When creating a business and trying to formulate a plan, leadership style is important. Situational leadership focuses on a leader not only directing followers to achieve goals but by a leader analyzing a situation and determining if directing or supporting followers is more appropriate for the situation (Northouse, 2016, pg. 93). Situational leadership is one of many approaches that should be considered when communicating with any audience.
This has been an effective leadership approach for me as a leader because every situation requires its own thought provoking attention. When there is a follower needing support in a repetitive job environment, leaders should immediately adapt from a directive style to a supportive style of leadership in order to accommodate the needs of the followers. Follower needs are important to creating high productivity and creating a hostile-free environment where an employee feels empowered to make decisions and bring concerns to the attention of leaders.
While this approach to leadership works for me currently, creating a systematic method of communicating requires leaders to have a changing set of skills. A transformational leader which is related to a situational leader in that both approaches focus on the needs of the followers and motivates all followers in an effective manner. “Transformational leadership is the process whereby a person engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower,” (Northouse, 2016, pg. 162). This way of leading not only focuses on how the leader can create a productive environment but how a leader can make a difference in how followers see their everyday tasks. This type of leadership builds on every approach to leadership because a leader needs to be able to influence others to create a strategy to satisfy the needs of the organization in all its totality (Barrett, 2014, pg. 4).
The purpose of an organization should help alleviate the gap in how educated small business owners are in their legal and ethical requirements to their followers. The transformational approach to leadership helps the leader understand not only what leaders need and how a leader should accomplish goals, but how follower’s needs and processes are important for each daily task. The followers recruited to the organization will be leaders of their tasks and business leaders sometimes forget about the relationships they are supposed to be building with their followers. Motivating followers should be the first step to accomplishing goals.
The primary audience is the small business owners requesting services for follower motivation and goal achievement. The secondary audience will be the employees of the advising company because these employees will help to spread the knowledge to the small business owners and embody the goals of transformational leadership. The third audience, indirectly affected, will be the followers of the small business owners who will be the source of all topics and the ones directly affected by the changes of their leaders. The accidental audience is the individuals the small business leaders will discuss their new and old practices with once they are through with learning new ways of motivating employees.
Tailoring the message to the first audience will mean a medium of meetings with the purpose of informing, influencing and engaging. This audience will be treated as nonexperts/experts because they are established business owners, they have a feel of their leadership style, but since they are seeking assistance it is logical to assume they do not know everything. The second audience will be treated as experts in some situations, but when learning about new ways of doing influencing will be treated as nonexperts. The second audience will be working directly with the leader of the advising company and will be knowledgeable in the field, but when the leader needs to communicate anything to these followers the medium will range from meetings, E-mail, reports, memos, and procedures. Organizational devices will mainly involve deduction, which starts with the conclusion, and induction, which starts with supporting information, (Barrett, 2014, pg. 43).
This is just the beginning stages of the leadership communication strategy. The transformational leadership approach requires a leader to know how to motivate followers and to motivate leaders as well. Knowing how to motivate and inspire others is key to succeeding in any leadership role, but a firm strategy and acknowledgment of resources and audiences is also necessary for success. More than one approach to leadership is necessary for there to be continually success in any business or personal situation, and an authentic leader will know when each approach is appropriate.
References
Barrett, D. (2014). Leadership Communication (Fourth Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
