Effective Leadership Strategies: Motivating Teams for Business Success

Abstract

Leadership in Workplace/Businesses Leadership is the art of taking risks and challenging the status quo so that followers can feel and remain motivated to achieve something new and better. Leadership comes from a leader, thus understanding what defines a leader best. A leader is a visionary figure whose motives are to guide and motivate teams to reach the desired outcomes. A good leader leads others to pursue innovation, not as an obligation which is a great concept behind the saying "leaders are born, not made". In such a case, the leader measures the success of their Leadership through consideration of the teams' achievement and learning from such experiences. While arguing Leadership from the business context, Gandolfi & Stone (2018) associates Leadership with the accomplishment of the set goal/goals through the direction of human assistance vested in the willingness to lead. Gandolfi & Stone (2018) further define Leadership as a significant management function aimed at helping organizations direct their resources for goal realization and enhanced efficacy. For this reason, motivation is an important concept that characterizes Leadership through directing workers or colleagues with defined strategies to meet the set organizational goals by satisfying its needs. How Leadership Works (Mamula et al., 2019) While arguing from a business context, performance defines effective Leadership. For this reason, any form of Leadership must consider performance to ensure that it delivers. Working towards a common goal characterized by teamwork defines effective Leadership. An increase in an organization's bottom line also characterizes effective Leadership. While there may be more than one leader within an organization, most organizations associate upper-level personnel in the management structure with Leadership. Leading by example implies the bottom line in defining effective Leadership as such leaders express defined abilities in establishing strong, trusting relationships to ensure success within the team and the organization. Evolution of Leadership Theories (Klein, 2020; Clark & Harrison, 2018). Leadership theory has a vast history coined around four eras: trait, behavioral, situational and new Leadership. Initially, this evolution focus remained closely defined through natural-born leaders’ perception and identification of influential leaders' traits. Through this focus,e concepts of leaders are born, not made, and become well-reflected and represented. As time elapsed, behavioral Leadership replaced the trait approach with defined emphases and focused on the leader's actions. It is an approach that adjusts the notion that a leader is born, not made, by associating and measuring a leader's potential through performance achievements. Since Leadership is about change with success defined through the effects of such a change, situational and contingent theories elaborated on what constitutes effective Leadership. Based on this approach, the ability to fit into a given context defines an effective leadership style. It is an approach that brought light to analyzing various leadership styles from a business context. However, the three above-mentioned traditional leadership theories played a significant role in answering the leadership puzzle and offering some insights into what defines effective Leadership; they paved the way for new leadership theories to elaborate on Leadership in business. New leadership theory considers factors that defy Leadership and adopt systematic approaches to Leadership through the lenses of modern world complexities. Characteristics of new leadership theory Leadership has become more collaborative and people-oriented: no more autocratic leadership approaches as effective Leadership remains characterized by the inclusion of workforce inputs in the decision-making process) Modern Leadership is all about empowerment: Industrial evolution era approaches dropped and were replaced by an integrative leadership style that recognizes employee's strengths and ensures the availability of resources for employees to utilize the noted strengths to their best Leaders are active participants: Leaders lead by example, unlike traditional theory approaches where Leadership thrives on work delegation. Modern Leadership invests leaders in teams and companies in practically realizing the set organizational goals. Technology makes things easier: Constant evolution of technology positively impacts Leadership. Through technology, leaders facilitate collaborative work environments and enhance team flexibility while performing their job. Reasons why Leadership is essential in a business (Kotter, 2017; Gandolfi & Stone, 2018 and Ciulla, 2020) Implement visions and values: Businesses have a clear vision of where...