CHAMA LEADERSHIP
CHAMA LEADERSHIP:
IMPORTANCE:
1. Providing Guidance
Leaders offer guidance to all members of the group to ensure they are fulfilling their roles. Guidance involves responding to questions and resolving problem. A leader intercedes and finds a solution to enhance efficiency of the group member.
2.Building Morale
Effective team leaders ensure that team morale remains high among your members to ensure that they perform their tasks efficiently. Leaders can impact morale by helping to instill a sense of confidence and creating an environment of cooperation between the members so that they work together to achieve the groups objectives.
3.Fostering Creativity
A team leader can foster an atmosphere of creativity that can lead to innovation in the day to day operations of the group.
4. Promoting Values
Team leaders can promote essential values that are crucial to the success of the group. A team leader who exhibits honesty and integrity in all his activities, for instance, can serve as a role model for team members to ensure that they will act in a similar fashion. A team leader who admits a mistake and takes ownership of the situation can demonstrate the importance of acting with accountability to the rest of the team.
TYPES:
- Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic leadership style is centered on the boss. In this leadership the leader holds all authority and responsibility. In this leadership, leaders make decisions on their own without consulting subordinates. They reach decisions, communicate them to subordinates and expect prompt implementation.
- Democratic Leadership
In this leadership style, subordinates are involved in making decisions. Unlike autocratic, this leadership is centered on subordinates’ contributions. The democratic leader holds final responsibility, but he or she is known to delegate authority to other people, who determine work projects. The most unique feature of this leadership is that communication is active upward and downward.
- Strategic Leadership Style
Strategic leadership is one that involves a leader who is essentially the head of an organization. The strategic leader is not limited to those at the top of the organization. It is geared to a wider audience at all levels who want to create a high performance team.
The strategic leader fills the gap between the need for new possibility and the need for practicality by providing a prescriptive set of habits. An effective strategic leadership delivers the goods in terms of what a team naturally expects from its leadership in times of change. It normally involves strategic thinking.
- Transformational Leadership
Unlike other leadership styles, transformational leadership is all about initiating change in the group. They motivate others to do more than they originally intended and often even more than they thought possible. They set more challenging expectations and typically achieve higher performance. This tends to have more committed and satisfied followers as it empower them.
- Team Leadership
Team leadership involves the creation of a vivid picture of its future, where it is heading and what it will stand for. The vision inspires and provides a strong sense of purpose and direction.
It is all about working with the hearts and minds of all those involved.
- Laissez-faire Leadership
Laissez-faire leadership gives authority to the members. Members are allowed to work as they choose with minimal or no interference. According to research, this kind of leadership has been consistently found to be the least satisfying and least effective management style.
- Transactional Leadership
This is a leadership that maintains or continues the status quo. It is also the leadership that involves an exchange process, whereby the members get immediate, tangible rewards for carrying out their allocated tasks. Being clear, focusing on expectations, giving feedback are all important leadership skills. According to Boundless.com, transactional leadership behaviors can include: clarifying what is expected of the members performance; explaining how to meet such expectations; and allocating rewards that are contingent on meeting objectives.
- Coaching Leadership
Coaching leadership involves teaching and supervising the members. A coaching leader is highly operational in setting where results/ performance require improvement. Basically, in this kind of leadership, members are helped to improve their skills. Coaching leadership does the following: motivates followers, inspires followers and encourages the members.
- Visionary Leadership
This form of leadership involves leaders who recognize that the methods, steps and processes of leadership are all obtained with and through the members. Most great and successful leaders have the aspects of vision in them. However, those who are highly visionary are the ones considered to be exhibiting visionary leadership. Outstanding leaders will always transform their visions into realities.
QUALITIES OF A LEADER:
- A Clear Communicator
Effective team leaders communicate clearly. Quality verbal and written communication skills allow leaders to present expectations to team members in a way workers can understand. Effective communication skills also allow team leaders to listen to the input of others.
- Organized
Effective team leaders possess exceptional organizational skills. Organizational skills help team leaders plan objectives and strategies, which allow team members to perform optimally. Organized team leaders put systems in place that maintain order and guide team members toward meeting company goals and objectives.
- Confident in the Team
An effective team leader is confident in his abilities, as well as confident in the abilities of his team members. A confident leader is secure in the decisions he makes that affect his team. A self-confident team leader also reassures team members of his authority within the organization.
- Respectful to Others
A quality team leader is respectful of his team members. A respectful leader empowers employees by encouraging them to offer ideas about decisions that affect them. This lets team members know that the leader respects their input and opinions.
- Fair and Kind
A quality team leader treats team members fairly. He is consistent with rewards and recognition, as well as disciplinary action. A fair leader ensures all employees receive the same treatment.
- An Example of Integrity
An effective team leader is honest and open with his team members. Leaders who possess integrity gain the trust of team members because he does what he says he will do and treats others the same way he wants to be treated.
- Influential
Influential leaders help inspire the commitment of team members to meet company goals and objectives. Influential leaders also help manage change in the workplace by gaining the confidence of workers through effective decision making and communication.
- Willing to Delegate
Effective team leaders know how to share leadership through delegation. Delegating certain tasks to trustworthy team members allows the leader to focus on improving workplace functions and production.
- Powerful Facilitator
Effective team leaders are powerful facilitators. As a facilitator, team leaders help workers understand their goals. They also help organize an action plan to ensure team members meet their goals and objectives more efficiently.
- A Skilled Negotiator
Team leaders utilize negotiation skills to achieve results and reach an understanding in the event of a workplace conflict. Team leaders who negotiate effectively streamline the decision-making process, as well as solve problems for the best interest of everyone involved.
ROLES OF A LEADER:
- Envisioning
The leader envisions the group in the future, i.e., what will it be five years or ten years from now? A leader should be highly imaginative, intuitive, and creative. But many are strong analytical thinkers, and for them dreaming may be difficult. They have to depend on others-insiders and outsiders-to translate their dreams.
- Aligning People Toward the Vision
For implementation, the leaders’ vision has to become the vision of the members. For this, the leader has to involve others and also involve them in the mission. This will make sure that the vision is successful implemented by the members.
- Ensuring Execution
This leadership task is essential for actualizing the dreams. The leader specifies tasks, activities, and targets that must be carried out for achieving the vision and mission at different levels by the members. Activities should be assigned to the appropriate group members to ensure the tasks are completed.
