A511.2.3.RB_MalvoisinLeon

           As a leader, one must set time aside to recognize and encourage good ethical behaviors at the work place.  Must leaders just lead with an iron fist, but fail to recognize the hard workers. That to my opinion may create an unstable work environment and lack of interest on the job by the employees.  As identified by Yukl (2013), “supportive leadership includes a wide variety of behaviors that show consideration, acceptance, and concern for the need and feelings of other people; effective leaders help build and maintain effective interpersonal relationships. A manager who is considerate and friendly toward people is more likely to win their friendship and loyalty” (p.63).  Indeed, that is extremely important in the work place.  It helps create a sense of friendship and care from leadership that would boost the morale of the employee.

I work as a team leader for an organization that is very busy, and the work load can be very stressful for both my team and I.  Knowing how dynamic the workload can be, I lead with a participative leadership style that would allow my teammates to express themselves openly about any work related items.  As identified by Yukl (2013), “participative leadership involve a leader’s use of decision procedures that allows other people such as subordinates to have an input over decision that will affect them” (p.51). Certainly, this leadership method allows more employees to speak up and express themselves in a professional manner.  This method also encourages my team to work harder.  Therefore, as a responsible and understanding leader, I reward any of my team members that did an outstanding job on any of the projects assigned to him or her.

Rewarding an employee for an outstanding job by recognizing that person with some gift cards and/or movie tickets are very effective in producing results.  It shows to the employee that his or her team leader care about the team and/or his or her performance and that his or her hard work would not go unnoticed.  That also encourages other employees to do a better job as well.  Hence, recognizing the employees for their hard work would help create a rewarding work place environment for the hard workers.  However, if a leader fail to recognize his or her workers, that would create an unstable environment where most of the workers would not care about the quality of their work or the team.  The result of that behavior may impact the quality service delivered to the costumers which may drive a failure for the company yearly profit.

Hence, it’s totally worth it to show appreciation toward the team members of my team.  Showing appreciation may include any of the following, provide sympathy and support when the person is anxious or upset, be willing to help with personal problems, bolster the person’s self-esteem and confidence, and show acceptance and positive regard (Yulk, 2013).  That would allow the team to trust leadership and at the same time create a gateway to help develop subordinate skills.  As identified by Yukl (2013),” developing includes several managerial practices that are used to increase a subordinate’s skills and facilitate job adjustment and career advancement; key component behavior includes mentoring, coaching, and providing developmental opportunities” (p.65).  Certainly increasing the subordinate skills is another way of rewarding the individual for doing an outstanding job. The ultimate result of this are opportunities for promotion or high pay raise due to more responsibilities undertaking at work. Hence, that would encourage the workers to perform better and support the team and organization more.

 

Reference

Yukl, G. (2013). Effective Leadership Behavior. In Leadership in organizations. (8th ed). (pp. 51, and pp. 65). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall