LEADERSHIP

Source: Programa #12: Liderazo. (2009, September 14). Retrieved February 24, 2011, from Hillson United-Revolución: http://www.revolucion7.com/2009/09/

1. How should organizational leaders behave in cross cultural environments?

In cross cultural environments organizational leaders have an important and challenging task similar to those of managers when motivating employees in such business environments. In fact, the motivation and leading tasks complement each other, so a leader is also expected to have motivational skills. For a leader working under such conditions it is important to have knowledge of the cultural background of the people he’s working with given that cultural traits influence the behavior of people and their perception. In this way, traits such as a charismatic leader may be too annoying for people belonging to a given culture; each culture not only influences motivational factors, but also the kind of leaders they respond to.

Tolerant, respectful, creative, charismatic, outgoing, dynamic, optimism and originality are some traits that are thought, in occidental cultures, to describe leaders in today’s business environment. For people who are leaders it’s important to have in mind both the objectives of the company in order to lead the employees towards the company’s goals, and also understand the wants and needs of the people he works with.  

2. Do you think the power of vision has been overestimated or underestimated in giving direction to business?

I believe the power of vision has indeed been underestimated in given direction to business. In fact, products that today we consider basic didn’t exist many years ago and were possible thanks to visionary people. Having a vision is thus a gift not everyone posses and those who throughout the history have made their vision true regardless of all the inconvenient changed the world in a positive way. I believe it just takes to take a look to the incredible inventions and projects of human kind to recognize the importance of visions in the development of projects and development of business activities.

Many years ago a vision was a passion and a way of living; today it’s not more than a business issue and it has even been implemented as a concept within the organizational culture. Stating the organization’s vision allows identifying goals and clear objectives that the company aims to achieve and therefore establishes a path to be followed. Without a vision the people working for the company won’t understand what it that they are working for is, and this in fact has a lot to do with motivation.

3. How should followers react when they do not agree with their managers’ directions?

When followers do not agree with the manager’s directions there are two possible situations depending if the manager’s directions are directly linked to reaching companies objectives or not. In the case that the managers’ directions are not directly linked to the companies’ goals there is always the possibility to express one’s ideas and try to reach a consensus. In this way, employees should have a range of action to be creative in their job and develop new ways and opportunities for the company. Input from part of the employees provides companies with new ideas that maybe they hadn’t considered and therefore they can profit from feedback given by people that know the business thoroughly. If the case is the opposite, in which de managers’ directions are linked directly with the organizational goals the problem is deeper as it makes no sense for a person to work for a company whose goal’s and vision he doesn’t not support. In this case, there is not much that can be done.