The coaching style would be useful for existing employees who have lost their sense of commitment. These types of employees may still be inexperienced or may have been incorrectly supervised leading to their loss of commitment. Coaching style will also be useful on employees who need praise to build their self-esteem. This coaching style provides some direction with plenty of support. Support is important in building confidences and praise is needed to boost self-esteem. If the employee’s confidence and self esteem is increased their commitment to the company and their ability to complete job duties will increase. This will ultimately improve the employee’s productivity and morale (Maccoby, p. 49).
The third style of leadership is supporting. Supporting is similar to the coaching style but employees are not in need of direction. The employees who require a supportive leader already have the skills and knowledge of their job duties but either lacks motivation or confidence. This type of employee requires a lot of praise to encourage motivation and improve confidences. The supportive style can also be used to build relationships or gain coworkers confidence (Maccoby, p 52).
The fourth style is delegating. Delegating allows the leader to turn over some responsibilities to employees who demonstrate both excellent job knowledge and the ability to work well with little supervision or support. This style would seem to be the ideal style, if you have a team of employees that all work well, are responsible and are committed to you and the company. All you have to do is release some authority and resist the urge to make all the decisions. Unfortunately, since the leader is ultimately responsible for the job tasks completion, it is often hard to delegate because of the need to ensure that the job is done right. Situational leadership suggests that you combine the four basic leadership styles. The delegate leadership style was used by the CEO Rebecca Olsen, in the book Leading Quietly. Olsen did not want her company to face further lawsuits because of Richard Millar sexual harassment case. She did the right thing for her new company, gained the board of director’s respect, and gained business allies at the same time (Badaracco, p.12).
One of the most vital areas in successful quiet leadership is communication. The most basic form of communication is listening and speaking. This involves not only the exchange of spoken words, but also close attention to body language and tone. This attention allows good listeners to sort of read between the words and fully understand the speaker s message. Effective speakers take time to prepare what they intend to say, giving careful thought to what it is they are attempting to convey(Blanchard, p22).
Decision making is the next area of successful quiet leadership. Leaders can be forced to make several decisions at the same time, making them to prioritize these decisions based on two criteria: future importance and current urgency. Future importance refers to the long term decisions that may seem insignificant presently, but will greatly impact the company in the long run. Making future importance decisions usually requires a great deal of analysis and planning. Current urgency decisions may seem extremely important at the time, but in actuality are not terribly relevant to the success of the company. In case, future importance or current urgent, an effective leader makes these decisions with confidence and concern for his subordinates (Maccoby, p.137).
The complications of decision making can often be made easier through good goal setting. In setting a challenging yet attainable goal, the leader gives solid direction to his department and sets clear objectives. From there, many decisions can be based on whether or not the consequences will help in realizing these goals. These goals offer basic guidance, eliminating irrelevant options.
The quiet leader must diagnose the situation and determine which leadership style will be the most effective for the situation. I feel that this theory is the most accurate since not all employees have the same abilities or characteristics. Because of this, you will need to lead those using different techniques.
I do believe that quiet leaders must share some personality characteristics. As described above, a quiet leader must be flexible. They must also have a caring, respectful and responsible attitude. They must have a participative approach to management and be willing to share power. Quiet leaders must be continuous learners and never feel that they know everything. Quiet leaders are usually calm and never make decisions from the hip. Each decision must be carefully planned and each option researched. Thus, patience is a characteristic of an effective leader. Quiet leaders have also been described as visionaries, being able to foresee the results of their planning and successful obtainment of their goals.
Are leaders born or made? I have read many articles where this issue has been the hot topic being debated. I know that long ago many theorist felt that great leaders where born not made. Some today still think this way, but I think most have decided that effective leaders can be developed through education and training. I feel that some people may be born natural leaders, but without proper education and experience, this potential may not get reached. I also feel that one’s life experiences and paths can develop characteristics in people that could help them become effective leaders (Kelly, p 87).
Not many managers are quiet leaders. I worked with a manager that was great at the operational side of the business but she was not an effective leader. She felt that everyone should be treated the same and expected the same productivity and accuracy out of each employee. The drive that she placed on meeting the operational objectives with disregard for the human culture only backfired. Instead of getting better results, they worsened. Morale became an issue, as well as, absences, stress related illnesses and conflicts between co-workers. I believe these were all a result from the manager’s ineffective leadership skills.
In searching the web for information on leadership, I came across thousands of companies and consulting firms that offer many development and training programs that will help build employee’s leadership abilities. I hope that leadership skills can be taught, since I have been striving to develop good business qualities into an effective quiet leader. Changing your ideas about leadership is the easy part, developing the appropriate characteristics are quite difficult and require much determination.
Leadership development and training programs help the organization by equipping the employees with skills they will not obtain in their own work environment, but are very much needed. This in turn will create employees that are more knowledgeable in leading and better able to assist in meeting the organization’s goals. Since quiet leadership is a positive characteristic in any manager or employee, the company can only gain from teaching these types of leading stills. Employees who are offered these programs by their employers may feel a more positive association with the company. Companies that show a concern for their employee’s personal growth may find that employees will feel obligated to do a better job for the company. In conclusion, leadership is about service. The greater the ability to serve the needs of others, the more powerful and effective, are the actions of the leader (Cashman, p.23). While leaders lead by virtue of whom they are, leaders create value by virtue of their service. Leadership can be thought of as the dynamic process of assessing our unique potentialities to serve the needs of others like employees, co-workers, and customers.
Bibliography
Blanchard, Kenneth, Patricia Zigarmi, and Drea Zigarmi. Leadership and the One Minute Manager. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1995.
Kelly, Kevin, You can’t Make Leaders. Business Week 07 Dec. 1998: Enterprise My Company. Business Week Online Archives.
Cashman, Kevin. Leadership in Business Today. Business Journal Serving Fresno. April 1998, i322295, p.23-47.
Badaracco, Joseph. Leading Quietly. Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
Maccoby, Michael, The Leader. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981.
