Introduction
It is hard to disagree that effective management plays a vital role in defining the business’s short- and long-term success and ensuring that all its operations and components function properly. There are several management functions, including planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. This paper will focus on the leadership function, discussing its main elements, highlighting the value of different leadership styles, and providing a real-life example of an expert who has successfully implemented this function.
Leading Function of Management
When discussing the expected activities of a manager in this function, it is possible to refer to an imaginary scenario. For instance, the manager of a firm has analyzed the company’s current conditions, set goals, and directed the required resources. However, even with the best strategy, people within the organization might fail to respond and contribute, and this is when the selected category is crucial.
According to Lloyd and Aho (2020), leading is about stimulating high performance and motivating employees to be engaged. Managers in this role are expected to explain to staff exactly what depends on them, how they can influence the company’s success, and what they will receive in return for their contributions (Brigden, 2023). They also ensure that employees align with the firm’s current vision and course, and make them feel valued by offering bonuses, giving feedback, and recognizing their individual efforts.
Further, concerning preferred characteristics, there is a list of traits that allow some managers to lead successfully. As stated by Lloyd and Aho (2020), professionals in this leading role need to be active listeners, which means paying attention, understanding the speaker, rephrasing their words, asking questions, and engaging in the dialogue in other ways. Next, empathy allows managers to fulfill the leadership function by learning their workers’ needs, desires, fears, concerns, and expectations, and to understand what best motivates them (Brigden, 2023).
To determine whether a manager is doing a good job, it is possible to evaluate the company’s atmosphere and the relationships among employees. If there is strong, efficient communication, mutual understanding, and support between them, and the manager is involved in the team, their performance is high. Employee feedback, rates of internal mistakes, compliance with organizational goals, satisfaction, resistance to change, and others are some measures of the manager’s performance.
Professionals implementing the leading function can fail or succeed in different areas. For instance, they might choose only one leadership style, such as directing or delegating, and either grant employees excessive freedom or fail to reveal their potential and establish trust (Brigden, 2023). There is also a risk of selecting the wrong motivation and bonus systems, and of failing to engage staff at the required level. As for successes, they involve higher staff contribution and initiative, common understanding and sharing of organizational objectives, and the realized potential of individual employees.
When giving a real-life example of a successful manager, one can refer to Howard D. Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks. He fully realized all other management functions, including planning and organizing, when he purchased the company and had to change its course, vision, and brand image (Murray & Royle, 2023). After he established the goals, Schultz inspired and motivated employees by creating a strong reward system, offering training and development, providing effective feedback, and letting staff feel valued and recognized by calling them partners (Murray & Royle, 2023). Without his leadership, the corporation would not have achieved such tremendous success, even with a promising plan in place.
Conclusion
To conclude, the leading function of management is essential and can lead to success when implemented adequately. Howard D. Schultz demonstrated the required skills by listening to their employees’ feedback, responding to their needs, and creating adequate conditions for their high performance. At the same time, in certain situations, he failed to recognize the correct ways to improve their engagement and applied the wrong strategies to boost involvement.
References
Brigden, B. (2023). The four functions of management: Overview + examples. Teamwork.
Lloyd, R., & Aho, W. (2020). The four functions of management. Pressbooks.
Murray, A., & Royle, O. R. (2023). Starbucks founder Howard Schultz: ‘You can do right by your people and your shareholders at the same time.’ Fortune.