Organizational Leadership and Relationship Building Plan

1. Introduction

Building a relationship within an organization is important for the success. This requires skills and knowledge at all levels of engagement. Organizations should always have plans for developing better relationship.  Developing relationships in an organization is as important as making sure the goals of the organization are met. It is important for any organizational leadership to create bases for employee on all levels to relate professionally. In looking at the ways in which the creation and development of the relationships within the organizations, the ranks, expertise and roles in the organization are important factors to look at. These are the causes of disagreements in an organization. The ranks create rifts in instances where the communication channels make it difficult for the management to get their messages across to the junior staff. The leadership may be too rigid in opening up the avenues for the junior staff to get to them. This is the most crucial part to straighten up when planning and developing strategies for relationship building in an organization.

2. Leadership table-  formatted to fit in the report

Topic	Responses
Strengths as a leader	Foresight,Time consciousOpen to correction, suggestions and new ideasTeam playerListening skills
Weakness as a leader	Multitasking Making rush decisions
Communication skills	Excellent
Personality	Easy going. Employees find the leader’s personality approachable
Emotional IQ	Good
Trust	High. The leader trusts the employees to perform their duties without too much supervision
Leadership Approach	Beldin’s Team Leadership approach (Learning for Tomorrow, 2017)
Demonstrated Leadership Skills	Working with the junior employees to create a schedule that balanced between the welfare of the employees and the company goals.
Vision Strategic Goal Implementation	Creating a relationship building strategy.Engaging all the employees of the organization in creating a suitable schedule for the same.Creating a time line for implementationImplementing the strategyEvaluation of the strategy (PROSCI INCORPORATED, 2017)

3. Leadership Assessment Summary 

Personality Typology Test

The results of this test indicate that the leader has a hint of introversion stronger than extroversion. The leader in this instance makes decagons based of reasons rather than intuition. This personality values judgement over perception. This means that the leader makes a decision after observing a situation rather than passing judgement based on intuition. 

Emotional intelligence quiz

The emotional intelligence result was high. This means that this leader can easily relate with the employees and achieve the goals of the organizations in the long run.

Communication skills

Communication skills are important and the score at this point is excellent. As a leader communication is crucial in ensuring that all the parties get the right information to work with. As a leader, the score is excellent. 

Self- Esteem Quiz

Self-esteem as a leader is important in ensuring that challenges along the way will not discourage their course of action. Leaders with solid sell esteem are usually easy to deal with and always succeed because they have confidence in themselves and their decisions.

Are you a leader? 

The test result for this section was that the leader is considered a tyrant. Being a tyrant is synonymous with being a control-freak. Nothing happens in the organization without approval and participation for the leader. 

Leadership skills

The leadership skills are well manifested in this leader. This characterised by the approach taken in handling a crisis and conflict within the organization. The steps taken in making decisions are also key in a good leader.

4. Relationship Building Action Plan.

A leader with good people skills is the perfect leader. This is because they can easily understand how to treat each employee appropriately. This is an ability that will help the leader to know how best to give instructions to the employee. There will always be employees who work better when they are shown that they can be in charge without supervision and those who do not mind supervision. In the long run, the organization needs a leader who understand people because only then can the leader adequately resolve conflict when it occurs. A leader with people skills can motivate the employees effectively and solve their problems as well. People skills in a leader can make or break the stability and prosperity of an organization. (Wolinski, 2010) A leader with good people skills can easily unite the employees to achieve the goals of the organization without making them feel overly patronized.

The weaknesses that as the leader mentioned above need to be worked on are the failure to consider how ell to motivate people to achieve maximum performances. As leader motivation and setting of standards is very important. Leadership is job where by no experience is ever enough. Willingness to learn is important and should always be encouraged. This is another factor to consider when looking at the weaknesses shown by the leadership basement tools mentioned above. The weakness of the leader is the fact that the leader remains in control of all aspects of the organization. The leader who wants to participate in all aspects of the organization’s activities is an autocratic leader.

The leader-follower relationship is mainly the relationship between the management and the employees. This relationships are often cultivated by the types and avenues of communication that connect the leader to their followers. This theory was developed by Phillips and Bedeian in the year 1994. (Stubblefield, 2010) This theory suggests that leaders have a job because there are other junior employees who need direction. This relationship is in place because when the organization has problems, the junior employees are the first to know and there has to be a leader to find a solution for it. Leaders in this instance are decision makers. It is also important for the leaders using this method of leadership to create a relationship with the employees. This will make it easier to solve the organizational problems as they arise and eventually achieve the goals of the company. However, the followers are divided into various groups; isolates, bystanders, participants, activists and diehards. These groups of people are all found in the organization. The isolates are never concerned about the new strategies of the organizations, once it is implemented they just go along with it without raising objections or suggestions for improvement. Whatever is handed to them is what they take. The by-standers are the employees who watch the strategy being created and implemented but only participate where they have no option. The participants are the employees who support the idea that is presented to them. They can either swing in the favour of the company management or against it.  The activists have their own ideologies which can either be in support of the leader or against. The activists are very strong as they can even dare to oust a leader whose ideas they are opposed to. (Stubblefield, 2010) The die-hards choose a path and follow to the end. They are always ready to accept the consequences of their choices even when it means them being fired or alienation by other employees.

Given all the efforts that a leader is likely to put in making sure the welfare of the employees is catered for, they would not take it kindly with the isolates. It will be disheartening for a leader to develop a project and when they need feedback and input from the employees, the isolates have nothing to say. These are the same people who work in unsatisfying jobs all their lives to the point where they lose hope and have not motivation to work. This is a group that may cause problems for a leader because it is their aim to create a relationship between the organization’s leadership and the employees in a way that will ensure inclusivity of all employees. (Ellis, 2015)The relationship between the leader and the employees may grow apart or broken when the isolates become more apparent in the organization. This may grant the die-hards and the activists too much power that will not cater for the needs of the other employees in the running of the affairs of the organization. As a leader, strong people skills are required to deal with people of this kind. This will prevent future problems where employees will be reluctant to support a new and potentially improved strategy of operations for the organization.

As a leader, it is important to have the patience to keep reaching out to this group of people. They may occasionally respond and when they do they need to be awarded with recognition in whichever small way. Whenever they do not respond during the strategic planning meetings, they should be encouraged to reach out to the leader whenever they feel they have a contribution to make. This is one practical way of ensuring that the isolates are not such a bother to the leaders. As a leader, making decisions quickly and accurately is important. However, a leader who makes decisions too fast without clearly thinking about the consequences can cause the fall of a company or unrepairable damage in terms of losses. (Renesch, 2012) The decisions may be about the working hours of the employees. Overworked employees are not overly productive. This may result in the organizations selling poor services and poorly done products. This is something that will definitely cause the organization to loose clients and profits at the end of the day. The other weakness of a leader is the inability to multi task effectively. A leader that can handle many tasks without failing to deliver on any of them is an efficient leader. Multitasking can be a big problem and a leader with a challenge in multi-tasking should acknowledge the problem and work closely with assistants to keep track of all their work. This is to ensure that no projects are late in completion of not done well.

Personal leadership skills in implementing a relationship building strategy for an organization are important. These skills are supported by the strong presence of values, ethics and positive attitudes. An ethical leader would rather resign form their post than approve of a practice that would endanger the employees. Ethics can be taught but the implementation is personal choice. A leader with the push to serve the organization effectively will always act ethically. They will always be ready to put the organizational goals ahead of their own personal goals in life. Values and ethics go hand in hand. Leadership requires strong values and firm authority. Firm is not necessarily harsh. When a leader has the correct values they would not hesitate to relieve an employee of their duties after they have warned them severally of misappropriating the funds of the company. A leader with good values will take the time to understand why a particular employee is always asking for days off. (Thompson, 2007) A leader with good values will ensure that the employees working under them are well taken care of. The attitudes of leaders are important in ensuring that the success of the organization is not limited to them only. A leader with a progressive attitude will always ensure that all the strategies developed for the organization are successfully implemented. This requires positivity and strong will to succeed.

A constructive organizational structure and culture is important for the success of an organization. This structure is created and based on communication. An organization is nothing without communication. The first thing to do in order to develop an organizational structure is to establish a good communication strategy. The communication strategy is always effective where information moves upwards or downwards fast enough. This is to ensure that the management and employees are operating on the same page. (Shirley, 2013) The ability by the employees to communicate their concerns to the management and the management responding to these concerns promptly is a sure way of structuring an organization well enough. When the communication lines and channels are open within the organizations. It is important for any organization to encourage employees to work as a team regardless of their ranks. This is something that only the leaders in an organization can create and implement. They implement by going down to the level of the employees and working among them and not working above them. This way the relationship between the leaders and the employees is made open and more profitable.

Employees and employers will always have distinctions. This is because of their expertise, level of influence in the company as well the ability of the two groups of people to effect changes in the company. The relationship between the employer and the employees must always be professional and formal. However, effective employees can speak to their employers and make suggestions and requests as well. The employer on the other end must be in a position to respectfully respond to the employees and explain why their suggestion will be adopted, rejected or modified. (Thompson, 2007)This is a way of ensuring that the relationship is cordial. No party will feel superior to the other in terms of growing the organization and achieving its goals. This is why the employers must always be in good terms with their employees. This means that they should pay them well, give them opportunities to grow and at the same time create conducive working environments for them.

The organizational communication systems influence how the organization will interact with the external environments. When an organization has efficient communication systems within, then the external communications and interactions are easy to handle because there will always be a group of people in charge of that. External interaction is in form of advertising, campaigns on environmental conservation as well as establishing programs that enable the organization to give back to the society. This can be in the form of scholarships or medical camps annually. (Capital, 2016) An organization that is responsible will always want to be involved in the affairs of the communities surrounding them an organization that is responsible will always want to connect with their clients as well. This is a connection that will enable the organization to develop better products and services. Responsible leaders will always find ways of connecting with their external environments respectfully.

Conclusion

To conclude, people can always try to play leadership roles in the society and fail. This is because of the approach they choose may not be effective for the organization. In organizations in the service industry, the leadership is very crucial. This is because the leadership strategies are often mirrored in the efficiency of the services the clients are able to receive. It is important for any leader heading a service company understand that ill treatment of the employees spills over to the clients. This is in addition to the fact that the leaders can easily influence the employees to reduce customer loyalty. It is important for a leader to treat their employees as they would wish the clients to be treated. This means the employees should be given enough time for rest. This includes days off and leave days within their calendar year. In addition to this, the leaders have to ensure that the working hours are manageable for the employees. Tired workers cannot be efficient. A good leader will be emotionally intelligent and conscious of the demands the market the organization they are operating in are. Smart leadership can enable a leader to create good relationship in the organization.

References

Capital, F. W. (2016, May 9). John Mackey’s 3 Steps to Conscious Leadership. Retrieved from Far West Capital: www.farwstcapital.com/blog/3-tips-conscious-leadership-john-mackey/

Ellis, C. (2015, July 23). The Secret Power of Conscious Leadership. Retrieved from Liquid Planner: googleweblight.com/i?u=https://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/the-secret-power-of-conscious-leadership/&grqid=qnHDSyax&hl=sw-KE

Learning for Tomorrow. (2017). Styles of Leadership: Lewin and Beldin. Retrieved from Leadership: https://www.iwise.com/node/102

PROSCI INCORPORATED. (2017). Change Management Measurement and Metrics. Retrieved from Prosci: www.prosci.com/change-managemnt/thought-leadership-library/measuring-change-managemnt-effeciveness-with-metrics

Renesch, J. (2012, October). The Coscious Organization: Workplaces for the Self-Transcended. Retrieved from Intergral Leadership Review: intergralleadership.com/7594-the-conscious-organizaton-workplaces-for-the-self-trascended/

Shirley, M. R. (2013). Lewin’s Thoery of Planned Change as a strategic resource. Strategic Leadership for Organizational Change, 69-72.

Stubblefield, M. J. (2010, January). Ledaer-Follower Theory: Meaning and Impact. Retrieved from LEAD: leadmcg.com/success/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=133:leader-follower-theory&catid=49:lead-publications&Itemid=103

Thompson, K. R. (2007). A Corporate Training View of Ethics Education: An Interview with Dov L Seidman. Journal of Leadership &Organizational Studies, 80- 90.

Wolinski, S. (2010, April 21). Leadership Theories. Retrieved from Leadership: managementhelp.org/blogs/leadership/2010/04/21/leadership-theories/