Cultural Dimensions of Leadership
April 3, 2025
Introduction Leadership in organizations is dictated and determined according to a variety of reasons and factors including personality, cultural, and country and regional aspects. Among the various factors, the cultural dimension of leadership is often not highlighted as it is taken as a given. However, with globalization and the advent of tighter integration and interconnectedness,…
The leadership continuum was originally written in 1958 by Tannenbaum and Schmidt and was later updated in the year 1973. Their work suggests a continuum of possible leadership behavior available to a manager and along which many leadership styles may be placed. The continuum presents a range of action related to the degree of authority…
Loss of Trust and Faith and the Rise of Populists Public trust and faith in institutions is at an all time low. Starting with the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 in the United States and then the Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe in 2009, including the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, and the election…
It is rightly said that if you get a good boss, you are the luckiest employee and if your boss does not support you, God can only save you! Leaders are appointed to provide a direction to the team members and also motivate them to deliver their level best.
Is there any employee who admits that he does not work hard in office? Infact no one. Then why do you think very few people really make it big and get the opportunity of managing individuals? Remember, being a leader is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Management plays an essential role in not only recruiting the right person as a team leader but also overcoming the challenges faced in leadership. Management needs to understand the importance of a leader.
Do we need a boss just for the sake of it? Do not ask the wrong person to manage a team. This would not only demotivate the other individuals but also spoil the office environment. It is the responsibility of the human resource department and of course the top management to ensure that the right person gets the opportunity to lead a team.
If you are hiring an individual from outside, make sure you do check his credibility, past achievements, experience, educational qualification and most importantly his/her background before rolling out the appointment letter.
Disaster is bound to happen if a person with no experience or for that matter a criminal background is hired as a team leader. Neither your employees would respect such a person nor bother to listen him/her. No matter of strictness, team meetings, stringent policies would help if the responsibility of managing people is on the shoulders of a wrong person.
Management needs to be extra careful in situations where existing employees are being promoted to lead a time. The challenge is in fact more in such cases. It is not that difficult for employees to accept someone who is completely new to them rather than reporting to someone who was their colleague at some point of time and now their reporting authority. Promotions should be linked to individual concerned’s track record, past performances, behavioural skills, attitude and so on.
Employees would never accept someone as their leader who has never performed but is management’s favourite. Trust me, in due course of time , you would face severe problems which would not only lead to good employees quitting and moving ahead but also unsatisfied employees who are there with the organization just to kill time and money.
Management also needs to give space to all the team leaders. Every individual has his/her own style of working. Do not interfere much. You need to give some time to an individual to perform and prove himself/herself. How can you expect a person to perform extraordinarily in just one month? Even the best of employee would not be able to deliver in a very short period. A boss needs one to two months to understand his employees and another one month to make them work and also extract the best out of them.
Give them some freedom and authority. There are organizations where leaders are appointed just to prepare reports, excels and handle the grievances of their team members. For every small approval, they need to discuss with the top management. Trust me, this way managers feel handicapped. Let them take decisions on their own.
Management needs to trust and have faith in leaders, vertical heads, team managers and so on. If you do not trust them, then you should not appoint them at the first place.
In case of issues, discuss with the leaders first rather than directly interacting with the team members. No one would like and accept it. Give them budgets, deadlines, well defined roles and responsibilities and a good team and let them work in their own way. You would definitely see the difference in a short span of time.
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