Super leadership is an approach derived from traditional leadership that seeks to create the conditions for each employee of the organization to unleash their own motivations and potentials, personally achieving self-directed development that, when added to that of others, generates higher levels of productivity and efficiency.
Leadership has always been an important issue in human life, no one doubts the importance of having good leaders in the government of a state or in the administration of a company. In other words, human beings, society in general and organizations in particular need leaders to progress.
In today's globalized and extremely competitive business world, the work carried out by those who are at the head of organizations is of vital importance, these characters therefore must not only make decisive decisions for firms, but must also be concerned with generating in the rest of the people that make them up, a determination that produces the greatest efficiency and the best benefits for all. This is what being a successful leader is all about, not just making financial or market decisions.
Super leadership
Super leadership is a new approach to leadership, which is based primarily on motivation as a source of improvement and change within organizations. It was born in the USA as a response to the need to bring the North American industry to the first places of productivity and quality, at a time when it was being surprised by Japanese and European companies that were gradually displacing it from the market..
Leadership
"It is the process of motivating and helping others to work with enthusiasm to achieve goals" DAVIS, Keith and NEWSTROM, John "Human behavior at work" McGraw Hill. Mexico, 1991. P.734
The traditional concept of the leader, as an individual full of self-motivation, that generates great feelings of respect and acceptance within a community, that overflows charisma and decision and that has a great vision, is overcome under the new approach to reach that of the super leader who It focuses on other people, invites and motivates them to generate in themselves, their own interests, goals and objectives around the organization, with this it is possible for each to be automotive and empower, achieving personal and professional promotion, which if an aggregate of all those that make up an organization, a team or a group is made, will result in better performances, greater efficiency, more productivity and more comfortable work environments.
The alternative proposed by this approach is simple: take advantage of the capacities, creativity and enthusiasm that each person possesses through super-leadership
Whoever becomes super-leader, does not achieve this by imposing himself on others due to his level within the organization's structure, nor because his ability or innate leadership stands out above the rest, he achieves this through a lower-profile work Little by little, he forges self-discipline and self-control in the people who work alongside him, thereby making them more involved in their work, in the problems that concern the organization, the team or the group, participating in its detection and in the formulation of solutions, they also achieve a great deal of initiative.
So what super leadership and super leader achieve is to induce others, without imposing it, to become their own leaders, that is, each person will be their own leader, will motivate themselves and will have the possibility and autonomy to participate in decisions that affect your group or the entire organization.
There are several assumptions, cited by Glass, that allow the application and exercise of this new approach:
- All individuals are self-directed to some degree, but not all are effective self-leaders. Effective self-leadership is learned. Self-leadership is appropriate for everyone in an organization. People and the world around them influence each other. Leader is part of the world that surrounds employees and vice versa so there is an influence in both directions. A person cannot lead others if he does not lead himself.
The importance of the new approach lies in enhancing the self-direction that we all possess, transforming it into effective self-leadership, which undermines innate leadership, since it is more important for individuals, groups and organizations to develop their own leadership, self-direction and self-motivation, which when added together will bring better results than the work or efforts of a charismatic leader who tries to put the greatest responsibilities on his shoulder and who allows very little participation from those around him, unaware that they are the ones who are most in conditions for detecting and solving problems, since, after all, they are the ones who face them directly on a daily basis.
Leadership is not undermined by super leadership, it is simply leveraged. The new approach also has limitations, the main one being a lack of trust, in some organizations, in employees. The most important factor in the development of the new approach is precisely the trust that must be had in the people who work in the organization. Another important limitation is the time and resources that must be invested to generate self-leadership in individuals, some companies are not willing to "waste time" on it.
Super leader
Its actions are focused on achieving self-discipline and self-control in a gradual way, thereby making people participate voluntarily and enthusiastically in the company's tasks.
The advantages or scope of the approach range from the individual, through the workplace and beyond the environment of the company. In the workplace, the company-employee relationship changes, it is better perceived by the two actors and there is a high reciprocity that benefits both. Individually, self-directed people are generally more efficient in their jobs, have a greater chance of promotion and career achievement. Personally, they present better personal and family relationships, which enriches society as a whole.
Bibliography
Manz, Charles and Sims, Henry «Super Leadership. How to teach others to self-lead in the company »Editorial Paidos. Barcelona, 1993
GARCÍA-TAPIAL, Joaquín, "The strategic importance of knowledge management", Diario de Sevilla, June 4, 2000
