Thursday, May 21, 2009

Making a Leader

By Bart Icles

It has often been said that there is no single formula for making an effective leader. Indeed, there are several ways wherein an organization can bring out and develop leadership skills that seem to sleep inside its people. Just as leadership training programs are significant investments in any organization, it is also vital to keep mind the kind of leaders that the organization needs. They may not necessarily be the leaders that the organization wants, but they are the leaders that can greatly help the organization survive in this dark age of recession.

Following are just a few of the different kinds of leaders that may be present in an organization or those that an organization might need. Take note, each leadership style has its own advantages and disadvantages. Before settling for a certain leadership style, make an assessment of your organizational needs, and determine if that particular leadership style would best fit your organization.

There are leaders who show more concern for people, and there are those who show more concern for production. The Blake and Mouton leadership grid gives an outline on the types of leaders who have varying concerns over people and production. Those leaders who show high concern for people and low concern for tasks or production are referred to as country club leaders. While those leaders who show low concern for people and high concern for tasks or production are what Blake and Mouton refer to as authoritarian leaders. Those leaders who show low concern for both people and tasks are impoverished leaders. While those leaders who show high concern for both people and tasks are team leaders, and are deemed that most balanced type of leaders - although this might not always be the case.

There are also reactive and proactive leaders. Proactive leaders tend to be more concerned with the achievement of performance objectives, while reactive leaders are those who are more focused on identifying and solving problems. Proactive leaders make decisions with the help of the whole team, foresee and influence change, and use principles in making decisions. Reactive leaders on the other hand make decisions all by themselves, react to change, and use rules in making decisions.

There is nothing wrong in adopting a certain leadership style. The important thing is, leaders are given the opportunity to learn how to be flexible with different conditions or circumstances that they are able to switch from one style to another, depending on what the situation calls for. Leadership training programs must be able to emphasize this need for flexibility or else, the program will just be mass producing canned leaders who are so stiff that they fail to adjust to the varying needs of the organization.

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