenues and customers. At some point, leaders were authoritarian; leaders were basically people appointed to some position and gave orders. Today, leaders work with better-educated persons who want to be part of the process and their contributions felt. For example, employees do not just want to be part of the workforce, they want to build their careers, and they want their presence and contributions felt. The modern leader has the desire to influence the people working under him and assist them to achieve their desires and goals. Leaders must have the ability to help people see the best in themselves and also to learn different ways through which they can increase their production levels within the organization. Although traditional leadership like that provided by Steve Jobs and Jack Welch might have led to highly profitable ventures, desirable outcomes in terms of servant empowerment are not achievable through traditional leadership. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to present a discussion on leadership at place of work, specifically examining principles of leadership, leadership styles, desirable leadership practices, effective decision making and empowering the employees through leadership. Personal leadership principles are the goals that people desire, goals that motivate their actions, and they act as the guiding principles in people’s daily lives. Personal leadership principles and values are the things that represent what we stand for, and they are the essence of who we are. Values are inborn; they are inherent to every individual and they can also be learned through constant practice. Leadership principles are the fundamental beliefs that guide an individual’s interactions with other people both at the place of work and at home. Leadership principles are important because they can show the values and commitments of an individual at a place of work (Cho, 2016). The leadership principles are the priorities, beliefs and motivations that influence decision-making and drive professional development. Where there are no leadership traits, are not defined or unclear, then it becomes difficult to plan and achieve the life goals and the business we want. The core leadership principles are integrity, being open-minded and teamwork these are discussed in details in the paragraphs that follows. The first core value and leadership trait is integrity. A leader worth his salt must be a person of high integrity, incorruptible, and holds up to good morals, whether in the light or dark. Integrity refers to the quality of possessing strong ethical principles and sticking to them always. A leader with high levels of integrity needs to be consistent, trustworthy individual and a person of honesty. Integrity is the building blocks under which the colleagues at place of work build trust and relationships, and it is one of the fundamental values that employers look for when hiring. To have integrity implies that the individual is self-aware, responsible individual, accountable and trustworthy and that their actions are consistent. The second critical leadership trait is open-mindedness. Being open-minded refers to the willingness to actively search for evidence against personal plans, beliefs or objectives and to fairly weigh such evidence when it is available (Neill et al., 2007). However, being open-minded does not mean that an individual is indecisive, not able to think for one-self or wishy-washy. Open-minded leaders are very wise and mature, and are always willing to listen to other people’s opinions and to learn from them. Open-minded leader welcome knowledge, but they also have an understanding that some of this knowledge could be disputable. This means that they have to fact-check opinions before sharing the information to others or take decisions based on it. The third core value is teamwork. The main qualities of a team player are ability to work as a team, trust, accountability, and commitment. One of the benefits of teamwork is that it attains a lot more than individuals cannot achieve through simple cooperation. With teamwork qualities, leader have the primary foundation characteristics and skills for being part of an excellent team, either as a leader or a follower. There are several types of leadership with every leader adopting their model of leadership. These include autocratic, authoritative, democratic, coaching, pacesetting among others. The first type of leadership is a transformational leader. A transformational leader creates an organization vision and effectively communicate it to the team and they work towards achieving this vision (Al Khajeh, 2018). The leader identifies a problem that needs to be changed and then he becomes the transformation agent for change, motivating and inspiring the team through the entire process. The second leadership style is transactional leader. Transactional leader, on the other hand, uses reward and punishment method to ensure the employee performs. The leader and the workers agree on the objectives to be achieved and the standards to meet. The leader gives the direction and oversees the project implementation, and then reviews the employee performance. The third leadership style is autocratic leader. An autocratic leader is also called an authoritarian leader. This type of leader exercises total control over all the necessary decisions and only gives the employees a small room to make certain decisions (Neill, et al., 2018). While autocratic leadership may seem to be a source of disaster, it works perfectly well in scenarios where the task is urgent and quick-cut decisions have to be made. For example, in military situations, some decisions have to be made by the leaders, quickly and fast and this could mean life and death. This section presents a discussion on some of the basic practices a good leader is expected to show to be successful in steering the organization forward. The four main desirable leadership practices include the ability to lead the way for the followers, the ability to create a vision and work towards achieving it, the ability to identify a problem and propose solution by challenging the process and the ability to empower the followers in implementing change. The first desirable leadership practice is the ability to lead the way. The trusted and effective leaders must have the respect and credibility from their employees and junior staff members. Respect and credibility are earned through the long-term relationship between the leader and the staff. Respect and trust are also earned when the leader shows consistency with time in terms of being committed to values and principles that are perceived to be important to all the relevant organization stakeholders. Such ideals have to be evident in the leader’s actions and speech and they have to be completed in a manner that other employees who are contacted with the leader have a clear picture of what the leaders and the organization stand for ( Neill et al., 2007) . The leaders must come closer to the employees and try to understand how things traditionally work in the company, and to have an understanding on the kind of cultures and practices that keep the organization from performing as expected. The leaders must come close to the employees and earn directly from them instead of staying away and not being the doers. By understanding the employees and the problems as they are in the ground, the new leaders have higher chances of understanding where the main problems are and will know the appropriate approaches to introduce the new changes without rejection. This is largely because leaders have had the experience, they consult, and they can also make good judgement. A leader must be in a position to inspire a vision. The best leaders are those who see things different from how other people see them. They see how things are happening today and they have the ability to envision a totally new and different future filled with all kinds of possibilities about the things that will happen. Such leaders have a very strong belief that it is possible to have a better future and have the ability to work with others, inspiring them to join them on the journey towards making the possibilities a reality ( Neill et al., 2007). The core of building a relationship is once again revealed in this second practice of exemplary leadership. Great leaders are known for keeping their dream consistent and every other thing the same. They have the ability to see the challenging issues at hand and creating an environment that is conducive to reimagining how things can be done better and promoting innovation ( Ganta, 2014) . They are the thought pioneers who also take every opportunity to encourage creative solutions from the team members. A great leader understands that they may not have answers to all the problems, and as a result, they remain open to new inspirations and ideas that may originate from different sources that could either be external or internal to the organization. Even though not every idea that comes to the leader’s table is successful, but great leaders are always ready to try new things and learn from it in case of failures, and then pick on something else. As every small step of success happens, the leader is able to build some momentum and eventually wins the team confidence to identify the areas they think there are the big challenges that need to be solved. Effective leaders must be in a position to empower their followers. Great leaders make their team members feel like their effort is being recognized and as a result work even harder due to the engagement and are highly productive. These team members also feel like they are an important part of the team and their work matters. The best leaders according to the authors actively looked out for participation and input from all the parties in the team. Great leaders do not cluster decision-making and power to a tiny group of persons who are close to the top of the organization corporate hierarchy. This kind of workplace environment helps the workers feel a greater level of commitment and personal strength and as a result they give their best, contributing towards ideas that could potentially lead to better performance of the organization and fellow employees. When a leader creates a good workplace environment and attributes, it contributes towards making the employees have a greater sense of ownership in the organization mission and also promotes a positive sense of personal value and self-esteem ( Shahzadi et al., 2014) . When leaders show greater levels of trust and work towards reinforcing everyone’s contribution value, the staff would feel stronger and are in a position to believe that they can do even more than they thought was possible before. The development and expansion of information technology have significantly altered organizations’ operations. Through the constant innovation in the technology sector and subsequent implementation, organizations have improved on their data processing mechanisms, transmission capacities as well as business efficiency. However, such developments have equally contributed to the emergence of new vulnerabilities that require effective control. With a need to control every vulnerability, determining the adequacy of the control mechanisms requires a new approach, especially in the methods of auditing. Such new approaches to audit are critical for risks associated with data integrity, privacy, and possible abuse. Besides, every system needs to function in its intended standards in ensuring that the organization’s objectives are achieved in compliance with the established standards policies and regulations. For the successful management of an IT infrastructure Audit, it is critical to determine the audit policy and the various dynamics attributed to it. For this to happen, an organization needs a leader that is knowledgeable in different technology areas to lead success in a technology-oriented world. A leader is therefore needed to help with making better decisions where an ordinary person cannot make the appropriate decision. The leader comes in to use the appropriate tools and makes the best decision that moves the team forward. The organization needs to motivate the employees through a reward system, there is need for motivating the workers to trust the organization and to start giving their best in their respective fields. Every organization is specifically interested in attracting highly skilled workers in different technical areas, training these workers continue to ensure the employees are equipped with the skills to increase production (Shahzadi et al., 2014). Organizations do not just need to hire; they need to attract a diversified workforce that will bring in the required creativity and promote an environment that is accepting of people from different cultures across the globe. Enhancing employee performance through the introduction of new ideas into the business is likely to meet rejection from some employees. This rejection is due to fear of change in the status quo, fear of lack of the appropriate skills, and fear of negative outcome that may directly impact on the employee (Shahzadi et al., 2014). It is upon the employer to develop the worker goals, behaviors and actions to achieve the set objectives. One of the most effective ways to achieve the expected outcome is to issue training to the employees about the initiated changes in terms of employee performance. The supervisors are expected to undergo the managers training to be equipped with the practical skills to help the workers get acquainted with the new ways and the expected objectives. The employer needs to introduce the appropriate tools for self-monitoring. For example, key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs will go a great mile in ensuring that every employee meets their individual objectives for the organization to move forward as one (Gantsa, 2014). Just like there are supposed to be rewarded, there is a need for punishments for not meeting these targets, including firing the employees that repeatedly fails the performance tests. A happy employee is highly productive. Workers need to be highly motivated to highly perform. Worker happiness can be achieved by introducing a friendly working environment, incentives for performance, reward-punishment program, allowing for creativity amongst the employees, and proper remuneration. The worker empowerment policy gears towards promoting a culture of self-drive among the employees to give their best through hard and smart work, through collaboration, innovation, and good relations with the company. Empowerment needs to be long-term through ensuring worker well-fare ad promoting their career through training and furthering their education and enhancing their skills (Shahzadi et al., 2014). This policy will work towards motivating the employees to begin working hard and to help them see the organization objective and let them understand their significance as capital to the company. Once an organization introduces the suggested employee performance management methods, provided the appropriate training and put in place the employee morale-boosting strategies, there is a need to put in place performance measuring metrics. The organization can use a combination of performance metrics to help evaluate whether the workers are helping the organization to grow by achieving their target objectives and goals ( Cordner, 2016) . The metrics suggested include productivity, efficiency and training. Training and development ensure the satisfaction of the organization’s employees in the capacities that they function within the organization. Through training, the employees are able to acquire new skills and knowledge that aids them in executing their roles and duties The employee performance can be evaluated through employee performance data, including self-evaluation reports, graphic rating scales, and checklist. Implementing a 360-degree feedback system will go a greater level in helping assess every employee contribution. I believe creating self-evaluation reports that employees must fill every quarter will be a step towards understanding the output by every worker in the organization. This way, we will be able to know the best performance, the least performance and those who are to be trained for leadership positions. 

Conclusion 

This study has presented different angles to leadership. Among the discussion has been the principles of leadership, which includes integrity, open-mindedness and teamwork. The study has also discussed leadership styles and the proposed styles include transformational leaders, transactional leadership, and autocratic leadership. The paper has further presented a discussion on the desirable leadership practices and these include the ability to inspire the organization vision, the ability to lead the way, empower the employees and to inspire creativity. A detailed discussion has also been presented on the necessary steps for a leader to take to motivate its employees to promote performance. 

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