Organization
Introduction
The core attributes of governments are critical in facilitating proper organizational leadership and development plans. The ideologies laid under this project seek to develop a strategic argument of institutional management and goal achievement. Most prevailing governance and leadership platforms are directed towards the attainment of a mission and organizational achievement to facilitate the flow of work. It dictates that all institutions must incorporate a strategic plan in which progress is measured against time. Essentially, institutional growth may harbor sufficient advantages about the flow of money and lack of any business models since they are created to foster development in a region (DuBrin, 2004). For instance, most governmental organizations have missions and visions to attain without necessarily making huge profits as income for governance.
The higher education institutions operate uniquely as compared to most business institutions where the aim is directed to attain education needs rather than specializing in money gains. Even when money gains are part of the organizational attainment, the key goals are directed towards educational achievement. The clear understanding of these aspects is conjoined with a study of institutional culture, characteristics, governance, principles, possible challenges, and future expectations among others. These aspects can be explored by paying attention to all the fundamental features mentioned within a real higher education organization. In a bid to implement this argument, this paper allows me to take a presidential role in an operating college to man and determine the proceedings, cultures, and associated strategic goals of the organization. The discussion lays the principles of institutional organization and governance, approaches to fight challenges, daily plans to foster development, achievement trends, as well as any associated failures.
Annotated Bibliography
Bass, B., & Riggio R. (2006). Transformational leadership. Mahwah: Erlbaum Associate Publishers.
The collection of information delivered to support various aspects of transformational leadership in institutions can convince readers about the vitality of change in governance. Bass and Riggio (2006) capture ideas critical in implementing change within the governance of institutions. The authors pay attention to vision implementation by assessing practice from national and world-class politicians, CEOs, and directors among other key governors of institutions. This book provides vital information regarding institutional governance and best practices applicable to implementing change. It is, therefore, critical in the study topic.
Bush, T. (2003). Theories of educational leadership and management. London: Sage Publications.
This book was written by Bush (2003) has particulate information regarding the governance of educational institutions. He presents an argument about the leadership in sections of institutional management. The information will create a base for leadership and organization of the critical aspects as reinforced by the best governance practices. These principles will be used to evaluate the governance of the college in this study.
Trompenaars, F., & Voerman E. (2009). Servant Leadership across Cultures Harnessing the Strength of the World’s Most Powerful Leadership Philosophy. Oxford: Infinite Ideas Ltd.
Trompenaars and Voerman (2009) combines various argument to deliver the idea that globalization has introduced new cultural dimensions in leadership. He points out that all leaders are subject to cultural differences in their area of work, which demands standard ways of handling governances. The resources play vital roles in the topic of governance and culture where higher education institutions harbor cultural diversity. The book provides insight on handling people with distinct backgrounds and solving disputes among them as well as a surviving dilemma.
Major Principles of Organization and Governance
Governance is a fundamental aspect that determines the success of both developing and developed companies. In this regard, it determines the cohesiveness, commitment, and incentive of employees in the organization. Although leadership is needed in both old and young companies, young companies require more superintendence than the old ones. In this case, startup companies do not have a well established organizational structure that could enhance the effective execution of roles. Most importantly, the young organizations lack coordination in the internal structure implying that they need much-dedicated leadership. Also, the leaders of these organizations do not have the experience to coordinate the internal and external environments of the organization. This implies that those leaders must assess their leadership skills, improve them, and apply them when executing their roles. Therefore, this paper will describe the requirements of good leadership, assess the good aspects of personal leadership, and illustrate a plan for developing leadership skills in line with the assessment.
Organization and Governance
Creating a Vision
The most fundamental requirement of good leaders is the power to create a vision for the companies. This requirement is based on the premise that an organization is formed based on a vision. The vision comprises of common objectives of the company which defines what all stakeholders should attain (Trompenaars & Voerman, 2009). Additionally, all roles of various stakeholders are based on a common objective of the company. This objective is regarded as a real factor of motivation because all employees aim at attaining that objective. This shows evidence that the vision defining the organizational objective is a core factor that determines the progress and success of the institution. The existence of this vision is even most important to a startup company whose structure is weak and coordinated. Good leaders can formulate, share, and help the stakeholders to implement the institutional vision.
Power of Influence
Power of influence is applied in various activities especially in a startup organization considering that the institutions do not have a defined procedural framework. First, leaders should need to influence the stakeholders when solving external and internal conflicts of the company. In this regard, conflicts paralyze the operations of the company substantially. It reduces the willingness of various stakeholders to work together, socialize, and settle their disputes harmoniously. As a result, the leader should have the capability to influence the victim of conflict showing the importance of reconciling and working in harmony. Leaders who cannot influence their subjects can hardly solve conflict among stakeholders because they do not pay tribute to him.
Team Building and Management
While managing an educational organization, building a team, and managing it are two important tasks that the leader must accomplish. Like other organizations, an institution has employees with different cultures, religions, and experiences. Also, they have diverse expertise that determines their roles. These factors play an important role in determining the success of a startup organization. However, they might act as dividing factors if they are not managed properly by the leaders. This implies that a leader should be capable of harnessing the diverse aspects to use them as opportunities rather than aspects of the division. It also means that the leaders have to unite the employees regardless of their cultural backgrounds, religions, and experiences (Bass & Riggio, 2006). This aspect ensures that the employees focus on the common organizational objectives rather than their difference.
Servant
Leadership theorists state that all people are leaders although there must be some people to take charge of the organizations. In this regard, all stakeholders are leaders only that the managers have been put in charge of the company. This implies that everybody is important and nobody is unnecessary in an organization. As a result, leaders should be servants rather than commanders and dictators. They should serve the customers, employees, and shareholders with humility to achieve the humanistic success which considers the welfare of all stakeholders. The aspect of serving is evident in the theory of servant leadership which is a core theory of management and leadership (Hammer, 2012).
Regarding the service, it states that leaders should exhibit six ideologies which include demonstrating authenticity, valuing and developing people, providing and sharing leadership, and building community. The aspect of authenticity ensures that the leaders exercise a practical approach while managing the organization. In this regard, leaders should accept their limitations, weaknesses, and ignorance to create a way for other people to use their strengths (Bush, 2003). This implies that leaders should not take on all roles. Instead, roles should be distributed to all the stakeholders of the organization. Also, it recommends that leaders should maintain a high standard of integrity in the organization by portraying trustworthiness, honesty, and accountability in all activities.
Organizational Responses to Future Challenges
Strength
This module has been a source of many lessons that form the basis of self-assessment. While conducting a personal evaluation, I noted that I have various attributes that could lead to successful leadership. In my leadership, I always lead by example by doing what I expect the juniors to accomplish. In this regard, I exercise participatory leadership where the leader participates actively in the activities of the team to help in analyzing the capabilities of the members to assign them with appropriate roles (Eunson, 2007). For example, I have been a leader in my academic group where we have been researching the qualities of a good leader. During the study, we interviewed various departmental heads in the university to obtain their opinions towards good leadership. During the interviews, I helped in the collection of data while my colleagues asked questions.
I assumed a minor role of recording the data rather than interacting with the heads orally. This allowed the group members to improve their interpersonal communication and oral skills. Also, the other group members could easily accomplish their roles because I set the pace for them. This was the perfect example of how leaders should lead by example. It was one of the ways that my colleagues learned about humility, dedication, and active participation. Secondly, I noted that I am a motivational leader who hardly gives up even when the situation is very tough. Regarding the study we conducted together with my colleagues, there were very many difficulties especially when making an appointment because the departmental heads are always busy. For instance, we could find the offices closed when trying to look for the lecturers in charge of the departments. However, I was always optimistic even if the situations were very difficult. I could persuade my colleagues to find an appointment despite the absence of those heads. This persistence could always bear fruits.
Leadership Development Plan
There are various practices that I will embrace to develop my leadership skills in line with my views of a good leader. In this regard, I will be aiming at developing the power of accommodating other people by appreciating, considering, and implementing their opinions. I understand that leadership is an art that can be practiced and learned by all people. Consequently, accommodativeness is a practice that can also be learned and practiced. As a result, when interacting with my colleagues, I will be slow at giving opinions about the issues that are discussed. By doing this, I will train to keep quiet, listen to other people’s opinions, and become less argumentative. This will provide a good opportunity for obtaining new knowledge about issues. Also, I will improve on my motivational skills to become proficient in inspiring my colleagues.
In this regard, I will be reading some books concerning leadership theories and principles to obtain vast knowledge on leadership. I consider these theories as crucial aspects of leadership although most people have dismissed the theoretical approach to leadership. Such people contend that a practical approach is the only basis that can develop proficient leadership skills (Eunson, 2007). However, we cannot live long to learn from our experiences only. Instead, we should read the theories that have been tested and proven through experimentation. It should be said that theories are the documentation of practical experiences. This implies that theories are developed from the practical implementation of the practices elucidated in the theoretical frameworks. As a result, leadership principles will be part of my leadership development plan. Lastly, I will work on my skills in solving conflicts between team members in line with the premise that a good leader should be capable of solving conflicts. It will be solved partly by studying theories about conflict management. Since the theories cannot work without practice, I will be trying to solve any conflicts by applying those principles.
Conclusion
Leadership is a fundamental aspect of managing an organization. Additionally, it cannot be disputed that startup organizations need intense leadership to superintend the activities of the organizations since they do not have firm procedural frameworks. Also, this discussion depicts that a good leader should have the power of influence, the capability of developing organizational vision, the willingness to accommodate other people and build effective teams.
References
Bass, B., & Riggio R. (2006). Transformational leadership. Mahwah: Erlbaum Associate Publishers.
Bush, T. (2003). Theories of educational leadership and management. London: Sage Publications.
DuBrin, A. (2004). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Eunson, B. (2007). Conflict management. Milton: Wiley Publishers.
Hammer, D. (2012). Servant leadership. Sinaloa: Pacific Creek Books.
Trompenaars, F., & Voerman E. (2009). Servant Leadership across Cultures Harnessing the Strength of the World’s Most Powerful Leadership Philosophy. Oxford: Infinite Ideas Ltd.