I need an essay in the following subject:
One of the most important challenges for current and future business leaders involves finding the thinking
space and courage to keep the long view in mind for their organisations. Leaders are increasingly in the
public eye, with numerous stakeholder groups enforcing their entitlements. This challenge becomes
increasingly important and difficult as business practitioners rise through the ranks of their organisations
and take on more general management and strategic leadership roles.
You will continue further exploration of the ideas and issues you studied in previous weeks. You will
explore challenges and opportunities to improve leadership practice and analyse the advantages of
effective leadership practice. You will also evaluate how leaders manage teams and how teams shape
the requirements for effective leadership.
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BL.KCE.W7
Leadership is one of the important concepts and determinant of whether an organization
succeeds or fails. Nowadays, there are challenges that threaten the effectiveness of current and
future business leaders. The paper identifies global challenges and analyses the challenges and
opportunities to improve leadership practice. Advantages of effective leadership practices are
also discussed as well as how the chosen articles relates to the analysis.
In the modern world, the world has become a global village, so organizations. Leaders
nowadays have to have a broader perspective on how they view and see things. One of the
global challenges that leaders face is the constricted thinking space and lack of vision about the
future of their organization (McCleskey, 2014). The other challenge is poor strategies to deal
with the global challenges such as issues to do with cross culture and diversity among many
others. The rationale for choosing these global challenges is that they are affecting smooth
operations of the entities. Most organizations are not able to achieve their long-term objectives
because of the narrow mindedness of leaders. Leaders have to have an open mind and be able to
realize that environment will always keep on changing.
The two articles by McCleskey (2014) and Bouchamma & Brie (2014) are important in
this discussion due to the depth of insights they bring to the topic. Leadership theories contribute
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or explain how leaders should lead and how they can be able to overcome some of the challenges
that their organizations go through. Providing leadership practice requires that these challenges
are overcome (McCleskey, 2014). The leader is expected to have the skills and abilities that
enable them to provide good leadership. A transformational leader is expected to make
difference in their entities by building relationships. The five leadership practices that a
transformational leader should exemplify to overcome the challenges include; the leader should
model the way, inspire a shared vision, and enable others to act, challenge the process and
encourage the heart (Stearns, Margulus & Shinsky, 2012). The leader must have vision and share
the vision with the other stakeholder to ensure that the organization move on well. It is also
important for the leader to be innovative and creative to come up with new ideas to champion the
objectives of the organization.
Challenges as well can be an opportunity for a leader to make a difference. A leader
should learn from their past mistakes and failures and change the same into strengths. A leader
should understand that the world is changing and therefore, it is imperative to make adjustments
in their leadership to counter the challenge. This requires that leaders think out of the box for
them to achieve their goals. Advancement in technology and increased globalization are some of
the changes that leaders must be sensitive to ensure that they provide better leadership that is
sustainable and effective in the long run.
Effective leadership practice is important and especially when it comes to addressing
some of these challenges. Effective leadership is hinged of various tenets of leadership.
According to Taylor & Pattie (2014), a leader should uphold to ethical practices when providing
leadership such as honest and integrity. The leader should have good communication skills, be
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able to collaborate and provide support, and have conflict management skills and change and
management skills. In additional the leader should be able to understand change and be a good
learner. Leaders that succeed are always learning new skills and ideas as they provide leadership.
Therefore, in general, leadership practice can be improved through continuous learning.
A leader must undergo continuous development all through to be in a position to address the
challenges that they come across. Situations keep on changing and leaders must be aware of this
in their leadership practices. For instance, during conflicts they must know the appropriate ways
to solve the same.
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Reference List
Bouchamma, Y, & Brie, J 2014, ‘ Communities of Practice and Ethical Leadership’,
International Studies in Educational Administration (Commonwealth Council for
Educational Administration & Management (CCEAM), Vol. 42 no. 2, pp. 81-96.
McCleskey, J 2014, ‘ Situational, Transformational, and Transactional Leadership and
Leadership Development’, Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, Vol. 5 no. 4, pp. 117-
130.
Taylor, S, & Pattie, M 2014, ‘When Does Ethical Leadership Affect Workplace Incivility? The
Moderating Role of Follower Personality’, Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 24 no. 4, pp.
595-616.
Stearns, M., Margulus, L. & Shinsky, J 2012, ‘Theory into practice: a study to assess the
influence of a customized leadership development program on a cohort of aspiring urban
leaders’, International Journal of Education Leadership Preparation, 7 (2), pp.1-13.
