Robert Poole

BSBMGT40A

Show leadership in the workplace

Due Date 03/07/2010

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Table of Content
Assessment Task 1 P3
Introduction P5
Body P5
3i. 5 Key Characteristics P5
3ii. Inspirational Leaders P7
3iii. Steve Irwin P7
3iv. Mahatma Ghandi P8
3v. Dalai Lama P9
Conclusion P11
References P11

Assessment Task 1: Questions
A good leader should be able to demonstrate very good communication skills this will give them a good base to build and develop all other required skills to successfully lead a team. Leading by example, understanding the positions and duties of your team, interacting well with all walks of life and consistency with appreciation and discipline will not only gain the leader respect by the team, it will let the team know they can rely on their leader for help and guidance and knowing their boundaries and what is expected of them without confusion.
Everyone wants’ to work in a safe and happy environment, organisations and individuals within the team should demonstrate ethical behaviours so we all can interact well together and create this stable friendly, safe and productive workplace. Demonstrating social interaction, equal opportunity and adhering to workplace policies such as oh&s and environmental can and will enable the team members to feel safe, happy and proud of their workplace and form strong bonds that can pull the team together when things do go wrong.
Adopting a socially responsible position can benefit organisations by creating a more sustainable business, a lot of people will buy products from companies that give back to the environment or to the community as it feels like we as a consumer are giving back, this can also build a good reputation for the company at a very low cost compared to the extra revenue being received.
Making the hard decisions and solving problems is a responsibility of the frontline manager and some cases like discipline it should be left entirely up to the frontline manager to solve, this is where their training and the leader characteristics that put them in the position are needed to reach a verdict. Other situations where the decision may involve an area the frontline manager is not familiar with or does believe they have the best resolution to a problem consulting the team is very good option, the specialists in their fields will be able to break the problem down and attack it from all angles covering all bases to hopefully solve the problem once and for all so no temporary band-aid fixes will be needed.
Monitoring the implementation of decisions in our workplace is quite simple as we have targets that are measured daily and displayed for all employees to see, when a new innovation or process is implemented the display will show a variation in productivity from the previous week and feedback is received daily when a team member voices their concerns or at the weekly team meetings.
A Personal Development Plan (PDP) review is conducted annually or can be done more often if requested by the team member to aid in training for all staff, some staff can get bored and restless which can lead to slacking off and a higher absentee rate so these PDP’s allow the team member to develop their skills and this can keep team leader informed of the path the team member wishes to progress towards and allows the team leader to guide the team member into the right direction to achieve their goals.
Daily and weekly performance reviews are conducted by the team leaders as they are key performance indicators for the company, the performance reviews allow management to assess the work load and act accordingly to achieve the overall goal and not overloading individuals or teams within the organisation with an unrealistic workload.

Assessment Task 2: Workplace Project
Introduction

This essay is about Leadership and how to become a great leader and the various approaches and characteristics a leader can take or has to achieve their goal which they are unable to achieve on their own. I have included 3 small stories of the most inspirational leaders of modern history Mahatma Ghandi, Steve Irwin and the Dalai Lama, their visions and actions to try and make this world a better place.
Body

3i. There are 5 key characteristics that when combined together can make any person a leader. Passion, great decision making, good team building skills, character and they must have a vision. Without the listed traits team members will not follow or respect them, listen to them or assist them in reaching their goals.
To be a good leader several other characteristics are necessary such as a high level of knowledge in the field, this will give the group being lead confidence in the leader’s decisions and abilities.
Exceptional communication skills are what I myself deem the most important of all the characteristics without this understanding goals and direction will be very difficult which will inadvertently lead to poor decisions being made and cause the failure of goals or extending the duration of time it takes to reach these goals.
Being able to manage individuals individually as not everyone one is the same and should be managed in different ways while still giving all members a level playing field. Interacting well with all personalities does come quite natural to some people others will have to work hard at it to keep a positive relationship amongst all the team members and the leader.
Good team leaders will need to be stern and may need to crack the whip some times, lending a helpful hand and some enthusiasm about the task is a great way to get things moving without offending or upsetting any of the team members.
Keeping yourself and others well organised during tasks greatly improves efficiency. Controlling your emotions in a relaxed manner is very difficult for a lot of people especially when confronted with an aggravated, aggressive or a violent person, unfortunately these situations do arise and can sometimes be easy, hard or impossible to defuse depending on certain factors such as the member mental state, the reaction from the team leader or the final outcome of the situation or incident.
Finally, leading by example, it is an easy way to promote productivity, if the members see you working hard and you are a good leader they will want to work at the same rate or harder and stay enthusiastic, passionate, fair, organised and positive so these characteristics will be present in all the members and a good team will be established.

There are various ways leaders try to get their team to operate or function better, some take a coercive approach and offer incentives like bonuses or time in lieu for good work, a consultive or collaborative approach helps by involving a partner, small group or a very large group can aid team members in getting their ideas out and heard and give them a sense of belonging. A directive approach is rarely a good way to attack a task but in instances such as sporting teams a quick you do this and you do that cuts time and confusion the instructions are simple and to the point, in a normal work environment this can create hostility and an unhappy environment an unstable team is not very effective.

3ii. My most inspirational leaders are the ones that fight the battle they know that they cannot win even though this may directly place them in danger, during their campaigns they have had invigorating victories and heartfelt losses and were still able to maintain their vision and continue to push to reach their goals. Their dedicated followers will continue their legacies to make this world a better, fairer and more enjoyable place for everyone and everything to live and thrive hopefully in the same way Mahatma Ghandi, Steve Irwin and the Dalai Lama have tried.

3iii. Steve Irwin used his passion and knowledge to bring conservation of animals and habitats to people around the world through his documentaries and TV series in a truly unique way, his unequalled enthusiasm for this cause combined with his amazing ability to entertain his 500 million viewers in over 120 countries is unforgettable and most of all inspiring, many have tried to follow in his footsteps but none has ever been as successful due to his genuine admiration and love for animals. At the age of seven Steve was bitten by an Australian Brown Snake that he luckily survived, at the time he and his father were in the bush trying to catch snakes, neither deterred by this the Irwin family later moved in 1970 to Beerwah in Queensland to start the Beerwah Reptile Park, in 1991 Steve took over the Park and changed the name to Australia Zoo. Steve has upgraded many of the Zoo’s features including the famous Crocoseum and with his popularity it now attracts around 1 million visitors every year and is the major sponsor of the charity Wildlife Warriors Worldwide that was founded by Steve and his wife Terrie, the charity was started to raise public awareness of wildlife conservation and to purchase expanses of land around the world to in many countries and turned them into protected park lands.

Steve’s ability to motivate people with his enthusiasm, his unquestionable firsthand knowledge, great business decisions to achieve his huge goals and visions and leading by example in a field that he was so passionate about and communicated in a way that every word he spoke was soaked in to each and every viewer, Steve Irwin is possibly the greatest leader in conservation Australia and even the world will ever see.

3iv. Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi was born in India. He was educated in law at a University in London. Gandhi later returned to India to establish a law practice. An Indian firm with an office in the city of Durban South Africa hired him as a legal adviser, Ghandi was appalled at the denial of civil liberties and political rights in South Africa to all people with an Indian background so he fought with Satvaraha a non violent resistance even though he was humiliated, beaten and imprisoned numerous times. Ghandi’s persistence paid off with removal of the poll tax and the recognition of Indian marriages, with these painful yet satisfying battles fought and won Ghandi returned home to India.

Ghandi started invoking Satvaraha again when he returned home and recruiting spread throughout the country and now with millions of followers the British Government in colonial India passed the Rowlatts Acts with one demonstration against the Acts ending a massacre by British soldiers at Amritsar, Ghandi retaliated by organizing Indians in public offices to resign, government agencies were boycotted, and Indian children were withdrawn from government schools. Throughout the country protesters sat in the middle of the streets blocking them and were repeatedly beaten by police when they refused to rise. The fight for the independence of India the self governing movement involved boycotting all British goods to combat the exploitation of Indian villagers which created poverty amongst his fellow countrymen.

This spiritual life Ghandi lead of prayer, fasting and meditation the refusal of material possessions and by living only on vegetables, juices and milk with only a loincloth and a shawl to cover his body together with his non-violent approach is a direct expression of his Hindu way of life he even started using a spinning wheel as sign that he lived the life he preached.
Ghandi was sentenced to gaol many terms for his non-violent protests fighting for a simple life, free from the strong hold of the British and was a key figure in the independence of India.

His abilities to build and organise a team of millions so quickly, without this team his visions would have failed, hold a vision in the face of imprisonment and physical abuse, these self sacrifices have inspired other movement leaders such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela to fight for the right to vote and live free from government discrimination and inspired an entire nation to sit down and fight.

3v. Tenzin Gyatso is the 14th Dalai Lama and is the spiritual leader of Tibet. The Dalai Lama meaning Ocean of wisdom is believed to be re-incarnation of the patron saint of Tibet.
Tibet was invaded by the Chinese and the Dalai Lama was given political power over the country in hope that he could stop the invasion, unfortunately with his knowledge and wisdom well beyond his years he was unable to persuade the Chinese Government to leave. In 1959 His Holiness visited Chinese Leaders in Beijing for peace talks ending in the same result. In the same year His Holiness was forced into exile by Chinese Soldiers when a small group of Tibetans attempted to protect the Tibetan city of Lhasa. His Holiness now resides in Northern India. The Dahlia Lama has been fighting for his countries freedom from China for 60 years and even keeping Tibetans government alive in exile and changing it to a democratic administration to allow the Tibetans to choose their own government, even if they themselves are in exile.

His Holiness has appealed to the United Nations 3 times and addressed the United States Congress with a peace plan and also written more than 70 books and received many awards and prizes including the Nobel Peace Prize for his attempts to free Tibet with little if no effect persuading the Chinese government to leave the peaceful country and to turn the nation into a peace sanctuary and to halt their nuclear activity there. The Dalai Lama has described himself as a simple Buddhist monk, His Holiness will give up his political power when the country is freed and the new government is formed and live as a normal everyday citizen of Tibet, he has been fighting for this out come since he was 14 years old.

After more than 50 years in Exile this inspirational, political and spiritual leader of Tibet still holds his vision of his nation being free never deterred even when he hasn’t made any impact on the Chinese government the remainder of the world knows and awards him for his courage and determination.
Conclusion

The 5 key characteristics passion, great decision making, good team building skills, character and vision are all clearly evident in all 3 of the above mentioned inspirational leaders some characteristics stand out more than others like Mahatma Ghandi’s team building skills or Steve Irvin’s passion and the Dalai Lama’s vision.

A great leader must have a stand out characteristic to set them apart from the team while still incorporating the other 4 whether this is for a cause or in the workplace.

References

http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dalai-lama-1-2.jpg (picture)

http://leaders.slq.qld.gov.au/hof/2009/irwin .

http://www.kamat.com/mmgandhi/gandhi.htm

http://www.dalailama.com/biography/a-brief-biography