Exploring Leadership and Professional Development

The provided content is a collection of academic articles, books, and online resources that focus on leadership, professional development, and strategic management in various fields. The articles and books cover topics such as leadership styles, team building, time management, motivation, and personal growth for professional development. The authors discussed in the content include Cardno, Cardona, Coleman, Davies, Duke, Forsyth, Freeman, Hahm, Harlan, Jeffs, Johns, Moody, Porter-O'Grady, Salaman, Sangster, Throop, Tomlinson, Vaccaro, Wolton, Gardner, Prantor, and Tracy. Overall, the content provides insights and perspectives on leadership and professional development from various disciplines.

Working with Leading People

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Essential documentation required for proper selection and recruitment process.............3
1.2 Impact of legal, regulatory and ethical considerations to the recruitment and selection
process for the PM Company.................................................................................................5
2.3 Evidencing as a part of the selection process...................................................................5
1.4 Contribution in selection process of the company...........................................................6
2.1 Skills and attributes needed for leadership.......................................................................7
2.2 Difference between leadership and management.............................................................7
2.3 Different leadership styles for different situations with examples...................................8
2.4 Ways to motivate staff to achieve objectives.................................................................10
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................10
3.1 The benefits of team-working and reviewing its effectiveness......................................10
3.2 The importance of working in a team as a leader and member towards specific goals. 11
3.3 The effectiveness of the team in achieving the goals.....................................................12
4.1 Important factors for planning the monitoring and assessing the work performance at PM
Company...............................................................................................................................12
4.2 A plan to deliver the assessment of the development needs of individuals at PM Company
..............................................................................................................................................13
4.3 The success of the assessment process...........................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
INDEX OF TABLES
Table 1: Job Description..................................................................................................................5
Table 2: Person Specification..........................................................................................................5
Table 3: Difference between leadership and management .............................................................9
Table 4: Different leadership ........................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is a form of activity where an individual's ability as a leader of the team is to
determine work, motivate and enable others team members in order to contribute towards
organisational success. The style or trait used by a leader to lead its team is termed as leadership.
It is a set of direction that helps a leader and others to perform the right activities for all the
business operations (Beckett and et.al., 2013). For an effective leadership the leaders are required
to create an inspiring vision and considering that they have to motivate others in order to reach
that goal. This report is covering all the essential processes of leadership which are like
recruitment, selection and retention etc. Along with this, the study is also creating the awareness
of the styles and impacts of leadership. In addition to this, the team effectiveness and needs of
individuals development is also discussed in the report.
TASK 1
1.1 Essential documentation required for proper selection and recruitment process
As per the stated scenario of Purple Mail Company (PMC) which specifies that they are
facing some issues regarding poor administration and improper recruitment and selection process
which further ascertained the lacking of proper checks and imbalance in skilled and unskilled
workforces in the company (Hahm, Jung and Moon, 2013). In that case, it is ascertained that the
company requires an effective operational executive who is responsible for overcoming these
issues. As a Human Resource (HR) manager of the PMC, the documents considered by me in
proper selection and recruitment process are job description and person specification:
Job description
Title: Operational Executive/Officer
Department: Human Resource Management (HRM)
Reports to: General Manager/Human Resource Director
Job purpose: To ensure that all the business operations of recruiting and selecting new recruits
and balancing the level of staff in the company.
Roles and Responsibilities:
 To manage the company's staff selection and recruitment process of department like IT,
HR, Finance, property management and records management (Porter-O'Grady, 2014).
 To ensure that all government compliance, reporting and regulation are complied in all

the processes.
 To monitor the all the HR processes of the company.
 To oversee all the activities of procurement and supporting the relation through
contracting with all the service providers (Vaccaro and et.al., 2012).
 To ensure that all the staff policies of the company are timely updated and relevant.
 To develop and supervise a practical performance framework and campaign for the
company (considering the compulsory regulations under Performance Framework
Policy).
 Providing strategic advice to the management team on matters relating to general
operations of the Agency
Table 1: Job Description
Person Specification
Qualifications: The person should have a Degree in HRM or any Social discipline.
 The applicant should have its Post graduation diploma/degree in Operational course
under HRM.
 A required certification in HR sector or related advanced training (Gardner, 2012). It should have minimum three years experience of an operational executive.
Skills and knowledge:
 The applicant must have an excellent hold on maintaining inter-personnel
communication relation for facilitating work and avoiding conflicts.
 It should have a good computer knowledge with internet handling/working skills. Person
who is familiar with the human resources' information system would be highly preferred
(Bach and Ellis, 2011).
 It should possess excellent HR relation skills.
Table 2: Person Specification

1.2 Impact of legal, regulatory and ethical considerations to the recruitment and selection process
for the PM Company
The Company has to face many impacts of government regulations and legal framework
while selecting the best candidate as an operational executive. For overcoming the needs of
proper recruitment and selection process for operation executive the company is bound to
comply with the legal regulations and ethical considerations stated under the policies developed
by UK government (Cardno, 2005). It is necessary for PMC to incorporate such regulations in
their recruitment and selection processes. However, the laws defined by the UK government for
proper recruitment and selection process are:
 Equality Act (1995) – The act which compel the company to maintain equality among all
the candidates during testing, interviewing and screening (Prantor, 2014). In recruitment
and selection process, the management uses high practices of inequality in age, gender,
race, colour and physical disability which should be avoided by them.
 Sex Discrimination Act (1975) – This act forces the company to avoid the practices of
discriminating the eligible applicants on the basis of the gender. It is ascertained that
many organisations discriminate in their decision of selecting and recruiting a man or
woman on the position. The person should be always judged on the basis of their skills,
knowledge, abilities and qualifications.
Both of these acts states the similar regulations for avoiding practices like discrimination
on the basis of person physical or mental disabilities or colour. Along with this the company is
forced to follow the ethical regulation and framework that are stated under recruitment and
selection program. PMC should direct its respectable concern over helping their employees with
a healthy and safe working environment. This would develop a strong impact on the expected
candidates during their research and development process.
1.3 Evidencing as a part of the selection process
In the given scenario, it is evident that the responsibilities of a HR manager plays a vital
role in recruitment and selection process. HR manager has to define certain stages and maintain
proper functioning of both the processes in order to gain best results. In that case, considering
myself as a HR manager and being as a part of selecting the best person for the post of
operational executive officer, my duties are to generate a proper structure of job description and

person specification (Cardona, 2010). The following is an effective structure of job description
and person specification defined by me: Creating Job Description: As a HR manager, I'm responsible to create a specific job
statement for the position of operational executive. In addition to this, I will specify the
list of all the roles and responsibilities along with the job title, its purpose and authorities
given to the individual (Duke, 2015). This is an important task which is helpful for the
recruiter as well as the candidate, because it clears all their doubts regarding the job. It
provides all the information to sort all the best candidates from the rest applicants.
 Creating Person Specification: It defines the required form of skills, abilities and
qualification for the person. It helps in determining the person's eligibility criteria for the
job. In that situation, I will plan a list of all the essential abilities and qualification along
with the level of skills and knowledge required in the person which is necessary for
achieving all the objectives specified for the position. This step will encourage my team
ability to effectively judge and evaluate each applicant on the grounds of their
capabilities. It creates an easy method for comparing all the candidates in the selection
process.
1.4 Contribution in selection process of the company
As a HR manager of the company, my contribution has an impacting role in the process
of selecting an eligible operational executive officer which has to overcome from the issues
related to the HRM (Forsyth, 2013). My contribution is to properly manage, control and monitor
all the activities which are specified under the recruitment and selection process. The sections
under my concerns in which my contribution is highly required are: Planning – HR manager is extremely responsible to plan the requirement of specific
position and job in the company. On the basis of which he has to create the content of job
description and person specification. In this process, I'm liable to address the internal
talent to determine the sources or rather I need to look externally for the search of
required talent. Three-way meeting – It is essential to create and develop a good job description from
stating the process of recruitment and selection process (Harlan, 2012). In that case, I will
arrange meetings with the hiring managers, HR partners and job recruiter which are

needed to determine the optimal profile of an operational executive as per the current
labour market.
 Reviewing and developing the tests – It is ascertained that to overcome the eligibility
criteria for the position, the person needs to have certain skills, knowledge and
qualification as specified in the person specification. Further, to test his abilities, I have to
design a suitable set of screening, testing (preliminary and knowledge) and interview
(inter-personnel and with the committee).
2.1 Skills and attributes needed for leadership
An organization requires an effective leadership for managing and controlling all their
staff members and to lead their direction towards attaining success (Johns, 2012). The leader is
extremely needed to encourage all the team members in a motive to sustain business
development. In that case, a company always needs an effective leader in its business
environment and for becoming an effective leader the person should follow the stated activities: Motivating and inspiring others – It is the duty of an effective leader to create a vision of
the company's future that is clear and compelling which motivates their employees in
manner to achieve the target. Every member wants to work with and for a company
which gives heavy salary and high profits to them. In that situation, a leader is
responsible to help such members of team and connect their performance level to impact
its customers and communities. Builds relationship – For an effective leadership the person needs to develop their inter
personnel communication techniques in order to create a healthy relationship with the
other members (Moody and Pesut, 2011). A leader needs to maintain a day to day
relation with the team members, customers, vendors, boss and other subordinates.
 Communication – It has been ascertained that great leaders regularly communicates with
their subordinates in different ways. They can be in the form of personal conversations,
phone calls, group meetings, emails messages and any other form. This communication
builds a strong relationship among the members of a company.
2.2 Difference between leadership and management
The main differences of leadership and management are:
Basis Leadership Management

Definition It is a set of a person's ability to
motivate, determine and enable the
working of staff members to
encourage their contribution in
organization's operations.
It states the functions of managing
and controlling the individuals in a
way to coordinate the order placed
by them to accomplish the set
objectives.
Orientating It is staff-oriented concept where
precedence is given to the team,
members (Sangster, 2011).
It is task-oriented concept in which
managers are highly involved for
completing the assigned tasks.
Approaches Leaders are concerned for providing
new and innovative ideas as well as
solutions in order to resolve issues.
Managers create strategies, plans
and programs with their teams to
operate swiftly the task.
Styles Leaders follow different styles to lead
which are transformational,
participative and consultative.
Management is performed with the
help of these styles such as
Dictatorial, Authoritative,
Autocratic and Democratic (Throop
and Castellucci, 2010.).
Table 3: Difference between leadership and management
2.3 Different leadership styles for different situations with examples
For an organization, there are various leadership styles which are defined as per different
situations or conditions which are:
Commanding Visionary Affiliating Democratic Pacesetting Coaching
The
leader's
modus
operandi
Demands
immediate
compliance.
Motivating
people
towards a
vision.
Creating
harmony
and building
emotional
bonds.
Forges
consensus
through
participation
.
Sets high
standards
for
performance
.
Develops
people for
the future.
A perfect
phrase for
the style
“Do that is
told by me”
“Come
along with
me”
“
Individuals
always
“What is
your
“Perform as
I perform”
“Try this
method”

comes first” thinking”
Underlying
emotional
intelligence
competenci
es
It drives to
achieve
initiative and
self control.
Encourages
self
confidence
and
empathy, to
change
catalyst.
Building
sympathy,
relationships
and
communicat
ion network
(Tomlinson,
2014.).
Increases
team
collaboratio
n, team
leadership
and
effective
communicat
ion.
Promotes
consciousne
ss and
drives to
achieve and
takes
initiatives.
Assist in
developing
others,
motivates
empathy
and self
awareness.
Best
reasons for
adopting
style
In a crisis, to
kick start a
turnaround or
with
problematic
employees.
When the
company
needs
changes that
require a
new vision
or when it
needs a
clear
direction.
To avoid
conflicts in
a team or to
motivate
members
during
stressful
situations.
To rebuild
buy-in or
consensus,
or to get
input from
valuable
employees.
To attain
quick results
by forming
a high level
of
motivation
and
competency
among the
employees
(Wolton,
2010).
To assist an
individual to
improve
performance
or create
long term
strengths.
Overall
impact on
the
business
environme
nt
Negative Generally
positive
Positive Positive Negative Negative
Table 4: Different leadership

2.4 Ways to motivate staff to achieve objectives
The methods to motivate staff members in order to achieve the specific sets of objectives
are:
 Providing rewards – It is one of the best method which can be to motivate the
employees. It can be either tangible where rewards are distributed in the form financial
sources or intangible where employees are rewarded in form of praises and group
recognition (Cannella, 2012). In the present scenario, the employees of PMC should be
rewarded in the form of paying bonuses, incentives and allowances.
 Individual recognition – In an organization, every individual needs to be recognized for
achieving their personal accomplishments. This form of motivation allows the employee
an opportunity to raise their personal needs, self esteem needs, improves their self
imagination and encourages their level to perform better in all the business operations.
 Redesigning the Job: The company should adopt the concept of job redesign which is
based on re-introducing the employees to their responsibilities and duties on the job who
have become lethargic and bored because of performing same tasks on regular days in the
company (Coleman, 2013). The methods such as job enlargement, job rotation and job
enrichment charges flexibility in such employees which ultimately increases their
capacity towards work.
 Employee participation in decision making – The activity of encouraging the
involvement of employees would help the organisation in increasing their individual's
performance level. This would further facilitate in enhancing the productivity level of
their workforces.
TASK 2
3.1 The benefits of team-working and reviewing its effectiveness
The advantages of an effective team working and its potentiality to accomplish the
desired organizational objectives are:
 Greater Feasibility – Considering the case of PMC, the benefits of an effective
teamwork strategy be beneficial and will help in encouraging flexibility and feasibility.
Because it brings individuals from different section of company for working together as a
team. However, it is ascertained that team-working will helpful in clearing all the

problems or bottlenecks issues related to the improper recruiting and selecting process.
Its potency on PMC is observed by its usefulness in solving the issues and areas
generating such problems, as the entire team is capable to deal this situation and this
method is helpful in overcoming such issues in a much brighter sense.
 Improves morality – It is determined that teamwork enables all the employees to gain
high knowledge and efforts to take decisions (Freeman, 2010). It also motivates their
working level in order to increase their control on the work activity. Further this
consideration leads to improved morale support as employees gain more authority and
higher ownership on their current projects. Its effectiveness can be measured by
generating the increasing level of performance among the employees. It is addressed that
by taking extra responsibility that encourages more rewards and lower turnover level.
Hence, working along a team gives employees a greater sense of happiness and level of
recognition, that helps them take more pride in their work as well as their company.
3.2 The importance of working in a team as a leader and member towards specific goals
In an organization, the individuals like team leaders and rest of the members plays an
important role in accomplishing some specific tasks. However, they both are interdependent on
each other (Jeffs, 2014.). Leaders goals are to lead the team and achieve all the organizational
objectives in an effective manner whereas the team member goals are work as specified by the
leader for function accordingly. In addition to this, the importance of both the parties on some
specific goals are:
 Shared responsibilities – It is considered that when the whole team shares responsibility
among them for attaining better success of the project, the team becomes more sensitive
and reliable. Further, the organization recieves the best possible services and outcomes.
Along with this, sharing of responsibility increases the level of productivity and high
effectiveness (Salaman, 2015). It is only created and developed when the members of the
company:
◦ Has specific commitment for completing all the assigned tasks and also assist other
members to meet their deadlines.
◦ Takes high interest in the performing proper work with other team members and
share relevant information freely
◦ Focuses on solving issues rather than blaming others.

 Commitment to team goals and plan – All the team members of a company are obliged
to have proper commitment on their assigned team goals and stated team plan. It is
important to focus the team attention on their purpose and planning to accomplishing
objectives of organisation as well as individual (Davies, 2004).
 Effective communication – It is necessary to develop an effective communication
network between the team and the other members for attaining better success from all the
business operations. It is also important to facilitate relevant information from each and
every member within the team.
3.3 The effectiveness of the team in achieving the goals
It is evident that en effective team has various characteristics among them and they are
like shared leadership, responsibility, commitment to team goals as well as on plan, effective
communication network, innovative ideas, reactivity and many more (Prantor, 2014). However,
the factors that are required for attaining high level of effectiveness in achieving the objectives
are: Team meetings – The organisation should organise team meetings and get together in
order to develop the team effectiveness and measure the success of the team. When a
team has same view and a similar focus point, along with considering clear and
achievable goals, ideas of actions and ways to monitor success, it can easily achieve its
higher effectiveness(Beckett and et.al., 2013). Progress reports – The method of measuring the level of effectiveness in the working
styles and nature of the employees. This helps the management in addressing the progress
in the performance and working after implementing the training and development
process. If a team fully utilizes its available resources in both internal and external
environment.
 Feedback – A maintained effectiveness of each member encourages their ability to yield,
receive and raise essential feedback among the members and organization.
4.1 Important factors for planning the monitoring and assessing the work performance at PM
Company
There are many important factors that are involved in the method of planning and
assessing the employees' level of performance. The policies that defines a certain standard level
and quality management which has to be maintain by all the individuals working for the

company (Hahm, Jung and Moon, 2013). In case of PMC, the useful method for planning in
order to attain helpful information are: Measurement – It is essential to integrate the instruments that can direct efforts for
monitoring and assessing the performance level. For this, PMC has to focus their
attention on checklist and self-appraisal system in order to measure the performance
criteria of their employees which can only be done by using such methods. In addition to
this, it will help in identifying the gap which has to be covered by boosting the efficiency
level of the team subordinates. Benchmarking – As per method of benchmarking which involves a set of activities for
monitoring and assessing the employee's performance level. In that case, PMC can use
the set of benchmark for particular work and analyse the performance level of each
individual with that in order to maintain a proper method of monitoring.
 Analyse of work performance – PMC keeps regular verify the overall staff performance
and managing the business operations. This helps their HR manager to examine the
working activities of employees and then they takes measure to make the employees
clearly understand about their major roles and responsibilities in the organisation
4.2 A plan to deliver the assessment of the development needs of individuals at PM Company
Considering the situation of PM company in the stated scenario which specifies that the
company is suffering from the issues of improper recruitment and selection process. The
instability in the number of skilled and experienced staff with the figure of unskilled and new
hires is influencing its business operations (Porter-O'Grady, 2014). This forces the management
team of PMC to hire new operational executive officer for overcoming and avoiding such issues.
However, it is ascertained that the company needs a plan for assessing the development
requirements for the individuals working for the company. In that situation, it is essential that the
company should adapt proper functions and methods for carrying a better recruitment and
selection process. Redesigning the screening techniques, knowledge tests, interviewing methods,
questionnaire, preliminary tests and practical case studies will be useful for the company. Re-
defining the training and development methods will also be helpful in overcoming such threats.
Other than this, the company can use several other methods to assess the development
needs among the employees working in their organisation. The best method which could be used
by them is:

 Guiding and mentoring- For this, the HR manager has to implement an effective
leadership style where the leader takes initiative in providing its team members with
expert guidance and continuous mentoring. Doing this helps the employees to correct
their mistakes in a systematic way and work accordingly to achieve the set target in the
standard time frame.
4.3 The success of the assessment process
The specified process will attain high success, if implemented appropriately and in a
manner as stated in the plan. The operational department is lacking improper checks and
balances in the staff members. In that regard, it is necessary that company should hire an
effective operational officer. As he is responsible to bring the company back on the track and
avoid the issues related to the poor recruitment and selection process (Vaccaro and et.al., 2012).
His responsibilities are to define all the set of interviews, knowledge tests, screening etc. for
maintaining a proper check on both the activities. New methods of training and development will
sort out the problem of lacking in the level of experienced members. He is responsible for
improving the overall management and standards of the company. Along with this, he will also
maintain the team effectiveness and level of performance among all the company members. In
that respect, the management should define a set of objectives and achievements which are to be
achieved from implementing the assessment plan and techniques. They should set the progress
which could be measured and addressed by the assessment plan.
CONCLUSION
It has been articulated that the company which is suffering from the issues of improper
recruitment and selection processes and lacking in the number of experienced staff, highly
requires en effective leader. It is ascertained that an effective leader is the only person that can
deal with all such issues. It is also evident that a leader is highly responsible to maintain proper
communication network, relations and working with the other staff members as well as company
heads.

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