Leadership is the potential to influence the behaviour of others. It is also defined as the ability to influence a group towards the realisation of a goal. Leaders are required to develop future visions, and to motivate the organizational (team) members to want to achieve the visions. Leadership is the key to the success of any business enterprise. Now we need to understand why good leadership is important for any organisation. The importance of leadership is highlighted by the following facts: Leadership influences the behaviour of people: a manager influences his subordinates with his leadership ability. He brings them under his control in such a way that they put in their best efforts to achieve the goals of the organisation. Good leaders always get good results through their followers. Good leadership helps staff in fulfilling their needs: a leader establishes a personal relationship with his staff and tries to fulfill their needs. The good leader provides staff with security and the opportunities to earn wealth, gives them the right to work and tries to understand their feelings. Consequently, they work with complete dedication and enthusiasm. Leadership helps in introducing required changes: these days the business environment is changing rapidly. In order to face the changing environment, many changes have got to be introduced in the organisation. Since the people already happen to be under the influence of the leader, he readily makes them agree to implement these changes. In this way, the possible opposition to the change is eliminated with the strength of leadership ability. Good leadership helps in solving conflicts effectively: a leader can solve every type of conflict (employee’s vs. employees and employees vs. employer) effectively under the weight of his influence. A leader always allows his followers the freedom to express their views. That is the reason that he easily understands the reality of the conflict, in this way, by understanding the nature of the conflict he tries to provide a timely solution and minimises the possibility of adverse results. Leaders help in the training and development of subordinates: a leader proves helpful in the training and development of his subordinates. He provides them with information about the modern techniques of work. Not only this, he makes it possible for them to be good leaders in future. The common denominator in the five points above is people. Leadership is about using your most important asset (staff) to achieve the organizations objective in the most efficient and effective way. So the benefits of good leadership in an organization results in workers at all levels feel needed and have a positive attitude resulting in very few complaints. Good leadership helps staff utilize all resources, share ideas and work as a team to achieve goals (profits). The conductor is the only one in the orchestra who doesn´t play a note but still leads the team to success. The effective leader is like the conductor of an orchestra. No successful businesses ever achieved their success without good leaders getting the best out of their staff. Next, we will look at the effects of poor leadership in/on business and the differences between a leader and a boss. John Maxwell said- “Leaders help remove system barriers. If the barriers remain long enough the people give up or they move to another organization where they can maximize their potential” The writer is a Kigali Based business consultant and strategist. www.gmskigali.com E-mail: john@gmskigali.com This article is the second of a series on leadership by the author and will run exclusively on Business Times for the coming weeks
