Leadership
mkeont
[Type text] [Type text] [Type text]
8
Running Head: Leadership Analysis
Leadership Analysis
Learner, Bea
MPA 5410-Strategic Management and Planning
Capella University
Sample: This was an “A” paper for MPA5410: u04a1
222 East Court
Fake City, CA. 22222
Telephone: (***) ***-****
Email: ____________
Instructor: Dr. Linda Roseburr
Introduction
In the article, “Quality Communication: A Key to Quality Leadership”, Spinks and Wells (1995) posit leadership is the heart and soul of any organization and state that what leaders really manage in the workplace is people. Leadership can be defined as the ability to guide or direct others. Strategic leadership requires creating meaning and purpose for the organization and inspiring others to fulfill powerful mission and vision statements to create lasting public value for the organization (Bryson, 2011).
Public administrators must possess strong leadership characteristics, communicate clearly, and demonstrate the ability to motivate, inspire, and lead their staff to fulfill its mission. Utilizing the transformational and trait theories of leadership, leadership characteristics will be examined that assess the strengths needed for effective strategic planning processes in public organization. Strategic learning will be evaluated, and an analysis of benefits and challenges that confront leaders in the ability to enhance strategic planning in the public sector will be provided.
Explain the Theories and Role of Leadership in the Strategic Planning Process for Public Organizations
The transformational style of leadership generally inspires positive change from followers. The style has been defined by Bass (1985), as a process in which leaders increase their follower’s awareness about what the desired behavior or outcome is, and motivates them to supersede the leader’s expectation (as cited in Lee et. al, 2010, p. 35). A strong transformational leader is always looking for ways to coach and enhance skill development, so staff will feel good about the work being produced, understand the purpose for the work, and feel inspired to fulfill the organization’s mission and vision. Strong communication skills are also necessary and transformational leaders value open communication. This leadership style blends very nicely with Bryson’s 10-step Strategy Change Cycle. Leaders must first identify key stakeholders and then must obtain “buy-in” to the process. Transformational leaders make good strategic leaders. Identifying where an organization needs to start and obtaining a consensus is not always easy but worthwhile in the end (McClamrock, J., Byrd, J.J, & Sowell, S. L., 2001). If public administrators do not communicate the value of mission and setting agreed upon goals and strategies, many stakeholders will not buy in to the need to participate. This is fundamental for the process to be successful.
Leadership is the ability to motivate and inspire people to work together to achieve shared goals (Spinks and Wells, 1995). These leadership skills are necessary to implement a successful strategic planning process throughout an organization Transformational leaders are thought to be creative, risk takers, and innovative (Mathew, 2009). Research has shown a connection between creativity and leadership; both creators and leaders tend to demonstrate similar personality traits. Strategic leadership success can be linked to those who have high levels of creativity and provide a vision, sense of mission, and the ability to be a role model for their staff (Mathew, 2009). Strategic leaders are willing to take risks and try new strategies, which are attributes of the transformational theory of leadership.
Because public sector leaders must make many tough decisions every day, other necessary traits that must be possessed are intelligence, self-confidence, and the ability to be independent. Further, strong strategic leaders must also have an extremely high work ethic and demonstrate strong values of doing what is right (legally, ethically, and morally), which are dominate characteristics associated with the trait theory of leadership. The trait theory is based on the concept that a leader is born, and disputes that leadership skills are learned. Scholars that support this theory posit, leaders have an innate superiority and are genetically predisposed to positions of authority and power (Cragg & Spurgeon, 2007). Many leadership scholars question if leadership is a personality trait, or a trait some leaders obtain by birth. Locke (1991) posits both are true; some people are born with leadership traits while others must learn them (as cited in Lee et. al, 2010). Mathew (2009) states, “leadership is indisputably a multidimensional phenomenon” (31). This means that while leaders may have a dominant leadership style, successful strategic leaders must possess an understanding of what leadership characteristics are best suited for the environment, the issue, and individuals they are working with, to be highly effective at implementing strategies and ideas during the strategic planning cycle.
Analyze What is Uniquely Required for a Public Organization and its Leader to Think Strategically
Today public administrators are asked to balance competing sources of authority, manage people and projects without direct supervision, and create innovative, strategic solutions to complex social problems (Holmes, 2009, p. 254). Public sector organizations must also develop successful ways to meet the organization’s purpose of delivering services timely to citizens regardless of budget cuts and programmatic changes. Given the rapid political and environmental changes occurring within the public sector today, public sector leaders must become effective strategists in an effort to achieve its missions, fulfill mandates, meet consumer’s needs, and create sustainable public value (Bryson, 2011, xii).
Analyzing data and problem solving requires forward thinking and public sector leaders must know how to think, act, and learn strategically. Strategic thinking is defined by Bryson (2011) as “thinking in context about how to pursue purposes or achieve goals” (p. 14). Strategic thinking involves “synthesis –encouraging intuitive, innovative and creative thinking at all levels” (as cited in Graetz, 2002, pg. 456). Strategic thinking is a process that takes time to develop. Learning, experiencing, and having a strong strategic thinking mentor are all important activities that take place on one’s leadership journey. There is disagreement among leadership theorists about whether leaders are born with inherent abilities to lead (trait theorists) and those that argue leadership is a learned skill, however both sides agree that these skills and abilities must be enhanced as part of management development (Goldman, 2007).
In child welfare, there is a need for skilled leadership to take over in the coming years as many former Directors will be retiring and leaving the field. Strategic succession planning must take place so that new leadership can learn from experienced managers the art of strategic thinking. Learning to handle many of the work force issues required of public administrators comes with experience by implementing coaching and mentoring from experienced managers can also be helpful. Learning how to navigate budget reductions and flat funding while not compromising child safety, meeting mandates, and serving the community requires organizational leaders to think in terms of Bryson’s preferred process of strategic thinking. Learning how to prioritize needs, develop create ideas, achieve goals, and meet the overall organization’s mission are things new leaders must learn in order to be lead their organization. One must think, learn, and act strategically to be a successful public administrator.
Discuss the Benefits of Leadership in Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Strategic Planning Function
Public administrators must possess strong leadership characteristics, communicate clearly, and demonstrate the ability to motivate, inspire, and lead their staff to task completion. Leadership is one of the most important components of management. Brumm and Drury (2013) state of all the areas where a leader should show competency, planning the direction in which one is leading is the most important (p. 17). Effective leadership that possess strong communication skills is also necessary because having deliberate conversations about the overall purpose of the organization and how to set strategic goals, and developing plans to achieve them are clearly benefits to the planning process.
Strategic thinking is a conceptual, systems-oriented approach used to change the future direction of an agency by moving out of the past (Goldman, 2007). Strategic leaders look forward in time to set the direction for the organization. A survey conducted by Hughes in 1998 quoted an experienced executive as saying, “if you don’t take care of the present, you will not have a future” (as cited in Bass, 2007, p. 35). Strong organizational leaders must implement strategic thinking to write policies, define purpose, set goals, implement strategies, and acquire resources for their organizations to move forward to meet needs and create sustainable public value.
Public sector leaders must also make decisions everyday to move their organizations forward and meet the needs of their community. The strategic planning process allows leaders to set priorities and build strategies to address issues and concerns. Bass (2007) posits effective strategies depend on effective decision-making (p. 43). Another benefit to applying the strategic planning process to a public sector organization is strengthened decision-making. Determining the most critical issues within an organization, prioritizing each issue, and identifying ways to solve them improve the overall decision-making process. Bryson (2011) posits strategic planning can improve organizational responsiveness, enhance overall performance, and increase accountability (p. 17). This process must be lead from a motivational and support leader with skills in both communicating while still being action oriented.
Strong leadership requires the ability to process, analyze, and plan. Knowing what to do and when to do it are additional benefits strong organizational leaders bring to an effective strategic planning process. Knowing how to package the message can be the difference between stakeholder buy-in and checking-out of the process. The State Deputy Director is a strong motivational leader in California’s Child Welfare System. When California moved to a statewide implementation of Differential Response Model, communication and messaging was critical. The Deputy Director was able to identify the formal mandates (step-two of the Strategy Change Cycle) and clarify the overall mission (step-three) of the state department of keeping all kids safe from abuse. The message became one of wrapping safety around every child in Ohio and asked stakeholders for input on how to accomplish the statewide rollout. This was a critical component in stakeholder buy-in and it was how the message was delivered through effective and thoughtful leadership that made the difference. Directors and agencies throughout the state supported the radical shift in practice and a leadership council was created to strategically plan statewide implementation
Discuss the Challenges that Confront Leaders in their Ability to Enhance the Effectiveness of the Strategic Planning Function
There have been many challenges in the twenty first century that have changed the way public administration leaders do business. Public administrators are being asked to do more; to make their organizations more efficient, to produce better outcomes that are measurable and sustainable, and serve more people while at the same time doing it all with less resources. To do this Public Administration leaders are required to make decisions every day to meet the challenges of their organization and the demands of the public in which they serve. As Milakovich and Gordon (2014) posit, it is the making of these decisions that is at the heart and soul of public administration (p. 194). Public sector leaders make many decisions daily and face challenges such as time restraints, budget restrictions, and poor communication skills that greatly affect their ability to enhance the effectiveness of the strategic planning function.
A strategic plan is a tool that provides direction for an organization to fulfill its stated mission. It is important for agency leadership to understand and support the organizational vision, and adopt the identified value statements on the way to achieve the mission (Senge, 2005). However, Kilpatrick and Silverman (2005) posit, most nonprofit agencies do not take the time or (can not) make the effort to keep updated vision statements (p.24). Vision statements describe where an agency wants to be or as Peter Senge (2005) states, vision is “a picture or image of the future we seek to create” (p. 3). In this learner’s experience, this has been found to be true. While trying to keep up with the changing demographics and work objectives, revising and trying to keep up with an organization’s mission and vision statement can unfortunately be let go. A dedicated team, who values the strategic planning process, cannot make much progress without support from top leadership executives or agency directors. Active participation or “buy-in” from an organization’s director is critical for the staff to take strategic planning seriously. Regardless of how long it takes a new leadership to learn how to think strategically, there actions must be supportive of the planning process (Mittenthal, 2002). Budgets also play a huge role both at the initial stages, as well as, implementation of any projects associated with the plan. Without strong leadership support both participatory and budgetary, the strategic planning process will be unsuccessful.
This learner has lived through a situation where a new Director came in and made sweeping, agency-wide changes (some were necessary) but the manner and approach was very authoritarian in nature. Many workers struggled with the mass changes because they felt disrespected and had no buy-in to the process. There was no “planning to plan” or strategic thinking involved. Had a strategic planning process been implemented, different opinions and values been assessed, this learner believes the reaction would have been very different. This learner thinks it takes a strong, innovative leader to change the direction of an organization. While not every decision leaders of public organizations have to make will be popular, communicating the reason and need, can make staff more understanding of the process.
Finally other barriers that can confront leaders in their ability to enhance the effectiveness of the strategic planning function are federal and state mandates. Leaders must balance what is legally and ethically required as well as what is in the best interest of their staff and citizens in which they serve.
Conclusion
Strategic planning is a process public sector leaders use to develop short and long-term plans to guide the organization towards clearly defined mission, goals, and objectives. The goal of a strategic leader is to inspire their staff, community partners, and citizens to fulfill these goals and objectives while creating sustainable public value. This is done by leaders who possess strong communication skills are creative and visionary as they move their organization towards the future. Transformational leaders motivate and inspire people. They are creative and understand innovative ideas are necessary to move their agency forward. Change is not always easy, but followers of transformational leadership often can be inspired to believe that change will benefit the overall good of the agency. Leaders who possess traditional skills identified by the trait theory are confident and implement change that is necessary within the organization. Simply put, strategic planning is documenting what an organization wants to achieve and outlines how leadership within the organization will get it done.
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