0 LEADERSHIP

Leadership is generally defined art of influencing people so that they will strive willingly towards the achievement of group goals. A leader is one who guides and directs other people. In the words leadership is the ability to secure desirable actions from a group or followers voluntarily without the use of coercion. These explanations contain many more important points such as: Existence of followers Interpersonal influence Uneven power sharing Common goals Situational The leaders while influencing the subordinates perform the following functions: (1) Taking initiative: A leader has to take all initiative to lead the business activities. He himself should come in the field and take all steps to achieve predetermined targets. Hence a leader is initiator. (2) Guide: A leader has the primary duty of guiding others by communicating instructions and orders. (3) Representation: A leader is a representative of the organization. (4) Encouraging others: A leader is the captain of the team. Encouragement is necessary to build team work. The leader must win the confidence of his colleagues. (5) Arbitrator and mediator: A leader has to create a smooth relationship among employees. In addition, he has to settle disputes arising among employees. (6) Planner: A leader makes decisions concerning the ways and means by which the organizational goals can be achieved. (7) Administrator of rewards and punishments: Leaders encourage, upgrade, promote deserving people and reprove transfer and fine inefficient workers. Importance of Leadership Leadership helps an organisation in the following ways: 1. Inspires employees 2. Secures cooperation 3. Creates confidence 4. Provides good working climate Qualities of a Good Leader Some of the qualities that commonly make them a good leadership personality are: Intelligence Communication skills Emotional balance Technical skills Inner drive Energy Human relations skills Teaching skills Leadership Styles Leadership styles are also broadly classified based on three points of view: Motivation, Authority and supervision. On the basis of motivation leadership style can be positive or negative style. In positive style a leader motivates his followers to work hard by offering them rewards, for example, higher bonus. In negative styles, a leader forces his followers to work hard and punishes them for lower productivity. On the basis of Authority, leadership styles are divided into three types namely autocratic, democratic and free-rein. Autocratic leadership: An autocratic leader is one who dominates and drives his subordinates through coercion, command and the instilling of fear in his followers. An autocratic leader alone determines policies, plans and makes decisions. He demands strict obedience. Such leaders love power and love to use it for promoting their own ends. They never like to delegate their power for they fear that they may loose their authority. The merits of this type of leadership is that, it can increase efficiency, save time, and get quick results under emergency conditions, chain of command and division of work are clear. The demerits are people are treated machine-like cogs without human dignity; one-way communication without feedback and the leader receives little or no input from his sub-ordinates for his decision-making which is dangerous in the current dynamic environment.

Democratic leadership: This style of leadership is also known as participative leadership. As the name itself indicates, in this style, the entire group is involved in goal setting and achieving it. A democratic leader follows the majority opinion as expressed by his group. Subordinates have considerable freedom of action. The leader shows greater concern for his peoples interest, is friendly and helpful to them. He is always ready to defend their subordinates individually and collectively. This type of leadership encourages people to develop and grow, receives information and ideas from his subordinates to make decisions, and boosts the morale of employees. The demerits of this type of leadership are (1) Some leaders may use this style as a way of avoiding responsibility, (2) Can take enormous amount of time for making decisions. Free-rein: In this type of leadership, the leaders exercise absolutely no control. He only provides information, materials and facilities to his subordinates. This type of leadership is employee centered and the subordinates are free to establish their own goals and chart out the course of action. This type of leadership can be disaster if the leader does not know well the competence and integrity of his people and their ability to handle this kind of freedom. Managers vs. Leaders Managers Focus on things Do things right Plan Organize Direct Control Follows the rules Leaders Focus on people Do the right things Inspire Influence Motivate Build Shape entities

Theories of Leadership Leadership theories are broadly classified into three types: trait theory, behavioural theory, situational theory The Trait Theory The trait theory is based on the Greatman theory, but it is more systematic in its analysis of leaders. Like the Greatman theory, this theory assumes that the leader's personal traits are the key to leadership success. However, unlike the greatman theory, trait theorists do not necessarily assume that leaders are born. Leaders, as per trait theorists, differ from their followers with respect to a small number of key traits and these traits remain unchanged across time. The following four traits that are shared by most successful leaders: a) Intelligence b) Social maturity and breadth c) Inner motivation and achievement drive d) Human relations attitudes Behavioural Theory Behavioural theory attempts to describe leadership in terms of what leaders do. Leadership according to this approach, is the result of effective role behaviour. Leadership, is shown by a person's acts more than by his traits. This is an appropriate new research strategy adopted by Michigan Researchers in the sense that the emphasis on the traits is replaced by the emphasis on leader behaviour. The Michigan researchers identified two leadership styles employee-centred and production-centred influencing employee performance and productivity. Situational Theories Leadership is a complex, social and interpersonal process; and to understand it fully, we need to see the situation in which a leader operates. The situational theme of leadership is highly fascinating, but is certainly a challenging orientation to implement. An effective leader must be flexible enough to adapt to the differences among subordinates and situations. Leadership effectiveness depends upon the fit between personality, task, power, attitudes and perceptions

Leadership development It refers to any activity that enhances the quality of leadership within an individual or organization. These activities have ranged from MBA style programs offered at university business schools to action learning, highropes courses and executive retreats. he success of leadership development efforts has been linked to three variables: Individual learner characteristics The quality and nature of the leadership development program Genuine support for behavioral change from the leader's supervisor A good personal leadership development program should enables you gain essential leadership skills required for roles across a wide spectrum of the corporate world. These characteristics include: Taking responsibility Gaining focus Developing life purpose Starting action immediately Developing effective and achievable goals and dreams.
COMMUNICATION Communication means the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another. It is defined as the process of exchange of information, ideas and opinions which bring about integration of interests aims and efforts among the members of a group organized for achievement of predetermined goals. Communication Process Communication process involves the sender, the transmission of a message through a selected channel and the receiver The sender of the message: Communication begins with a sender, who has a thought or idea which is then encoded in a way that can be understood by both the sender and the receiver. It is usual to think of encoding a message into the English language but there are many other ways of encoding such as translating thought into computer language. Use of channel to transmit the message: The information is transmitted over a channel that links the sender and receiver. The message may be oral or written and it may be transmitted through a memorandum, a computer, telephone, telegram or television. Television of course also facilitates the transmission of gestures and visual clues. At times, two or more channels are used. In a telephone conversation, for instance, two persons may reach a basic agreement that they later confirm by a letter. Since many choices are available, each with advantages and disadvantages, the proper selection of the channel is vital for effective communication. The receiver of the message: The receiver has to be ready for the message so that it can be decoded into thought. The next step in the process is decoding in which the receiver converts the message into thought. Accurate communication can occur only when both the sender and the receiver attach the same or at least similar meanings to the symbols that compose the message. Thus, it is obvious that a message encoded into French required the receiver who understands French. Similarly, a message in technical or professional jargon requires a recipient who understands such language. So communication is not complete unless it is understood. Understanding is in both the sender and the receiver. NOISE AND FEEDBACK IN COMMUNICATION Unfortunately, communication is affected by noise which is any thing-whether in the sender, the transmission or the receiver that hinders communication. For example, encoding may be faulty because of ambiguous symbols, inaccurate retention because of inattention of the receiver, decoding may be faulty because of wrong meaning attached to the words and symbols by the receiver or transmission may be interrupted which may be experienced in a poor telephone connection. To check the effectiveness of communication, a person must have feedback. One never is sure whether or not a message has been effectively encoded, transmitted and decoded or understood until it is confirmed by feedback. Similarly, feedback indicates whether individual or organizational change has taken place as a result of communication.

IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION The purpose of communication is to effect change, to influence action towards the welfare of the enterprise. It is through information exchange that manager become aware of the needs of the customer, the availability of suppliers, the claims of stakeholders etc. The communication is important because of the following: (1) Every aspect of managers job may it be planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling involves communication. (2) Nothing contributes so much to managerial effectiveness as effective communication. Managers do not deal with things but with information about things. (3) However, the decision at the top are, they will serve no purpose unless the manager successfully communicate the implications of these decisions to the subordinates who are to implement them. (4) Communication is the essence of organized activity. It is the basis of direction and leadership. The managers have to communicates to give instructions, orders, to assign jobs and to fix responsibility. (5) Communication renders the complexity of business intelligible and workable. (6) The better the communication, the more efficient the work performance. Good communication not only obtains managers effectiveness but organizational effectiveness too. CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION A channel of communication is a path through which information flows throughout the organization. The channels of communications are divided into formal and informal channels. Accordingly, a communication may be formal or informal communication. The paths of communication which are deliberately created and officially recognized connecting various positions in the organization hierarchy are called as formal channels. In formal communication information flows in formally established channels and is concerned with work related matters. All orders, instructions etc., are communicated to the subordinates through this channel. The path of communication which is not officially created is known as informal channel. People who know each other talk together informally about the happenings in the organization. People want to know what is going on in the organization. When they are not kept informed through formal channels, they seek information through informal channel (grapevine). The grapevine carries the type of personal information not generally communicated through formal channels. Grapevine operates like a cluster chain. TYPES OF COMMUNICATION Based on the direction of flow of information communications are classified as upward, downward and horizontal communication. Downward communication: Downward communication flows from people at higher level to those at the lower levels in the organizational hierarchy. The purpose of downward communication is to communicate policies, procedures, programs and objectives and to issue orders and instructions to subordinates. Upward communication: Upward communication travels from subordinates to superiors. Upward communication is generally nondirective. Typical means of upward communications are suggestion systems, appeal and grievance procedures, complaint systems etc. Horizontal communication: It refers to transmission of information among positions of the same level. Horizontal communication helps to coordinate the activities of different departments. The production foreman and the maintenance foreman communicate directly without going through their managers FORMS OF COMMUNICATION Broadly speaking there are three forms of communications: Oral, written and nonverbal. Oral communication: In oral or verbal communication, information is given directly, either face to face or through a telephone or intercom system. Generally in meeting, lecturers, interviews, conferences etc., the communication is oral. The oral communication saves time and money, involves personal touch, doubt can be clarified immediately. The demerits of oral communications are there is no permanent record of communication and is not suitable for lengthy communication. Written communication: Written communication is always in black and white and may be in the form of a report, statement, circular, manual, handbook, letter or memo. The merits of written communication are (a) It is a permanent record. (b) It is suitable for lengthy communication. (c) If the parties are far away beyond telephonic range, written communication is the only way. The demerits of written communications are it is not flexible and secrecy cannot be maintained and time consuming. Non-verbal communication: Non-verbal communication is expressed through the body the facial expression, posture, gestures etc.

BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

The barriers to communication and the ways and means of overcoming them to achieve effective communication. 1.Barriers to communication result in undesirable reaction and unfavorable response. 2.The communication exercise fails because the feedback is absent or falls short of expectation 3.Barriers to communication are caused by environmental, physical, semantic, attitudinal and varying perceptions of reality I. Environmental and Physical barriers: (a) Time adopt appropriate fast channels of communication (b) Space maintain the distance in the communication exercise as determined by the situation (c) Place Avoid overcrowded and ill-lit, ill- ventilated places to achieve effective communication (d) Medium Choose the appropriate medium oral / written (sign (audio/visual) medium. II. Semantic Barriers: Connotational meanings of words Choose the correct and precise word depending on context and the receivers felicity in the use of language. III. Cultural Barriers: Understand and accept the cultural variations in individuals and groups. Appreciate them and adopt your communication style to them. IV. Psychological Barriers: Try to understand the receivers mental makeup and attitudes. V. Perception of Reality: Try to understand the different levels of perceptions of a situation and an issue. Be open, flexible and transparent.