The Role of Leadership Skills on Company Outcomes

Coaching and mentorship skills play a significant role when it comes to the manner in which individuals lead established organizations. In the past, the primary focus of leadership skills drew attention on high-level positions. However, it has become evident that leadership is inclusive and the outcome of an enterprise acts as an indicator of the mediation carried out by the top-ranking employees. For this reason, in this paper, I will discuss leadership, strategy and innovation, and coaching and mentoring their impact on company outcomes. Moreover, I will outline the changes that I have adopted in practice given the knowledge I gained from my Master’s programme. Positively mentoring leaders and employees yields improved innovativeness within the organization and this is attributable to strategic decision-making.

Leadership Skills

During my Masters programme I got in-depth information regarding leadership skills and in particular that related to communication skills, team motivation, and delegation of work. Regarding communication skills, I realized it was important for leaders to effectively coordinate all organizational elements such as investors, employees, customers, and managers. Besides, every level of the organization requires a unique communication style. For this reason, leaders will be in a position to adapt with the place of work given that they understand the group they are dealing with at a given time (Shockley-Zalabak, 2015). On the other hand, delegation of work attracted my attention as it is vital for leaders to know the right time and the right people to whom they should delegate roles to in the work environment. Therefore, the individuals at the helm of the company will manage to leverage the position of the organization and increase their productivity. Employees who carry out the delegation process without any hitches are better placed to occupy managerial positions. Subsequently, they will rise up the leadership hierarchy and therefore having higher responsibilities. Lastly, team motivation encompasses both effective communication and delegation of roles. However, the leader ought to articulate the mission of the organization while motivating other employees. The end result will be empowering the workers to deliver the best outcomes using the available tools in a timely manner. Concerning empowerment, it is significant as it reinforces the initiative to become productive and offers a corrective mechanism to conduct that is not in line with the culture and strategy of the company. Hence, a leadership perspective taken by an individual needs to feature the three elements that include communication skills, team motivation, and delegation of work.

The knowledge I gained during my Masters programme significantly impacted my behavior. In particular, I adopted transformational leadership as it was ideal for instituting change in social and individual systems. I became interested with creating value owing to its significance when it came to converting other employees to become leaders. The transformational leadership theory outlines that effective communication from those at the helm of the organizational hierarchy assists to meet goals. Moreover, motivation comes a long way in improving productivity since the management is involved (Ghasabeh, Soosay & Reaiche, 2015). It is important to note that transformational leadership emphasizes on morals in leadership. The personality, ability, and traits of a leader highly influences the change realized within a company. Therefore, with the acceptable values as per the code of conduct of a company, a leader will manage to work with the aim of benefiting the entire team. In practice, the leadership skills I learned about helped me boost the profitability of my small electronic enterprise. Specifically, I realized that my business could earn more from the products I sell by instilling a strong motivational culture among my workers. On the other hand, I did not consider motivation as an end to itself but rather I coupled it with delegation of roles. The primary aim of encouraging delegation was to improve the value of both my staff and for the electronics business. For this reason, I worked towards attaining the highest return on the investment through empowering the workers. The new structure required me to come up with a set of organizational standards. Thus, the changes would ensure that I tap the unused capabilities the workers have and subsequently enhancing their productivity.

Leadership skills had a significant impact on the manner I operated the electronics business. In particular, communication skills had a great effect on the agenda-setting of the company when it comes to the future goals and targets (McCleskey, 2014). For this reason, performance improved as the employees were yearning for higher accomplishment in a move to meet organizational goals. The transformational leadership style enabled me to encourage the workers to commit to their roles which subsequently resulted in setting higher workplace standards. In particular, I was the first to embrace the behavior employees needed to exhibit in the work environment. Therefore, I managed to integrate the entire company workforce into a common process and vision. On the other hand, the delegation of work required that I constantly evaluate the benchmark strength of the employee performance since unplanned and urgent events led to the realization of lower than expected outcomes. In a bid to avoid compromising the organizational standards, I adopted the initiative gathering regular feedback. Instances of negative feedback meant that guidance was to be offered to the respective worker coupled together with motivation. Subsequently, it became evident that proper leadership resulted in providing the workers with a clear blueprint of the direction the organization is headed. The employees became better placed to handle the challenges facing the business and they had the commitment to offer quality service to customers. Thus, the performance of the business improved since I had inspired confidence in the workers using the leadership skills I had grasped during my post-graduate studies.

Strategy and Innovation

Strategy and innovation are the critical success factors that most organizations have prioritized over the years. In particular, innovation has proved to sustain the leading global companies when it comes to the share they control in the market. I chose to reflect on strategy and innovation as they complement each other in determining the success of an organization. It is important to note that companies that have made great strides in innovation have well-structured decision making skills. Strategy requires an organization to realign its systems and culture to suit its goals. However, the primary reason I am focusing on strategy is because there are numerous backdrops encountered when developing an appropriate one for a company. I noticed that most firms have the tendency of looking at the short-term cost-reductions and gains. Therefore, companies have failed to set aside enough resources that can encourage transformational efforts. Moreover, organizations have adopted a risk-averse approach that has seen them realize lower than expected outcomes. Apart from strategy, the elements that are critical in driving innovation within an organization include culture and collaboration (Klingebiel & Rammer, 2014). For example, innovation could be successfully implemented through sharing of new ideas to employees during team work sessions and further making the workers conversant with the applicability of these ideas in their specific departments where they have responsibilities. Persuading employees to embrace innovative ideas depends on the organizational structure and systems embodied in the decision-making process. In a hierarchical structure, the organization forwards its decisions to employees without allowing them to air their views. Therefore, using this strategy might encourage innovation but in the long-run the level of creativity will diminish as there are no rewards to outstanding workers. Hence, strategic decision-making skills are vital in determining the performance of an organization.

The increasing number of innovations in enterprises globally encouraged me to consider making some changes when it comes to practice. Besides, most struggling companies such as Kodak, Blackberry, Nokia, and Blockbuster failed to institute strategic decision-making policies in their structures (Crema, Verbano & Venturini, 2014). On the other hand, there is no definite correlation between the amount used in research and development and the revenues earned by a company. The primary reason for no identified relationship is because there are government, private, and public firms that operate differently. One of the changes I considered in my business is re-evaluating the high-level business strategy. In particular, the elements that were significant include market disruption, ever-changing consumer needs, and globalization. There is the need to align the business strategies to ensure that they are in line with innovation plans. For this reason, I had to reassess the long-term business strategies in a move to ensure that they do not become irrelevant whenever there is a rapid transformational change. Thus, the skill that became vital in strategic decision-making is making changes to the important factors while maintaining integrity. The second change was encouraging incubation of favorable ideas. The top-down organizational structure failed to sustain the strategic decision-making process of the company. It was necessary to evaluate the insights of the lower-level employees as their ideas could be vital in fostering innovation. I embraced a holistic approach to the decision-making process as this minimized resistance to change. Similarly, the process became transparent, secure, and inclusive owing to the unpredictability of innovation. Upon adopting these changes, it became easier to identify strategies and innovation capabilities that were lacking and needed more attention.

Strategy and innovation skills had a tremendous impact on my own business.  Besides, innovation has over time been the main factor that determines market share and the overall competition. Innovation still remains a risky process when it comes to practice. In my own company, the initial stages faced a rough start as it was difficult to meet the quarterly targets. Therefore, the high failure rate made it necessary for every worker to closely evaluate the strategic parts of the company decision-making in a move to determine the points that were lacking. The process came in handy as it paved way for coming up with mechanisms that would oversee a smooth implementation of innovation in the enterprise. According to the theory of the firm, there is a cost attached to venturing into a market and especially when ascertaining the prices of commodities. On the other hand, there are elements of negotiation and completion of contracts and their respective costs. Strategy and innovation assist in identifying the actions that make the business more efficient while operating in a given market. Innovation resulted in employees of my business receiving up to date information from accountants and clients. There was also increased engagement through the use of mobile applications and thereby resulting in a higher value to both customers and the organization. Subsequently, the strategic decision-making skills adopted led to improved service and reduced cost which is the primary goal of any entrepreneur. It is important to note that consumer needs are ever-changing and the use of real-time data facilitated by innovation help the organization to accurately understand customer preferences.

Coaching and Mentoring Skills

Coaching and mentoring cultivate positivity in employees through the transfer of useful information from the coach. I placed emphasis on coaching as it plays a significant role in career growth when it comes to most organizations and enterprises. In particular, I came to the realization that coaching is efficient when managers believe that their workers possess unexplored potentials and this can assist in improving the productivity of an entity. It is important to note that coaching and mentorship does not only entail strengthening of capabilities but also the correction of lapses in the place of work (Boillat & Elizov, 2014). However, there is the need for thorough assessment for coaching to bear fruits. The individuals who hold top-level positions in a company serve as coaches and there are instances where they are delegated to serve a particular department. There is a common occurrence where new employees fail to align themselves with the acceptable behaviors of the organization. Therefore, a coach can guide such employees on matters related to corporate culture, procedures, and organizational structure. Mentorship is vital for the dissemination of real-world knowledge to a mentee and how he or she can close the gap that exists between actual business practice and the classroom theory. For this reason, mentorship positively impacts the morale of workers which translates to increased productivity. Mentorship goes hand in hand with a supportive work environment where there is loyalty. Aligning the goals of the company side to side with a mentorship program earns the business a competitive advantage. Thus, coaching and mentorship accrues a number of benefits to the organization ranging from product development to retaining employees.

The changes I considered when adopting coaching and mentorship in my enterprise included focusing on benefits. Further, there was the need to make the program interactive as this would play a significant role in convincing employees that they made the right decision. Mentorship requires choosing the appropriate instructors otherwise the entire process will have multiple flaws (Gawande, 2017). I made sure that there was mutual respect between the mentor and mentee and there were regular submissions of reports which assisted in evaluating the cross-functional areas in the business. On the other hand, the selection criteria for workers suitable for the mentorship program were clear, non-biased, and measurable (Gueorguieva et al., 2016). For this reason, the human resource department had to strike a balance between selecting popular managers and employees who made solid contributions to the business productivity. The decisions made by the human resource department needed a factual backing in a move to ensure that the program yielded the anticipated outcomes. I emphasized the need for clear timelines when implementing the coaching and mentorship program and this entailed progress milestones and specific endpoints that ensured the involved individuals do not lose focus along the way.

The impacts of implementing a coaching and mentorship program in my enterprise included higher employee retention capacity, improved team efficiency, and increased personal development. Concerning employee retention, mentorship increased the loyalty of the workers to the enterprise. In particular, the coaching and mentorship program having provided a host of benefits makes the mentees to highly appreciate their positions in the organization (Guthrie & Meriwether, 2018). Secondly, there was enhanced teamwork as the managers were in a position to easily identify the strengths and weaknesses of the mentees. Therefore, I managed to focus on the resources that were at hand and utilize them in a manner that all operations ran smoothly. Lastly, there was higher personal development among the workers since they had acquired hands-on skills from the experienced coaches.

Conclusion

While pursuing my master’s program, I became well versed in leadership skills, strategic decision-making skills, and coaching and mentorship skills. The information I gained came in handy when it came to the changes I made to my enterprise in a move to ensure that it had a competitive edge in the market. Subsequently, the business yielded outcomes attributable to the changes I had adopted. The leadership skills I had led to guided agenda-setting in the business, strategy, and innovation resulted in reduced costs and improved service while coaching and innovation translated to higher employee retention and team efficiency.

References

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