Leadership is the ability that makes capable of persuading others to work towards achieving the set objectives passionately. Leadership involves a community of interest between the leader and his subordinates, that is, these two groups should be pursuing a common goal. Different leaders and organizations may use several approaches to leadership. The different approaches have both disadvantages and advantages as discussed below.
In competency-based leadership approach distinct skills identified, separate qualified staff from unqualified staff. People’s capability determines their level of performance and therefore a desired performance requires a specific level of skills. This approach majorly works on improving individuals’ skills and their performance as an individual moves from one level to another (Greenleaf & Spears, 2002).
The competency-based approach of leadership has several advantages. This approach to leadership communicates reasoned outlook for roles and for levels of performance. Individuals get tasks that they are capable of doing. This ensures meeting of development needs set by an organization.
Competency-based approach protects the morale of the staff. This approach provides room for improvement, and it also rewards those who have improved by giving them promotions. It also provides more valid data and thus makes working easier. To ensure that an organization is developing, performance management gets quantified and therefore the organization knows the areas that need an improvement.
Competency-based approach is effective as it links development activities to goals, and provides guidelines for development. However, some people may argue that linking management to performance is the wrong way to develop leaders. An additional limitation of this approach is that the set competencies that a person should have are subject to reading and at times people do not act in the desired way. To add onto this at times the competencies are vague and people may understand them differently.
Another approach to leadership is the servant leadership approach. This approach to leadership makes leaders servants. It entails giving importance to the needs of subordinates and other colleagues. The decision making procedure involves the workers. This leadership approach is at times negligent and is subject to pulls and pressures from different groups. Regardless of this it has several advantages. This approach increases the acceptance of management ideas and also reduces employees’ grievances.
This helps in increasing cohesion in the workplace and thus increasing productivity. In this approach the needs of the staff is of primary significance and thus the staff develop loyalty to their organization. Because all opinions count, the decisions made get implemented wholeheartedly. A good relationship develops between the leaders and the subordinates, employees get motivated. This helps in maintaining a high level of output (Greenleaf & Spears, 2002).
Servant leadership approach has some limitations. Very few leaders are willing to exercise this kind of approach. Most leaders think that employees may not be effective when this approach is used. There are so many attributes expected from such leaders and very few leaders possess such personalities.
Leaders are used to having the power to control and acting as the decision makers in given areas, this makes some of them unwilling to welcome suggestions from subordinates. Lower levels of employees may not understand the intricate nature of organizations and therefore their opinions rarely count and thus some aspect of the servant leadership approach is lost.
Competency-based leadership thus looks at an individual’s skills in order to identify a leader whereas the service leadership approach seeks to make everyone in an organization successful with the aim of making an organization to succeed.
Servant leadership may have some moral attributes that those involved in competency-based leadership approach lack. In organizations that managers use competence to assess employees, people may do anything regardless of whether it is ethical or unethical just to get promoted (Hellriegel, Jackson, Slocum & Hellriegel, 2008).
Most organizations prefer using the competency-based leadership approach because they believe it will make it possible for them to identify the type of leader they require after examining the leaders’ skills in different areas.
It is the belief of many organizations that appointing personnel to certain positions while taking into consideration their abilities is very important as that makes organizations more industrious. Because most organizations work with the aim of maximizing profit, they will try to increase productivity and hence the implementation of the competency-based leadership approaches (Hellriegel, Jackson, Slocum & Hellriegel, 2008).
Though these two approaches may seem different, a leader chosen because of their competencies can also portray the qualities of a servant leader. An individual can be competent and still work as a servant to his or her subordinates. Leaders who enjoy doing their jobs are willing to see their organizations succeed. This type of leaders always welcomes suggestions from everyone regardless of his or her status in the organization. A leader should be capable of motivating employees.
This means that they should give importance to the interests of their employees. This will help them build confidence in their employees and thus ensure high productivity and stability in the organization. Being competent does not make one indifferent of other people’s feelings. Leadership is a key in achieving goals; therefore, the leadership style adopted should be suitable to the circumstance involved.
References
Greenleaf, R. K., & Spears, L. C. (2002). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. New York: Paulist Press.
Hellriegel, D., Jackson, S. E., Slocum, J. W., & Hellriegel, D. (2008). Managing: A competency- based approach. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.