Leadership

Leadership
Defined
 Leadership is the ability to inspire confidence

and support among the people who are needed

to achieve organizational goals. (DuBrin, 1998)
 The process of influencing an organized group
toward accomplishing its goals (Roach &
Behling, 1984).

Leadership can exist in both formal and informal groups. In a formal setting,
such as within a large corporation, the leader of the group is usually
someone who has been appointed to a high position of authority. In an
informal setting, such as a group of friends, the leader is someone with
personal traits that simply tend to inspire respect.
Manager Vs. Leader
Factors of leadership

There are four major factors in leadership:

Follower
Different people require different styles of leadership. For example, a
new hire requires more supervision than an experienced employee. A
person who lacks motivation requires a different approach than one
with a high degree of motivation. You must know your people! The
fundamental starting point is having a good understanding of human
nature, such as needs, emotions, and motivation. You must come to
know your employees' be, know, and do attributes.
Factors of leadership
Leader
You must have an honest understanding of who you are, what you know, and what you can do.
Also, note that it is the followers, not the leader who determines if a leader is successful. If they
do not trust or lack confidence in their leader, then they will be uninspired. To be successful you
have to convince your followers, not yourself or your superiors, that you are worthy of being
followed.
Communication
You lead through two-way communication. Much of it is nonverbal. For instance, when you "set
the example," that communicates to your people that you would not ask them to perform
anything that you would not be willing to do. What and how you communicate either builds or
harms the relationship between you and your employees.

Situation
All are different. What you do in one situation will not always work in another. You must use your
judgment to decide the best course of action and the leadership style needed for each situation.
For example, you may need to confront an employee for inappropriate behavior, but if the
confrontation is too late or too early, too harsh or too weak, then the results may prove
ineffective.

Leadership Involves an Interaction Between the Leader,

the Followers, and the Situation
Leadership Roles
1. Figurehead
2. Spokesperson
3. Negotiator
4. Coach
5. Team Builder
6. Team Player
7. Technical Problem Solver
8. Entrepreneur
The Activities of Successful & Effective
leaders
Description categories
Type of Activity
Derived from free Observation

Exchange Information
Routine Communication
Handling paperwork

Planning
Traditional Management Decision Making
Controlling

Interacting with outsiders

Networking
Socializing /Politicking

Motivating/Reinforcing
Disciplining/Punishing
Human Resource Management
Managing conflict
staffing
Training/Developing
Transformational Leadership
 Transformational leadership is a process that changes and
transforms individuals.
 A transformational leader inspires his or her team constantly with a
shared vision of the future.
 Transformational leaders transform the organization by developing
vision, building commitment, and empowering followers.
Transformational Leadership
Key Characteristics

 Charisma : Provides vision and sense of mission,

instills pride, gains respect trust.
 Inspiration: Communicates high expectations, uses
symbols to focus efforts, expresses important purposes
in simple ways.
 Intellectual Stimulations: Promotes intelligence,
rationality, and careful problem solving.
 Individualized consideration: Gives personal
attention, treats each employee individually, coaches,
advises.
Charismatic Leadership
 in that the leader injects huge doses of enthusiasm into his or her
team, and is very energetic in driving others forward.
 charismatic leader can tend to believe more in him or herself than in
their team.
 charismatic leadership carries great responsibility, and needs
long-term commitment.

Key Characteristics

Self Confidence- They have complete confidence in their judgment and

ability.
A vision- This is an idealized goal that proposes a future better than the
status quo. The greater the disparity between idealized goal and the
status quo, the more likely that followers will attribute extraordinary
vision to the leader.
Charismatic Leadership
Ability to articulate the vision- They are able to clarify and state the vision in terms that
are understandable to others. This articulation demonstrates an understanding of
the followers’ needs and, hence acts as a motivating force.

Strong convictions about vision- Charismatic leaders are perceived as being strongly
committed, and willing to take on high personal risk, incur high costs, and engage
in self-sacrifice to achieve their vision.

Behavior that is out of the ordinary- Those with charisma engage in behavior that is
perceived as being novel, unconventional, and counter to norms. When successful ,
these behaviors evoke surprise and admiration in followers.

Perceived as being a change agent- Charismatic leaders are perceived as agents of

radical change rather than as caretakers of the status quo.

Environmental sensitivity- These leaders are able to make realistic assessments of the
environmental constraints and resources needed to bring about change.
Early Leadership Theories

1. Trait Theories
2. Behavioral Theories
3. Contingency Theories
Trait Theory
Definition of Trait Theory

Trait theory is a major approach to the study of human personality.

The first organized approach to studying leadership analyzed the
personal, psychological, and physical traits of strong leaders. The
trait approach assumed that some basic trait or set of traits
existed that differentiated leaders from non leaders. If those traits
could be defined, potential leaders could be identified.

Basic Assumptions of Trait Theory

1. People are born with inherited traits.

2. Some traits are particularly suited to leadership.
3. People who make good leaders have the right combination
of traits.
 Traits Skills
•Adaptable to situations •Clever (intelligent)
•Alert to social environment •Conceptually skilled
•Ambitious and achievement- •Creative
orientated •Diplomatic and tactful
•Assertive •Fluent in speaking
•Cooperative •Knowledgeable about group task
•Decisive •Organized administrative ability)
•Dependable •Persuasive
•Dominant (desire to influence others) •Socially skilled
•Energetic (high activity level)
•Persistent
•Self-confident
•Tolerant of stress
•Willing to assume responsibility.
Trait Theories
Limitations
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 Behavioral
Theories
Introduction
Behavioral theories of leadership do not seek inborn
traits or capabilities. Rather, they look at what leaders
actually do.

If success can be defined in terms of describable

actions, then it should be relatively easy for other people
to act in the same way. This is easier to teach and learn
then to adopt the more ephemeral 'traits' or 'capabilities'.

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 Behavioral
Theories
Basic Assumptions of Behavioral Theories

•Leaders can be made, rather than are born.

•Successful leadership is based in definable, learnable
behavior.

Various Behavioral theories of leadership

1. IOWA study
2. Managerial grids
 IOWA
study
 University of Iowa Studies (Kurt Lewin)

 Identified three leadership styles:

 Autocratic style: centralized authority, low participation
 Democratic style: involvement, high participation,
feedback
 Laissez-faire style: hands-off management
 Research findings: mixed results
 No specific style was consistently better for producing
better performance
 Employees were more satisfied under a democratic
leader than an autocratic leader
Autocratic (Directive)
•Leader tells “what, when, why, & how” of task
•Followers do what they’re told

Democratic (Participative)
•Leader seeks input about task from group
•Followers & leader are equal

Laissez-faire (Delegate)
•Leader lets followers make all decisions
•Followers do what they think is best
Autocratic leaders
•High productivity
•Hostility, aggression, blaming

Democratic leaders
•Fairly high productivity
•Camaraderie, creativity, consideration

Laissez-faire leaders
•Low productivity
•Demanding, argumentative
Managerial Grid
Theory
The Managerial Grid model by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton
is a behavioral leadership model.
Blake and Mouton found that a management behavior model
with three axes (concern for production, concern for people,
motivation) was a more accurate representation of reality. On
the grid, concern for production is represented on a one to nine
scale on the horizontal axis (x-axis). Concern for people is
represented on a one to nine scale on the vertical axis (y-axis).

According to Blake and Mouton there is also a third axis:

Motivation, measured from negative (driven by fear) to positive
(driven by desire).
The Managerial Grid

1,9 9,9
High 9 Country club management Team management
Thoughtful attention needs of people Work accomplishment is from
for satisfying relationships leads to committed people, interdependence
8 A comfortable, friendly organization through a “common stake” in organization
purpose leads to relationship
atmosphere and work tempo of trust and respect
Concern for people

5
5,5
Organization Man Management
4 Adequate organization performance
possible through balancing the necessity to
get out work with maintaining
morale of the people at a satisfactory level
3 9,1
1,1
Authority-Obedience
Impoverished Management
Efficiency in operations results
2 Exertion of minimum effort to get
from arranging conditions of
required work done is appropriate
work in such a way that human
Low to sustain organization membership
elements interfere to a minimal degree
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Low Concern for production High
 Managerial Grid
Theory
1.Impoverished style (Low Production / Low People)

2. Country Club style (Low Production / High People)

3. Produce or Perish style (High Production / Low People)

4. Middle-of-the-road style (Medium Production / Medium People).

5. Team style (High Production / High People).

Benefits of the managerial Grid

 Using a model makes it easier to openly discuss behavior

and improvement actions.
 Using the Grid model makes the various leadership styles
measurable to a certain extent and allows more than two
competing options (X versus Y).

Limitations/ disadvantages of the managerial Grid

 There are more dimensions of leadership that can be

relevant.
 The model basically neglects the significance of the

internal and external constraints, context, circumstances and

situation.
Leadership Styles
Leadership styles may be of relevance to a
variety of situations where there is a
requirement to manage others.  Effective
performance will depend on many factors
including the organizational culture in which
the individual is operating.

Authoritarian or Autocratic
Participative or Democratic
Delegative or Laissez-faire
 Authoritarian
(autocratic)
This style is used when the leader tells her employees what she
wants done and how she wants it done, without getting the
advice of her followers. Some of the appropriate conditions to use
it is when you have all the information to solve the problem, you
are short on time, and your employees are well motivated. Some
people tend to think of this style as a vehicle for yelling, using
demeaning language, and leading by threats and abusing their
power. This is not the authoritarian style...rather it is an abusive,
unprofessional style called bossing people around. it has no
place in a leaders repertoire.
The authoritarian style should normally only be used on rare
occasions. If you have the time and want to gain more
commitment and motivation from your employees, then you
should use the participative style.
Participative
(democratic)
This type of style involves the leader including one or
more employees in on the decision making process
(determining what to do and how to do it). However,
the leader maintains the final decision making
authority. Using this style is not a sign of weakness,
rather it is a sign of strength that your employees will
respect. This is normally used when you have part of
the information, and your employees have other parts.
Note that a leader is not expected to know everything
-- this is why you employ knowledgeable and skillful
employees. Using this style is of mutual benefit -- it
allows them to become part of the team and allows
you to make better decisions.
Delegative (free reign)
In this style, the leader allows the employees to
make the decision. However, the leader is still
responsible for the decisions that are made. This
is used when employees are able to analyze the
situation and determine what needs to be done
and how to do it. You cannot do everything! You
must set priorities and delegate certain tasks.
This is not a style to use so that you can blame
others when things go wrong, rather this is a
style to be used when you have the full trust and
confidence in the people below you. Do not be
afraid to use it, however, use it wisely!
 Positive and Negative
Approaches:
 There is a difference in ways leaders approach their employee.
Positive leaders use rewards, such as education, independence, etc.
to motivate employees. While negative employees emphasize
penalties. While the negative approach has a place in a leader's
repertoire of tools, it must be used carefully due to its high cost on
the human spirit.
 Negative leaders act domineering and superior with people. They
believe the only way to get things done is through penalties, such as
loss of job, days off without pay, reprimand employees in front of
others, etc. They believe their authority is increased by freighting
everyone into higher lever of productivity. Yet what always happens
when this approach is used wrongly is that morale falls; which of
course leads to lower productivity.
 Also note that most leaders do not strictly use one or another, but
are somewhere on a continuum ranging from extremely positive to
extremely negative. People who continuously work out of the
negative are bosses while those who primarily work out of the
positive are considered real leaders.