Harvard Business Review: Free Essay with Article Summary and Discussion

Goleman, D. (2017). Leadership That Gets Results (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard Business Press.

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Summary

The subject article of this summary was written by Daniel Goleman, an American behavioral scientist. He introduces the article by predicting the answer to a question asking about what an effective leader does as strategy setting, motivation, mission creation and culture building. However, his prediction regarding a question about what leaders should do is straightforward. The article outlines that the leader should deliver results (Goleman, 2017). However, a mystery exists in the mechanism of ensuring the results are delivered by sparking the best performance among the employee fraternity.

The author identifies six leadership styles that are often utilized by organizational leaders to inspire of force fellow employees towards the achievement of the firm's objectives as the individual professional aspirations of the workers. They are the coercive style in which the leader dictates every action of the employee and demands full compliance. Also, there is the authoritative style in which the leaser states the goals set for every employee but grant liberty for employees to decide their methods of achieving the galas. The affiliate style leaders pay attention to their employees' needs in the setting of the strategies. On the other hand, the democratic style leaders involve employees in decision making. The fourth style is the pacesetting style in which the latter sets the performance standards by practically doing specific jobs to inspire the human resource. The coaching style is the final style, and it entails taking the employees through the processes they acknowledge as challenging (Goleman, 2017). Also, the author emphasized the importance of self-awareness, social skill besides self-management as the crucial components of emotional intelligence required for effective leadership. Also, the author notes that effective leadership yield results in the most economical and efficient ways.

Main Learnings

First of all, the author acknowledges the differences among personalities of different people in the workplace. Leaders are not exempted from such uniqueness. Therefore, the six leadership styles discussed in summary above are more detailed than many people may think because some are undertaken subconsciously while others are learned (Goleman, 2017). The coercive leadership style is one that applies forceful mechanisms to achieve results. In most cases, it is applicable in situations in which the leaders may be dealing with problematic employees whose adherence to rules is a challenge. On the other hand, the affiliate leadership style utilizes a more social approach than the first as it is concerned with the welfare of the employees. For instance, if the employee is to be granted paternity leave, decisions concerning their future at the firm are made with regards to the fact stated above (Anderson & Sun, 2017). The democratic leadership style involves engagement of employees in company decision-making.

For instance, decisions concerning changes to the duty rosters in work rotations are made in consultative meetings. However inclusive the style is, it hampers fast resolution of petty cases, and employees feel like they do not have a strong leader to direct their actions. The coaching leadership style is effective in firms whose operations are not well known by the majority of the workers. However, the style is usually short-lived as people learn the traditions and operations of the fir. Therefore, it may be condescending for the leader to retain the style beyond the introductory stages of the human resource.

The other learning from the article is the importance of emotional intelligence. It is made up of four aspects; self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and social skill. Self-awareness refers to the leader's acknowledgment of their flaws and attempting to correct them, knowing their level of irritation and avoiding such circumstances besides being self-confident. Self-management is synonymous to self-control (Anderson & Sun, 2017). As one aspires to set the pace and direct the actions of employees, they ought to set high behavioral and professional standards for others to follow. Social awareness refers to the inherent abilities such as empathy with employees' experiences and striving to improve their working and personal environments for optimal performance. The author also highlighted social skill as the stereotype of a leader's characteristics (Anderson & Sun, 2017). It refers to the leader's ability to inspire and motivate the employee by communicating the organization's vision and strategies convincingly and eloquently.

Lesson Learnt and Its Relevance

Alfatone, a firm I am a partner at, is involved in the manufacture of bulbs. Therefore, it employs many people, whose leadership is determinate of the firm's prosperity. From the account of the author of the article, Goleman, no single leadership style is self-sufficient. All the six leadership styles are complimentary and thus, ought to be applied simultaneously to ensure inspired performance in an organization. For example, sometimes employees need to be coerced to achieve their professional potential. Similarly, at times, employees need inclusion in decision-making in major situations to instill the sense of belonging that motivates the human resource. Also, some employees and sometimes all employees in different circumstances may need the affiliate leadership as it has a personal and social tough that endears an employee to a fir, establishing loyalty (Panait, 2017). For instance, in stations such as grief, employees need to be understood, not coerced into work settings. However, coaching and autocratic leadership are similarly important in developing the self-esteem of the employees required for performance.

Furthermore, it is unnatural for one leader to possess all the leadership styles discussed above as some ought to be learned due to the bureaucracies of different organizations. Therefore, Alfatone ought to employ different people, who bring different leadership style on board, hence complimenting each other towards performance. Also, the aspects of emotional intelligence learned re determinate to the effectiveness of organizational leadership (Panait, 2017). Therefore, Alfatone ought to organize training platforms and coaching sessions to tutor the leaders in the acquisition and practice of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and also social skills.

References

Anderson, M. H., & Sun, P. Y. (2017). Reviewing leadership styles: Overlaps and the need for a new 'fullrange'theory. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(1), 76-96.

Goleman, D. (2017). Leadership That Gets Results (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard Business Press.

Panait, C. (2017). EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN LEADERSHIP. Scientific Research & Education in the Air Force-AFASES, 2.