Leadership and Strategic Planning

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Leadership and authority in motivation
Effective strategies for articulating a vision
Leadership skills used in communication
Conclusion
Bibliography
Footnotes

Introduction

As competition in the modern business environment intensifies coupled with organisations seeking and employing different stratagems to succeed in the heavily competitive markets, management is increasing becoming imperative.¹ Considered as one of the integral aspects that determine successfulness of organisations, the modern business management has evolved significantly given the several transformations that are becoming essential for business triumph.

How managers relate with each other, how they interact with other workers, how they respond to burgeoning problems, how they understand the company’s mission, and how they lay down strategies to achieve the designed vision matters a lot in the success of a business.² Successful organisations consider employee motivation and communication as important facets of organisational triumph. All these concepts fall under one summarised business practice, viz. strategic planning, which is a broad area of study. With respect to the above perceptions, this study seeks to explore leadership and strategic planning, while examining the concepts of leadership, communication, and authority.

Leadership and authority in motivation

Motivation is overtly an issue that often surrounds the discussions pertaining to organisational management. Assumed to have expanded during the development of motivational theories, intrinsic and extrinsic motivational aspects have been on regular discussions, with leadership being one of the foremost motivational aspects.³ The ability of managers in an organisation to raise the morale of workers is becoming essential for any organisation aspiring to succeed within the changing business dynamics and in the competitive business markets. “Rising competition for talent along with federal pay and hiring freezes are bringing increased pressure on leaders to motivate and retain employees.”⁴

Unable to understand important facets of motivating employees, managers often go astray while striving to create inspiration among workers. Different managers opt to use different techniques and while some lead through formal authority, others lead through the influence of certain interpersonal networks. Distinguishing between using leadership and authority is thus a common dilemma.

Distinguishing between the use of leadership and authority in any subject becomes paradoxical especially when considering the prevailing convoluted definitions of these major managerial concepts.⁵ Moreover, motivational and managerial studies have differing opinions on these subjects with broad research revealing that related theories have several exceptions. Understanding the two issues in the context of this discussion would thus require probable definitions of the two terminologies. In a bid to have a succinct distinction, this paper uses the earliest definitions of leadership, which portray leadership as “the ability to impress the will of the leader on those led and induce obedience, respect, loyalty, and cooperation”.⁶

Therefore, it implies that leadership in this context is the ability of leaders to have influence on individuals (subordinates) to achieve their personal goals for the benefit of organisational success. Authoritative leadership is the ability of leaders to lead through institutional power and mandate accorded to them in directing and influencing others (juniors) in an organisation to achieve certain goals.

Leadership in motivation

Effective leadership is one of the critical sources of employee motivation and retention that subsequently contributes to individual employee success and enhanced organisational performance.⁷ Regarded as a democratic form of governance in organisation, leadership in motivation entails leaders putting more emphasis on pressuring individuals to achieve their individual professional ambitions first. Using leadership in motivation thus involves more of motivating others in an organisation, rather than using coercion on employees to have duties of an organisation done. It is worth giving employees the desired independence in undertaking their duties and leading through autonomous employee groups with self-dependency to make informed decisions within their professional mandate.⁸

Motivational leaders as demonstrated by modern studies, require managers in organisations to demonstrate ethical leadership where despite the organisational demands, these leaders remain devoted to achieving organisational goals through morally grounded leadership.⁹ Using leadership in employee motivation would thus mean that managers concentrate on empowering their employees, which builds intrinsic motivation that finally results in goal attainment.

Professional learning & development

Leadership in motivation involves empowering subordinates and this aspect is one of the intrinsic motivation techniques. Intrinsic motivation emerges from pursuing individually significant objectives and it closely relates with enhanced employee engagement, productivity, and improved innovation.¹⁰ Motivational leaders are those concerned with helping employees to establish opportunities that assist them in building their career and supporting organisational mission. Professional learning and development is one of the stratagems that motivational leaders employ in developing new and better employee skills that further stimulate personal growth and organisational triumph.¹¹

Learning and professional skill development is an intrinsic motivation, as learning opportunities strongly relate to increased employee engagement in achieving organisational mission and building career-focused employees.¹² Learning and skill building, as part of intrinsic motivation among workers, leverage their capabilities for both individual professional advancement and organisational growth. Ethical leadership thus enhances employee empowerment through learning and development opportunities, which build a self-reinforcing spiral among them that influence goal achievement subsequently.

Mentoring and coaching of employees

Leadership and job satisfaction are interlinked aspects, with leaders expected to help in the job satisfaction process through providing an enabling and motivating atmosphere.¹³ Mentoring and coaching are considerably modern motivational techniques that leaders employ to enhance job satisfaction. Leadership in motivation involves the use of interpersonal networks as demonstrated by research where ethical considerations involve part of management techniques. As part of empowering individuals, employee mentoring and coaching form part of intrinsic motivation that assists in individual professional growth and organisational growth.¹⁴

Motivational leaders normally empower their juniors by connecting their workers with career mentors who help them in building individual aims, assessing one’s skills, and developing technical skills at work. Coaching and mentoring of employees act as powerful complements to several other professional development opportunities.¹⁵ Ethical leadership, which acts as a motivational aspect, involves actions of career mentorship that provide workers with intrinsic motivation that subsequently enable workers to remain intrinsically focused towards personal and organisational goals.

Recognition and appreciation

Leadership is a practice that involves leading others through interpersonal networks that involve interpersonal skills. Humane is an individual leadership character that entails personal morality of an individual leader.

Leaders also use recognition and appreciation techniques as motivational approaches on their employees. Recognising efforts and contribution of employees is one of the easiest and simplest means of intrinsically motivating employees, which relate to positive spiral or creating enthusiasm among employees.¹⁶ Employees feel intrinsically motivated when managers are capable of recognising their efforts at work and appreciating their hard work even without providing them with incentives and promotions. “Leaders who share credit for mission impact and note the positive career directions of others foster a positive and motivating climate”.¹⁷ Leaders driven by the passion to motivate employees normally recognise the values, beliefs, efforts, and the needs of followers and this aspect gives workers a sense of belonging to the workplace. Leadership in motivation can only require considerate managers.

Authority in motivation

Authoritarian motivation means that management or leaders will probably use certain organisational principles and exercise power as well in order to achieve the intended organisational goals and objectives.¹⁸ Motivating employees through authority involves the practice of managers governing and manipulating human resource through the enforcement of stipulated laws and power accorded to them by the organisation.

The basis of this form of motivation does not lie within the wilfulness of the employees, but it is driven by organisational goals, objectives, and even policies indicated in the business service charter.¹⁹ Employees in authoritarian motivation normally work not because of an innate motive, but because of the stated objectives, rules, and regulations, as well as powerful managers coerce them to perform. It follows the traditional leadership definition that describes leadership as acts by some persons, which persuade, influence, or manipulate others towards achieving an aim.²⁰ In motivating employees, authoritarian leadership uses reward strategies to recognise employees’ efforts towards certain positive achievements.

Using reward strategies

Motivation through authority mainly emphasises on the use of rewarding techniques to create employee enthusiasm towards their work.²¹ Rewards, especially those offered in the form of monetary and other tangible materials, are the foremost components of extrinsic motivators used by authority or power leaders. Managers, who use authority in motivating employees, normally have rewarding strategies that include offering and recognising employees’ hard work through the provision of remunerations, compensations, and incentives that enhance their working impetus.²²

Power inhibition among authoritarian leaders has positive affiliation to respect for institutional power, authority, discipline, and even self-control, which mainly associates with reward offering. Employees used to authority leaders remain bound to the notion that whenever they perform well in any assigned duty, they may receive tangible or material rewards for their good performance. Salary, remunerations, wage increases, and status promotions associate with comfort at the workplace and form the main components of working conditions that many authority leaders consider imperative to workers.

Using coercion and commands

Where democratic leadership seems to fail due to obstinate workforce, informal authority leaders find it important to consider using coercion, commands, and their legitimate power accorded to them by organisations, to have work done. Coercive power occurs when managers deliberately deny rewards and impose or administer punishments to control subordinates in an organisation.²³

The hierarchical order of the organisation remains ideal when using informal authority as leaders to control the behaviour of certain individuals in an organisation. Punishments to rowdy workforce may include reprimands, withholding of rewards, promotions, and even other important incentives of employees to make them understand the will and aims of the company. Strict rules imposed on employees who are disruptive normally impel the rest of the workforce to follow the company’s regulations strictly, and they live in fear of reprimands, lay offs, and hence they perform as required by the organisation.²⁴ Although informal authority that uses coercion and commands offers least impact on job satisfaction and motivation, they enhance job commitment.

Effective strategies for articulating a vision

A vision underscores what a given company intends to achieve in a certain period as stipulated in its main agendas. A vision falls under the modern business techniques that managers employ, which include strategic planning, although since the development of such planning techniques, vision is still an undervalued and misconstrued concept.²⁵ Although regarded as one of the most critical aspects for different companies, managers have continuously failed in developing a practicable vision for their companies as well as achieving the vision itself.²⁶

A vision, as an important facet of an organisation, requires substantial attention in its development and the required strategies towards its achievement. In developing a good vision, managers should first understand the background of the organisation, its initial intent during development, and its main mission statement, policies stipulated by the organisation, as well as rules and regulations governing each single aspect of the organisation. Here are a few considerable aspects requisite in articulating a strategic vision.

Understanding external opportunities and challenges

In a bid to be effectual enough, articulating a vision requires extensive human resource and expertise and it may deem challenging to novice managers. Every organisation serves under a certain environment, with several aspects that are paramount to the development of the business and survival as well.²⁷ With the vibrant changes in the business environment marked by rigorous market competition and changing consumer trends, it is clear that no organisation in the modern world is serving in a static environment. Understanding the business environment including both external opportunities and challenges becomes an integral issue for the vision articulators. As part of the business environment, consumers, political climate, social issues, and economic trends normally have a great impact on service delivery of companies.²⁸

Before articulating or formulating a vision, one of the foremost effective techniques includes understanding all the potential external opportunities and challenges that are capable of influencing the achievement of the vision. Environment has its unique demands that vision articulators should take into consideration.

External opportunities to consider during vision articulation include customer demands. There are high probabilities that services and products are changing and recent innovation in both may deem insignificant in the future. A vision is a long-term business strategy on the expectations and achievements anticipated by the organisation, and thus vision articulators should consider futuristic probabilities. Community demographics, policies, and societal needs are subject to continuous changes, and this aspect presents unique external opportunities and challenges to organisations.

The vision should forever remain focused to cope with the changing market and business dynamics as potential opportunities and challenges. Methods of delivering services, products, and programs change as well, and vision developers should consider these trends while developing a strategic vision.²⁹ For instance, technology is increasingly becoming an essential business component, whereas in the last decades, it was uncommon. As it becomes more acceptable and tolerated by businesspersons, it acts as an external environment that is generating new expectations to the business fraternity as well as to the consumers.

An appraisal of organisational potency and limitation

Before engaging in developing a strategic vision or any form of planning that reflects the future expectations of a company, an assessment of the organisational potency and limitations is essential.³⁰ A vision can be too big or small or even too meaningless to an organisation simply because the articulators overstated the expectation or underestimated the ability of the organisation to achieve the vision. In a bid to develop a clear vision that does not seem insignificant, the vision articulators should begin with understanding the strength and weaknesses of the company through a systematic appraisal of such aspects.³¹

For instance, if the vision demands that the company would expand its services to an international context, the vision articulators should access the privileges and limitations that would hamper the achievement of this strategy. The internal limitation that associates with this expansion is the financial capability of the firm as the main concern coupled with whether the management is having a straightforward attention on the same.

Vision articulators or even board members involved in strategising a vision may be too ambitious and generate bizarre ideas that may result in scaling back of the company. Hence, an assessment of resource availability, both human capital and financial capital, will be essential here.³² The company will only manage to cope well with the vision if the resources required and the other internal conditions are favourable. In addition, poor visioning becomes apparent during the implementation process. “An organisational vision statement remains internally focused and it projects the future in terms of the program, budget, or staff size.”³³

A vision should be achievable and its implementation should be possible and not over-challenging. For instance, a company acquiring heavy machinery without a strategic vision plan will definitely lose a significant amount of money due to unforeseen rising operational costs related to inadequate technical professional workforce, as well as unexpected repair and maintenance costs. Such cases hamper a company’s initial prospects.

Involvement of the senior leadership

Many companies in the modern business world still require hierarchies, despite the rising need for democratic leadership, where autonomous workers groups exist. Nonetheless, in both authoritarian and democratic organisations, senior management that motivates the achievement of the strategic vision remains something paramount.³⁴ Some executive officials rarely find the importance of engaging in the vision development citing lack of necessary time and interest and this trend acts as the beginning of a failed vision.

Apart from taking part in ensuring that employees work towards achieving the vision stipulated by the organisation, they form the board members as the vision articulators.³⁵ They are important in enlightening the vision makers on the relevant background, the present situation of the company, and the expectation of the company within the vision. The senior management, when engaged in vision development, they inform the vision team on the major components of the business, so that the vision may not contradict with the initial and future focus of the company.

An implementation plan with clear priorities

Developing a feasible strategic plan means scrutinising the aims, purposes, future expectations, and strategies of the organisation and then examining their precedence.³⁶ Therefore, a vision developing strategy should take into account how the company will go about the implementation process. Vision development requires strategising on the implementation of the same, failure to which it may sound meaningless to develop the vision in the first place.

“While missions and visions are essential to inspiring commitment to your organisation, they may be seen as hollow unless accompanied by an organised description of activities needed to fulfil the desired aims.”³⁷ It should take into consideration the probability of having a smooth implementation process and the challenges expected in the implementation procedure. Vision developers should understand that a vision should be practical to the entire organisation’s life, and thus ascertain and form implementation techniques that would probably lead to achievement of the stipulated aim.

Leadership skills used in communication

Leadership is a critical organisational component that determines the achievement of important aims and objectives, which come through established relations within the organisation. Communication stands out as one of the foremost principles of organisational culture and it plays an important role in ensuring that activities and programs of organisation work as expected and in the right direction.³⁸

A persistent notion in the management practice is that ethical leaders that remain bound to successful development of the company and workers frequently communicate with fellow management peers to share ideas, with their followers to ensure that employees stay focused, and even with the senior managers within the organisation for consultations.³⁹ Ethical leadership skills ensure that communication skills are considerable aspects of organisational development and they ensure that they also contribute to building good communication. Therefore, leaders require different leadership skills in influencing or negotiating with their peers, communicating with subordinates, and liaising with the senior management.

Leadership skills in communicating with peers

The leadership skills and techniques employed in communicating with different stakeholders within the organisation may differ distinctively depending on the hierarchical order. Management peers probably entails the relationship that amongst between managers in a similar management rank within the hierarchy. Using the model developed by Mumford, this report identifies three major leadership skills required by leaders while communicating with their peers. While communicating with fellow management peers, leaders should have high intellectual ability that enables them to discuss ideas in the most professional manner.⁴⁰ This aspect also combines with professional dexterity and business skills that reinforce their ability in communicating with fellow peers.

Business skills involve requirements such as knowledge, skilfulness, and proficiency in specific functional areas or in their area of specialisation, which allows them to share business ideas competently. These skills determine how individual leaders interact with peers through creative development discussion and decision-making that influences the growth of the organisation.

Leadership skills in negotiating with subordinates

Competent leaders are capable of impressing almost everyone in the organisation and ethical communication with subordinates requires certain headship skills. Proficient leaders should possess the ability to control the subordinates in the most desirable manner while following the intent of the organisation and observing ethical issues in the workplace. Simple cognitive leadership skills in communicating with followers are important as they entail straightforward capacities, such as those required in gathering, dispensation, analysing, and even disseminating information. They involve listening, critical thinking, and appropriate speaking.⁴¹

These fundamental skills are normally requisite for the undertaking of a large portion of activities that involve contribution of the leaders in their accomplishment. Cognitive skills that include simple active speaking, listening, and critical thinking help managers to communicate with the subordinates in an undemanding manner. Interpersonal skills, which include social interaction abilities, are essential communication skills where leaders communicate with subordinates in a modest manner and help in creating enthusiasm in the workplace.

Leadership skills in communicating with senior managers

Managers also have leaders who oversee their performance abilities and occasionally, they seek appropriate advice and consultation where required. Skilled managers will acknowledge the importance of communicating with their leaders in the most professional and honourable manner purposely for the achievement of the organisational objectives.⁴² However, honour is not essential here, what leaders require while communicating with senior management is business skills and strategic skills, which are essential in determining their competence as required by the top management.

By possessing strategic planning skills, senior managers will normally accord the junior managers the respect and trust they deserve while assigning them organisational duties that require competent skills.⁴³ Junior managers while communicating with higher rank officials should show their ability in dealing with complexities in workplace, their ability to handle performance pressures, and their capability in influencing the organisations to marvel through challenging atmosphere and achieve the stipulated goals and vision, which all fall under strategic skills.⁴⁴

Conclusion

Employee motivation is one of the integral aspects in the modern day business environment where competent self-driven workforce is essential in ensuring that the organisation achieves its vision. Whilst some managers use informal authority accorded to them by their organisations to motivate their employees, others prefer using influence based on interpersonal networks. Fundamentally, leadership when defined in the most ethical manner uses the philosophy of motivating employees using intrinsic motivators. Leadership in motivation requires managers to concentrate on empowering workers to become independent in their workplaces, rather than coercion that focus on the company’s vision.

Authority leaders use power in motivating the workforce towards achieving organisational objectives. Within the same note, vision, which is an important component of the organisation and its strategic articulation, requires understanding of the internal and external business environment that includes management, market, opportunities, and the involved challenges. Depending on rank levels, managers should also have varied communication skills that enable proficient communication that suit these levels.

Bibliography

Ciula, J, ‘Ethics and Leadership Effectiveness’, in J Antonakis, AT Cianciolo & RJ Sternberg (eds.), The Nature of Leadership, Sage, Thousand Oaks, 2004, pp. 302 -328. Web.

Herman, J, J Deal, L Lopez, W Gentry, S Shively, M Ruderman & L Zukin, Motivated by the Organisation’s Mission or their Career, Centre for Creative Leadership, 2011. Web.

Mittenthal, R, Ten Keys to Successful Strategic Planning for Nonprofit and Foundation Leaders, TCC Group, 2002. Web.

Mumford, T, T Campion & F Morgeson, ‘The leadership skills strataplex: Leadership skill requirements across organisational levels’, The leadership Quarterly. vol.18, 2007, pp. 154–166. Web.

Footnotes

J Ciulla, Ethics and Leadership Effectiveness’, in J Antonakis, AT Cianciolo & RJ Sternberg (eds.), The Nature of Leadership, Sage, Thousand Oaks, 2004, pp. 302 -328. Web.
J Herman, J Deal, L Lopez, W Gentry, S Shively, M Ruderman & L Zukin, Motivated by the Organisation’s Mission or their Career, Centre for Creative Leadership, 2011. Web.
Ciulla, p.308.
Herman et al., p.1.
Ibid, p.2.
Ciulla, p.306.
Herman et al., p.5.
Ciulla, p.303.
Ibid, p.312.
Herman et al., p.4.
Ciulla, p.310.
Herman et al., p.3.
Ibid, p.12.
Ciulla, p.311.
Herman et al., p.4.
Ibid, p.4.
Ibid, p.6.
Ciulla, p.307.
Herman et al., p.6.
Ciulla, p.309.
Herman et al., p.4.
Ciulla, p.314.
Herman et al., p.7.
Ciulla, p.322.
R Mittenthal, ‘Ten Keys to Successful Strategic Planning for Nonprofit and Foundation Leaders, TCC Group, 2002, retrieved 26 November 2013. Web.
Ibid, p.2.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid, p.3.
Ibid, p.5.
Ibid, p.3.
Ibid, p.7.
Ibid, p.5.
Ibid, p.9.
Ibid, p.7.
Ibid, p.5.
Ibid, p.7.
T. Mumford, T Campion & F Morgeson, ‘The leadership skills strataplex: Leadership skill requirements across organisational levels’, The leadership Quarterly. vol.18, 2007, pp. 154–166. Web.
Ibid, p.155.
Ibid, p.157.
Ibid, p.155.
Ibid, p.158.
Ibid, p.160.
Ibid, p.159.

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