Emergent Leadership Skills for the Workplace

The report critically evaluates different leadership styles and identifies the best leadership skills for fulfilling key responsibilities during the Covid-19 situation. The report also provides an overview of M&S, its industry, and competitors. The leadership style of M&S is evaluated, and the best leadership skills for fulfilling key responsibilities during the Covid-19 situation are identified. The report concludes with a recommendation and references.

Emergent Leadership Skills for the Workplace

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
I. Aim of the report, organization chosen and outline of the report.............................................3
ii. Introduction to the leadership styles that would be critically evaluated..................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
a. Overview of the organization...................................................................................................4
b. Critical evaluation of different leadership approaches/ styles.................................................5
(i)..................................................................................................................................................5
(ii) Best Leadership skills to fulfil key responsibilities as a leader.............................................6
C. Evaluating leadership style ....................................................................................................7
Leadership style of Mark and Spencer.......................................................................................9
Leadership style can be used by M&S......................................................................................10
Comparing Autocratic and consultancy leadership style..........................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Leadership can be defined as an art of influencing an individual's behaviour within a
group to enable them to act in a certain way towards the attainment of a common goal.
Leadership skills involves self-awareness, prioritization of personal development, focusing on
developing other team members, bring innovation and changes in action and practising effective
communication in a cross cultural environment (Mishra and Pandey, 2018). Also, leadership
skills refers to the abilities and strengths demonstrated by individuals which helps in guiding
initiatives, overseeing processes and influencing employees for achieving the set goals. These
skills are very crucial for executives and management for making thoughtful and reasonable
decisions regarding the goals and mission of their organization along with appropriately
allocating resources in an efficient manner to achieve set goals.
I. Aim of the report, organization chosen and outline of the report
The basic aim of writing this report is to evaluate the leadership skills demonstrated by
emerging leaders within contemporary organization at the time of Covid-19 situation. The report
also aims to critically evaluate the various leadership styles or approaches exhibited by modern
organizations.
The present report is based on M&S which is a multinational retailer based in London,
England, United Kingdom. The majority of company's operations are into clothing line and food
& home products. The reason behind choosing this organization for this report is that M&S has
adopted consultative leadership style to overcome the challenges posed by Covid-19 situations
where they used to consult with others before making final decisions for any given proposal.
This means that there is always a group influence during decision-making, however final
decisions are always made by leaders itself (Al Khajeh, 2018).
There would be three sections in this report which encompasses various subsections as
well. The first section will be based on discussion pertaining to organizational overview in terms
of its history, products and services, industry within which the company that is, M&S is
operating and their competitors therein. The second section of this report would be based on
critical evaluation with regard to different leadership styles or approaches and based on this, the
best leadership skills for the fulfilment of key responsibilities during the Covid-19 situation will
be critically evaluated. The third and the last section of this report will be based on assessment of

styles or approaches to leadership will be done. The various leadership skills possessed by own
will be identified on the basis of established theories and styles of leadership. Accordingly,
strengths and weaknesses as an emergent leader will be identified. Also, the leadership styles or
skills that M&S is using will be investigated and accordingly, the leadership skills or styles that
would be used as an influential leader within M&S at the time Covid-19 situation will be
mentioned. At last, comparison and contrasting will be done among own leadership styles with
the one that has been used by M&S.
ii. Introduction to the leadership styles that would be critically evaluated
Within this report the following leadership styles will be critically evaluated:
1. Autocratic Leadership style: Here leader focuses on tasks by exhibiting directive
behaviour and also makes decisions alone.
2. Democratic leadership style: Here leader focuses on people and carry out open
communication (Mishra and Pandey, 2018).
3. Consultative leadership style: Here leaders focuses on team building and utilization of
other's skills for the creation of plans and decision - making.
4. Transformational leadership style: Here leaders serves as an ideal influence, establishes
strong relationships, bring motivation and enthusiasm among employees through learning
and creativity. This leadership style is helpful in reducing employee turnover (Gandolfi
and Stone, 2018).
MAIN BODY
a. Overview of the organization
M&S is a leading organization within the retail sector of UK and is considered to be a
major British multinational retailer based in London, England. The company was founded 138
years ago in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. Currently, there are more than 1000
stores of the company across UK where around 650 stores are only selling food products.
However, the company is planning to close more than 150 stores as a part of their turnaround
plan. M&S has form joint venture with Ocado for offering online food delivery service.
Majority of M&S dealing is associated with food, clothing and home based products. The
industry within which the company is operating is the retail industry of UK where cut throat
competition prevails among top multinational brands. The biggest competitors of M&S are

Tesco, ALDI, ASDA, Next, Morrisons and John Lewis Partnership (Pretorius, Steyn and Bond-
Barnard, 2018).
b. Critical evaluation of different leadership approaches/ styles
(i)
The various leadership theories or style that is discussed above and its critical analysis are
as follows:
Autocratic leadership style: This is one of the significant type of leadership style that
allow the leaders to impose expectations and define outcomes. For example, Microsoft is a
company that uses autocratic leadership style within the business because the team of their
company requires proper and clear guidelines. Here, the team leader of Microsoft company uses
this styles to provide guidance to member about what they need to do and in how much time.
Further, the team member need to report to their leaders about their work in this leadership style.
With the help of this styles, the company able to create consistent results and the mistakes in the
implementation plan are easily reduced (Fries, Kammerlander and Leitterstorf, 2021). However,
on the other hand, this is one of the strict style which sometime leads to employee rebellion in
Microsoft organization. It also kills the employee creativity and innovation which ultimately
leads to reduction in group output and productivity.
Democratic leadership style: This is another leadership styles with the help of which
leaders of the organization can leads its team members. For example, Apple is an organization
that uses democratic leadership style which is also known as participative leadership style within
the organization in order to keep employees included and engaged in the decision making
process. This helps the organization such as Apple to increase motivation and job satisfaction of
the employees. It also encourages the employee creativity which is not possible in case of
autocratic leadership style (Al-Malki and Juan, 2018). However, using this style make the
decision-making process time consuming. Also, this leads to poor decision because of unskilled
employee’s involvement.
Consultative leadership style: This is a leadership styles in which consultative managers
consistently ask their team member about their concern. In this, the organization basically have
open door policy for their employees in order to encourage employees to share their thoughts
views and concern. For example, M&S retail organization of UK uses the consultative

leadership style or theory within their business in order to keep their employees motivated and
satisfied with positive environment during the Covid-19 situation. With the help of this style, the
management of M&S able to solve its employees concern very well and adopt the solutions
accordingly. The team member or employees of M&S unable to work well during work from
home due to lack of knowledge of technology. So, in order to solve this concern of its
employees, the team leaders of M&S have provided proper online training session regarding the
software, systems etc. to its employees so that they can work without any stress from home
during Covid-19 situation. However, in case if more employees are involved in decision-making
process, this does not work well as compared to autocratic style. Sometime this style might make
employee unproductive due to high personal and emotional support.
Transformational leadership style: The last leadership style mentioned above is
transformational leadership style where leaders inspire their team or followers only with a vision
that encourages them to achieve their targets on time. For example, Amazon organization uses
transformational leadership style within their organization to keep their teams motivated and
encouraged during pandemic situation. The impact of which the employee turnover rate of
Amazon company is low as compared to its competitors (Demir and Budur, 2019). The morale
of the employees is also enhanced during the period of pandemic due to transformational
leadership style of Amazon. However, on the other hand, the disadvantage of this style is that the
leaders can deceive employees and also they can lead to deviation of protocols and regulations
within the organization.
(ii) Best Leadership skills to fulfil key responsibilities as a leader
After critically analysing the different leadership style or theories above, the best leadership
skills which fulfils the key responsibilities as a leader of organizations in Covid-19 situation are
as follows:
Integrity: This is basically the first skill of leadership which have to be built by leaders
within themselves in order be loyal and honest with their employees as well as organizations.
The leaders should provide correct information to their team members regarding what they need
to do. Distracting the employee from their work and adopting wrong action to complete own
work is an example of bad leaders (Zeike and et.al., 2019).

Self-Awareness: Further, the leaders should have skill of self-awareness and prioritising
personal development in themselves during the Covid-19 situation is must. The leaders of the
organizations should focus on their work with avoiding distraction. The leaders need to build this
skill in themselves because team member follow their leaders only. If leader will do any wrong
thing than its team also do the same. So, it is important and responsibility of a leader to build this
skill in themselves to keep their employees or team leaders motivated towards their work.
Communication: This is also one of the best skills that have to be built by the leaders of
the organization in themselves during Covid-19 scenario. During the pandemic situation and
lock-down the employees are highly demotivated because of the salary cut. So, in order to keep
themselves motivated, leaders have to communicate with their team member to known about
their concern and solve the same with the help of their problem-solving skills and critical
thinking skills.
Strategic thinking: This is also one of the best leadership skill which is require to fulfil
the responsibility of leaders. The leaders of organization have to learn strategic thinking skills
via different strategies. For example, the leaders can improve its strategic thinking skills by
maintain a flexible mind-set and by creating new ideas to motivates its team. By keeping their
mind-set flexible, the leaders of organization also guide their team to work in flexible
environment as well (Hackworth and et.al., 2018). It is because the goals of the organization
changes frequently as per the change in the demand of the market. Thus, this skill helps the
leader to guide the employee properly.
C. Evaluating leadership style
There are various theories that can be used in the organization in order to provide effective
leadership style. Along with this, the theories lay emphasize on traits and behaviour that will
help individual in cultivate leadership abilities. Although there are some various theories that
every manager needs to follow in order to stay in top of the game.
Contingency theory: It stated that there is no one leadership style that can be used in all
situations. In simple words there are various variables that influence the situation of leader
and it should make use of right action in order to deal with leadership style (Siangchokyoo,
Klinger and Campion, 2020). Although busies is dynamic in nature thus leader also have to

keep changing there style so that it can find appropriate solution for the company as well as
guide their employees. Most of the scholars have said that effective leadership is known as
maintaining right balance between behaviour and needs. The best leaders not only have right
ability to maintain their needs of their subordinate but it can also evaluate the situation and
act accordingly.
Situational leadership: This theory lay importance on the situational variable and stated that
there is no best leadership style. It is mainly combination of tow factors such as the maturity
level of subordinates as well as leadership style (Aanat-Maymon, Elimelech and Roth, 2020).
Moreover, it stated that there according to different situation different styles is used in order to
make decision. Thus, leaders should act according to the situation it is facing.
Style:
Autocratic leadership:
This style is rigid in nature in this leader have power to take decision related to organization
and it guides employees. Along with this, the subordinates generally follow the common of
leaders and not allow to share their thoughts and ideas. Moreover, it is mainly used while
making the decision as well as polices in the company and it also known as top down
approach. As the command flows from top authority to lower. However, in this approach
leaders generally focus less on gathering ideas from the team members and mainly execute their
own decision.
Democratic: It is also known as participative leadership style in which subordinates are
allowed to take part in decision-making (Heyler and Martin, 2018). Along with this, in these
leaders guide their employees but give privileges to their ideas and allow them to participate
in team meeting. This style is effective and promote team spirit that contributes in improving
business process.
Pacesetting leadership: It mainly focuses on improving the performance of company and
employees so that goals can be accomplished in limited set of time. Along with this, in these
leaders are expected hard work from their subordinates.
Moreover, I have good communication skill which is important abilities for becoming the good
leader. I can easily communicate my thoughts and ideas to others and interaction helps in
building healthy relation with others (Holmes and et.al., 2021). Moreover, I have good decision-
making skill that contributes in finding appropriate solution for problem. Along with this my

strength are that I can build good relation with others which is crucial in building healthy
culture within organization. Although my weakness is my time management skill is poor, and I
am not able to complete my task on time.
Leadership style of Mark and Spencer
Leaders play very important role in the organization and it helps in accomplishing the
organizational goal effectively. It main duty is to guide employees so that it can direct them to
accomplish their personnel goals and make better decision. The appropriate leadership style
create positive impact on the company such as reducing turnover as well as to empower
employees to be more productive. In addition to this, Mark and Spencer is a big retail
company with various branch and large number of employees. Moreover, the company is
following consultative management style (.Erniwati, Ramly and Alam, 2020). The company
have flatter structure so effective collaboration among employees of different levels is needed
for improving the effectiveness of company. In this approach leader connect with their
subordinates while making the decision as well as it assume that their team has a capability and
knowledge to excel at their job. Although leader has an authority to make final decision but it
also prefers to listen to their team member and ask them to share their ideas. The main motive
of making use of this leadership style by M&S is to get the involved in organization as well as
to make healthy culture within firm. Along with this, communication flows from both the
direction and leaders make final decision. Thus, freedom is given to employees but there is
control of management over things.
The strength of making use of this style is that it helps in building employee
engagement as team members are involved in decision-making and their thoughts and ideas
are also respected. That result in increasing overall growth of the company as employees are
motivated. In addition to this, this style helps in generating creative ideas during the decision-
making process as employees have an opportunity to raise their voice (Silva, Nunes and
Andrade, 2019). Moreover, it also improves the quality of decision as many peoples are
involved in the process. However, some weakness of this leadership style is that it is very time-
consuming as various meeting need to be conducted and it is not appropriate for urgent task.
This style sometime can create conflicts between the employee which can create delay in
decision-making as well as make employees dissatisfied. Along with this, another weakness is
slow decision-making is sometime difficult to arrive at a result.

Furthermore, Mark and Spencer focus on various skill such as communication and
decision making skill that helps in finding appropriate solution for the goals. Along with the
leader should be able to maintain healthy relation with employees so that it can easily share
their problem faced by them within company.
Leadership style can be used by M&S
As Mark and Spencer is a large company so in order to improve the business
performance the CEO can adopt for autocratic style of leader ship. In this approach I will make
use of this style it will be able to solve the conflicts within the organization. Along with this,
commons will be in hand of the leader and decision can be make quickly as compared to
consultancy style. Moreover, autocratic is very beneficial in emergency situation as power of
command lies in the hand of the leader. I prefer to make use of this style as it will help in
increasing the motivation of employees. Although during the time of pandemic many issues
has been faced by Mark and Spencer such as shutdown of business for several months.
Autocratic style will contribute in guiding the employees on the right track so that goals can be
accomplished. In this leadership style subordinates are aware about the company aim and it
works towards them in order to complete them (Jiménez,2018). In addition to this, this
leadership style will also contribute in setting the agenda as well as to manage the work by
delegating it to subordinate. In addition to this, at the time of work from home policy it was
important for the leader to maintain communication with them in order to avoid chaos. In
autocratic leadership the communication flow from higher authority to lower level that helps in
interacting with them. However, when communication is in form of command it is
easy for employee to do the task more effectively. Along with this, there are some weakness of
this style that it is rigid in nature and cannot be used in every situation. In addition to this, the
company need to make use of this approach in order to increase the overall growth of the firm.
However, the another weakness of this style is that subordinates are not involved in decision-
making process, and they are mainly not allow to share their thoughts and ideas. In this style no
one talks about innovative idea that result in poor working environment as well as employee
can feel more suppress which lead to unhappy workforce (Kertiriasih, Sujana and Suardika,
2018). It also developed a system of dependence on leader that in lower confidence of
employees and slower decision-making skills. Moreover, this style is most consistent method
for the company and the procedure is rigid in nature but it always leads to corporate success.

However, excessive control may lead to low employee moral and poor engagement with them.
Thus, it is mandatory for the leader to maintain balance process to attain goals of business as
well as to add value to the employees' responsibility. Thus, adopting good leadership style will
contribute in maintaining employees engagement.
Comparing Autocratic and consultancy leadership style
Basis Autocratic Consultancy
Meaning In this style there is line of
demarcation is maintained
between the leader and
followers. Although decision
is mainly taken by leader
alone. Thus, in this approach
formality is maintained
between senior and junior.
In this style leadership
involvement of subordinates
is done in decision-making.
The leaders have controlling
power and other responsibility
within team.
Authority Centralized Decentralized
Behaviour Task oriented Relation oriented
Conceived from Theory of X Theory of Y
Autonomy Less High
Control High low
Suitability When employees are
unskilled or fresher
Suitable when team members
are experienced.
Key difference:
The autocratic leadership style can be defined as approach in which formal relation is
maintained between subordinates and leader. Along with this, commanding power is in hand of
leader and it makes their own decision. Moreover, the thoughts and ideas of leaders are not
appreciated in this method and flow of command is from high to lower such as there is one
way communication (Kankaew, 2020). On the other hand, consultancy leadership style opinion

of juniors are also taken into consideration while making the decision. Along with this, leaders
value the opinion and suggestion of the followers but the final decision-making power is in the
hand of leader. Along with this, there is tow way of communication between employees and
leader.
Moreover, there is centralization of power in autocratic style due to that employees'
engagement is weak. On the other hand, the delegation power is in hand of group member that
contributes in increasing their moral to come up with the innovative idea.
Along with this, autocratic is more task oriented and it give more emphasis on
completing the task effectively and on limited set of time period (Ko and Kang, 2019). On
other hand, consultancy aims at enhancing relation with subordinate and m leader by sharing
power with the group member.
Furthermore, the idea of autocratic has been drives from theory of X motivation in
which leaders make use of riagid behaviour in order to increase the moral of the employees.
According to this theory people only work for earning money and it says that
autocratic style should be used in order to make lazy and selfish employee’s to work. Whereas
consultancy style is based on X theory of motivation in which manager make use of
collaborative relation with subordinates and motivate them by allowing it to take participation
in group work and taking responsibility (Sedrine, Bouderbal and Nasraoui, 2020) . As well as to
empower them to take decision while working in the group and contributes in success of
company. Thus, the owner of Mark and Spencer to make use of consultancy in approach in
order to engage their employees.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that leadership skills must be exhibited by
leaders within the modern organizations such as M&S through adopting the best and most
effective leadership style depending upon the requirements of the situation. For instance, with
the emergence of Covid – 19, there are different leadership styles that have been adopted by
different organizations to combat the challenges that came in their way. The adoption of
leadership style is largely based on the nature of work, skills or knowledge level of employees,
time available for achieving the set goals and many more factors affecting the choice of

leadership style. In this report, various leadership styles have been critically evaluated such as
autocratic, democratic , consultative and transformational leadership styles and accordingly,
skills like positivity, creativity, communication, motivation, delegation and trustworthiness are
found to be necessary for leaders to fulfil their key responsibilities. Furthermore, strengths and
weakness within own leadership style and those adopted by M&S has been critically evaluated.
RECOMMENDATION
The following suggestions along with action plans could be given to own and the CEO of M&S:
 It would be recommended that in the future, positivity must be exhibited by an individual
acting as a leader because positivity helps in overcoming the challenges arising from
situations such as COVID – 19 pandemic in an easier way. The benefit of this skill is that
it allows for getting maximum work done from subordinates and to show positivity
towards the given situation the leader needs to be caring, encouraging, friendliness and
helping nature. This skills is always beneficial in managing stress and conflicts arising at
workplace (Vasilescu, 2019).
 It is to be recommended to company to conduct training and development programme
in order to increase their skills so that it is able to contribute in success of company.
Along with this, all this abilities and skill will allow the employees to build their
personality as well as to improve the company performance and build engagement with
them.
 It is to be recommended to company that it can also make use of situational leadership
approach in order to deal with dynamic changes of business environment. Along with
this, it will also contribute in making the decision more quickly as compare to
consultancy. This leadership will also allow employees to learn about the various ways
to deal with the issues.

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