Introduction
Synergy is the sixth habit of effective leadership that aids in attaining interdependence. The habit is basically on the grounds of cooperation, respect and trust. In other words, it is the habit of strengthening with an aim to seek the third way on how to combine two inconsistencies or paradoxes into something even better. Synergy brings together and enhances the abilities and strengths of individuals. It is more focused on achieving win-win situations in an organization. As a result, synergy is a great strength of every successful leader. Openness, vulnerability, and communication are necessary for any leader to be able to achieve these synergic collaborations in every interaction or association. Therefore, synergy implies that it is necessary to balance the various differences types, including mental, psychological, and emotional differences. This paper will focus on how to synergize and its importance in an organization.
Obtaining Synergy
Synergy explains or describes how leaders can work together with their employees to increase effectiveness in the workplace and enhance performance by producing better results. It works under the view that working as a whole is better than its constituents’ sum, thereby encouraging teamwork. The essence of synergy is to appreciate and respect differences or diversity to promote strengths and balance weaknesses (Spohn, 2018). Therefore, team members are able to work to their fullest with their exceptional talents, abilities, life experiences, communication styles and perceptions. Developing team synergy requires effort and time, just like every other interpersonal skill.
Give Importance to the Views of Others
Giving importance to or appreciating the perceptions or views of others is one way that can aid in obtaining synergy. An effective leader should always be open to new options, alternatives and possibilities. Every team member has a different mind frame due to the diversity present in the team. A diverse group has individuals with diverse experiences and ideas regarding a problem, and appreciating them enables the team to reach a solution faster. As a result, having strong communication skills is important for the team to work effectively (Arthur, 2018). This is because trust and cooperation increase with an increase in the levels of communication. An effective leader can give importance to the perceptions and views of others by ensuring there is two-way communication.
Two-way communication will allow the leader and the team members to actively welcome the views of others. Therefore, every team member will be comfortable sharing and expressing their ideas accurately to the team, hence enhancing collaboration, which will help achieve synergy. Additionally, the leader will be able to take control of their emotions and find effective solutions to every problem that arises from the various perceptions presented by a diverse team. Therefore, it is important to take criticism patiently as it enables a leader to identify weaknesses which will help the teamwork effectively and enhance performance (Spohn, 2018). With effective communication, cooperation and trust, a leader can advance to a respective compromise from a defensive one to achieve win-win scenarios. Leaders can also share their ideas with no fear of retribution which will work toward developing trust.
Encourage Collaboration and Trust
Employees in every organization desire to feel comfortable if they are to perform effectively and efficiently. Therefore, a leader will need to create a comfortable space that will allow employees to display their full potential. A leader can promote collaboration by inviting co-creation, which allows employees to come up with solutions that they could not provide individually by working together (Arthur, 2018). This involves working on an idea collectively instead of finding the solution individually. The leader can also lead by example by providing solutions and appreciating the view of others. This develops the behavior a leader would desire to see in their employees.
Creating Change
Change is vital when a leader is trying to obtain synergy within the organization, no matter how frustrating it can be. This forces the leader to embrace change through logical forces and push away emotions. This will enable the leader to encourage others to share their views and appreciate those of others. An effective leader will only be able to do this by developing an atmosphere that discourages emotional forces. As a result, an effective leader will be able to support the increasing positive forces and do away with negative forces (Spohn, 2018). The atmosphere created will allow a leader to identify why the team members would not want to embrace change, enabling the leader to concentrate on solving the members’ concerns. From this, the leader will be able to create winning solutions by working collectively with the team members.
Be Clear
A leader should be as straightforward as possible by ensuring that every employee understands the company’s objectives and rules. This ensures that every employee knows that they are all working towards the same goal despite being allocated different tasks. Being goal-oriented will help employees develop an emotional association with the task assigned and commit to it fully. The leader is able to create a trustful environment by being clear and making employees trust each other. Moreover, every organization needs rules to ensure that employees maintain ethics and work towards effective performance. The set rules determine how employees should interact within the work environment (Covey, 2017). These rules help the group collaborate easily by reducing uncertainty which enables employees to spend more time to ensure they accomplish their high-impact and collaborative work instead of worrying. However, if the rules are not followed in detail, they may result in bad practices making employees uncomfortable, thereby causing bad employee dynamics.
Seek Challenging Individuals
Working with challenging people can also enable a leader to obtain synergy within an organization. This is because they contain different mindsets and can be creative or think out of the box. However, working with difficult people may not be easy because every member wants their view to be heard since they all believe that they are capable (Arthur, 2018). To be able to effectively work with them, leaders will need to listen carefully. This will enable leaders to be to work with them and realize win-win solutions within an organization.
Benefits of Synergy
A leader that employs the synergy approach is able to reap remarkable benefits from it. Firstly, synergy brings about trust since it aids in developing a collective and collaborative atmosphere as it encourages two parties to effectively work together to maximize results within the organization. The relationship between leaders and employees must be strong if an organization is to be successful. However, it does not imply that leaders and employees develop friendships when they have work relationships based on trust (Islam et al., 2020). This is to mean that it is possible for leaders and employees to lack friendship, yet leaders will still welcome the views of the employee, making it easier for one party to begin trusting the other. Therefore, an organization will have increased productivity with a trusting relationship between the employees and leaders (Bligh, 2017). Trust is also important because there is reduced time in coming up with solutions to problems. This is due to the fact that employees and leaders already trust each other, making it easier for both parties to accept and establish expert perceptions in a safe environment.
Secondly, synergy promotes focus by providing a platform where a leader and the team members can think collectively towards a similar aim with more focus and concentration. Focusing on something only makes it bigger, thereby enabling both parties to perceive every part of the problem to obtain a perfect or effective solution. Thirdly, synergy is also beneficial as it brings about diversity in the workplace. This is due to the fact that it enables different individuals from different backgrounds to work together under the same work environment (Covey, 2017). Diversity is an important factor in an organization since it can bring about innovation. This is because employees have access to diverse views and perspectives in a diverse work environment. The diverse views end up establishing innovation when combined.
Diversity is also beneficial to an organization as it enables faster problem solving since it is able to access different experiences, views and solutions from employees that have different backgrounds. These diverse views and perceptions help the organization increase the chances of reaching a solution faster, thereby enhancing faster problem-solving (Almuawi & Hendricks, 2021). As a result, diversity becomes beneficial to the company by providing a diverse working environment that offers the opportunity to receive diverse perceptions and ideas.
Fourth, there is also a benefit of creativity obtained from synergy. This is possible because synergy provides a safer environment to work in. Therefore, individuals are able to comfortably share their perceptions with no fear of being criticized. With a safe environment, a leader will benefit from other individuals’ creativity that they might be hiding because of fear of embarrassment. A creative environment allows employees to provide exceptional solutions to arising issues (Arthur, 2018). With a safe environment, many employees will give ideas to improve situations willingly and help effectively increase performance if given a chance. A creative environment will enhance focus which in turn results in higher productivity (Almuawi & Hendricks, 2021). Another benefit of creativity is that it promotes teamwork among employees. This is because developing great relationships between two parties will also stimulate collaboration and effective teamwork.
Lastly, with synergy, a better solution to a problem always exists as it is easy to obtain potential solutions from multiple capable minds. This is because diversity allows better decision-making because employees from diverse backgrounds can provide unique solutions, resulting in improved and informed decision-making (Spohn, 2018). These minds can provide their opinions on the issue at hand and therefore contribute to the desired solution of the problem.
Conclusion
In conclusion, synergy is an essential habit for an effective leader to enhance performance within an organization. This approach works on the grounds of respect, collaboration and trust. A leader can achieve synergy within an organization by appreciating other people’s views, encouraging collaboration and trust, creating change, being transparent and looking for challenging people. Moreover, synergy brings several benefits to an organization that helps improve employee performance. One of these benefits is that synergy brings about trust between leaders and employees. Synergy also enhances focus and enhances the development of better solutions in an organization. Additionally, synergy also brings about diversity and creativity, which are all important factors in enhancing the performance of employees.
References
Almuawi, M., & Hendricks, D. (2021). Fundamentals of effective leadership. American Journal of Higher Education, 9(1), 11-22. Web.
Arthur, K. (2018). Poised for Excellence (1st ed.). Springer International Publishing.
Bligh, M. (2017). Leadership and trust. Springer Texts in Business and Economics, 21-42. Web.
Covey, S. (2017). The 7 habits of highly effective people. Infographics.
Islam, M., Furuoka, F., & Idris, A. (2020). The impact of trust in leadership on organizational transformation. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 39(4), 25-34. Web.
Spohn, D. (2018). An operational definition of effective leadership: Was Covey Right?. Review of Public Administration and Management, 06(01), 2-6. Web.