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21 Century Leadership

Module Name: Critical issues in Business

Module Code: STRM 042

Student Name: Akorhe Anderson Ochuko

Student Number: 204586

Word Count: 2696

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21 century leadership

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction……………………………………………………… 3
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2.0 21 Century in Perspective……………………………………….. 3
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3.0 Key Competencies of a 21 Century Leader……………………….
5 4.0 Conclusion………………………………………………………….
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Reference………………………………………………………….. 10

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21 century leadership

1.0 Introduction
The competitiveness of businesses in the current times depends on the kind of personality, skill
sets and innovative thinking that they bring to the table. A comprehensive definition of
leadership is given by Sorenson & Epps “a forceful and dynamic person leading from the front,
who devises and implements the strategy, able to manage conflicts, motivate the team and more
impkrtanlty through persuinon, obligation or example succeds in getter others to follow”
(Kolzow, 2014). Thus leader have to show a higher level of skill set and mental abilities in
addition to technical, managerial and decision making skills to achieve the collective goals The
21st century has shifted the focus of bsuniesses to globalization the use of technology, making
the business environment more dynamic and competitive. Creating and maintaining
competitive advantage is becoming fmore and more difficult locally as well as globally, thus
leaders need to be technically sound but also avid thinkers. Leadership is much more than
being authoritative and dictating the team, rather focused on forming, motivating and taking
the team forward towards the collectuibev goal Rose (2008).

Leadership Styles:
The ;eadershuip stykes has been categorized as :
Autocratic
Individuals is responsib;e for the decipcion with littile or no input from employees. The senior
management make the decisions, team leaders dictate and team members follow (Chukwusa,
2018). (Bilal, Maqsood and Baig 2013)
Bureaucratic/Participative
This leadership style is focused on hierarchy coupled with strict rukes and regulations that
increased organizational efficiency (Abun, Calamaan, Magallanes, Encarnacion, & Sallong,
2021).
Democratic/Transactional
A leadership style that promotes equal equal participation and inclusiveness in decision making,
thus influencing and ensuring impits from the team as a whole (Gastil, August 1994) .
Laissez-Faire
This style of leadership gives the employees freedon to make the decisions but to be successful
the team/subordinates need to experts and reflects a certain level of trust on the employees (Lee,
2020).
Transformative

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Leadership styles that inspires & motivates the team to participate and contribute towards
success. They are energetic, passionate and have a dynamic persona (Ugochukwu, 2021).

Leadership Theories:

The leadership theories identrify and explain how certain people become leaders and the athe
bevahiris and traits that needs to be adapted to transform into leadershio roles. Thee theories
are:

I. Great Man Theory:

Leaders are born with the right combination of traits, skills, intellect and persona to be a
leader (CFI, 2022) .

II. Trait Theory

The trait theory identifies the different charactrristic associated with emergence and effective
of leaders to determine segregate the successful leaders from the unsuccessful ones (Juneja,
2022) .

III. Contingency Theory

The contingency theory suggests that certain variables in a particlaur situation determine the
success of leadership style best suited (Cherry, 2021) .

IV. Situational Theory

This theory suggests that no leadership style is effective in all situations and that managers
have to be adaptive to change their styles based on the situation (Baunsgaard, 2020).

V. Behavioral Theory

This theory is based on the assumpotuon that the beaviraolws and traits of the leaders can be
copied, this suggesting that leasers can be made and not every leader is a born leader (WGU,
2020) .
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2.1 21 Century Leadership in Perspective
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2.2 Conceptual Underpin of 21 Century Leadership

For most part of the 19th and 20 century, the common leadership style had been autocratic or
beaucratic, but the trends have changed over the years and mangers nowadays have become
adaptive and participative in their approach to decision making and leadership styles (Hitt,
Haynes, & Serpa, 2010) .

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2.3 Causes of Changes in Leadership Competencies

2.3.1 Globalization
The globalization of businesses either through increased trade between conrtie, partnerships
between MNCs and regional companies (Daraz and Alibaba in Pakistan) have expansded the
businesses beyond borders. This has increased the comppttition not only ast the pocal markets
but also internationally to gain and retain customers through sustained competitive advantategs
(Simpkins, 2009) .
2.3.2 Advances in technology
The globalization has also increased the reliance on technology and is the major driving force
behind the use and advancement of technology to gain comoetitive advantage(Porter, 1985).
Todays leaders need to be aware if these technological advancement to diverse and automate
their business operations which leads to cost reduction and increased effcicineny.

2.3.3 Increased competition

Globaizaton and technological advancement has further intensified the competition between
firms and to remain relevant among competitors, lwasders have to be adaptive to different styles
and competicnies of leadershipnas required (Fosuaa & Junior, 2021) .

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3.1 Key Competencies of a 21 Century Leader
3.2 Proactive people management skills
The current times demands the leaders to be pro-active not only pertaining decision making but
also in-terms of team management, communicating, rearading, motivating and taking the team
forwardas a whole by ensuring everybody provides inouts towards achievibg collective goals.
This strategy induces a sense of belonging and inpoirtance in the team i.e. making them the most
important factor of the success (Fosuaa & Junior, 2021) .

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3.3 Ability to blend different leadership styles to achieve goal congruence, organizational
effectiveness and improved organization performance
A single leadership style in the current times is not successful in th current time. Leaders
nowadays have to use a blending aapproach, where they should be transactional, transformational
but also authorative and bureaucratic i.e. the leader should engage all the team members but
should be giving directions to the subordinations due to his position (Yeramyan, 2014) .

3.4 Ability to conceptualize, develop and execute business models that will create
sustainable competitive advantage for the firm
Analysing the business models and taking sttragically informed decisosn is a mandatory
requirement which means that the leader should be consucting SWOT and PESTEL analysis to
keep ahead of their competorits even if operating in a local market. Thus not only will they be
able to maintain their competitive advantage, they will also be aware of the new entrants and
prpepare their strategies accordingly (Davis, 2017) .

3.5 Ability to manage change and crisis using crisis management and emotional intelligence
competencies
Change management aand crisis management is a key skill of leaders of today. Change is not
easily acceptable and and crisis of a minute nature can cause a severe blow to the business.
Although it is not possible to develop a consensus on necessity of the change, the leaders should
be able to communicate the vision behind the change to all the workforce. A post change
evaluation of the change can ensure accountability as well as impact of the change (Junnaid,
Miralam, & Jeet, 2020) .

During my 12 years of professional career, I have worked at the key managerial positions with
reputed national and international firms. The key to my success during my long career has been
the ability to adapt to different styles of keadership based on situation. I have been a transactional,
transformational and some what beaucratic leader since I was open to inputs from my team
members, kept them motivated through rewards & incentives based on performance; yet I was
also bureaucratic where there was a need to use my authroty to get work done. I have led from the
front by taking difficult and challenging field visits, taking the initiative of real time data
collection of customers through use of mobile-phones and tablets, introduced Alternate
distribution channels to improve the fee collection mechanism. I support the situation and
behavioral theory of leadership which I think are very valid for the challenging leadrership roles
of 21st Century. Leaders truly need to be adaptive and they need to follow the those who have
been successful in different situation. The Born leader concept might hold true in exceptional
cases but based on my professional experiances, one can definitely evolve as leader if he wants to
be, but for that it is important that he/she hasa can do attitude, is proactive and driven my results,
the team will automatically become collaborative, efficient and effective.
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(Mosley & Patrick, 2011).

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