Leadership and symbolism

Leadership and Symbolism
Introduction
As it is common to most leaders, leadership involves persuading people to follow a common goal which is of importance to an organization, or a group. For this reason, leadership is mainly seen as a persuasion. For persuasion to take effect by a leader to the followers, there must be communication. Communication is, on the other hand, the transfer of symbols by the leadership so that the followers can perceive it well and bring understanding that is capable of enforcing leadership commands (Vickery, 2012). Symbolic framework provides space for inspirational leadership that is capable of turning around an organization, especially in terms of creating a culture of highly motivated employees after the employees have been demotivated through layoffs, terminations and going through issues of lack of trust.
Starcorp as a company has undergone employee layoffs, terminations as well as issues of lack of trust on their leaders brought about by their previous leaders. At the same time, as Starcorp is now faced with the new NASA project that they need to take up, there is great need of making the employees work in harmony and in motivation as that is the only way to produce good results from their new project. It is easy for employees to lose trust on their leaders when they see them laying off other workers and terminating their contracts. When such have happened, there is need for leadership that can give assurance to the employees about their job security as well as better pay in order to make them motivated once again, build the trust and work well to produce good results.
As such, there is a need for a leader who can inspire the workers. Such a leader should become a good leader leading by example and making it easy for the workers to follow their footsteps and emulate their deeds. This is the kind of leadership that wants to change the entire lot of organizational workers and make them follow the example of their leader. Such a leader usually works together with the employees, form teams and knows how to interact well with them following the symbolic framework. Just like a prophet inspires its followers, leader who wants to change the minds of already turned away or given up employees should bear the example of a prophet who uses his prophetic ways to convince his dismayed followers to have faith and trust once again.
Conclusion
In leadership, a transformational leader is once whose aim is to change his followers through leadership by action in order to make them follow his footsteps. Such a leader is one who comes with a notion of doing all he can to make the employees motivated so that good result can be earnest at the end of it all. No leader can expect good result from his followers without having them motivated. It is the duty of a transformational leader to set in and begin by making the employees motivated through timely compensation as well as giving them assurance of their positions in the organization. This ensures that trust is rejuvenated in the organization o that the employees can work well in harmony and in teams to produce good results, without having to worry about their fate in the organization.

Reference
Vickery, J. (2012). Symbolic Leadership: The Symbolic Nature of Leadership. Concepts for Air Force Leadership, 315-318.