Leader Motivation
An engaged, motivated, and responsive workforce is more productive than unmotivated employees. When personnel is inspired, they are likely to work harder to attain company goals. The motivational style depends on the work environment and what a leader needs to achieve. The management uses different strategies to motivate the workers, including encouraging autonomy and awards. Every employee wants to know when they have achieved their expectations (Male & Palaiologou, 2019). Workers want recognition for the efforts they have put into ensuring the organization’s goals and objectives are achieved. The positive assessment by the leaders spurs the activities and productivity in the organization as workers feel recognized (Seidel et al., 2019). Elon Musk and Warren Buffet only identify the best efforts. Honest praise is a valuable motivation strategy used by a front-runner. When an employee receives positive feedback, they would want to continue doing activities to increase their success.
Another motivational strategy used by Elon Musk and Warren Buffet is encouraging autonomy. Most staff members are more inspired when they feel they control most of the activities in their work environment. The style used ensures that the supervision rate is reduced to allow the employees to perform most of their activities and solve problems they encounter in their performance area (Male & Palaiologou, 2019). Employees enjoy their jobs more when they have the freedom to think and become innovative. Autonomy is a significant source of motivation, as the staff feels trusted by the leader (Male & Palaiologou, 2019). In such cases, personnel will be working and finding the easiest and innovative ways to achieve organizational goals.
Contingency Leadership
Contingency leadership considers the elements that a leader’s effectiveness is contingent on whether the management style they use fits a given situation. The theory proposes that an individual can be effective in one condition and ineffective in another. The theory applies to Elon Musk and Warren Buffet most of the time. The leaders adjust to the different project and managerial challenges in the workplace. Some of the factors that affect leadership effectiveness include the project’s scope, the team’s size, and the expected results. The leaders always tend to regulate their operations depending on the type of venture they need to complete.
In some cases, leaders would change the leadership style when they feel that the initial method is not effective. Most leaders acknowledge the elements that their success lies in situations and the personal skills they need to deal with the case (Seidel et. Al, 2019). When leading the teams, the front-runners always want to either adapt to the current leadership style or delegate some of their roles to co-workers. The allocation of responsibilities is to ensure there is adjusting to the situations. Contingency leadership looks at several factors, including standard of behavior and morale of employees, goals and objectives, company policies, and the management styles (Male & Palaiologou, 2019). Elon Musk and Warren Buffet fit into the leadership model as they aim to achieve their set goals under different situations. Using their strategies, they have to adapt to the different circumstances and ensure that solutions are reached despite the challenging tasks. Every workplace has different encounters, and success in these environments needs the right strategies and ability to adapt to changes and put in the best efforts when needed.
Influencing Styles
In leadership, having power and influencing followers are different elements. Power in leadership needs to be used to create a commitment of workers. The personnel will only become dedicated when they have been influenced and see the importance of changing towards a course. Leaders use legitimate power to impact the activities of the follower. The control that comes from the position or role that a leader plays in an organization ensures that the followers work as per the leader’s guidelines. Reward power is another strategy used by leading persons to influence workers (Seidel et. al, 2019). Some leaders grant rewards to the best performance, encouraging employees to work in a given direction and achieve goals and objectives. Some of the recompenses used to influence workers’ activities include increasing their wages when they show the right behavior or giving them an attractive job assignment.
Coercive power used by Elon Musk and Warren Buffet involves eradicating some practices or punishing workers for influencing their behavior. When workforces do not comply with the set rules and regulations, a leader can punish them for noncompliance. Expert power is obtained from the skills and knowledge that a front-runner may use to impact employees’ activities (Uslu, 2019). When a manager has the right information and talents, they will determine some areas that need improvement in the organization and put in place the right strategies to influence workers. Information power is another element that can be used by a leader to affect the activities of employees. The influence is obtained by learning workers’ behavior and determining factors that can be used to change the course of their thinking or acting.
References
Male, T., & Palaiologou, I. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice. In Sustaining the Comprehensive Ideal (pp. 53-70). Palgrave Pivot, Cham.
Seidel, A., Saurin, T., Tortorella, G., & Marodin, G. (2019). How can general leadership theories help to expand the knowledge of lean leadership? Production Planning & Control, 30(16), 1322-1336. Web.
Uslu, O. (2019). General overview to leadership theories from a critical perspective. Marketing and Management of Innovations, 1,161-172. Web.