Effective Leadership and Managerial Skills

The key to effective leadership and managerial skills is the ability to see the organization for what it truly is and how it is constructed at its core. To understand the constructs of an organization, a leader needs to look at its entire package to grasp the organization’s past, present, and future life. Morgan (1998) states that “the ability to ‘read’ and understand what is happening in an organization is a key managerial competence, especially now, when managing change is one of business’s greatest concerns” (p. 300). Tubbs and Jablokow (2009) identified several leadership competencies that are critical for a leader to posses, including “learning reframing, which refers to changing your way of thinking by changing your frame of reference” (p. 57). Developing these competencies and skills as a manager helps the manager in problem-solving, as well as with incorporating developmental change within an organization.

First, leaders need to analyze the current state of the organization by identifying the past and present performance to determine what is best for the future grow and development of the organization. Kouzes and Posner (2007) found the challenge of leadership and implementing change “It’s about the practices leaders use to transform values into action, vision into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards” (p. xi). Although there are several components which effect organizational growth, change is one of the most necessary and difficult to implement. It is change which causes an organization to rise or fall depending on how it is implemented and achieved.

Many organizations and their personnel have undergone change and some have adapted to change gracefully or fought the notion every step of the way. The Coast Guard is an example of an organization that has experienced change over its life cycle. Some managers have adequately introduced change, while others

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