SIP60002 Leadership For Social Impact - Essay

Introduction 

Social work organizations are dealing with continuous change and they are in great need of leaders who can lead effectively through the period of transition and disruptive change. The social leaders are needed to take a collaborative effort through which they might direct interest of group towards achievement of common goal and to create social impact. The underlying essay has focused on case of SocialTech which has been developed by Judy Li. Judy has played the role of leader successfully for years, yet currently the organization is exposed to some issues and Judy is facing the dilemma of adopting the right leadership style. In essay, leadership for social impact is detailed and Judy’s leadership style is discussed, along with traits of Judy as leader. Additionally, the suitable leadership approach for Judy is suggested and overall effective leadership style for social economy is detailed. 

Leadership for Social Impact and Judy’s Leadership style 

The social leadership has emerged as one of the diverse dimension of leadership, as individuals within social organization are assumed to lead in many situations, for driving social campaigns in effective way (Elpers & Westhuis, 2008). Likewise, social leaders are striving hard to embark upon right style of leadership. The social leadership is mainly referred as the process which allows an individual to influence others in a group with an aim of accomplishment of common goals (Davidson, 2016). The unification and inclusiveness are considered as core requirement for an effective social leader, as promotion of social good requires efforts of all members within a specific social organization (Fisher, 2009). It has been highlighted by Cialdini & Griskevicius (2010) that a social leader must have the ability to influence others, in inspiring and charismatic manner, as core focus of social leader is on bringing social transformation. The leaders who lack the ability to influence other’s opinions are less likely to thrive in the role of social leader (Davidson, 2016). These characteristics are mainly linked with transformational leadership style, as such leader has inspirational and enabling attitude which encouraged others to play their role in achievement of common goal. 

Given the insight of leadership for social impact, the leadership style of Judi Li can be regarded as delegated and participatory, where Judi willingly takes opinions of others for managing SocialTech. However, this style is not effectively followed by her as she is having doubts on her leadership abilities and thus she has failed to develop and maintain the environment of shared purpose. It has been noted by Holosko (2009) that an effective participatory leader is able to establish collaborative culture within organization with an aim of bringing continuous improvement. However, it is reflected from case of Judi has although she has effectively maintained share vision for years, yet now she has lost the strings of maintaining collaboration within SocialTech. This inability of Judi is mainly linked with her lack of confidence on her leadership skills and doubts about her own competency. In order to effectively practice delegated leadership and to gain benefit of empowerment and egalitarian values of this styles, Judi Li needs to maintain confidence on her own abilities as a leader (Jones & Phillips, 2016). 

Traits and competencies of Judy Li

The analysis of Judy Li’s case has highlighted that she has high willingness to listen and consider opinions of others, which indicates that she has trait of active listening. Listening is considered as key for effective communication, and it is one of the core characteristic of powerful leader that they know when to listen and when to speak (Schmitz, 2007). The active listening allows a leader to carefully listen to the concerns and opinions of others and thus they get in position of clearly explain the goals as well as specific tasks to their followers (Morris, 2001). Judy Li has listened to the concerns of board of management members as well as of engineers regarding the enhancement of scope of SocialTech operations. This has enabled Judy to recognize the new ideas of board about product expansion, such that social impact of SocialTech can be enhanced, Likewise, Judy has also recognized the concerns of engineers regarding the capability of organization to enter into new expanded product line. Based on the knowledge about opinions of all members, Judy can now make most effective decision and can also devise mechanism for bringing consensus of both parties regarding change and evolution of SocialTech. It indicates that this trait of Judy makes her a leader, rather than a manager. 

Another trait of Judy Li, is that she is visionary in terms of social consciousness. The development of vision is crucial for a leader as it is the foremost step for driving successfully through the journey of leadership (Wang et al., 2011). This trait of Judy has enabled her to start SocialTech and to realize her vision of bringing change in lives of children who have hearing impairments. Judy’s trait of being a visionary leader has enabled her to work for years in successful manner, by sharing the vision of social consciousness with her board management and engineers’ team. However, it is also considerable that Judy now seems to lose sight of her vision, as her confidence and enthusiasm is shaken and beginning to doubt her own leadership skills as a social leader. By making reliance on effective decision making, Judy can successfully resolve conflict among her team and can lead SocialTech to evolution and change. 

How Judy Li could use her power, influence and authority as a leader to re-shape the structure of the organization

Judy Li can make use of her authority to bring everyone on same page. As aligned with the views of Yukl (2006) an effective leader should have the courage to set clear goals along with remaining persistent to realize those goals. If a leader has unshakable self-confidence and shows enthusiasm in her own actions, then it became evident to draw attention of others towards common goal (Gellis, 2001). Given this aspect, Judy Li can show consideration for opinions of all board members as well as engineers while devising new goals for transformation of organization. She then needs to firmly state and communicate her point of view to all members of SocialTechn in confident and inspiring manner, such that both engineers and board management can develop confident on her and they can join hands for realization of common purpose (Jones & Phillips, 2016). It is considerable that communication of vision for bringing change in organization and for innovating SocialTech should be the core focus of her discussion. Two way communication, openness, inspiration and participative of all team members can be considered as suitable for initiating change within organization (Tafvelin, Hyvönen & Westerberg, 2014). 

In addition to this, the evolution and change in organization is mainly dependent of strategic thinking and actions of leader, as forward thinking and open minded approach are regarded as core requirements to succeed in contemporary fast pacing environment (Rank & Hutchison, 2000). In case of Judy Li, she needs to be flexible towards the opinions of both parties, yet beholding the power to devise strategy for evolving the organization. She needs to possess accountable attitude, such that individuals in SocialTech can trust her strategies and goals for future of organization (Pearce, Yoo & Alavi, 2004). The delegation of power should be done rightly, as board and engineers are neither overwhelmed with power, nor are their views suppressed by Judy (Mizrahi & Berger, 2005). In terms of leadership style, it can be suggested to Judy to follow transformational style of leadership, as it is most appropriate for bringing change and transformation within organization (Mary, 2005). The positive influence on followers, focus on ideas of change, consideration to ideas and opinions of followers and intellectual abilities of leaders are all necessary for assuring that positive change is drawn within an organization (Lawler, 2005). Judy needs to assure that she develops this charisma and self-confidence in her personality, which can encourage board and engineers to be inspired and influenced by her opinions. She should encourage them to think out of box and to advance motivation for developing products outside of their existing specialization, which is linked with development of hearing aids. The resolution of conflict between both parties clearly demands for approach of leader to deal with complexity, which is aligned with transformational style of leadership (Harland et al., 2005). 

Most appropriate leadership style for Australian social economy leaders 

The current climate of Australia for social leaders is highly complex which is changing rapidly, requiring high level of flexibility and innovativeness in approach of leaders. It has been highlighted by Elpers & Westhuis (2008) that change is evident in social work as social workers have to deal with issues which revolve around introduction of change in society or in lives of individuals. It has been addressed by Cregan, Bartram & Stanton (2009) that in order to guiding and leading followers through the period of change and transition, most common approach of leadership is transformational leadership. The aspects of vision casting as well as collaboration are regarded as core aspects for deriving efforts of individuals towards transformation of organization (Mizrahi & Berger, 2005). It has been indicated in the research of National Association of Social Workers that dynamic and changing needs of social work sector have increasing demand for transformational leaders (Tafvelin, Hyvönen & Westerberg, 2014). 

Based on the research about suitability of transformational leadership with social work organizations, it has been noted that empowerment of team members is considered as most demanded aspect of leadership in social work based organizations (Gellis, 2001). For instance, it is not enough to simply devise new methods and then expecting individuals to follow the footsteps of leader (Jones & Phillips, 2016). Yet, in social work, each member of team is expected to think independently with an aim of solving social issues and thus transformational leaders can encourage members of organization to think creatively and to make an effort for changing the status quo (Schmitz, 2007). The relevance can also be indicated with underlying case of SocialTech, where motivation of engineers and board management members is necessary for thinking out of box with the purpose of changing the scope of organization’s social impact. 

Another aspect of transformational leader which makes them suitable for social work organizations is individualized consideration aspect of this style (Wang et al., 2011). The investment in individuals is considered as crucial for driving them through change, which can be best carried out by a transformative leader. For instance, such leader is likely to offer significant attention to individual needs, with an aim of nurturing their abilities and encouraging them to work beyond their existing potential (Pearce, Yoo & Alavi, 2004). Thus, individuals can be taken out of their comfort zones to help innovate and develop organization for widening its social impact. Moreover, it has been noted by Morris (2001) that a social work leader has to make difficult decisions in order to deal with disruptive and challenging nature of social work. It is not necessary that every individual in specific organization would be happy on those tough decisions and actions, yet a transformational leader makes continual effort to inspire others and remains steadfast until the positive outcome of specific initiatives are achieved (Wang et al., 2011). As aligned with the insight of case, Judy can make tough and difficult decisions to innovate the offerings for social cause, and should remain persistent until the positive outcomes of social impact are seen by board and engineers. 

It has been furthered by Yukl (2006) that core challenge in social work settings is to lower the resistant of people for continual change. The transformation leader can do this by being intentional about development of an attractive and innovative vision, along with provision of highly confident and optimistic perspective about the realization of that vision (Mary, 2005). The social workers are mainly demanded to work for improvement of their personal skills and in Australia social economy leaders are in great need of being communicative, active listener, open for experiences, creative, inspiring and transformative at large (Lawler, 2005). 

Conclusion 

Leadership for social impact is focused on driving the efforts of all individuals for initiation of social change and Judy’s leadership style has been recognized as participative. Yet, she lacks confidence of herself and she has failed to gained trust of her followers, which indicated that she has not adopted participative style in effective manner. The two identified traits of Judy are her active listening ability and being visionary. It is suggested that Judy should make use of transformative style of leadership for initiating evolution in the organization. Finally, based on research it was found that transformation leadership is most suitable for social work leadership.