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What constitutes effective leadership practice?

EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP PRACTICES: In the modern era, organisational structures and processes have evolved and now become much more complex and complicated. A number of companies have added different layers of hierarchy within their structures in order to promote better and effective control. This has allowed them to achieve their targets more efficiently as well as promote the concept of diversification within their organisation in order to promote equal opportunities and have a workforce of diversified skill set (Acker, 1990). However, organisational control has always been challenging for managers. It has been seen on a number of occasions that managers fail to control their employees. This failure of control gave rise to the concept of leadership (Acker, 1990).

In accordance EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP PRACTICES with Adair (1998), an organisation which looks forward towards the longer view of its operations and stakeholder always consist of effective leadership. There are a number of traits identified for effective leaders including the ability to inspire, bearing high levels of integrity, being optimistic and forward looking, having effective communication skills as well as having efficient decision making skills and willing to support and lead the team from the front.

In the view of Tichy and Cohen (1997), the key ability which differentiates leaders from managers is that of a long term vision. A manager mainly focuses on the shorter term goals and targets of an organisation. These may include achieving a particular amount of sales revenue or percentage of profit. On the other hand, leaders look forward towards achieving long term goals and objectives for an organisation.

These may include the achievement of customer satisfaction in the long run or to promote customer loyalty which may not be visible in the short term view of the business but will be built over time and will affect the operational activities of the company extensively. Further, Tichy and Cohen (1997) state that a leader always tries to lead his team by example and sets the example himself by initiating new processes himself. He also tries to keep his employees motivated and allocates them work and rewards according to the level of their motivation. A good leader is one who always looks forward towards exploring new ideas and innovations in order to benefit his/her organisation. This leads him/her to a risk seeking attitude at times in order to evaluate the benefits of different sets of assumptions and trends in the market.

However EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP PRACTICES, it is important that the leader has sound analytical skills in order to evaluate the relevant costs and benefits attached to a particular decision before going ahead with it. Furthermore, leaders are responsible for developing the particular rules and regulations of their company regarding their workforce as well as lower level management. It is therefore of key importance that leaders design the rules and regulations in a way which benefits the organisation as a whole is not very stringent upon the workforce in order to minimise the chances of any potential resistance or non-compliance (Weathersby, 1999).

Due to the increased innovations and competition, it is important that organisation understand that service users should now be involved actively in service planning. Service users (sometimes referred to as clients) are the users of the services of a particular healthcare service provider. These users mostly have their own individual specifications based on their needs from the provider. In order to operate more efficiently and making the overall process of provision of services more effective, organisations can make the service users a part of service planning. This will allow them to understand the preferences and needs of their customers and thus allow the organisation to focus on these specifically. Furthermore, the involvement of the service users in the process of service planning will enhance the overall quality of the services provided as well as make them more user-friendly. A key strategy towards introducing this into the organisation is by using service user targeted survey by the use of specific questionnaires. These questionnaires will allow the users to place forward their own particular thoughts as well as understanding regarding the procedures and services of the organization (Rost, 1998). It is further stated by Rost (1998) that the users can also highlight the key areas of weakness in which they require further development and/or upgradation from the organisation in order to enhance their overall experience with the organisation. Comments should…