Numerous times throughout my life, I've either experienced, seen, or heard stories about strict and poor leadership and management in the workplace. Especially when many of my friends started working in part-time positions during high school, I often wondered why such style of leadership is considered good for their employees. The stories had many similarities and outcomes: the leader progressively pushes or disregard employee's breaks to focus on customer demand. The leader demands their employees to come to work despite pre-planning their day(s) off. The list goes on. All of these examples often lead to stress, poor motivation, and lack of work satisfaction.
As someone who also had a few similar experiences in the past, I knew that this wasn't the right way to do business. My overall thoughts on leadership remains constant, and it wasn't much of a surprise to see the test results on the tenth chapter of Obolensky's textbook. Of the four strategies, I mostly aligned with Obolensky's strategy 2. Strategy 2, as Obolensky states is where both the focus on goal and people are high. While I understand the reasons behind some of the stories I've heard, it is important to keep in mind that people also makes up the organization. Since teamwork is necessary to run an organization, it is important for leaders to keep a balance between task and relationships (Whetten and Cameron, 2016).
Personally, I believe that the most common mistake organizations make is focusing too much on company tasks. This whole idea of leadership reminds me of an interesting TED talk by Itay Talgam. Talgam's Lead like the great conductors provided some great examples by showing orchestra performances from various conductors. At one point, Talgam shared a clip of Riccardo Muti’s performance, which he used as a metaphor of an over-commanding, task-focused leader. He adds on saying that being too directive and task-driven tends to create social issues, in addition to blocking opportunities for personal development (Talgam, 2009). In another example, Talgam shows a conductor hardly moving his conductor's baton. He uses this example to explain how giving too much authority to followers can also spark conflict. For this case, followers may be at the risk getting "lost" or not putting enough work effort.
Unlike the past, organizations are becoming more complex to the point that it's too much for one or several leaders to handle. As Obolensky states, leaders are starting to depend on the help of others to convert complexity into simplicity (2014). In addition, Whetten and Cameron states that leaders should not only concentrate on getting the job done: as people's physical and mental state has an effect on the organization's outcomes (2016). To avoid stress, lack of motivation, etc. that can potentially hurt the organization, it is important for leaders to constantly place themselves in "other's shoes" and communicate with employees to make effective decision-making.
References:
Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty (2nd ed.). UK: Gower Publishing.
Talgam, I. (2009). Itay Talgam: Lead like the great conductors [Video File]. TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/itay_talgam_lead_like_the_great_conductors
Whetten, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills, 9th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.
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