How to be a leader

The Role of Leadership in the Hospitality Industry

The report reveals that leadership is essential in the hospitality industry since it affects practically every aspect of the business and helps to improve output and performance. The importance of a leader in having a significant impact on an organization’s performance and survival is recognized everywhere. When it comes to creating a plan for an organization’s success and inspiring the workers to work harder toward the organization’s objectives, leaders are essential (George, 2000). By including additional people at all levels of management within any given group, they are able to achieve this (Worsfold, 1989). The essay attempts to explain, through a discussion perspective, to critically analyze the pivotal role that leadership plays in A Hospitality organization.

The Fundamental Role of Leadership in Hospitality

The vital role that leadership plays is the simple fact that it is needed in every level of management across hospitality from the senior positions to the grassroots level. It is crucial in the formulation of strategies and policies and also required for the execution of the same. Through leadership, an organization can have representatives all through its fields that ensure the smooth flow of the day to day activities. Leaders are also able to amalgamate and reunite the personal and organizational goals through coordinating the employees towards achieving a common goal (Alexakis et al., 2006). It can also be said that leadership acts as the holding force that keeps any organization on its feet and ensures smooth operation. This is maintained through the decisions and plans put together by the leaders in the driving seat to enable the business to attain great success.

The Most Successful Form of Leadership in the Current Century

From the brief introductory discussion it is crystal clear that to ensure success in any hospitality business, the role of leadership is fundamental. With this view in mind, my approach to the central question is to make an argument in favor of the statement; The Most successful form of Leadership in the current century involves creating a shared vision, inspiring and influencing people to ethically achieve personal and organizational objectives rather than controlling employees through authority.

The Transition from Authoritative to Servant Leadership

Proliferation in the hospitality sector during the 21st century has postulated the need to do away with authentic leadership and in its place embrace transparent and open types of administration (Zopiatis & Constani, 2012). The authoritative leaders are slowly but surely becoming a relic of the past. In their places, a new breed of leaders is quickly rising. The new kind of leaders are servant leaders or portray the traits, through cooperation with the subordinates to ensure the success of their organizations. The thesis statement says it all, the words themselves open avenues to numerous reasons why any individual should argue in favor of the report. It is stated that the most successful form of leadership in the current century, involves developing a shared dream, Inspiring and influencing people to achieve objectives. The reason for supporting this is because controlling employees limits the amount of potential that can be performed. Controlling employees through authority portrays a dictatorial or autocratic type of leadership (Woods, 2002). Using power to manage employees in an organization ensures that the job is done but close the windows for cordial relationship between a leader and his people and causes alienation among the employees.

The Benefits of Creating a Shared Vision

On the other hand, creating a shared vision with your employees, inspiring and influencing them to achieve will guarantee the long-term success of the organization and a cordial relationship between the leaders and the employees (Fisher 2005). Theoretically, this form of leadership can be defined as servant leadership. Servant leadership is the best form of leading as the leader promotes the interaction of ideas in the organization. This style of leadership in an organization proves to be very advantageous as it creates common grounds between the top personnel and the employees in a group to foster the development of the Business (Brotherlon, 2008).

The Importance of Personalized Management and Loyalty

The type of leadership where the leaders create a shared vision supports the diversification of ideas. The reason for stating this is because it creates room for personalized management of every member of the organization (Wood, 2015). This will, in turn, foster a common idea, through the shared vision, and strategy to enable every member of the organization to endeavor to achieve the goals set.

Another reason for supporting this type of leadership over authority is that it nurtures loyalty. Unlike using power, in this setting, the high consideration of employees input in the organization’s activities creates a feeling of respect and involvement (Davies, 1998). The perception influences the employees to grow loyal to the company’s leadership which proves favorable in the long run.

Enhancing Productivity and Personal Development

An establishment that runs under a type of leadership where the whole group is involved in the strategic development of ideas and running of the organization enhances productivity. Every employee is determined to give their best in the different sectors that they work in. Through this, the shared company and personal objectives are achieved with a lot of ease.

Inspiring and influencing people to achieve personal and ethically organization objectives provide for the personal development of the players in the team. This can be a significant boost, mostly in the hospitality sector as it involves dealing with a lot of people. Passion and enthusiasm are some common traits that the employees of this organization will possess hence achieving excellent customer satisfaction which is usually the primary target (McCole, 2004).

Embracing the Empathetic Approach to Leadership

Unlike dictatorial leadership, servant leadership provides for non-managers with high leadership qualities to be able to assume leadership positions. From this it is notable that an unauthoritative type of leadership creates level and equal chances to all the employees in the goal of fostering personal growth and development. This would not have been the case where only one leader uses his authority to control his or her subordinates.

Therefore, without any reasonable doubt, it is safe to say that an empathetic approach to leadership in any organization is the best way to go. Some might argue that it is a soft way of leadership that lacks confidence but in truth, it’s the best way for employer and employee to work together to make their organization better. The rigidity of an authoritative style needs to be broken and done away with considering the day and era in which we live. It is proven that a leadership where emphasis is put on transparency and honesty creates a favorable environment where a hospitality business can maximize its exponential growth.

References

Worsfold, P. (1989). A personality profile of the hotel manager. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 8(1), 51–62

Van, . W. L., & Davies, C. (1998). Supervision and leadership in tourism and hospitality. London: Cassell.

George, J. M. (2000). Emotions and leadership: The role of emotional intelligence. Human Relations, 53(8), 1027–1055.

Woods, R. H., King, J. Z., Woods, R. H., & American Hotel & Lodging Association. (2002). Leadership and management in the hospitality industry. Lansing: Educational Institute, American Hotel & Lodging Association.

McCole, P., 2004. Dealing with complaints in services. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 16 (6), 345–354.

Fisher, W. P., & Muller, C. C. (2005). Leadership exercises: Taking a leadership role in the hospitality industry. Pearson Prentice Hall.

Alexakis, G., Platt, A.R., Tesone, D.V., 2006. Appropriating biological paradigms for the organizational setting to support democratic constructs in the workplace. Journal of Applied Business and Economics 6 (1), 17–28

Wood, R. C., & Brotherton, B. (2008). The SAGE handbook of hospitality management. London: SAGE Publications.

Zopiatis, A., & Constani, P. (2012). Extraversion, openness and conscientiousness: The route to transformational leadership in the hotel industry. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 33(1), 86–104.

Wood, R. C. (2015). Hospitality Management: A brief introduction. London: Sage.