What makes a good leader & how might the performance of leaders be measured

Contents

1. What makes a good leader
Communication
The communication process
Removing barriers
Motivation
Challenges
Herzberg’s motivation and hygiene factors
Finding the right leadership style
Autocratic leadership
Democratic leadership or participative leadership
Laissez-faire leadership
Transformational leadership
The leadership continuum
Contingency theories or situational leadership
Improving the leadership qualities

2. How might the performance of leaders be measured
Performance appraisal program
Performance plan
Progress review
Performance appraisal
The balanced scorecard

3. Conclusion

1. What makes a good leader

Probably everybody will agree that a good leader is very important to any successful business. But what makes an effective leader and how can someone develop her or his leadership qualities? Indeed there are many factors that affect the leadership qualities. And one thing is sure, anyone can be a good leader, even if he or she isn’t yet. Discover in the next paragraphs “my” major elements that affect the leadership quality.

Communication

One of the most important factors of good leadership is communication. It doesn’t matter of what size business it is – a large organisation, a small firm, or even a home-based business – well developed communication skills are indispensable for success. If good communication skills don’t already exist, they have to be built up to become a good leader. The goal of communication is to get an important message clearly and unequivocal across to others. Doing this requires effort from both the sender and the receiver. If employees have no idea what is on the supervisor’s mind, the leadership is going to falter. When this isn't detected, it can cause very big confusion, wasted exertion and missed opportunity. In order to transfer the massage clearly, a manager should use an effective communication. As stated in the course book thinking skills and general management (University of Leicester, 2007) following points have to be considered:

- What is the purpose of the communication?
- Are the occasion and timing of the communication right?
- Will those receiving it be able to follow it from one stage to another?
- Is the medium (usually language) suited to the audience?
- Has the purpose of the communication been achieved?

The communication process

Communication problems can appear at every stage of the communication process (which consists of sender, encoding, channel, decoding, receiver and feedback - see the diagram below) and may create misinterpretation and confusion.

Diagram 1.1: The communication process (Kryder, 2006)

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

The sender starts the communication process and than encodes a message, and selects a channel (written, oral or visual) for transmitting the message to a receiver. The receiver is the person or group to whom the message is directed. He or she decodes or interprets the meaning of the message. The feedback of the receiver back to the sender controls whether he or she understood well the content of the message.

Removing barriers

In each stage of the communication process exist barriers that disturb the smooth transfer of the message. To deliver the message without misunderstanding, it is important to pull down these barriers.

Let’s start with the message. If the message is too long, disorganized, or full of errors, the message can be misunderstood and misinterpreted. Poor verbal and body language can also confuse the message and therefore shouldn’t be used.

The sender shouldn’t offer too much information too fast. It should be always in consideration, that less is oftentimes more. Paying attention of the demands on other people’s time is worthwhile, particularly in today’s ultra-busy society.

In the next step, it is important to understand the audience’s culture. A good manager creates and adapts the message to the audience’s background and culture which may differ within the organisation.

Motivation

Motivation is another important factor that effect good leadership. Motivated employees show greater willingness to work accompanied with higher performance and quality. Some leaders still try to motivate through fear. (You must do what I say or I will punish you) This is not advisable, because it mostly leads to only short term results and the performance of the work in the long run even decrease, due to the feeling of insecurity resulting from the fear tactic.

Challenges

A fresh challenge always creates excitement and increases creativity. The idea is to challenge the employees with tasks that may be slightly out of their range and let them at it! This increases motivation.

If they can’t get the next step, it will help to guide them back to the way without offering the complete solution outright. The employees should find the solution by themselves. After successful completion, their self-confidence will grow, thereby raising their motivation level.

Herzberg’s motivation and hygiene factors

One of my favourite theorys to explain the needs of the employees and the duties of the management was developed by Frederick Herzberg (1959). He published the two-factor theory of motivation. Herzberg described certain factors available in the business that would immediately motivate employees to work harder and more effective. (Motivators)

Herzberg’s motivators:

- the sense of achievement
- the level of recognition by both colleagues and management
- the level of responsibility
- opportunities for advancement and
- the status provided

Furthermore Herzberg explained that other factors would de-motivate an employee if not present, but would not in themselves actually increase the motivation of the employees to work harder. (Hygiene factors)

Herzberg’s hygiene factors:

- salary
- perceived differences with others
- job security
- working conditions
- the quality of management
- organisational policy
- administration
- interpersonal relations

Motivators are more involved with the job itself. For instance how interesting and challenging the work is and how much possibility it gives for recognition, extra responsibility and promotion. Hygiene factors are not directly a part of the job itself but rather surround the job. For example a worker will not start to work if the salary or the security precautions are too low. Both factors must reach a certain level which enables him or her to manage and secure the life. But these factors will not increase his or her effort to perform a higher quality or to make him or her work harder at his job.

[...]