The advancement of leadership and the development of leaders seem to concentrate more on
training through investigation of theory or literature.
According to the attached article, why is this ineffective?
Evaluate the appropriateness of such a training focus.
Based on your other readings, what other elements may be included to increase the self-knowledge
and effectiveness of leadership?
Each of the following conditions must meet the essay:
1)The answer must raise appropriate critical questions.
2)The answer must include examples from aviation experience or the web with references from
relevant examples from real aviation companies. I prefer example from Qatar Airways, Etihad airline,
Emirates airline, Al Arabia Airline.
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Effective leadership
Introduction
There has been a tendency of advancement of leadership and the development of leaders
concentrating more on training through investigation of theory or literature. This approach is
associated with certain drawbacks which altogether fail to produce effective leaders. The
following discussion will engage in reviewing some of the limitations on this form of
training. In addition, the paper will examine how self-knowledge and effective leadership can
be pronounced in a company.
Discussion
The advancement of leadership and the improvement of leaders seem to concentrate more on
training through investigation of theory or literature. This is ineffective due to a number of
reasons. One of the explanations is that assortment of aspirants to join training is mostly
uncertain. This is because most firm targets the familiar aspirations of those employees who
chase to rise to leadership situation. Therefore, getting a suitable sample of candidates to train
to be converted into leaders is ineffective as every employee wants to become a leader as that
status has power, reputation, and increased income (Taylor 2012). At Etihad Airline, for
instance, CEOs find it hard to pick up prospective aspirants to be future leaders at the
company when they step down. The training has also some elements of ineffectiveness as it
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mainly covers on reinforcing self esteem of candidates. However, in doing so, it does not give
long-term adjustments in their consciousness or conduct. This is witnessed by the actions of
the graduates retreating back to their old ways of doing things as rudimentary behavioral
transformation lack due to the training unable to provide the graduates an environment and
time required to reshape behavior.
Another noted reason why this form of training is ineffective is because it is mainly grounded
in teaching the candidates about leadership, providing them cognitive experience, and
infusing new leadership models to them. This is quite similar to a teaching guide (O’ Connell
2011, p.339). Therefore, it calls for experimentation and learning, followed by simultaneous
recurrence of a dedicated practice. The training also lacks a metric for evaluating leadership
appropriateness. This form of training fails to give consensus on who a leader is or what are
responsibilities of a leader (Bérard 2013). There is loss of connection between empirical
correlation and leadership performance with leadership outcomes and qualities. It is being
found that the case histories only try to buttress current mythologies. At Qatar Airways, for
instance, line managers find it difficult to deal with the leadership wrangles at the Gulf area
in dealing with high competition due to the action of clinging to traditional methodologies of
dealing with HR emerging problems. .
It is also noted that despite many ineffectiveness of training though investigation of theory or
literature, there is a number of appropriateness derived from that form of training. Notably,
candidates in the training program do buff up specific skills, particularly in communication
networks (Adle, Kwon & Heckscher 2008, p. 361). Effectiveness resulting from such
program is that that training may challenge the candidates or reinforces their self esteem. For
instance, Emirates Airline working with its subsidiaries provides a platform where various
leaders of the subsidiaries meet to share experiences (Connell 2011). This is mainly by
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intensifying candidates’ awareness of the behavioral inclinations in their ways and psyche.
Consequently, candidates are given cognitive experience by these training programs, that is,
the hopeful leaders are taught about leadership, latest leadership paradigms, offered with
historical consideration on leadership theory, and being offered with a record of leadership
desirable qualities.
There are some factors that may be included to enhance self-knowledge and effectiveness of
leadership. Empathy is one of the critical fundamentals that should be embraced to enlarge
self-knowledge and effectiveness of leadership. Empathy emphasizes the leadership with the
ability to improve juniors, challenge those who act unfairly in a firm, and provision of
constructive feedback. Social skills also come under components to electrify self-knowledge.
An effective leader should be oriented to mechanisms to which he or she can learn how to not
sit back and make their juniors do the work Grimme 2011, p.482). This factor can be
continual actions of a leader to congratulate employees to inspire the loyalty of the team.
Leaders at Emirates Airways engage in giving their subordinates gift and bonuses to boost
their urge in fulfilling the objectives of this respective airline. Learning conflict resolution
skills is also important under the elements of social skills as the leader will be able to be
trained to arbitrate wide-ranging conflicts occurring in the line of duty. To develop self-
knowledge and effective leadership it can be done through learning challenges. Trial and
error makes leaders better in their roles through learning from their failures and successes.
Selecting the right candidate for the leadership position is one of the crucial factors for an
effective leadership. Through strong motivation, a leader develops his or her self knowledge
by being motivated by a strong embebbled urge for the sake of achievement. The type of
leaders oriented to this element is able to explore new approaches to their duties. It is
interesting to find out that these types of leaders keep score by tracking such complicated
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measures as market share, for instance, money manager at Qatar Airways gauge the
performance of his stock fund aligned with Etihad airline, Emirates airline, Al Arabia
Airline (O’ Connell 2011, p.340). Even when the score is against them, highly motivated
leaders will continue to remain optimistic. In such process another element of self-regulation
comes in to merge with achievement motivation to enable frustrations and agony that can be
felt from such failures. It is being observed that at Etihad Airways, portfolio managers are not
fired when a failure occurs at their line of duty. Rather, the company elevates them to senior
position where they will be given an opportunity to prove that they can lead a turnaround (O’
Connell 2011). Self-regulation makes effective leaders abandon the habit of attacking others
verbally, stereotyping others, and to compromise their values. This form of self-knowledge is
brought in by the tendency of the leader to know his or her values and hold him/herself
accountable incase of mistakes. Leader’s own reflection falls under some of the elements to
be included to increase leadership effectiveness and self-knowledge. Most of the managers at
Etihad Airline meet severally in a year to discus what each of them encountered during that
financial period, and the mechanism as well as strategies to handle the situation (Grimme
2011, p.487). Through this reflection, a leader is supposed to learn from the mistakes of other
leaders. Learning from experience of peers who face analogous leadership problems can be
an important factor to effective leadership and self-knowledge development.
Conclusion
In summary, effective leadership is derived if leaders are oriented to harsh crucible
organizational experience. Training through investigation of theory or literature is
pragmatically teaching of which it should be learned. Upon making better leaders, they
should be given an environment where they will acquire self-knowledge to enable them run
the operations of a company efficiently.
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Reference list
ADLER, P.S., KWON, S-W. AND HECKSCHER, C. (2008). Professional work: the
emergence of collaborative community. Organization Science, March–April, 19(2):
359–76
ANDERSON, R., & BRAUD, W. (2011). Transforming self and others through research:
transpersonal research methods and skills for the human sciences and humanities.
Albany, State University of New York Press.
BÉRARD, J. (2013). Accelerating leadership development: practical solutions for building
your organization’s potential.
