Leadership In Dynamic And Competitive Business Environment

The dynamic and competitive business environment of today has progressed and evolved from the past and the need as a leader to understand your employees is more important than ever. The conventional style of leadership was highly transactional, demonstrated by Matthew Taylor who would pay for production and money was the motivation for employees to neglect their wants and needs, paying them for their output and not their opinions on the business matters. (Rao, 2018). A quote used back in this period was ‘a mindless worker is a happy worker’, which illustrates how the business climate has changed since this age as it is totally different from how current workers want to be handled, which is why the leadership style also needs to be adjusted to the new needs and desires of workers. This leadership style has been introduced into the mainstream by multinational companies like Google who have led the way for other businesses, realising that as a leader you need to understand your staff more than ever and they have implemented a far more Laissez-Faire leadership style approach. (Manimala, 2013). The theory was that if they needed help, they would be smart and figure it out, or ask questions. Since Google is an extremely successful company that can afford to hire smart people, other businesses who seek to follow in their footsteps by having a much more relaxed leadership style will need to adjust their own style because their employee standard will be lower than that of Google. This will mean that It is important that their workers are monitored more or given more space depending on the type of employee to ensure the business runs efficiently. There are also generous incentives and prizes available at Google for implementing creative ideas. (Murray, 2011). Workers consider these programmes as benefits, but the organisation is ensuring that ambitious workers bring their creative ideas into action within the organisation rather than going out and developing a competitive new enterprise. It is estimated that approximately 50 percent of Google’s new products are produced by the ‘free’ time employees earn. (Manimala, 2013). Google, who is a leading creative organisation that has carried out extensive research into the most successful leadership styles in order to understand their workers and achieve the highest quality results from them is a clear demonstration on how the leadership styles have changed over the decades in successful organisations.

In today’s business environment, having empathy for your workers as a leader is extremely important because when a manager or leader is not empathic or does not understand and acknowledge how others feel, a communication divide starts to develop and they are seen as the stereotypical unapproachable boss. (Tice, 2017). A manager who excels in empathy with social intelligence will seek to consider the thoughts and experiences of their colleagues, helping them to interact and collaborate more effectively. (Dynamic Business, 2018). This also helps them manage a team or company by fostering a community where coaching and involving others becomes the norm, making decision making more flexible and promoting leadership styles that are transformative. A leader’s task in a productive company is to ensure that the variety of different employee positions are all led in the same direction to where the business is going. Everyone in the modern world is a unique individual, and they want to be viewed in this way which is why there is no leadership style that suits everybody. As a great leader in the modern world, it’s important that you have adaptability to lead more diverse teams to match various peoples’ backgrounds, ages and cultures across the company’s vision. (Sjibom, 2018). By being sensitive towards various people and knowing and understanding your workers you will be able to communicate ideas for the business and will have a more efficient time when working. Operating effectively as a group by supporting and interacting with each other can be incredibly effective for a company rather than operating as individuals where the company will have more issues and fail to be productive. It may amount to being left behind by rivals whose members understand and treat their workers and lead them in this new business environment where it is extremely important.

Including Herzberg’s motivation factors and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, many leadership theories have been developed which support the notion that leaders need to consider their workforce. In an effort to explain what serves as a motivation for human beings, Maslow has arranged human needs into a hierarchy that varies from basic needs of living like food and water to specific theoretical principles like self-fulfillment. (Benson, 2007). Maslow claimed that the needs that are lower down in the hierarchy must be met before individuals can be attentive to the higher up needs. The needs from the bottom of the hierarchy are: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualisation. As a leader in today’s dynamic environment, it is important to consider your workers and their needs as it states that as needs are met, motivation rises which will be more beneficial to the company as an effective and successful worker would work harder and enjoy working. (Hussain, 2016). Maslows is a framework that can be used by leaders to better explain their workers’ human behaviour, which has been used to explain what their motivating forces are and what is relevant to individuals. Maslow said that human beings must have their basic needs met before we can do something else with this need being survival which is linked to people’s money and wealth. The next target for employees would be job security after people have their basic needs met which would most likely be in the form of money. This is where it is important to consider the workers within the organisation as if workers have these needs met, most people arent satisfied unless the leaders have more for their employees to achieve. If this is not feasible then neither is employee motivation which would cause the leader to have an unmotivated workforce which would result in a lower level of work and productivity which would have implications for the company if all the workers were doing so and the company did not run to the highest standard. (Greiner). Many employers and leaders think that their workers want money and job security but the best leaders know better and recognise certain aspects that workers need. Examples of that will be realising that everyone is working together for an important cause, feeling respected and realising they are having a positive effect and being valued for their contributions. As a leader, it’s crucial to understand and lift employees, particularly in today’s business environment, otherwise the workforce will be very unmotiavted and will not want to participate in helping the company grow and thrive.

As stated previously, employee motivation is extremely important as a leader in recognising and helping to improve the success within the company, which has a direct correlation to also lead to better profitability. It is clear that leaders and managers are not doing enough to improve the morale of workers because it has been announced that 13 percent of employees enjoy their work. (Craig, 2018). That number is incredibly small and is obviously a large problem for most employers and leaders, as this is an enormous opportunity for businesses to miss out on. as I have stated that an unmotivated workforce leads to less profitability, so companies need to invest into their main asset which is their employees if they are wanting to become more of a success. Frederick Herzberg has been trying to understand how businesses can help their workers get more inspired at work. (Business Horizons, 2012). He tried to define the driving factors by asking staff what made them happy vs. unhappy. He had defined key motivators and demotivators through research. The motivators include advancement, the nature of the work, responsibility, growth and achievement. The demotivators (hygiene factors) include company policies, quality of leadership, pay, relationships, work conditions, status and security. It is crucial to consider your workers and their motivators and demotivators as a leader and to improve productivity and efficiency you must eliminate the organisation’s hygiene factors because these are the simple issues that contribute to workplace demotivation. That may be done in the form of removing parts of the organistations, for example, a toxic boss or employee, unsafe working conditions or inappropriate company policies. A leader needs to think about the quality of workers; employment and how their work experience can be improved every day, creating opportunities for workers to be more independent and motivated in their working lives because engagement is a crucial part of employee motivation. (Delser). Herzberg’s model is a great overall example, but it is important to make it unique to the organisation by gathering input from team members as each employee is unique and has their own motivating and demotivating factors. For their workers a leader has to be an example which has a trickle-down effect on workers, creating a standard on how to behave and function in the workplace. An incredibly important aspect to be introduced by all leaders should be encouraging the workers to have a voice and being respected for their views, because that is a major motivator for workers.

It is incredibly important to ensure that the workers are aware of their job position and what is required of them, which is why an Autocratic leadership style must always be integrated into a company because studies indicate that if workers are given complete power over their job and the amount of work to be completed, they will complete the work to a lower quality. (George, 2010). It is important to have a good balance between the various types of leadership and to adapt the types to individual workers who can work well on their own in a comfortable atmosphere or to someone who needs to be told what to do and to follow a more firm and autocratic person. In today’s business dynamic it is important that leaders use all the different types of leadership styles comfortably, flowing with each different interaction with each process. Leaders must be able to recognise which leadership style works best for each employee and knowing when to trust an employee or take charge of a situation would help the company. This will also allow the employee to reach their full potential without the leader obstructing their growth which is very common in many businesses. Managers are viewed in todays world as more of an obstacle for their effectiveness to the business instead of someone who enables them to work more efficiently through a lack of communication and the ignorance of not using a correct leadership style or being able to apply it to a certain employee. (Caldwell, 2016). Managers need to consider the unique perspectives and experiences which influenced their employees in order to lead people. Great leaders are trying to consider the people they lead and to resist prejudices, generalisations and stereotypes. (IMG, 2017). Great leaders have an understanding and awareness of social awareness for their employees so they can apply sensitivity to their leadership styles depending on the person. Within the new business world, leaders need to, and the successful ones are concentrating on improving business results by ensuring that stakeholders such as the employees inside the organisation are aligned with the company’s mission and values. It is a difficult job for a leader but will help create sustainability for the businesses future instead of making short-term gains within the company. Understanding your workers and bringing people together around the mission of companies and common values would build a much more productive business environment that is important in the modern world if businesses are to be competitive now and in the future. (ISSN, 2020). When employees are aligned to the organisations mission and want to be part of something greater than themselves they will work more as a team which will increase communication of ideas and efficiency and enjoyment at the workplace for all employees with a business example of this in the modern era would be Johnson & Johnson. A leader with a good working relationship with his staff is an important part of modern business dynamics, as the problems faced by companies are often too difficult to be personally handled. That’s why collaboration within the company is important with the most successful form of collaboration coming from workers who feel secure in the workplace and are respected and treated properly. That is why it is extremely important for leaders to have a clear understanding with their employees in order to be productive and safe in the present and the future. Overall, it is evident that the most important part of an organisation is the employees and it is clear that leaders especially in today’s business dynamic need to learn and understand employees and build greater communication in order to reach higher levels of success. The leadership styles which were traditionally very transactional have progressed to be transformative for the employees of the business which is becoming the normality in today’s business dynamic and if may progress further in the future or new leadership styles may develop. No matter what change occurs in the future, the employees of the business will always be the main asset a business has as the business would not function without them. Knowing this fact and the understanding of the needs and wants of their employees, leaders must continue to be transformative and to value their employees in order to succeed.