The Impact Leadership Has
Have you ever stopped to ask why leadership is important, or even questioned if leadership is needed in the first place? This article helps you to understand why it is CRITICAL to your organisation but also to your personal life and the world. If you are thinking, I’m not sure it is needed, you may be experiencing a world of low quality or non-existent leadership. If your existing organisation seems to function well without formal leadership this means individuals without management roles are making decisions and getting things done that may have otherwise fallen to management roles in other organisations. However, this doesn’t mean leadership isn’t there, it just means it isn’t being formally recognised in the individuals exhibiting the leadership qualities. Alternatively, the absence of quality leadership could simply mean no leadership is being demonstrated anywhere at all which often leads to burdensome and overwhelming workloads and processes, a lack of strategy with upset customers and conflict. (It must be noted though that this ‘burdensome time’ could also be situational, e.g., a sudden financial crash meaning a smaller budget so more resources have to do more work than is typically reasonable even with good management in place. The way to know is to look at your leadership and ask yourself if they are trying to restore harmony… if they are this is good leadership, if they are not then they are either burnt out or not the best quality leadership.)
So if you are an aspiring leader or you are a leader who wants to excel let me assure you, you are needed and you are vitality important to the world. Let me summarise the benefits and impact of leadership so you can see why I say this:
This article is written from the perspective of a manager or team lead of an organisation but if you are in a less senior role you can reframe the article by considering how this can be applied to the people you impact. For example, “Leadership sets the tone for the culture within an organisation” can be reframed to “How do you impact the culture of the people you impact?”.
Leadership provides Vision and Direction
Effective leaders help set a clear vision and direction, which ensures that the team or organization works towards common goals. Without strong leadership, there can be confusion, misalignment, and lack of focus.
An example from our personal lives would be ‘that trip with friends’ (maybe a hen or stag do). You arrive but on day one it is clear no one is quite sure what to do so on that first morning you all look at each other waiting for the other to make a decision on what to do. The person who speaks up with a clear idea of the day and sets a decisive action is demonstrating leadership. This is a welcome occurrence for the group. (There are more complex examples where everyone wants to have a say… in this case who is working to find harmony and conclude the situation efficiently - they are acting as a leader.)
Now an example at work. Your manager holds a team meeting explaining the priorities of the year ahead. You are told that your team needs to improve customer retention to drive revenue. If your manager hadn’t said this then one of the team leads may have focused on acquiring new customers rather than keeping existing ones and put their time into processes, tools, or features that support this. This could lead to conflict with management down the line as it could impact the commercial success of the business. This would be the fault of the manager and not so much the team lead as it is the manager’s responsibility to communicate the vision and strategy for the team. Although, as a leader, the team lead is expected to also have the skill to ask responsible parties to clarify the direction rather than assume and thereby take on the decision-making role.
Leadership Inspires and Motivates
A leader inspires others to perform at their best by motivating them and giving them a sense of purpose. Good leaders empower individuals by helping them realize their potential and how to use it, which leads to higher morale and productivity.
Let’s be clear, sometimes we work for companies that don’t seem to quite fit our ideal worlds (which is a possible mismatch of values, vision, culture, or skills) but a good leader can help you to see how working at the company DOES benefit you so that you stay in the role. Some examples of what a leader may help you to focus on include:
Maybe the role you are in helps you develop skills for the next promotion that you want so you can earn more and enjoy continuing to be a high achiever.
Perhaps you care about strong team dynamics and, even though your role is a little less team orientated, the leader explains you can support this team to be well functioning through extracurricular tasks bringing more enjoyment to the role for you.
Perhaps the industry feels like an odd fit to you until your manager explains that this product exposes customers to opportunities they might have lacked which inspires you.
Sometimes, a good leader also inspires you to leave the role. It isn’t that they dislike you but they can see you are being held back by this role or you are simply not invested in the role and so are becoming frustrated (which also puts at risk the team’s goal to be efficient and effective without distractions). The leader should ask you quite directly, but not in an unfriendly way, why do you not go to another company or to another role in this company where you can excel and exceed? After all it is in everyone’s interest.
You may ask why go to all this effort of inspiring employees to stay rather than releasing them and hiring the correct people. Well of course you should endeavour to hire the correct people in the first place but hiring is a gamble especially for businesses who hire skilled employees (think degree-educated or highly trained rather than quick turnover businesses or businesses using contractors*). For businesses with highly skilled employees you need diverse skills which you test for in the interview but cannot guarantee, and there is no such thing as a perfect job so employees are always at risk of some discontent. This means the perfect employee cannot be guaranteed. Hiring is also hard and costly distracting the leader from other important work, and when someone leaves you lose knowledge (known as the ‘knowledge drain’) needing to reskill the new person. All this adds up to a consensus of hiring well but then upskilling, training, and forming your perfect employee rather than releasing and rehiring. This also means inspiring employees who may be less contented. (This attitude also has the added benefit of bringing in diversity which may bring in a skillset or personality that has unique talents you didn’t know you needed.)
It is worth mentioning different business models may not care so much about inspiring employees so that they stay but instead inspire them to do a great job. Take businesses who use low-skilled workers so called because when an individual joins they only take a few hours or days to train (for example, fast food workers). As the skill needed is less hard to acquire or train the leaders of this business afford to have higher turnover and therefore would not care so much about being inspiring to keep an individual. But, they may want to consider being inspiring and motivating to encourage the individual to work hard and do a good job which is in the interest of the brand image.
Leadership Promotes a Positive Culture
Leadership sets the tone for the culture within an organisation. Leaders influence values, behaviours, and the working environment, which can create a culture of collaboration, trust, and respect. Without leadership actively setting this culture the company may be beholden to individuals who do not align with this cultural spirit and so make changes directly or indirectly to the possible detriment of the company (e.g., an overly competitive or combative environment that leads to conflict).
Leadership Drives Change and Innovation
Strong leaders are often at the forefront of change and innovation, guiding teams through new ideas, processes, or challenges. They are critical for staying competitive and adapting to new trends or disruptions. The team themselves need motivation to do this for fear of failure and repercussions of focusing on innovation and not doing their day job. But when they are innovative they need someone to hear them and then coordinate and govern its implementation. This is the job of the leader.
Leaders also pull people back from being too innovative when there isn’t the budget or need to do so. An overly innovative company may focus too many resources on change and therefore fail to uphold the quality of existing products or services. A balance is needed.
Develops Talent
Leadership involves nurturing the growth or well-being of individuals within the team. Leaders provide mentorship, guidance, and opportunities for personal and professional development, helping their team members advance in their careers. This establishes loyalty to the brand which can also be seen outside of the brand by customers which may make the brand more appealing.
Leadership Enhances Decision-Making
Leaders are responsible for making important decisions. Their ability to analyse situations, weigh options, and make informed choices ensures the organisation progresses and avoids potential pitfalls. If ‘just anyone’ did this they may not have the skills to make a great decision, or they may be biased leading to conflict amongst their team and others.
Leadership Builds Relationships
Effective leadership develops strong relationships with stakeholders, including employees, customers, partners, and investors. These relationships are vital for the long-term success and sustainability of the organization. As the team should be focused on their day-to-day work, it should be the leaders of the organisation who spend time looking at the big picture and can decide which relationships to prioritise and how. (Management may delegate some responsibility to individuals in their team with certain skills but this is to perform a function or task that helps management see and manage the big picture.)
Leadership Performs Conflict Resolution
Leaders are key in managing conflicts and resolving issues that arise within teams, customers or stakeholders. Their ability to mediate, listen, and find solutions helps maintain harmony and productivity. Again the team may not have the skills to do this themselves and they need the time back from resolving conflicts to get on with their work.
Leadership Ensures Accountability and Results
Leadership ensures that team members are held accountable for their performance and that there is a clear path to achieving results. This helps team members know what good looks like and feel proud of what they achieve or motivated to do better. A good leader also takes responsibility for outcomes* while also encouraging the team to meet their goals. This takes the weight of responsibility of the team and organisation off of the individual so they can remain responsible for their own work.
*This means that if the team underperforms or an individual is underperforming the leader may ask “What can I do, as a leader, to improve this situation to reach a better outcome?” and then they take action. This means they are action-orientated and direct rather than passive or moving responsibility to others (known as ‘irresponsible’). The action they take could be to initiate training for an underperforming employee / coaching them / firing them from the organisation.
Promotes Ethical Standards
Leaders also set the example for ethical behaviour, ensuring that the organisation acts with integrity and adheres to moral principles through its culture, processes and policies. This is crucial for maintaining the reputation and credibility of the organisation both inside the organisation but also outside with its customers and investors.
Promotes the well-being of people
A great leader helps an employee to do a great job or to move into a job they would excel better at which removes them from a job they don’t like or the negative emotions that come from underperforming. They also give praise. Why is this important? Consider this, if you are doing well at work you feel better, you talk about it outside of work, you stand up straight and you feel confident. Whereas if work is going badly it can undermine your ability to function outside of work because you are tired or stressed. Therefore, leaders can be confident that if they put in the effort to help their employees do a good job they will help people to live fulfilling lives.
Going a little deeper, there is also a more complex argument here about how organisations should treat employees and consider wellbeing. This is a balance of ethics and business needs. For example, some organisations work their employees very hard which could be seen as detrimental to the employee’s well-being as they have less time to socialise due to long hours and may be more stressed due to tight deadlines, etc., but that organisation may counterargue that they are paying the employee to do so and if they do a good job they can be proud of it which some individuals love… this is an ethical debate we do not have time for here and will be left to you to consider where you stand. However, a simple truth is this, if your employees do not thrive in your environment help them to thrive or help them to find where they will thrive… then you are being a helpful leader.
In summary,
leadership is essential because it impacts how the team performs, the ethics of the business, how conflicts are resolved, how individuals see their work and also how customers view the brand. This promotes a successful organisation. The organisation will then impact something in the world which the leader can say they helped contributed to.