Category: Effective Leadership

Understanding Leadership: More Than Authority and Power

Leadership is both the study area and practical skill that encompasses the ability of an individual or organization to “lead” or direct others, teams, or entire organizations. Basically, this is a process of social influence that maximizes the efforts of others to achieve a goal. Leadership comes from social influence, not from power or authority. It requires others, which means they want to achieve perfection in the organization.

People become leaders who do the right things; so, managers are people who can make things right (Professor Warren G. Bennis). The word “leadership” can conjure up a wide variety of images. For example, a political leader works for community success, an explorer makes a convenient way for his followers, and the executive develops his company’s strategy to beat the competition.

The Essence of Leadership: Guiding and Inspiring Other

Leaders are those who help people to make things right. They provide direction, create an inspiring vision, and create something new. Leadership is determining where you need to go to win as a team or organization, and it is dynamic, exciting, and inspiring. However, while leaders provide directions, they must also use management skills to guide their people seamlessly and effectively to the right place. Each leader has a different definition of his skills, which explains how they lead the culture and company’s direction. A leader brings new approaches to leadership, which affects the overall culture and employees (Jacob Morgan, January 6, 2020).

Leadership’s Role in Organizational Decision-Making and Vision

Leadership is a process to create convenient but sometimes critical decisions, which are best for organizational success. This helps to set vision, goals, and objectives with the necessary tools to achieve those goals. An effective leader is that who works with full confidence, energy, creativity, innovative thoughts, and management skills, which help to survive in a critical situation. With these skills, leaders can face any problem in crisis (Margaret Rouse Whalts.com, 29 November 2017).

Leadership in the Corporate World: Shaping Business Success

In management, perspective leadership is a way of managing the company to establish and achieve complex goals to acquire quick and decisive actions when necessary, the excellence of competition, and inspires others for the top level that they can. In business, a person who has strong leadership skills can achieve an executive position like a chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer (COO), chief financial officer (CFO), president, or chairman (Alexandra Twin, July 25, 2020).

Debunking Leadership Myths: Inborn Talent vs. Developed Skills

Leadership is a myth, which means they are by birth or made. Everyone is not a leader by birth, he is made through his skills, knowledge, and social influence, while some are made naturally. In an organization, an effective leader is that who can work in an energetic way, set goals for the company’s success and motivate the other employees to pay full attention in the workplace. In management, if leaders will work more effectively and efficiently then the organization could achieve success and becomes stable in the market. People can create better leadership skills only with personality traits because a lot of employees show interest to become leaders (Kendra Cherry, November 7, 2019).

Comparing Formal and Informal Leadership Styles

Leadership is described in two ways, which explain formal and informal leadership. Formal leadership is that who consists of their own specific position in the group. In a group, they actually appoint a leader to handle the whole group’s work. For example, a teacher in the classroom or a manager in the company is a formal leader. He has a responsibility to organize the whole group and work to achieve organizational goals.

The informal leader is that who does not particularly assign the group to handle all responsibilities. In this group, members find that they have to follow this person by his skills. The informal leader has been chosen by his group members due to his energetic efforts, skills, motivation, and kindness. Through these skills, people want to see their leader and listen to him and what he says. This leader proves best because he or she is chosen by his team members due to skills, which naturally find him/her (Kathryn Vercillo, March 27, 2020).

In every organization, leadership is essential to lead other members like, employees to set directions and tell them how to work in the company to become more successful in the market. Without leadership, an organization can not achieve success and work properly. This makes sense to work in a proper way, handle difficulties, and determine every single problem. This is important for management to maximize efficiency and to earn more profit, which the organization is set to achieve. In fact, we can say that it is an essential part of effective management.

The Critical Importance of Leadership in Achieving Organizational Goals

Leadership has an important role in every organization. Without an effective leader, the organization can not work properly to achieve success. An effective leader establishes a strong mission, vision, goals, objectives, and effective strategy with which an organization can achieve success (Charanjit S. Rihal, MD, December 14, 2017).

In an organization, leadership creates to achieve goals, which the company has set to get future success. So, with the right leader, an organization can work in a satisfactory environment. Leadership communicates in a specific way in effective language, which shows a strong influence on other members to work according to their directions (Barbara and Stephen, 2010).

Effective leadership has strong roles and responsibilities to fulfill organizational requirements because a successful organization depends on a leader who has a strong influence to support the workplace. One research shows that organizational leadership has a great role in organizational growth (Wasim and Imran, 2010).

In an organization, becoming a leader is an essential step to exposing his/her excellence, which helps him/her achieve success. This becomes convenient when an employee makes great bonding with the owner and shows the best performance in meetings. Effective leadership demands huge respectful relations to earn in return from employees. If a leader does not create a respectful relationship then he can not get the desired work from staff for organizational success.

Effective leadership must establish faith and generosity between employees and other stakeholders. This provides support to the organization to get success and becomes sustainable. In an organization, a good leader is that who manages all difficult things, happening there and has the willingness to support the company in any situation. This makes a helpful situation for his team members to work more effectively.

To create effective leadership must practice empathy with team members. When you make empathy with your team members it helps them to avoid mistakes. Empathy is the best thing for leaders to manage their team members by creating under stable environment because if you want to set perfection in the organization, you should make some efforts (Anita Campbell, December 31, 2016).

Leaders become good managers or get senior positions if they work more effectively and genuinely. If leaders want to achieve success in the organization then they must understand the whole company situation and how to deal with employees, owners, and stakeholders. To manage organizational work they must encourage, empower, and engage all company members to lead a successful organization. They must create a productive and effective workplace, which helps the organization to become more successful (Simplilearn, August 20, 2020).

A good leader works for the company’s success and makes resources, which helps to work in an efficient way. He must have an autocratic, democratic, energetic, coaching, and affiliative style. These styles are best to deal with other company members to create a leadership environment. Leadership works for improving company performance by making fewer costs, which helps to earn more profit. This is beneficial for organizations to deal in a leading manner to get rid of useless expenses.

Leaders must believe in you before leading others it helps to set directions. To create a successful organization and lead all members’ leaders should avoid some things. To become success leader you must know how to motivate and encourage employees, what they want, how they want to work, and what makes them more powerful. Leaders should believe in you and not make any hesitation to lead the management. If leaders are not fully confident and make hesitation to encourage other members then they can not become good leaders and handle the work environment.

This is the most essential thing to lead other members to become sophisticated and avoids outstanding coaching. They should understand only their own skills. A successful leader is that who faces all difficulties whenever any person denies his skills. He has to determine his position because it’s only the right thing to achieve success. Many peoples feel pain and want to leave the leader from his destination but leaders must determine their position. They should create perfection in their attitude because behavior and attitude are the main things, which help them to become a good leader (Carenmerrick.com).

Leadership shows great importance for organizational success. This help to increase productivity, earn a profit, and reduce cost. In management, leadership is essential to deal with all critical problems and set direction on how to determine in critical situations. This helps the employees to work in a proper way and can ask any question if they face query in work. Without effective leadership, the organization faces many problems because when they do have not an efficient person to tackle all matters may go into a crisis.

Leadership is the only process to handle all critical situations and helps the organization to become sustainable and achieve all goals that they set. They provide suggestions to executives on how to earn more profit than their competitors. For organization leaders make an excellent strategy to become more competitive in the market. In management, they focus on employees to check whether are they working properly for the organization’s success or not. Their responsibility is to update the executives on employees’ work. If employees are not working properly then they can fire them.

In an organization, as leadership works in an efficient way they also face some challenges. But as described first, a good leader is that who can face all problems and handle them inefficiently way.

To become an effective leader you may develop managerial skills to handle all management aspects. You may not become a leader until to create strong management skills because you have a strong vision for organizational success but are responsible for having managerial skills (Billy Arcement, March 26, 2019).

An effective leader may face many challenges; they should have a broad knowledge to lead the other company members to make their organization sustainable for the future. If a leading expert is in his own department but has not gotten involved in the other department’s work so, he can not become a good leader for an entire organization. But now day’s leaders also take an interest in the other departments to work more effectively and handle all organizational aspects. For example, most chief financial officers (CFO) have seen their responsibilities go beyond finance and involve human resources, information technology, and operations (Dana Manciagli, April 13, 2016).

The most essential challenge, which leadership has to face in the organization is the lack of communication. When leaders do not communicate more effectively with other employees then it creates difficulty to understand the actual matter. This may lead to creating a disturbance in the workplace. One reason for this miscommunication is that they do not communicate organizational goals and objectives with their team because of the level of difference. It is difficult for leaders to directly communicate with their team members about plans. This is the critical challenge, which leaders face in organizations to manage their work. That’s why leader makes a solution to communicate with their team to understand how they work for the organization and achieve goals. When a team understands work strategy and plans to achieve goals then it becomes easy for an organization to achieve its objectives (Shaik Rohia Munavar, August 27, 2018).

The Essential Role of Leadership in Organizational Success

Leadership is important for every organization to manage work in a proper way. Without leaders, organizations can not manage employees to achieve success. Leadership faces many challenges, which help them to become more effective and generate powerful skills to lead other members of the organization. The leader becomes strong to set a great vision for the organization to achieve its goals and objectives.

References:

1. Kevin Kruse, April 9, 2013. CEO of LEADx and authority of great Leaders Have No Rules. What is leadership?
2. Jacob Morgan, January 6, 2020. What is leadership, and who is a leader?
3. ALEXANDRA TWIN Rewied by DAVID KINDNESS, July 25, 2020. Leadership.
4. Kendra Cherry, Reviewed by Amy Morin, LCSW, November 7, 2019. The Major Leadership Theories.
5. Sami ksha S, What is the importance of Leadership in any Organization?
6. Charanjit S. Rihal, MD, December 14, 2017. The importance of Leadership to Organizational Success.
7. Billy Arcement, Contributing Writer. March 26, 2019. The challenges that leaders face.
8. Dana Manciagli, Contributor Writer, April 13, 2016, 7:15 am EDT, 4 biggest challenges facing business leaders today.
9. Shaik Rohia Munavar, Inbound Marketing Expert, Engagedly, August 27, 2018. 6 Most Common Leadership Challenges At Workplace.
10. Kathryn Vercillo, March 27, 2020. Best Leadership: Formal vs. Informal Leaders.

John D. Rockefeller was a man who went after what he wanted. It can be said he was an effective business leader based on the things he accomplished not only for himself, but the economy as well. John owned his own oil company and then went on to create opportunity for the economy by increasing advancements in gasoline, manufacturing, and jobs. John did not gain these opportunities without dishonesty and causing struggle for many despite the benefit. It is hard to say if the outcome would have been any different had he led a more honest take-over, but then again, we may not have effectively advanced as quickly.

During the nineteenth century, John “accumulated a fortune for his Standard Oil Company” (Goldfield 17.1.1). The business and need for oil expanded, which prompted him expanding and relocating down south to Texas. He did not stop at the fortune of his own company. John proceeded to buy and merge his competition, which is called “horizontal integration” allowing him and his company to monopolize the industry (Goldfield 18.1.2). This was a smart move because it contributed to him being an effective business leader as he increased his ownership of the industry from within, he worked. However, he did not do this alone and acquired support from investment bankers like J.P. Morgan so that he was in control of 90 percent of the nation’s oil refining by 1890 (Goldfield 18.1.2). John took no issue with using his position to organize the industry in a more efficient manner and weed out what was no longer going to bring sufficient profit. An effective business leader needs to be able to step up and make these decisions regardless of what they entail.

Soon after in the 1900’s, the internal combustion engine was invented and automobile and truck manufacturing increased leading to the discovery of gasoline (Goldfield 18.1.2). This was the beginning of the expansion of further oil discovery, which increased rivalry for John. He once nearly monopolized the oil industry, but now with more locations being discovered it was ever expanding allowing others to take part in the industry.

These corporations that John had a part in could be seen as a negative and positive because they “provided abundant jobs, but they firmly controlled working conditions, especially for those who worked with their hands instead of their brains” (Goldfield 18.1.3). There was a high job demand but the hours, salaries, and conditions that the unskilled workers were subjected to was appalling. Sometimes the conditions were left unsafe to cut cost meaning there would be even more lives lost unnecessarily all so the companies could make more profit (Goldfield 18.1.3). Most were barely able to get by while greed controlled these companies.

Overall, a lot of good resulted from John D. Rockefeller and his leadership. I do think he was an effective business leader despite some of his flawed approaches. When there are opportunities to make advancements in one’s career and offer job opportunities then one should want to do so in an admirable way. John tended to acquire deals dishonestly as well as endanger workers for a profit causing his character to be questioned.

Leadership cut across all spheres of life, ranging from the family setting, church setting, business setting, market setting, school setting, football setting down to the political setting. Everybody defines leadership in many different ways, but one definition that got to me was John C. Maxwell’s definition. He defines leadership as: “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”. However, whichever definition we accept, we must understand that a leader is the difference maker between success and failure. A leader must possess certain traits which are indispensable that will help him lead effectively. A good leader must be goal-oriented and futuristic in decision making. A good leader must be able to turn an idea into reality, convert an idea into something productive geared toward achieving the set goals.

What Are Leadership Qualities?

To lead is not easy when you lack a certain trait. In fact, you will fail in any approach you take in the course of your leadership when you lack these qualities. Without some skills and trait leadership will only amount to nothing.

Leadership qualities are skill, character, attitude and mentality that a true leader must possess to help achieve a set goal. What it means is that any trait contrary to achieving a set goal by a leader is termed as an undesirable skill a leader shouldn’t possess.

Is Leadership Born with or It’s Something We Learn and Develop Over Time?

It is subject to a debate as to if leadership is something people are born with or it’s a skill that can be cultivated over time. But I believe both are correct. Every man is born a leader. Inherent in every man is the spirit of leadership. The reason while it seems as though it’s something that can only be cultivated over time is that it takes some certain level of discipline to bring them out these traits. The does not by any means negate the fact that leadership trait can’t be acquired through learning. It can, but my point is that you learn how to lead before its, first, your nature to lead.

Indispensable Qualities of a Leader

1. Must have vision and purpose. To lead as a leader, there must be something that you are inclined towards: a goal. It is this vision that your followers see that make them want to follow you. A good leader must have a clear vision of where they want to go, and the necessary strategy on how to get there. When your followers can see the big picture, they can see where they are heading. He shares his vision passionately and clearly and makes others see how important their effort is towards achieving the goals.
2. Must possess honesty and integrity. A true leader must not lack honesty and integrity reason being that being honest is not only the best way to lead a team successfully but it is the only real way to make connections with others. Whether you are trying to lead a team or a family, the truth remains that everybody you interact with looks to your honesty and code of ethics to set their bar.
3. Should be able to leading by example. As a leader, the best way to gain trust, credibility and respect from others is to demonstrate the right example you want them to do. Exhibit behavior you want others to follow. If you are the type of leader that demands a lot from others you should set high standards for yourself too. A good leader never instructs others to do things they won’t do. It strengthens a relationship when instead of instructing how to go about a particular task; you get in there and get your hands dirty, even dirtier than theirs.
4. Must have a structure in place. Behind every true leader, there is structure put in place to achieve the conceive goal. No system of leadership will last until structures are put in place. Structures are plans and strategies out in place to achieving a goal.
5. Full of self-confidence. To be an effective leader you must be bold enough to trust in your abilities. You must be confident enough to attract others to yourself. No one would want to follow a coward. They want someone who will stand up and be confident about a plan in case things go wrong. A leader should be oozing with confidence and fortitude and must be assertive in some certain decision that requires taking bold steps outside the box.
6. Must be sacrificial. A true leader should be sacrificial. A perfect example of this is our Lord Jesus Christ. Putting others first before himself.
7. Humility. A true leader must be condescending. Humility makes a leader approachable and as such being able to interact actively with their followers effectively from a place of shared humanity which breaks down communication barriers. Humility brings out the true nature of your followers because they feel safe with you.
8. Inspire and motivates others. When all odds are against the team, a true leader must have what it takes to conjure up a winning spirit. The best leader drives their team forward with passion, enthusiasm, inspiration and motivation. Others should be able to look up to you for inspiration.
9. Effective in communication. Communication is paramount when it comes to leadership. Not until a leader can communicate his vision and goals succinctly and tell others strategy to get there, it will become difficult to get the results they want. In fact, if you are not able to communicate your message to your team effectively then you are not a true leader. This is because words have that immense power to inspire and motivate people, and make them does the unthinkable.
10. Empathy. A good leader must be able to feel the pains of his followers. Unfortunately, today most leaders follow the path of dictatorship. To some extent, he should be able to identify and understands the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of his followers. This is important when making some certain decisions, by putting others first before you.
11. Decisive in making a decision. Sometimes your follower wouldn’t be happy with your decision, at some point you have to make some certain hard decision. Even if you make a wrong decision and need to correct it, showing decisiveness during tough times is a better leadership quality than waiting around for something to happen or letting others make the decision for you.
12. Must be accountable. A true leader must be accountable. He must take the blame for any mistakes and not rub it on others. He ensures that all his followers as well are held accountable. And when they have done well, he gives them some public pat on the back, just to motivate others to do better. But if they struggle, he is patient enough with them and makes them realize their mistakes and improve on them. Holding them accountable bring a sense of responsibility amid them and make them serious with their roles.
13. Must be creative and innovative. The world is evolving, and as such leaders with a good level of creativity and innovation are highly sort after. No matter the setting you find yourself leading, circumstances will test your level of creativity and innovation as a leader. A good leader should be able to think outside the box and make up unique ideas and turn those ideas and goals into reality.
14. Must be God-fearing. A leader that lacks this factor lacks all. This is because true and pure leadership is founded in Christ Jesus. He is the perfect example of a true leader both in character and in action. A leader with a genuine passion for God has all the above-listed qualities.

Final Thoughts

Every man is a leader, no matter where you find yourself there are some roles that demand your leadership. To be effective leaders you must possess a majority of the above qualities if not all but if you lack some of them you might struggle in your quest for leadership. But there is room to work on you. As a leader you must have a showing commitment to others, must be effective in sharing your message others and above all a leader must not lead without a clear vision and goals, without goals and vision it’s like a blind man leading a blind man.

Why do you think Singapore is where it is today? Indeed, many good leaders have helped shape Singapore into where it is today. Everyone has different perspectives on who they believe is a good leader. To me, it is without a doubt that the person who I think is a good leader would be Lee Kuan Yew. Lee Kuan Yew once said: “I have no regrets. I have spent my life, so much of it, building up this country. There’s nothing more that I need to do. At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life”.

We cannot deny that it was Lee Kuan Yew who transformed Singapore from a third world country into a first world country which it is today. His clear vision is one of the many leadership qualities we should learn. When Singapore separated from Malaysia, he did not waste time mopping over the separation but instead drew strength from it to create his vision of a Singapore that is ‘better and stronger’ than Malaysia. A first world country, as defined by Investopedia, is a developed and industrialized country characterized by political stability, democracy, the rule of law, a capitalist economy, economic stability, and a high standard of living. The Singapore River used to be the place where trade and many social activities took place, resulting in water pollution. Thus, to improve Singapore’s standard of living, Lee Kuan Yew set up the machinery that would help clean up the Singapore River. In addition, it was also Lee Kuan Yew who launched the ‘Keep Singapore Clean’ campaign. This serves to make Singapore the most hygienic and lush city in the region as it addressed the problem of littering. Compared to the past, Singapore has indeed become a cleaner country with a high standard of living. Doing this will allow Singaporeans to have a higher standard of living. Moreover, to lead Singapore to become a first world country, Lee Kuan Yew established the Housing Development Board (HDB) and introduced the Home Ownership Scheme to encourage people to own their HDB flats. The scheme was well received when the use of the Central Provident Fund (CPF) for the purchase of the flats is allowed. This, in turn, increased the ownership of houses by Singaporeans. Furthermore, he continued improving the older estates so that they will meet the desire of Singaporeans as the nation advanced. This helped the country with overall economic, social, as well as political stability. Thus, all of these was how he managed to transform Singapore into where it is today.

Furthermore, another leadership quality Lee Kuan Yew has demonstrated would be his ability to bring people together and live harmoniously. Lee Kuan Yew wanted a united society regardless of race, language, or religion. Compared to the past, racial and religious harmony has improved in Singapore. People of different races and religions have become more accepting of each other. In the past, English was the language used in school as it would be fair to everyone. However, it was Lee Kuan Yew who made the study of the ‘mother tongue’ compulsory. Through this policy of bilingualism, he wanted to ensure Singapore could preserve its ‘cultural ballast’ while being able to have a united society. Due to the policy of bilingualism, in the course of our study in primary, secondary school, and junior college, we can learn both English and our mother tongue, which has enabled us to be able to communicate with each other and even people from other countries using the common language, English, while still able to know our own mother tongue.

Lastly, the leadership quality which Lee Kuan Yew has demonstrated would be his incorrupt nature which helped shape Singapore into the least corrupt country in the world. Under Singapore Corruption Rank, Singapore is the top 3 least corrupt nation out of 175 countries. Lee Kuan Yew and his group knew the importance of a clean state with no corruption. White shirts and trousers were worn at the first swearing-in and were made the uniform of the People’s Action Party (PAP). This showed their determination to keep the government clean and free of corruption. Thus, he introduced legislation whereby the Corruption Investigation Bureau (CPIB), which is a government agency in Singapore under the Prime Minister’s Office, has the power to investigate any acts or forms in the public and private sectors. This shaped Singapore to become a less corrupt country.

In conclusion, Lee Kuan Yew is someone whom I strongly believe is a good leader because he had a clear vision that led Singapore from a third world country to a first world country. Also, he is able to bring people together to live harmoniously and to maintain Singapore’s corruption rate.

Isn’t it inconvenient that women are perceived as less effective leaders than men? Isn’t it inconvenient that women are valued less than men around the world? And isn’t the 21st century the ideal time to create change and equality in the world for a more prosperous tomorrow? Continuing to live with the world’s current and inaccurate perceptions about women’s leadership abilities represents a greater inconvenience than the inconvenience that would arise from educating and implementing a new leadership development model and shifting society’s deeply embedded roots about gender. It is misinformation that is shifting society’s viewpoint to believe that women are less as effective as leaders, and this, in turn, impacts the decisions that businesses make. In order to create a better world for tomorrow, we need to address and abolish this inaccurate perception by shifting societal views today. This outcome will stimulate business growth and create higher levels of gender equality around the world.

Understanding the Concern

Gender inequality in the workforce has plagued the business world for decades and continues to do so today. Although women represent about half of the world’s current workforce, women’s salaries are lower than those of their male counterparts throughout every level of the workforce. More astoundingly, men dominate the executive ranks in businesses, and women are faced with many disproportionate challenges while attempting to reach the top. This is exemplified at the level of executive suites where women are grievously underrepresented. Women lead only 5.5% of the world’s most powerful companies and only 12.5% of Fortune 500 companies have women CFOs. Although women represent 49% of the global workforce, research shows that women hold under a quarter (24%) of senior roles across the world in 2018 and that 25% of global businesses have no women in senior management roles. There is a profound impact on the world due to these exclusions. Business executives play an instrumental role in shaping the products and services that companies offer, and they exert an immense influence on the mission and values of an organization. They also play a major role in defining and promoting the public face of their organizations and impact society in profound ways. This disparity of gender inequality translates to the customer landscape being skewed by male perspectives. This means that both consumers and businesses are losing out without the valuable female perspective. Finally, this means that businesses are not reaching their ultimate potential in sales and are missing massive bands of consumers who are not being completely represented by these companies that are trying to reach them.

Gender equality in upper-level management can play an impactful role in the organization’s bottom line. Research finds that companies with three or more women on their boards or in senior management roles exhibit produced median gains of 10% return on equity and 37% greater earnings per share. It is also proven that gender equality in upper management pays off because companies that experience a ratio of gender representation closer to fifty-fifty report a 41% increase in revenue. These financial benefits are a no-brainer for companies to strive for, yet this has still not been achieved in most organizations around the world, and why is that?

The big question that needs to be addressed is why these disparities continue to exist. There are two main components that have grounded this ideology for decades. The first is the inaccurate perceptions around the world that women are less effective as leaders than men. Research even proves that it’s not only men who believe this perception but also women too. A study conducted by Comparably recently released a ranking of the best CEOs for women, and the top 25 of them happen to be men. In order the effectively rank these CEOs, Comparably surveyed females about their current employment and found that they had a preference for male leadership, as appose to the common thought that women would prefer female leadership. The study also found that this preference for men in leadership was so strong that male managers were preferred 2:1 over female managers, and even among women who were managers themselves, 75% stated a preference for male management. It is also important to consider that there is absolutely no evidence that male CEOs or male leaders, in general, are more competent or are in some way better leaders for businesses. This fact only deepens the psychological bias that persists even in 2018 that is plaguing society about women being less effective as leaders.

The second component of this perception is that emotional intelligence is the number one factor in successful leadership. As Daniel Goleman says, “Emotional intelligence (EQ) is twice as important as IQ and technical skills”. Research also proves that women experience higher levels of emotional intelligence than men do, and this trait is very important, especially in executive-level leadership positions. Due to socialization which strengthens EQ in women and inhibits EQ in men, research has found that 19% of female executives exhibit high self-awareness and emotional intelligence compared to their male counterparts who only exhibit 4%. However, it is known that emotional intelligence can be learned. This evidence proves that not only could women be extremely powerful and successful leaders, but the concept that both men and women could benefit from increased learned emotional intelligence and ultimately improve the lives of today and the world of tomorrow. Sociological research shows that women since childhood are socialized to develop higher levels of emotional intelligence. While men, on the contrary, are socialized to hide their emotions and are shied away from being vulnerable. But leaders need emotional intelligence. So, if women experience a higher level of emotional intelligence, and emotional intelligence is the number one factor in being a successful leader, why are more women not leaders in businesses right now?

It is clear that gender and emotional intelligence can impact a company’s bottom line, but emotional intelligence and gender equality are in such short supply among leaders and organizations today.

Closing the Gap

We need to shift the world’s beliefs because this inaccurate perception will only undermine the world’s prosperity in the 21st century. Continuing to believe in this myth will only repeat history and will not allow businesses around the world to reach their full potential which will be achieved with greater gender balance in upper-level management. So, how can we close the gap?

First, we need to invest our attention in generating knowledge and value behind stimulating business growth by empowering women leaders and creating more gender equality and opportunity around the world. Why? Because currently, we are failing to question the systems and beliefs that govern the equality of opportunity between men and women. We need to really think, are the current beliefs and systems the best we can achieve?

The answer is no. We need to change. And how can we create this change? By implementing a new executive development leadership model that will address the realities of gender inequalities, and gender socialization, and focus on increasing leaders’ emotional intelligence. This is important because most leadership development models today focus on leadership assessments and common leadership styles and approaches with fewer touching upon the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership. Even in these efforts, Goleman finds that the EQ programs are ineffective because they do not engage the limbic brain. The limbic brain deals with emotion, memories, and stimulation and needs to be used when dealing with change and targeting deeply embedded beliefs. This program will focus on engaging the limbic brain while using a ‘yes and’ approach that can be linked to the world of improvisation and design thinking to increase leaders’ emotional intelligence. Incorporating the use of the limbic brain in our program will be an effective way of teaching emotional intelligence. Change most efficiently starts at the top, so implementing this model will be most effective by targeting an organization’s executives. By starting with top executives, changes can be enacted and ultimately streamlined down and around organizations, and eventually challenge and change these beliefs among the entire world.

We need to promote this new leadership approach and shift societal views about this belief because, without this program, we will only continue to repeat history. Many countries around the world have enacted many legal jurisdictions and quotas to promote the role and presence of women in executive roles and on boards, but little progress has been made to resolve this dilemma. Therefore, we need this new system of change.

One logic that supports the ideology of creating a greater gender balance of women in leadership roles and greater gender equality around the world can be explained by utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that rejects systems that dwell on customs, traditions, and orders that are given by leaders and supernatural beings. Utilitarians believe that the purpose of morality is to make life better by increasing the number of good things in the world and decreasing the number of bad things such as pain and unhappiness. Gender inequality around the world is a harmful matter that plagues our society, and increasing gender balance in business globally will benefit everyone without the threat of a zero-sum game. Unlike a zero-sum situation, this approach will provide each participant, men, and women, an equal gain and increased potential in the world. This means that with greater gender equality both men and women will benefit, as well as businesses around the world can continue to flourish on a broader spectrum, both financially and sociologically. Isn’t this what we want? Isn’t the goal in life to create a better, happier, more equal, and fulfilling world for future generations to prosper in? This inconvenient perception that women should be valued less and women are not as effective as leaders need to be abolished so as a world we can flourish.

Conclusion

With greater gender equality in upper-level management in organizations around the world, not only would organizations reap the financial benefits, but they would also be promoting the creation of a more equal, just, and ethical society. We cannot continue repeating the past any longer and the 21st century is the time to shift these perceptions, stimulate the economy, and make the world a better and more equal place for future generations to prosper.

A crisis is the truth of today’s fast-paced business world. Rapid organizational change, changing economic conditions, problems with personnel, unexpected technological changes, and political effects cause instability in today’s business world. This instability appears out of state control as economic disruptions that result in crisis. The process approach to crisis management builds on the concept of crisis incubation, that “crises evolve within organizations, they do not simply appear, and they are not divorced from the actions of those managers who may ultimately be required to deal with the management of such events” (Smith, 2004, p.350; cited in Jaques, 2012, p.2). In this work, I will try to consider the role of the leader in a crisis and what a leader should do to successfully solve the crisis based on the argument provided by some authors.

The role of the leader, especially in crisis cannot be diminished, due to all of the responsibilities being on the shoulders of the leader and the cost of loss being too high. In a period of crisis, a leader should not only be a person who leads and inspire people but a person who can efficiently fix a problem, in that case, a person is not only a leader but a fixer – a crisis manager. We define crisis management as the sum of activities aimed at minimizing the impact of a crisis. The impact is measured in terms of damage to people, critical infrastructure, and public institutions. Effective crisis management saves lives, protects infrastructure, and restores trust in public institutions (Boin, Kupers, and Overdijk, 2013, p.81). The work of a crisis leader is harder than the work of a leader in normal conditions, due to there is a high probability of negative outcomes and a leader-crisis manager should be able to face them. Negative outcomes are often related directly to ineffective crisis management. Recent ‘mega-crisises’ such as Hurricane Katrina, the BP oil spill, the financial crisis, and the nuclear disaster in Fukushima have been followed by scathing assessments of crisis management performance (ranging from ‘failures of imagination’ to ‘failures of initiative’) (Boin, Kupers, and Overdijk, 2013, p.81). Consequently, a professional crisis leader should understand all of his duties to the company and society, so James and Wooten (2005; cited in Jaques, 2012, p.5) identified six core leadership competencies: building a foundation of trust; creating a new corporate mindset; identifying the (not so) obvious organizational vulnerabilities; making wise and rapid decisions; taking courageous action; and learning from the crisis to effect change.

Crisis environments require immediate decision-making and implementation. Therefore, crisis management requires leader managers with a vision. In a modern world, leader management includes foresight for the future, identification of realistic vision and objectives for the future of the organization, and motivating people to the realization of these (Fener and Cevik, 2015, p.699). Consequently, the abilities and competencies that a leader demonstrates affect a group of people to obtain a vision or a created set of objectives, additionally, leadership is concerned duplicating with transformation and vision creation for inspiring individuals (Cruz-Milán et al., 2016; cited in Rjoub, 2017, p.110). The successful and efficient leader, particularly the authentic leader, is expected to display not only integrity and sincerity but also courage and honesty (Avolio and Gardner, 2005, cited in Tafra-Vlahović, 2013, p.86). On the conceptual level, the first two challenges, the complexity of the business environment and the imperative of diversification strategy, can be treated as rational (complexity) and emotional (diversification) areas of involvement. The third issue, the matter of security, encompasses instincts and personal courage which are particularly important elements of the overall personality of a leader (Tafra-Vlahović, 2013, p.86).

Ulmer, Sellnow, and Seger (2007; cited in Tafra-Vlahović, 2013, p.89) suggest that there are several rules for effective crisis leadership:

1. Effective leadership is effective to overcome the crisis;
2. Leaders should be visible during the crisis;
3. Leaders should work to develop a positive company reputation during normal times to build a reservoir of goodwill;
4. Leaders should be open and honest following a crisis;
5. Leaders who manage crises successfully may create opportunities for renewal;
6. Leaders should cooperate with stakeholders during a crisis and should work to build a consensus;
7. Poor leadership can make a crisis much worse;
8. Leaders must adapt their leadership style and contingencies during crises;
9. A virtuous response to a crisis by the organization’s leaders may be the most effective in generating support and renewal;
10. Leaders have specific communication obligations for managing and learning from crises.

It is highly pivotal not to lose time, because time, especially in a period of crisis, is the most important point. In a period of crisis, time is the main enemy of the leader, due to if he misses the time, he will concede to the crisis. That is why there is a special term for the time in the crisis, which is named – ‘golden hour’. Crisis management professionals speak of the golden hour of crisis response, invoking a metaphor from emergency medicine. The golden hour refers not to a particular period of time, but to the observation that incremental delays in responding to a crisis – whether a medical emergency, a flood, or a more routine corporate setback – have greater than an incremental impact on the outcome (Garcia, 2014, p.5). According to Garcia (2014), a leader in crisis should do the following activity: firstly, understand that there’s a problem; second of all, take it seriously; and finally, take steps to address the problem. But many leaders recognize too late that business-as-usual practices have to be suspended. Take McDonald’s case as an example, when the CEO of McDonald, James Cantalupo, died of a heart attack, the company’s officials immediately made a public announcement that Charlie Bell, President and Chief Operating Officer, would be the new CEO, they had announced it before the stock exchange markets have been opened, so it is not influenced on the price of the stocks of the company.

To sum up, crisis management “is a specialty requiring process which attempts to predict the events that might interrupt significant future relations”, “a process where managers try to meet their own objectives with a reasonable cost in states of danger”, “organization managers’ attempt to attain balance with minimum cost” (Cener, 2007; cited in Fener and Cevic, 2015, p.697). In my view, it is highly crucial to be prepared for a crisis, and leaders and managers should be able to react efficiently in a crisis. Presented arguments provide a short guide of how a leader should operate in a state of crisis to successfully solve the problem with minimum damage to the organization.

There are several stores illustrate unethical leadership taken place in a working environment every single day. Unfortunately, that type of behavior still does not provide clear boundaries of what unethical leadership should incorporate. Before defining unethical behavior, need clearly to describe the meaning of ethics and ethical behavior. Whom are ethical people are? This is people who recognize the difference between right and wrong. In addition, individuals consistently strive to set an example of ethical conduct. In a setting of business environment, ethics plays important and crucial role. It is important to be fair and remain honest to relationships among internal and external environment. Ethical individuals strive to treat others as would like to be treated ourselves. In a business setting, behaving ethically can help to build customer loyalty, avoid or reduce legal problems, as well as attract and retain talented and valuable employees.

Defining Unethical Leadership

Definition of unethical behavior must be stated specific and broad at a same time and clearly stated what society considers being moral behavior. Brown and Mitchell, in their 2010 Business Ethics Quarterly article Ethical and Unethical Leadership: Exploring New Avenues for Future Research , define unethical leadership as ‘behaviors conducted and decisions made by organizational leaders that are illegal and also can violate moral standards. those that impose processes and structures that promote unethical conduct by followers.’

According to this definition, it is more acceptabl to determined the meaning of what the “moral standards” are and what standards ethical leaders are expected to follow. It is essential to maintain high moral standards while being a leader. Every leader is set up an example; it is an individual who leads the company or makes decisions based on fairness, ethical guidelines, rather than personal, political, or financial consideration.

Unfortunately, some leader’s inability and lucking of clear thinking beyond their personal interests and greediness lead to unethical behavior, but not all unethical leadership choices are made intentionally. Ethics and ethical leadership have become an essential component among organizational leaderships, professionals, and employees across organizations. Ethical as well as unethical actions, conflicts, challenges happen every day among well-educated individuals as well as successful companies and large corporations. Every company has employees, diverse staff, with unique personalities, and different behaviors. A great example is Martha Stuart inside company fraud case.

Ethics are the moral codes, several rules that allow businesses to perform and succeed in a capital-intensive economy. Ethics defines how successful or not business runs and how peoples live their lives; in other words, ethics business ethics go hand to hand with human behavior and values. The main component of ethics is honesty, transparency and strong moral principles.

Unfortunately, unethical leadership style can benefit in seeking the accomplishment of organizational goals of the company. Every company has unethical individuals and leaders who can encourage employees to conduct unethical and wrongful act within the company or an organization (Thornton l, 2012). It is several examples of unethical practice; Abusive Supervision, Tyrannical leadership, Toxic leadership. All of them could be found in Enron financial scandal. These are the challenges that unethical leaders faced today-that which test their integrity and credibility, either for personal, monetary or status gain.

Types of Unethical Leadership

Unethical leadership appears in a wide variety of forms and happens for a variety of reasons. Sometimes unethical leadership is motivated by greed and involves harming others to make more profit. Unethical leadership may also happen when leaders fail to take the time to consider the impact of their choices on the many stakeholders involved. Decisions with unintended consequences can be just as harmful as intentionally unethical decisions. If it take as an example ethics in business settings it is completely different from laws because in some circumstances it may not be illegal to engage in unethical behavior (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002).

According to Hoyk and Hersey (2009), an organization in which coworkers ignore, justify, or accept unethical behavior, is supporting the viewpoint of the transgressor. the majority of the groups accepts moral standarta. and a behavior or action by an employee exhibits behaviors or actions that do not reflect what is considered to be the norm; the group would deem the behavior or action unethical (Kish-Gephart, Harrison, & Trevino, 2010). Unfortunately, unethical behaviors that occur most frequently within the business settings usually are covering up some existing issues within the company. Some of the examples consist of short-cutting quality of work ,which leads to poor performance; another example is abusing sick days and lying to customers (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002). Bowditch, Buono, and Stewart (2007) posit there are growing numbers of occurrences when employees experience situations where peers and supervisors encourage unethical behavior. For instance, unethical behavior may be an employee looking in the opposite direction of wrongdoing, failure to report wrongdoings, or directly engaging in an unethical activity (Bowditch et al., 2007). Cheney (2008) stated it is essential to understand how organizational cultures suppress or promote certain ethical practices (Bisel, Kelley, Ploeger, & Messersmith, 2011).

It is imperative to condemn unethical behavior and discourage the imitative practices, reducing the risk of an organizational culture that promotes political backstabbing that drives away talent and takes away the energy of the remaining employees (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002). Every company has written rules in the form of the employee handbook; it is consist of the company’s guidelines, rules, and regulation that employees should follow the written standards of the organization. Not every employee whose behavior is unethical thinks that his or her wrongful act will impact the organization or business financially. For example, counterproductive work behavior is a type of behavior where actions go against the legitimate interests organization’s goals (Jex & Britt, 2008). Forms of counterproductive behavior might include high and often turnover, poor or ineffective job performance, unsafe behavior, as well as, less common forms such as violence, theft, substance abuse, and sexual harassment (Jex & Britt, 2008). These wrongful actions might impact the organizations financially and can cost the organization thousands of dollars each year (Jex & Britt, 2008). Therefore, it is critical to understand unethical behavior in organizations. Unethical behaviors lead to detrimental consequences for others through ignoring rules, standards, regulations, and company guidelines (Tonus & Oruç, 2012). All the damaging consequences lead to slowing performance of the company and significantly reduce growth and the company’s profit. Unethical actions foster an environment of conflict, disrupt the company culture, and minimalize employee commitment, performance, and inspiration (Tonus & Oruç, 2012). When employee commitment, performance, and motivation decrease, the organization suffers significantly. As a result, companies want to prevent unethical behaviors and to promote ethical behaviors. The best option is through understanding the driving forces behind unethical decision-making in order to predict behavior.

It is five most unethical behaviors in the work place. Roughly 120 million people walk into a workplace somewhere in the U.S. Within the past year, almost half of these workers personally witnessed some form of ethical misconduct, according to a recent survey conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Ethics Resource Center (ERC).

Schwartz points out that the issue is not workers being privy to the CFO committing fraud. More likely, it is someone who lied to a supervisor or handed in a false expense report. Listed below, according to the ERC study, are the five most frequently observed unethical behaviors in the U.S. workplace.

1. Misusing company time

Whether it is covering for someone, who shows up late or altering a timesheet, misusing company time tops the list. This category includes knowing that one of coworkers is conducting personal business on company time. By ‘personal business, the survey recognizes the difference between making cold calls to advance your freelance business and calling your spouse to find out how your sick child is doing.

2. Abusive behavior

Too many workplaces are filled with managers and supervisors who use their position and power to mistreat or disrespect others. Unfortunately, unless the situation the person is in involves race, gender or ethnic origin, there is often no legal protection against abusive behavior in the workplace.

3. Employee theft

According to a recent study by Jack L. Hayes International, one out of every 40 employees in 2012 was caught stealing from their employer. Even more startling is that these employees steal on average 5.5 times more than shoplifters ($715 vs $129). Employee fraud is also on the uptick, whether its check tampering, not recording sales in order to skim, or manipulating expense reimbursements. The FBI recently reported that employee theft is the fasting growing crime in the U.S. today.

4. Lying to employees

The fastest way to lose the trust of employees is to lie to them, yet employers do it all the time. One of out every five employees report that their manager or supervisor has lied to them within the past year.

5. Violating company internet policies

Cyberslackers. Cyberloafers. These are terms used to identify people who surf the Web when they should be working. It is a vast , multi-billion-dollar problem for companies. A survey conducted recently by Salary.com found that every day at least 64 percent of employees visit websites that have nothing to do with their work.

The ERC study points out that most American workers and employers do the right thing. The survey reveals that most follow the company’s ethical standards of behavior, and are willing to report wrongdoing when it occurs, except if it relates to the company’s Internet use policy.

These results are retrospective and do not reflect the increasing trend of employees’ use of social media at work for personal purposes. According to a Forbes study, 64% of employees visit non-work related websites daily and wasted the most time on these social sharing sites (in descending order): The question is how much control an employer should have over its employees’ use of social media. This is an emerging issue and one where the rules and ethical guidelines have not caught up with technology. One of the most challenging things for employers to monitor is what an employee is looking at his/her computer screen. Short of walking around frequently and checking it out, as a possible deterrent to improper use, an employer has to trust that employees will use good judgment when it comes to the use of social media in the workplace.

Part of the problem with defining social media abuse is how everyday Internet use is in our daily personal and professional lives. In an age when employers expect workers to respond to client emails immediately and social networking sites reload with new information every minute, it is often hard to define the limits between reasonable and abusive. Businesses need to be proactive in the workplace with establishing these limits, creating a clear and comprehensive acceptable use policy and communicating it to employees through presentation and workshops. Exellent communication can generate a workplace-wide consensus on the behavior that falls outside acceptable boundaries.

Most of all the Internet use policy should be tied to the general issue of ethics in the workplace. The use and abuse of social media in the workplace is an excellent way to give life to the provisions in a code of ethics.

Two of the five most unethical practices relate to the abuse of social media at work: violating company Internet policy and misusing company time. Those who excessively surf the Internet at work for personal reasons are stealing from their companies. They are being paid for work when they are not doing so. The ethics policy must be clear on this matter. In the end it is no different from coming in late; leaving early; or taking long lunch hours and being paid for that time.

Blog posted by Dr. Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, on June 25, 2015. Professor Mintz is on the faculty of the Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He also blogs at: www.ethicssage.com.

Martha Stewart is one of the few business mavens who can still claim widespread popularity after a highly-publicized scandal. She is the founder and former CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., a company with interests in publishing, television, merchandising, electronic commerce, and related international partnerships. In the early 2000s, America’s most famous homemaker became the center of headlines, speculations, and eventually a federal investigation concerning her stock trading. Martha Stewart was accused of insider trading after she sold four thousand ImClone shares one day before that firm’s stock price plummeted. Although the charges of securities fraud were thrown out, Ms. Stewart was found guilty of four counts of obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. She was sentenced to five months of prison, five months of house arrest, and two years of probation. After her release from prison, Martha Stewart involved herself in a variety of ventures, including magazines, a short-lived reality television show “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart,” “The Martha Stewart Show,” and branded items sold by flower shops, KB Homes, and Macy’s. Martha Stewart still controls much of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Even though she was barred from acting as director of the company for five years, Stewart continues to control about 50 percent of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. stock and about 90 percent of voting stock. While it often takes many years for businesspeople to regain trust after corporate misconduct, Martha Stewart remains a beloved household icon for thousands of loyal fans. Martha Stewart’s lucrative career includes stockbroker, caterer, business owner, and home living expert. Born in 1941 as Martha Kostyra, Stewart developed a passion for cooking, gardening, and home-keeping at an early age. She learned the basics of cooking, baking, canning, and sewing from her mother; her father introduced her to gardening. After marrying Andrew Stewart in college, Martha Stewart became a successful stockbroker on Wall Street. However, she never forgot her childhood passions, and eventually, she left the stockbroker business to open a gourmet-food shop that later became a catering business in Westport, Connecticut. She used her distinct visual presentations and stylish recipes for her catering business as a source for her first book, the bestselling Entertaining, which was first published in 1982.

Stewart’s natural business instincts and leadership skills helped her to transform her small business into a media empire. She joined Kmart as an image and product consultant in 1987and persuaded the retailer to sell her growing line of products. She eventually became partners with the INSIDER TRADING SCANDAL The scandal that would threaten Stewart’s career stemmed from her association with Imclone System, a biopharmaceutical company in which Stewart owned stock. Stewart sold 4,000 shares of ImClone stock on December 27, one day before the Food and Drug Administration refused to review ImClone System’s cancer drug Erbitux. The company’s stock tumbled following the FDA’s announcement. A similar situation occurred with a number of other ImClone insiders, including the company’s counsel John Landes, who dumped $2.5 million worth of the company’s stock on December 6; Ronald Martell, ImClone’s vice president of marketing, who sold $2.1 million worth of company stock on December 11; and four other company executives who cashed in shares between DeceMartha Stewart denied that she engaged in any improper trading when she sold her shares of ImClone stock. On December 27, Stewart says she was flying in her private jet to Mexico for a vacation with two friends. En route, she called her office to check her messages, which included one from her broker Peter Bacanovic, with news that her ImClone stock had dropped below $60/share. Stewart claims she had previously issued a “stop-loss” order to sell the stock if it fell below $60/share. Stewart called Bacanovic and asked him to sell her 3,928 shares; she also called her friend Sam Waksal, but could not reach him. Stewart’s assistant left a message for Sam Waksal saying, “Something’s going on with ImClone, and she wants to know what it is. She’s staying at Los Ventanos.” Waksal did not call her back. At about the time Stewart made her sale, she was on her way to Mexico with friend Mariana Pasternak.

However, Stewart’s explanation that she unloaded her stock because of a prearranged sele order collapsed when Douglas Faneuil, the broker’s assistant who handled the sale of the ImClone stock for Stewart, told Merrill Lynch lawyers that his boss, Peter Bacanovic, had pressured him to lie about a stop-loss order. Although he initially backed Stewart’s story, he later told prosecutors that Bacanovic prompted him to advise Stewart that Waksal family members were dumping their stock and that she should consider doing the same. During interviews with law enforcement officials, Faneuil said, “I did not truthfully reveal everything I knew about the actions of my immediate supervisor and the true reason for the sales.” He reportedly received money or other valuables for hiding his knowledge from investigators. Faneuil pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge on October 2. Martha Stewart resigned from her board membership of the New York Stock Exchange the next day. Faneuil was later fined $2,000 but did not receive jail time. Merrill Lynch fired Faneuil after he pleaded guilty; Bacanovic was also fired for declining to cooperate with investigators looking into trading activity of ImClone Systems Inc. shares.mber 12 and December 21. The event was too coincidental to be ignored.