Contemporary Issues in Leadership

Framing Issue:
Framing is a way to use language to manage meaning.
Charismatic Leadership:
Followers make attributions of heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities
when they observe certain behaviors (e.g. Martin Luther King and JFK)
Are charismatic leaders born or made? Can charisma be a liability?
Transactional vs. Transformational Leadership:
Transactional leaders who guide or motivate their followers in the direction
of established goals by clarifying role and task requirements.
Transformational leaders who inspire followers who transcend their own
self-interests and who are capable of having a profound and extraordinary
effect on followers.
Visionary Leadership:
The ability to create and articulate a realistic, credible, attractive vision of the
future for an organization or organizational unit that grows out of and
improves upon the present.
Q: What skills to visionary leaders exhibit? A: The ability to explain the
vision to others, the ability to express the vision not just verbally but through
the leaders behavior, and the ability to extend the vision to different
leadership contexts.
What is Authentic leadership?
Leaders who know who they are, know what they believe in and value, and
act on those values and beliefs openly and candidly. Their followers would
consider them to be ethical people.
Trust
A positive expectation that another will not act opportunistically
Competence, consistency, loyalty and openness are dimensions of trust
You cannot lead others who do not trust you! Reengineering, downsizing, and
the use of 'temps' have undermined employee trust in management
Three Types of Trust
Deterrence Based Trust (based on fear)
Knowledge Based Trust (based on predictability over time)
Identification Based Trust (based on mutual understanding of wants and
needs)