Leadership as a Managerial Function

This study analyzes the importance and practicality of leadership as one of the most significant managerial functions. It discusses the concepts, traits, and challenges of leadership based on an interview with the manager of a retail giant. The strategies used to empower employees are also explored.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AS A MANAGERIAL FUNCTION
LEADERSHIP AS A MANAGERIAL FUNCTION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary:
This study aims to ascertain the importance and practicality of leadership as one of the
most significant managerial functions. In this context, this study analyzes responses gathered
from an interview associated with the leadership of the manager of a retail giant. The interviewee
was the manager of Woolworths, Darwin City, who was asked five questions regarding
leadership. This study describes the concepts, importance, traits of leadership from the viewpoint
of the manager of Woolworths, Darwin City, as revealed in the interview. Further this study also
throws lights on challenges of leadership as reflected through the interview. The strategies
followed by the manager of Woolworths, Darwin City, to empower the employees working
under him, are also discussed with reference to the replies given by him in the interview. The
questions asked during the interview and their responses are attached in the appendix section.
Table of Contents

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:
Introduction:..................................................................................................................................3
Body:...............................................................................................................................................3
 Theory..................................................................................................................................3
 Observation as well as Brief Description of the Manager’s key Contribution to an
Organization:......................................................................................................................4
 Key challenges of the Manager’s role:..............................................................................5
 Evaluation/interpretation:.................................................................................................6
Conclusion and Recommendations:.............................................................................................6
Bibliography:..................................................................................................................................7
Appendices......................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
In order to delve deep into the importance, traits, application of powerful leadership to
motivate employees; this study has attempted to analyze the responses of five question asked in
an interview. The interviewee was the manager of Woolworths, Darwin City, who was asked
five questions regarding leadership. With reference to the responses provided by the manager of
Woolworths, Darwin City, this study first discuses about the definition and importance of
leadership. The next section throws lights on the traits and challenges of leadership. Further as
per the elaboration of the interviewee a connection between leadership and power is also
established. Finally as per interviewee’s description of the leadership strategies used for
motivation; this study establishes a relationship among leadership, motivation, performance
management and efficiency. This analysis is followed by a couple of recommendations regarding
effective leadership.
Body:
 Theory
Among the essential managerial functions-.Planning Organizing, controlling and leading,
leading is one of the most crucial function that contributes substantially in maximizing, the
efficiency of the performance of people associated with an organization. Leadership
encompasses the initiation of action by communicating the goals as well as strategies to the
employees of all level, decision making to utilize the human as well as other resources fully
and also motivating employees to achieve individual goals.

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 Observation as well as Brief Description of the Manager’s key Contribution
to an Organization:
In order to achieve organizational goals, missions and vision, initiation of the action
is very essential for a manager. Initiation of action refers to the act of commutating,
crucial plans and policies which will pave the path for fulfillment of organizational
mission and vision. None but a leader is considered to be the most suitable person to do
this task. In other words, the leadership of a manager can communicate essential policies
as well as plans for actualizing the mission and vision of the organization to his
subordinates in a clear and convincing manner. Hence, one of the significances of leading
an organization is initiating action. Apart from the initiation of action and communicating
the mission and visions to the employees of all ranks, it is very essential to motivate
employees to meet individual target, so that the respective mission of the organization
can be achieved. An ideal leader provides motivation in a way that touches the heart of
the employees of all level and encourages them to reach their goals. This is considered to
be pone of the greatest importance of leadership. Again another importance of leadership
is monitoring the performance of the employees and find pout the loopholes that can be
considered as the reasons behind the degradation of the performance of the employees.
Sometimes the newly joined employees seems to be less confident. In this case an ideal
leader boosts the confidence of the employees who are novice. This is another factor
evidencing the essentiality of leadership. There are few behaviors of the leader which are
essential for initiating action, and boosting confidence of the employees. One of them is
sense of responsibility. Prior to initiating action, a leader needs to have a sense of

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responsibility. A sense of responsibility, in turn, make the leader understand how
important it is to initiate action and communicate the mission as well as vision to the
employees. Hence sense of responsibility is one of the significant behaviors of an ideal
leader. A leader is assigned with the task of motivating as well as boosting the confidence
of his or her subordinates, which will be possible, if a leader has confidence on his or her
own self. Self-confidence, clarity of thoughts and convincing attitude are interrelated. In
other words, if a leader has clarity of thoughts he will be able to communicate his
subordinates with confidence, again if a leader has self-confidence, he will be able to
convince his subordinates. Hence, other remarkable behavior of an ideal leader are self-
confidence, convincing attitude. Clarity of thoughts can be considered as one of the most
significant traits of a good leader. Clarity of thoughts comes from prudency as well as
intelligence. In short prudency, intelligence both are the reasons behind clarity of
thoughts. Clarity of thoughts accompanied by decisive skills, are essential to conduct
strategic management. Hence, most important traits of an ideal leader is intelligence,
prudency and clarity of thoughts, decisive skills.
 Key challenges of the Manager’s role:
During the initial days of leadership a manager may face challenge to give a
shared vision regarding the current position of the organization, he or she is attached
with, to his or her subordinates. Again, during the initial days of leadership, initiating
action and formulating strategies to communicate and convince the employees about the
goals and objectives of the organization; can also become a challenge to a manager.

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Again, during the initial days of leadership, formulating human resource strategies and
preparing structure for extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to boost employee performance;
will be another significant challenge to a manager.
 Evaluation/interpretation:
Comparing managerial function in practice with theory, it can be stated that, as
one of the significant managerial function, leadership refers to the act of commutating,
crucial plans and policies which will pave the path for fulfillment of organizational
mission and vision. None but a leader is considered to be the most suitable person to do
this task. In other words, a leader can communicate essential policies as well as plans for
actualizing the mission and vision of the organization to his subordinates in a clear and
convincing manner. This is considered to be one of the greatest importance of leadership.
Conclusion and Recommendations:
Finally, it can be concluded that, leadership skills can be improved, if the leader keeps on
upgrading his or her knowledge base. In other words, a leader is able to cast upon the highest impact with
his or her knowledge and wisdom. This is the reason an impactful leadership is dependent on the
continuous upgradation of the knowledge as well as wisdom of the leader. Again, leadership will be most
effective if the leader nourishes his knowledge regarding the use of technology to enhance
communication skills. For example, a leader of pre-millennial era needs to be comfortable to conduct a
meeting over Skype of facebook or whats app group, if a situation arises, in which living meeting is not
possible.

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Bibliography:
Conger, J., 2015. Charismatic leadership. Wiley encyclopedia of management, pp.1-2.
Daft, R.L., 2014. The leadership experience. Cengage Learning.
Daft, R.L., 2014. The leadership experience. Cengage Learning.
Jaques, E., 2017. Requisite organization: A total system for effective managerial organization
and managerial leadership for the 21st century. Routledge.
Northouse, P.G., 2018. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

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Appendices
Interviewee: manager of Woolworths, Darwin City
Interviewer: What is the importance of leading in your organization?
Interviewee: I believe that, leading is essential for Woolworths, one of the largest retail giant
of Australia. In the context of a popular organization Woolworth, it can be stated that,
Leadership is a powerful instrument to inspire employees of every rank, so that they are able
to fulfill all the duties assigned to them. Again, I believe that initiating action and making
your subordinates understand the significance of mission and vision of the organization they
are attached with, can be considered as one of the greatest importance of leadership. Further,
for a retail giant like Woolworth providing guidance and motivation are essential to make
people achieve their target. A powerful leader is capable of convincing motivating employees
to upgrade their performance to reach their individual goals. These are the factors that
evidence the importance of leadership within a large organization like Woolswoirth.
Interviewer: Which of the traits and behaviors of leaders are the most essential?
Interviewee: Important trait of a leader, according to me ids clarity of thoughts. Clarity of
thoughts comes from prudency as well as intelligence. In short prudency, intelligence both
are the reasons behind clarity of thoughts. Clarity of thoughts accompanied by decisive skills,
are essential to conduct strategic management of the employees of such a large organization

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of Woolworth. Hence, as the human resource manager I will conclude that, most important
traits of an ideal leader is intelligence, prudency and clarity of thoughts, decisive skills. A
good sense of responsibility is one of the remarkable behaviors of a leader. For a retail giant
like Woolsworth, Initiating action explaining policies well are essential which can only be
done by a manager with a good sense of responsibility. A manager needs to boost the
confidence of the employees during leadership,. This will be possible, if and only if, he
himself is confident. Hence, self-confidence is another important behavior of a leader.
Interviewer: What are the challenges you encountered during your leadership?
Interviewee: During the initial days of my leadership I faced a challenge to give a shared vision
regarding the current position of Woolsworth as well as its purpose and goals. As the manager
for a large organization like Woolsworth, setting the right objectives and communicating them to
the employees of all rank was the second challenge,
Interviewer: Do you believe that, there is a connection between leadership and power? Why?
Interviewee: There is a connection between the two , due to the position and the responsibility.
Interviewer: What are the strategies you follow to empower the employees?
Interviewee: Adopting friendly attitude and an attitude of empathy are the two strategies.