Leadership must focus on the strengths of people since employees do not work the same way. Buckingham relates that great managers are aware that they do not have 10 salespeople working for them. What they know is that 10 individuals are working for them since he is brilliant at identifying the unique qualities and differences of each one and can capitalize on these differences. Leaders must be able to get the most return of investment by working on the strengths of their people.
Buckingham’s book Now, Discover Your Strengths, states that there ought to be a management revolution that will encourage managers to focus on the strengths of people. Buckingham and co-author Donald O. Clifton describe distinct worker profiles such as the “Learner,” “Achiever” and “Developer,” and exhaustively look at how those personalities can best be put to use (Good Managers Focus on Employees’ Strengths, Not Weaknesses).
Leadership tasks are slowly evolving. This is a result of the changing needs of the business as a response to the external environment such as competition and globalization. Traditional leadership roles are shifting to more dynamic responsibilities. Management literature is shifting their paradigm from management as a function of managerial control towards management as a function of leadership. John P. Kotter for example changed the term “change management” to “leading change” (Coyle and Kossek, 2000). This would signify shifting the roles of managers towards leadership. Kotter presented several points on managers as leaders. Kotter argued that one leader is not enough in initiating change.
The core of the emerging perspective is the decline of the control function of leadership towards increase the empowerment of all employees of the organization. Boerner et.al. (2007) explored the impact of transformational leadership on the performance and innovativeness of subordinates. Transformational leaders can boost the performance of followers through the ability of this kind of leadership to enhance the citizenship behavior of the subordinates.
Secondly, transformational leadership is also able to boost the innovativeness and creativity of the employee through exploration of task-related issues or engagement in debate and participation. In this specific study, Boerner et.al. (2007) used a sample of 91 leaders from 91 German companies using transformational leadership as a management strategy. Their study confirmed that organizational performance has improved with the use of transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is defined as the ability of managers to inspire subordinates to aim for outcomes that exceed specific targets through the provision of meaning and understanding.
This is done by communicating to subordinates the goals of the organization and how this is aligned with their task objectives (Boerner et.al., 2007). Two factors were considered as essential to the success of managers in these companies. First is the change from transactional leadership to transformational leadership. Transformational leadership reduces the control function of the managers and enhancing their ability to be leaders. This means the ability to shape and influence the behavior of the employees through the empowerment of employees and a collaborative approach in the process of decision-making.
The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), the largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals encompassing 70,000 members from more than 100 countries as well as thousands of multinational corporations. This association continues to provide employee training and development most recent of which are publications by Lou Russell on “Leadership Development” and “Motivating Employees” by Sharlyn Lauby both published by ASTD.
These materials provide readers with the latest techniques for managing employees so that they are assisted in their growth and success in the company. Russell elucidates on ten competencies for effective leadership consisting of knowing oneself, work with others, and integrating leadership into an organization. She emphasizes the importance of matching “the right person and skill set with the right job opportunity at the right time.” Meanwhile Lauby’s “Motivating Employees” demonstrates that different people require different motivations. She maintains that some employees crave power, others want money, recognition, praise, or just simply freedom and space. Thus managers must be able to decipher what is best for each one (New ASTD Infolines Help to Develop Leaders and Motivate Employees).
References
Boerner, S., Eisenbeiss, S.A., and Griesser, D. (2007). Follower behavior and organizational performance: The impact of transformational leaders. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 13(3): 15-22.
Coyle, J. and Kossek, E.E. (2000). John P. Kotter on what leaders really do. Human Resource Planning, 23(1), 45.
Good Managers Focus on Employees’ Strengths, Not Weaknesses. Web.
New ASTD Infolines Help to Develop Leaders and Motivate Employees. Web.