What is Leadership?

Leadership the process through which leaders exert such influence on other group members.

Leader a person who can influence others to be more effective in working to achieve their mutual goals and maintain effective working relationships among members.
Leadership skills sum total of your ability to help the group achieve its goals and maintain an effective working relationship among members.

Traits of the Excellent Leader

Excellent leaders have:

A vision and purpose. Clear goals. Strong commitment. Flexibility. An understanding of change. Active listening skills. Confidence to take risks.

Traits of the Excellent Leader

Excellent leaders are:

Knowledgeable about the total organization. Able to learn from mistakes. Excellent communicators/listeners. Able to speak clearly and effectively. Resourceful. Realistic.

Leadership Theories

The context of Leadership

Old Paradigm
Industrial Age Stability Control Competition Things Uniformity

New Paradigm
Information Age Change Empowerment Collaboration People & Relationships Diversity

The Trait Approach

Quality of Leader determines Quality of Organisation ; a Leader who lacks intelligence Virtue and Experience cannot hope to Succeed In any Conflict situation the circumstances affect the outcome; Good Leaders can succeed in adverse conditions while bad Leaders can lose out in favourable conditions When all other factors are equal, it is the Character of the Leader that determines the Outcome

Trait Theory of Leadership

A common understanding of leadership is to describe its qualities such as charisma, intelligence, enthusiasm, courage etc. While many of the "leaders" seemed to possess and exhibit some or many of these quality traits, the researchers could not find with certainty a common set of traits that differentiated leaders from non-leaders and effective leaders from the ineffective

Traits of the Excellent Leader

Excellent leaders have:

A vision and purpose. Clear goals. Strong commitment. Flexibility. An understanding of change. Active listening skills. Confidence to take risks.

Traits of the Excellent Leader

Excellent leaders are:

Knowledgeable about the total organization. Able to learn from mistakes. Excellent communicators/listeners. Able to speak clearly and effectively. Resourceful. Realistic.

Trait Theory of Leadership Drive - leaders have a relatively high desire for achievement; they are ambitious and possess a lot of energy; they are persistent and show initiative
Desire to lead - leaders have a strong desire to influence and lead others; they demonstrate a willingness to assume responsibility for their actions Honesty and Integrity - leaders build trusting relationships between themselves and others; they are truthful and non-deceitful, and they show high consistency between word and deed

Trait Theory of Leadership

Self-Confidence - leaders show self-confidence in order to convince their followers of the rightness of goals and decisions. Intelligence - leaders are intelligent enough to gather, synthesize and interpret large volumes of information; they are able to create visions, solve problems and make correct decisions.

Trait Theory of Leadership

Job-relevant knowledge - leaders have sufficient job-related knowledge about the company and industry; they make well-informed decisions and understand implications of such decisions.

1.

Trait Theory

The trait theory is based on the great man theory, but it is more systematic in its analysis of leaders. Like the great man theory, this theory assumes that the leaders personal traits are the key to leadership success.
Personality Traits

Abilities
l Supervising Ability l Intelligence l Initiative

Personal Traits
l Self-Assurance l Decisiveness l Masculinity/Famininity l Maturity l Working Class Affinity

Motivators
l Need for Occupational Achievement l Self-actualization l Power Over Others l High Financial Reward l Job Security
Cont.

Personality Traits

Leadership Trait Theory

Assumes that there are distinctive physical and psychological characteristics accounting for leadership effectiveness.

Ghisellis six significant leadership traits: Supervisory ability (Getting the job done through others). Need for occupational achievement (Seeking responsibility). Intelligence (Good judgment, reasoning, thinking capacity). Decisiveness (Solve problems and make decision). Self-assurance (Copes with problems, self-confidence). Initiative (Self-starting).

Weakness of Trait Theory

Ignores the followers and the situation Does not differentiate regarding the specific value of each trait Correlational evidence only (not causal)