When we look at the developed or developing organisation, we assume that leaders of these organisations are Godsend and they never make mistakes in performing their roles. But in reality all leaders are just as confused as everyone. Research studies conducted about leaders reveal that many leaders saying that “they are reasonable leaders and still have tons to learn”. Some (about 10%) consider themselves are “very good” leaders. Considering that these are the people in charge of companies and business houses, it is confirmed that even the smartest and most experienced leaders struggle with the challenges of leadership.
Leading an organisation to success is confusing and challenging. Many a leader try to find solutions for various issues through trial and error method and work on their intuitions. But successful leaders discuss issues directly with other seniors in the field and find right solutions.
When a leader walks into his/her office, he/she enters with a belief that functional heads of the organisation are focused on directing and supervising their sections and divisions. His/her job as a leader is to synchronize the actions and performance of functional departments and synergise the organisational employees’ effort in accomplishing the vision, mission and goals of the organisation. But this may not be the reality in many business organisations. As soon as the leader enters the office, functional heads meet individually the leader to solve various of their problems and at the end of the day leader is tired and is unable to solve some of the critical issues posed by functional heads. However, one basic quality / trait that a leader should possess is calm and cool mindset, which helps him in solving issues-minor or major. Otherwise he/she will be in a confused state.
Many people think that leaders are experts in understanding all factors of organisational leaderships between operations, research and development, marketing, information technology, human resources, logistics, sales etc. In reality, they are not experts in all these areas. But being leaders, they should be able to synchronize the said separate activities into an unified effort. Being a CEO or leader of the organisation, one should have the ability to coordinate the activities of the functional departments of the organisation and run the organisation smoothly. To be an effective leader, he/she has to know the basics of accounting, finance, marketing, HRD and general management aspects and need not be experts in each of these fields. This helps the leader to understand how to synchronise the efforts of functional heads by communicating clear tasks and purposes to the entire organisation to achieve organisation goals.
Understanding the basics of concepts, traits, theories and styles of leadership is essential for students and readers to know what all about leadership. Students or readers to become leaders in their future walk of life have to understand and grasp the various dimensions of leadership. This title “Business Leadership Skills” is designed and published to provide vital information about leadership. This covers the syllabus prescribed for fourth semester, BBA of Bangalore University on Business leadership skills.
Although we aimed to cover the subject matter comprehensively, we had to confine ourselves to syllabus framework. However all major aspects of leadership are covered in this title.
This book is organised covering chapters- Introduction to business leadership, Leadership from managerial perspective, Leadership theoretical perspective, Leaders and Team Decisions, leadership influence in terms, Leadership styles, Leadership Skills and Emerging trends in leadership.
Contents –
1. Business Leadership
2. Leadership from Managerial Perspective – I
3. Leadership from Managerial Perspective – II
4. Leadership – Theoretical Perspective
5. Leaders and Team Decisions
6. Leadership Influence in Terms
7. Leadership Styles
8. Leadership Skills
9. Emerging Trends in Leadership