Holistic Leadership Framework: Qualities, Vision, Change, Decisions

Leadership holds a very prominent place in academic literature and has attracted academicians’ attention over the years. Many researchers have worked on identifying various characteristics of leaders and have developed leadership frameworks (Chiapetta, 2004). This paper will seek to form a new framework which draws upon the research that has already been done. There are four components to the framework presented here- personal qualities, a clear vision, change management, and decision-making ability.

Personal Qualities: A leader needs to demonstrate some key personal characteristics and these characteristics are common to almost every leader (Steven, 2003).

Firstly, a leader needs to have a strong self-belief; he/she should have strong confidence in his abilities to lead a group of people. If he/she does not have the confidence in his/her own abilities, that person would not be an effective leader. Second, a leader has to demonstrate emotional stability which refers to a leader bearing frustration and stress with a calm attitude.

This implies that a leader shows psychological maturity which is instrumental in dealing with difficult situations effectively.

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This personal characteristic is also important because if a leader gets disturbed in times of difficulties, how he would encourage and inspire his followers to overcome the difficult and uncomfortable situations. Personal integrity which refers to a person having a strong sense of truthfulness and honesty is yet another important characteristic that every leader needs to possess.

This quality ensures that a leader follows the values and principles of the organization he/she is serving. The second component in our leadership framework is a leader having a very clear and distinct vision (Shaw, 2006).

Having a clear and distinct vision requires a leader to decide along with the people he is working to decide where he wants to see the group (organization) that he/she is leading at particular time in future. This vision should be well-articulated so that everyone can understand and internalize it.

Setting vision is not the only thing that a leader needs to do but he/she has to communicate his/her vision about the organization to every person in the organization. To this end, he/she has to make efforts including but not limited to mentioning the vision in his letters, speeches, meetings etc to the company employees and try to create a picture of what the organization will be like in future. This way the followers can relate to the vision and work toward fulfilling that vision.

This world is changing fast especially after the emergence and rapid growth of Information and Communications Technology. Management practices are changing with the ever-changing demographics, a newly-bought technology becomes obsolete by the third month and the workplaces are getting diverse as for as the backgrounds of people are concerned. These trends point toward a leader having the capability to initiate and implement change in their organizations in order to keep pace with the changing world (Harding, 2010).

Therefore, a third point in our framework says that a leader needs to have the ability to make followers realize of the need for change and enable them to embrace change so as to remain competitive in this world. It is very difficult to be good at this characteristic as many people prefer stability and are resistant to change therefore; a leader has to be sharp in order to convince people who resist change to embrace change and live with it. The last point in our leadership framework is the leader’s ability to make decisions.

This is one of the most important characteristics of any leader as he/she has to make a myriad of decisions all through their life some of which might have a huge impact on the lives of their followers. Therefore, it is highly imperative for the leaders to make decisions which are in the best interests of their followers (Hellar, 2008). To make these decisions, a leader has to demonstrate certain qualities. As mentioned in the first point of this framework that a leader has to be high on self-belief.

This is important from decision-making point of view as well because if a leader does not have confidence in his own decisions, his/her followers would not follow the decision. Next, a leader needs to have analytical mind so that he can see the problem as a whole and break it down into smaller parts to solve it. Thirdly, he/she needs to involve the people who will be affected by the decision in the decision-making process. This way they will be satisfied with the decision taken. The key points of this framework can be summarized as follows.

A leader needs to have three personal qualities (strong self-belief, emotional stability, and personal integrity) in order for him/her to be effective. Next, he/she has to have a clear and distinct vision which will guide the actions of his/her followers leading to the accomplishment of group goals. A third key point of this framework is that a leader needs to have the ability to initiate and successfully implement a change management program. Finally, a leader should be capable enough to make decisions on his/her own which are in the best interests of followers. References: Chiapetta, S. (2004).

Framework for Leadership: Tools and Resources. iUniverse, Inc. Harding, T. (2010). Fostering Creativity for Leadership and Leading Change. Arts Education Policy Review, 111 (2), 51-53 Heller, F. (2008). Leadership, decision-making, and contingency theory. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 12 (2), 183-199. Shaw, P. (2006). The Four Vs of Leadership (vision, values, value-added and vitality). Capstone. Stevens, D. (2003). Finish line leadership: qualities for successful leadership. Clinical Leadership & Management Review: The Journal of CLMA, 17 (4), 235-236.