Importance of Leadership In The Workplace
- Job Manikkam
- Mar 6
- 4 min read
Leadership is the ability of an individual to guide, influence, inspire, and motivate the team to achieve success for the organization. Although many believe that leadership is tied with title or authority however, one does not need a title or authority to show leadership.
When I say leadership, I’m not talking about someone who is controlling or ordering others what to do but rather it’s about empowering others to unlock the potential that they have with them and helping them to grow as an individual.
Leadership is a skill that anyone can have with the right training and mentoring. It’s also a life long learning whereby we continue to improve ourselves as leaders and for that to happen we must have the right mindset and openness to learn.
In this article I aim to look at, what are the benefits that a company experiences when there is leadership in the workplace. There are a number of benefits but for this article I’m just going to look at three of them that I feel is critical for any company.
Employee Satisfaction and Retention
When there is good leadership in the workplace, employees will feel heard and valued compared to a place where there is lack of good leadership. The reason being is that good leaders will always want to listen to feedback and suggestions compared to someone who is always telling others that “my way is the best way”
Today, poor leadership exists in some workplaces because there is no proper training or skills associated with the person who is showing leadership. When there is a lack of leadership, employee’s satisfaction can go down and thereby their retention goes down also.
Leadership plays vital a role in the working environment whereby it helps to create a positive atmosphere, some of the examples like below
Conflicts are handled promptly and effectively
Zero tolerance policy for workplace bullying.
Diversity is valued
Open communication between management and workers
Employees want to be in a positive working environment because this is also a determining factor whether an employee is with the company for a longer time. Please refer to my article titled “4 Reasons Of Why Malaysian Companies Face High Staff Turnover” for more information.
2. Employee Engagement And Motivation
Good leadership in the workplace always seek to unlock the potential of the employee through work ownership and also with the right leadership style. Sometimes managers can micromanage leaving no room for work ownership and also its robs the opportunity for the employee to learn and develop themselves with the task that is associated.
If this happen on a daily basis the engagement level goes down and also the employee will feel demotivated. Work no longer is challenging or fun but rather something that is very mundane because there is no real growth happening for the person.
I’m also a motivational speaker and I have given many motivational talks and what I have found is that sometimes employees can feel demotivated because there is no sense of purpose or that they feel that they are not contributing to something meaningful but rather just showing up to collect a paycheck.
Good leadership in the workplace creates the environment for growth to happen by avoiding micromanaging and initiates self learning to take place. At the same time they help the employee to know how their efforts are contributing to the success of the organization or the bigger picture.
3. Productivity and Performance
All employers want high level of productivity and performance from their employees. What they need to be aware is that, the foundation for high level of productivity and performance is leadership in the workplace.
Employers need to set clear goals and communicate their expectations clearly. Print it and make it visible so that everyone can see it and timely reminders is also necessary because leadership is about motivating and inspiring the employees.
When there is clarity and a goal to hit, everyone knows they have a job to do. The goal needs to be realistic and at the same time it needs to be achievable considering the employee’s skills, experience and so on. No point setting a goal too high that no one can achieve.
Leadership in the workplace is also about offering support and guidance when there is a challenge. It’s about figuring how to help the employee the best way possible by employing coaching methods or even mentoring depending on what is the challenge and considering the duration.
A good leader will always welcome innovation and consider suggestions when there is a problem to be solved. This in turn helps the employee to contribute more and think out of the box, because there is in a opportunity in the form of leader who is wanting to listen and embrace ideas.
Conclusion
Leadership in workplace brings in many benefits as highlighted above for the employer. For someone to show leadership they necessarily don’t need to have a title or rank but rather with the right skill they can make a difference by cultivating a positive working environment.
At the same time someone with the rank and title have leadership skills can make a a lot of difference because they have people following them or their instructions. If they can display good leadership skills they also can create a positive working environment.
To create a more conducive working environment, please do check out the services that I offer in terms of leadership training on my website https://www.jobthecoach.com/leadershiptraining.
You can follow me on my LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/jobthecoach
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