Leadership & Organizational Effectiveness

Effective leaders influence their organization’s effectiveness by motivating and inspiring the workforce. Committed and loyal employees expect their leaders provide a clear vision of the company’s strategic direction. They also want to see consistency in decisions made in response to problems or issues. Clear, concise communication from leaders on a regular basis ensures that all employees know what to do. With this type of structure, leaders enable organizational effectiveness, productivity and profitability.

Motivation

Using a charismatic leadership style, an effective leader motivates his workforce to accomplish job tasks by giving inspirational speeches that describe the company vision in vivid detail. This motivates the employees to work hard to achieve the goals. When the leader shows a personal commitment to hard work and innovative approaches to problem solving, employees typically value these things too. Leaders provide incentives to employees, such as bonuses and other financial rewards, to increase production.

Team Building

Successful leaders recognize that to function well, team members need to collaborate effectively. They conduct team-building exercises and ensure that each member feels their contribution to the team is valued. When teams are dispersed instead of working in the same location, leaders need to take extra steps to ensure that the virtual team communicates clearly. For example, using all the features of web-based conferencing software and webcams, such as surveys and polls, the leader can conduct virtual meetings that enhance interaction. This leads to organizational effectiveness.

Change

Changes in technology, executive leadership and market conditions can affect employee productivity. An effective leader minimizes distractions for his employees and helps them manage transitions to new working conditions. For example, when an organization installs a new software package to handle accounting transactions, the leader ensures that all employees who will use the system get the training they need in advance of the implementation. That way, when the system goes live, everyone is ready. Additionally, effective leaders ask for feedback from subordinates on organizational issues. When employees feel like they are part of the decision-making process, they tend to adapt to changes more quickly.

Mentoring

An effective leader mentors subordinates to help them develop their own leadership skills. He provides workshops in presentation skills, negotiation, business acumen, project management and other leadership competencies so that when the time comes, these subordinates can take over for departing leaders. Leaders contribute to long-term organizational effectiveness through succession planning, helping employees maintain a healthy work and life balance and exemplifying high standards of ethical behavior.