Leadership
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What can we say about leadership? Leadership is a concept, way of life, and aspect of continuous evolution. Trying to narrow down or pinpoint an exact definition to be applied to this term is non-existent. Rather you can only apply certain aspects of this term to better understand it. The area which I will go into is “how situational leadership coincides with empathy as far as generating a successful or non-successful leader.”
First let us look at what situational leadership is. Situational leadership is seen as a leadership method according to the present situation you may be in. A true exceptional leader is not one who has a set method on how he/she leads, but rather an evolutionary method that situational leadership requires. Let me elaborate more on this. Let us say Roger Smith (a project manager from XYZ Construction Company) worked on a project down at Seattle for about a year and had to deal with the common problems associated with projects such as change orders, sub-contractor disputes, scope issues, and weather conditions. Roger Smith handled the Seattle project as he saw fit with prior experience and knowledge that he has about the industry. Now let us modify the situation. Lets give Roger Smith the same type of project. Identical in size, cost, and scheduling but this time it will take place 4 years later along with the location being in China rather than Seattle. Will Roger Smiths way of leading that he used in Seattle be successful in China? The outcome points towards no. Why would that be the case if the project is basically identical? For one, we have a different setting location. The labor issues, construction specifications, and laws are dealt with differently in China. Not only that, but the people he would be working with are raised and exposed to a totally different culture. With that, Roger can not approach or deal with people the same way. He would have to understand their culture to better adapt which is an aspect of empathy which I will get into more detail later. That is just one example of situational leadership needing to be applied to succeed in a project. For an additional clarification,
Now let us take a look on how empathy is defined. Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee argue that empathy is “the fundamental competence of social awareness” (2002: 50). They define empathy as “Sensing others emotions, understanding their perspectives, and taking active interest in their concerns” (2002: 39). In addition, Goleman states in What Makes a leader?, “Empathy is particularly important today as a component of leadership for at least three reasons: the increasing use of teams; the rapid pace of globalization; and the growing need to retain talent (Goleman p. 89).
If we look at the business world as a whole, we are seeing an evolutionary need for the word “team”. The ability of others is often more valuable then the ability of one single individual. A leader with that concept in mind should take advantage of it. The only drawback to this is, being as how a team is made of different types of individuals; the leader needs to be empathic to those that are within the group. You may have people that are sensitive to certain actions or words that others may not be due to their background.
What is an aspect of the world that is no doubt noticeable? The answer is how it continues to grow as a diversified home for many. You have many people from foreign areas moving to the US and having those people giving birth to their children with the US. In addition, vice versa is being applied. The world as we know it today is conforming to a standard where the original descendants of an area are in complete domination of that area. What can we gave from this? First off, set views and cultures may need to be modified. This is the case because since you have different background, morals, and views living and working together, an empathic approach of, “the fundamental competence of social awareness”, and “Sensing others emotions, understanding their perspectives, and taking active interest in their concerns” need to be applied.
Retaining talent is sometimes an action that companies have a hard time succeeding at. A constant occurrence is that people leave companies for the fact of being displeased with the attitude of their boss. Granted you may have some employees who are just lost causes, but there times where talented and people of value left the company due to empathy. Let us think about this logically. To find a perfect environment to work in may be non-existent, but a workplace where you are at ease, happy, and motivated to work at is definitely obtainable. Do you think if a person were to work at a job with these conditions decide to leave? Your answer for the most part will be no. The only exception is if a person gets drawn in by a monetary offer to hard to pass up. The overall problem is that leaders, managers, and the company as an entirety do not provide an empathetic environment or aura if you will where bonding between employees and the company happens, rather than detachments.
Well, a leader is only as successful as the group that supports him. A star of a movie cant deliver the message or complete the movie without his supporting cast. One aspect that should be understood is that life is not a one person show and that the supporting cast of your life (or business) makes you better. In order to maintain your “supporting cast” you need to understand them and how they work. What is one way to accomplish this? To be empathetic is the answer.
To better understand empathy, I will give an example. We have a construction consulting company who has been successful in the past. The past few years has brought a decline in the economy along with a decline in available clientele. The company reaches a point in time where the owner decides to sell the company because he got a very hefty offer from one of his competitors. The whole process occurs, and the company