Have we ever stopped to consider the type of leadership we have within our company?
Do we even have the time to take a seat and concentrate on practical strategies to enhance the leadership within this organization? Do we recognize opportunities for personal improvement or professional advancement and work to seize them, or do we simply let the day go by as usual? On my drive to work this morning, I asked myself some of the following questions.
The Team Leadership Model in Our Organization
It's crucial that we all gain an understanding of some of the leadership tenets used in our organization. Primarily, the team leadership model used within our organization is a participative style. This is where the team leader of a particular project discusses with the team members before settling for a course of action on a particular issue. The team leader values the opinions of the other employees by taking them into consideration, however he makes the final say. Employees in most of these teams end up feeling valued and contribute more innovative ideas to the success of their teams.
Understanding Organizational Culture
It is imperative that employees also get to understand the culture that makes up their organization. Culture describes the manner in which things are done in an organization (BPP Learning Media, 2012). Culture is usually made up of the values and beliefs adopted in an organization, behavior, symbols as well as the rituals adopted within the organization. An example that describes our organizational culture is the morning devotion that we usually have before starting our day. We are all familiar with the system whereby we rotate the person who will lead us during morning devotion. Another example would be the fact that our Fridays are known as dress down Fridays where by people are allowed to come to work in casual clothing. Am sure most of you were not even aware that it even had a name.
Managerial Style in Our Organization
The reason why dress down Fridays was established was so that people could feel at ease on these days. It was the company's way of ushering in the weekend after a long week. As mentioned above, culture describes how things are done in an organization. This also points out to the managerial style adopted within out organization. We are all familiar with the policy of our managing director of ensuring that we get the job done. He has always emphasized on ensuring people work in teams where by ideas are fostered and problems are solved. This has been critical at unifying employees within the organization who in most cases have enjoyed working with one another. This form of structure is called a task structure as it is a team-based structure that aims at the achievement of results through team effort. The performance of a team as well as individual promotions are merited based on results that have been achieved, which points out to why employees are usually committed and loyal to achieving the task at hand. We can all agree that this structure has been key at ensuring that we have an edge over our competitors within the industry (Lowe, 2016).
Gender and Leadership Effectiveness in Our Organization
Upon describing some of the principles of leadership in the organization, it is also imperative to describe some of its effects particularly in relation to its effects to gender and leadership effectiveness. If there is one common tenant in our organization when it comes to leadership is that they are dominated by the male gender. To be more specific, we only have two women amongst our senior leaders in the organization and this am sure most of you have not sat down and wondered why it is the way it is.
Leadership Style Adopted by the Organization
However, the leadership style adopted by the leaders in this organization is a persuasive or a democratic style where they engage junior employees in decision-making as they retain the final say. This in itself makes the employees comfortable since by valuing their ideas, they remain motivated. Though, why does the organization have few women leaders? After thorough analysis, observing and discussing with fellow female colleagues, it became evident that they don't think much about it because generally the industry does not have very many women leaders. The society has always given leadership to the male to dominate and 'rule over' the women. As of January this year, only ten women are serving as Heads of State (Sandberg, 2010). Such figures are further emphasized by the images shown at the end of the blog. This barbaric mindset which has been accepted by most women in our organization should not be the case as they have numerous opportunities within our organization. In fact, looking at the influential members within our informal groups, most of them are women. Additionally, the oldest employees within the organization are women demonstrating their ability to obtain significant experience and remain loyal to the organization. Why then don't our ladies and women believe in themselves, ensure that their hands still remain raised and own their own success stories (Sandberg, 2010)? Why don't they step up and aim to get a seat at the table because no one has restricted them from rising up to the challenge.
References
BPP Learning Media. (2012). ACCA paper F1: Accountant in Business. BPP Learning Media
Lowe, K. (2016). The Importance of Culture in Organizations. Retrieved February 11, 2017, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-culture-organizations-22203.html
Sandberg, S. (2010, December). Why we have too few women leaders. Retrieved February 11, 2017, from http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders?language=en
TeleTime Video, (2015). Leadership (10 mins) [Video File]. Academic Video Online.
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