INTRODUCTION
Leadership,
an amorphous phenomenon that has intrigued us since people started studying
organization, is being examined now for its relational aspects. More and more
studies focus on followership, empowerment, and leader accessibility (Wheatley,
1994). According to Atchison and Hill (1978), leadership represents a
combination of behaviors exhibited by one who occupies an elected, appointed,
or designated position of influence in a social system. Leadership is most fundamentally, about changes.
What leaders do is create the systems and organizations that managers need,
and, eventually, elevate them up to a whole new level or change in some basic
ways to take advantage of new opportunities (John P. Kotter).
CONCEPT OF LEADERSHIP
To
understand the concept of this broad aspect of management called leadership,
firstly let’s start with what leadership is not … Leadership has nothing to do
with seniority or one’s position in the hierarchy of a company. Too many people
talk about a company’s leadership referring to the senior most executives in
the organization. They are just that, senior executives. Leadership doesn’t
automatically happen when you reach a certain pay grade. Hopefully you find it
there, but there are no guarantees. Leadership has nothing to do with titles.
Similar to the point above, just because you have a C-level title, doesn’t
automatically make you a “leader.” In all of my talks I stress the fact that
you don’t need a title to lead. In fact, you can be a leader in your place of
worship, your neighborhood, in your family, all without having a title. Leadership
has nothing to do with personal attributes. Say the word “leader” and most
people think of a domineering, take-charge charismatic individual. But
leadership isn’t an adjective. We don’t need extroverted charismatic traits to
practice leadership. And those with charisma don’t automatically lead.
LEADERSHIP VS MANAGEMENT
Leadership
isn’t management. This is the big one. Leadership and management are not
synonymous. Good management is needed. Managers need to plan, measure, monitor,
coordinate, solve, hire, fire, and so many other things. Typically, managers
manage things. Leaders lead people. So, again, what is Leadership? Leadership
and management are two notions that are often used interchangeably. However,
these words actually describe two different concepts. Leadership is a facet of
management. Leadership is just one of the many assets a successful manager must
possess. Care must be taken in distinguishing between the two concepts. The
main aim of a manager is to maximize the output of the organization through
administrative implementation. To achieve this, managers must undertake the
following functions: organization, planning, staffing, directing and
controlling. Leadership is just one important component of the directing
function. A manager cannot just be a leader; he also needs formal authority to
be effective. "For any quality initiative to take hold, senior management
must be involved and act as a role model. This involvement cannot be delegated.
In some circumstances, leadership is not required. For example, self motivated
groups may not require a single leader and may find leaders dominating. The
fact that a leader is not always required proves that leadership is just an
asset and is not essential.
Differences in
Perspectives: Managers
think incrementally, whilst leaders think radically. "Managers do things
right, while leaders do the right thing. This means that managers do things by
the book and follow company policy, while leaders follow their own intuition,
which may in turn be of more benefit to the company. A leader is more emotional
than a manager. "Men are governed by their emotions rather than their
intelligence. This quotation illustrates why teams choose to follow leaders. Leaders
stand out by being different. They question assumption and are suspicious of
tradition. They seek out the truth and make decisions based on fact, not prejudice.
They have a preference for innovation.
SUBORDINATE AS
LEADER: Often
with small groups, it is not the manager who emerges as the leader. In many
cases it is a subordinate member with specific talents who leads the group in a
certain direction. "Leaders must let vision, strategies, goals, and values
are the guide-post for action and behavior rather than attempting to control
others. When a natural leader emerges in a group containing a manager, conflict
may arise if they have different views. When a manager sees the group looking
towards someone else for leadership he may feel his authority is being
questioned.
LOYALTY: Groups are often
more loyal to a leader than a manager. This loyalty is created by the leader taking
responsibility in areas such as: Taking the blame when things go wrong, celebrating
group achievements, even minor ones and giving credit where it is due. The
leader must take a point of highlighting the successes within a team, using
charts or graphs, with little presentations and fun ideas. Leaders are
observant and sensitive people. They know their team and develop mutual
confidence within it.
THE LEADER IS
FOLLOWED. MANAGER RULES: A leader is someone who people naturally follow through
their own choice, whereas a manager must be obeyed. A manager may only have
obtained his position of authority through time and loyalty given to the
company, not as a result of his leadership qualities. A leader may have no organizational skills, but his vision unites people behind him. The table on the next page summarizes the
above (and more) and gives a sense of the differences between being a leader
and being a manager. This is, of course, an illustrative characterization, and
there is a whole spectrum between either ends of these scales along which each
role can range. And many people lead and manage at the same time, and so may display
a combination of behaviors.
|
Subject
|
Leader
|
Manager
|
|
Essence
|
Change
|
Stability
|
|
Focus
|
Leading people
|
Managing work
|
|
Have
|
Followers
|
Subordinates
|
|
Horizon
|
Long-term
|
Short-term
|
|
Seeks
|
Vision
|
Objectives
|
|
Approach
|
Sets direction
|
Plans detail
|
|
Decision
|
Facilitates
|
Makes
|
|
Power
|
Personal charisma
|
Formal authority
|
|
Appeal to
|
Heart
|
Head
|
|
Energy
|
Passion
|
Control
|
|
Culture
|
Shapes
|
Enacts
|
|
Dynamic
|
Proactive
|
Reactive
|
|
Persuasion
|
Sell
|
Tell
|
|
Style
|
Transformational
|
Transactional
|
|
Exchange
|
Excitement for work
|
Money for work
|
|
Likes
|
Striving
|
Action
|
|
Wants
|
Achievement
|
Results
|
|
Risk
|
Takes
|
Minimizes
|
|
Rules
|
Breaks
|
Makes
|
|
Conflict
|
Uses
|
Avoids
|
|
Direction
|
New roads
|
Existing roads
|
|
Truth
|
Seeks
|
Establishes
|
|
Concern
|
What is right
|
Being right
|
|
Credit
|
Gives
|
Takes
|
|
Blame
|
Takes
|
Blames
|
ASSIGNED VERSUS EMERGENT
Assigned
leadership is the appointment of people to formal positions of authority within
an organization. Emergent leadership is the exercise of leadership is the
exercise of leadership by one group member because of the manner in which other
group members react to him or her. Although your position as a manager,
supervisor, lead, etc. gives you the authority to accomplish certain tasks and
objectives in the organization (called Assigned Leadership), this power does
not make you a leader, it simply makes you a boss. Leadership differs in that
it makes the followers want to achieve high goals (called Emergent Leadership),
rather than simply ordering people around (Rowe, 2007).
TOTAL LEADERSHIP
What
makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided by leaders
they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they
must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision
of the future. When people are deciding if they respect you as a leader, they
do not think about your attributes, rather, they observe what you do so that
they can know who you really are. They use this observation to tell if you are
an honorable and trusted leader or a self-serving person who misuses authority
to look good and get promoted. On the other hand, self-serving leaders are not
as effective because their employees only obey them, not follow them. They
succeed in many areas because they present a good image to their seniors at the
expense of their workers. Good leadership is honorable character and selfless
service to your organization. In your employees' eyes, your leadership is
everything you do that effects the organization's objectives and their
well-being. Let’s see how some of the most respected business thinkers of our
time define leadership, and let’s consider what’s wrong with their definitions.
Peter
Drucker: “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers. Really?
This instance of tautology is so simplistic as to be dangerous. A new Army
Captain is put in the command of 200 soldiers. He never leaves his room, or
utters a word to the men and women in his unit. Perhaps routine orders are
given through a subordinate. By default his troops have to follow orders. Is
the Captain really a leader? Commander YES, Leader NO. Drucker is of course a
brilliant thinker of modern business but his definition of leader is too
simple.
Warren Bennis: “Leadership is
the capacity to translate vision into reality.”Every spring you have a vision
for a garden, and with lots of work carrots and tomatoes become a reality. Are
you a leader? No, you’re a gardener. Bennis’ definition seems to have forgotten
“others.”
Bill Gates: “As we look
ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”This
definition includes “others” and empowerment is a good thing. But to what end?
I’ve seen many empowered “others” in my life, from rioting hooligans to Google
workers who were so misaligned with the rest of the company they found themselves
unemployed. Gates’ definition lacks the parts about goal or vision.
John
Maxwell: “Leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.”I like
minimalism but this reduction is too much. A robber with a gun has “influence”
over his victim. A manager has the power to fire team members which provides a
lot of influence. But does this influence make a robber or a manager a leader? Maxwell’s
definition omits the source of influence
SO WHAT IS
LEADERSHIP?
Leading
is establishing direction and influencing others to follow that direction. But
this definition isn't as simple as it sounds because leadership has many
variations and different areas of emphasis. Common to all definitions of
leadership is the notion that leaders are individuals who, by their actions,
facilitate the movement of a group of people toward a common or shared goal.
This definition implies that leadership is an influence process. The
distinction between leader and leadership is important, but potentially
confusing. The leader is an individual; leadership is the function or activity
this individual performs. Leadership is a process of social influence, which
maximizes the efforts of others towards the achievement of a goal. Henry
Kissinger defined the art of leadership as the art of ‘taking people where they
would not have gone by themselves’.
This
highlights the basics of leadership: to be a leader, you need followers and
secondly, you need to be taking them somewhere. Without followers, you are not
leading. If you are not going somewhere new, you are a steward managing the
status quo rather than a leader. Think back and remember good, even great
leaders that you have known. What is the first thing that comes to mind when
you remember them? Is it easiest to recall their personality, charisma when we
focus on the personality and charisma of our leaders, we narrow the art of
leadership to being specific to them as individuals? It seems that some people
just seem to ‘have what it takes’ - and by definition, others just don’t.
Leadership seems elusive and for those lucky few who’ve won the lottery of the
‘right qualities’.
Leadership
is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and
directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent.
Some other popular definitions of Leadership are:
·
It
has been defined as a process whereby an individual influences a group of
individuals to achieve a common goal (North house, 2007, p3).
·
Leadership
is inspiring others to pursue your vision within the parameters you set, to the
extent that it becomes a shared effort, a shared vision, and a shared success
(Steve Zeitchik, 2012).
·
Leadership
is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others,
towards the achievement of a goal (Kruse, 2013).
Note that all
the definitions have a couple of processes in common:
A
person influences others through social influence, not power, to get something
accomplished. Leadership requires others, who are not necessarily
direct-reports, to get something accomplished. There is a need to accomplish
something. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership
knowledge and skills. This is called Process Leadership (Jago, 1982). However, we
know that we have traits that can influence our actions. This is called Trait
Leadership (Jago, 1982), in that it was once common to believe that leaders
were born rather than made.
LEADERSHIP
THEORIES, STYLES AND APPROACHES
Leaders
seek to influence the actions, beliefs and the feelings of others. This is a
complex process: effective leadership requires the leader’s qualities and
skills to connect with people and their needs as well as the needs of the
leadership situation. This complexity is reflected in the evolution of
leadership theory over the past 80 years. Early leadership theories focused on
the qualities and behavior of successful leaders. Leadership theory evolved
with greater understanding of the Needs and expectations of people at work; Impact
of different leadership styles on followers and how the attitudes, behavior and
competence of followers impact leaders; and the Effectiveness of different
leadership styles in different situations. Later leadership theories recognize
the needs of modern employees. Today’s leaders need to understand the increased
expectations of their people to be consulted and involved in decision-making,
and to have the autonomy to achieve objectives in the way they see as most
effective. The main approaches to leadership
theory are:
THE QUALITIES OR
TRAITS APPROACH: leaders
are born, not made; leadership consists of certain inherited personality traits
or qualities. Theories abound to explain what makes an effective leader. The
oldest theories attempt to identify the common traits or skills that make an
effective leader. Contemporary theorists and theories concentrate on actions of
leaders rather than characteristics. A number of traits that appear regularly
in leaders include ambition, energy, and the desire to lead, self‐
confidence, and intelligence. Although certain traits are helpful, these
attributes provide no guarantees that a person possessing them is an effective
leader. Underlying the trait approach is the assumption that some people are
natural leaders and are endowed with certain traits not possessed by other
individuals. This research compared successful and unsuccessful leaders to see
how they differed in physical characteristics, personality, and ability.
THE FUNCTIONAL
OR GROUP APPROACH:
Leadership
can be learned and developed. It focuses on the accountabilities, responsibilities
and functions of the leader and the nature of the group. Examines how the
leader’s behavior affects and is affected by the group of followers. One of the
key theories of the functional approach is Adair's Action-Centered Leadership.
This approach focuses on what leaders do and the need to balance the needs of
the individual, the task and the team.
BEHAVIOURAL
STYLES APPROACH:
Focuses
on the behavior of people in leadership positions, the importance of leadership
style and how it influences group performance. When it became evident that
effective leaders did not seem to have a particular set of distinguishing
traits, researchers tried to isolate the behavior characteristics of effective
leader (stoner et al, 1995). Behavioral theories try to identify behaviors that
differentiate effective from ineffective leaders. In order words, researchers
tried to find out what effective leaders do in terms of how they communicate
with and try to motivate employees, how they carry out their jobs and so on
(Owolabi .K, 2004:87). Likert, Blake and Mouton and Blake and McCanse compared behavioral
styles across two dimensions: concern for production (relates to McGregor
Theory X) and concern for people (relates to McGregor Theory Y).
STYLES OF LEADERSHIP
This
aspect focuses on leadership styles and how they impact those being led. The
premise is that subordinates are more likely to work effectively for managers
who adopt a certain style of leadership than others: Lewin defined three basic
styles of leadership: autocratic (or authoritarian), participatory, democratic,
laissez-faire style. No matter what their traits or skills, leaders carry out
their roles in a wide variety of styles. Some leaders are autocratic. Others
are democratic. Some are participatory, and others are hands off
(laissez-faire). Often, the leadership style depends on the situation,
including where the organization is in its life cycle.
The four types
of leadership styles are briefly explained in the next page;
AUTOCRATIC: The manager
makes all the decisions and dominates team members. This approach generally results
in passive resistance from team members and requires continual pressure and
direction from the leader in order to get things done. Generally, this approach
is not a good way to get the best performance from a team. However, this style
may be appropriate when urgent action is necessary or when subordinates actually
prefer this style.
PARTICIPATORY: The manager
involves the subordinates in decision making by consulting team members (while
still maintaining control), which encourages employee ownership for the
decisions. A good participative leader encourages participation and delegates
wisely, but never loses sight of the fact that he or she bears the crucial
responsibility of leadership. The leader values group discussions and input
from team members; he or she maximizes the members' strong points in order to
obtain the best performance from the entire team. The participative leader
motivates team members by empowering them to direct themselves; he or she
guides them with a loose rein. The downside, however, is that a participative
leader may be seen as unsure, and team members may feel that everything is a
matter for group discussion and decision.
LAISSEZ-FAIRE
(also called free‐rein): In this hands‐off
approach, the leader encourages team members to function independently and work
out their problems by themselves, although he or she is available for advice and
assistance. The leader usually has little control over team members, leaving
them to sort out their roles and tackle their work assignments without
personally participating in these processes. In general, this approach leaves
the team floundering with little direction or motivation. Laissez‐faire
is usually only appropriate when the team is highly motivated and skilled, and
has a history of producing excellent work.
Many
experts believe that overall leadership style depends largely on a manager's
beliefs, values, and assumptions. How managers approach the following three
elements—motivation, decision making, and task orientation—affect their
leadership styles:
MOTIVATION: Leaders
influence others to reach goals through their approaches to motivation. They
can use either positive or negative motivation. A positive style uses praise,
recognition, and rewards, and increases employee security and responsibility. A
negative style uses punishment, penalties, potential job loss, suspension,
threats, and reprimands.
DECISION MAKING:
The
second element of a manager's leadership style is the degree of decision
authority the manager grants employees—ranging from no involvement to group
decision making.
TASK AND
EMPLOYEE ORIENTATION:
The
final element of leadership style is the manager's perspective on the most
effective way to get the work done. Managers who favor task orientation
emphasize getting work done by using better methods or equipment, controlling
the work environment, assigning and organizing work, and monitoring performance.
Managers who favor employee orientation emphasize getting work done through meeting
the human needs of subordinates. Teamwork, positive relationships, trust, and
problem solving are the major focuses of the employee‐oriented
manager. Keep in mind that managers may exhibit both task and employee
orientations to some degree. Belbin also defined two diverging styles of
leadership: the Solo Leader and the Team Leader. Tannenbaum and Schmidt
presented a continuum of leadership styles based on the degree of authority exercised
by the manager and the degree of autonomy available to followers in making
decisions.
SITUATIONAL
APPROACH AND CONTINGENCY MODEL:
The
situation itself determines the leadership style that will be most effective
and no single style of leadership is appropriate for all situations. Major
leadership contingency models include:
Fiedler: Favorability of
leadership situation (leader- member relations, task structure and the power in
the position held by the leader)
TRANSFORMATIONAL
AND TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP: An approach that looks at two levels of
leadership:
Transactional:
appeals to the self-interest of followers to achieve organizational goals and
is based on the leader’s position of authority in the structure.
Transformational
leadership: It takes a further step. It creates a vision for transforming the
performance of the organization and appeals to the higher ideals and the values
of the organization’s people to make it happen. People are motivated by more
than just their own self- interest, and they are motivated to give more effort
than what transactional leadership alone can achieve. Transformational
leadership is viewed as an extension of transactional, rather than an
alternative to it. Inspirational or charismatic leadership: is based on the personal
qualities or charisma of the leader. These leaders are seen as having a strong
vision and sense of mission and arouse strong emotions in followers.
SIX CORE CHARACTERISTICS THAT MOST EFFECTIVE LEADERS
POSSESESS
DRIVE: Leaders are
ambitious and take initiative
MOTIVATION: Leaders want to
lead and are willing to take charge.
HONESTY AND
INTEGRITY: Leaders
are truthful and do what they say they will do.
SELF-CONFIDENCE:
Leaders
are assertive and decisive and enjoy taking risks. They admit mistakes and
foster trust and commitment to a vision. Leaders are emotionally stable rather
than recklessly adventurous.
COGNITIVE
ABILITY: Leaders
are intelligent, perceptive, and conceptually skilled, but are not necessarily
geniuses. They show analytical ability, good judgment, and the capacity to
think strategically.
BUSINESS
KNOWLEDGE: Leaders
tend to have technical expertise in their businesses.
POWER VS AUTHORITY
Effective
leaders develop and use power, or the ability to influence others. The
traditional manager's power comes from his or her position within the
organization. Legitimate, reward, and coercive are all forms of power used by
managers to change employee behavior and are defined as follows:
·
Legitimate power:
stems
from a formal management position in an organization and the authority granted
to it. Subordinates accept this as a legitimate source of power and comply with
it.
·
Reward power: stems from the
authority to reward others. Managers can give formal rewards, such as pay increases
or promotions, and may also use praise, attention, and recognition to influence
behavior.
·
Coercive power: related to power is a specific kind of power
called coercion. Coercive leaders use force to cause change. These leaders
influence others through the use of penalties, rewards, threats, punishments
and negative reward schedules (Daft, 2015). It is the opposite of reward power
and stems from the authority to punish or to recommend punishment. Managers
have coercive power when they have the right to fire or demote employees,
criticize them, withhold pay increases, give reprimands, make negative entries
in employee files, and so on. Coercion is different from leadership, and it is
important to distinguish between those who are coercive versus those who are
influencing a group of people toward a common goal. Using coercion counters to
influencing others to achieve a shared goal and may have unintended, negative
consequences (Dubrin, 2007; Yukl, 2006).
Keep
in mind that different types of position power receive different responses in
followers. Legitimate power and reward power are most likely to generate compliance,
where workers obey orders even though they may personally disagree with them.
Coercive power most often generates resistance, which may lead workers to
deliberately avoid carrying out instructions or to disobey orders.
Personal power: Unlike external
sources of position power, personal power most often comes from internal
sources, such as a person's special knowledge or personality characteristics.
Personal power is the tool of a leader. Subordinates
follow a leader because of respect, admiration, or caring they feel for this
individual and his or her ideas. The following two types of personal power exist:
Expert
power results from a leader's special knowledge or skills regarding the tasks
performed by followers. When a leader is a true expert, subordinates tend to go
along quickly with his or her recommendations.
Referent
power results from leadership characteristics that command identification,
respect, and admiration from subordinates who then desire to emulate the leader.
When workers admire a supervisor because of the way he or she deals with them,
the influence is based on referent power. Referent power depends on a leader's
personal characteristics rather than on his or her formal title or position,
and is most visible in the area of charismatic leadership.
The
most common follower response to expert power and referent power is commitment.
Commitment means that workers share the leader's point of view and enthusiastically
carry out instructions. Needless to say, commitment is preferred to compliance
or resistance. Commitment helps followers overcome fear of change, and it is
especially important in those instances. Keep in mind that the different types
of power described here are interrelated. Most leaders use a combination of
these types of power, depending on the leadership style used. Authoritarian
leaders, for example, use a mixture of legitimate, coercive, and reward powers to
dictate the policies, plans, and activities of a group. In comparison, a
participative leader uses mainly referent power, involving all members of the
group in the decision‐making process.
LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
However,
when we focus on leadership skills, we can shift our attention to the aspect of
leadership that can be learned. If leadership is a skill, or requires the
mastery of a number of skills, then the good news is that we can all be
leaders. No matter what skill level we start out with, we can work to become
more proficient in each skill and continue to grow and become better and better
leaders. Importantly, we can use these skills to lead from anywhere from within
our organization, we don’t have to be at the top to influence those around us
and take them somewhere new.
Our
leadership skills are also not pre-determined by our education. In all spheres
of leadership, many of our best known and most influential leaders have no
degree or formal qualifications, let alone an MBA from an elite business
school. So what are these leadership skills that will bring people on a journey
with us? And what qualities will help us be a leader that others will even want
to follow?
· Relate to,
connect with and bring out the best in others: interpersonal skills, emotional
intelligence
· Interested in
people, their views and perspective, their needs and what makes them tick;
Authentic; Self aware - understands strengths, weaknesses and impact on others
· Build Trust
Trustworthy Influence and persuade Integrity, Credibility, Honesty
· Motivate yourself and others Positive energy,
resilience; understands the needs and expectation of others
· Create a
compelling vision for the future
· Dissatisfied
with the status quo; have the passion and ambition to make things better in
order to achieve a higher purpose
· See the best
strategy to get there Action orientated and practical
· Communicate the
vision and strategy in a way that builds support and commitment to delivering
it’s Lives mission, purpose and values
· Set clear goals
and achieve them Performance driven, ambitious
· Make decisions
and live with them Willing to take calculated risks; Willing to learn from
others and from mistakes
· Cope with
uncertainty and ambiguity Has belief and keeps moving forward
· Instill belief,
inspire and empower Connects with others by being authentic
· Find solutions,
be Curious and always remain Positive
· Focus on what
creates most value Proactive, not reactive, set the agenda
· Develop others
Honored to coach and share knowledge
· Build an effective
team Trustworthy, Authentic
· Actively listen
and ask the right questions Curious, Humble; Driven by data and facts, not
opinions
· Give and receive
information and feedback Driven by learning and continuous improvement
· Handle a crisis
Accountable; Focuses on the right outcomes not blame or excuses
· Envision and
lead change in a positive way Agile and adaptable; driven by continuous
improvement and continuous learning.
· Focus time and
effort on what makes a difference; priorities
· Knows what is
right for the organization’s stakeholders and is committed to delivering it
Remember,
there is no consensus or single view on what makes a great leader. This list of
leadership skills and qualities contains no reference to personality, charisma,
heroism or being ‘an inspiration’. Instead, these leadership skills are
practical and we use them every day. They are the skills that you’d expect any
person to develop no matter where they operate in the organization, not just
those labeled as ‘leaders’ on the organization chart. Similarly, these
leadership qualities are qualities that we’d hope we’d bring with us into work
every day and would want our colleagues to do the same. Of course, it isn’t
always so easy, but imagine how much more productive our working days would be
if we all did! But as a leader sets the standard for his or her area of
responsibility, the values and behaviors they role model will greatly impact
trust, working relationships, productivity and the working environment around
them. There is no perfect leader, and no perfect leadership approach. As
leaders, we need to focus on how to be an effective leader in each situation.
Developing these leadership skills and role modeling these qualities will
improve our chances of getting this right.
THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT
KEYS TO EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
According
to a study by the Hay Group, a global management consultancy, there are 75 key
components of employee satisfaction (Lamb, McKee, 2004). They found out that: Trust and confidence in top
leadership was the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in
an organization. Effective communication by leadership in three critical areas
was the key to winning organizational trust and confidence:
1.
Helping
employees understand the company's overall business strategy.
2.
Helping
employees understand how they contribute to achieving key business objectives.
3.
Sharing
information with employees on both how the company is doing and how an
employee's own division is doing.
So
in a nutshell — you must be trustworthy and you have to be able to communicate
a vision of where the organization needs to go.
PRINCIPLES
OF LEADERSHIP AND TOOLS FOR IMPLEMENTING THEM
1.
Know
yourself and seek self-improvement - In order to know yourself, you have to
understand your- be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self improvement means
continually strengthening your attributes. This can be accomplished through
self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.
2.
be
technically proficient - As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid
familiarity with your employees' tasks.
3.
Seek
responsibility and take responsibility for your actions - Search for ways to
guide your organization to new heights. And when things go wrong, as they often
tend to do sooner or later — do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take
corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.
4.
Make
sound and timely decisions - Use good problem solving, decision making, and
planning tools.
5.
Set
the example - Be a good role model for your employees. They must not only hear
what they are expected to do, but also see. We must become the change we want
to see - Mahatma Gandhi
6.
Know
your people and look out for their well-being - Know human nature and the
importance of sincerely caring for your workers.
7.
Keep
your workers informed - Know how to communicate with not only them, but also
seniors and other key people.
8.
Develop
a sense of responsibility in your workers – Help to develop good character
traits that will help them carry out their professional responsibilities.
9.
Ensure
that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished - Communication is the
key to this responsibility.
10.
Train
as a team - Although many so called leaders call their organization, department,
section, etc. a team; they are not really teams... they are just a group of
people doing their jobs.
11.
Use
the full capabilities of your organization – By developing a team spirit, you
will be able to employ your organization, department, section, etc. to its
fullest capabilities.
ATTRIBUTES OF
LEADERSHIP: BE, KNOW, And DO
Respected
leaders concentrate on Be, Know, and Do. Who they are [be] (such as beliefs and
character), what they know (such as job, tasks, and human nature), what they do
(such as implementing, motivating, and providing direction).
BE
BE
a professional. Examples: Be loyal to the organization, perform selfless
service, and take personal responsibility. BE a professional who possess good
character traits. Examples: honesty, competence, candor, commitment, integrity,
courage, straightforwardness, imagination.
·
KNOW
·
KNOW
the four factors of leadership — follower, leader, Communication, situation.
·
KNOW
yourself. Examples: strengths and weakness of your character, knowledge, and
skills.
·
KNOW
human nature. Examples: human needs, emotions, and how people respond to
stress.
·
KNOW
your job. Examples: be proficient and be able to train others in their tasks.
·
KNOW
your organization. Examples: where to go for help, its climate and culture, who
the unofficial leaders are.
DO
·
DO
provide direction. Examples: goal setting, problem solving, decision making,
planning.
·
DO
implement. Examples: communicating, coordinating, supervising, evaluating.
·
DO
motivate. Examples: develop morale and esprit de corps in the organization,
train, coach, counsel.
ENVIRONMENT
Every
organization has a particular work environment, which dictates to a considerable
degree how its leaders respond to problems and opportunities. This is brought about
by its heritage of past leaders and its present leaders. Goals, Values, and
Concepts Leaders exert influence on the environment via three types of actions:
1.
The
goals and performance standards they establish.
2.
The
values they establish for the organization.
3.
The
business and people concepts they establish.
Successful
organizations have leaders who set high standards and goals across the entire
spectrum, such as strategies, market leadership, plans, meetings and presentations,
productivity, quality, and reliability.
Values
reflect the concern the organization has for its employees, customers,
investors, vendors, and surrounding community. These values define the manner in
how business will be conducted.
Concepts
define what products or services the organization will offer and the methods
and processes for conducting business.
These
goals, values, and concepts make up the organization's personality or how the
organization is observed by both outsiders and insiders. This personality
defines the roles, relationships, rewards, and rites that take place.
ROLES AND
RELATIONSHIPS
Roles
are the positions that are defined by a set of expectations about behavior of
any job incumbent. Each role has a set of tasks and responsibilities that may
or may not be spelled out. Roles have a powerful effect on behavior for several
reasons, to include money being paid for the performance of the role, there is
prestige attached to a role, and a sense of accomplishment or challenge.
Relationships
are determined by a role's tasks. While some tasks are performed alone, most
are carried out in relationship with others. The tasks will determine who the
role-holder is required to interact with, how often, and towards what end. Normally the greater the interaction, the
greater the liking. This in turn leads to more frequent interactions. In human
behavior, it’s hard to like someone whom we have no contact with, and we tend
to seek out those we like. People tend to do what they are rewarded for, and
friendship is a powerful reward. Many tasks and behaviors that are associated with
a role are brought about by these relationships. That is, new task and
behaviors are expected of the present role-holder because a strong relationship
was developed in the past, either by that role-holder or a prior role-holder.
CULTURE
AND CLIMATE
There
are two distinct forces that dictate how to act within an organization: culture
and climate. Each organization has its own distinctive culture. It is a combination
of the founders, past leadership, current leadership, crises, events, history,
and size (Newstrom, Davis, 1993). These results in rites: the routines,
rituals, and the “way we do things.” These rites impact individual behavior on
what it takes to be in good standing (the norm) and direct the appropriate
behavior for each circumstance. The climate is the feel of the organization,
the individual and shared perceptions and attitudes of the organization's members
(Ivancevich, Konopaske, Matteson, 2007). While the culture is the deeply rooted
nature of the organization that is a result of long-held formal and informal systems,
rules, traditions, and customs; climate is a short-term phenomenon created by
the current leadership. Climate represents the beliefs about the “feel of the
organization” by its members. This individual perception of the “feel of the organization”
comes from what the people believe about the activities that occur in the organization.
These
activities influence both individual and team motivation and satisfaction, such
as: How well does the leader clarify the priorities and goals of the organization?
What is expected of us? What is the system of recognition, rewards, and punishments
in the organization? How competent are the leaders? Are leaders free to make
decisions? What will happen if I make a mistake? Organizational climate is
directly related to the leadership and management style of the leader, based on
the values, attributes, skills, and actions, as well as the priorities of the leader.
Compare this to “ethical climate” — the feel of the organization about the activities
that have ethical content or those aspects of the work environment that
constitute ethical behavior.
The
ethical climate is the feel about whether we do things right; or the feel of
whether we behave the way we ought to behave. The behavior (character) of the leader
is the most important factor that influences the climate. On the other hand,
culture is a long-term, complex phenomenon. Culture represents the shared expectations
and self-image of the organization. The mature values that create tradition or
the “way we do things here.” Things are done differently in every organization.
The collective vision and common folklore that define the institution are a
reflection of culture. Individual leaders cannot easily create or change
culture because culture is a part of the organization. Culture influences the
characteristics of the climate by its effect on the actions and thought
processes of the leader. But, everything you do as a leader will affect the
climate of the organization.
THE PROCESS OF
GREAT LEADERSHIP
The
road to great leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 1987) that is common to
successful leaders:
·
Challenge
the process - First, find a process that you believe needs to be improved the
most.
·
Inspire
a shared vision - Next, share your vision in words that can be understood by
your followers.
·
Enable
others to act - Give them the tools and methods to solve the problem.
·
Model
the way - When the process gets tough, get your hands dirty. A boss tells
others what to do; a leader shows that it can be done.
·
Encourage
the hearts - Share the glory with your followers' hearts, while keeping the
pains within your own.
LEADERSHIP COMPETENCY
FRAMEWORKS
Leaders
are made not born. They learn, develop and gain skills and expertise by
learning, experimenting and experience. Describing what a leader is, does or is
required to do is not easy. Leaders to have to adapt to different circumstances;
some leaders seem to perform in some circumstances but not others. You often
hear of leaders being brought into ‘turn a situation around’ and then having
done that, they are ‘not the right person to take the organization forward’.
Your
organization will need leaders to display skills and attributes that will help
you achieve your aims and objectives. You will have leaders in their own
technical fields, but overarching this will be a need to see leaders behave in
a certain manner and exhibit certain qualities. Rather than the limited and
somewhat vague view of defining requirements through ‘leadership skills’ , many
organizations define a leadership competency framework that focuses on
outcomes, attitudes and behaviors as well as skills that can be tangibly
described, measured and demonstrated. Such a framework sets consistent,
measurable standards that define what is expected of leaders
Many
organizations are moving beyond loose, ad hoc or individual definitions of
'leadership skills' towards defining exactly what leadership competencies they
want their leaders to demonstrate using Leadership Competency Frameworks.
Competencies are more than just skills. Competencies include attitudes and
behaviors as well as skills. They define the outcomes that should be observed,
and the way that those outcomes should be delivered.
Leadership
Competency Frameworks define and communicate to everyone in an organization the
competencies that the organization views as critical to its success and
achieving its goals. Examples of leadership competencies within a Leadership
Competency Framework could include: ‘thinking and acting strategically’,
‘demonstrates a passion for customers’, ‘delivering our vision’.
Why do
leadership competencies matter?
By
specifically defining for each leadership competency the (a) required outcome
and (b) way that the outcome is delivered, the organization communicates to
everyone the leadership skills, attitudes, behaviors and outcomes that it
expects its leaders to demonstrate. . It defines each job and role in the
organization and the leadership competencies that need to be demonstrated in
order to: Be assessed as competent in that role and In order to progress to the
next. For the organization and its people it provides: A framework for job-role
definition and recruitment, A framework for career progression visible to all
,A way of aligning skills and simplifying understanding of requirements, A way
of driving behavior and objectives across the organization and a way of
achieving cultural change and alignment The organization then has an objective,
consistent and tangible means of assessing: Potential competence in a
particular role as part of the recruitment process whether people are
demonstrating competence in their current role Development and training needs
in order to be able to demonstrate competence in the current or a higher role.
This gives everyone a level playing field for measuring their competence,
assessing their development needs and suitability for promotion and improving
their performance. Leadership Competency Frameworks therefore aim to replace
subjectivity and individual approaches to assessing leadership skills and
performance with a consistent approach that is applied in the same way to
everyone.
CONCLUSION
In
conclusion, leaders are completely responsible for anything that happens within
the organization. It is important that we set forth standard operating
procedures that are easily communicated, practical, and appropriate to the
organization. Everhart and Krisonis (1996) believe that leaders must be
consistent and fair, yet firm in putting into action any disciplinary or
positive reward system.
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LEADERSHIP IN MANAGEMENT
DEPARTMENT: ECONOMICS AND DEVELOPMENTAL STUDIES
COURSE: PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT (BUS
205)