Leadership in Business: Leadership Qualities, Styles, and Empowerment

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership within the context of a business environment, specifically using British Airways as a case study. It begins by defining leadership and its significance in achieving organizational goals, then delves into the essential qualities and capabilities of effective leaders, including communication, resilience, and vision. The report further examines various leadership styles, with a focus on the democratic leadership style, exploring its strengths and weaknesses. It then transitions to individual leadership, assessing the author's own leadership capabilities and preferred style, which is identified as transactional leadership. The report also discusses the concept of empowerment, advocating for a shift from control to empowerment paradigms and their implementation. Finally, it concludes by summarizing the key findings and implications for effective leadership in managing change and fostering a positive work environment. The report emphasizes the importance of leadership in motivating the workforce and driving the organization towards its objectives.

Leadership in Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................1
Leadership qualities and capabilities ..............................................................................................1
1) Leadership qualities and personal capabilities ..................................................................1
2) Effective leadership capabilities in terms of building relationship and establishing trust. 3
3) Capabilities displayed by leader at workplace ..................................................................3
Leadership styles .............................................................................................................................4
1) Most appropriate leadership style......................................................................................4
2) Strengths and weakness of leadership styles......................................................................4
Individual leadership .......................................................................................................................5
1) Own leadership capabilities and leadership style ..............................................................5
2) Capability I would like to develop ....................................................................................6
Empowerment..................................................................................................................................7
1) Shift from paradigm of control to an Empowerment paradigm.........................................7
2) Implementation of above shift .........................................................................................7
3) Improvement in leadership abilities to mange changes effectively...................................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8

REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10
........................................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Leadership basically represent the ability of an individuals or group of people to guide
and influence their followers or other employees and team member of their organisation. The
main aim of leadership in business is to provide motivation to workforce and other members to
intent their efforts towards achievement of a common goal (Kempster, Maak and Parry, 2019).
For this assignment chosen organisation is British Airways which is a flag carrier airline having
its headquarter in Harmondsworth, UK. This report includes a discussion about leadership
qualities and capabilities that are displayed by a leaders at workplace. Beside this, most
appropriate leadership styles that are best suited for and organisation is also included with their
strengths and weakness. Further a detail about individual leadership and key strengths and
weakness of an individual in respect of of leadership style is also included. At last this
assignment also consists a discussion about empowerment paradigm.
DISCUSSION
Leadership qualities and capabilities
1) Leadership qualities and personal capabilities
Leadership is fundamentally an activity that aim at influencing the behaviour, attitudes,
feelings and beliefs of other individuals in an predetermined or indented direction for
achievement of desired objectives. British airways is one of the biggest international scheduled
airlines of UK and also providing international and domestic carriage of freight and mails and all
other related ancillary service (Hooper and Potter 2019). This airline was formed in 1910 and
was the first airline that started daily international schedule service between London and Paris.
To maintain this legacy and brand image it become necessary for its leaders to have proper
leadership qualities and personal characteristics to properly organise and motivative manpower
at workplace (Thommen and Starman, 2019). Some of the leadership qualities and personal
characteristic that are displayed by leaders in an organisations are provided below:
Leadership Qualities
A strong set of leadership qualities are needed by an individual to positively interact with
their employees, team member and clients so that they can be easily influenced to do the desired
work and to improve their efficiency. Some of the most important leadership qulities are
described below:
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 Communication- Leaders must have good communication qualities as it provide them
an ability to properly express themselves and also lead to build empathy with other
people. Communication skill not only include speaking but also include capability of a
leaders of listening others (Paudel, 2019). Quality of good communication is must for a
leaders at workplace as they need to delegate work between employees and also provide
timely information and guidance to workforce which can not be possible without
effective communication.
 Resilience- It represent the quality of an individual to get recover quickly from any
difficulty or adverse situation. A good leader is not the one who performed well during
the good times but is the one who is having the quality to handle the adverse situation. A
leader should have positive attitudes at workplace and should rally on their team in times
of adverse situation. A good leaders must have the inherent capability to remain calm and
should focus on solutions rather than on problems.
 Vision- It is the art of seeing future opportunities and scope which is invisible to other
people. A good leaders should have qualities to create, articulate and passionately own
the vision so that restless efforts can be made for its completion. A great leader have
quality to clearly set organisational directions and facilitates keen decisiveness so that the
goals and objective of organisation can be achieved easily (11 LEADERSHIP
QUALITIES, 2019).
Personal characteristics
a leader plays an important role in success or failure of an organisation thus, it should
have some important personal characteristic to handle and face the challenges at workplace so
that they can create a positive atmosphere to motivate employees at workplace (7 PERSONAL
CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD LEADER, 2019). Some of these personal characteristics
displayed by leaders at workplace are provided below:
 Enthusiastic- Leaders have intense and eager interest in the their work thus, they feel
joyful while performing their work. A leader should display passion and dedication for its
job so that employees get inspiration from them to perform their task for affectionately
and with great enthusiasm.
 Confident- It is an important characteristics of leader to look confident for their work
and should have enough self belief regarding their knowledge that their plans and vision
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are viable for team and will yield best possible results. A good leaders is fearless who
does not feel afraid or reckless in any situation at workplace and have the required ability
to provide solution fearlessly.
 Honest and integrity- Honesty include the characteristic of being truthfulness, sincere
and frank while integrity is related with adherence to moral and ethical principles. Both
these characteristic are essential for good leaders so that they can face truth and should
not delude others at workplace (Edmondson, Casciaro and Jang, 2019)(Chao and Ha,
2019). Leader should stick to their worlds so that they can set a good examples for others
to behave in a good manner.
2) Effective leadership capabilities in terms of building relationship and establishing trust
There are many capabilities i.e. qualities and characteristics of a leader which makes
them efficient in building relationship and establishing trust at workplace with their employees.
The most important quality for developing and maintaining good relationship and trust with
employees and other people is effective communication. A leader must have quality to listen the
problems and issues of employees and should also understand the emotions and feelings behind
those words so that employees can develop can personal relationship with their leaders.. Use of
effective communication must made by leaders in providing compliments to its workforce which
improves their bonding and develop trust and loyalty (Sánchez and Lehnert, 2019)(Long, 2019).
Skills of honesty and integrity in a leader also lead to development of trust and bonding among
leaders and other people.
3) Capabilities displayed by leader at workplace
The leaders of British airways are having many leadership qualities which are displayed
by them at workplace to effectively mange and motivate its manpower (Peters, 2019). Alex Cruz
who is the chairman and CEO of British airways is having effective communication skills which
makes him able to develop clarity and transparency in organisation as roles and responsibility of
all employees are clearly defined and work is properly distributed among manpower (Alex Cruz,
2019). It also establish better relation, loyalty and commitment between employees and leaders.
Capability of vision is also showed by leaders at workplace which makes them able to take
effective decision for future growth and development. A relevant level of enthusiasm and
confidence is also present in Alex Cruz which makes him cheerful and positive at workplace
which ensures smooth flow of operation.
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Leadership styles
1) Most appropriate leadership style
Leadership style provide a behavioural pattern that is used by leaders to influence the
behaviour and nature of employees and other people. It also provide a framework for furnishing
direction to employees and to motivate them for accomplishing business objectives and goals.
British airways is a famous flag carrier airline of UK which is having more than 300 destinations
and a large number of daily fights thus, also having a huge workforce to perform all the task
effectively. It become necessary for British airways to make use of an appropriate leadership
style to keep its staff and motivated and to influence their efforts for achieving set targets and
goals (Visser, 2019). For that purpose most suitable leadership style is Democratic leadership
style as it will provide better work atmosphere in British airways.
Democratic leadership style
It is also known as participative leadership style as it allow involvement and participation
of employees and team members in decision making process. Adoption of democratic leadership
style is justifiable for British airways as it provide better opportunity to employees to participate,
exchange ideas freely and also encourage discussion which provide better internal motivation to
employees. Democratic leadership style makes it easy for leaders to provide direction and
guidance as it ensures proper channels of communications and also enhance creativity level of
employees which lead to better achievements of targets and goals.
2) Strengths and weakness of leadership styles
The strengths and weakness of democratic leadership style are as follows:
Strengths Weakness
 Participation of all employees is
allowed.
 It is helpful in solving complex
problems through getting creative ideas
from manpower.
 It facilitates better team based
relationship in organisation which
create a positive environment at
 As participation of all employees are
allowed thus, chances of communion
failure and chaos are more.
 It can lead to poor decision making as
opinions and views of unskilled
employees are also taken (Taylor,
2019).
 It makes decision making process
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workplace.
 It provide higher level of job
satisfaction and motivation to
employees which enhance their
performance.
lengthy and time consuming thus, not
suitable at the time of adverse situation.
Democratic leadership style is suitable for better self management and relationship
building as strong democratic leaders facilities trust and respect among followers. Democratic
leadership style ensure that leaders are sincere and their decisions are based on ethical values and
morals. Thus, it develop a feeling of inspiration and commitment in employees which makes
their action more effective. In democratic leadership style proper rewards and incentives are also
provided to employees which lead to better relationship among leaders and its followers.
Individual leadership
1) Own leadership capabilities and leadership style
As an individual I am having following leadership capabilities :
Communication- this is one of the most essential capability of leaders which makes
them able to effectively transfer their views and information among team. My communication
skills are very effective and impressive through which I can influence or motivate any person for
enhancing their performance.
Integrity- this capability is found in many leaders which makes able to remain firm on
decision and also makes them a honest person. Capability of integrity is also present in me which
makes me a truthful and honest person which is necessary to become a leader. This skill of mine
makes me capable to make take unbiased decisions which is necessary to maintain equality and
positive atmosphere at workplace.
Empathy- this is also an important trait of leadership which helps them in analysing and
determining attitude of employees which is necessary to motivate and influence their nature in
favour of organisational goal. I am having this capability which makers me able to understand
and share feelings of other. This skill helps me in establishing deep personal connection with
people through understanding their hopes, dreams and problems.
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A part of theses capabilities, other essential skills and characteristics of leadership like
vision, enthusiasm and confidence is also present in me which makes me fearless and provide
courage and self belief for effective decision making for achievement of desire goals and
objective.
The leadership style adopted by me if I am leaders in British airways or any other
organisations is Transactional leadership style.
Transactional leadership style
this leadership style focuses on effective supervision, organisation and performance of
employees through making use of rewards and punishments (Alvesson, 2019). Use of extra
incentives and perks are made by leaders to motivate employees for enhancing their
performance. Some time use of punishments like demotions are also made by leaders to maintain
discipline in organisation through taking strict action against ineffective and unproductive
employees. Use of transactional leadership style will be made by me, as it put pressure on
following rules and doing things in correct way and it also provide an easy way to motive and
direct employees for better performance. Use of incentives and rewards will establish a better
bonding and relationship between employees and leaders. Timely recognition and compliments
will built the moral of employees and will make them more loyal and committed towards leaders
and organisation.
My empathy skills are advantageous for me which make me able to understand the needs
and desire of employees of that I can influence their attitude through fulfilling or meeting that
desire. Fulfilment of desire and need will create motivation in employees and will enhance their
performance. My communication skills are also my strength which makes me able properly
communicate with employees and providing them timely recognition and compliments to
motivate them and it also lead to better relation among me and my employees. My integrity skills
are creating some weakness for adoption of transactional leadership style as being a honest
person I can take some very strict action and can also punish a dull and indiscipline employee
which can reduce their motivation level and can harm the bonding at workplace.
2) Capability I would like to develop
The one capability that I would like to develop to become a better leader is Resilience.
The capability of Resilience will make me able to handle the adverse situation. It will provide
better self management through improving my decision making capability so that an effective
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decision can be formed by me for betterment of all employees and overall organisation. This skill
of resilience can be achieved through experience and through reaming calm and composed at the
time of some adverse situation. Capability of resilience develop a positive attitude in me which
will bring better self management. It will also enhance my rally on my team members which will
lead to better reactions. Through capability of resilience I can make mutual decisions which are
in favour of all workforce thus, will lead to more effective relation.
Empowerment
1) Shift from paradigm of control to an Empowerment paradigm
In British airways a control paradigm is exits where leaders are having control and
commanding power and making use of concepts of great man and trait, behaviourist and
contingency theory (Ungerleider and Ungerleider, 2019). Use of control paradigm lead to
dissatisfaction in employees as no power is provided to them in decision making or any other
important function. Under control paradigms all the powers are centralised and in hands of top
authority and management. The leader of British airway Alex Cruz is very innovative and hard-
working and but he is having a little sort of controlling nature who likes to make all decisions on
the basis of his own judgement and knowledge (British Airways Case Study, 2019). This trait of
Alex Cruz has created dissatisfaction in its employee and also made its workforce dull who only
have to follow the instructions and rules of top management. Thus, use of control paradigm has
reduced motivation and creativity level of employees in British airways, thus, it become
necessary for this organisation to have a shift in its paradigm from control to empowerment.
Empowerment paradigm provide better inclusion of employees in operation which
enhance there motivation level and also improve creativity. It also facilitates a better sharing and
transfer of knowledge possessed by individuals which is useful in achieving the target and vision
of organisation (Involvement and Empowerment: The Modern Paradigm for Management
Success, 2019).
2) Implementation of above shift
The above shift from paradigm of control to an Empowerment paradigm can be made
through making use of an effective leadership style which will bring change in attitude of
leaders. Currently the leaders of British airways are most probably making use of Autocratic
leadership style which has lead to control paradigm in organisation thus, for effective
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implementation of this change from control to empowerment, British airways should adopt
Democratic leadership style. Use of democratic leadership style will provide better participation
and involvement of employees in decision making and other operations of organisations which
will lead to empowerment paradigm as it facilitate essay transfer of knowledge and views
(Sancino and Hudson, 2019).
With this change in British airways, employees will feel more positive and motivated as
importance will be provided to their skills and knowledge. Empowerment paradigm provide
better opportunity to employees and their creativity and initiative are get appreciated.
Empowerment also provide greatest insight and experience to employees in suggesting ways of
solving problems which will build better self confidence in employees. Thus, it can be said that
employees attitude will be positive for this change as they will get a better opportunity for
improvement in their creativity and skills and also develop self belief in them.
3) Improvement in leadership abilities to mange changes effectively
Through making improvements in communication, vision and resilience ability this
change in paradigm from control to empowerment can be achieved. Effective communion will
facilitates the better interaction and discussion in organisation thus provide relevant
empowerment to employees to exchange their knowledge and information (Kempster, Maak and
Parry, 2019). Resilience ability will make leaders more effective in handling the adverse
situation through finding proper situation for problems after due discussion and involvement of
employees. Ability of vision i.e. art of forecasting and estimating future will yield better growth
and opportunity for future. This will provide better scope and opportunity for creativity and
innovation of employees which will lead to better empowerment.
CONCLUSION
From this assignment it can be concluded that leadership in business is essential to
properly guide and motivate employees and other people. There are many leadership qualities
like communication, resilience, etc. which are required to develop proper relationship and trust
among people. Enthusiasm, honesty, integrity, etc. are some personal characteristic that are
reflected by leaders at workplace. Use of democratic leadership allows proper participation of
employees in decision making process. Transactional leadership style make use of rewards and
punishment to motivate and direct employees. A shift is made from control paradigm to
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empowerment paradigm to enhance the motivation and job satisfaction of employees and it also
improve their creativity and skills.
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