What are Leader and Leadership?

Leader is one or an individual who influences others to attain goals. Leader

orchestrates change, set direction, and motivate people to overcome obstacles
and move the organization toward its ideal future. People need help in achieving
their goals, and organizations need leaders at all levels. The best leaders
challenge the process, inspire others to act, model the way, and encourage the
heart of his followers. Outstanding leaders have vision. A vision is a mental
image that goes beyond the ordinary and perhaps beyond what others thought
possible. The vision provides the direction in which the leader wants the
organization to move.

Leadership is the ability of a person influences people or others to do certain to

achieve or attain objectives or goals. There are a number of different
approaches, or style to leadership and management that are based on different
assumptions and theories. The style that individuals use will be based on a
combination of their belief, values and preferences, as well as the organizational
cultural and norms which will encourage some styles and discourage others.

Below are the types of leadership style:

Charismatic Leadership

Participative Leadership

Situational Leadership

Transactional Leadership

Transformational leadership

The Quiet Leader

Servant Leadership

The following discussion shall address each of this type of leadership in greater
details.

CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP

Charismatic leader is a person who is dominant, self-confident, convinced of the

moral righteousness of his or her beliefs, and is able to arouse a sense of
excitement and adventure in followers. The great leaders for example, Dr
Mahathir Mohamad, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Thomas
Watson are regarded as charismatic leaders. They are charm and grace, self-

belief; people follow others they personally admire. The Charismatic Leader
gathers followers through dint of personality and charm, rather than any form of
external power or authority. A Charismatic Leader is WORKING the room as they
move from person to person. They pay much attention to the person they are
talking to at any one moment, making that person feel like they are. They pay a
great deal of attention in scanning and reading the environment, and are good at
picking up the moods and concerns of both individuals and larger audiences,
then will hone their actions and words to suit the situation. The also use a wide
range of methods to manage their image and, if they are not naturally
charismatic, may practice assiduously at developing their skills. Leaders of this
type may engender trust through visible self-sacrifice and taking personal risks in
the name of their belief, show great confidence in their followers, very
persuasive and very effective use of body language as well as verbal language.

Many politicians use a charismatic style, as they need to gather a large number
of followers. Religious leaders too may well use charismatic as do cult leaders.
Charismatic leaders, who are building a group, whether it is a political party, a
cult or a BUSINESS team, will often focus strongly on making the group very clear
and distinct, separating it from other groups. They will then build the image of
the group, in particular in the mind of their followers, as being far superior to all
others. They will tend to attach themselves firmly to the identity of the group,
such that to join the group is to become one with the leader. They create an
unchallengeable position for themselves.

The Charismatic Leader and the Transformational Leader can have many
similarities. The Transformational leader may well be charismatic. Their
difference is in their basic focus. Whereas the Transformational Leader has a
basic focus of transforming the organization and, quite possibly, their followers,
the Charismatic Leader may not want to change anything.

The value of Charismatic Leader is highly significant. If they are well-intentioned

towards others, they can elevate and transform an entire company. If they are
selfish and machiavellian, they can create cults and effectively rape the minds
of the followers. Their self-belief is so high, they can easily believe that they are
infallible, and hence lead their followers into an abyss, even when they have
receive adequate warning from others. The self-belief can also lead them into
psychotic narcissism where their self-absorption or need admiration and worship
can lead to their followers questioning their leadership. They may also be
tolerant of challengers and their irreplacability (intentional or otherwise) can
mean that there are no successors when they leave.

PARTICIPATIVE LEADERSHIP

Any involvement in decision-making process may improve the understanding of

the issues involved by those who must carry out the decisions. People are more
committed to actions where they have involved in the relevant decision-making.
People are less competitive and more collaborative when they are WORKING on
joint goals. When people make decisions together, the social commitment to one
another is greater and thus increases their commitment to the decision. Several
people deciding together make better decisions that one person alone.

A Participative Leader, rather than taking autocratic decisions, seeks to involve

other people in the process, possibly including subordinates, peers, superiors and
other stakeholders. Often, however, as it is within the managers whim to give or
immediate team. The levels of participation also depend on the type of decision
being made. Decisions on how to implement goals may be highly participative,
whilst decisions during subordinate performance evaluations are more likely to
be taken by the manager.

This approach also known as consultation, empowerment, joint decision-making,

democratic leadership, Management By Objective (MBO) and power-sharing.
Participative Leadership can be a sham when managers ask for opinions and
then ignore them. This is likely to lead cynicism and feeling of betrayal.

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP

The best action of the leader depends on a range of situational factors. When
decision is needed, an effective leader does not just fall into a single preferred
style, such as using transactional or transformational methods. In practice,
things are not that simple. Factors that affect situational decisions include
motivation and capability of followers. This is affected by factors within the
particular situation. The relationships between followers and leader may be
another factor that affects leader behavior as much as it does follower behavior.
The leaders perception of the follower and the situational will affect what they
do rather than the truth of the situation. The leaders perception of themselves
and other factors such as stress and mood will also modify the leaders behavior.

Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) identified three forces that led to the leaders
action: the forces in the situation, the forces in the follower and also the forces in
the leader. This recognizes that the leaders style is highly variable, and even
such distant events as a family argument can lead to the displacement activity of
a more aggressive stance in an argument than usual. Maier (1963) noted that
leaders not only consider the likelihood of a follower accepting a suggestion, but
also the overall importance of getting things done. Thus in critical situations, a
leader is more likely to be directive in style simply because of the implications of
failure.

TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP

Transactional leader is a leader who manages through transactional, using their

legitimate, reward and coercive powers to give commands and exchange
rewards for services rendered. People are motivated by reward and punishment.
Social systems work best with clear chain of command. When people have
agreed to do the JOB, a part of the deal is that they cede all authority to their
manager. The prime purpose of a subordinate is to do what their manager tells
them to do.

The transactional leader works through creating clear structures whereby it is

clear what is required of their subordinates, and the rewards that they get for
following orders. Punishments are not always mentioned, but they also wellunderstood and formal systems of discipline are usually in place. The early stage
of Transactional Leadership is in negotiating the contract whereby the
subordinate is given a salary and other benefits, and the company gets authority
over the subordinate. When the Transactional Leader allocates work to
subordinate, they are considered to be fully responsible for it, whether or not
they have the resources or capability to carry it out. When things go wrong, then
the subordinate is considered to be personally at fault, and is punished for their
failure. Often uses management by exception, WORKING on the principle that if
something is operating to defined performance then it does not need attention.
Exceptions to exception require praise and reward for exceeding expectation,
whilst some kind of corrective action is APPLIED for performance below
expectation. Whereas Transformational Leadership has more of a selling style,
Transactional Leadership takes a telling style. Transactional leadership is based
in contingency, in that reward or punishment is contingent upon performance.
Transactional Leadership is still a popular approach with many managers.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Transformational leader is a leader who motivates people to transcend their

personal interests for the good of the group. Transformational leadership is good
for people and good for the bottom line. People will follow a person who inspires
them. A person with vision and passion can achieve great things. The way to get
things done is by injecting enthusiasm and energy. Working for a
Transformational Leader can be a wonderful and uplifting experience. They put
passion and energy into everything. They care about you and want you to
succeed.

Transformational Leadership STARTS with the development of a vision, a view of

the future that will excite and convert potential followers. This vision may be
developed by the leader, by the senior team or may emerge from a broad series

of discussions. The important factor is the leader buys into it, hook, line and
sinker. They developed the vision, selling the vision, finding the way forwards,
and leading the charge. Transformational leadership is about implementing new
ideas, continually change themselves, they stay flexible and adaptable, and
continually improved those around them. Transformational Leaders are often
charismatic, but are not as narcissistic, as pure Charismatic Leaders, who
succeed through a believe in themselves rather than a believe in others.
Transformational Leaders seek to transform. When the organization does not
need transforming and people are happy as they are, then such a leader will be
frustrated.

THE QUIET LEADER

Servant leader is a leader who serves others needs while strengthening the
organization. The actions of a leader speak louder than his or her words. People
are motivated when you give them credit rather than take it yourself. Ego and
aggression are neither necessary nor constructive. The approach of quiet leaders
is the antithesis of the classic charismatic and often transformational leaders in
that they base their success not on ego and force of character but on their
thoughts and actions. Although they are strongly task-focused, they neither
bullies nor unnecessarily unkind and may persuade people through rational
argument and a form of benevolent Transactional.

To some extent, the emphasis on the quiet leader is a reaction against the
lauding (praise someone/something) of charismatic leaders. Being quiet, of
course, is not the secret of the UNIVERSE, and leaders still need to see the way
forwards. Their job can be harder when they are faced with people of more
external character. For people accustomed to an extraverted charismatic style, a
quiet leader style can be very confusing and they may downplay (make
something less important) the person, which is usually a mistake. Successful
quiet leaders often play the values card to persuade others, showing selfishness
and lack of emotional control as being unworthy characteristics.

SERVANT LEADERSHIP

The leader has responsibility for the followers. Leaders have a responsibility
towards society and those who are disadvantaged. People who want to help
others best to do this by leading them. The servant leader serves others, rather
than others serving the leader. Serving others thus comes by helping them to
achieve and improve. There are two criteria of servant leadership: the people
served grow as individuals, becoming healthier, wiser, more autonomous and
more likely themselves to become servants (Greenleaf, 1977), and the extent to
which the leadership BENEFITS those who are least advantaged in society or at
least does not disadvantage them.

Servant leadership is very moral position, putting the well-being of the followers
before other goals. Servant leadership is a natural model for working in the
public sector. Servant leadership aligns closely with religious morals and has
been adopted by several Christian organizations.

The best leader

In defining the best leader, it is indeed a mere subjective interpretation. The best
leader would normally challenge the process- they challenge conventional beliefs
and practices and they create change; inspire a share vision- they appeal to
peoples values and motivate them to care about an important mission; enable
others to act- they give people access to information and give them the power to
perform to their full potential; model the way- they dont just tell people what to
do, they are living examples of the ideas they believe in; encourage the heartthey show appreciation, provide rewards, and use various approaches to
motivate people in positive ways.

Leadership by example

Leadership by example is simply displaying qualities for others to follow. Real

leaders always mean what said, they are the leaders who will walk the talk. They
are doers and not mere talkers. They are the opposite of leadership by authority.

A leader is simply someone who has the courage to set the example. Leaderrs
are constantly under watch, nothing that he does or say will escape the scrutiny
and examination of his followers. His activities and attitudes will be the example
he may have set for them. As a leader, setting the example comes first. As
leader, one is accountable for every thing he does. Everything he does must be
transparent and display fairness to all. Every leader should always display
gratitude. It is necessary for leader to cultivate the habit of being grateful for
every good thing that comes into his life. The leader must show his grateful to
his mentors, family, the company he represents and all those who have helped
him. When he is grateful, the leader is actually setting an example for his team
to follow.

LEADERS OF COMPANIES & NATIONS

Inevitably, some strong example of leadership that we could see are those who
were not actually in the management arena. Some of the prominent leaders be it

leader of an organization, leader of a corporation or even leader of a nation. We

shall see in the following discussion on few instances where some of the great
leaders of the world were not from the management based training.

We shall divide the cases in three areas; leader of nations, leader of profound
and successful corporation and lastly we will touch on women leadership and
some good and relevant examples where women have led great organizations.

Leader of Nations.

We take the former premier of Malaysia, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Being a

qualified medical doctor and used to operate his own private clinic in Alor Setar
named Maha Klinik, he has been known one of the great leaders of the country.
He has been regarded as Bapa Pembangunan Malaysia.

When we talk about achievement of the country during his 23-year period of
administration, Malaysia was some how at her peak of its economic success
despite the two major recession periods that it successfully went through. During
his time, mega infrastructure and buildings including the Petronas Twin Tower
and the magnificent Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) were put in place
and these among others have become the land mark of the country.

Nelson Mendela is also recognized as one great leader of the world. He was
imprisoned by the government for more than twenty years and he joined the
politic and ruled Africa for more than twenty years. Taking from the fact that he
was once being imprisoned, the bitter experience had made him better leader for
the country. Indonesia for another example the most Muslim populous nation at
one time had BJ Habibie who is an aircraft engineer to be its President.

Leaders of Great Corporations

From the point of leadership of corporations and companies, we take examples of

General Electric (GE). Operating globally and has more than 300 thousand
employee around the world, it requires superb leadership to manage the
organization.

We trust that insofar as management or even marketing fields are concerned, GE

is not a foreign example. It is a company that makes US32billion in 2007 as
revenue.

To be able to lead such a huge magnitude of a corporation, the management has

to possess the necessary management skills and superb leadership attributes.
For GE, these values are well shared among its many thousands of employees
throughout the world. In one of the corporate talks organized by Management
Institute Malaysia (MIM) recently, Jeffery Immelt the present CEO of GE with
Mathematic background was sharing the way he and his team manage the more
than 300 thousand employees by sharing the same aspiration and tag team
concept in all things that the company do. The management ensures the good
200 to 300 leaders within the company in order to manage the whole
organization. People and its culture has always been the central focus of the
management; almost all aspects.

The company also spends one billion of dollars per year in training activities and
the top management make it a practice to lead, motivate, change its people.

According to J Welsh, former CEO and President of GE, mission was critical to
drive the business though to get it understood and implemented at all levels can
be a challenge. The management took it to everybody at almost all possible
opportunities; lunch, workshop at even at the water cooler discussion. Its mission
was to become the most competitive enterprise in the world by becoming no 1 or
no 2 in the market from all aspects.

These have clearly shown to us that in order to lead and manage an organization
what more GE as our example, the senior management right up to the CEO must
acquire and possess the management and leadership skills. Notably, Immelt with
his mathematical background coupled with vast experience and exposure has led
GE successfully.

We will take in the case of Singapore. In that neighboring country of Malaysia, it

practices a concept called father leadership concept. The father-driver ie the
government is driving the Singaporeans-family members in a car with a
direction. GLCs are almost within the environment of Singaporean community.
The housing matters are well handled by the Housing Development Board
whereas the future of the Singaporeans are taken care by the Central Provident
Fund (CFC).

Carlos Ghosn has been named as one great leader in the automotive industry
where he was the first non-Japanese CEO ever appointed to head the Japanbased car manufacturer NISSAN. He has been practicing a skillful leadership and
very motivational. He had once said, the only and important function of a CEO is
to motivate, the rest is just nonsense.

The Trump Empire

One good example of a successful businessman is Donald Trumph. He owns

multibillion worth of organizations under the Trumph Empire. He practices strong
leadership skill in creating business opportunities. According to one of his books,
he acquired the leadership and management skills through experience and
observation ha made from his wealthy father.

The rising star of the aviation captain of AIR ASIA Datuk Tony Fernandez has set
one relevant example of a non-technical person to head an almost engineering
based industry involving high risks. Datuk Tony used to be making his name in
the music industry as the head of Warner Music at one time. The appointment to
head the aviation low fare business at first has invited skeptics amongst
industrial players. He managed to prove them wrong as what we can see today
the steep rivalry between Air Asia and the national air carrier Malaysian Airlines
System is believed to have been initiated by Air Asia.

Tan Sri Hassan Marican of Petronas

As the head of an oil & gas based organization with more than twenty thousand
employees around the globe, Tan Sri Hassan Marican as a charted accountant
shall be another fair example where it does not necessarily require a technical
person to head a technical organization. Indeed he is backed up by sound
engineering and capable technical personnel in his administration.

Women leadership

Of late, it is incomplete when we discuss on the subject of leadership if we leave

behind role and potential played by women in the hierarchy of leadership. This is
especially so in state leadership. Britain at one time used to have one of its great
leaders Margaret Thatcher. Certain other nations also used to have great women
leaders. Bangladesh for instance had HE Madam Khaleda Zia and HE Madam as
its Prime Ministers. The same case went to the nation that has the most Muslim
population; Indonesia used to have HE Madam Megawato Soekarnoputri. Present
President of Philipine HE Madam Aroyo Macapagal has witnessed significant
progress and development under her administration.

At the present era, many nations are placing great importance to women
leadership. In certain countries like Malaysia, it has a dedicated ministry of
women affairs that among others is to take charge of women affairs. It also has a
number of agencies in support of the ministrys functions and responsibilities.
Department of Women Affairs, Persatuan Ibu Tunggal for instance is an NGO
which has been receiving support from the ministry in its social programs under
the administration of the agency.

We would like to take another example of another nation that has attempted to
place women as its leader to rule the country. The country New Zealand is
presently under the administration of HE Helen Clark. She has led the leading
political party of the Labor Party as its chairman and became the Prime Minister
for nine (9) years.

The women movement which is led by the organization called NZ Labor Women
Council has been able to penetrate the interest of the women in the country. It
has managed to place four women ministers in the government cabinet.

However, to a certain extent, the anti-feminism was prevailing and that the idea
of maintaining this situation will start to evade.

The recent widely covered of the removal of Fiorina as the MD of Hewlett Packard
was believed to be due to her inability to address technical issues. Being a non-IT
by training, the mega merger between HP and Compaq has costed her position
as the head of HP. Indeed, she was given huge publicity insofar as her
tremendous way of managing and leading the giant HP, yet her last moves
especially towards the merger did not work out well to her expectation.

In his recent book entitled Mind Set, John Naisbitt (author of best seller
Megatrend) has authored his latest views as well known futurist. He remarked
that the rising giant of China. The great leaders of china has somehow turned the
one-time manufacturing mere 13,000 cars per year back in 1979 has now
produced more than 5 millions of cars from 120 car makers.

THE FUTURE LEADERS : CHALLENGING REQUIREMENT

It is noted and observed from the preceding discussions that a number of

situations may arise when it comes to leadership styles and attributes. Many
qualities of effective leadership-characteristics such as communication vision,
demonstrating integrity, focusing on results, and ensuring customer satisfactionwill never change.

But five new factors have emerged have as clearly more important in the future:

Thinking globally. Leaders need to understand the economic, culture, legal, and
political ramifications. Leaders need to see themselves as citizens of the world
with an expanded field of vision and values. Learn how to manage global
environment to achieve competitive advantage. Leaders who can make
globalization work in their favor will have a huge competitive advantage.
Previous examples of the world leaders have clearly shown to us that this factor
on the ability to think across the globe has been crucial especially when the
business organizations or nations as the case may be were to venture into
international transactions. The leaders may need to set aside his or her origin or
background in order to lead globally.

Appreciating culture diversity- Future leaders need to appreciate culture

diversity, defined of leadership style, individual behaviors and values, race, and
sex. They need to understand not only the economic and legal differences, but
also the social and motivational differences that are part of working around the
world. Understanding other cultures is not just good business practice, but it is a
key to competing successfully in the future. Leaders who can understand,
appreciate, and motivate colleagues in multiple cultures will become an
increasingly valued resource. We observed from the GE case where its 300
thousand strength of employees are composed from various nations and cultures
and that the top management has proved it next to nothing that the company
manages the organizations well.

Demonstrating technological savvy (practical knowledge and ability)

Organizations with technologically savvy leaders will have a competitive
advantage. Without technological savvy, the future of integrated global
partnership and networks would be impossible. At one time, Steve Job of APPLE
went to approach President of Atari in 1976 on his Personal Computer but was
chased away due to the presidents inability to appreciate the technology. Immelt
of GE has also recognized this critical fact on the need for information technology
to be in use especially in dealing across continents. FedEx has also assured its
customers to be alerted the very moment their parcel has reached the recipient ;
being made possible with the use of technology.

Building partnerships and alliances- More organizations are forming alliances

today. This trend will be even more dramatic in the future. Reengineering,
restructuring, and downsizing are leading to a world where outsourcing of all but
core brand-related activities may become the norm. The ability to negotiate
complex alliances and manage complex networks of relationships is becoming
increasingly important. Joint leadership of new business models is vital to a
successful global venture. The changing role of customers, suppliers, and
partners has implications for leaders. In the past it was clear who your friends
(customers and collaborators) and enemies (competitors) were. In the future,
these roles will become more blurred. Building positive, long-term, win-win

relationships become critical. We take for an example the strategic partnership

between the two millionaires; Robert Kiyasaki and Donald Trump in educationalbased activities. Leveraging on their own brand names, their products including
the best seller book Why We Want You To Be Rich proves this timely. In one
recent joint venture between the leading legal firm of Zaid Ibrahim & Co and
Singapore based Allen & Gledhill has resulted a more than four hundred lawyers
working under the venture and has made the firm the biggest legal firm in South
East Asia at present.

SHARING leadership- SHARING leadership is a requirement, not an option. In an

alliance structure, telling partners what to do and how to do it may quickly lead
to aging no partners. In dealing with knowledge workers-people who know more
about what they are doing than their managers do- old models of leadership will
not work. Future leaders will operate in a mode of asking for input and sharing
information. Knowledge workers may well be difficult to keep. They will likely
have little organizational loyalty and view themselves as professional free agents
who will work for the leader who provides the most developmental challenge and
opportunity. Skills in hiring and retaining key talent will be valuable for the leader
of the future.

Most high-potential future leaders see the value of these new competencies and
are willing to have their performance measured by them. Future leaders may be
recruited to help mentor present leaders. If future leaders have the wisdom to
learn new competencies from future leaders, they can SHAREleadership in a way
that benefits the organization.

CONCLUSION

The present style of leadership has changed almost significantly across the
globe. Leaders; from being a leader of a small unit up to leading a nation can be
created. Rising needs and awareness amongst the present leaders and
prospective leaders towards a multi skill and capability has been evidenced
throughout this paper discussions.

The discussion has also enlightened us that management background may no

longer be the pre-requisite for one to become leader.