Effective Leadership

How Effective Leadership can Facilitate Change in
Organizations through Improvement and Innovation
The rapid growth of the economic environment as
well as the emergence of the internet made it
easier to communicate with countries around the
world. This in turn changed the business environment in
every country, causing a competitiveness in the market
that increases with each passing year (Friedman, 2007).
In order to keep their business afloat, business owners
discovered they had to offer better quality products at a
lower cost, employ strategies that were uniquely suited
for the organization to adapt according to current
business trends and also flexibility in facing the rapid
change of the business environment.
Effective leadership is one of most essential
parts of the overall method for an organization to sustain
their business in the face of problems caused by the
rapid growth of the economic environment. (CabezaErikson, Edwards, and Van Brabant, 2008) Leaders are
the one who control and take charge of the operation of
an organization and good leaders are able to set
optimistic goals and objectives while steering the
operation of the company towards those goals through
effective strategies. Other than that, good leaders can
also influence their employees and motivate them by
strengthening a positive organization culture and
through generous employee benefits, for instance health
care insurance, worker compensation, leave benefit and
others.
Intelligent leaders also have the responsibility to
use their skills and knowledge to effectively and
efficiently guide their business forward in the face of an
uncertain future and also to decrease the feelings of
insecurity in their employees caused by that uncertainty.
A leader has the power to influence the success of the
organization, due to his full power to control the
direction of the organization, as well as through the
influence they exert on their employees that motivates
them to bring the company to greater heights.
Leadership is a kind of power where one person
has the ability to influence or change the values, beliefs,
behaviour and attitudes of another person (Ganta, and
Manukonda, 2014). A person with strong leadership
ability will be a good example or role model to their
employees, because the leader who is able to effectively
achieve some good result or achievement gains the
trust and admiration of their employees, and
inadvertently changes their values, beliefs, behaviour
and attitudes, for mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery
(Grint, 2007). This statement is also supported by
Northhouse (2009), who states that leaders who
possess strong leadership have the strength to
influence others to achieve the goals and objectives of
the organization.
Other than that, there is also another way to
define a leader that has strong leadership. A
characteristic of effective leaders is that they give a clear
direction to their employees, and also lead their
employees to commit to their jobs and to work as a
group to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives
(Wasim, and Imran, 2010). This also tells us that good
leaders usually have a clear vision for the company and
therefore can easily identify the problems and obstacles
that currently stand between them and the aims of the
organization. In this way they are able to effectively and
efficiently bring about the necessary reforms that will
bring the company into the future while keeping abreast
with contemporary changes in the business world.
According to Jackson and Parry (2008),
leadership is a process where leaders use their skills
and knowledge to lead and bring a group of employees
in the desired direction that is relevant to their
Effective leadership is essential in managing
change and change is the only method to sustain the
organization in the current business environment. As
usual, change is hard for people, people will feel
uncomfortable because of change and even sometimes
deny the change, continue as they are and be
eliminated by the society. Therefore, leadership can be a
factor to motivate and encourage people to continuously
make change and push them to change. Leadership
plays a role in an organization to motivate and
encourage the employees to change in order for the
organization to be able to sustain and adapt to the
business environment, to make sure the organization will
improve and be innovative. The case of Nokia, the giant
that fell from the top to the bottom, is a cautionary tale
on the dangers of failing to improve and should be
remembered.
Effective leadership skills can help leaders to
gain the trust of employees, making other tasks easier
to operate because the employees trust their leaders.
This could make other parts of business management
easier too, such as shaping the culture in an
organization. A positive organizational culture can bring
lots of benefit to the organization, as the positive culture
can encourage and motivate the employees in the
organization to learn, communicate and work with each
other. A good culture in the organization not only
provides a good working environment for their
employees, but also gives a sense of belonging to the
employees and increases the commitment of
employees to continue working in the organization.
Innovative ideas will be produced when leadership
motivates the employees to communicate with each
other and share their thoughts with each other.
Leadership skills also enable the leaders to lead
their employees into the correct direction, in accordance
to the organization vision and mission. When an
organization’s leader leads the employees in the correct
direction and motivates them to continuously improve
and innovate, the organization’s performance will surely
increase and be able to sustain the organization in the
current complex business environment. Hence, effective
leadership is the main factor that brings change to the
organization, if there is no leadership in the organization
there will be no chance at all (Atkinson, 2015).