Qnt2 Task 1
SAT 2 - LEADERSHIP
Leadership Handbook for Managers
RSAT Task 2
TEAM Y
Corazon O. Frigillana
Brian Dyck
Aswathi Vijayakrishnannair
Scott Avy
Contents
1. Leading High-Performance Teams 4 Appraising people and performance 4 Training, coaching and delegating 5 Discipline and counseling 5
2. Leadership versus management 7
3. Leadership and Ethics 9 Introduction: 9 Definition 9 Ethical Leadership Behaviors 10 Unethical Behaviors 11 Conclusion 12
4. Personality Traits and Leadership Styles of Great Leaders 12 Influence 13 Leadership Styles 13 References 15
5. Leading Through Effective Communication 17 Introduction 17 Inspirational and Powerful Communication 17 The Six Basic Principles of Persuasion 19 Nonverbal Communication 19 Listening as a Leadership Skill 20 The Leader’s Role in Resolving Conflict and Negotiating 21 Negotiating and Bargaining 21 The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Communication 21
6. Leading Culturally Diverse Teams 22 Introduction 22 Cultural …show more content…
Factors Influencing Leadership Practice 24 Cultural Sensitivity and Cultural Intelligence 24 Global Leadership Skills 25 Effects of Organizational Culture and Business Strategies 26
7. Managing & Tracking Your Time 28 Using Body Clocks and Energy Cycles to Manage Your Time 29 Effects of Personality on Time Management 29 Good Time Management Habits 30 Time Saving Preparation 30 How to Combat Procrastination 30 Handling Interruptions Effectively 31 References 32
8. Leading and Managing Conflict Resolution 33 Resolving Conflict and Negotiating 33 Negotiating and Bargaining 35 References 36
Leading High-Performance Teams
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Building a high-performance team requires the leader to have the right mix of competency and abilities, patience, energy, and discipline. In order to realize high performing team; A leader should have three key competencies. They include;
Appraising people and performance
Performance of a team showed be always observed and appraised. Performance should be assessed against standards, contribution of team members, interrelation among team members, cooperation, initiative and support of others. Therefore, the key step in appraisal is developing standards for all tasks. As a leader, you should be knowledgeable about the appraisal standards and process, performance measurements and the requirements of the organization. You must be able to gather and assess performance information and follow the guidelines of the organization. You must be able to communicate performance data in a positive manner and use the data to design improvements tactics.
Training, coaching and delegating
For managers to succeed in developing a high-performing teams, they should be ready to provide the teams with the relevant skills that will help the in discharging their duties. Delegating of jobs is one of the challenges that face many managers. You must give team members a chance to develop and grow. Delegating is an essential part of learning and socializing process. You must be ready to use delegation as a developmental tool, supervise the delegated duties and build skills that are required in delegation.
Discipline and counseling
Most workers perceive disciplining and counseling in negative lights. It is whoever, essential to make them understand the importance of disciplining and counseling for the success of the team. Always make sure all employees understand the organization’s disciplining process and clearly outline the difference between disciplining and counseling. However brutal it is it is good to get lid of non-performers (Woodrow, 2007). The basic conditions for implementing a work team include; • Create a perceived need for change
• Interdependence of work
• Clarity of goals
• Commitment to the goals
• Protected space and time, free from interference
• Norms of self-regulation
• Established boundary of management
• Feedback from all team members
• Support (Phillips, Jones and Beyerlein 1998)
Leadership versus management
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The role of management is to exercise executive, administrative, and supervisory directions of an organization. Leadership is the process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. (Kristina G, 2009). In an organization, the two roles tend to be intertwined. As a manager, you are supposed to provide leadership for the achievement of the organization goals (Robert Sternberg et al, 2004). It is, therefore, important to understand the functions of a manager and those of a leader. • The manager imitates while the leader originates.
• The manager has his or her eyes on the bottom line while the leader has his or her eyes on the horizon.
• The manager administers while the leader innovates.
• The manager accepts status quo while the leader challenges it.
• The manager maintains while the leader develops.
• The managers accept the reality while the leader investigates it.
• The managers focus on systems and structures while the leader focuses on people.
• The managers relies on control while the leader inspires trust.
• The managers asks how and when while the leader asks why and what.
• The manager does things right while the leader does the right thing (Peter Coutts 2000)
References
Kendall C. Wright Kristina G. Ricketts (2009). Leadership Vs. management. Retrieved from http://www.ca.uky.edu
Management study guide. Leadership and motivation. Retrieved from http://www.managementstudyguide.com
Peter Coutts (2000) leadership Vs. management. Retrieved from http://www3.telus.net
Robert J Sternberg (2004). The nature of leadership. Sage publication. California. USA.
Stevens D., Jack Phillips, and Michael Beyerlein (1998) Developing High-performance teams. American society for training & development.
W. Glenn Rowe and Laura Guerrero (2011). Cases in leadership.2nd edition. Sage publications, California, USA
Woodrow H. sears (2007)High performance teams. HRD Press, Inc. Amherst. USA.
Leadership and Ethics
Introduction:
Ethics and morality is a very important reality in today’s business world.
Leaders are having to make important decisions not only on corporate finance levels, but also need to meet their responsibilities environmentally and socially. Their role as a leader is the balance between the welfare of others and the preservation of their own personal welfare, they carry the moral obligation. The best leaders convey their ethics and personal values for everyone to see and know, by communicating complete and accurate information about their values and expectations. Those organizations and leaders that want to practice positive workplace morals and ethics should develop a well written standard of conduct, and provide the appropriate ethical training to their employees. These resources will help an individual make good, informed business decisions that in the long run benefits the
organization.
Definition
Ethics is the external standards that is provided to an individual by an organization or group they belong to, referred to a set of rules/philosophies. They are usually formulated by each profession, regardless of any personal feelings or preferences; it’s the social structure of acceptable behavior. Morals are internal, and are the personal principles that have influenced an individual beliefs, culture and society and by which we live.
Ethical Leadership Behaviors
“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (duffy,2006). There are a few distinctive factors that separate a leader’s ethics from that of an individual. First one being power – unlimited power seems to be a tool for corruption, there is something about it that causes the mind to justify our actions both good and bad. Whatever the cause of our erroneous acts of dishonesty, instead of rationalizing when dealing with these temptations, we have to revert back to our conscience. They also have a larger moral obligation to the ones they are in direct contact with, and all those potential people they do not even know. There are several behaviors you can adapt to avoid being caught up in a possible dilemma with morality.
Be honest and truthful in all your deals with fellow man; preserve your integrity by doing what is right and fair. As ethics researcher, Thomas A Becker stated, you have to practice what you preach regardless of emotional and social pressures. (Becker, 1998). Effective leaders strive to protect all concerned individuals that maybe affected by their potential negative decisions. It’s not all about maximizing wealth anymore; consideration has to be paid to the individuals involved also, a fine balancing act. Ethical and moral leaders not only affect those within a specific organization, their behaviors influence their communities and can impact globally as well. It’s all comes down to the principle of respect, if you’re a leader that shows others that your truthful, honest, fair, compassionate, and courteous, you’ll have achieved the recognition that is well deserved. “Trust and respect is a BIG deal” this is what we teach our youth so they can be successful in life.
Unethical Behaviors
There are many reasons good leaders turn morally and ethically wrong, the main one is greed. Unfortunately, some seek to take full advantage of padding their own personal return, without consideration or on the expense of another. This “infectious greed” that Alan Greenspan speaks of is too prevalent in today’s corporate world. We see too many organizations collapsing because of the unethical behaviors of top management. These unethical leaders rationalize their wrong doings by placing blame on those who never questioned them or stopped them. The question is when does this level of morality character develop? The higher a person’s character, which is influence by early life situations, the more likely he or she may be affected by morality or unethical decisions. The Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College has developed six questions to evaluate the ethics of a specific decision (DuBrin, 179): 1. Is it right? 2. Is it fair? 3. Who gets hurt? 4. Would you be comfortable if details went public? 5. What would you tell those close too you? 6. Does it smell?
These are the question an ethical and moral leader has to ask when a difficult decision has to be made. If the answer he receives falls anywhere in the gray areas, he has to consider reevaluating his decision without rationalizing.
Conclusion
Ethics and moral behavior are very important in today’s corporate life; one must stay strong in ones beliefs and values. It’s a leader’s duty to do good, taking a social obligation over a financial or economic one. Using their power to benefit and make a positive contribution to society. Creating a code of conduct that encourages ethical and moral behavior within an organizations culture.
Personality Traits and Leadership Styles of Great Leaders
The key goal of a great leader is to motive; there are several traits that contribute to a successful leader. Here are a few traits people have viewed as necessary to become the kind of leader people love to follow: self confidence- the ability to remain composed during conflict and make accurate decisions quickly. Trustworthy- a leader is supposed to be honest and truthful, respecting his/her own integrity, the one that performs by example. Trust is hard to come by and easy to erode if not exercised appropriately. Authentic- goes along side trustworthiness; these leaders demonstrate a passion for their people and their purpose, staying consistent in their own values. Whatever the trait, effective leaders are motivated by the power of the position, for whatever reason.
Influence
The question that tops the minds of researchers who study leaders and their traits is. “Are leaders born or are they made?” Each individual differences goes beyond intelligence, it involve social, political, moral, ethical and educational issues. So the answer is not a clear cut answer weather it’s nature or nurture. Evelyn Williams from Stanford Universities development program thinks it’s a combination of the two (DuBrin, 172) Effectiveness as a leader is not guaranteed ever if you possess all the character traits and intelligence of those great leaders.
Leadership Styles
Leadership Style is the consistent pattern of behavior in which a leader characterizes. There have been several good examples of successful leaders though out history, and they come in different shapes and sizes, and stand for their own distinct beliefs. Several of these great leaders possess several of the personality traits previously mentioned. There are 7 leadership styles that the majority of these great leaders belong to: Charismatic, participative, situational, transactional, transformational, quiet, and servant.
Charismatic – this leadership style is successful when the leader shows concern for his/her followers by listening to their voice and issues. They created a comfortable charm among the populous. Former President Bill Clint is a good example of a charismatic leader, masterful at communicating and inspiring people to act.
Participative – this type of leadership style is more designed for corporate life, this leader facilitates a decision by giving all information and in return getting all possible outcome from a group of people. Ultimately he would have the final decision. Donald Trump is a great example of a participative leader.
Situational – is a task-relevant style, and those who succeed are the one that can adapt quickly to their surroundings. The success depends on the task or function that needs to be accomplished. An example of this leadership style is our 34th President of the United State Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Transactional – this style has a clear chain of command, the primary goal of the followers is to obey the commands of the leader. Subordinates are motivated by a reward and punishment system. Rules, procedure, and standards are essential for this style to be successful. Wisconsin state senator Joseph McCathy has been described as a transactional leader.
Transformational – is a motivational leader, they motivate their followers to believe in what you believe in. becoming a role model for their own beliefs. Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. is an excellent example of a transformational leader, with most of his motivational speeches he transformed the world as we now know it.
Quiet leader – this style of leadership has to be the most controversial when you consider the different leadership traits. This leadership style leaves it success up to the people; the leader goes about his work in a quiet manner and inspires his followers to do the same. No great auditory speeches, no clear cut orders, just lead by example. Abraham Lincoln would be classified as quiet leader, going about his work, leading by example. Servant – George Washington our countries first president is an example of a servant leader, one who places the interest in the people before his own interest. Washington acted as a servant to his followers, not with the arrogance/royalty of most leaders. .
References
Becker, Thomas E., “Integrity in Organizations: Beyond Honesty and Conscientiousness,” Academy of Management Review, January 1998, pp.154
Blanken, Rhea, (2013). 8 Common leadership styles, January 2013, Retrieved from http://www.asaecenter.org/Resources/ANowDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=241962
Duffy, F.M. (2006). Power, politics, and ethics in school districts: Dynamic leadership for systemic change. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
DuBrin, A. (2013). Leadership (6th ed). South-Western. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781133614197/pages/57962176-179
Leading Through Effective Communication
Introduction
Communication is one of the major areas in effective leadership in our organization. Effective communication skills contribute to inspirational leadership. Good communication skills enable, foster, and create the understanding and trust necessary to encourage others to follow a leader. Open communication between company leaders and employees helps organization overcome problems and attain success. Effective communication is an important skill needed to become a good leader.
Leaders play three roles as communicators
Communication is a complex process that must be addressed from many angles to achieve the best results. Leaders must understand all components of the communication process to apply them effectively. To have impact, careful communication planning and management, and clarity and consistency of messages are key factors.This model shows the three integrated communication roles a leader plays [3].
Inspirational and Powerful Communication
The main factors that contribute to becoming an inspirational and emotion-provoking communicator are divided into the following two categories: Speaking and writing and Nonverbal communication.
Suggestions for Inspirational Speaking and Writing: There are different skills that you can adopt to become more dynamic and persuasive in his oral and writing skills. Being credible is very important for a leader to be persuasive and lead his team in the right direction. If the speaker is perceived as highly credible, the attempt at persuasive communication is more likely to be successful. Using heavy-impact and emotion-provoking words can give power and force to your speech and when used comfortably, naturally, and sincerely, they will project the image of a self-confident person with leadership ability. Backing up your conclusions with solid data can make verbal and written presentations more persuasive. Writing and speaking, is more persuasive when key ideas are placed at the .So writing crisp and clear memos, letters, reports and front loaded messages will make leaders powerful as people expect leaders to be forceful communicators.
Use a Power-Oriented Linguistic Style : Linguistic style is persuasive and powerful for a leader if chosen correctly and includes the culturally learned signals by which people communicate what they mean, along with how they interpret what others say and how they evaluate others Different components of linguistic style that would give power and authority to a message delivered by a leader are to speak loud and direct, downplay uncertainty, use the pronoun I to receive more credit for your ideas, minimize the number of questions and self-deprecation with phrases, offer negative feedback directly, make your point quickly, emphasize direct rather than indirect talk, weed out wimpy words, know exactly what you want, speak at length, set the agenda for a conversation, make jokes, and laugh and frame your comments in a way that increases your listener’s receptivity.
The Six Basic Principles of Persuasion
Persuasion is an effective tool that can be used by emerging leaders for success as it is directly related to the appropriateness and the effectiveness of the persuasive messages you send out. So this acts as a powerful tool in communication. These principles of persuasion that can also be framed as influence principles are as follows. Liking which emphasizes similarities between you as a manager and your team mates will be persuasive as this is encouraging. The next principle is reciprocity which means managers should serve as a model of trust, good ethics or strong commitment which is influential on the group members. As a leader people need to feel committed when you ask them to do something and so being consistent is very important. As a manager you should be able to be authoritative enough to persuade them towards your plans.
Nonverbal Communication
A self-confident leader not only speaks and writes with assurance but also projects confidence through body position, gestures, and manner of speech. So developing nonverbal communication is also an essential tool for an emerging successful leader. Some aspects of nonverbal communication gestures include using an erect posture when walking, standing, or sitting, standing up straight during a confrontation with toes pointing outward, and speaking at a moderate pace, with a loud, confident tone. External image also plays a major role in communicating and people tend to give more respect to leaders who are neatly dressed and groomed. Guarding time which is a subtle mode of nonverbal communication will also help you project an image of self-confidence and leadership. Videoconferencing is another non-verbal communication tool which requires some extra demands. Leaders should choose outfit carefully, speaking in crisp conversational tones and pay attention, avoiding culturally insensitive gestures and not forgetting the fact of the video camera’s powerful reach.
Listening as a Leadership Skill
Effective listening is a great skill that needs to be developed in work places. The guidelines for effective listening are being prepared, listen actively, avoid anticipation what will be said and debrief the message. By becoming a better listener you will get more out of each conversation as well as convey an attitude of respect to the speaker. This respect may also be returned to you when it is your turn to speak. Two leadership aspects of listening include selective listening where the leaders listen to certain problems and making rounds referring to the leader casually dropping by constituents to listen to their accomplishments, concerns, and problems and to share information.
Overcoming Cross-Cultural Communication Barriers
It is important for emerging leaders to communicate effectively with people from different cultures. Leaders need to be aware of the barriers and taking steps to minimize them, challenging your cultural assumptions, Showing respect to all workers, using straight forward language, speaking slow and clear paying attention to problems, trying to speak in the language of other culture, observing differences in culture in etiquette and not being diverted by their dressing or style, avoiding ethnic identification and being sensitive to differences in nonverbal communications.
The Leader’s Role in Resolving Conflict and Negotiating
Resolving conflict between two group members is also a part of effective communication as individuals emerging as leaders will have to deal with such situations in the work place. The most useful approach is to get the parties in conflict to engage in confrontation and problem solving. The manager should sit down with the two sides and encourage them to talk to each other about the problem and try to resolve them.
Negotiating and Bargaining
Negotiating is another basic skill that a leader should possess as it is important all through his career whether it be for himself or team mates. It involves listening skills to establish trust and to understand both sides of the argument. The negotiations should always be opened more realistically and should be done with overall interest in mind and should search for the differences in values of both sides. A multicultural leader should always be aware of the international standards and etiquettes when getting involved in negotiations.
The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Communication
Leadership communication depends on understanding the audience in all communication situations, understanding what moves them to listen and what motivates them to act. This understanding requires self-awareness as well as increased awareness of others, or improved emotional intelligence. Audiences’ receptivity to the manager, to his or her ethos or message, can assist or be a barrier to their receiving the intended message. What is it that makes others attend to a message; what is it that persuades them to listen and to act? Robert Cialdini argues, “no leader can succeed without mastering the art of persuasion” (2001). Just as creating a positive ethos aids in the art of persuasion, understanding what motivates others to listen and to act will help as well, thus the importance of emotional intelligence for any leader [4].
Leading Culturally Diverse Teams
Introduction
Cultural diversity has become widespread within most organizations today and is an everyday occurrence in even small organizations. The world is increasingly being connected and this brings a lot of people with completely different cultures together. The work groups in these organizations are increasingly being staffed by culturally diverse employees. The cultural differences exhibited in the groups can enhance or weaken the function of the work group, especially in a predominantly homogenous environment. These multicultural work groups present challenges and opportunities to the organization and to the managers. The biggest obstacle with cultural diversity in the work groups is the managers ' lack of knowledge of how to lead a culturally diverse work group or team [1].
The Advantages of Managing for Diversity
There are many advantages for embracing cultural diversity for a global organization as ours. The following are a few key advantages. 1. Acquiring and retaining better talent: Recruiting and retaining talented employees is one of the most important success factor of our organization. It is absolutely necessary to treat employees fair. Understanding and recognizing the cultural diversity helps us achieve this goal.
2. Marketing advantage: Our customers are culturally diverse and having a culturally diverse employees gives us an advantage in understanding and serving our customers well.
3. Getting the maximum potential from employees: If employees feel that the employer is fair and the only performance measure is the performance itself, then the employees will be working at their maximum potential.
4. Creativity advantage: Having a culturally diverse and collaborative work force would have a creativity advantage. Culturally diverse employees can think in multiple ways and means and can think outside the box. The team can come up with creative ideas that can make huge contributions.
5. Sourcing advantage: Global Company like ours needs to source from global resources and having a culturally diverse team can give us a great advantage in getting the optimal result.
Cultural Factors Influencing Leadership Practice
A multicultural leader is a leader with the skills and attitudes to relate effectively to and motivate people across race, gender, age, social attitudes, and lifestyles. To influence, motivate, and inspire culturally diverse people, the leader must be aware of overt and subtle cultural differences. A successful leader should understand the cultural dimensions and understand how it affects the leadership
Key Dimensions of Differences in Cultural Values: After researching 61 countries, an organization called GLOBE came up with certain generalized dimensions for cultural factors as shown in the picture. Performance orientation, for example, is the way people value the performance rather than the relationship.
Cultural Values and Leadership Style: Understanding each of these will help leaders get a general sense of what is valued in each of the cultural groups. This makes the leaders more effective since these guides the leaders for effectively managing the people with the certain cultural dimensions better.
Cultural Sensitivity and Cultural Intelligence
It is important for our managers to know the difference between and importance of cultural sensitivity and cultural intelligence.
Cultural Sensitivity: As managers, we should have clear understanding of cultural values and nuances of various cultures. We should also make sure that all of our employees know this too. Understanding these will create a comfortable situation for all employees.
Cultural Intelligence: We should not only know the cultural dimensions, but also be able to interpret the cultural cues from other cultural groups and interpret the cultural preferences soundly. We should have the cognitive, physical and emotional understanding of cultural dimensions.
Global Leadership Skills
We are a global company and it is extremely important that we need to improve our global leadership skills. We need to understand what it takes to be a global leader and our actions and expressions will be the company’s face. Hence we need to have a clear plan to be a global leader. We should serve the community wherever we are, we should show that we are working for a worthy cause and should have pleasure too.
A Proposed Model for Global Leadership Skills: A global leader should be culturally astute and sensitive. They should be looking for profitability and productivity, should inculcate stability and continuity, should have the commitment and morale and also should be adaptable.
Success Factors in International Management Positions: Two major factors for success are sensitivity to cultural differences and being culturally adventurous. These qualities make a manager successful.
Motivating and Inspiring Workers in Other Cultures: having cultural sensitivity and cultural intellingence, we should be able to motivate and inspire team members
Leadership Initiatives for Achieving Cultural Diversity
There are many things we can do to achieve our diversity goals. These include but not limited to having accountability for all managers and will be documented in your development plan. A method to achieve diversity in workplace is by assigning the managers to achieve diversity for behavior and business changes in the diversity arena so that an organizational culture supportive of diversity will begin to develop. We will also establish minority recruitment, retention, and mentoring programs. Women and people from minority groups need to be recruited and they have to be retained by recognizing employees’ hidden skills and talents, and give diversity committees clout with top management by attending cultural training program. Retention of minorities contributes to strength as a culturally diverse leader. Diversity training is done to increase people’s awareness of and empathy for people of other cultures and an important way and to prevent workplace discriminations. To become a multicultural organization, they should have culturally heterogeneous group of people. The people working in such organizations are good leaders who can lead culturally diverse teams to success.
Effects of Organizational Culture and Business Strategies
There are many research papers showing the effects of having a diverse organizational culture in organizations. Pamela Tudor, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has published a research paper cites the following good effects for organizations.
Research has backed up the hypothesis that diverse groups are more likely to have higher levels of performance in environments that emphasize a people–oriented culture (cultures that emphasize cooperation, sociability, empathy, good interpersonal relationships). In fact, members of educationally diverse groups were paid higher bonuses in departments that cultivated a people oriented culture. Another confirmed hypothesis is that educationally diverse groups perform better in group contexts that pursue a growth-oriented business strategy than in those that pursue a stability-oriented business strategy. Growth-oriented cultures are characterized by exploiting new product and market opportunities, focusing on innovation and flexibility, and supporting experimentation. Growth-oriented cultures need to embrace diversity as a resource to further fuel the creativity and innovation their groups depend on for success. The research further shows that stability-oriented cultures, characterized by avoiding risk-taking and focusing on efficiency, specification and centralization, do not embrace diversity. This allows them to better maintain the status quo and strive for peak efficiency [2].
References 1. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Managing-Culturally-Diverse-79450.html
2. http://www.aimd.org/files/PamelaTudor.pdf
3. http://www.ceoforum.com.au/article-detail.cfm?cid=6128&t=/JoAnne-Facey-Mercer-Human-Resource-Consulting/Effective-communication-skills-that-make-leaders-stand-out-from-the-crowd
4. http://www.dspace.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/27037/Leadership%20Communication%20-%20A%20Communication%20Approach%20for%20Senior-Level%20Managers%20-%20Barrett.pdf
Managing & Tracking Your Time
Time Management is the ability to manage control over the amount of time spent on specific activities ("SkillBrief: Managing and Tracking Your Time"). Good time management is important because it can increase your effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity in the workplace. Managers can increase their time management productivity by efficiently keeping track of time, manage time around energy cycles, and knowing the effects of their personality on time management.
Managing and tracking your time is important in order to increase productivity ("Time Management In The Workplace"). Tracking your time will increase productivity because it will allow you to know what areas of your day are time waster and cause you to be unproductive. The first step in in managing and tracking your time is to create a time log. The time log should keep a daily log recording every activity once completed. Creating a daily time log will allow you to categorize activities, prioritize activities, and finally summarize your data findings.
Categorizing activities is important to make and label in order to make analyzing the data easier. Prioritize activities is vital in having efficient time management. Prioritizing activities is vital because without being able to efficiently determine urgency and importance in relation to company goals time management you could become very inefficient in time management. Setting prioritizes to activities will enable you to know how to respond to different tasks in what order based on their importance and urgency.
Summarize your data findings from keeping a time log. Determine how much time was spending on each activity and the priority given to that category. Once you have summarize your time log data findings determine what areas you were efficiently using the time you had and what areas you were not efficiently using the time you had available. Time wasters could include focusing on the wrong tasks, not delegating, misjudging time required for tasks, procrastinating, or unnecessary socializing. After you have identify the main time wasters you then have to determine what actions are needed to take place in order to efficiently manage your time.
Using Body Clocks and Energy Cycles to Manage Your Time
Knowing and understanding how your own body clock affects your performance throughout the day can help you better manage your time. Your body clock effects your ability to efficiently accomplish tasks.
Generally people go through patterns of alertness, declining energy, and energy recovery. After you have determined what your individual energy patterns are throughout the day you can then schedule your tasks based on your energy levels, which should increase your work productivity.
Effects of Personality on Time Management
Understanding how your own personality can affects your performance throughout the day, can help you better manage your time. Assessing your personality preferences in the areas of how you take information, how you make decisions, and how you deal with the outer world will help determine your personality strengths and weakness. There are eight different personality preferences extraversion, introversion, sensing, intuition, thinking, feeling, judging, and perceiving. Knowing your different combination of personality preferences that you possess will help you in understand how to best improve your time management skills
Good Time Management Habits
Developing good time management habits is a very important practice to have in order to stay productive and efficient throughout the day. Good habits managers can develop in time management are time saving preparation, how to combat procrastination, and handling interruptions effectively.
Time Saving Preparation
Time saving preparation I all about asking the right questions in order to best determine how to best manage time available. Asking yourself similar questions below will help determine how to make your workday time efficient.
1. Is this project/meeting necessary?
2. What do I need to have contributed to achieve my objective in meeting/project today?
3. What actions can I take now to achieve my objective in meeting/project today?
Answering these three questions above will enable you to have better time management because of being able to a make preparation before a project or meeting and being able to decide to not go to the meeting because it would be a waste of time for your goals and objectives for work and thus not necessary.
How to Combat Procrastination
Procrastination is the act of delaying something to a later time ("Beating Procrastination - Time Management Skills from MindTools.com"). Procrastination is one of the biggest reason for an unproductive time management. Some common reason for procrastination are the following below.
1. I don 't have enough information
2. I have lots of time
3. I don’t have time right now
You can beat these common reason for procrastination by addressing each reason for procrastinating. I don 't have enough information can be addressed by going and finding people and the information needed to complete the objective. I have lots of time can be addressed by identify exactly how much time you need for preparation, then schedule each action instead of just thinking you have plenty of time. I don’t have time right now can be addressed by looking at your current schedule and reprioritizing to make time or delegating the task in order to keep everything running smoothly.
Handling Interruptions Effectively
Effectively handling interruptions is a essential habit to develop to have a productive time management. Identify what interruptions are necessary and what interruptions are not is key in handling interruptions in the workplace. The following three steps below can help you manage interruptions effectively.
1. Giving the appropriate amount of time to the interruption
2. Identify what is being discussed needs to be discussed
3. Taking actions to end the interruption when you need it to end
Answering these three questions above will enable you to have better time management because of being able to more effectively handling interruptions in the workplace.
References
Beating Procrastination - Time Management Skills from MindTools.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm
SkillBrief: Managing and Tracking Your Time. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://library.skillport.com/courseware/Content/cca/pd_11_a01_bs_enus/output/html/sb/sbpd_11_a01_bs_enus002003.html
Time Management In The Workplace. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.career-success-for-newbies.com/time-management-in-the-workplace.html
Leading and Managing Conflict Resolution
Conflict is a disagreement or argument between at least two individuals. Conflicts will always be present in life and the workplace because people have have different agendas, goals, expectations, and desires, thus creating a conflict when these agendas and goals do not agree with each others. Effectively leading and managing conflict resolution is important in the workplace in order to keep operations runnings efficient.
Resolving Conflict and Negotiating
Managers spends a considerable amount of time resolving conflict and negotiating among employees ("Resolving Conflicts on the Team - For Dummies"). Thus being effective at leading and managing conflict resolution is important because it will save time and money. It is very common for conflict to be between the heads of two different departments or divisions within a company. Unresolved or ignored conflicts between two different departments or divisions within a company can have big consequences for the organization because the result can be that the company competes more within itself then it does with the actual competition leaving the organization at a huge disadvantage. The five major style of conflict management are competitive, accommodative, sharing, collaborative, and avoidant. These five major styles of conflict management are based on a combination of assertiveness and cooperativeness ("Bookshelf : Link to “Leadership”). Assertiveness is extent a person attempts to satisfying their your own concerns. Cooperativeness is the extent a person attempts to satisfying someone else’s concerns.
Competitive style of conflict management is uncooperative and assertive. The competitive style is a desire to pursue your own concerns at the other party expense. A competitive style person is likely to use what power seems appropriate to win their own position. For example, their ability to argue, rank, or economic sanctions.
Accommodative style of conflict management is unassertive and cooperative. The Accommodative style individual desires to satisfy the concerns of the other party and neglects his own concerns. A accommodative style individual may tend to be generous and have a self sacrificing mode to accommodate the other party.
Sharing style of conflict management is moderate in both assertiveness and cooperativeness. The sharing style individual desires to a mutually acceptable solution that some what satisfies both parties, which results in a compromise. A sharing style individual may will not explore go as depth in finding a solution as collaborating individual. Sharing style falls between competing and accommodating.
Collaborative style of conflict management is both assertive and cooperative. The complete opposite of avoiding style. The collaborative style individual desires to attempt to work with the other party to find a solution that fully satisfies each parties concerns. A collaborative style individual will explore many options by looking at the underlying needs and wants to find the solution for both parties.
Avoidant style of conflict management is unassertive and uncooperative. The avoidant style individual desires to neither pursues his own concerns nor the other parties concerns. A avoidant style individual may postpone the conflict until a better time or may withdraw themselves from the conflict.
Negotiating and Bargaining
Negotiating and bargaining can be a big assets in helping resolve conflicts. For example, negotiating and bargaining for a pay increase for yourself is a conflict that can be resolved through good negotiation and bargaining tactics. The conflict of a pay increase may seems at first a conflict that is unresolvable, but through negotiation and bargaining you can show how your worth it for the company to increase your salary in order for you to continue to improve the company based on past performance("Negotiation - Salary.com"). Eventually resolving the conflict into a win win situation where your satisfied because you received a pay increase and your employer is satisfied because they are able to keep you a valuable asset to their company. Below are a list of management negotiating strategies tips.
1. Listen first to find out what the other party wants
2. Start with a reasonable demand or offer
3. Focus on interests, not positions
4. Search for the value in differences between the two parties
5. Be aware of international differences in negotiating style
Following these management negotiating strategy tips will help you become a more effective in negotiating as a leader because of knowing what steps are important to take in order to see the best possible result of a negotiation.
References
DuBrin, A. (2013). Leadership (6th ed). South-Western. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781133614197/outline/12
Negotiation - Salary.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.salary.com/category/salary/negotiation/
Resolving Conflicts on the Team - For Dummies. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/resolving-conflicts-on-the-team.html
Leadership Handbook for Managers
RSAT Task 2
TEAM Y
Corazon O. Frigillana
Brian Dyck
Aswathi Vijayakrishnannair
Scott Avy
Contents
1. Leading High-Performance Teams 4 Appraising people and performance 4 Training, coaching and delegating 5 Discipline and counseling 5
2. Leadership versus management 7
3. Leadership and Ethics 9 Introduction: 9 Definition 9 Ethical Leadership Behaviors 10 Unethical Behaviors 11 Conclusion 12
4. Personality Traits and Leadership Styles of Great Leaders 12 Influence 13 Leadership Styles 13 References 15
5. Leading Through Effective Communication 17 Introduction 17 Inspirational and Powerful Communication 17 The Six Basic Principles of Persuasion 19 Nonverbal Communication 19 Listening as a Leadership Skill 20 The Leader’s Role in Resolving Conflict and Negotiating 21 Negotiating and Bargaining 21 The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Communication 21
6. Leading Culturally Diverse Teams 22 Introduction 22 Cultural …show more content…
Factors Influencing Leadership Practice 24 Cultural Sensitivity and Cultural Intelligence 24 Global Leadership Skills 25 Effects of Organizational Culture and Business Strategies 26
7. Managing & Tracking Your Time 28 Using Body Clocks and Energy Cycles to Manage Your Time 29 Effects of Personality on Time Management 29 Good Time Management Habits 30 Time Saving Preparation 30 How to Combat Procrastination 30 Handling Interruptions Effectively 31 References 32
8. Leading and Managing Conflict Resolution 33 Resolving Conflict and Negotiating 33 Negotiating and Bargaining 35 References 36
Leading High-Performance Teams
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Building a high-performance team requires the leader to have the right mix of competency and abilities, patience, energy, and discipline. In order to realize high performing team; A leader should have three key competencies. They include;
Appraising people and performance
Performance of a team showed be always observed and appraised. Performance should be assessed against standards, contribution of team members, interrelation among team members, cooperation, initiative and support of others. Therefore, the key step in appraisal is developing standards for all tasks. As a leader, you should be knowledgeable about the appraisal standards and process, performance measurements and the requirements of the organization. You must be able to gather and assess performance information and follow the guidelines of the organization. You must be able to communicate performance data in a positive manner and use the data to design improvements tactics.
Training, coaching and delegating
For managers to succeed in developing a high-performing teams, they should be ready to provide the teams with the relevant skills that will help the in discharging their duties. Delegating of jobs is one of the challenges that face many managers. You must give team members a chance to develop and grow. Delegating is an essential part of learning and socializing process. You must be ready to use delegation as a developmental tool, supervise the delegated duties and build skills that are required in delegation.
Discipline and counseling
Most workers perceive disciplining and counseling in negative lights. It is whoever, essential to make them understand the importance of disciplining and counseling for the success of the team. Always make sure all employees understand the organization’s disciplining process and clearly outline the difference between disciplining and counseling. However brutal it is it is good to get lid of non-performers (Woodrow, 2007). The basic conditions for implementing a work team include; • Create a perceived need for change
• Interdependence of work
• Clarity of goals
• Commitment to the goals
• Protected space and time, free from interference
• Norms of self-regulation
• Established boundary of management
• Feedback from all team members
• Support (Phillips, Jones and Beyerlein 1998)
Leadership versus management
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The role of management is to exercise executive, administrative, and supervisory directions of an organization. Leadership is the process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. (Kristina G, 2009). In an organization, the two roles tend to be intertwined. As a manager, you are supposed to provide leadership for the achievement of the organization goals (Robert Sternberg et al, 2004). It is, therefore, important to understand the functions of a manager and those of a leader. • The manager imitates while the leader originates.
• The manager has his or her eyes on the bottom line while the leader has his or her eyes on the horizon.
• The manager administers while the leader innovates.
• The manager accepts status quo while the leader challenges it.
• The manager maintains while the leader develops.
• The managers accept the reality while the leader investigates it.
• The managers focus on systems and structures while the leader focuses on people.
• The managers relies on control while the leader inspires trust.
• The managers asks how and when while the leader asks why and what.
• The manager does things right while the leader does the right thing (Peter Coutts 2000)
References
Kendall C. Wright Kristina G. Ricketts (2009). Leadership Vs. management. Retrieved from http://www.ca.uky.edu
Management study guide. Leadership and motivation. Retrieved from http://www.managementstudyguide.com
Peter Coutts (2000) leadership Vs. management. Retrieved from http://www3.telus.net
Robert J Sternberg (2004). The nature of leadership. Sage publication. California. USA.
Stevens D., Jack Phillips, and Michael Beyerlein (1998) Developing High-performance teams. American society for training & development.
W. Glenn Rowe and Laura Guerrero (2011). Cases in leadership.2nd edition. Sage publications, California, USA
Woodrow H. sears (2007)High performance teams. HRD Press, Inc. Amherst. USA.
Leadership and Ethics
Introduction:
Ethics and morality is a very important reality in today’s business world.
Leaders are having to make important decisions not only on corporate finance levels, but also need to meet their responsibilities environmentally and socially. Their role as a leader is the balance between the welfare of others and the preservation of their own personal welfare, they carry the moral obligation. The best leaders convey their ethics and personal values for everyone to see and know, by communicating complete and accurate information about their values and expectations. Those organizations and leaders that want to practice positive workplace morals and ethics should develop a well written standard of conduct, and provide the appropriate ethical training to their employees. These resources will help an individual make good, informed business decisions that in the long run benefits the
organization.
Definition
Ethics is the external standards that is provided to an individual by an organization or group they belong to, referred to a set of rules/philosophies. They are usually formulated by each profession, regardless of any personal feelings or preferences; it’s the social structure of acceptable behavior. Morals are internal, and are the personal principles that have influenced an individual beliefs, culture and society and by which we live.
Ethical Leadership Behaviors
“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (duffy,2006). There are a few distinctive factors that separate a leader’s ethics from that of an individual. First one being power – unlimited power seems to be a tool for corruption, there is something about it that causes the mind to justify our actions both good and bad. Whatever the cause of our erroneous acts of dishonesty, instead of rationalizing when dealing with these temptations, we have to revert back to our conscience. They also have a larger moral obligation to the ones they are in direct contact with, and all those potential people they do not even know. There are several behaviors you can adapt to avoid being caught up in a possible dilemma with morality.
Be honest and truthful in all your deals with fellow man; preserve your integrity by doing what is right and fair. As ethics researcher, Thomas A Becker stated, you have to practice what you preach regardless of emotional and social pressures. (Becker, 1998). Effective leaders strive to protect all concerned individuals that maybe affected by their potential negative decisions. It’s not all about maximizing wealth anymore; consideration has to be paid to the individuals involved also, a fine balancing act. Ethical and moral leaders not only affect those within a specific organization, their behaviors influence their communities and can impact globally as well. It’s all comes down to the principle of respect, if you’re a leader that shows others that your truthful, honest, fair, compassionate, and courteous, you’ll have achieved the recognition that is well deserved. “Trust and respect is a BIG deal” this is what we teach our youth so they can be successful in life.
Unethical Behaviors
There are many reasons good leaders turn morally and ethically wrong, the main one is greed. Unfortunately, some seek to take full advantage of padding their own personal return, without consideration or on the expense of another. This “infectious greed” that Alan Greenspan speaks of is too prevalent in today’s corporate world. We see too many organizations collapsing because of the unethical behaviors of top management. These unethical leaders rationalize their wrong doings by placing blame on those who never questioned them or stopped them. The question is when does this level of morality character develop? The higher a person’s character, which is influence by early life situations, the more likely he or she may be affected by morality or unethical decisions. The Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College has developed six questions to evaluate the ethics of a specific decision (DuBrin, 179): 1. Is it right? 2. Is it fair? 3. Who gets hurt? 4. Would you be comfortable if details went public? 5. What would you tell those close too you? 6. Does it smell?
These are the question an ethical and moral leader has to ask when a difficult decision has to be made. If the answer he receives falls anywhere in the gray areas, he has to consider reevaluating his decision without rationalizing.
Conclusion
Ethics and moral behavior are very important in today’s corporate life; one must stay strong in ones beliefs and values. It’s a leader’s duty to do good, taking a social obligation over a financial or economic one. Using their power to benefit and make a positive contribution to society. Creating a code of conduct that encourages ethical and moral behavior within an organizations culture.
Personality Traits and Leadership Styles of Great Leaders
The key goal of a great leader is to motive; there are several traits that contribute to a successful leader. Here are a few traits people have viewed as necessary to become the kind of leader people love to follow: self confidence- the ability to remain composed during conflict and make accurate decisions quickly. Trustworthy- a leader is supposed to be honest and truthful, respecting his/her own integrity, the one that performs by example. Trust is hard to come by and easy to erode if not exercised appropriately. Authentic- goes along side trustworthiness; these leaders demonstrate a passion for their people and their purpose, staying consistent in their own values. Whatever the trait, effective leaders are motivated by the power of the position, for whatever reason.
Influence
The question that tops the minds of researchers who study leaders and their traits is. “Are leaders born or are they made?” Each individual differences goes beyond intelligence, it involve social, political, moral, ethical and educational issues. So the answer is not a clear cut answer weather it’s nature or nurture. Evelyn Williams from Stanford Universities development program thinks it’s a combination of the two (DuBrin, 172) Effectiveness as a leader is not guaranteed ever if you possess all the character traits and intelligence of those great leaders.
Leadership Styles
Leadership Style is the consistent pattern of behavior in which a leader characterizes. There have been several good examples of successful leaders though out history, and they come in different shapes and sizes, and stand for their own distinct beliefs. Several of these great leaders possess several of the personality traits previously mentioned. There are 7 leadership styles that the majority of these great leaders belong to: Charismatic, participative, situational, transactional, transformational, quiet, and servant.
Charismatic – this leadership style is successful when the leader shows concern for his/her followers by listening to their voice and issues. They created a comfortable charm among the populous. Former President Bill Clint is a good example of a charismatic leader, masterful at communicating and inspiring people to act.
Participative – this type of leadership style is more designed for corporate life, this leader facilitates a decision by giving all information and in return getting all possible outcome from a group of people. Ultimately he would have the final decision. Donald Trump is a great example of a participative leader.
Situational – is a task-relevant style, and those who succeed are the one that can adapt quickly to their surroundings. The success depends on the task or function that needs to be accomplished. An example of this leadership style is our 34th President of the United State Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Transactional – this style has a clear chain of command, the primary goal of the followers is to obey the commands of the leader. Subordinates are motivated by a reward and punishment system. Rules, procedure, and standards are essential for this style to be successful. Wisconsin state senator Joseph McCathy has been described as a transactional leader.
Transformational – is a motivational leader, they motivate their followers to believe in what you believe in. becoming a role model for their own beliefs. Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. is an excellent example of a transformational leader, with most of his motivational speeches he transformed the world as we now know it.
Quiet leader – this style of leadership has to be the most controversial when you consider the different leadership traits. This leadership style leaves it success up to the people; the leader goes about his work in a quiet manner and inspires his followers to do the same. No great auditory speeches, no clear cut orders, just lead by example. Abraham Lincoln would be classified as quiet leader, going about his work, leading by example. Servant – George Washington our countries first president is an example of a servant leader, one who places the interest in the people before his own interest. Washington acted as a servant to his followers, not with the arrogance/royalty of most leaders. .
References
Becker, Thomas E., “Integrity in Organizations: Beyond Honesty and Conscientiousness,” Academy of Management Review, January 1998, pp.154
Blanken, Rhea, (2013). 8 Common leadership styles, January 2013, Retrieved from http://www.asaecenter.org/Resources/ANowDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=241962
Duffy, F.M. (2006). Power, politics, and ethics in school districts: Dynamic leadership for systemic change. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
DuBrin, A. (2013). Leadership (6th ed). South-Western. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781133614197/pages/57962176-179
Leading Through Effective Communication
Introduction
Communication is one of the major areas in effective leadership in our organization. Effective communication skills contribute to inspirational leadership. Good communication skills enable, foster, and create the understanding and trust necessary to encourage others to follow a leader. Open communication between company leaders and employees helps organization overcome problems and attain success. Effective communication is an important skill needed to become a good leader.
Leaders play three roles as communicators
Communication is a complex process that must be addressed from many angles to achieve the best results. Leaders must understand all components of the communication process to apply them effectively. To have impact, careful communication planning and management, and clarity and consistency of messages are key factors.This model shows the three integrated communication roles a leader plays [3].
Inspirational and Powerful Communication
The main factors that contribute to becoming an inspirational and emotion-provoking communicator are divided into the following two categories: Speaking and writing and Nonverbal communication.
Suggestions for Inspirational Speaking and Writing: There are different skills that you can adopt to become more dynamic and persuasive in his oral and writing skills. Being credible is very important for a leader to be persuasive and lead his team in the right direction. If the speaker is perceived as highly credible, the attempt at persuasive communication is more likely to be successful. Using heavy-impact and emotion-provoking words can give power and force to your speech and when used comfortably, naturally, and sincerely, they will project the image of a self-confident person with leadership ability. Backing up your conclusions with solid data can make verbal and written presentations more persuasive. Writing and speaking, is more persuasive when key ideas are placed at the .So writing crisp and clear memos, letters, reports and front loaded messages will make leaders powerful as people expect leaders to be forceful communicators.
Use a Power-Oriented Linguistic Style : Linguistic style is persuasive and powerful for a leader if chosen correctly and includes the culturally learned signals by which people communicate what they mean, along with how they interpret what others say and how they evaluate others Different components of linguistic style that would give power and authority to a message delivered by a leader are to speak loud and direct, downplay uncertainty, use the pronoun I to receive more credit for your ideas, minimize the number of questions and self-deprecation with phrases, offer negative feedback directly, make your point quickly, emphasize direct rather than indirect talk, weed out wimpy words, know exactly what you want, speak at length, set the agenda for a conversation, make jokes, and laugh and frame your comments in a way that increases your listener’s receptivity.
The Six Basic Principles of Persuasion
Persuasion is an effective tool that can be used by emerging leaders for success as it is directly related to the appropriateness and the effectiveness of the persuasive messages you send out. So this acts as a powerful tool in communication. These principles of persuasion that can also be framed as influence principles are as follows. Liking which emphasizes similarities between you as a manager and your team mates will be persuasive as this is encouraging. The next principle is reciprocity which means managers should serve as a model of trust, good ethics or strong commitment which is influential on the group members. As a leader people need to feel committed when you ask them to do something and so being consistent is very important. As a manager you should be able to be authoritative enough to persuade them towards your plans.
Nonverbal Communication
A self-confident leader not only speaks and writes with assurance but also projects confidence through body position, gestures, and manner of speech. So developing nonverbal communication is also an essential tool for an emerging successful leader. Some aspects of nonverbal communication gestures include using an erect posture when walking, standing, or sitting, standing up straight during a confrontation with toes pointing outward, and speaking at a moderate pace, with a loud, confident tone. External image also plays a major role in communicating and people tend to give more respect to leaders who are neatly dressed and groomed. Guarding time which is a subtle mode of nonverbal communication will also help you project an image of self-confidence and leadership. Videoconferencing is another non-verbal communication tool which requires some extra demands. Leaders should choose outfit carefully, speaking in crisp conversational tones and pay attention, avoiding culturally insensitive gestures and not forgetting the fact of the video camera’s powerful reach.
Listening as a Leadership Skill
Effective listening is a great skill that needs to be developed in work places. The guidelines for effective listening are being prepared, listen actively, avoid anticipation what will be said and debrief the message. By becoming a better listener you will get more out of each conversation as well as convey an attitude of respect to the speaker. This respect may also be returned to you when it is your turn to speak. Two leadership aspects of listening include selective listening where the leaders listen to certain problems and making rounds referring to the leader casually dropping by constituents to listen to their accomplishments, concerns, and problems and to share information.
Overcoming Cross-Cultural Communication Barriers
It is important for emerging leaders to communicate effectively with people from different cultures. Leaders need to be aware of the barriers and taking steps to minimize them, challenging your cultural assumptions, Showing respect to all workers, using straight forward language, speaking slow and clear paying attention to problems, trying to speak in the language of other culture, observing differences in culture in etiquette and not being diverted by their dressing or style, avoiding ethnic identification and being sensitive to differences in nonverbal communications.
The Leader’s Role in Resolving Conflict and Negotiating
Resolving conflict between two group members is also a part of effective communication as individuals emerging as leaders will have to deal with such situations in the work place. The most useful approach is to get the parties in conflict to engage in confrontation and problem solving. The manager should sit down with the two sides and encourage them to talk to each other about the problem and try to resolve them.
Negotiating and Bargaining
Negotiating is another basic skill that a leader should possess as it is important all through his career whether it be for himself or team mates. It involves listening skills to establish trust and to understand both sides of the argument. The negotiations should always be opened more realistically and should be done with overall interest in mind and should search for the differences in values of both sides. A multicultural leader should always be aware of the international standards and etiquettes when getting involved in negotiations.
The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Communication
Leadership communication depends on understanding the audience in all communication situations, understanding what moves them to listen and what motivates them to act. This understanding requires self-awareness as well as increased awareness of others, or improved emotional intelligence. Audiences’ receptivity to the manager, to his or her ethos or message, can assist or be a barrier to their receiving the intended message. What is it that makes others attend to a message; what is it that persuades them to listen and to act? Robert Cialdini argues, “no leader can succeed without mastering the art of persuasion” (2001). Just as creating a positive ethos aids in the art of persuasion, understanding what motivates others to listen and to act will help as well, thus the importance of emotional intelligence for any leader [4].
Leading Culturally Diverse Teams
Introduction
Cultural diversity has become widespread within most organizations today and is an everyday occurrence in even small organizations. The world is increasingly being connected and this brings a lot of people with completely different cultures together. The work groups in these organizations are increasingly being staffed by culturally diverse employees. The cultural differences exhibited in the groups can enhance or weaken the function of the work group, especially in a predominantly homogenous environment. These multicultural work groups present challenges and opportunities to the organization and to the managers. The biggest obstacle with cultural diversity in the work groups is the managers ' lack of knowledge of how to lead a culturally diverse work group or team [1].
The Advantages of Managing for Diversity
There are many advantages for embracing cultural diversity for a global organization as ours. The following are a few key advantages. 1. Acquiring and retaining better talent: Recruiting and retaining talented employees is one of the most important success factor of our organization. It is absolutely necessary to treat employees fair. Understanding and recognizing the cultural diversity helps us achieve this goal.
2. Marketing advantage: Our customers are culturally diverse and having a culturally diverse employees gives us an advantage in understanding and serving our customers well.
3. Getting the maximum potential from employees: If employees feel that the employer is fair and the only performance measure is the performance itself, then the employees will be working at their maximum potential.
4. Creativity advantage: Having a culturally diverse and collaborative work force would have a creativity advantage. Culturally diverse employees can think in multiple ways and means and can think outside the box. The team can come up with creative ideas that can make huge contributions.
5. Sourcing advantage: Global Company like ours needs to source from global resources and having a culturally diverse team can give us a great advantage in getting the optimal result.
Cultural Factors Influencing Leadership Practice
A multicultural leader is a leader with the skills and attitudes to relate effectively to and motivate people across race, gender, age, social attitudes, and lifestyles. To influence, motivate, and inspire culturally diverse people, the leader must be aware of overt and subtle cultural differences. A successful leader should understand the cultural dimensions and understand how it affects the leadership
Key Dimensions of Differences in Cultural Values: After researching 61 countries, an organization called GLOBE came up with certain generalized dimensions for cultural factors as shown in the picture. Performance orientation, for example, is the way people value the performance rather than the relationship.
Cultural Values and Leadership Style: Understanding each of these will help leaders get a general sense of what is valued in each of the cultural groups. This makes the leaders more effective since these guides the leaders for effectively managing the people with the certain cultural dimensions better.
Cultural Sensitivity and Cultural Intelligence
It is important for our managers to know the difference between and importance of cultural sensitivity and cultural intelligence.
Cultural Sensitivity: As managers, we should have clear understanding of cultural values and nuances of various cultures. We should also make sure that all of our employees know this too. Understanding these will create a comfortable situation for all employees.
Cultural Intelligence: We should not only know the cultural dimensions, but also be able to interpret the cultural cues from other cultural groups and interpret the cultural preferences soundly. We should have the cognitive, physical and emotional understanding of cultural dimensions.
Global Leadership Skills
We are a global company and it is extremely important that we need to improve our global leadership skills. We need to understand what it takes to be a global leader and our actions and expressions will be the company’s face. Hence we need to have a clear plan to be a global leader. We should serve the community wherever we are, we should show that we are working for a worthy cause and should have pleasure too.
A Proposed Model for Global Leadership Skills: A global leader should be culturally astute and sensitive. They should be looking for profitability and productivity, should inculcate stability and continuity, should have the commitment and morale and also should be adaptable.
Success Factors in International Management Positions: Two major factors for success are sensitivity to cultural differences and being culturally adventurous. These qualities make a manager successful.
Motivating and Inspiring Workers in Other Cultures: having cultural sensitivity and cultural intellingence, we should be able to motivate and inspire team members
Leadership Initiatives for Achieving Cultural Diversity
There are many things we can do to achieve our diversity goals. These include but not limited to having accountability for all managers and will be documented in your development plan. A method to achieve diversity in workplace is by assigning the managers to achieve diversity for behavior and business changes in the diversity arena so that an organizational culture supportive of diversity will begin to develop. We will also establish minority recruitment, retention, and mentoring programs. Women and people from minority groups need to be recruited and they have to be retained by recognizing employees’ hidden skills and talents, and give diversity committees clout with top management by attending cultural training program. Retention of minorities contributes to strength as a culturally diverse leader. Diversity training is done to increase people’s awareness of and empathy for people of other cultures and an important way and to prevent workplace discriminations. To become a multicultural organization, they should have culturally heterogeneous group of people. The people working in such organizations are good leaders who can lead culturally diverse teams to success.
Effects of Organizational Culture and Business Strategies
There are many research papers showing the effects of having a diverse organizational culture in organizations. Pamela Tudor, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has published a research paper cites the following good effects for organizations.
Research has backed up the hypothesis that diverse groups are more likely to have higher levels of performance in environments that emphasize a people–oriented culture (cultures that emphasize cooperation, sociability, empathy, good interpersonal relationships). In fact, members of educationally diverse groups were paid higher bonuses in departments that cultivated a people oriented culture. Another confirmed hypothesis is that educationally diverse groups perform better in group contexts that pursue a growth-oriented business strategy than in those that pursue a stability-oriented business strategy. Growth-oriented cultures are characterized by exploiting new product and market opportunities, focusing on innovation and flexibility, and supporting experimentation. Growth-oriented cultures need to embrace diversity as a resource to further fuel the creativity and innovation their groups depend on for success. The research further shows that stability-oriented cultures, characterized by avoiding risk-taking and focusing on efficiency, specification and centralization, do not embrace diversity. This allows them to better maintain the status quo and strive for peak efficiency [2].
References 1. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Managing-Culturally-Diverse-79450.html
2. http://www.aimd.org/files/PamelaTudor.pdf
3. http://www.ceoforum.com.au/article-detail.cfm?cid=6128&t=/JoAnne-Facey-Mercer-Human-Resource-Consulting/Effective-communication-skills-that-make-leaders-stand-out-from-the-crowd
4. http://www.dspace.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/27037/Leadership%20Communication%20-%20A%20Communication%20Approach%20for%20Senior-Level%20Managers%20-%20Barrett.pdf
Managing & Tracking Your Time
Time Management is the ability to manage control over the amount of time spent on specific activities ("SkillBrief: Managing and Tracking Your Time"). Good time management is important because it can increase your effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity in the workplace. Managers can increase their time management productivity by efficiently keeping track of time, manage time around energy cycles, and knowing the effects of their personality on time management.
Managing and tracking your time is important in order to increase productivity ("Time Management In The Workplace"). Tracking your time will increase productivity because it will allow you to know what areas of your day are time waster and cause you to be unproductive. The first step in in managing and tracking your time is to create a time log. The time log should keep a daily log recording every activity once completed. Creating a daily time log will allow you to categorize activities, prioritize activities, and finally summarize your data findings.
Categorizing activities is important to make and label in order to make analyzing the data easier. Prioritize activities is vital in having efficient time management. Prioritizing activities is vital because without being able to efficiently determine urgency and importance in relation to company goals time management you could become very inefficient in time management. Setting prioritizes to activities will enable you to know how to respond to different tasks in what order based on their importance and urgency.
Summarize your data findings from keeping a time log. Determine how much time was spending on each activity and the priority given to that category. Once you have summarize your time log data findings determine what areas you were efficiently using the time you had and what areas you were not efficiently using the time you had available. Time wasters could include focusing on the wrong tasks, not delegating, misjudging time required for tasks, procrastinating, or unnecessary socializing. After you have identify the main time wasters you then have to determine what actions are needed to take place in order to efficiently manage your time.
Using Body Clocks and Energy Cycles to Manage Your Time
Knowing and understanding how your own body clock affects your performance throughout the day can help you better manage your time. Your body clock effects your ability to efficiently accomplish tasks.
Generally people go through patterns of alertness, declining energy, and energy recovery. After you have determined what your individual energy patterns are throughout the day you can then schedule your tasks based on your energy levels, which should increase your work productivity.
Effects of Personality on Time Management
Understanding how your own personality can affects your performance throughout the day, can help you better manage your time. Assessing your personality preferences in the areas of how you take information, how you make decisions, and how you deal with the outer world will help determine your personality strengths and weakness. There are eight different personality preferences extraversion, introversion, sensing, intuition, thinking, feeling, judging, and perceiving. Knowing your different combination of personality preferences that you possess will help you in understand how to best improve your time management skills
Good Time Management Habits
Developing good time management habits is a very important practice to have in order to stay productive and efficient throughout the day. Good habits managers can develop in time management are time saving preparation, how to combat procrastination, and handling interruptions effectively.
Time Saving Preparation
Time saving preparation I all about asking the right questions in order to best determine how to best manage time available. Asking yourself similar questions below will help determine how to make your workday time efficient.
1. Is this project/meeting necessary?
2. What do I need to have contributed to achieve my objective in meeting/project today?
3. What actions can I take now to achieve my objective in meeting/project today?
Answering these three questions above will enable you to have better time management because of being able to a make preparation before a project or meeting and being able to decide to not go to the meeting because it would be a waste of time for your goals and objectives for work and thus not necessary.
How to Combat Procrastination
Procrastination is the act of delaying something to a later time ("Beating Procrastination - Time Management Skills from MindTools.com"). Procrastination is one of the biggest reason for an unproductive time management. Some common reason for procrastination are the following below.
1. I don 't have enough information
2. I have lots of time
3. I don’t have time right now
You can beat these common reason for procrastination by addressing each reason for procrastinating. I don 't have enough information can be addressed by going and finding people and the information needed to complete the objective. I have lots of time can be addressed by identify exactly how much time you need for preparation, then schedule each action instead of just thinking you have plenty of time. I don’t have time right now can be addressed by looking at your current schedule and reprioritizing to make time or delegating the task in order to keep everything running smoothly.
Handling Interruptions Effectively
Effectively handling interruptions is a essential habit to develop to have a productive time management. Identify what interruptions are necessary and what interruptions are not is key in handling interruptions in the workplace. The following three steps below can help you manage interruptions effectively.
1. Giving the appropriate amount of time to the interruption
2. Identify what is being discussed needs to be discussed
3. Taking actions to end the interruption when you need it to end
Answering these three questions above will enable you to have better time management because of being able to more effectively handling interruptions in the workplace.
References
Beating Procrastination - Time Management Skills from MindTools.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm
SkillBrief: Managing and Tracking Your Time. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://library.skillport.com/courseware/Content/cca/pd_11_a01_bs_enus/output/html/sb/sbpd_11_a01_bs_enus002003.html
Time Management In The Workplace. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.career-success-for-newbies.com/time-management-in-the-workplace.html
Leading and Managing Conflict Resolution
Conflict is a disagreement or argument between at least two individuals. Conflicts will always be present in life and the workplace because people have have different agendas, goals, expectations, and desires, thus creating a conflict when these agendas and goals do not agree with each others. Effectively leading and managing conflict resolution is important in the workplace in order to keep operations runnings efficient.
Resolving Conflict and Negotiating
Managers spends a considerable amount of time resolving conflict and negotiating among employees ("Resolving Conflicts on the Team - For Dummies"). Thus being effective at leading and managing conflict resolution is important because it will save time and money. It is very common for conflict to be between the heads of two different departments or divisions within a company. Unresolved or ignored conflicts between two different departments or divisions within a company can have big consequences for the organization because the result can be that the company competes more within itself then it does with the actual competition leaving the organization at a huge disadvantage. The five major style of conflict management are competitive, accommodative, sharing, collaborative, and avoidant. These five major styles of conflict management are based on a combination of assertiveness and cooperativeness ("Bookshelf : Link to “Leadership”). Assertiveness is extent a person attempts to satisfying their your own concerns. Cooperativeness is the extent a person attempts to satisfying someone else’s concerns.
Competitive style of conflict management is uncooperative and assertive. The competitive style is a desire to pursue your own concerns at the other party expense. A competitive style person is likely to use what power seems appropriate to win their own position. For example, their ability to argue, rank, or economic sanctions.
Accommodative style of conflict management is unassertive and cooperative. The Accommodative style individual desires to satisfy the concerns of the other party and neglects his own concerns. A accommodative style individual may tend to be generous and have a self sacrificing mode to accommodate the other party.
Sharing style of conflict management is moderate in both assertiveness and cooperativeness. The sharing style individual desires to a mutually acceptable solution that some what satisfies both parties, which results in a compromise. A sharing style individual may will not explore go as depth in finding a solution as collaborating individual. Sharing style falls between competing and accommodating.
Collaborative style of conflict management is both assertive and cooperative. The complete opposite of avoiding style. The collaborative style individual desires to attempt to work with the other party to find a solution that fully satisfies each parties concerns. A collaborative style individual will explore many options by looking at the underlying needs and wants to find the solution for both parties.
Avoidant style of conflict management is unassertive and uncooperative. The avoidant style individual desires to neither pursues his own concerns nor the other parties concerns. A avoidant style individual may postpone the conflict until a better time or may withdraw themselves from the conflict.
Negotiating and Bargaining
Negotiating and bargaining can be a big assets in helping resolve conflicts. For example, negotiating and bargaining for a pay increase for yourself is a conflict that can be resolved through good negotiation and bargaining tactics. The conflict of a pay increase may seems at first a conflict that is unresolvable, but through negotiation and bargaining you can show how your worth it for the company to increase your salary in order for you to continue to improve the company based on past performance("Negotiation - Salary.com"). Eventually resolving the conflict into a win win situation where your satisfied because you received a pay increase and your employer is satisfied because they are able to keep you a valuable asset to their company. Below are a list of management negotiating strategies tips.
1. Listen first to find out what the other party wants
2. Start with a reasonable demand or offer
3. Focus on interests, not positions
4. Search for the value in differences between the two parties
5. Be aware of international differences in negotiating style
Following these management negotiating strategy tips will help you become a more effective in negotiating as a leader because of knowing what steps are important to take in order to see the best possible result of a negotiation.
References
DuBrin, A. (2013). Leadership (6th ed). South-Western. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781133614197/outline/12
Negotiation - Salary.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.salary.com/category/salary/negotiation/
Resolving Conflicts on the Team - For Dummies. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/resolving-conflicts-on-the-team.html