Leadership in large organizations

In large organizations, the function of a leader is even more complex. Chief operating officers, chief financial officers, presidents, and chief financial officers have quite a bit of clout and responsibility, often employing complex decision-making practices.

In this article, we explain the main role of leadership in a large organization in a series of questions-based sections.

Organizational leaders are put in charge of defining, understanding, and developing organizational strategy as well as motivating their organization’s members to achieve it. While in the majority of cases, the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief operating officer (COO) is in charge of the organization’s day-to-day management, there are many other roles that define and shape a large organization’s organizational culture and way of thinking.

Organizational leaders are responsible for articulating organizational values, establishing vision and goals, representing the organization to external stakeholders, and setting the overall strategy for the organization’s growth.

What does organizational leadership mean?

Organizational leadership requires two main components: an organization which is a group of people organized for a shared goal or work and the leader who is a guide for the organization. In this approach, leaders have the pivotal role of setting strategic goals for the organization while simultaneously acting as a motivator and driving force for members of the group to achieve those goals. Organizational leaders have to strike the delicate balance between business understanding with their responsibility as a visionary and growth-oriented thinker to lead ambitious initiatives.

What is the biggest challenge as a leader?

While leaders face many challenges, perhaps one of the biggest ones is connecting with others to inspire and motivate them. Leaders have to develop a deep understanding of how individuals work and what motivates them to do better work. For this, leaders require a composite worldview of the organization and an empathetic approach to understand different viewpoints.  Only then can a leader capitalize on the strengths of his employees and help them perform better. This also includes the power of communication by which the leader expresses himself to the organization.

What is organizational leadership and why is it important?

Organizational leadership maintains a perfect balance between the needs of the employees and the needs of the company as a whole. Organizational leaders utilize their business expertise to create a mutually beneficial environment.

Here are some reasons why organizational leadership is so important:

Motivates Team Members

Organizational leadership has the capability of motivating employees to instill the passion needed for achieving organizational goals and targets.

Makes Employees feel Understood

Individuals in organizations tend to be more dedicated to the work they do if they feel appreciated and understood. Organizational leadership brings that empathetic approach that makes employees feel valued.

Creates New Leaders

Organizational leadership seeks to cultivate the next generation of leaders by passing on the current knowledge and experience. This ensures that a company is never short of effective leadership if the need arises.

Helps Focus on Goals

Organizational leaders can set actionable goals and help employees focus on those goals to create a very goal-oriented culture that rewards employees for long-term achievements.

Fosters Open Communication

Organizational leadership utilizes communication to foster fruitful relationships at multiple levels. Organizational leaders possess the ability to communicate in a way that is clear and comprehensible yet motivating and inspiring.

What is effective leadership?

While anyone can call themselves a leader, effective leadership can transform the way people work in an organization. However, leading an enterprise is no easy feat. Not only do leaders have to make the business a success, but they also have to ensure the well-being of the employees who work there.

from making decisions fast to leading by example, the role of an effective leader is highly diverse. Here are some important characteristics of effective leadership:

• Good Decision Making
• Lead by Example
• Goal-Oriented
• Strong Belief System
• Accountable and Responsible
• Appreciative of Employee Efforts
• Build Others Up
• Effective communication Skills
• Ambitious and Confident
• Trustworthy and Approachable

What the best transformational leaders do?

Transformational leaders, as the name suggests, can bring about a positive transformation in the followers and the organization as a whole. This style of leadership is highly focused on stimulating and inspiring others to achieve exceptional outcomes. Instead of undermining people, transformational leaders empower people and build them up to become leaders themselves in the future. According to research, groups that are led by transformational leaders have shown significant increases in performance and satisfaction as compared to others. Some of the key characteristics of transformational leaders include:

1. Enthusiastic
2. Passionate
3. Energetic
4. Supportive
5. Approachable
6. Trustworthy and Genuine
7. Inspiring
8. Empowering

What do new leaders struggle with the most?

Making the big transition to becoming a leader can be a challenging feat. Here are some struggles that new leaders commonly face:

Thinking About Long-Term Gains

Unlike employees, leaders have to think ahead and look at the bigger picture instead of focusing on short-term goals. It can be difficult to make this mindset shift that would help you strategize for the long-term.

High Pressure

As a leader, you are under added scrutiny and pressure to deliver results of high significance much more quickly.

Bringing Change

Most systems are resistant to change. It can be a struggle to make an impact and transform things without altering the balance.

Establishing Trust

Trust is an important factor for effective leadership and it is highly difficult to gain. New leaders often face difficulties in earning the trust of other members.

How do you implement leadership in the workplace using KanBo?

KanBo captures the essence of leadership in the digital workplace through the following features:

MyBoard visibility

KanBo’s MyBoard is an area for employees to organize and manage their own workload as they see fit. KanBo adds a layer of transparency to the mix by giving leaders a full view of each employee’s work status. This ensures that leaders can stay informed about employees’ progress without having to ask for updates from each person. This also builds trust within the team while eliminating conflicts, as every work context is transparent and accounted for.

Shareable Board Collections

Board collections in KanBo help you organize boards into groups by forming a consistent structure of information. KanBo also makes these board collections shareable which means that these views of the organization can be shared among employees to ensure consistency. For example, a leader can create a board collection of relevant boards and share it with the team so everyone can work on the same information.

Board collections are also easily adaptable as you can add new boards and change the structure of the collection to meet a common understanding. All these changes are distributed in real-time across all the people with access to the collection. Leaders can utilize these collections at multiple levels, from a particular team and departments to the entire organization.

Flight Levels of Work

KanBo’s different hierarchy levels can represent real-world structures from projects to tasks. The basic hierarchy includes:

1. Board Level The highest level here is the board collection which consists of multiple board groups. Board groups can in turn hold multiple boards.
2. Card Level As you go deeper into the board, KanBo provides you with Board Lists. These lists contain work contexts called Cards.
3. Sub-Cards As you zoom into the cards, you can see sub-cards that can either be on the same board or different boards.
4. Beyond Sub-Cards You can add more sub-cards within your sub-cards to further move down the hierarchy.

KanBo gives you the freedom to build your own hierarchies depending on your business requirements. For leaders, this control is highly beneficial as they often have to switch between detail-oriented work and the bigger picture.

Conclusion

Today’s competitive and fast-moving work environment calls for a fresh approach to leadership that motivates and inspires. Leaders have to take the roles of visionaries, coaches, catalysts, and architects who can get others on board to work towards a shared goal to score a win for the company.