Role of a Manager in Effective Governance Sample for Students

Question: Discuss the Essential Characteristics for Effective Leadership Found in the Recent Academic Literature and Analyse any One Leader of your Choice in terms of the Best Leadership Characteristics that you found in the Literature. Answer: Introduction Leadership is one of the key concepts that take an organisation to the apex of achievement. Effective leadership is one of the fundamentals that is complementary to effective governance and hence organisations emphasise on having on board smart and visionary leaders who are able to illuminate the minds of the team members with the light of knowledge and compel them to think for the collective good of an organisation. Leadership is a multifaceted concept, but the widely accepted definition of leadership states the term as the ability of an individual to drive a team or a group of members towards success and the ability to do this. Leadership entails sound decision making, creating and developing business visions which are important for the overall development of an organisation (Tricker Tricker, 2015). The leaders are not only focused on development of the organisation but also the personal and professional development of the team members which helps them to create an effective bond with them and drive the people towards professional success. An effective leader is always an inspirer and driver that focus on leading people from the front. The rich world History beholds quintessential instances of leaders who are still idolised and there are many people who still tread on their heels (Kpers, 2016). The corporate world has also seen top leaders over the years that have risen from their ashes to pull organisations from the valley of extinction and disappearance. One such example is of Late Steve Jobs who was once driven out of his own organisation Apple which then was a mere bud and again came back to help the organisation survive in pressure situation. The current literature on effective leadership states that leadership is not a mere job that has to be done, but it has to be implemented (Day, 2014). The present study will discuss the current literature on effective leadership and will analyse a Current leader who has changed the view of leadership through implementation of modern leadership. It will analyse the different skills and qualities of the leader chosen which would help to discuss the objectives of the study effectively. The leader chosen for the present study is the New CEO of Google Sundarajan Pichai. Current Literature on Effective Leadership Leadership is always a key subject in the study of management; especially when it comes to governance. Leadership is an old concept but has evolved over the years with the change in the market environment. Over the years there has been significant change in the market environment with globalisation spreading its wings all across the world. In the last couple of decades market has become highly competitive which has forced leaders to focus startegising different ways to help an organisation sustain in the market. Earlier the leaders focused on trait theory of leadership which stated that leaders are inborn and are born with certain traits and mostly used to follow the autocratic style of leadership where the leaders took the complete responsibility of developing business vision and objectives which also involved planning, organising and control of actions (Fairhurst Connaughton, 2014). In this type of leadership the employees had to follow the decisions made by the leader, but in the present business environment autocratic style of leadership is hardly used as leadership have understood the involvement of employees is important in organisational planning. The Current literature on effective leadership highlights that the modern leaders are focused on taking the insights from the employees and team members as they represent the organisation in front of the consumers and hence their ideas and insights becomes extremely important for organisational planning and development of business vision and hence they mostly follow the participative style of leadership that enhances the efficacy of the leadership and also its impact on the organisation as well as the team members. Literature also states that the contemporary leaders are focused on following the transformational style of leadership where the leader focuses on acting a role model and mentor for the development of the employees and inspiring and motivating them to help them achieve the personal and professional objectives which directly help to improve the organisational performance (McCleskey, 2014). The transformational leadership is more focused on transforming the way operations is perceived which helps to get better result from the employees effectively. The contemporary leadership culture tends to enhance the thinking of the team members and also influences them to have positive perception about the work which helps the organisation to make sure it helps to get the best possible insights from the employees to be implemented in the organisational operation. In the contemporary literature transformational style of leadership has been associated as the source of positive energy that is conducted by the leader among the different employees working for the organisation which ultimately helps to achieve the organisational objectives (Lussier Achua, 2015). As per the modern literature of effective leadership, transformational style of leadership is held responsible to create ownership capital among the team members as in the present market environment employees are considered as a mere input that is implemented to get suitable outputs, but it is considered to be a key organisational asset which helps an organisation to achieve the organisational objectives. It has been that effective transformational leaders are inclined to utilise the participative leadership style which has reflected in many of the contemporary leaders like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Sundar Pichai the newest addition in this group (Daft, 2014). Chosen Leaders Profile Sundarajan Pichai is the newest constellation in the world top Leaders. The man was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu in India. His father was an Electrical Engineer in General Electric Chennai, and his mother was a stenographer. Young Pichai was vastly fascinated and engrossed by technology and he was also guided by his father while working in General Electric. He was always intrigued by the challenges his father faced at work and this influenced him to take up Metallurgical Engineering in Bachelors from IIT Kharagpur before completing his 12th from Vana Vani School Chennai. After his Bachelors Degree from IIT Kharagpur he went on to complete Masters in Science from Stanford University in Material Sciences and Engineering. He also completed his MBA from Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (Cusumano, 2016). His pre Google stint was in McKinsey and Company in consulting where he contributed to product management for the firm. He joined the Tech Giant Google in 2004 and worked on different products of the company like Toolbar, Google Gears and then Google Chrome was launched which was completely an App based browser. He led the team for the product management especially on Chrome and the Chrome OS. In the year 2008 he was appointed as the Vice President of the organisation in the product management department. He is responsible for the launch of chrome. He later added Android with Google and his biggest achievement came on August 10, 2015 when he was announced as the Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc by the Founder President Larry Page who overseeing the parent company of Google Alphabet Inc (Brown, 2014). Analysis of Leadership Qualities and Leadership Style Google is one of the biggest IT firm in the world and the Sundar Pichai is the CEO of the organisation and this doesnt keep anything curtained that he as an individual and a professional reached the height of success with sheer talent and excellent participative skills. As a leader Pichai focuses on having all the employees to work with him. He is a transformational leader who prefers to apply the participative style of leadership (Carasco-Saul et al., 2015). The organisation Google has always preferred to provide its employees ample flexibility which would help them to think big and implement their ideas effectively. Pichai has carried on the legacy of implementing participative style of leadership like Larry Page. He has people focus which means he is inclined to work with the employees of the organisation and mentor them properly to drive them towards success. As a transformational leader he is highly focused on communication and interactions with the employees which would help to get the best possible result (DuBrin, 2015). He is a visionary leader developing long term visions and goals like integration of android with Google. He also has a very effective quality of stress management. As an employee even he had wonderful charisma which helped him to excel in almost whatever he did which has helped him to not only manage stress effectively but also to keep the employees in a good state of mind. He always looks to inspire which is a great leadership quality (O'Connell, 2014). He sets examples and inspires people which compel people to follow him. He has the ability of assess situations and take decisions accordingly. His friendly nature, participative mindset and ability to think have helped him to emerge as one of the most inspiring leader in contemporary business environment. Conclusion The application of transformational leadership style and a participative behavior integrated with sheer talent has helped Pichai to reach the pinnacle of success. To conclude it is important to note that the contemporary business environment needs effective leaders like Pichai who are communicative, visionary and could set example for the team members to get inspired and follow the map set by him. It is important to note that the discussion clearly shows modern leadership is highly suitable for effective governance which reflects in the practice of leaders like Sundar Pichai. References Brown, A. (2014).The myth of the strong leader: Political leadership in the modern age. Basic Books. Carasco-Saul, M., Kim, W., Kim, T. (2015). Leadership and employee engagement: Proposing research agendas through a review of literature.Human Resource Development Review,14(1), 38-63. Cusumano, M. A. (2016). Is Google's alphabet a good bet?.Communications of the ACM,60(1), 22-25. Daft, R. L. 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