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Business Leadership

Introduction

Leadership is very important for any organization because it provides direction for the attainment
of the goals and objectives of the business. Leadership creates a sense of direction that guide
members to achieve organizational objectives, goals, mission and vision. Leadership approaches
can either be through consideration or initiation structure. Effective leadership will help
employees achieve high performance while increasing job satisfaction. The impact of this is to
reduce high turnover and the overall cost of operation. This paper has been prepared to analyze
central purpose in the behavioural approach, the importance of direction setting and case analysis
of consideration behaviour.

The Central Purpose of the Behavioral Approach

The behavioural approach focuses on the behaviour of the leader as the important determinant on
what they do and how they act. According to this approach, there are two kinds of general
behaviour, relationship behaviour and task behaviour (De Waal, 2013). The approach explains
how leaders use the two approaches to influence the behaviour of their followers in ensuring that
a company attains its goals. The task behaviour in this approach helps in accomplishing goals
and enable members of an organization to achieve their objectives. Relationship behaviour helps
the followers of the leader to feel comfortable with each other and themselves. It also helps them
to feel comfortable in different situations.

According to The Ohio State University Studies, leaders who are concerned with tasks engage in
behaviour referred to as initiation structure. Their approach to leadership is from the task
perspective. An alternative to initiation structure is a consideration which is a leadership
behaviour whose objective is to create mutual trust as well as respect with the leader's followers
(Hughbank and Horn, 2013). When leaders demonstrate high consideration and high initiation
structure, then the followers will achieve high performance, and they will also derive high
satisfaction in their job. It is important to ensure a trade-off when aiming to achieve high
initiation structure and high consideration (Pearce, 2007). High initiation structure can result in
high turnover, absenteeism and grievances. On the other hand, high consideration can result in
lower performance of the employees. Therefore, while high consideration and initiation structure
are important for high performance, it is important to consider situational factors.

Importance of direction setting in leadership behaviour in an era of empowerment and


shared leadership

Direction setting is very important in organizational planning. In empowerment leadership, the


ability to judge and make decisions based on the current situation is enhanced. However, the
direction setting ensures that the member of the organization has a common sense of shared
purpose that guide their behaviour. Direction helps in creating a clear vision of where the
organization wants to go and describe the future to other members of the organization in a simple
and clear language. Direction setting provides meaningful guidance with regards to how the
organization will move forward (Davies and Davies, 2004).

Direction setting ensures that all the staff are aware of what is expected of them. Direction
setting ensures that responsibilities and expectations are described for all the employees. How
their work will contribute to the vision of the organization, and the outcomes required to be
successful is also described to employees. It is important to note that employee needs to know
what is expected from them and also want to know that someone is paying attention to the efforts
they put into ensuring that the organization achieve its objectives. Direction plan will outline
how support is offered to different employees, how the organization will respond if one
employee messes and how the organization will recover from the mess. Direction ensures that
the organization provides consistent tools and messages that help address challenges faced by the
organization. With time, direction setting is increasingly becoming important (Davies and Davies
2004). The operational environment for businesses is becoming volatile, and technology is
changing rapidly while new information is being generated first. How business operates is
changing very firs6t, and therefore without direction, organizations will find it difficult to
operate. According to Zaccaro et al. (2008), the first rule of leadership is setting direction.
Shared leadership and empowerment are only effective if there is a direction that will guide
decision making.

Give an example of high consideration behaviour that a supervisor of yours showed on


your behalf. What was your reaction to his or her behaviour?
The example of consideration behaviour displayed by the supervisor was offering to mentor and
coach me. The action was very important. After all, it motivated me to work hard, coaching and
mentoring ensured that I effectively perform my work because it improved my skills. Coaching
and mentoring gave the skills to improve my performance. Through mentoring and coaching an
ideal platform was created to explore new solutions, and I was able to develop new action plans
that provide continuous support and feedback. Mentoring enables me to build my relationship
skills as I was able to recognize that my supervisor had noticed my efforts. Through mentorship,
I was able to recognize how my behaviour affects the overall objective of the organization and
therefore begun working to improve my contributions.

Additionally, my satisfaction also improved because of the communication from my supervisor


and the assistance he offered in improving my skills. I learnt the importance of communication in
any organization as a crucial tool in improving performance. Moving forward from this point, I
have always found it easy to do my tasks, where to seek assistance whenever I encounter
problems which generally has improved my performance.

Conclusion

Leadership plays a critical role in the success of the organization. Success, in this sense, refers to
the ability to attain organizational goals. Therefore, the right behaviour is important in
determining how effective and efficient employees become.
References

Davies, B.J. and Davies*, B., 2004. Strategic leadership. School leadership &

management, 24(1), pp.29-38.

De Waal, A., 2013. Strategic Performance Management: A managerial and behavioral

approach. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Hughbank, R.J. and Horn, L.C., 2013. Traits and behavior: Psychological approaches to

leadership. Collective Efficacy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on International

Leadership, 20, pp.245-260.

Pearce, C.L., 2007. The future of leadership development: The importance of identity, multi-

level approaches, self-leadership, physical fitness, shared leadership, networking,

creativity, emotions, spirituality and on-boarding processes. Human Resource

Management Review, 17(4), pp.355-359.

Zaccaro, S.J., Heinen, B. and Shuffler, M., 2008. Team leadership and team effectiveness.

In Team effectiveness in complex organizations (pp. 117-146). Routledge.

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