Leader Legacy:
Caring for People While Ensuring Mission Completion
Have you ever notice that many people feel happy and energized on Friday, but feel drained and devastated on Monday morning? Why? The answer from some people can be because they were partying too hard during the weekend. However, many did not party at all. Actually, the answer that causes this circumstance might occur within their workplace. Nicolas Cole (2018), who wrote the article “How to Get Over Your Monday Blues” suggests two reasons that people hate Monday: people hate what they do and do not enjoy people they work with. This is very common. People do not want to be around unpleasant people and an unenjoyable environment. This is a very complex issue at the management level because people will be in the “suck it up” situation. It means that people need to be at work and never be satisfied, which negatively impacts employees’ feelings and the work environment. Unhealthy employees and a bad work climate will result in negative individual performance and will harm the organization’s performance as the whole. To keep employees happy and drive the organization to success, the leader is a person who plays the important role in keeping the balance between both people and organization. Hence, as a leader, I will strive to leave a leadership legacy of caring for my people while ensuring the mission is completed.
There are five important steps to develop the legacy.
1. Being a good mentor
As a leader, she or he needs to make sure that the followers are able to perform their jobs as assigned. Performing tasks without training can cause mistakes and make people feel a sense ignorance. This could result in a loss of confidence. Thus, to avoid this issue, the leader needs to show the caring by being a good mentor. As a mentor, he or she will help to expand mentees’ knowledge and influence them to grow and excel. Moreover, a mentor will be a person that mentees trust to ask stupid questions (Smith, 2013). Thus, a leader as a mentor needs to treat the mentees as a person, not judging them by their unknown knowledge, but assist them in their struggles. (Northouse, 2016).
2. Instill trust
A follower’s trust in the leader has been shown to improve the relationship as well as perceived leader effectiveness (Giessner & Knippenberg, 2008). So, the leader needs to gain trust from his or her followers. Hill (2008) notes that trust is based on a leader’s level honesty. Also, the leader needs to be “transparent, ethically grounded, and responsive to people needs and values (Northouse, 2016). When both leader and follower trust each other, they will cooperate to complete both personal and organizational common goals.
3. Serving the followers to grow beyond their own capacity
Leaders should put their followers first by empowering and helping them grow to achieve their full personal capacities. This style can be defined as “servant leadership.” Assistance and empowerment are the most important factors if followers are to become successful. People grow when they are prepared and permitted to take on new growth opportunities. A leader’s job is to ensure that opportunities are created for them. Leaders will serve and support their followers either when they seek to grow within or outside the leader’s responsibility area. Moreover, a leader does not only challenge an individual to grow him or herself, but also to support the growth of others.
4. Being fair to all employees
All employees want to work with a leader who sustains fairness. Edward Fleischman (2015) the author of “The dangers of playing favorites at work,” claimed that favoritism can cause frustration to the employee and can be harmful to organizational culture. Hence, to avoid playing the favorites in the workplace, the leader-member exchange theory suggests that leaders should “develop high-quality exchanges with all of their followers rather than just a few.” (Northouse, 2016, p. 142).
5. Celebrating the success
Leaders are not only to inform their people when they need to be improved, but they need to celebrate when they do a good job or accomplished a particular task. Success does not have to be measured in large achievements. It is just as important to celebrate the little things as it is big. To promote motivation in the workplace, the positive type of reinforcement such as a compliment or a celebration make employees feel the sense of worth, encourage their good behavior, improve morale, and support peoples sense of fitting in the group. (Joseph, n.d.)
A leader’s legacy is a result of the previous decisions that will eventually become the organizational focus for future performance. From the past until current and the future, all types of organizations must deal with people and goals. Hence, I will strive to leave a leadership legacy of caring for my people while ensuring the mission is completed in order to maintain both people and mission by utilizing the five important dimension of being a good mentor. I will instill trust, serve followers by helping them grow beyond their own capacity, be fair to all employees, and be celebrating their success.
References
Fleischman, E. (2015). The dangers of playing favorites at work. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2015/08/04/favoritism-careers-leadership/
Giessner, S. R., & Knippenberg D. (2008). “License to fail:” Goal definition, leader group prototypicality and perceptions of leadership effectiveness after leader failure. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Process, 105, 14-35.
Hill, D. (2008). Leaders and Followers: How To Build Greater Trust And Commitment. Retrieved from https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/leaders-and-followers-how-to-build-greater-trust-and-commitment/
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Nicolas, C. (2017). How to Get Over Your Monday Blue. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@nicolascole77/how-to-get-over-your-monday-blues-f3eb41665620
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