For a long time now, more and more organizations have realized that a leader’s level of emotional intelligence has an impact on the effectiveness of his or her team management and performance. In this article, I will outline why working with emotions is important in leading a team, what are the most common challenges for leaders, what problems managers face in managing with emotions, and what strategy can be used to bring one’s own emotions under control so that the team is willing to work with the manager and be more effective.
For a long time, companies have struggled to unite people around the idea of the organization, facing the problem of a sense of responsibility, low employee motivation and commitment or dispersed teams. These phenomena were further exacerbated during the COVID – 19 pandemic, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and at a time of increased inflation.
As a result, in the current business reality, more and more companies are choosing to develop business based on a strong organizational culture, with vision, mission and values as key elements. To cope with employees’ increasingly lower sense of identification with the company, leaders are focusing more often on managing by linking employees’ goals to the organization’s purpose and by managing based on their values.
Mission, vision and values are not just a slogan
Until now, vision, mission and values have often been treated as a “slogan” that only hangs on the wall in the office. Employees, including management, often did not take seriously the idea that defined the company and made its difference in the market. After all, the most important thing is “profit,” they said. Yes that’s right, profit is important, only now we achieve that profit in a slightly different way than before.
Any vision without an implementation plan and setting and taking concrete actions and practices of the teams is simply a hallucination. It contributes nothing or at best changes very little.
Visionary leadership 2.0
Visionary leadership is an approach that focuses on creating visions and goals that transcend the status quo. Visionary leaders act on the basis of higher goals that exceed the needs and objectives of the organizations they lead. Their vision is crucial to motivating employees to achieve their goals and contribute to the company’s growth, but only if this very vision of the organization is translated every day into a concrete high-level and low-level strategy.
The role of values, mission and vision in visionary leadership
Values, mission and vision are central to visionary leadership. An organization’s values provide the foundation on which the vision and goals are based. An organization’s mission defines how and what a company wants to achieve, while the vision defines what the organization wants to look like in the future and the change it is making in the world. Visionary leaders use values, mission and vision as primary tools to motivate employees and achieve goals. They work through communication, coaching processes that link employees’ goals and values to the organization’s values and vision. Often these are systems for developing associates that translate realistically into profits and growth for the organization.
Create an organizational culture that supports visionary leadership
Values, mission and vision are also core elements of an organization’s culture. The organization’s culture is another key element for achieving success in visionary leadership, because how we communicate within the company, delegate responsibilities, how we serve customers and the symbols we use speaks volumes about us as a community. About who we are and what is important to us. The culture we represent sets the organization apart from the competition.
Creating an organization’s culture that supports visionary leadership requires the involvement of leaders at all levels of the organization as well as employees. Leaders must act as role models for others and demonstrate how the organization’s values, mission and vision are important to achieving goals. Employees should feel that their input is important and that they are part of the process of creating the organization’s vision and goals.
The impact of visionary leadership on employee engagement and productivity.
Research conducted by Avolio and colleagues in a sample of managers in 2004 supports the fact that visionary leadership has a positive impact on employee engagement and productivity. The research showed that visionary leadership positively correlates with employee engagement.
Another piece of evidence supporting our thesis is a study done by Sosik and Godshalk in 2000.This study conducted on a sample of employees from different industries also found that visionary leadership positively correlates with employee productivity. Managers who were visionary and were able to communicate their visions to their team had employees who were more engaged and productive.
In other words, visionary leadership, which refers to a clear and inspiring vision of the organization’s future, has a strong impact on the level of employee engagement.
Employees who feel that their input is important and that they are part of the process of creating the organization’s vision and goals are more engaged at work. The team, but also each person individually, who have clearly defined goals, focus on activities that contribute to the organization’s goals. Clearly defined goals enable employees to focus on actions and thus take steps that contribute to the organization’s goals. In addition, leaders who create an environment that enables the organization’s goals to be developed and achieved also enable employees to develop their skills and abilities.
Examples of successful visionary leaders
Examples of successful visionary leaders include Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos. Steve Jobs created products that changed the way people use technology, while Jeff Bezos created Amazon, which became one of the largest online stores in the world. Both leaders had a clear vision and goals that contributed to the success of their organizations.
The role of visionary leadership in achieving organizational success
Visionary leaders create vision and goals that transcend the status quo, which contributes to the growth of the organization. Visionary leadership requires the involvement of leaders at all levels, as well as all other employees. The culture of an organization is crucial to achieving success in visionary leadership. It should be consistent with the organization’s values, mission and vision to ensure consistency in actions. Clearly defined goals and a whole system of implementing the vision, mission and values of the leaders and founders in conjunction with the values and goals of the employees are key to achieving success in visionary leadership.
