Topic 1

Nature and Significance of Leadership

Gary Yukl says:

Leadership is a subject that has long excited interest among scholars and laypeople alike. The term connotes images of powerful, dynamic individuals who command victorious armies, direct corporate empires from atop gleaming skyscrapers, or shape the course of nations. Much of our description of history is the story of military, political, religious, business, and social leaders. The exploits of brave and clever leaders are the essence of many legends and myths.

Gary Yukl says:

Questions about leadership have long been a subject of speculation, but scientific research on leadership did not begin until the twentieth century. The focus of much of the research has been on the determinants of leadership effectiveness. Behavioral scientists have attempted to discover what traits, abilities, behaviors, sources of power, or aspects of the situation determine how well a leader is able to influence followers and accomplish group objectives.

Historical Impact of Leadership

Homers Odyssey emphasizes the importance of self

confidence in successful leadership Confucian writings emphasize importance of setting a moral example and using rewards and punishment Taoism emphasizes that effective leaders maintain a low profile and work through others Old and New Testament leadership challenges confronting Moses 20th Century Publications such as Leadership Quarterly, books such as Coveys The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Name a Good Leader

Name a good leader (someone you think of when you

think of the word leader).

Do you think about world leaders, political leaders, business leaders, religious or social leaders, sports and entertainment leaders?

Do you think about business leaders like:

Carly Fiorina Wayne Huizenga Sue Wellington Bill Gates

Sam Walton
Steve Jobs Jack Welch

Richard Parsons
Anne Mulcahy Michael Eisner

Jeffrey Immelt
Herb Kelleher

Etc.,Etc.,Etc.

Are these companies known for leadership?

Southwest Wal-Mart Home Depot Starbucks

Microsoft
Dell Disney

Harley Davidson
Toyota Etc.

What are characteristics or qualifications of good leaders?

Qualifications of Good Leaders

Integrity
Sincerity Sense of Humor

Determined
Approachable Flexible

Intelligence
Knowledgeable Energetic

Good Listener
Fair Honest

Enthusiastic

Consistent

Leaders You Know

What about a parent/ a friend/ a colleague/ some teacher or coach you know/ a _________, or__________.

Good leaders exist in the smallest and largest of organizations.

Leadership on Stages Large and Small Not all leaders are famous or powerful. Most leaders are not known outside their own particular sphere or activity, nor should they be. Every one of us has the opportunity to be a leader.

Rod Kramer, Professor of Leadership at Stanford

Teaches an MBA Course on Leadership with a focus on Genius and Folly .

He asks his students to tell him a good leader (or) one who has leadership potential. Answer is ______________!!!!!!!!!

Previously, most Leadership Research/Theory/Study was classified into 4 approaches:

Trait Approach (personal attributes of Leaders)

Behavior Approach (what manages and leaders actually do)

Power-Influence Approach (examining

influence processes between leaders and followers) Situational Approach (contextual factors)

Great Person Theory of Leadership Leaders are born with a set of personal qualities that
make them great leaders Focus is on identifying the personal traits that characterize those individuals who emerge as leaders

A Study of the Leadership Process

A fault of some leadership studies

is emphasis upon the individual rather than the individual as a factor in a social situation. Leadership study calls for a situational approach, which is fundamentally sociological rather than psychological

 The study of leadership started

with the assumption that it was a phenomenon embedded in the leader, as opposed to within the follower. Viewed from a sociological perspective, leadership is an interplay and relationship between two or more actors within a particular context.

Leadership as Partnership
Leadership is a long-term relationship, or partnership,

between leaders and group members. The power between leader and group members is approximately balanced.

Several Approaches to Defining Leadership

Leadership as a focus of group processes Leadership as personality and its effects Leadership as an act or behavior Leadership as an instrument of goal achievement Leadership as an emerging effect of interaction Leadership as a differentiated role Leadership as the initiation of structure Leadership as the art of inducing compliance Leadership as the exercise of influence Leadership as a form of persuasion Leadership as a power relationship

Defining Leadership
There are almost as many definitions of Leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept. (Stogdill, 1974)

Definitions of Leadership

Leadership Defined
The creative and directive force of morale (Munson,

1921). The process by which an agent induces a subordinate to behave in a desired manner (Bennis, 1959). The presence of a particular influence relationship between two or more persons (Hollander & Julian, 1969).

Leadership Defined continued

Directing and coordinating the work of group members (Fiedler, 1967). An interpersonal relations in which others comply because they want to, not because they have to (Merston, 1969, Hogan, Curphy, & Hogan, 1994). Transforming followers, creating visions of the goals that may be attained, and articulating for the followers the ways to attain those goals (Bass, 1985; Tichy & Devanna, 1986).

Leadership Defined continued

The process of influencing an organized group toward

accomplishing its goals (Roach & Behling, 1984). Actions that focus resources to create desirable opportunities (Campbell, 1991). The leaders job is to create conditions for the team to be effective (Ginnett, 1996.)

Leadership:
1. Leadership is the behavior of an individual when

he is directing the activities of a group toward a shared goal. (Hemphill&Coons)

2. Leadership is interpersonal influence, exercised

in a situation, and directed, through the communication process, toward the attainment of a specified goal or goals. (Tannenbaum)
3. Leadership is the initiation and maintenance of

structure in expectation and interaction. (Stogdill)

Leadership:
4. Leadership is the influential increment over and above mechanical compliance with the routine directives of the organization. (Katz & Kahn) 5. Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an organized

group toward goal achievement. (Rauch & Behling)

Leadership:
6. Leadership is a process of giving purpose (meaning direction) to collective effort, and causing willing effort to be expended to achieve purpose. (Jacobs &

Jaques)
7. Leaders are those who consistently

make effective contributions to social order, and who are expected and perceived to do so. (Hosking)

Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

In a learning organization, leaders are designers,

stewards, and teachers. They are responsible for building organizations where people continually expand their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental modelsthat is, they are responsible for learning.

Irwin Federman:
If you think about it, people love others not for

who they are, but for how they make us feel. We willingly follow others for much the same reason. It makes us feel good to do so. Now, we also follow platoon sergeants, self-centered geniuses, demanding spouses, bosses of various persuasions and others, for a variety of reasons as well. But none of those reasons involves that persons leadership qualities. In order to willingly accept the direction of another individual, it must feel good to do so.

Irwin Federman (cont.)

This business of making another person feel good in

the unspectacular course of his daily comings and goings is, in my view the very essence of leadership.

Leadership
The ability to inspire confidence and support among the people who are needed to achieve organizational goals

Definition of Leadership

A leader is any person who influences individuals and groups within an organization, helps them in the establishment of goals, and guides them toward achievement of those goals, thereby allowing them to be effective.

Keys Elements of the Definition of Leadership

Leadership is a group phenomenon
Leadership is goal oriented; leaders guide and influence others Leadership involves some form of hierarchy in the group

Definition of Leadership Effectiveness

Leader are effective when their followers achieve their goals, can function well together, and can adapt to the changing demands from external forces.

Leaders are Effective When:

The group achieves its goals

Internal processes are smooth The group can adapt to external

forces

A Working Definition of Leadership

Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.

Type of Influence Process

Leadership only occurs when influence

attempts results in enthusiastic commitment All types of influence need to be examined even when forcing or manipulating subordinates

What Leaders Can Influence

The interpretation of external events by

members The choice of objectives and strategies to pursue The motivation of members to achieve the objectives The mutual trust and cooperation of members The organization and coordination of work activities

What Leaders Can Influence

The allocation of resources to activities and

objectives The development of member skills and confidence The learning and sharing of new knowledge by members The enlistment of support and cooperation from outsiders The design of formal structure, programs, and systems The shared beliefs and values of members

Ron Heifetz:
Leadership is an activity. Leadership is what individuals do in mobilizing other people, in organizations or communities, to do what I call adaptive work.

Ron Heifetz Cont:

Adaptive work can mean clarifying a conflict in values, or bridging the gap between the values that we stand for and the current conditions under which we operate. When you have a problem or a challenge for which there is no technical remedy, a problem for which it wont help to look to an authority for answers the answers arent therethat problem calls for adaptive work.

INC.: Can you give us a succinct definition of leadership?

HEIFETZ: I define leadership as an activity, not as a set

of personality characteristics. So what Im interested in is developing peoples capacity to perform a particular activity, and I call this activity leadership. And the activity of leadership I define as the mobilization of the resources of a people or of an organization to make progress on the difficult problems it faces.

HEIFETZ Cont:
Notice that I am not talking about routine problems; I

dont think they require leadership. Im talking about difficult problems. In those situations, someone exercising leadership is orchestrating the process of getting factions with competing definitions of the problem to start learning from one another.

Heifetz Cont:
There is so much hunger for leadership in business

today. Everyone wants better leaders. What do great leaders do?

The real heroism of leadership involves having the

courage to face reality and helping the people around you face reality. Its no accident that the work vision refers to our capacity to see. Of course, in business, vision has come to mean something abstract or even inspirational. But the quality of any vision depends on its accuracy, not just on its appeal or on how imaginative it is.

Heifetz Cont:
Mustering the courage to interrogate reality is a central

function of a leader. And that requires the courage to face three realities at once. First, what values do we stand for and are there gaps between those values and how we actually behave? Second, what are the skills and talents of our company and are there gaps between those resources and what the market demands? Third, what opportunities does the future hold and are there gaps between those opportunities and our ability to capitalize on them?

Heifetz Cont:
Now, dont get the wrong idea. Leaders dont answer those questions

themselves. Thats the old definition of leadership: The leader has the answers the vision and everything else is a sales job to persuade people to sign up for it. Leaders certainly provide direction. But that often means posing well-structured questions, rather than offering definitive answers. Imagine the differences in behavior between leaders who operate with the idea that leadership means influencing the organization to follow the leaders vision and those who operate with the idea that leadership means influencing the organization to face its problems and to live into its opportunities. That second idea mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges is what defines the new job of the leader.

Are Leaders Born or Made?

Do some people just almost seem to have an innate

ability to be leaders a proclivity to lead? Or

Do you have to learn, study, research, read, and work

at being a leader?

 Some managers may be effective leaders

without ever having taken a course or training program in leadership.

Some scholars in the field of leadership may

be relatively poor leaders themselves.

 Scientific and artistic perspectives of leadership are

interdependent, not mutually exclusive. Knowing the leadership research is neither necessary nor sufficient for being a good leader; however, it does lend additional perspectives for analyzing leadership situations.

Thos Kuhn
Kuhn characterized leadership as an immature

science, i.e. not precise we know how to study leadership but we cant predict human behavior and its effects with precision.

Even those individuals with extensive knowledge of the leadership research may be poor leaders. Knowing what to do is not the same as knowing when, where and

how to do it. The art of leadership concerns the skill of understanding leadership situations and influencing others to accomplish group goals.

 Formal leadership education may give individuals the

skills to better understand leadership situations, and mentorships and experience may give individuals the skills to better influence others.

Leadership Is Both Rational and Emotional.

Rational techniques Emotional appeals

Effective Leaders Impact Followers at Both a Rational and Emotional Level.

Rational:
Establishment of

Emotional:
Emotions affect the

Rules and Guidelines

Goal-Setting Decision-Making

perceptions and actions of leaders and followers

Can be Negative

Sarcasm
Can be Positive -

(Vroom & Yetton)

Inspiring/Charismatic

Leadership is Both Rational and Emotional

Leadership includes actions and

influences based on reason and logic as well as those based on inspiration and passion. Good leadership is more than just calculation and planning, or following a checklist. Good leadership involves touching others feelings; emotions play an important role in leadership too.

Leadership is Both Rational and Emotional (continued)

Aroused feelings can be used either

positively or negatively, constructively or destructively. The mere presence of a group can cause people to act differently than when they are alone. Leaders need to consider both the rational and the emotional consequences of their actions.

Warren Bennis
Managers do things right, while leaders do the right things.

Distinctions Between Managers and Leaders (Bennis)

Leaders: Innovate Develop Inspire Take the long-term view Ask what and why Originate Challenge the status quo Managers: Administer Maintain Control Have a short-term view Ask how and when Imitate Accept the status quo

Leadership and Management

Leader-Team direction

Manager- Structure and systems Leaders- Effectiveness, results Managers- Efficiency, methods Leaders- Build team Managers- Specific activities

Leadership vs. Management

Kotter:
Management is more formal and scientific than

leadership. It relies on universal skills such as planning, budgeting, and controlling. Management is an explicit set of tools and techniques, based on reasoning and testing, that can be used in a variety of situations. Leadership, in contrast to management, involves having a vision of what the organization can become. Leadership requires eliciting cooperation and teamwork from a large network of people and keeping the key people in that network motivated, using every manner of persuasion.

Can we make a distinction between management and leadership?

Safe to say that leadership and management can be distinguished as separate functions, but a more comprehensive approach can be made by viewing the overlapping function of managers and leaders.

A Framework for Understanding Leadership

Alternative Conceptualizations
Self-Leadership
Coleadership

Organizational Leadership

Strategic Leadership

Servant Leadership

Symbolic Leadership

Small Groups
15 Minutes
Topic: Open

Discussion:
What was topic?
Who suggested topic? Leader emerge? Anyone dominate? Anyone remain silent?