The challenge of guiding the team properly has always been one of the most complex encounters for leaders all over the world. An excellent leader should also be able to recognise the ways of guiding not only his or her team but the changes that the company and the workers undergo (Nichols 2016). Every member of the team should be inspired by the leader, and the main goal of the latter is to convey his or her view to the employees. The two articles reviewed before writing this paper reflect on the current state of affairs in the field of leadership theories and practices.
Hannah, Sumanth, Lester, and Cavarretta dwell on the issues connected to the appearance of new leadership theories and explain the pragmatic backgrounds of contemporary leadership styles (Hannah et al. 2014). The article written by Leduc, Guilbert, and Vallery tells about the valuable benefits of information and communication technologies when they are applied to the leadership practices. The authors of the article explain the importance of the ICTs in the modern leadership setting and state that the use of IT increases the efficiency of the leadership style and helps visualise the necessary information in a proper way (Leduc et al. 2015).
In order to successfully overcome the present global issue of guiding change, the author proposes to employ situational leadership. This practice is exceptionally useful for the reason of its flexibility. This basically means that the leader will be able to take an exclusive approach to any given employee and manage the team as efficient as ever.
The leader should be highly concerned about the current situation in the company and understand the relations within the team in order to guide the change. Most importantly, the leadership practice should be linked to the situation, not to the organisation. By accepting this, the leader will be able to switch his or her leadership style according to the circumstances instead of his or her subjective view of the company.
The article by Hannah et al. describes how classic leadership styles can be turned into new practices and reviews the possible issues of implementing these practices in the organisations of all sizes. The authors of the article explain the idealistic point of view on the leadership and propose their ways of overcoming these practical complications (Hannah et al. 2014). This article can help meet the challenge of guiding the change as it presents relevant evidence concerning effective team management and reflects the approach that involves situational leadership.
The article by Leduc et al. thoroughly examines the ups and downs of using IT in leadership practices. It also presents evidence of the change that the ICTs bring and compares it to the leadership styles that do not involve the utilization of IT instruments (Leduc et al. 2015). This article might be rather useful when developing a leadership strategy that would help meet the challenge of guiding the organisational (or any other) change in terms of information presentation and visualisation. Various modern IT tools give the possibility of conveying the vision to the employees in a moderately simple, yet comprehensible way.
The most obvious steps that should be taken to improve the general leadership practice are the commitment to the common objective of the organisation and the ability to learn from past mistakes. Leadership is a dynamic discipline. Therefore, it should be treated in a way that would presuppose flexibility and open-mindedness. The leader should also take into consideration (and recurrently ask for) the feedback provided by his or her employees and adjust the leadership practice in compliance with it.
References
Hannah, S, Sumanth, J, Lester, P, & Cavarretta, F 2014, âDebunking the False Dichotomy of Leadership Idealism and Pragmatism: Critical Evaluation and Support of Newer Genre Leadership Theoriesâ, Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 598-621.
Leduc, S, Guilbert, L, & Vallery, G 2015, âImpact of ICTs on Leadership Practices: Representations and Actionsâ, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 380-395.
Nichols, A 2016, âWhat Do People Desire in their Leaders? The Effect of Leadership Experience on Desired Leadership Traitsâ, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 658-671.