Summarize the quantitative data presented in the article by recapping in a cohesive narrative the many numbers and statistics on the impact of both poor and sound leadership on the various elements of a business.
The article has quantified the influence of leadership as well as the importance of overall organizational success. There has been an overall lack of leadership development in organizations to improve performance and skills. Concerning Ken Blanchard, many average organizations have forfeited over $1 million untapped potential annually due to a lack of optimal leadership practices (Blanchard, 2009). For instance, McBassi and the company’s cofounder has illustrated that organizations whose leaders have eliminated barriers offered effective feedback, shared information, inspired confidence, and welcomed novel ideas outperformed than those that have failed to. Many senior leaders have suggested that their employees perform only 60-65 percent of their capacity and are working below their potential. Another study carried out by Proudfoot consulting suggested that merely 59 percent of the workplace’s time is unproductive due to barriers such as department morale, poor management, and inadequate planning (Blanchard, 2009).
Strong leadership has created higher financial standards without overall success; it brings financial implications through turnover, employee productivity, and customer satisfaction. The Board of Directors for the American Productivity and quality centers states that even though many people are working very hard nowadays, each individual can increase their productivity by 30 percent (Blanchard, 2009). Considerably, the quantitative data explained how the staff is not pushed in the right direction and the lack of tools to facilitate their success in the companies. Leaders and the higher up executives need to set direction and tone strategically to be successful altogether. This is through creating a strong culture and vision to ensure that operations are running smoothly, creating a beneficial workplace. Strong leadership is not only essential to the overall organizational success since anything less has great financial implications. The article has indicated that leadership has a great influence on employee turnover, employee productivity, and customer satisfaction.
Provide your analysis of these statistical data and your summary of the implications of leadership on an organization, covering the impacts of both poor leadership and sound leadership.
The data gathered in the article indicates that a percentage of organizations have an issue with their leadership. The main reason is that employees fail to feel productive due to lack of control and motivation by leaders and insufficient planning (Blanchard, 2009). The three major causes of low employee productivity include insufficient control and planning, inadequate management, and poor working morale. For instance, in the survey conducted by Proudfoot, it was indicated that insufficient planning and control, poor working morale, and inadequate management impact employee passion (Blanchard, 2009). It is essential for a company to increasingly focus on the developmental approaches that enforce training and mentoring for employees that will lead to offering them resources and tools that will help them perform their best in the working environment. The data on employee turnover was different. A survey conducted by the Saroga Institute of 19,000 people about why people leave an organization shown that people leave due to a lack of respect from their leaders (Blanchard, 2009). 13 percent of the leaders, especially the supervisors, indicated lack of respect, 9 percent lack of leadership skills, 4 percent lack of recognition, while 2 percent lacked competence. Keeping motivated and skilled employees is a great challenge. However, retention and turnover are directly linked to poor management practices. From a strategic point of view, leaders need to set the direction and tone for the organization by empowering culture, strong vision, and set strategic imperatives. Customer satisfaction is essential in facilitating leadership practices. Better leadership can generate 3-4 percent development of customer satisfaction as well as increase productivity within an organization. For instance, Blanchard believes that most organizations are operating within 5-10 percent productivity loss, which can be eliminated through good leadership practices (Blanchard, 2009). Leadership development training will enable leaders to use new skills and approaches to achieve better standards and effective leadership practices.
Identify and discuss the key success factors and successful leadership practices presented in the article, such as strategic and operational leadership, providing employees with the necessary tools and resources, and eliminating barriers.
Effective leadership has been considered as the second most essential factor that makes a professional environment pleasing. Considerably, with strong and growth-minded leaders, the workers are motivated to work better and accomplish their goals. Within this article, successful leadership practices have been made in different studies inspiring effective leadership and enabling employees to perform at higher levels to remove obstacles to the productivity of employees, which can result in doubling profits within the company (Blanchard, 2009).
Operational leadership is one of the most effective leadership practices. An operational leader offers stability to the organization since its focus is on what processes and systems are needed. Effective operational leadership has been linked directly to positive employee passion (Blanchard, 2009). Operational leadership ensures that the organizational processes are effectively conducted, ensures that the employees understand what is needed to be done, and offers authority, skills, and knowledge on what is being done.
Strategic leadership, on the other hand, strategic leadership has the responsibility for decision making and strategic thinking, which leads to long term organizational success. Strategic leaders facilitate strategy implementation and ensure all organization efforts are moving the employees towards achieving their vision. Considerably, when a company removes the barriers and ends up inspiring confidence, shows their knowledge, and brings new ideas, it facilitates growth rates for offices that have a higher score in human capital management. Leaders within the organization have to set up their workers for success, which comes with great resources, tools, support, and direction that they will desire along the way to lead high performance in the working environment. The maximum benefit of a high-performance level happens when both operational and strategic leadership practices are aligned.
Discuss the consequences and outcomes of improved leadership (through leadership training) for employees, customers, and the organization’s financial results.
Simply, the outcome of improved leadership is increased employee productivity, employee motivation, and morale, which results in a better workplace environment. Ideally, this is where employees work every day to thrive in their work and come pushing towards achieving their goals and having leaders that guide them in their daily tasks. Improved leadership is essential and crucial component since it motivates the people to a higher performance level. Effective operational leadership has been linked directly to positive employee passion (Blanchard, 2009). Improved leadership offers a structured approach that states the plan of action that most effectively meets the organization’s goals and contributes to the achievement of well-defined organizational objectives. Considerably, leaders offer encouragement to employees for openly discussing and contributing new ideas in a positive working environment and improving the organization.
Leadership development training is important for connecting leaders and team members. Leadership training aims to create a sense of unity and community to motivate the team to work together, thus increasing their performance and productivity. Leadership training generates better leaders who empower employees, thus increasing their engagement and participation, thus boosting productivity. In the current organizational environment, the need to satisfy consumers has created innovative solutions to get the best out of every dollar. By improving and evaluating leadership practices within the organization, leaders can eliminate the persistent drain on a financial performance that enables them to thrive and grow.
