The Role of Directors in an Organization
The executive interview I conducted gave me my first insight into how directors function in the real world. Being an organization's director entails a lot of responsibilities. This conversation was incredibly instructive because it discussed several traits of leadership that a director must have. It underlines what I have learned in my business class on the leadership traits of directors and managers, which is why it is pertinent to my studies.
Leadership Abilities of a Director
The position of corporate director calls for a person with strong leadership abilities. In order to lead the employees properly and steer the company in the right direction, the director should believe in his abilities for maximum production in the company. However, he should also take into account worst case scenarios in his decision making process so as to come up with the most informed decisions. In addition, he needs to be a goal oriented person with personal goals for the organization goals to hold him accountable for everything that happens in the company. In addition a well-defined set of goals helps one to lead an organization in the right direction. Likewise, a director has to be a positive minded person with the ability to assign difficult tasks to various employees.
Achievements as a Measure of Success
As a yardstick to measure his achievements, a director looks at the achievements made by his employees. These achievements reflect how successful he has been in his leadership. Again one compares the progress of the company with the set goals that are meant to be achieved within a specific time period (Hill & Hult,2016).
Pursuing Success on a Global Scale
It is important for directors to have great dreams of becoming the most successful directors worldwide. In any occasion, if presented with the opportunity to work for a global organization, he would take it whole heartedly. On top of this, he would choose an organization that is not very popular. With such an organization, one gets the opportunity to personally lead the organization to greatness. As a result, the director is able to prove his leadership qualities to the whole world and gain recognition as one of the best managers across all the continents.
Inspiration from Role Models
Again, good directors have role models who are globally recognized leaders. These are people who have overcome great challenges such as humble beginnings and have stood against all odds to become the best there is in the world. For instance, Barrack Obama, the former president of the United States of America. He is the first black president in this country and has proven that all dreams are valid. One only needs to believe in their dreams and work hard towards achieving them. Subsequently, directors with such role models, are inspired to lead their companies to the highest heights they can possibly achieve.
Self-Evaluation for Effective Leadership
Even more, for a director to be effective in their leadership, they have to carry out a self-evaluation to determine their strengths and weaknesses. Since such can affect ones performance, it is important for a leader to be aware of them. One should be able to point out their strengths and determine how they can be used to influence the organization positively. For example, a director with high integrity can work without favoritism and is always ready to take blame for his mistakes. On the other hand after identifying the weaknesses, he should always be careful not to let them pull their performance down. As an illustration, if a director has a weakness of being tempted to please, everyone, he should be careful not to let it overrule his decisions.
Inspiring Employees
Further, when dealing employees, the director should aim at inspiring them. One can easily tell whether he is an inspiration to employees by observing whether his decisions are respected by them. In the occasion that they are respected regardless of the circumstance the organization is in, then he can conclude that he is a source of inspiration. Contrary, if the employees don't respect his decisions, then he does not inspire them.
Having an Exit Strategy
Also, it is important for a director to have an exit strategy. He should be training a person who will take over leadership from him in case he quits his job. In this situation, the criteria to use to use in selecting the most qualified candidate would be taking his assistance to fill his position .Notably, leadership can be learned through observation and hence choosing his assistance would be the best decision for the organization.
Consistency in Leadership Style
Moreover in his leadership style, a director should be consistent. He should not let global management trends affect him since they are always changing. It is important for an organization to choose one style and stick to it. In addition, the vision, mission statement and core values of the company should be consistent without being changed from the original. As such a company can work towards a common goal. However, when making strategies he should consider that they keep on changing once they have been achieved within stipulated timelines (Hill & Hult, 2016).
Recognizing Global Trends
In relating with the external environment, a director should be able to recognize global trends that affect the company such as technology. The best way to deal with these trends it to choose the ones relevant to the organization. In addition, a company should ensure that customer satisfaction is its primary goal (Hill & Hult, 2016). However a director should be aware of the organizations competitors and recognize that they are superior since they can adapt strategies that can lower the organization sales.
Conclusion
In summary, the interview was a very informative activity which taught me many leadership qualities that a director of any company should have. Such qualities include: having an exit strategy, consistency in leadership style, taking into account the external environment and relating to it properly, having role models and big dreams for oneself.
Reference
Hill, C.W.I. & Hult T.M .G (2016).Global Business Today 9th edition. Retrieved on April 22, 2017 from: http://www.dropbox.com.
