Leadership.

Now, as perhaps never be fore, there is a growing awareness the success and profitability of organizations are directly dependent on the effective use of human resources. The real test of your ability as a leader and supervisor is how skilled you are in establishing and maintaining human organizations.

Leadership is a responsibility that must be practiced full-time. Each minute must be spent wisely, and this is not easy. Because it involves the complexities and eccentricities of people, leadership almost defies description and understanding. Along the same line, it is still virtually impossible to identify with certainty, the specific causal factors that determine leadership success at a specific time and place. This is because real-life situations are in a constant state of change, with many factors or variables in place at the same time.

While leadership and management are often thought of as one and the same, there is an important distinction between them. Leadership is a broader, more encompassing process. Management is a special kind of leadership in which the achievement of organizational goals is of most importance. The primary difference between the two concepts originates with the word organization. Leadership manifests itself any-time you try to influence the behavior of an individual or group, regardless of the reason. It may be for your own goals or for those of others, and the goals may or may not agree with organizational goals.

To lead effectively and dynamically, you must possess three competencies:

1. The skill of diagnosing--being able to understand the situation you are trying to influence.

2. The skill of adapting--being able to adjust or fit your behavior and your other resources to meet the contingencies of the situation.

3. The skill of communicating clearly--being able to communicate in a way people can easily understand and accept.

Components Of Effective Leadership

Supervisors should be familiar with the latest information and advice concerning motivation and leadership. To benefit the most, you should place emphasis on those procedures best fitting your situation and the conditions under which you carry out your supervisor's responsibilities.

Here are the most significant ones:

* Concentrate on the most important parts of your job. One of these concerns how you respond to forces and events outside your control: unexpected equipment break-downs, labor problems, govern-mental regulations and the like. Although your attention to these matters is necessary, handling them successfully gains you only a reputation for competence.

The more critical part of your job consists of the work you, as a supervisor, should do. In involves the opportunities for your organization to outdistance the competition, increase safety, improve product quality, cut costs and operate your department more effectively and efficiently. Whatever the area, this effort sets you apart from all other supervisors and establishes you as a true leader.

* Set high standards for yourself. If you set a good example by the amount of energy you put into your work and your determination to reach objectives, you will challenge your organization to match your performance. The only way you can expect high standards of performance from subordinates is to set even higher standards for yourself.

* Assure the needs of employees are satisfied. The lowest needs of people are food, clothing and shelter. Higher needs are recognition, security, belonging and self-fulfillment. Many people can get the lowest needs by working almost anywhere, and sometimes by not working at all. Therefore, their willingness to stay and to work hard depends on the degree to which the needs for recognition, belonging and feeling they are involved in something worthwhile are filled. You should be aware, however, sometimes the needs of the employees and those of the company are in conflict. Also, not all psychological needs can be provided by working. You must identify those areas where the needs of each coincide, for example, in safety, and use this fact to the greatest advantage of both. When you have identified the areas of conflict, as in absenteeism, you can face up to them so employees know where they stand.

* Develop strong and efficient subordinates. If employees are to feel they are growing and increasing their knowledge, they need to be given challenging assignments; as they successfully complete such projects, their self-confidence and sense of participation increase. Supervisors who develop employees not only have a stronger team working in their department, but they create additional time in which to be productive on their own job.

* Perfect your supervisory stye. There are three concerns to keep in mind as you work at becoming known for your distinctive style of supervising:

1. Study your own personality and adopt those supervisory techniques that suit you best.

2. Alter and modify any personality traits that conflict with your job objectives or the company's philosophy.

3. Avoid trying to imitate someone else's style of supervising: you'd be unconvincing and appear to be insincere.

Leadership Qualities Motivate Employees

Transformational leadership is a factor in motivating employees. With today's trend of lay-offs, early retirements and reengineering, the question of how best to supervise and motivate employees is a significant one. Researchers are increasingly finding employees are more motivated, productive and satisfied in an atmosphere of transformational leadership.

Transformational leaders move employees beyond self-interest to concern for the overall organization by encouraging the questioning of basic assumptions and problem-solving from new perspectives. They unite them with a common purpose or mission and they encourage them to view challenges as opportunities.

Employees identify with and emulate transformational leaders who motivate them to work toward mutually desirable goals. Many of these employees also feel supported in thinking for themselves, in addressing challenges and in considering creative ways to develop personally.

This leadership style is not new but rather has garnered attention recently because of its effective use by the growing number of female managers. Researchers say female leaders, in particular, tend to structure organizations with fewer positions of authority at the top. This flatter hierarchy encourages employees to work toward achieving their own highest potential.

Team Leadership

One of the toughest supervisory jobs is to lead work teams to the point at which they perform at their greatest potential. With the use of teams on the rise in the automotive industry and elsewhere, supervisors need to learn to become effective team leaders.

A self-directed work team is a good example of where astute leadership is required if the team is going to be successful. Employees on such a team are responsible for identifying and solving problems, setting goals, and, in some cases, even arranging their own work hours. Although it may seem there's not much left for a team leader to do, his or her job actually involves several activities of a leadership nature. These include identifying training needs, deciding which team members to train, providing overall support and others. Of most concern, the leader must ensure the members possess the right skills and abilities.

A team leader must also serve as the liaison between the team and other employees within the plant. This activity could involve representing the team in negotiations, promoting the team's accomplishments or gathering information on matters that affect the team. Because a team environment is often stressful, managing conflict is one of the major challenges a leader faces. No matter how much a leader tries to divide the work fairly, some members may inevitably feel they did more than others. Additionally, a few members may feel a sense of injustice when a co-worker gets a raise or promotion.

Good team leaders try to eliminate the sources of conflict among team members. They do this by creating a sense of personal accountability and achievement among team members and by motivating individuals.

Functional Leadership

To improve their performance in functional leadership, today's organizations require new forms of leadership at all levels in the company. Competent leaders are challenged by the traditional management establishment and the old saying "these are the ways things are supposed to get done in our company."

Although these leaders work with employees to achieve remarkable results, it is difficult for some to become leaders without support from their superiors. Nurturing works both up and down the hierarchy. In addition to needing security, effective leaders must know their superiors are effective leaders, too. Leadership beliefs, values and behaviors start at the top of the organization and "rub off" on individuals on the job and on crew leaders. Leadership skills to improve a company's effectiveness are not limited to management. There usually are a few able leaders among the hourly employees.

Leadership flexibility is one of the requisites of effective supervisors. They must constantly shift between being a manager, leader or team member to fit the current situation. The combination is essential for high performance leadership. Most traditional supervisors stay with one role, one style. Typically, one role is all they learned and all that was expected of them.

Supervisors should pay close attention to the needs of their work group and the requirements of the jobs they perform. They can then decide what would be the best leadership style to use under particular circumstances. For example, when the work group obviously needs direction, they can provide detailed instructions while also closely supervising the work. Leadership of this type is essential if the work group is relatively young and inexperienced or the levels of overall job competence are fairly low.

If the work group needs coaching, the supervisor explains why the job is important and must be performed in a certain manner. The supervisor should also ask the group for ideas and suggestions on how to do certain jobs more efficiently. Coaching is appropriate when workers are gaining experience and learning how to work together with a leader.

Occasionally, the work group may need support. If the members understand the job enough and their skills are sufficient, the supervisor may be able to make an assignment without giving detailed instructions. He or she then shares the decision-making responsibility with the work group.

The supervisor may supply additional support by securing essential data from other departments or work groups. When work groups begin working well together and have reached progressively higher levels of job competence, the supervisor should commend them for their efforts.

Use of the leadership style most suitable to the project or job being performed often determines the time it takes to complete it. Workers get satisfaction from their jobs only when they know they have done their best and they feel they have pleased management. By recognizing effective leadership means changing your style to suit the needs of the work group and the job, you will have taken a major step in demonstrating your competence as a supervisor.

Being A Leader Rather Than A Driver

How well do you get along with employees? Do they respect and admire you? If there is a question in your mind about this relationship, maybe you are more of a driver than a leader. A driver demands things be done rather than requesting something in a normal way. A driver doesn't really look for respect or cooperation, relying mostly on authority to move subordinates.

Here are some of the most common taboos when it comes to treating others, along with why they are considered poor managerial techniques:

* Don't set impossible goals. If you allow subordinates to plan their own work and set their own goals, you avoid setting impossible goals for them.

* Don't find fault. Avoid finding fault with the work or performance of anyone. Everyone needs to feel they're doing a good job. Since most are done well rather than poorly, show you are as skilled at recognizing good work as you are at recognizing bad.

* Don't instill fear. Realize you can't get more work or better performance out of people by threatening them. Punishment has only a minimal, if any, affect on productivity. What you most likely get from threats are poor morale, high absenteeism and dissatisfied employees.

* Don't oversupervise. When you hand out assignments, move out of subordinates' way and let them handle the project the way they see fit. Show confidence in their abilities by not oversupervising them.

* Don't argue. There is never a need for you to argue with anyone; employees know you are in charge. If an employee handles an assignment poorly or is wrong in his or her thinking, say so. But if you make an argumentive remark, you are in trouble. Although you may win an argument, you lose something much more valuable--cooperation and respect you need to be a successful supervisor.

W. H. Weiss is a consultant in industrial management. He has a B.S. in chemical engineering and an M.B.A. from Kent State University. He has written books and free-lance articles on human relations, management and engineering.