Reflection : Week 1

Name : Aidil-Nur Bin Zainal

Assessor : Prof. Madya Dr. Yusof Boon

Date : 12 Februari 2014

Topic : Introduction

Leadership - Introduction

There are many ways of looking at leadership and interpretations about what it means. Leadership means different things to different people.  It is often taken to represent:

• Getting others to follow• The use of authority in decision-making• A personal characteristic• An ability to achieve effective performance in othersA general interpretation of leadership (source: Mullins) would be:

A relationship through which one person influences the behavior or actions of other people

The above definition is important, because it shows that any consideration of what makes for effective leadership cannot be done in isolation from concepts such as teamwork, organizational structure and motivation.

The traditional view sees leadership as about:

• Command & Control• Decision-makingHowever, a more modern view has leadership having a wider role, including

• Inspiration• Creating a vision• Building effective teamsLeadership has become particularly important in modern business as a result of:

Changing organizational

Flatter structures require greater delegation Greater use of teamwork + focus on quality assurance

structures Coaching, support & empowerment

Rapid environmental change

Change as a constant feature of business life Soft skills of leadership & management increasingly important

In these notes we are mainly concerned with leadership from the top of a business organization.  However, it is important to remember that leadership can be exercised by people at different levels of the organizational hierarchy.

What do leaders do?

The key tasks of top leadership in a business include:

• Being clear about what change is required• Turning ideas into action points and motivate others to act on them• Winning commitment based on honest, realistic, two-way discussion• Creating a climate of learning, so people know it is safe to make

mistakes• Keeping going – persistence is vital• Learning from experiences and mistakesA key leadership role in any business is that of the MD (Managing Director) or CEO (Chief Executive Officer).  In addition to the above, the leadership tasks of the MD/CEO include:

• Creating the vision, based on an understanding of SWOT• Forming the team and a structure that will help achieve business goals• Deciding key business and personnel policies• Managing rewards and disciplineStrategic leadership

• Strategic leaders are the people who influence or control the corporate strategy of a business

• Often personally identified with the strategy• Occurs both in small firms (e.g. the founder) and large corporates