Respond to…
I honestly do believe that the percentage of 50 to 75% is true. The reason that is, is because I have seen in my own eyes so many leaders that have not been great examples. They were in a position when in reality they should of not been there. Leaders are the example and when we put leaders that are not fit. It sets the tone for the entire organization. Leadership is extremely important in any role and an effective should always be in that place of authority. I do not believe that this percentage is to low or high because that is the number that I have seen of ineffective leaders in an organization. According to our lecture, some great traits of a leader include intelligence, honesty, self-confidence, and appearance. If a leader exhibits these traits they are able to be an effective leader. I truly believe that these are some of the main factors of what a leader should actually be. An ineffective leader shows traits such as communication problems, no time management skills, and they are always stressed. I had a leader once who was always stressed and always worried. Which in that case as he was my leader caused me to do the same. He was always worried about us not hitting goal when needed and that we were all going to get fired. He always had me worked up and worried, which I never really am. Due to his ineffective leadership traits, they started to rub off on me. After time, I was able to handle it and learn to not learn from him because of his ineffective leadership traits. As I soon became my own leader and attempted to do what is right for my employees.
Warrick, D.D. (2016). [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/
Respond to…
One major aspect of effective leadership is the ability to get others to do things. Effective leaders have the ability to motivate and sway employees opinions in order to accomplish what they (the leaders) want. The 50% to 75% rate of incompetence in leadership roles is definitely too high but not at all alarming. The reason is that leaders today do not invest time and effort to develop interpersonal relationships with their employees. While many organizations evaluate people in leadership roles for competence on how to do a job, they do not conduct interpersonal competency evaluations. Interpersonal competency is the process in which people interact effectively (Spitzberg & Cupach, 1988). One of the reasons there is a high percentage of managerial incompetence is because most assessments used in the selection process do not include interpersonal competence as a criterion. Additionally, most managers are not willing to change their leadership style(s) in order to be more effective (Nowack, 2010).
Over the span of my career, I have worked with effective as well as ineffective leaders. The effective leader, one in particular, had the ability to engage with the employees in a way that motivated the employees to work harder than usual. He was able to convey his vision, state the direction in which he wanted to go, and inspire his team to do so all while being engaged with the employees. During crunch times, he jumped in and helped or asked employees if they needed help. The work environment was tension-free because he was easy going and engaging, proof that an organizations culture is determined by its leaders behaviors.
A leaders ability to get employees to do what he wants is usually directly linked to his interpersonal skills and behavior. According to Warrick (2016), most leaders lack interpersonal skills and therefore find it difficult to get employees to do what they want. Leadership behaviors that are people-oriented tend to get more out of their employees. Some of the traits my former boss demonstrated included compassion, confidence, emotional intelligence, honesty, and good morals. He was fair, in that he created a work environment in which the manager/employee relationship was pleasant and brought about a sense of equality.
Ineffective leaders can be the reason organizations dont do well. Ive had quite a few employers whose leadership skills were less than desirable, thereby proven ineffective. They were either bullies, unapproachable and did not interact with employees, lacked the ability and skills to problem-solve, or bad communicators. One in particular, was indecisive, did not provide clear directions, and did not show empathy for his employees. Another one of my former employers was rude, and disregarded his employees completely. He often insulted them in group settings, and created an environment in which employees tensed up whenever he was around. He never praised his employees when they did well, and always scolded them when the work was late or done incorrectly.
It has been established that an organizations culture is determined by the behaviors and characteristics of the leadership. It can therefore be concluded that when the leaders demonstrate undesirable behaviors, the ripple effect is that it becomes the culture (Pienaar, 2011). Employees are not motivated to work hard. It is difficult to get employees to do what the leaders want because there is no interpersonal relationship. In fact, ineffective leaders create fear and hostile work environments. In these organizations, the turn-over rate is usually high and people do not take pride in their work. Ultimately, leading to the downfall of a company.
References
Nowack, K. (2010). How incompetent are leaders today? Retrieved from
http://blog.envisialearning.com/how-incompetent-are-leaders-today/
Pienaar, J. W. (2011). What lurks beneath leadership ineffectiveness? A theoretical overview. African Journal of Business Management, 5(26), pp. 10629-10633. Retrieved from http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/AJBM/article-full-text-pdf/4FAAA8115748
Spitzberg, B. H., & Cupach, W. R. (1988). Handbook of interpersonal competence research.
New York: Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Warrick, D. D. (2016). Leadership: A high impact approach. [Electronic version]. Retrieved
from https//content.ashford.edu/
