Directions:
TEXTBOOK INFORMATION
Title: Leadership: Research Findings, Practice. and Skills
Edition: 8th (2015)
Author: Andrew J. DuBrin
Publisher: Cengage Learning
Read the following chapters in your text:
- Chapter 10: “Motivation and Coaching Skills”
- Chapter 11: “Creativity, Innovation, and Leadership”
DuBrin, A. (2016) Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Boston, MA: Cengage.
GB600M4: Analyze the influence of leadership on organizational effectiveness.
Focus Paper
Write a 7–9-page paper (2,000–2,500 words), not including the title and reference pages,
describing how leadership motivates and innovates for organizational effectiveness. Include
the following:
- Introduction to a specific organizational effectiveness goal you desire to achieve through
coaching and innovation.
- Discussion of coaching and its contribution to motivation, productivity, and engagement.
- Research on leadership practices that foster creativity and contribute to organizational
innovation.
- Analysis of the effective use of coaching to achieve your specific goal and recommendations
for increasing your personal coaching skills and techniques to improve your overall leadership
effectiveness. Be sure to connect research to your analysis and recommendations.
- Analysis of your current leadership practices and how well those practices contribute to
creativity and organizational innovation and recommendations for increasing your overall
effectiveness in this area. Be sure to connect research to your analysis and recommendations.
- Conclusion should summarize the primary points of the paper and bring forward a call to
action.
The assessment will be evaluated using the Competency Assessment Checklist Rubric.
Therefore, please be sure to review this rubric in order to understand the criteria, that it is
written with proper grammar and in APA format (including clear section headings), and
includes a minimum of four cited and referenced resources, at least two of which must be
peer-reviewed (scholarly) journal articles.
Minimum Submission Requirements
- This Assessment should be a Microsoft Word (minimum 2000 words, 7-9 pages) document, in
addition to the title and reference pages.• Respond to the questions in a thorough manner, providing specific examples of concepts,
topics, definitions, and other elements asked for in the questions. Your paper should be highly
organized, logical, and focused.
- Your paper must be written in Standard English and demonstrate exceptional content,
organization, style, and grammar and mechanics.
- Your paper should provide a clearly established and sustained viewpoint and purpose.
- Your writing should be well ordered, logical and unified, as well as original and insightful.
- A separate page at the end of your research paper should contain a list of references, in APA
format. Use your textbook, the Library, and the internet for research.
- Be sure to cite both in-text and reference list citations were appropriate and reference all
sources. Your sources and content should follow proper APA citation style. Review APA
formatting and style found in the Writing Center accessed through the Academic Success
Center within the Academic Tools area. (It should include a cover sheet, paper is double
spaced, in Times New Roman 12-point font, correct citations, Standard English with no
spelling or punctuation errors, and correct references at the bottom of the last page.)
Influence of Leadership on the Effectiveness of the Organization
Influence of Leadership on the Effectiveness of the Organization
Coaching and Innovation to Foster Growth of the Organization
Effectiveness in an organization entails the collaboration of each individual within the firm to ensure they positively contribute to the operationalization of the firm to realize growth. Efficiency within the organization will enable it to achieve its goal of growth within various markets (Oghojafor, Muo & Aduloju, 2012). To achieve growth, a company needs to focus on the leadership, the process of decision-making, people, structure, culture, and work procedures and systems. The company should include the intervention of coaching and innovative strategies to gain a competitive edge over other firms and successfully realize growth.
Impact of Coaching on Motivation, Productivity, and Engagement
DuBrin (2016) elaborates that efficient and reliable leaders are characterized as effective coaches. Moreover, such relevant features attribute the leaders as motivators. The coaching process requirements are simple for the individuals who do not physically interact with the members of the organization that include the financial officers, the board members, and chairperson, and the CEOs constantly. Nonetheless, coaching plays an essential role in various organizations. DuBrin (2016) gives an example of Harley Davidson’s director, who elaborates that he has been able to incorporate coaching to the company processes to enhance the talent and skills of the staff members of the company. Such skills are necessary for problem-solving within the organization.
Coaching is an approach that enables other individuals to build and act on their strengths and skills. Coaching entails caring about the employees in the organization, and hence, one invests their time and resources in the development of personal relationships. A company would also benefit from incorporating it due to its impact on productivity. In this connection, when the employees are coached, their efficiency is improved, which positively affects the growth and profitability of the company. Furthermore, coaching is perceived as a core notion for engaging and further motivating the employees. DuBrin (2016) elaborates that a report based on a survey showed that numerous organizations have fewer resources for the compensation of their workers. As a result, they incorporate development and coaching as an approach used to boost motivation and retention of such workers.
Features of Coaching
Coaching within the work environment is explained as a form of management. Since a relationship entailing coaching is unique, the individual that is coached is motivated to ensure they accomplish their goals and tasks for the benefit of the company. Moreover, coaching is identified as an interaction of two individuals, which includes the employee and manager. Such an interaction aims to aid the workers to learn and benefit from their work to advance their development. The interaction between the two individuals influences the outcome of the coaching experience (DuBrin, 2016). For instance, some leaders can coach-specific people successfully, but fail to help others.
The act of coaching entails moderate interpersonal trust and risks on the two individuals interacting. The coach could provide the employee with a wrong piece of advice. Moreover, the individual that is coached could fail to embrace the encouragement provided by the coach. These aforementioned actions could result in the reduction of the efficiency of the employees due to failure to trust their coach or wrong advice. Successful coaching is based on the growth and development of the workers instead of providing directions on how they should handle particular situations (DuBrin, 2016). To help the employees grow, the coach, as a leader, should provide relevant resources required for them to make decisions.
Individuals that are coached should be constantly challenged to identify the appropriate solutions to problems. Also, such individuals should be given feedback on their performance. Coaching provides effective contributions that include an increase in motivation among workers in the organization. A good coach should ensure the employees’ spirits are up and regularly issue recognition and praise for good work. Effective coaching results in the personal development of the workers. DuBrin (2016) points out that the members of the organization are encouraged to embrace cross-training and support each other. Successful coaching improves the performance of the entire workplace. The process of coaching provides insights into the individual workers’ skills and the best approach of using such skills to contribute to the success of the organization.
Misconceptions about Coaching
A key method of understanding the impact of coaching on motivation, engagement, and productivity is to examine various misconceptions on coaching (DuBrin, 2016). One misperception is that coaching can only be conducted on a personal one on one basis. This is a false belief since leaders can coach entire teams in general. As a result, the leader of a group could provide coaching advice to all the members. Moreover, while coaching entails the provision of knowledge, it underlies the positive development of the habits of the employees. For instance, an employee could be coached about their time management and habits at the workplace. Such a person could be issued numerous techniques and knowledge; however, if the individual is a procrastinator, the coach should focus on such a habit and enable the worker to gain better time management skills.
Another stereotype is the notion that coaching should be conducted face-to-face. DuBrin (2016) suggests that coaching could be undertaken via chats, social media, messaging, e-mails, and voice calls due to variation in distance and time. An employee on a business trip could send their manager a message from a customer to receive the best advice on how to contain a particular situation. This above-identified approach aids the company to achieve its goals since the employee receives guidelines from the manager who understands the key goals of the organization and is the ultimate decision-maker of the firm.
Leadership Practices That Foster Creativity and Contribute To Organizational Innovation
Innovations are characterized as a key force that provides support and sustainability of growth within companies. Cheng, Cao, Zhong, He, and Qian (2019) elaborate that the requirements based on the sustainability of the society push organizations to incorporate technological approaches for the development of innovative approaches. There is an increase in attention and focus on the methods of improving how teams and individuals enhance innovation and the effectiveness of the organization in a consistent manner. Such approaches include a focus on the management of human resources that is a key element of innovation. Through establishing an empowered work environment, the management of the firm expects the workers to achieve higher performance through creativity.
Management Encouragement of Innovation and Creativity
Creativity encouragement is the extent of a manager to emphasize on being more creative and engage in the operations in the organizations that results in the improvement of the organization’s success. This aforementioned idea incorporates the theory of empowerment and is perceived as one of the key competencies necessary for managing an organization towards innovative approaches. The behaviors of leaders that include encouragement and motivation are key features that foster innovation and lead to the improvement of the relevant exchange of knowledge among the employees of the firm. Cheng et al. (2019) suggest that when there is a positive exchange between the leaders and employees, the company promotes the efficiency of creativity in the workplace.
The executive management of the company should constantly provide support, which in turn affects the speed of innovation. Such an approach is much efficient in organizations seeking to incorporate advanced technological approaches for sustainability and growth. Cheng et al. (2019) point out a recent study, which suggests that the adoption of empowerment as an organizational strategy could build the confidence of the employees on their leaders. This approach motivates employees to explore creative methods.
In this connection, creative engagement is a core factor in the management of creativity and its effect on performance within the firm. The process reflects group and individual engagements. Moreover, the extent of the engagement in creativity includes the process of identifying the problem, the search for information, and the generation of new notions and alternatives for existing strategies. Albeit various scholars confound innovation and creativity in their research, creativity focuses on the establishment of new ideas in innovative actions. Further, innovation underscores the incorporation of such ideas and practices (Cheng et al., 2019). Creativity is the initial step in the process of innovation. Furthermore, individuals should differentiate creativity and innovation. As such, the encouragement of the leaders affects the process of creativity, which in turn fosters the speed of innovation.
Effective Use of Coaching To Achieve Growth
There should be a clear communication of what is expected of the employees to effectively realize growth. For the workers to perform effectively and advance their skills, they should constantly receive advice from their leaders on the approaches and strategies necessary for the achievement of growth. Moreover, effective coaches focus on building relationships with the members of their team, and hence, they work in unity towards driving the aim of the organization of realizing growth (DuBrin, 2016). Such workers can progress their interpersonal skills and collaborate with the management to ensure the achievement of the main goal of the firm. Furthermore, it is important for the leaders of the firm to constantly provide feedback to the core areas that require particular improvement.
One key challenge in the provision of feedback according to Dubrin (2016) is that there are individuals who have a negative attitude towards negative feedback from their leaders. Moreover, feedback can be made to be less intimidating when the leader elaborates on the specific behaviors that a person should increase or decrease. Such an approach is a combination of compliments and criticism that reduces the perception of insults by the individual being coached. Also, when dealing with a sensitive individual, the coach could convert their criticism to positive suggestions to avoid the aspect of intimidating the employee of the firm.
Listening is an important element in the coaching sessions between the leader and worker. Active listening allows both individuals to share their suggestions that would drive the company towards growth. Active listeners should grasp both feelings and facts. Both individuals need to observe non-verbal cues (DuBrin, 2016). To achieve top-notch capacity, employees require help to dissolve obstacles such as rigid budgets, regulations, and rules. The leader should be able to aid such workers to break this aforementioned barrier. Leaders are in a better position to receive approvals from the executive management of organizations. As a result, workers are flexible and can propel the company towards growth.
Leadership Practices That Contribute To Creativity and Innovation
Cheng et al. (2019) highlight that leadership empowerment benefits the creativity of the employees. Leaders should encourage the process of creativity to enhance the team members’ vigor to assimilate and extend external data and information that accelerate innovation within the company. When various workers are involved in the creative strategy of the firm, they strive to offer solutions to issues. For instance, the employees can engage in seeking relevant information from various sources and generate several alternative solutions through evaluating and analyzing such information.
Organizations expect to increase their speed of innovation with the increased interactions and engagement of the workers. Cheng et al. (2019) suggest that encouraging results in a high degree of the creative process. In this connection, leaders could encourage the process of engagement by outlining the necessary approaches of the creativity action plan, propagating the values of the organization, and facilitating the efficiency of the creative process. The help of the management of the organization towards encouragement motivates individuals to gain a better understanding of the importance of creativity towards innovation.
DuBrin (2016) points out that a key relationship between engagement and leadership is that leaders should incorporate motivation as a technique that fosters creativity, which in turn promotes innovation within the organization. For instance, DuBrin (2016) points out a survey conducted on 1,000 workers, showing that the leaders that provided positive feedback to their workers improve the construct of engagement. Moreover, negative feedback is also an element that improves the creativity of employees. More than 5% of the workers in the survey identified above were engaged and believed that the focus of their supervisors on their weaknesses resulted in the growth of their skills and talent.
Conclusion
Conclusively, leaders need to engage their employees in the process of coaching as whole individuals. In this connection, they must have courageous conversations that result in the development of trust. When the employees and managers gain trust in each other, they can receive and disseminate coaching advice that generally fosters the growth of the firm. Managers and leaders have different aptitudes for the process of coaching. Coaching is a complex process that is based on the interactions of the workers and leaders. As a result, communication skills are essential for both the workers and leaders to ensure efficiency and error reduction in understanding.
Moreover, several reasons encourage the incorporation of encouragement of leaders to foster creativity within the organization. Based on the discussion above, it is evident that creativity is an essential element that influences innovation within a firm. Further, the relationship between innovation and creativity focuses on improving the creative process of the workers to enable them to make informed decisions and achieve innovative methods faster. Innovation propels a company to gain a competitive edge in the industry. Strategies for creativity allow employees to be more dedicated to their workplace due to the encouragement and engagement process used by their leaders. In this connection, the organization should implement coaching to foster motivation and include engagement to ensure the development of creativity that influences innovation.
References
Cheng, C., Cao, L., Zhong, H., He, Y., & Qian, J. (2019). The Influence of Leader Encouragement of Creativity on Innovation Speed: Findings from SEM and fsQCA. Sustainability, 11(9), 2693. doi: 10.3390/su11092693
DuBrin, A. (2015). Leadership: Research Findings, Practice. and Skills (8th ed., pp. 309-377). Cengage Learning.
Oghojafor, B., Muo, F., & Aduloju, S. (2012). Organisational Effectiveness: Whom and What Do We Believe?. Advances In Management & Applied Economics, 2(4), 81-108. Retrieved from http://www.scienpress.com/Upload/AMAE/Vol%202_4_6.pdf
