VISIONARY AND EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP LEADS TO HIGH PERFORMANCE

TEAM WITHIN AN ORGANISATION

 Table of Contents

Introduction...............................................................................................................................................1
Definition.....................................................................................................................................1
Leadership styles and approaches................................................................................................1
Core competencies of visionary leaders.......................................................................................2

Leadership in organizations.....................................................................................................................4
Behavioral Components of Visionary Leadership.......................................................................4
Driving performance standards in organizations using visionary leadership..............................4
Patterns of leadership effectiveness in organizations...................................................................5

Effective leadership and performance....................................................................................................7

Planning work and setting expectations.......................................................................................7
Monitoring performance..............................................................................................................9
Reviewing results against objectives.........................................................................................10

Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................10

References...............................................................................................................................................12

ii
Introduction

Definition

Leadership is the process or ability to influencing other people to achieve predetermined goals. It
is the combination of personal attributes and abilities such as vision, energy goals and even
knowledge in order to create a shared future and improved performance in the organizations.
More recent definitions of leadership include a process of influencing people to get things done
to a standard and quality above their norm. Thus leadership is viewed as a complex activity
involving a process of influence; actors who are both leaders and followers; and a range of
possible outcomes (Zhu et al., 2005).

Leadership styles and approaches

Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and
motivating people. Kurt Lewin (1939) led a group of researchers to identify different styles of
leadership. This early study has been very influential and established three major leadership
styles. The three major styles of leadership are;

Authoritarian or autocratic
Participative or democratic

Delegative or Free Reign

Although good leaders use all three styles, with one of them normally dominant, bad leaders tend
to stick with one style.

Authoritarian or autocratic

This style is used when leaders tell their employees what they want done and how they want it
accomplished, without getting the advice of their followers. Some of the appropriate conditions
to use it is when you have all the information to solve the problem, you are short on time, and
your employees are well motivated (Yukl, 2002).

1
Some people tend to think of this style as a vehicle for yelling, using demeaning language, and
leading by threats and abusing their power. This is not the authoritarian style, rather it is an
abusive, unprofessional style called bossing people around. It has no place in a leader's
repertoire. The authoritarian style should normally only be used on rare occasions. If you have
the time and want to gain more commitment and motivation from your employees, then you
should use the participative style (Rowe, 2001).

Participative or democratic

This style involves the leader including one or more employees in the decision making process
(determining what to do and how to do it). However, the leader maintains the final decision
making authority. Using this style is not a sign of weakness; rather it is a sign of strength that
your employees will respect (Rowe, 2001).

This is normally used when you have part of the information, and your employees have other
parts. Note that a leader is not expected to know everything this is why you employ
knowledgeable and skillful employees. Using this style is of mutual benefit it allows them to
become part of the team and allows you to make better decisions.

Delegative (free reign)

In this style, the leader allows the employees to make the decisions. However, the leader is still
responsible for the decisions that are made. This is used when employees are able to analyze the
situation and determine what needs to be done and how to do it. You cannot do everything! You
must set priorities and delegate certain tasks (Rowe, 2001). This is not a style to use so that you
can blame others when things go wrong, rather this is a style to be used when you fully trust and
confidence in the people below you.

Core competencies of visionary leaders

Rational focus on the facts

The rational leaders is a leader with the left-brain, logical thinking side of leadership. Leaders
who are highly skilled in this style clearly define their and their team members roles. They excel

2
at setting short-term objectives and generating detailed plans with milestones. Performance
expectations are plainly spelled out. Because they actively seek feedback, effective rational
leaders understand their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of
those around them. They also stay in touch with their team members, peers, their boss and their
customers (Avolio, 1999)

Visionary imagine the future

The visionary leaders are leaders withe creative, dreamer aspect of leadership. Those highly
skilled in this style create flexible approaches to solve problems, make decisions and achieve
strategic goals. They bring new products, services or processes to fruition primarily because they
are effective in launching cross-functional experiments. Visionary leaders also inspire others to
question the status quo by embracing change, creativity, and open-mindedness. They enjoy
reflecting on global issues, thinking about long-term consequences and pondering future
possibilities (Tarabishy et al., 2005)

Empowering take care

The empowering leaders are leaders with the servant side of leadership. Those highly skilled in
this style enable others to do their best every day by delegating well, as well as coaching and
involving team members in decisions. They are masters at orchestrating diverse individuals into
high-performing, energized teams that work well across the enterprise. Empowering leaders
build trust and empathy by patiently listening to other perspectives and beliefs without
prejudgment. They also demonstrate fairness, honesty, integrity, and humility in all their
interactions.

Commanding take charge

The commanding leader are leaders with the strong, forceful side of leadership. Those highly
skilled in this style work extremely hard to fulfill commitments and execute strategies. They
push to accomplish tasks, projects and goals on time. They are not afraid to solicit opposing
views when making important decisions. They are also comfortable with ambiguity; they don't
need all the data in order to move forward. Commanding leaders control their emotions and
3
moods under pressure. In addition, they refuse to allow themselves or their team to be the victim
during adversity. They take personal responsibility for their choices and consequences (Rowe,
2005).

Leadership in organizations

Behavioral Components of Visionary Leadership

Visionary leadership theory rose to prominence in 1980-90s, and can be traced back to the
political sociology writings of Max Weber and James MacGregor Burns. Visionary leadership
models have a dual focus on who a leader is as well as what a leader does, merging both the trait
and behavioral theories of leadership. Visionary leadership by contrast involves rallying people
behind a dream or vision of something that as yet has been out of reach.

Behavioral elements of visionary leadership common across various models include: Being able
to communicate a clear vision of the future along with the gap between that vision and current
realities, in compelling and contextually relevant ways. Helping people to find purpose and
meaning in their life through pursuit of this vision. Communicating clear and high standards
regarding what you expect from those around them. Empowering staff with the authority to
create innovative ways of realizing the vision, whilst helping staff align their ideas with the
broader organisational solutions (McGrath and MacMillan, 2000). Engaging others in strategic
and creative thinking around the realization of the vision. Using a caring and coaching style of
leadership in one-on-one settings, empathizing with the situation of staff whilst drawing forth
creative solutions from the staff themselves. Recognizing staff achievements and desired
behaviors in personally meaningful ways.

Driving performance standards in organizations using visionary leadership

As employees are given the liberty to suggest their views and opinions for deciding on some
specific aspects, it can render motivation to the employees, with the employees thinking that the
management is seriously considering their suggestions as well. And this certainly has a very
positive impact on teamwork and employee performance. In addition, it also contributes to a
good, productive work environment (McShane and Von Glinow, 2000).

4
In other leadership styles, the decision entirely depends on the leader and the management. So,
the chances of the decision being inappropriate and limited in success are more. Whereas,
according to the participative leadership principle, there are many minds which are used in the
decision-making process, and hence the decision is certainly well-thought upon from all angles,
ruling out the possibilities of the decision not being suitable for that situation.

There is a difference in ways leaders approach their employee. Positive leaders use rewards, such
as education, independence, etc. to motivate employees. While negative employers emphasize
penalties. While the negative approach has a place in a leader's repertoire of tools, it must be
used carefully due to its high cost on the human spirit (McShane and Von Glinow, 2000).

Negative leaders act domineering and superior with people. They believe the only way to get
things done is through penalties, such as loss of job, days off without pay, reprimanding
employees in front of others, etc. They believe their authority is increased by frightening
everyone into higher levels of productivity. Yet what always happens when this approach is used
wrongly is that morale falls; which of course leads to lower productivity.

Also note that most leaders do not strictly use one or another, but are somewhere on a continuum
ranging from extremely positive to extremely negative (Moore, 2006). People who continuously
work out of the negative are bosses while those who primarily work out of the positive are
considered real leaders.

Patterns of leadership effectiveness in organizations

African organizations are no different from others worldwide in terms of striving for
performance in order to be globally competitive. The performance of many individuals that
culminates in the performance of the organization, or in the achievement of organisational goals.
Effective leadership is instrumental in ensuring organisational performance (Avery, 2004). As a
result, many leadership theories have been proposed in the last fifty years which are claimed to
have influenced the overall effectiveness of the organizations where they have been employed. In
the competitive world business environment it is vital that organisations employ leadership styles
that enable organizations to survive in a dynamic environment Performance has been defined by
Hellriegel, Jackson and Slocum (1999) as the level of an individuals work achievement after

5
having exerted effort. Performance is ultimately an individual phenomenon with environmental
variables influencing performance primarily through their effect on the individual determinants
of performance ability and motivation. the link between high performance and leadership in the
United States by developing a model of charismatic/transformational leadership where the
leaders behaviour is said to give rise to inspiration, awe and empowerment in his subordinates,
resulting in exceptionally high effort, exceptionally high commitment and willingness to take
risks. It has been widely accepted that effective organizations require effective leadership, and
organisational performance will suffer in direct proportion to the neglect of this (Avery, 2004).

Using a simple but impactful leadership framework, Barry challenges individuals to think about
their roles as leaders in performing five critical functions:

Setting the Direction: great leaders develop absolute clarity of why their teams or organizations
exist, where they want to get to and how they are going to get there. They understand completely
what their stakeholders need and how they will deliver it. They communicate the direction of
travel with passion and clarity.

Aligning the Organization: great leaders ensure that the organisational alignment referred to
above actually happens. They focus on recruiting the right people, and building the structures,
systems and processes that will enable them to deliver

Engaging their People: great leaders truly unlock the potential of their people. They build high
performance cultures which enable people to give their best and build engagement by providing
worthwhile work where every person is encouraged to contribute.

Executing: great leaders understand that execution is everything. Teams and organizations can
have the best strategies in the world, but unless they can effectively execute they are worthless.
The ability to execute superbly is the breakthrough piece to delivering amazing results.

Being a Role Model: great leaders not only do all of the above, they are also role models in their
behaviors and actions. Through who they are they build trust throughout teams and
organizations, trust which enables teams and organizations to perform superbly.

6
Effective leadership and performance

Several reasons indicate that there should be a relationship between leadership and performance.
The first reason relates to practice. Todays intensive, dynamic markets feature innovation-based
competition, price/performance rivalry, decreasing returns, and the creative destruction of
existing competencies. Scholars and practitioners suggest that effective leadership behaviors can
facilitate the improvement of performance when organizations face these new challenges
(McGrath and MacMillan, 2000).

Understanding the effects of leadership on performance is also important because leadership is

viewed by some researchers (Zhu et al., 2005) as one of the key driving forces for improving a
firms performance. Effective leadership is seen as a potent source of management development
and sustained competitive advantage for organizational performance improvement (Avolio,
1999; Rowe, 2001). For example, transactional leadership helps organizations achieve their
current objectives more efficiently by linking job performance to valued rewards and by ensuring
employees have the resources needed to get the job done (Zhu et al., 2005). Visionary leaders
create a strategic vision of some future state, communicate that vision through framing and use
of metaphor, model the vision by acting consistently, and build commitment towards the vision
(Avolio, 1999; McShane and Von Glinow, 2000). Some scholars suggest that visionary
leadership will result in high levels of cohesion, commitment, trust, motivation, and hence
performance in the new organizational environments.

Planning work and setting expectations

According to Mehra et al. (2006), when some organizations seek efficient ways to enable them to
outperform others, a longstanding approach is to focus on the effects of leadership. This is
because team leaders are believed to play a pivotal role in shaping collective norms, helping
teams cope with their environments, and coordinating collective action. This leader-centred
perspective has provided valuable insights into the relationship between leadership and team
performance. Some researchers (Purcell et al., 2004; Yukl, 2002) have started to explore the
strategic role of leadership, and investigate how to employ leadership paradigms and use
leadership behavior to improve organizational performance. The reason for this is because
intangible assets such as leadership styles, culture, skill and competence, and motivation are seen

7
increasingly as key sources of strength in those firms that can combine people and processes and
organizational performance (Purcell et al., 2004).

Many managers assume their employees understand what needs to be done. While they may
inform their employees about the task at hand, they frequently fail when it comes to
communicating their expectations. Telling employees to "take care of it" can be an invitation to
wasted time through trial and error.

One of the main reasons people leave their jobs is because they feel their boss didn't tell them
what they expected. Without guidance, employees frequently feel as if they are thrown out to sea
without a life preserver. They become frustrated and stressed out. However, when employees are
provided with guidance and informed of expectations, they are able to perform their duties in a
timely and productive fashion. The following tips can help you identify and clarify performance
expectations and avoid losing valuable team members.

Regularly schedule meetings

One-on-one meetings are a vital part of planning work and setting expectations. Managers who
fail to meet with their staff individually will inevitably end up with problems. Employees who do
not receive proper training and instruction are forced to frequently interrupt the leader with
endless questions, or worse, work on projects without direction. A brief one-on-one meeting
gives the employee access to his or her manager to review work in progress and solve problems
before they escalate into a major crisis.

Discuss organizational goals.

Talk with employees about department and organizational goals. Discuss how their work can
positively impact the achievement of those goals. Use that perspective to develop any
performance expectations that directly link their work to those goals.

Be specific and descriptive.

The expectations you have for each team member should be specific, descriptive, and clear. If
they are vague, they are open to interpretation, which can lead to decreased or unacceptable

8
performance. Make them specific, put them in writing and discuss them openly so that everyone
is on the same page.

Monitoring performance

In an effective organization, assignments and projects are monitored continually. Monitoring

well means consistently measuring performance and providing ongoing feedback to employees
and work groups on their progress toward reaching their goals.

Regulatory requirements for monitoring performance include conducting progress reviews with
employees where their performance is compared against their elements and standards. Ongoing
monitoring provides the opportunity to check how well employees are meeting predetermined
standards and to make changes to unrealistic or problematic standards. And by monitoring
continually, unacceptable performance can be identified at any time during the appraisal period
and assistance provided to address such performance rather than wait until the end of the period
when summary rating levels are assigned.

Management experts have spent a great deal of time and effort providing guidance to supervisors
concerning the best methods for setting and communicating expectations. However,
comparatively little has been developed for supervisors dealing with appropriate and effective
ways to monitor efforts toward achievement of those objectives. The more recent studies
involving monitoring have focused more on monitoring workers in general and mainly through
electronic surveillance. Monitoring practices deserve attention because they are not only the
central means of ensuring quality work but they affect worker motivation as well.

Unfortunately, monitoring is often taken for granted and unfounded assumptions are frequently
made. Company officials usually assume all supervisors perform this function, that sound
monitoring practices are being used, that it doesn't really matter how surveillance is conducted
and good performers require little or no supervision. In fact, some experts even contend
extensive observations subordinates should be sacrificed for other managerial activities.

Supervisory observation has four key objectives: (1) to ensure the task is performed as required,
(2) to provide supervision with accurate data for organizational performance appraisals, (3) to

9
motivate employees to work at peak performance even when the supervisor is not present and (4)
to motivate workers to display citizenship behaviors. The process of overseeing work not only
increases the likelihood the task will be performed as expected but it also provides the
opportunity for supervision to offer feedback to subordinates on the quality of the work effort.
This would include constructive advice on ways to remedy any weaknesses that were detected in
the work product itself or the manner in which the work product was produced. Moreover,
supervisors can often clarify and modify instructions and even rectify any misunderstandings
before productivity and quality is significantly affected.

Reviewing results against objectives

After setting objectives and developing action plans, it is necessary to establish a proper
monitoring system with a view to regularly keeping the activities and efforts on a prescribed path
leading to the ultimate objectives. The progress is monitored without day-to-day interference in
subordinates functioning. At agreed intervals, results are measured in terms of quantity, quality,
time and cost against the set objectives. It is ensured that the deviations found, if any are
thoroughly discussed and immediate corrective actions are taken to set them right on the course.
Such a regular monitoring and periodic review not only provide feedback, which is essential for
completion of work in time, but also motivates the managers accountable for performance.
Periodic review and monitoring are done at departmental levels generally.

Conclusion
A leader is a person who influences a group of people towards a specific result. It is not
dependent on title or formal authority. Leaders are recognized by their capacity for caring for
others, clear communication, and a commitment to persist. An individual who is appointed to a
managerial position has the right to command and enforce obedience by virtue of the authority of
his position. However, she or he must possess adequate personal attributes to match his authority,
because authority is only potentially available to him. In the absence of sufficient personal
competence, a manager may be confronted by an emergent leader who can challenge her/his role
in the organization and reduce it to that of a figurehead. However, only authority of position has
the backing of formal sanctions.

10
References

Zhu, W., Chew, I.K.H. and Spangler, W.D. (2005) CEO transformational leadership &
organizational outcomes: The mediating role of human-capital-enhancing human resource
management. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(1): 39-52.

Yukl, G. (2002) Leadership in organizations. 5 rd edn. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Rowe, W.G. (2001) Creating wealth in organizations: The role of strategic leadership. Academy
of Management Executive, 15: 81-94.

Avolio, B.J. (1999) Full Leadership Development: Building the Vital Forces in Organizations.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Tarabishy, A., Solomon, G., Fernald Jr., L.W. and Sashkin, M. (2005) The Entrepreneurial
leaders impact on the organizations performance in dynamic markets. Journal of Private
Equity, 8(4): 20-29.

Rowe, W.G., Cannella Jr., A.A., Rankin, D. and Gorman, D. (2005) Leader succession &
organizational performance: Integrating the common-sense, ritual scapegoating & vicious-circle
succession theories. The leadership Quarterly, 16(2):197-219.

McGrath, G.R and MacMillan, I.C. (2000) Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously
Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty. Harvard Business School Press Books.

McShane, S.L. and Von Glinow, M.A. (2000) Organizational Behavior. Burr Ridge, IL:
Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

Purcell, J., Kinnie, N., Hutchinson, S., Rayton, B. and Swart, J. (2004) Understanding the People
& Performance Link: Unlocking the Black Box. Research Report, Chartered Institute of
Personnel and Development.
Avery, G.C. (2004) Understanding Leadership: Paradigms and Cases. London: Sage.

11
Avolio, B.J. (1999) Full Leadership Development: Building the Vital Forces in Organizations.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

12