nidhi chandran
Nidhi Chandran
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
(Six Pages)
GENERAL
‘Leadership’ comes from an Anglo-Saxon word which means a road, a way, the path of a ship at sea - a sense of ‘direction.’
WHY STUDY ‘LEADERSHIP’ ?
There is a close link between manager’s leadership behaviour and their subordinates’ performance. If properly led employees can be induced to see the wisdom of changing their work habits and practices.
APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP THEORY
* The Leadership Traits approach
* The Situational approach
* Group Approach
The Leadership Traits Approach
This approach tells us that there are certain qualities in some people that mark them out as leaders or potential leaders. Extreme view is that leaders are born and not made. It is not entirely true. Although leaders do possess some traits which set them apart from the average man but it will be wrong to say that the art of leadership cannot be taught.
The Situational Approach
Leaders emerge out of a situation due to their special qualification or skill appropriate to the situation.
In days gone by the positional power was enough to ensure a person authority to lead and be accepted as such. In armed forces the seniority of the rank counts. The senior-most automatically assumes the role of a leader. Changing situations require a change of leader e.g., a company in the growth may need a bustling, entrepreneurial leader but once it has established its product lines and market it may need another type of leader.
Group Approach
Since we are working in a group, we shall discuss Group Approach towards leadership. The Group Approach sees leadership in terms of functions which meet group needs: what has to be done. There are three elements or variables :
* the leader - qualities of personality and character
* the situation - partly constant, partly varying
* the group - the followers, their needs and values
There are three areas of need present in working groups :
* to achieve the common task
* to be held together or to maintain themselves as cohesive unities
* the needs which individuals bring with them into the group.
Common Task. One of the reasons why a group comes together is that there is a task which one person cannot do on his own.
Team Maintenance. Groups are threatened from outside by forces aimed at their disintegration or from within by disruptive people or ideas. There is a need to create and promote group cohesiveness.
Individual Needs. Individuals bring into the group their own needs - biological and psychological.
In order to meet the three areas of needs certain functions have to be performed by a leader. You need :-
* awareness of what is going on in groups
* understanding that a particular function is required
* skill to do it well enough to be effective. That can usually be judged by whether or not the group responds or changes course.
If a leader exercises the art of leadership he will generate a sense of responsibility in everyone member of the group so that members naturally want to respond to the three sets of need. But he alone is accountable at the end of the day. It is the leader who should get the sack if the task is not achieved, or the group disintegrates into warring factions, or the individuals lapse into sullen apathy.
Understanding your position as the leader in relation to the three circles is vitally important. You should see yourself as half-in and half-out. There should be some social distance between you and the group, but not too much. The reason for maintaining this distance is because you may have to take decisions causing reactions from group and the individuals to some unwelcome change.
The leader’s social needs can be met partly by relations with his team, but it is always lonely at the top.
The three approaches to leadership i.e., Trait , Situational and Group are complementary. The successful leader is one who determines what his most appropriate behaviour at any given time should be and in actually being able to act accordingly.
STYLE OF LEADERSHIP.
In the early days these were labelled as autocratic, democratic or laissez-fair (or do-as-you-please). They are now called telling, selling, consulting or joining styles. It only shows the range of options in making decisions. Style should arise naturally or subconsciously as you master the function or skills of leadership. Style of management could have an effect on employees’ morale and on their output. Likert showed that employee-centred leaders obtained better results than task-centred leaders.
LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP
Leadership happens on different levels. According to ‘Peter Principle’, people tend to be promoted to the level of their incompetence. Some people are perfectly good leaders at one level, but they are less able to cope at the next level up. What can help you to determine your own level is your ability to appreciate the subtle changes which take place in the task, the team and the individual as you go higher up the mountain.
DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
Defining the Task.
Your primary responsibility as a leader is to ensure that your group achieves its common task. Make the task truly common by communicating or sharing it. Give the reason why it is to be done. It will make the objective clearer and bind the group.
Planning
Remember Rudyard Kipling’s short checklist :
I keep six honest serving men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When,
And How and Where and Who
So planning is essentially about devising a method for making or doing something or achieving an end. A leader without plans is not likely to be effective. For this keep a check on time, identify resources available and involve the group through consultations. This will make them committed to the task. Additionally free yourself from functional fixedness, think creatively and make contingency plans.
Briefing
Briefing the team is a leadership function. The main purpose of a briefing is to allocate tasks to groups and individuals, to distribute resources and to set or check standards of performance. Briefing also needs good communication skills which should move the group to the desired action.
Briefing is an opportunity to create the right atmosphere, to promote teamwork, and to get to know, encourage and motivate each individual person.
The six most important words...
“ I admit I made a mistake.”
The five most important words...
“I am proud of you.”
The four most important words...
“What is your opinion?”
The three most important words...
“If you please”
The two most important words...
“Thank you”
The one most important word...
“We”
And the least most important word...
“I”
Controlling
Controlling means checking and directing action once work has started to implement the plan. However quiet you may be by nature, you must not allow anyone to dominate you or the group. It is fatal to authority if you give instructions and feel like a small boy who throws stone and runs away.
Once work has started on a project it is vitally important that you supervise or monitor what is being done, so that everyone’s energy is turning wheels. The ideal is that the group or the individual should become self-controlling, so as to regulate its own performance against standards or the clock. You should guard against too much interference and lack of direction.
Learn to delegate authority but retain control against waywardness.
Leader must exercise self-control . Be human in dealing with people.
Evaluating
The ability to evaluate is an important leadership function. Work of a leader involves evaluating team performance, appraising and training individuals and judging people. Unless you can evaluate team performance with skill, the people working for you will miss a vital part of the feedback which should be coming their way. Avoid having favorites.
Motivating
Human motives have their sources in the deeper needs and values within people. Motivation is not to be limited to the individual need circle. It springs from hidden sources in the task and team circles as well. The circles overlap in theory; in practice it is your responsibility as leader to manage that overlap, to ensure that the physiological and security needs of the individual are met. If motivation and job satisfaction are to be good, not just adequate or weak, each individual must :-
* feel a sense of personal achievement in the job he is doing, that he is making a worthwhile contribution to the objectives of the group or section
* feel that the job itself is challenging, is demanding the best of him, is giving him the responsibility to match his capabilities
* receive adequate recognition for his achievements.
* have control over those aspects of his job which have been delegated to him
* feel that he, as an individual, is developing, that he is advancing in experience and ability
To provide the right climate and opportunities for these needs to be met for each individual in the group is possibly the most difficult and certainly the most challenging and rewarding of the leader’s task. ‘The test of leadership’, said John Buchan,’ is not to put greatness into humanity but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already’.
Organising
Organise people into functional group and sub-groups with common goal to achieve. Introduce changes, if required, but remember no oganisation can handle too much change all at once. Changes should be brought in with minimum of disruption.
Delegating and organising are closely related. A good leader delegates. To delegate means to give a subordinate the authority and freedom to handle certain matters on his own initiative. You must be able to render help if required by the subordinate.
Select the right person for the job. It will cut down boredom for him and provide him job satisfaction.
Organise yourself, especially the time.
Setting an Example
In the task area leadership implies the personal willingness to go out in front - accepting the risks involved - in order to ensure that your team goes in the right direction and at the right speed.
Do not ask your team to do what you will not be willing to do yourself.
Example is contagious and has creative power, especially if it has an element of self-sacrifice. Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated.
APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP THEORY
LEADERSHIP TRAITS APPROACH
Born with traits that make them leaders
SITUATIONAL APPROACH
Emerge due to special qualities / skills
GROUP APPROACH
Functions which meet group needs
LEADERSHIP STYLE APPROACH
- Autocratic, Democratic, Laissez – fair
LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Cultural Flexibility
Communication Skills
HRD Skills
Creativity
Verbal Communication (Including Listening)
Managing Time And Stress
Managing Individual Decisions
Recognizing , Defining, And Solving Problems
Motivating And Influencing Others
Delegating
Setting Goals And Articulating A Vision
Self – Awareness
Team Building
Managing Conflict
Self – Management Of Learning
LEADER’S DILEMMA
(Six Pages)
GENERAL
‘Leadership’ comes from an Anglo-Saxon word which means a road, a way, the path of a ship at sea - a sense of ‘direction.’
WHY STUDY ‘LEADERSHIP’ ?
There is a close link between manager’s leadership behaviour and their subordinates’ performance. If properly led employees can be induced to see the wisdom of changing their work habits and practices.
APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP THEORY
* The Leadership Traits approach
* The Situational approach
* Group Approach
The Leadership Traits Approach
This approach tells us that there are certain qualities in some people that mark them out as leaders or potential leaders. Extreme view is that leaders are born and not made. It is not entirely true. Although leaders do possess some traits which set them apart from the average man but it will be wrong to say that the art of leadership cannot be taught.
The Situational Approach
Leaders emerge out of a situation due to their special qualification or skill appropriate to the situation.
In days gone by the positional power was enough to ensure a person authority to lead and be accepted as such. In armed forces the seniority of the rank counts. The senior-most automatically assumes the role of a leader. Changing situations require a change of leader e.g., a company in the growth may need a bustling, entrepreneurial leader but once it has established its product lines and market it may need another type of leader.
Group Approach
Since we are working in a group, we shall discuss Group Approach towards leadership. The Group Approach sees leadership in terms of functions which meet group needs: what has to be done. There are three elements or variables :
* the leader - qualities of personality and character
* the situation - partly constant, partly varying
* the group - the followers, their needs and values
There are three areas of need present in working groups :
* to achieve the common task
* to be held together or to maintain themselves as cohesive unities
* the needs which individuals bring with them into the group.
Common Task. One of the reasons why a group comes together is that there is a task which one person cannot do on his own.
Team Maintenance. Groups are threatened from outside by forces aimed at their disintegration or from within by disruptive people or ideas. There is a need to create and promote group cohesiveness.
Individual Needs. Individuals bring into the group their own needs - biological and psychological.
In order to meet the three areas of needs certain functions have to be performed by a leader. You need :-
* awareness of what is going on in groups
* understanding that a particular function is required
* skill to do it well enough to be effective. That can usually be judged by whether or not the group responds or changes course.
If a leader exercises the art of leadership he will generate a sense of responsibility in everyone member of the group so that members naturally want to respond to the three sets of need. But he alone is accountable at the end of the day. It is the leader who should get the sack if the task is not achieved, or the group disintegrates into warring factions, or the individuals lapse into sullen apathy.
Understanding your position as the leader in relation to the three circles is vitally important. You should see yourself as half-in and half-out. There should be some social distance between you and the group, but not too much. The reason for maintaining this distance is because you may have to take decisions causing reactions from group and the individuals to some unwelcome change.
The leader’s social needs can be met partly by relations with his team, but it is always lonely at the top.
The three approaches to leadership i.e., Trait , Situational and Group are complementary. The successful leader is one who determines what his most appropriate behaviour at any given time should be and in actually being able to act accordingly.
STYLE OF LEADERSHIP.
In the early days these were labelled as autocratic, democratic or laissez-fair (or do-as-you-please). They are now called telling, selling, consulting or joining styles. It only shows the range of options in making decisions. Style should arise naturally or subconsciously as you master the function or skills of leadership. Style of management could have an effect on employees’ morale and on their output. Likert showed that employee-centred leaders obtained better results than task-centred leaders.
LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP
Leadership happens on different levels. According to ‘Peter Principle’, people tend to be promoted to the level of their incompetence. Some people are perfectly good leaders at one level, but they are less able to cope at the next level up. What can help you to determine your own level is your ability to appreciate the subtle changes which take place in the task, the team and the individual as you go higher up the mountain.
DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
Defining the Task.
Your primary responsibility as a leader is to ensure that your group achieves its common task. Make the task truly common by communicating or sharing it. Give the reason why it is to be done. It will make the objective clearer and bind the group.
Planning
Remember Rudyard Kipling’s short checklist :
I keep six honest serving men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When,
And How and Where and Who
So planning is essentially about devising a method for making or doing something or achieving an end. A leader without plans is not likely to be effective. For this keep a check on time, identify resources available and involve the group through consultations. This will make them committed to the task. Additionally free yourself from functional fixedness, think creatively and make contingency plans.
Briefing
Briefing the team is a leadership function. The main purpose of a briefing is to allocate tasks to groups and individuals, to distribute resources and to set or check standards of performance. Briefing also needs good communication skills which should move the group to the desired action.
Briefing is an opportunity to create the right atmosphere, to promote teamwork, and to get to know, encourage and motivate each individual person.
The six most important words...
“ I admit I made a mistake.”
The five most important words...
“I am proud of you.”
The four most important words...
“What is your opinion?”
The three most important words...
“If you please”
The two most important words...
“Thank you”
The one most important word...
“We”
And the least most important word...
“I”
Controlling
Controlling means checking and directing action once work has started to implement the plan. However quiet you may be by nature, you must not allow anyone to dominate you or the group. It is fatal to authority if you give instructions and feel like a small boy who throws stone and runs away.
Once work has started on a project it is vitally important that you supervise or monitor what is being done, so that everyone’s energy is turning wheels. The ideal is that the group or the individual should become self-controlling, so as to regulate its own performance against standards or the clock. You should guard against too much interference and lack of direction.
Learn to delegate authority but retain control against waywardness.
Leader must exercise self-control . Be human in dealing with people.
Evaluating
The ability to evaluate is an important leadership function. Work of a leader involves evaluating team performance, appraising and training individuals and judging people. Unless you can evaluate team performance with skill, the people working for you will miss a vital part of the feedback which should be coming their way. Avoid having favorites.
Motivating
Human motives have their sources in the deeper needs and values within people. Motivation is not to be limited to the individual need circle. It springs from hidden sources in the task and team circles as well. The circles overlap in theory; in practice it is your responsibility as leader to manage that overlap, to ensure that the physiological and security needs of the individual are met. If motivation and job satisfaction are to be good, not just adequate or weak, each individual must :-
* feel a sense of personal achievement in the job he is doing, that he is making a worthwhile contribution to the objectives of the group or section
* feel that the job itself is challenging, is demanding the best of him, is giving him the responsibility to match his capabilities
* receive adequate recognition for his achievements.
* have control over those aspects of his job which have been delegated to him
* feel that he, as an individual, is developing, that he is advancing in experience and ability
To provide the right climate and opportunities for these needs to be met for each individual in the group is possibly the most difficult and certainly the most challenging and rewarding of the leader’s task. ‘The test of leadership’, said John Buchan,’ is not to put greatness into humanity but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already’.
Organising
Organise people into functional group and sub-groups with common goal to achieve. Introduce changes, if required, but remember no oganisation can handle too much change all at once. Changes should be brought in with minimum of disruption.
Delegating and organising are closely related. A good leader delegates. To delegate means to give a subordinate the authority and freedom to handle certain matters on his own initiative. You must be able to render help if required by the subordinate.
Select the right person for the job. It will cut down boredom for him and provide him job satisfaction.
Organise yourself, especially the time.
Setting an Example
In the task area leadership implies the personal willingness to go out in front - accepting the risks involved - in order to ensure that your team goes in the right direction and at the right speed.
Do not ask your team to do what you will not be willing to do yourself.
Example is contagious and has creative power, especially if it has an element of self-sacrifice. Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated.
APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP THEORY
LEADERSHIP TRAITS APPROACH
Born with traits that make them leaders
SITUATIONAL APPROACH
Emerge due to special qualities / skills
GROUP APPROACH
Functions which meet group needs
LEADERSHIP STYLE APPROACH
- Autocratic, Democratic, Laissez – fair
LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Cultural Flexibility
Communication Skills
HRD Skills
Creativity
Verbal Communication (Including Listening)
Managing Time And Stress
Managing Individual Decisions
Recognizing , Defining, And Solving Problems
Motivating And Influencing Others
Delegating
Setting Goals And Articulating A Vision
Self – Awareness
Team Building
Managing Conflict
Self – Management Of Learning
LEADER’S DILEMMA