526 Principles of Leadership Practice

Unit Overview

526 Principles of Leadership Practice is a unit within the CMI Level 5 module that focuses on improving the ability of leaders to effectively pursue their leadership roles and responsibilities. Leaders within the workplace must be able to develop effective leadership styles and embrace approaches that are designed to achieve the desired organisational goals and objectives. This involves being able to effectively influence the individuals under them to ensure they optimise the performance of the individuals and the teams in general. Additionally, the leaders have a role in aligning the organisations to the current and future business context, ensuring that it remains competitive within the market.

These roles and responsibilities require them to effectively develop organisational objectives that are achievable and within the reach of the organisation in its current status. This involves putting up SMART objectives to determine the performance in different tasks and ensuring that they maintain the effectiveness of the business in the changing business environment. As such, it is critical that elders build effective leadership and managerial capabilities through different approaches that include personal and professional development.

526 Principles of Leadership Practice is a unit that is aimed at improving the ability of leaders to fulfill their roles and responsibilities within the workplace. This unit provides the leaders with training and learning resources that contribute towards meeting the set goals and objectives. The materials revolve around ensuring that the leaders understand the different principles of leadership practice that they can use to positively impact their ability to coordinate and manage activities within the organisations. The leaders are also guided to build the relevant behaviours and attitudes that contribute towards the improvement of leadership and managerial performance. The unit is taught in 18 hours of guided learning and contributes 6 credit values towards the completion of the module.

Suitability of the Unit

Stakeholders need to develop leadership capabilities that help them to focus on being competent and proficient in their areas of practice. This involves being able to effectively coordinate the organisational resources and ensure that the activities are aimed at effectively meeting the goals and objectives of the organisation. By exposing the leaders to training and learning processes around the principles of leadership practice, the individual develops the desired leadership capabilities that contribute towards accomplishing the predesigned goals and objectives within the workplace. This makes 526 Principles of Leadership Practice a highly versatile unit that covers the needs of different stakeholders who need to build leadership capabilities that help them to positively impact their areas of responsibility,

The unit is designed with a focus on the learning needs of middle managers within the workplace. It is designed to help these stakeholders to develop the desired standard of practice in learning their departments, units, and regions to ensure they contribute towards the accomplishment of overall organisational goals and objectives. However, it is also applicable to other stakeholders within the organisation. It helps the senior managers as well as junior managers to build capabilities that align their leadership practice to current and future needs in their practice.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learner should be able to:

• Understand leadership practice within organisations

• Evaluate the theoretical perspectives and approaches to responsible leadership

• Identify the impact of both external and internal factors on the leadership practice

• Compare and contrast management and leadership

• Identify different leadership styles and the areas of application of each leadership style within the organisation

• Evaluate approaches through which leadership supports the achievement of organisational objectives

• Analyse the concept of empowerment and building trust in the process of leading individuals and teams within the workplace

• Identify techniques that can be used to develop cohesive teams within the workplace

• Identify the need to adapt the leadership approaches of individuals to meet the changing needs of the organisations and within the workplace

Key Learning Areas

This unit aims at maximising the ability of the leaders to effectively handle the leadership roles and responsibilities. Some of the main areas of learning within the unit include:

Understanding Leadership Practice

This area of learning helps the learner to appreciate the concept of leadership practice within the workplace. They are guided to understand the roles that leaders within the workplace must play to facilitate success in the achievement of the organisational goals and objectives. The learners are helped to understand critical principles that they should use to establish leadership styles. This includes factoring in the organisational, legal, and ethical requirements that set standards for good leadership practice. They are also guided to understand the role of teams and the impact on leaders in developing teams that contribute towards the achievement of the organisational goals and objectives.

Leadership Styles

This area of learning is effective in improving the ability of leaders to effectively develop leadership styles that are aligned to their specific needs within the workplace. The area of learning helps leaders to understand the different leadership styles that are supported by theoretical models. This includes styles such as autocratic leadership, democratic leadership, laissez-fair leadership, and transformational leadership. The learners are guided to understand the benefits of each hence ensuring that they are able to develop an effective style to address their specific issue within the workplace and ensure that they successfully contribute towards meeting organisational goals and objectives.

Impact of Leadership on Organisations

This area of learning focuses on understanding the impacts that leadership practice could have on the ability of the organisations to effectively achieve the desired goals and objectives. This area of learning focuses on understanding the concept of empowering others within the workplace and building trust, which is important in steering the organisation toward meeting the desired goals and objectives within the workplace. The learners are also guided to understand the leadership approaches to ensure that they meet the changing needs within the workplace.

Evaluation

The evaluation process for this unit is important in ensuring that the leaders have an understanding of the theoretical models that relate to effective leadership capabilities within the workplace. In this unit, the learners are guided to build the understanding and capabilities of effectively developing leadership styles. These capabilities are evaluated using a written assessment and supervised practice.