Overview of the Leadership Concept of Pacesetting
Leadership as a concept has always been one of the central notions for discussion in the sphere of business and management. With time, various researchers have made an effort to define the tangible ways of organizing leadership. One of the styles defined is known as pacesetting, which stands for the leader’s focus on high performance. This concept, although recognized by leaders, remains quite controversial when it comes to its efficiency and impact on the team. In the context of this presentation, the leadership concept of pacesetting will be examined on the matter of efficiency and applicability to the teamwork patterns.
Theory Overview
When speaking of the concept of pacesetting, it is important to dwell on its definition in the context of management. Thus, this type of leadership implies setting high-performance standards for the workers and continuous encouragement to reach for better results. According to Sharan (2020), such a perception of leadership may be, by all means, efficient in terms of tangible outcomes. However, the very question lies in the fact of how this efficiency could be measured properly, as employee satisfaction – results ratio should also be considered in this scenario. Moreover, the author claims the working environment to be affected when employees lack self-motivation and feel the constant pressure to reach higher goals.
In order to create a proper assessment of pacesetting leadership, it is of paramount importance to mention Daniel Goleman, the creator of six major theories of leadership. Thus, according to Goleman (2017), the notion of pacesetting may be phrased as the leader’s intention to take control over the workers’ actions in order to secure beneficial outcomes for the team. When applying this theory to practice, it is necessary to remember that leaders are to be extremely demanding in terms of performance. As a result, the overall impact on the team’s climate is highly negative, creating a discrepancy in the employees’ performance in the long-term perspective. Moreover, this pattern disrupts the workers’ flexibility as they become limited to the requirements outlined by the management.
Considering the points of view introduced both by Goleman and Sharan, some of the advantages and disadvantages of pacesetting leadership may be introduced. Hence, when it comes to the positive aspects of the leadership model, efficiency and task clarity should be emphasized, as they are of great value to the tangible outcomes of the working process. However, while the results could be achieved swiftly, the employees’ perception of work becomes quite destructive. Thus, it may be concluded that the advantages of this approach are visible only when pacesetting is combined with other approaches that allow the workers to feel the sense of belonging to the team and motivation to grow.
Why It Is Important for the Leader to Effectively Apply the Leadership Concept of Pacesetting
When discussing the peculiarities of the application of the pacesetting model, people may feel like this approach should not be employed by the leaders as they might disrupt the group’s dynamic. While pacesetting is indeed quite stressful for employers, leaders should not ignore the scenarios when reaching for high targets could be the most efficient way of issue resolution. Moreover, one of the integral parts of the process is leaders exemplifying the expected behavior, which is highly important for the team. In such a way, employees recognize their leader as a role model instead of a mentor who does not acknowledge the effort required to achieve the set goals. Thus, it could be summarized that the primary importance of pacesetting is the immediate efficiency of the effort.
Practices That a Leader Can Use to Demonstrate This Concept in Action
Thus, it has been established that pacesetting may be employed by leaders when it comes to situations when the outcome has to be performed promptly. In order to make this endeavor with the minimum loss for the team, some recommendations in terms of performance should be considered. The first practice to demonstrate effective pacesetting is ensuring one’s expertise in the field prior to implementing this model. According to the researchers, pacesetting is primarily led by example, which requires professionalism and profound knowledge from a leader (Buthathoki, 2019). As a result, when the leader has no competence, he is incapable of demonstrating pacesetting in action.
The next recommendation would be to take breaks between instances of pacesetting implementation in order to balance the worker’s well-being. Given the primary purpose of pacesetting, it is no wonder that in the long run, employees might feel exhausted and unmotivated, as they are emotional beings who cannot put their feeling aside and keep reaching for new heights (Namiq, 2018). As a result, the demonstration of proper pacesetting should occur in sprints, where the focus on achievement is periodically shifted to the leadership styles that increased the employees’ morale. When ignored, the demonstration of pacesetting eventually becomes invisible due to the lack of employees’ commitment to the process.
Finally, the third recommendations concern the leader’s ability to set high yet reachable standards by introducing examples of how to meet the presented requirements. According to the research, the success of pacesetting is mostly measured by the results of workers’ dedication to the process (Buthathoki, 2019). Thus, when telling the team to reach for the starts with no indications of means to do it, leaders are doomed to fail even when people are motivated enough to achieve new goals. For this reason, it is highly recommended for the leaders to make sure that their expectations from the team are reasonable even when driven by extremely high standards.
References
Budhathoki, K. (2019). Does leadership style matter for enhancing economic performance? Economic Journal of Nepal, 42(1-2), 55-72.
Goleman, D. (2017). Leadership that gets results (Harvard business review classics). Harvard Business Press.
Namiq, F. A. (2018). Most effective management style for the modern workplace. International Journal of Engineering and Management Sciences, 3(3), 402-411.
Sharan, A. (2020). The science of leadership. Journal of Orthopaedic Experience & Innovation, 1-5.