Leadership at Four15
What or who is a leader?
A leader is "a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal". Leadership, however, is the timeless practice of guiding others in pursuit of a goal, destination or desired outcome. At the most fundamental level, a leader is someone who motivates, inspires and guides others toward pre-established goals.
Some skills and tasks leaders of today should portray:
· Engender trust
· Provide clarity for direction
· Take responsibility for their team members and their team's results
· Guide a continuous strategy refinement process
· Cultivate and motivate high individual and team performance
· Support experimentation and learning
· Develop talent
· Guide decision-making
· Teach
· Establish and ensure accountability
· Develop and support core values
· Communicate with transparency
A basic leadership structure
Each member of the leadership team has a function within company activities, to oversee how they are carried out. There is no right or wrong leadership structure. The structure depends on the actual needs of the company.
In a C corporation, the standard hierarchical leadership structure starts at the top with the chairman and board of directors, who set the goals and direction for the company. The chief executive officer reports directly to the board of directors and has responsibility for running the company according to the goals and direction set by board. The chief operating officer reports to the CEO and manages the operations of the company, overseeing production, marketing, legal and administrative departments. The chief financial officer also reports to the CEO and handles the finances of the company, overseeing accounting and treasury functions. Below the C-level are the various department managers who report to their appropriate C-level executives.
At Four15, they have a simple leadership structure. It starts at the top, with the owner of Four15, under the owner is the manager of the restaurant, and below the manager is the different department managers such as the head chef, head of the front house staff and the head of all waiters and waitresses. When asked why they kept their leadership structure quite simple, they explained that communication between the different management levels seemed to flow very easily and that the employees are now able to just focus on their work and if they have a problem to talk to their manager of their department and not just the general manager who deals with everything before talking to the owner.
Different leadership styles
Different types of leadership styles exist in work environments. Advantages and disadvantages exist within each leadership style. The culture and goals of an organization determine which leadership style fits the firm best. Some companies offer several leadership styles within the organization, dependent upon the necessary tasks to complete and departmental needs.
5 Different Leadership styles:
· Laissez-Faire – A laissez-faire leader lacks direct supervision of employees and fails to provide regular feedback to those under his supervision. Highly experienced and trained employees requiring little supervision fall under the laissez-faire leadership style. However, not all employees possess those characteristics. This leadership style hinders the production of employees needing supervision. The laissez-faire style produces no leadership or supervision efforts from managers, which can lead to poor production, lack of control and increasing costs.
· Autocratic - The autocratic leadership style allows managers to make decisions alone without the input of others. Managers possess total authority and impose their will on employees. No one challenges the decisions of autocratic leaders. This leadership style benefits employees who require close supervision. Creative employees who thrive in group functions detest this leadership style.
· Participative - Often called the democratic leadership style, participative leadership values the input of team members, but the responsibility of making the final decision rests with the participative leader. Participative leadership boosts employee morale because employees make contributions to the decision-making process. It causes them to feel as if their opinions matter. When a company needs to make changes within the organization, the participative leadership style helps employees accept changes easily because they play a role in the process. This style meets challenges when companies need to make a decision in a short period.
· Transactional - Managers using the transactional leadership style receive certain tasks to perform and provide rewards or punishments to team members based on performance results. Managers and team members set predetermined goals together, and employees agree to follow the direction and leadership of the manager to accomplish those goals. The manager possesses power to review results and train or correct employees when team members fail to meet goals. Employees receive rewards, such as bonuses, when they accomplish goals.
· Transformational - The transformational leadership style depends on high levels of communication from management to meet goals. Leaders motivate employees and enhance productivity and efficiency through communication and high visibility. This style of leadership requires the involvement of management to meet goals. Leaders focus on the big picture within an organization and delegate smaller tasks to the team to accomplish goals.
The leadership style portrayed at Four15 is participative. As the manager encourages the staff to participate in the decision making process of developing new innovative ideas to differentiate them from their competitors. The manager also requests feedback from customers and takes this into consideration during the decision making process. This leadership style works well for Four15 due to them changing constantly to keep up with new trends and the theme of Mexico while incorporating the South African theme too. Because the employees at Four15 are a part of the decision making process, they have a higher work ethic as they know their opinions and ideas are taken into consideration by the manager and by doing this, they also feel as if they are a part of the Four15 brand. By ensuring that employees are a part of the decision making processes, they are able to adapt well to the changes that Four15 undergo.
The role of leadership in the innovation culture
Traditional roles of leadership are being moved aside to allow for more creativity and innovation in organisations. In recent studies, managers and CEOs describe innovation as one of the top three drivers of growth. Innovation calls for a different type of creativity: team creativity. All organisations should act as teams; the effectiveness of innovation in the workplace requires a team effort. It is virtually impossible to innovate without accepting an element of risk. This is why organisations (specifically leaders of organisations) battle to take that leap forward. There will always be mistakes and failures, but what is important is that the leaders unpack the failure and learn from it, going forward.
Leaders must encourage a climate of innovation. To do so they should take the following steps:
· Introduce organisation. Organisation banishes chaos. It reduces confusion and introduces formalities into relationships;t
· Delegate the work to specialised teams. Work in collaboration (both internally and externally);
· Get the balance right between freedom and order. Innovation does not happen by chance; it must be planned;
· Learn from everyone! Innovative organisations outside your scope of work may just hold the secrets for you.
The participative leadership style cultivates a culture of innovation for Four15 by ensuring that new ideas are generated from a variety of different people, not just one person (the manager) such as the staff and customers. However, when we asked Four15 how do they cultivate a culture of innovation through their leadership, they did not have a clear answer for us and therefore we informed them on the above information as to how they can improve on this for the future.
References
Smallbusiness.chron.com. (2017). 5 Different Types of Leadership Styles. [online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-different-types-leadership-styles-17584.html [Accessed 2 May 2017].
Smallbusiness.chron.com. (2017). Business Leadership Structure. [online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/business-leadership-structure-62836.html [Accessed 2 May 2017].
The Balance. (2017). Understanding the Challenges and Responsibilities of Leaders. [online] Available at: https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-a-leader-2275811 [Accessed 2 May 2017].
