Business Leadership Cii

Business Leadership Program 1
‘Lots of people can have good ideas, but that’s not leadership. A
real leader can turn those ideas into action, by inspiring and
motivating people and getting the very best out of them.’
Leadership: Definition
Organisations are like aircrafts. They don’t run by themselves, except

during downfall. They need the right people to make them function
efficiently, and not just any people. The effectiveness of an employee –
particularly individuals in leadership positions – determines how the
organisational ‘machine’ will perform. Employees need some guidance,
some suggestions about where to go and how to get there. Ethological
studies also suggest that people have an actual need for leadership.
The Anglo-Saxon root of the words ‘lead’, ‘leader’, and ‘leadership’ is

laed, which means ‘path’ or ‘road’. The verb laeden means ‘to travel’.
Thus a leader is one who shows fellow travelers the way by walking
ahead.
Leadership is the most important means of direction. To lead is to guide,

direct, integrate and energize the efforts of people towards a common
goal. A leader is one who influences the attitudes and behaviour of
others in an organized activity. Leadership is an art and as such it must
be felt, experienced and created. Recognizing diversity in corporate life
helps us to connect the great variety of talents that people bring to work
and service of the organisation. Diversity allows each of us to contribute
in a special way, to make our special talent an art of the corporate effort.
The art of leadership lies in polishing and enabling those talents.
Leadership deals more with ideas, beliefs and relationships. Hence, it

has to do with the “why” of institutional and corporate life, rather than
the “how”. It is the art of liberating people to do what is required of
them, in the most effective and humane way possible, something to be
learned over time.
Leadership is defined as “a process in which one person sets the

purpose or direction for one or more other persons, and gets them to
move along together with him or her and with each other in that
direction with competence and full commitment.”
In the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences leadership has been defined as

“the relation between an individual and a group around some common
interest and behaving in a manner directed or determined by him.” It is
thus the function of interaction between the leader, the subordinates and
the situation in which they interact with each other i.e. a purpose of both,
the traits and the situation.
For Private Circulation Only

Business Leadership – Myth or Reality
Business Leadership – The Paradigm Shift

Rapid globalization and modernization in the prevailing scenario has
ushered in an all-round change in the business arena. As a result there
has been an entire shift in the paradigm of management policies and
practices. Various concepts have been reformed, restructured and
reshaped into more applicable ones.
Business Leadership is such a concept which has emerged from the
conventional theories of leadership to suit the existing set ups.
Today’s business leader will increasingly be the orchestra leader of very
bright people doing their own activities and cheering them on, coaching
them to continue the same. He won’t be power based. He must
continue to have a lot communication and energy. He has to be focused
and mobile. Clearly, the idea of command and control structure is gone
with the disappearance of the power breaker.
Who is an Effective Business Leader?

The following are the characteristics of an effective business leader:
• An effective business leader actually dreams for the future of the
business and the exact path to take in order to make a reality. He
should possess a crystal clear vision to communicate clearly with
hyper energy and a strong sense of commitment.
• A business leader casts himself as a role model and sets the tone of
action for everyone.
• A business leader has a positive outlook to the course of actions he
takes and the energy he invests in it. He views life with a positive
spirit, which drives him to the course of action. He has an obvious
belief in his business in future. It is ultimately the sheer spirit he
possesses!
Thus the innate vision, action and spirit are the essence of Business
Leadership.
How to Acquire Business Leadership Skills
To be a good business leader, one needs to develop an articulated vision.

Do not imbibe a rigid, ‘one size – fits all’ approach to leadership. Learn
the leadership principles, adopt them, modify and re-modify them with
your one-of-a-kind style, unique values and individual strengths. The
following are some pointers to effective Business Leadership:
• One should treat people with respect and concern.

• The leader should create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately

own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.
• The leader should go up and down and around the organisation to
reach people.
• One should not stick to the established channels.
• One should be informal and straight with people.
• The leader should assess others and their emotions or experience in
response to your vision and the courses of action. One should be
compassionate.
• The leader should be inspirational for others and lead them to where
they want to be.
• One should develop the “art of listening”.
• One should acquire effective communication skills and also be
proficient in conversations with others.
• One should be “emotionally intelligent”, i.e. recognize and manage
your moods as well as the moods of others.
Approaches to Business Leadership Style
• A business leader is an influential person. His ideas flow into the

group and the group reciprocates accordingly.
• A business leader exhibits emotional leadership. He recognizes the
fact that leadership is about generating those emotions that inspire
people to want to coordinate action with each other.
• A business leader is an acute observer of the result and action that
flow into the group.
• A business leader is a “Change Agent”. He discards the old ways of
responding and behaving in a particular situation and adopts various
ways to suit changes, events and circumstances.
• A business leader is always flexible and adaptable since organisations
require continuous changes in order to survive in the existing
environment.
• Business leaders have a measure of authority and power, as they are
accountable for the decisions they take and the roles they play.
• A business leader is participative by nature. He participates with the
group in various activities and encourages suggestions.
How a Business Leader Fosters Achievement Motivation

There is no substitute for ‘achievement motivation’ in an organisation.
The ideal business leader creates this driving force in the organisation to
make an idea or a dream succeed.
Ways by which a leader infuses sustained achievement motivation are:

• Measuring motivation of each individual to provide an indication of

areas where motivational practices need to be improved.
• Ensuring, as far as possible, that employees feel they are valued.
• Developing behavioural commitment.
• Developing an organisational climate that will foster motivation.
• Improving interpersonal skills.
• Job designing to suit the jobholders, their aspirations, aptitudes and
skills.
• Enhancing performance management.
• Enhancing reward management.
• Creating the use of behavioural modification approaches.
• Providing both extrinsic and intrinsic motivating factors.
How a Business Leader Creates an Environment for Team

Building
A business leader creates a cohesive, dynamic team by:

• Clearly stating the team’s mission and goals.
• Helping the team members to operate creatively.
• Increasing synergy of the team.
• Helping the team to focus on the results.
• Clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the team members.
• Making the team well organized.
• Coaching the team members to build upon individual strengths.
• Influencing the team to support leadership strategies.
• Developing a proper team climate.
• Resolving disagreements.
• Creating open communication.
• Making objective decisions.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of the team as a whole.

Issues in leadership – traits, personality, styles etc
The Key Traits of Leaders
Traits are behaviours and styles that are accumulated as one gets
trained to become a leader. They result either from training, habit or
inherent /genetic qualities. They may be best understood as tendencies
or repeated behaviour patterns. Examples of traits are intelligence,
equanimity and power.
Traits are differentiated from skills by the distinction that skills are
necessary whereas traits are useful and indicative. Traits are
characteristics and mannerisms, which tend to be associated with many
leaders, but cannot be considered essential in the same way that some
skills emphatically are. For example, a fine trait, for a leader, is lack of
the need to dominate people in situations or at meetings. It is a trait to
have presence without noise, and a tendency to be more of a listener
than a talker. By contrast, it is a skill to ensure that one knows how to be
heard, whenever it is necessary, to make an important point.
The vital traits of a leader are:

- Ability to get into leadership positions.

- Competency of good quality judgment than any relevant peer group.
- Capacity for survival.
- Potential to select effective subordinates.
- Capability to inspire ‘ordinary’ people to perform above par.
- Efficiency to make a profound difference to the organization.
The ability to get into leadership positions - This is best observed in

cases of people who gain a reputation for always being ‘in the right place
at the right time’. It is not merely an accident that they are present at
the right place; they move rapidly and create more opportunities to be
there at the right time.
The competency to arrive at good quality judgment than any

relevant peer group – The first manifestation of these individuals is
often at school, where they rise as leaders. They are perceived as
mature individuals. These same qualities can be observed when they
first go out to work. Their bosses soon exploit them to carry out
important tasks. They are the first to be
promoted because they become known for being a ‘safe pair of hands’.
It is their good judgment, which is viewed as superior.
The capacity for survival – Leaders survive because they manage to

get everybody to realize that they have made the right judgment and
that difficult decisions have to be taken. The gravest decisions to be
executed usually require the thickest skin. For example making the
larger investment decisions, or deciding to put the corporation up for
sale, or moving into or out of major markets, are the types of decisions
which cause the greatest angst to leaders and their followers. The mark
of a great leader is his potential to convince the group as to understand
why a particular decision taken is considered to be best in that situation.
A great leader does not confront people with a decision but persuades
and debates the issue, until people understand.
The potential to select effective subordinates - Having to dismiss a

friend who has become ineffective or who is manifesting characteristics
which are detrimental to the organisation, is the toughest decision a
leader may have to take. This can be one of the worst forms of
leadership failure if the leader does not confront these problems. To
make the right decisions about people requires a special combination of
intuition and experience. The great leader usually has an intuition about
who could fit a particular job and when he will be ready for it.
The capability to inspire ‘ordinary’ people to perform above par –

The leaders normally make people perform above themselves, showing
them how to be better. This skill is closely aligned with the ability of
good leaders to attract followers. A prime leadership skill is getting
people to follow, and the want to follow. It results from a combination of
charisma, persuasiveness and sheer determination.
The efficiency to make a profound difference to the organisation

- This particular trait can often only be recognized post hoc, i.e. when the
leader has left the organisation or department. The feedback obtained
from the group helps to decide whether the particular leader brought
about a transformation and created an impact within the work group.
The Key Skills of Leaders
Skills are the qualities that any individual can learn, as long as the
necessary aptitude is there. They are abilities and techniques that the
leaders need to have at their disposal. These are exemplified in team
skills, planning ability or understanding of accounts. However
characteristics are qualities and values, which define the actions and
styles of high quality leaders, at all stages of their career. They are the
deep-rooted qualities that define grand leaders, such as moral courage,
determination to succeed and capacity to inspire.
The vital skills of leaders are as follows:

- Communication skills
- Numerical skills
- Skill to assess People
- Work effectively under pressure
- Relaxation
- Inspiring followers
Communication skills - As competence is ineffective without

conscience, so are words without behaviour. A good leader leads by
example, supporting his or her behaviour by verbal persuasion. Leaders
must communicate needs, missions, trends, concepts, and quality-
quantity linkages much faster, to more and better-educated people and
groups. They must shape their message for each audience, and set an
example by acknowledging differences as well as commonalties. Every
leader needs multilevel listening skills. This refers to the ability that
many leaders must have to listen to differing messages, carrying a
multitude of meanings from different types of people at every level in the
organisation. This skill is also used to understand the multiple agendas
from the same set of messages that are often being delivered to leaders
whenever people communicate with them.
Numerical skills - In addition to the verbal ability, the leader in the

modern era also requires a facility with numerical skills (all businesses
measure themselves and are measured by others with numbers).

Likewise, most great strategic ideas need to be tested arithmetically for
their impact on the market and their value on the bottom line for the
business.
Skill to assess People - An ability to assess people and their skills

accurately is important. One needs to be able to focus upon a person’s
best qualities and make people realize that one cares about them.
Work effectively under pressure - A great leader has the ability to

undertake highly concentrated activity at intense pressure. In the
present era, with vast communication capacity and the ability to move
large amounts of capital around the world almost instantaneously, both
crises and opportunities arise with little warning.
Relaxation – A leader needs to know when to relax. This will be

necessary both between and even during the crises. If one cannot relax
enough for some time each day, he / she is not going to remain fit for the
important battles and wars.
Inspiring followers - Leaders who encourage people to strive for and

make achievements beyond their imagination are also creators of
immense job satisfaction for others.
Common Characteristics of Leaders
Leaders share certain common characteristics which infuse the whole of

a leader’s or an organisation’s culture.
Integrity: Is the unyielding battle for what, rather than who is right. It is
the seizing of responsibility, and the willing acceptance of the
accountability that comes with it. Integrity is much more than not telling
a lie; it is not living a lie!
Compassion: Good leadership includes searching for, and identifying
people doing the right things as well as doing things right. It is not
managing by exception i.e. followers never hear from their leader except
when something goes wrong.
Cognizance: Is the power of knowledgeable perception that enables a
person to use information effectively. It is an understanding of the past,
an awareness of the present, and a vision of the future. It is the ability to
understand and use ever-changing, complex, and ambiguous variables in
the simplest and most productive way possible. It means studying the
past, and using the present to prepare for the future.
Courage: The fourth characteristic of leadership is courage – the
courage to act upon your convictions with steadfast focus in the face of
unrelenting opposition; the courage to sacrifice and risk, the courage to

give, to enjoy, and to live! It is challenging adversity with grit and grace;
and those who move toward success, not away from failure.
Commitment: One person with commitment has more power than a
multitude that has only interest. The level of commitment is the key
determinant. Getting others to commit to a common mission is one of the
leader’s most difficult challenges. In a committed culture, you won’t hear
“I just work here” or “Sorry, my time is up.”
Confidence: Is the steadfast reliance upon the values, beliefs, and
competence of oneself and others. Confidence is cultivated by using our
strengths and skills to extend others and us a little further each day.
Confidence develops strong opinions, and leadership communication is
predicated on those opinions.
Styles of Leadership
Performance of the Leader’s Role
It would be wrong to conclude that just anyone attempting to go through

the skills and traits of the leader described here, would inevitably be an
effective leader. How the leader performs these necessary actions, his
‘style of leadership’, is another factor and on this will depend his
acceptance or rejection by the group and the individuals composing it.
He must be sufficiently sensitive to the needs of the situation to know
when it would be right, for example, to take decisions and actions
directly himself; when to consult the group before deciding; when to
delegate. He also needs to learn to be flexible and to suit his actions to
the requirements of the often-changing occasion.
Factors affecting a leader’s style of leadership include:

• Situation – is it a precedent? Will company policy be affected?
• Individuals and the group – are they capable of contributing usefully
to a right decision? It is the overall advantage to push more
responsibility down to them?
The main factor, however, is that of the ‘person’ of the leader himself.
Perhaps a better word for this is integrity, in the sense of the ‘wholeness
and the wholesomeness’ of the person. This integrity is best seen
reflected in the sort of comment a subordinate makes about a respected
leader:
• He is ‘human’ and treats us as human beings.
• He has no favorites; he doesn’t bear grudges.
• It is easy to talk to him – he listens and you can tell he listens.
• He keeps his word and he is honest.
• He doesn’t dodge unpleasant issues.

• He explains why – or else why he can’t

• He’s fair with his praise as well as his criticisms and he criticizes
without making an enemy of you.
• He is fair to us as well as the company.
• He drives himself hard so you don’t mind him expecting the best of
you.
Executive Leadership
Executive leadership is an ability to influence the actions of others. This
influence must be one that includes the ability to recruit and to retain
loyal followers who are effective in the attainment of the company’s
goals. The sources of influence of a leader stem initially from his power
base. That is, once he is hired and made manager in charge, he is given
a certain amount of power. And his staff / people will respond to his
wishes merely because he has that “power.” Though in the long run, his
influence upon the personnel will depend on his ability to persuade them,
either by reasoning power or the power of his personality.
Of course, to be an effective leader in business, one has to have a

fundamental grasp of key management areas, such as finance,
marketing, and administration. Beyond that, creativity and common
sense judgment certainly are essential. When executive leadership is
proposed along these lines, leadership improvement can be approached
with optimism. It presumes that leadership, as a personal skill, can be
acquired and improved. An aspiring executive can ‘learn’ leadership,
which is defined by one’s behaviour – what to do and how to do it. All it
takes is a little inspiration mixed in with a little perspiration.
Situational Leadership
According to Situational Leadership, there is no one best way to influence
people. Which leadership style a person should use with individuals or
groups depends on the maturity level of the people the leader is
attempting to influence, as illustrated in the following figure:
Styles of a Leader – Situational Leadership

High High Task
Relationship(LOW)
Relations and
hip High
and Relations
Low Task S2 hip
S3

S4 S1
(HIGH)
Low High
Relations Task
Behaviour
hip and
and Low
Low Task Relations
hip
s
(LOW) Task Behaviour (HIGH)
Immature
HIGH MODERATE LOW
Mature
M4 M3 M2 M1
Maturity of Follower (s)
Task behaviour is the extent to which a leader provides direction for

people. Telling them what to do, when to do it, where to do it, and how to
do it. It means setting goals for them and defining their roles.
Relationship behaviour is the extent to which a leader engages in two-

way communication with people: providing support, encouragement,
“psychological strokes”, and facilitating behaviours. It means actively
listening to people and supporting their efforts.
The figure portrays the relationship between task-relevant maturity and

the appropriate leadership styles to be used as followers move from
immaturity to maturity. The appropriate leadership style (style of leader)
for given levels of follower maturity is portrayed by the prescriptive curve
going through the four leadership quadrants. This bell-shaped curve is
called a prescriptive curve because it shows the appropriate leadership
style directly above the corresponding level of maturity. Each of the four
leadership styles - “telling,” “selling,” “participating,” and “delegating” –
identified in the figure is a combination of task and relationship
behaviour.
The maturity of followers is a question of degree. As can be seen in the

figure, some bench marks of maturity are provided for determining
appropriate leadership style by dividing the maturity continuum below

the leadership model into four levels: low (M1), low to moderate (M2),
moderate to high (M3), and high (M4).
Managerial Grid Styles

One very popular approach to identifying leadership styles of practicing
managers is Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton’s Managerial Grid. It
shows that the two dimensions of grid are Concern for People along the
vertical axis and Concern for Production along the horizontal axis. The
five basic styles identified in the grid represent varying combinations of
Concern for People and Production:
Team Leadership: Production is achieved by the integration of task and

human relationship requirements. The leader’s major responsibility is to
attain effective production and high morale through the participation and
involvement of people in a team approach.
Practical Leadership: The aim is to maintain a balance between high
productivity and good human relations. The leader strives to find the
middle ground so as to have reasonable production with good morale.
Task-Oriented Leadership: Good relations are incidental to high
production. The leader emphasizes production goals by focusing on the
planning, direction and controlling of all activities.
Relationship-Oriented Leadership: Production is incidental to good
human relations. The leader focuses on the development of harmonious
group relations so that work organisation is pleasant.
Impoverished Leadership: Minimum influence is exerted in interaction
with others. Little concern for production or people is expressed. Most
activities performed are routine.
A Manager should aim to move towards Team Leadership, which is ideal

for excellence in management, as a dominant style.
Formal and Informal Leadership

Formal leadership occurs when a manager leads by exercising formal
authority. The exercise of formal authority through such acts as
assigning duties derives from the manager’s official position within the
organization’s hierarchy of authority. Any employee who is assigned a
managerial position has the opportunity and responsibility to exercise
formal leadership in relation to subordinates.
Some managers have a better understanding of the authority and formal

relationship with subordinates provided by a managerial position; they
are more influential in ensuring that subordinates’ work efforts are
productive. These managers are better leaders.

Informal leadership arises when a person without formal authority is

influential in directing the behaviour of others. Although not formally
appointed or elected, he becomes a leader through his actions or
personal attractions.
Formal and informal leadership coexist in almost every work situation.

Manager must often work with subordinates who refer to a strong
informal leader within their peer group. Managers themselves may act
as formal leaders in some situations and as informal leaders in others.
When acting as a formal leader, the manager follows the chain of
command and exerts influence downward in the hierarchy of authority
from manager to subordinates. By contrast, when acting as an informal
leader, the manager influences employees outside the formal
organizational chain of command. Interpersonal charisma or
persuasiveness is required for informal leadership because the informal
leader lacks formal authority.
A Typology of Leaders
• Charismatic : This style is most successful when a particular
business requires spending a few years to take important decisions
and decisive action. Charismatic leaders persuade people to agree to
their strategies and are the most skilled at convincing people that they
can outperform their self-perception.
• Superior Intelligence : Superior intelligence is most successful in

businesses where there are large numbers of highly qualified or bright
people, where they find it easier to accept a leader with superior
intelligence. They tend to develop an exaggerated respect for
brainpower as they have invested so much of their lives in achieving
qualifications.
• Autocratic : The autocratic style is most successful in a crisis, when

an organisation has to change rapidly, whether growing or turning
itself from decline to growth. It can also be useful during periods of
highly competitive battle for market share, when new products are
battling it out in the market place.
• Shepherd : The shepherd style is most akin, in its behaviour patterns,

to the shepherd who tends his flock. This type of leader treats his or
her employees, customers and other stakeholders with care and
solicitude. He /she tends to push rather than pull and allows people
time to come alongside the leader’s point of view. The shepherd tends
to be a gentle but strong soul, who usually understands people very
well and attracts much love and devotion from the staff and personnel
in general. They are usually spoken of in terms such as ‘strong but
gentle’ and ‘dependable’.

• Army General : This style follows the classical army analogy. The
army general type of leader, like his army counterpart, tries to set
great examples but expects his people to follow his commands
unquestioningly. They assume obedience and followership. They
exude an air of having a total grasp of the situation and exhibit
supreme confidence that their solutions and explanations are right,
appropriate and need not be questioned.
Their command style does not come from a need to order people, or
an inability to listen to others, but from self-confidence in their right to
lead and ability to do so. In the same way that many lower ranks in
the armed forces accept their positions unquestioningly (especially
after suitable training), so also do the subordinates of this style of
leader. Usually the general is a decent sort, who has a good sense of
community and social values of a conservative nature.
• Princely leader : The princely leader is seen as a natural aristocrat.

He / she appears to have been born to lead and emanates a natural
style of leadership, with an easy sense of knowing the right thing to do
and when. This type of leader is attractive, radiating a sense of
dignity and a natural right to be the leader. This serves to facilitate a
preference to be carefully selective about whom he or she talks to,
meets or takes data from. This can be useful, in terms of managing
his or her time, but can lead to problems with subordinates or
business associates who find the style annoying or who are easily
intimidated.
The princely leader is most successful in long-established businesses

that have powerful brands and dependable market share. They are
most vulnerable when under attack, because they find it hard to
respond with eagerness.
• Nature’s native : The nature’s native leader is one who always looks
comfortable in the leading position. A typical leader with this style
would be United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair or former United
States President John F. Kennedy. They look as if leadership is what
they were born to do. People who work for these nature’s native
leaders cannot possibly imagine having them as their subordinate.
They are envied for the naturalness of their gifts and qualities of
leadership, but are rarely resented – they don’t excite that type of
shallow response in people who work with and for them.
Nature’s natives are effective under most circumstances. However,

they excel in large-scale, multinational or global organizations,

because their style transcends local or national culturally narrow

behaviour and enables them to fit into most nationalities and cultures.
Facets of Effective Leadership
Whether in business, industry, government, or academia, leaders achieve

results with and through others. Whether called management,
supervision, or administration, the underlying process is to establish
direction and the coordination in accomplishing results. In everyday
settings the exercise of leadership may generate a range of emotional
responses like enthusiasm, apathy, anger, commitment etc. These varied
emotions merely tell us that leadership is demonstrated in many
different ways.
The first three elements, initiative, inquiry, and advocacy, reveal how a
leader shapes his or her influences, on outer events. The other three,
conflict solving, decision-making, and critique, are concerned with how
the leader utilizes the resources of others through which results are
accomplished.
Initiative: A leader exercises initiative whenever he or she concentrates

effort on a specific activity - to start something, to stop something, or to
shift the direction or character of a current activity. When leadership is
exercised in a vigorous way and others pick up the spirit of it and join in,
much can be accomplished. If a leader exerts vigorous effort but others
ignore it, then the obvious conclusion is that the initiative is ineffective.
Inquiry: The leader needs to have a full and comprehensive grasp of

the situations for which he/she is responsible. This involves the element
of inquiry through learning about the background and current status of
problems, procedures, projects, and so on, and about the facts regarding
the people involved in them. Without sound knowledge of situations in all
these relevant aspects, it is clear that the exercise of leadership will be
less effective than it might have been.
Advocacy: Several people who are together in a working relationship

are likely to have different points of view on how to approach or deal with
various issues. Advocacy conveys the idea that the leader expresses his
or her convictions and stimulates others to do likewise. All the members
of the group let each other know where they stand, what they think, and
how they feel about issues facing them.
Conflict Solving: Whenever an issue is complex and there is no self-

evident solution, various participants are likely to have different
perspectives on what to do. Such conditions often lead to conflict. The

approach of finding reasons/causes of conflict permits conflict solving by
getting to the roots of disagreement or controversy and reaching
consensus based on understanding and agreement. The advantages are
numerous, and yet it is noteworthy that this approach to conflict solving
is rare. The main advantage comes from eliminating the source of
tensions. In the absence of tensions, people can continue to deal with
one another in an open way without withholding, ridiculing, manipulating,
or being defensive.
Decision Making: The act most commonly associated with leadership

involves making decisions. Decision making, however, can be no
stronger than the initiative behind it, the inquiry on which it is based, the
advocated positions that have been deliberated, and the resolution of
disagreements and controversies through insight.
Critique: Critique means learning about how things have been done and
how they or similar activities might be undertaken in a sounder manner
in the future. When past experience proves sound, it becomes possible to
get quicker results, to improve quality, to innovate – to do whatever is
basic to success better than it has been done previously.
Critique frequently is confused with criticism, but the two are not the
same. Criticism implies evaluation and judgments of good or bad,
relative to personal worth. Critique involves learning from experience
what is sound and what is unsound. Criticism is person- centered, while
critique is work-centered. In the latter case people are studying how to
increase their effectiveness.
Understanding self and followers
The most frequently used words in any individual’s vocabulary are ‘I’ or ‘me’ or
‘myself’. But when asked what ‘self’ means there is confusion in explaining
the concept. This represents a barrier, inhibiting from realizing the
individual’s full potential and achieving peak performance.
Self Development is essential to reach and sustain peak performance and
become aware of one’s capabilities in order to achieve the desired
performance.
Self Development incorporates:
Increasing skills to be more effective on the present job
- Increasing promotion potential in the same organisation
- To add value to the self so that the inter organisational mobility can be
facilitated

It is with these ends that both the organisation and individual need to view ‘Self
Development’ and leadership in an organisation.
Areas of Self Development

An individual needs to identify the areas for his Self Development. The crucial
areas for Self Development can be as follows:
- Developing an aspiration to attain higher competence and results, in other
words, inculcating values of ‘achievement orientation’. This requires definition
of goals for the self in consonance with the goals of the organisation as well as
the future looking orientation.
- Develop initiative in the form of ‘anticipating’ instead of ‘confronting’ problems
of future. Many a times individuals do not perceive their responsibility as
identifying ‘new areas’ which need attention as well as developing ‘new
methods’ for solving these problems.
- Environment of business can threaten its safety and result in the redundancy of
the present operations. A significant proportion of time and energy needs to
be devoted towards visualizing and identifying any threats from the
competitive environment.
- Quite often individuals are completely unaware of the principles applicable in
their functional area. Even when they are aware of the principles, they lack
the abilities to apply such principles to the particular situations, because they
find it difficult to identify the crucial and the changeable factors in the
organisation. It is such applicability of principles that they have to develop.
- The most important quality is to be able to make effective decisions. Decision-
making requires the ‘awareness of the alternative courses of action’ along
with their relative importance and implications. It also requires the awareness
of and the ability to device ‘criteria’ for selecting between these alternatives.
Personal Effectiveness
Being personally effective is one of the important aspects in Self Development.
One pre-condition for personal effectiveness is self-awareness. A person who
understands himself is likely to be more effective. Personal effectiveness
depends partly on self-understanding and partly on the use of such
understanding with care. Several factors contribute to personal effectiveness:
1. Self-Disclosure: Willingness of a person to be open to others and to share
the relevant feelings, knowledge etc. with others.
2. Feedback: It is feedback; a person receives from others so that he may
become aware of some strengths and some weaknesses, which only others,
who observe and are affected by his behaviour, may be able to communicate.
3. Perceptiveness: It is perceptiveness of the person in making both self-
disclosure and feedback effective in improving one’s behaviour.
Perceptiveness would mean a person’s sensitivity to feelings of the other
person, and the situation in which both interact. It also means being sensitive
to the cues, which he may pick up to determine both the extent and the
manner of self-disclosure as well as feedback.
A combination of these makes for interpersonal effectiveness. This

combined with high initiative and action-orientation enhances one’s
leadership effectiveness.

Meeting Individual Needs
A leader must not forget that each member of the group needs to
continue to live and express himself as an individual; to provide for those
dependent upon him; to find satisfaction in his work and his recreation;
to win acceptance by those groups of which he feels a member. In order
to satisfy these needs he must exert himself – he must get involved.
Fortunately for the leader, there is a high coincidence between these
needs and his own obligation to achieve results through the best use of
resources – in this case, human.
If the degree of motivation is to be sufficient to give satisfaction at work

the leader must create an environment that ensures that his
subordinates:
• Feel a sense of personal achievement in the job they are doing,
that they are making a worthwhile contribution to the objectives of
the group
• Feel that the job itself is challenging, is demanding the best of
them, is giving them the responsibility to match their capability
• Receive adequate recognition for their achievements
• Have control over the delegated jobs
• Feel that they, as individuals, are developing, that they are
advancing in experience and ability.
To provide the right ‘climate’ and the opportunities for these needs to be
met for each individual in the group is probably the most difficult but
certainly the most challenging and rewarding task of the leader.

Meghna Techniques to address Blockages/ Obstacles in

Teams
Although companies on the basis of individual contracts employ people,

it is in groups or teams that the majority of their work is conducted.
Blockages are a continual fact of life for teams. They occur from the
moment a potential team gathers until the team comes to an end.
Obstacles also differ as much as the teams, performance challenges,
organisational settings, and business contexts that produce them.
The threat posed by any particular obstacle depends as much on the

team leader’s readiness and capability as the obstacle itself. Yet, while
some teams are stronger than others, teams – as a unit of performance –
surpass individuals as well as larger organisational groupings in the
resourcefulness and flexibility with which they overcome barriers to
performance.
Real teams adapt to challenges remarkably well. The frustrations

associated with stuck teams include:
• A loss of energy or enthusiasm
• A sense of helplessness
• A lack of purpose or identity
• Listless, unconstructive and one-sided discussions without candour
• Meetings in which the agenda is more important than the outcome
• Cynicism and mistrust
• Interpersonal attacks made behind people’s backs and to outsiders
• Lots of finger pointing at top management and the rest of the
organisation
In the worst cases, stuck groups stop trying for team performance
altogether and become pseudo-teams. The costs are high. Not only is
the specific team performance opportunity lost, but such episodes
demoralize people, resulting in much of the reluctance people have
regarding the team approach in general.
There is no way to completely avoid stuck teams – obstacles really are a

fact of life for teams and sometimes they will be insurmountable.
Indeed, unless a team’s own purpose and performance goals present a
significant challenge, there may not be a foundation for a real team
effort. Even team-friendly environments include barriers that can, at
times, cause teams to get stuck and self-destruct. Finally, all potential
teams have hierarchical, functional, and individual differences that are at
once a source of strength and a source of problems
Team development is sometimes obstructed by some commonly

observed behaviours as mentioned below:
• Saboteur – An individual engages in malicious behaviours designed to
destroy or significantly impair the progress made by the team.
• Sniper – Group productivity tends to reduce if a member takes stingy
shots at group members by throwing verbal/non-verbal ‘barbs’.
• Assistant trainer – The team mate tries to demonstrate his awareness
of group process by making interventions in order to impress the
others. He may make procedural suggestions at the point of being
obnoxious.
• Denier – When an individual of a team is confronted he plays the ‘who
me’ game, i.e. he backs off immediately. This kind of a person
generally refuses to take a strong stand on a problem.
• Anxious Member – Such an individual may engage in counter
productive behaviours as smoothing over conflict, and avoiding
confrontations.
• Dominator – Some team members simply take up too much of time by
talking. They control the group through their verbosity.
• Side Tracker – The group’s energy is siphoned off by new concerns,
which deflect rather than work on the problem that is being solved.
• Polarizer – These are individuals point out differences among team
members rather then help them see similarities thus preventing the
cohesion of the group.
• Attention Seeker – The behaviour is designed to cover up the group
members’ anxiety by excessive joking, or by sharing experiences to
convey good impression.
• Clown – The behaviour is loud and boisterous that sets a tone of play
rather than problem solving.
Apart from the team behavioural obstacles the various other blockages
faced by a team are as follows:
A weak sense of direction: Teams lose their way when they pursue
inappropriate or ill-defined goals. They also get lost when they
assume that everyone in the team understands and agrees on why
and how they are working together. It is not that different
interpretations by themselves are bad for teams; indeed, when
discussed openly, varying perspectives can enrich a team’s sense
of purpose and approach. But when those differences remain
unexpressed and unresolved, they generate confusion about the
team’s fundamental reason for being and undercut the incentive
to work together to achieve common goals.
• Insufficient or unequal commitment to team performance: In
stuck teams, interpersonal conflicts and entrenched positions often
get interpreted as a lack of commitment on the part of one or more
individuals to work as a team. The team gets diverted from its
performance goals and falls into endless conversations about personal

styles and biases. This, in turn, further weakens the trust and respect
which is critical to the mutual accountability and commitment required
for team performance.
• Critical skill gaps: Skill gaps are an inevitable part of teams. Few
teams start with every skill completely developed and in place. Yet,
there are also no teams that succeed with a significant, unresolved
skill deficiency relative to its objectives. Often the most troublesome
gaps have to do with technical or functional competencies. But teams
also get stuck when they lack the necessary team skills of problem
solving, decision making, and interpersonal relations needed for
performance.
• External confusion, hostility, or indifference: All organisations,
whether friendly or hostile to teams, inevitably create some obstacles
for them. Some might confuse the team with contradictory or overly
ambitious sets of demands. Others might overtly or covertly fight the
team. Still others might seemingly care less about what the team
does or whether or not it succeeds. Sometimes, an atmosphere can
energize a team. But it can also prevent a potential team from ever
getting off the ground, or wear out the team once it does.
• Leadership in need of help: This is perhaps just a special category
of skill gap. Most people can learn to be effective team leaders. But,
like teams themselves, team leaders most often begin their roles
without all the needed skills in place. When team leaders themselves
need help, it falls to other members to fill the gap until the leader’s
skills develop.
Approaches to Getting Unstuck
The key to getting unstuck lies in addressing particular obstacles that

confront the team. There are five approaches that work well, often in
some combination. The first two, revisiting team basics and going for
small wins, address performance directly. The other three – exposing the
team to new information and different approaches, seeking outside
counsel or training, and reforming the team – provide indirect spurs that,
when successful, trigger a renewed team focus on performance. Each of
these approaches lie within the team leader’s own grasp. The leader
needs to orchestrate this process carefully and systematically.
1. Revisit the basics: No team can rethink its purpose, approach, and
performance goals too many times. All teams – and certainly, stuck
teams – benefit from going back to ground zero and spending the time
to undercover all hidden assumptions and differences of opinion that,
when assessed by the full team, might provide the foundation for
clarifying the team’s mission and how to accomplish it.
2. Go for small wins: Nothing galvanizes a stuck team as well as
performance itself. Even the act of setting a clear and specific goal

can lift a team out of the morass of interpersonal conflict and despair.
Achieving specific goals is even better.
3. Inject new information and approaches: Fresh facts, different
perspectives, and new information play a major role in the
development of teams. Competitive benchmarks, internal case
histories, best practices, front-line work measures, customer
interviews – these and other sources of insight can provide stuck
teams with the fresh perspective needed to reshape their purpose,
approach, and performance goals.
4. Take advantage of facilitators or training: Whether they are
complete outsiders or company employees outside the team itself,
facilitators, can get stuck teams moving in a constructive direction.
Usually, successful facilitators bring problem-solving, communication,
interpersonal, and teamwork skills to teams who lack them. The
ultimate key, however, to whether a facilitator provides enduring help
depends entirely on how effectively the facilitator’s efforts help the
team turn its collective attention back to its purpose and performance
challenge. Stuck teams, like any potential team, can benefit from any
good training program that highlight the importance of key skills,
common team purposes, good teamwork, clear goals, and the role of
the leader.
5. Change the team’s membership: Many teams avoid getting or
staying stuck by changing their own membership. Sometimes this
occurs when teams literally separate or add members. Some teams
actually set rules of membership that require periodic rotation of
members to ensure fresh input and vitality over time.
Each of the five approaches to unfreezing a team can either spring

from the team’s own efforts or happen as a result of management
intervention. If done well, such intervention can be a boon to a stuck
team. If done poorly, however, such actions can get interpreted as
management intrusions that pose yet one more burden on the team.
It is good for teams to “stay stuck for awhile” because of what they
learn through overcoming obstacles on their own, without help from
outside. Real teams thrive on obstacles. The trick, however, is to
distinguish between those teams that are constructively and
energetically trying to figure out how to get beyond some barrier to
performance and those that either have given up or are in danger of
doing so. If a team is really stuck beyond its collective capability, the
leader/ management must intervene.
Characteristics and Skills of Effective Team Leaders
Leadership is the key to making organisational life not only more

productive but more humane. The team leader has a unique and crucial
role in the development of the group. Team members invariably watch
their leader’s management style and evaluate his or her ability to
promote openness, co-operation and team debate. Without effort,

personal integrity and trust, a team cannot be developed.
The successful leader understands that a group has its own personality,
attitudes, standards and needs. He achieves his success by taking these
things into account. He has constantly to respond to the needs of the
group. At times this means withdrawing from his position ‘way out front’
and concentrating on ‘serving those who serve him’. On these occasions
he is prepared to represent the group and speak with its voice. At the
same time, he avoids ‘over-identifying’ with the group.
The team leader must be aware of the needs of the group and have
sufficient understanding of the concept of team building to steer the
group through a series of developmental states. An open approach is
vital. All issues affecting the group must be talked through, feedback
given and received and time spent clarifying expectations. The team
leader must demonstrate the high level of openness that is an essential
characteristic of the team approach and be watchful towards team
members, identifying their individual needs and enabling each to be
developed and strengthened as the work of the team continues.
The key functions of the business leader in meeting the team’s needs
are:
• To set and maintain group objectives and group standards.
• To involve the group as a whole in the achievement of objectives.
• To maintain the unity of the group and to see that dissident activity
is minimized
Here are some points to consider:

• Know the team members – A good team leader must know all the
team mates by their names. He should know their expectations and
their differences. He needs to identify the key persons to secure
group support.
• Stay in contact – Leaders need to mix and move around, since
problems crop up when they lose contact with their members.
• Be a good listener – The ability to listen to team mates is one of the
most appreciated qualities of a team leader.
• Take appropriate decisions – A leader should make sure that
necessary decisions are made, whether by him or others. Consensus
decision-making should be encouraged.
• Foresee problems - Look forward to the difficulties that could be
faced in implementing the decisions.
• Be concerned for production and people - The best and most
productive leader is the one who is person-centered as well as
production-minded. Such teams are able to accomplish much more

because the team members see production goals as their goals

because they are treated with trust and respect.
• Keep cool – The team leader must control his temper when his team
mates are angry and try to help them to calm down.
• Treat all equally – Fair and unbiased practices must be followed in
order to attain objectivity of judgments.
• Take responsibility – The team leader must take charge and
accountability of the entire group processes.
Leadership Environment
Leadership concerns the total manner in which a leader influences

actions of subordinates. First, it includes the issuing of orders that are
clear, complete, and within the capabilities of subordinates to
accomplish. Second, it implies a continual training activity in which
subordinates are given instruction to enable them to carry out the
particular assignment in the existing situation. Third, it necessarily
involves the motivation of workers to try to meet the expectations of the
manager. Fourth, it consists of maintaining discipline and rewarding
those who perform properly. In short, leading is the final action of a
manager in getting others to act after all preparations have been
completed.
As some of the older methods of motivation become less effective, the

importance of the leader increases. Bonuses and similar financial
incentives are limited in what they can achieve; and as the amounts rise,
men can afford to take value judgments as to whether to work less hard
for less money. Good fringe benefits and welfare provisions may attract
people to an organization, but they will not, in the long term, affect
performance on the job. Moreover, in many fields the satisfaction
provided by the job itself is no longer an incentive as the skills, which
gave the job its interest, are superseded by new machinery or automatic
control mechanisms.
The responsibility for ensuring that each person gives of his best to his
work rests squarely with the leader. The leader should be responsible
and accountable for the work of his subordinates. He has to get work
done through them, and his aim must be to make full use of their
strengths, abilities and qualities, minimize the effects of their deficiencies
and, where possible, constantly try to improve their performance. This is
the object of effective leadership. It makes sense both psychologically
and economically. For most individuals it is important that their abilities

should be fully used. For the enterprise and for the country it is essential
that manpower shall not be wasted. The effectiveness of a leader
depends on this ability to influence, and be influenced by, the group and
its members in the implementation of a common task.
In practice this means that the leader :

(1)Ensures that the required tasks are continually achieved
(2)Meets the needs of his group for team-work and team-spirit
(3)Meets the needs of each individual member of the group.
The successful leader functions in all three areas, often simultaneously.

These three areas interact upon each other. Below is a simple model that
illustrates the above explained:
Task
Team Individual
Maintenance Needs
The three circles overlap. If the task circle is backed out, so too are large
segments of the group and individual circles. Thus lack of attention to the
task causes disruption in the group and dissatisfaction to the individual.
Conversely, achievement of objectives is essential if group and individual
morale is to be high. If we black out the group needs circle from the
model then the other two needs are affected. Unless the leader actively
sees that the needs of the group, as a group, are satisfied, his chances of
achieving the required results, in the long term, are jeopardized. Ignore
the needs of the individual and the effectiveness of both task and team is
reduced.
The areas of group and individual needs may also be looked on as

storage batteries, which may from time to time become exhausted – for
instance after a period of high pressure. In this case the leader must see
that they are re-charged by paying them extra attention.
A leader has to be natural. An artificial presence can prevent the leader

from being natural, balanced, and rounded. Leaders need each of those
qualities, because if they have to waste energy constraining their natural
selves then the necessary freedom to be creative and intuitive will be
destroyed. The leader needs to be relatively objective in judgments.

Although great leaders do not need to be perfect, they need to know how
to take the organisation to ever-greater heights of achievement.
The leader needs to be strategic, visionary, attractive, and fun to work

for. Above all, the leader needs to be creative, because creativity is the
vital catalyst for the creation of wealth, excitement and fun. Creativity is
one of those special attributes that give meaning to life.
Today’s organisation needs liberating leadership, enabling those in

managerial roles to harness the skills and talents of everyone in their
particular section. As liberating leaders, they create situations where
continuous improvement can occur. They demonstrate, by their own
behaviour, how people can be liberated to maximize their skills. They
recognize the need for continuing change and urge everyone to meet the
challenges that brings, supporting and encouraging them to reach their
full potential.
In a liberating environment, managers no longer have to take command

and control of everything, with a responsibility for all decision-making.
Instead, they must become facilitators, coaches, enablers and
supporters, encouraging those closest to the tasks to take their own
decisions. Liberating leadership should be promoted at all levels of an
organisation. It represents a radically new form of leadership that rejects
position, status and hierarchy. In short, liberating leadership is
Democracy at Work.
A leader listens to the ideas, needs, aspirations, and wishes of the

followers and then within the context of his well-developed system of
beliefs, responds to these in an appropriate fashion. The first
responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The true leader enables his
followers to realise their full potential, both personal and corporate. He is
responsible, for identifying, developing and nurturing future leadership.
Effective leaders encourage contrary opinions, which to them is an
important source of vitality. Leaders owe a clear statement of values to
the organisation. These values should be well understood, be agreed to
and shape out corporate and individual behaviour. Good leaders owe
their followers certain maturity and corporate rationality. Maturity is
expressed in a sense of self-worth and belonging, a sense of expectancy
and responsibility, a sense of accountability and equality.
Effective leaders owe their people space, in the sense of freedom.

Finally, the most important of all, leaders are responsible for
effectiveness. They are responsible for doing the right thing and must
deal with it personally; realising effectiveness comes through enabling
people to reach their potential - both, personal and corporate potential.
Leader as a Change Agent

There is a distinct link between leadership and change, especially

change, that is imposed and can be seen as unwanted but necessary
change. We can think of change as being confronted with different
circumstances requiring different responses and behaviours on our part,
which need to become ingrained ways of how we conduct ourselves.
Dealing effectively with change is essentially about being able to alter
previous behaviour and develop different behavioural practices that are
adequate for changed circumstances. This requires learning, which
presupposes the development of different ways of observing and taking
action.
A leader should be flexible and adaptable in being able to foresee and

deal with change in order to stay competitive. The notion of the learning
organisation was popularized a number of years ago, and what is
required now are leaders who are flexible and adaptable learners.
Organisations have been likened to living systems. Just as living systems
need to adapt to changes in the environment in order to survive, so do
people and the groups they are part of. Biologically it has been shown
that adapting is about learning, about not remaining trapped in habitual
ways of being and responding. The demands nowadays are for business
leaders to be willing to become different observers of what is required; it
is through observing differently that creative and innovative responses
are generated.
Leaders are also, required to do more than that. Their way of being, their
ways of observing and acting, also need to be influential in shifting
others as learners. To be able to move others out of their traditional
ways of observing and learning without alienating them, so that the
collective wisdom that resides with many organisational employees
becomes an invaluable resource in dealing with the change process.
Ways to detect whether a leader can be a change agent

• How clearly is there an articulated vision?
• Is there “buy in” to the vision and does it address the primary
concerns of employees?
• How acutely are the leaders listening to others, and if they aren’t what
are they missing?
• How do the moods of leaders affect the workplace?
• How do the leaders rate as learners? and
• To what extent do their conversational actions generate new insights,
productive actions and positive results from others?
Leadership in High -Tech Environment

Technical professionals are highly specialized and managing them

according to traditional principles may meet with only minimal success.
Technical professionals want autonomy:

They are frequently achievement-orientated people who seek motivation
from their work.
Technical professionals’ desire for autonomy usually means that they
want a large role in setting goals and making decisions. Many would
prefer to manage themselves.
Technical professionals need a sense of achievement:

They often find the greatest challenge in tasks that require high levels of
skill and effort; they want to do difficult jobs well and make significant
accomplishments.
Support and recognition from management and colleagues also
generates commitment, along with their organisation’s and their
profession’s acceptance and recognition of the results they achieve.
Technical professionals fear burnout:

Burnout happens when the professional loses a sense of accomplishment
from work, is emotionally exhausted, and feels powerless to influence
change.
A fear of obsolescence often accompanies this. When skills are
underutilized, apathy, burnout, or alienation may result.
Technical professionals are loyal to their profession first:

Loyalty to the company often is second. College graduates in entry-level
marketing positions, for example, are more apt to align career objectives
with the company promotion path than are entering engineers or
accountants.
Technical professionals resist participating in company missions:

With their tendency to pursue professional goals first and their need for
control over their work, technical professionals are more resistant than
are most occupational groups to committing to mandate organisation
goals.
Technical professionals need collegial support, stimulation, and

sharing:
The potential for competition is high among bright, ambitious people with
strong egos. It can cause insecurity for some. That insecurity can
reduce risk taking and, in time, take a toll on innovation.
Collegial support is important to these professionals, many of whom seek

an environment that uses the energy derived from different knowledge
and experience base. Technical leaders must manage a productive
balance between teamwork and individual creativity.
The Leadership Challenge
Special knowledge, strategies, and tactics would be a substantial

challenge to leadership candidates with high levels of interpersonal skill
and aptitude. The challenge is even greater for most technical leaders,
who often come to management positions because of their technical
competence, not their inter-personal abilities. Many such leaders
assume their responsibilities without adequate role models. And while
superior technical ability can influence short-term managerial success,
interpersonal effectiveness is necessary for a technical leader’s long-
term achievement.
In general, technical leaders who come from technological backgrounds

have abilities, personalities, and interests that are oriented more towards
things than people. They can manage the technical aspects of the job
but are not adept at managing the people involved in it. But the fast-
paced, competitive world of technology requires balanced leaders who
are responsive to the needs of technical professionals and to the
organisation’s strategic objectives.
Most technical professionals have aptitudes that do not focus on
interpersonal skills; their education leaves little room, if any, for courses
in behaviour science. In addition, the organisation hires them on the
basis of technical competence, and most of them work for someone
whose orientation is similar – heavily technical, and light on people skills.
The training functions in technology-orientated organisations must know
how to compensate for that lack.
Successful leaders :
• Coach for peak performance
• Run organisational interference
• Orchestrate the professional development of their subordinates
• Expand individual productivity through team work
• Facilitate self-management
Technical professionals are more self-directed than most occupational

groups, so classic management prescriptions – with the manager as a
controller of work – are likely to be demotivating.
Coach for peak performance

The most effective technical leaders are coaches; they listen, ask
questions, facilitate, integrate, and provide administrative support. They

develop ideas rather than demonstrate power by withholding it. They

encourage self-management rather than promote dependency. Coaching
strategies and their accompanying skills are most notable in three critical
leadership situations:
• Aligning individual and organisational goals: The most effective
technical leaders are sensitive to blending individual and
organisational goals through a balanced leadership approach that
relies heavily on coaching. They are able to use technology to serve
market needs while remaining sensitive to the needs of the technical
professional.
• Making performance analysis: Successful technical leaders bring their
critical and logical thinking to the analysis of performance problems –
missed deadlines and cost overruns, for example. They are good at
determining whether a performance discrepancy is due to a skill
deficiency (rarely the case) or to inappropriate performance
consequences (usually the case).
As a result, the technical professionals they manage quickly address
and correct performance deficiencies.
• Managing Change: Change is a way of life in the technical
organisation; the leader is often the one who determines whether
people resist or welcome it.
Many technical professionals welcome change, challenge, and variety.
But further investigation usually turns up a leader who coaches them
through change by making certain that they know the reasons for it.
An effective coach also involves technical professionals extensively in
the implementation of change.
Run organisational interference

Successful leaders teach subordinates how to take advantage of
organisational opportunities, such as engaging in a high-visibility project
that might resolve a major quality issue. They are also quick to remove
organisational obstructions from the path to innovation. They do so by
the following means:
• Providing resources to support creative endeavors
• Preventing the organisational bureaucracy from interfering with the
technical professional’s work
• Taking steps to gain management support for a professional’s idea or
proposal.
Orchestrate professional development

Enriching the job is an important strategy for motivating the technical
professional. Variety, an emphasis on performance over process, and
challenge must be integral parts of the work. The most effective

technical leaders address three critical components of professional

development:
• They provide: the business perspective. Technical professionals often
generate ideas, become absorbed in following them, and wander off
the organisation’s strategic path. The leader must focus that energy
by providing a vision of where the organisation is today and where it is
heading.
• They build: and encourage champions. Taking ownership of an
innovative idea and running with it is a powerful professional
development experience. The leader’s responsibility is to nurture and
protect the fragile growth of ideas that might otherwise be trampled
by the bureaucracy or uprooted by someone uneasy with the
unfamiliar.
• They facilitate: career development. Although career development is
primarily the technical professional’s responsibility, effective leaders
take a proactive role in encouraging it.
Expand individual productivity through teamwork

Encouraging innovation requires shifts in fundamental management
techniques; the most important of which may be the use of teamwork.
Science and technology are becoming too complex for most technical
professionals to be able to make meaningful contributions on their own.
More and more basic inventions, minor and major breakthroughs, and
creative inspirations come from group collaborations.
Facilitate self-management
The technical professional’s need for autonomy, achievement,
professional growth, and challenge finds its fullest satisfaction when the
structure of the job and the relationship with the manager promote and
support self-management for the employee.
• Sharing information: Information enhances a sense of
empowerment. Professionals who receive as much information as
possible about a project have much higher motivational levels.
• Delegating responsibility: The delegation of meaningful tasks and
responsibilities is enriching and empowering. Technical leaders who
seek opportunities to delegate and who skillfully communicate and
transfer responsibilities maintain motivated project teams.
• Encouraging upward communication: Endorsing and reinforcing
two-way communication plays a major role in facilitating self-
management. This builds trust and an increased sense of ownership
in projects and organisational objectives.
Conclusion

There is a need to look into training within technology-ridden

organisations to develop technical leaders who can address the special
needs of professionals. Such training will enable organisations to realize
the highest degrees of innovation, teamwork, and sustained commitment
among technical professionals.

ROUGH COPY
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality”

- Warren G. Bennis
‘Lots of people can have good ideas, but that’s not leadership. A real leader can
turn those ideas into action, by inspiring and motivating people and getting the very
best out of them.’
Introduction
Organisations are like aircrafts. They don’t run themselves, except during downfall. They need
the right people to make them work, and not just any people. The effectiveness of an
employee – particularly individuals in leadership positions – determines how the organisational
‘machine’ will perform. Employees need some guidance, some suggestions about where to go
and how to get there. Ethological studies also suggest that people have an actual need for
leadership.
The Anglo-Saxon root of the words lead, leader, and leadership is laed, which means ‘path’ or
‘road’. The verb laeden means ‘to travel’. Thus a leader is one who shows fellow travellers
the way by walking ahead.
Leadership is the most important means of direction. To lead is to guide, direct, integrate and
energize the efforts of people towards a common goal. A leader is one who influences the
attitudes and behaviour of others in an organised activity. Leadership is an art and as such it
must be felt, experienced and created. Recognising diversity in corporate life helps us to
connect the great variety of talents that people bring to work and service of the organisation.
Diversity allows each of us to contribute in a special way, to make our special talent an art of
the corporate effort. The art of leadership lies in polishing and enabling those talents.
Leadership deals more with ideas, beliefs and relationships. Hence, it has to do with the “why”
of institutional and corporate life, rather than the “how”. It is the art of liberating people to do
what is required of them, in the most effective and humane way possible, something to be
learned over time.
Concept of Leadership
Leadership is the process by which an executive influences the work and behaviour of others in
choosing and attaining specified objectives for the benefit of an organisation as well as its
members. A person is said to have an influence on others when others are willing to carry out
his wishes, accept his advice, guidance and direction. Leadership is thus a function of
influencing the behaviour of subordinates for the attainment of group goals and personal
objectives. A leader is the one who guides and directs other people and provides purpose and
direction to human efforts. A leader, like the conductor of an orchestra, is a part of the group,
yet distinct from it. He integrates, guides and inspires the members of the group towards the
accomplishment of common objectives. Thus leadership is more than personal ability and skill.
A good leader should be competent, but he can be a true leader only when he possesses a
sense of fair play, objectivity, integrity and a sense of responsibility.
Leadership is defined as “a process in which one person sets the purpose or direction for one
or more other persons, and gets them to move along together with him or her and with each
other in that direction with competence and full commitment.”
In the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences leadership has been defined as “the relation between an
individual and a group around some common interest and behaving in a manner directed or
determined by him.” It is thus the function of interaction between the leader, the subordinates
and the situation in which they interact with each other i.e. a purpose of both, the traits and
the situation.
Leadership may be formal or informal. Formal leadership is institutional in nature while
informal leadership is personal. Formal leaders are those appointed to positions within a
formal organisation structure. The executive is a formal leader in the sense that he occupies a
position and holds delegated authority. By using this authority, he can influence and direct
subordinates. Informal leaders are those who exercise influence because of their personality
and competence.
What is Effective Leadership?
An effective leader is one who really makes things happen in his organisation and explores new
paths. He makes the job exciting as he makes sure that the entire workday has structure and

meaning and the workforce understands the rationale of their work. This kind of a leader will
make his shareholders and workforce rich and his customers happy with the product. He
understands that organizations are more than just economic entities. Unlike any politician or
social worker a leader he runs an organisation that has more realities than just economic ones.
He is a fertile ‘imagineer’ about the organisation’s future.
The Key Traits of Leaders
Traits are behaviours and styles that are accumulated as one gets trained to become a leader.
They result either from training, habit or inherent received genetic qualities. They may be best
understood as tendencies or repeated behaviour patterns. Examples of traits are intelligence,
equanimity, decency and power.
Traits are differentiated from skills by the distinction that skills are necessary whereas traits
are useful and indicative. Traits are characteristics and mannerisms, which tend to be
associated with many leaders, but cannot be considered essential in the same way that some
skills emphatically are. For example, a fine trait, for a leader, is not to need to dominate
people, situations, or at meetings. By contrast, it is a trait to have presence without noise, and
a tendency to be more of a listener than a talker. It is a skill to ensure that one knows how to
be heard, whenever it is necessary, to make an important point.
The vital traits of a leader are the:
- ability to get into leadership positions
- competency of good quality judgement than any relevant peer group
- capacity for survival
- potential to select effective subordinates
- capability to inspire ‘ordinary’ people to perform above par
- efficiency to make a profound difference to the organisation
The ability to get into leadership positions - This is best observed in cases of people who gain a
reputation for always being ‘in the right place at the right time’. It is not merely an accident
that they are present at the right place; they move rapidly and create more opportunities to be
in the right time.
The competency to arrive at good quality judgement than any relevant peer group – The first
manifestation of these individuals is often at school, where they rise as leaders. They are
perceived as mature individuals. These same qualities can be observed when they first go out
to work. Their bosses soon exploit them to carry out important tasks. They are the first to be
promoted because they become known for being a ‘safe pair of hands’. It is their good
judgement, which is viewed as superior.
The capacity for survival – Leaders survive because they manage to get everybody to realize
that they have made the right judgement and that difficult decisions have to be taken. The
gravest decisions to be executed usually require the thickest skin. For example making the
larger investment decisions, or deciding to put the corporation up for sale, or moving into or
out of major markets, are the types of decisions which cause the greatest angst to leaders and
their followers. The mark of a great leader is his potential to convince the group as to
understand why a particular decision taken is considered to be best in that situation. A great
leader does not confront people with a decision but persuades and debates the issue, until
people understand.
The potential to select effective subordinates - Having to dismiss a friend who has become
ineffective or who is manifesting characteristics, which are detrimental to the organisation, is
the toughest decision a leader may have to take. This can be one of the worst forms of
leadership failure if the leader does not confront these problems. To make the right decisions
about people requires a special combination of intuition and experience. The great leader
usually has an intuition about who could fit a particular job and when will he be ready for it.
The capability to inspire ‘ordinary’ people to perform above par - They normally make people
perform above themselves, showing them how to be better. This skill is closely aligned with
the ability of good leaders to attract followers. A prime leadership skill is getting people to
follow, and the want to follow. It results form a combination of charisma, persuasiveness and
sheer determination.
The efficiency to make a profound difference to the organisation - This particular trait can often
only be recognized post hoc, i.e. when the leader has left the organisation or department. The
feedback obtained from the group helps to decide whether the particular leader brought about
a transformation and created an impact within the work group.
The Key Skills of Leaders
Skills are the qualities that any individual can learn, as long as the necessary aptitude is there.
They are abilities and techniques that the leaders need to have at their disposal. These are

exemplified in team skills, planning ability or understanding of accounts. However

characteristics are qualities and values, which define the actions and styles of high quality
leaders, at all stages of their career. They are the deep-rooted qualities, such as moral fibre,
courage, determination to succeed and capacity to in spire, that define grand leaders.
The vital skills of leaders are as follows:
Communication skills - As competence is ineffective without conscience, so are words
without behaviour. A good leader leads by example, supporting his or her behaviour by verbal
persuasion. Leaders must communicate needs, missions, trends, concepts, and quality-
quantity linkages much faster, to more and better-educated people and groups. They must
shape their message for each audience, and set an example by acknowledging differences as
well as commonalties. Every leader needs multilevel listening skills. This refers to the ability
that many leaders have to listen to differing messages, carrying a multitude of meanings from
different types of people at every level in the organisation. This skill is also used to understand
the multiple agendas from the same set of messages that are often being delivered to leaders
whenever people communicate with them.
Numerical skill - In addition to the verbal ability, the leader in the modern era also requires a
facility with numerical skills (all businesses measure themselves and are measured by others
with numbers). Likewise, most great strategic ideas need to be tested arithmetically for their
impact on the market and their value on the bottom line for the business.
Assess People - An ability to assess people and their skills accurately is important. One
needs to be able to focus upon a person’s best qualities and make people realize that one
cares about them.
Work effectively under pressure - A great leader has the ability to undertake highly
concentrated activity at intense pressure. In the present era, with vast communication
capacity and the ability to move large amounts of capital around the world almost
instantaneously, both crises and opportunities arise with little warning.
Relax – A leader needs to know when to relax. This will be necessary both between and even
during the crises. If one cannot relax enough for some time each day, he / she is not going to
remain fit for the important battles and wars.
Inspiring followers - Leaders who encourage people to strive for and make achievements
beyond their imagination are also creators of immense job satisfaction for others.
Common Characteristics of Leaders
Leaders share certain common characteristics which permeate the whole of a leader’s or an
organisation’s culture.
Integrity: is the unyielding battle for what, rather than who is right. It is the seizing of
responsibility, and the willing acceptance of the accountability that comes with it. Integrity is
much more than not telling a lie; it is not living a lie!
Compassion: Good leadership includes searching for, and identifying people doing the right
things as well as doing things right. It is not managing by exception. “Managing by exception,”
means followers never hear from their leader except when something goes wrong.
Cognizance: is the power of knowledgeable perception that enables a person to use
information effectively. It is an understanding of the past, an awareness of the present, and a
vision of the future. It is the ability to understand and use ever-changing, complex, and
ambiguous variables in the simplest and most productive way possible. It means studying the
past, and using the present to prepare for the future.
Courage: The fourth characteristic of leadership is courage – the courage to act upon your
convictions with steadfast focus in the face of unrelenting opposition; the courage to sacrifice
and risk, and not to take yourself too seriously; the courage to give, to enjoy, and to live! It is
challenging adversity with grit and grace; and it is demonstrated by those who move toward
success, not away from failure.
Commitment: One person with commitment has more power than a multitude who have only
interest. The level of commitment is the key determinant. Getting others to commit to a
common mission is one of a leader’s most difficult challenges. In a committed culture, you
won’t hear “I just work here” or “Sorry, my time is up.”
Confidence: is the steadfast reliance upon the values, beliefs, and competence of oneself and
others. Confidence is cultivated by using our strengths and skills to extend others and
ourselves a little further each day. Confidence is being guided by the stars, not by the lights of
passing ships.
Confidence develops strong opinions, and leadership communications are predicated on those
opinions.

The Difference between Managers & Leaders

“Leaders don’t manage and managers don’t lead” - This implies that the roles of leadership
and management are almost contradictions of each other. Managers need to be team players.
They have to get groups of people to work together to achieve and set objectives; they are
coordinators of others. Alternatively leaders, have to satisfy their stakeholders, the people
who have power to judge them or have rights over the assets they control. The leadership job
is not merely a coordination role as; an act of leadership itself involves poising many people’s
interests. The leaders should know how to set examples, change cultures and atmospheres to
evolve the organisation into the form of the future vision. They don’t manage people towards
a result; they manipulate the entire set of resources – people, assets, and streams of income.
The ultimate responsibility for success lies in the leader’s hands. At the end of the day, all
managers have somebody above them to take the final decision and ultimate responsibility for
some aspects of their role. It may be their finance director, technical research managers or
their own line manager who gives them their instructions on strategy.
Ultimately it is the real leader who, alone, bears total responsibility for the burden of all the
facets of the organisation’s future and its results.
There is also a clear distinction between a ‘nominal leader’ and a ‘strategic leader’. A ‘nominal
leader’ is the one who is appointed to posts / jobs which calls for real leadership but does not
know how to execute that leadership. Such a leader will always remain a manager. While he
can organise others to get things done, he cannot fulfill the ultimate leadership role, which
combines strategic vision, objective judgement and profit-creating business skills. Although
‘nominal leaders’ are the managerial fabric of every organisation, they will never become
strategic leaders, or movers and shakers. Leaders need to understand how to handle people.
Another important difference between nominal and strategic leaders, is that the latter
understand people and the former don’t. Strategic leaders understand how people react to
decisions and news. They see what is not obvious, when people are hurt or weighed down by
personal problems. They also accept weaknesses as a part of the fabric of corporate society.
Leader Manager
Interested in Change Prefers stability
Long-term oriented Focus on Short-term
Concerned about vision Preoccupied by Rules & Regulations - Instruction
Deals with the whys Deals with the hows
Empower Subordinates Tends to control
Knows how to simplify Enjoys Complexity
Uses intuition Relies only on logic
Wide outlook – social concerns Preoccupied by Corporate Concerns
Leadership Roles and Functions
Leadership roles are classified under three headings viz. group task roles, group building and
maintenance roles, and individual roles. Any leader is expected to carry out the predetermined
tasks of the group and he has his own roles to play in this respect. He is also concerned with
the roles relating to group building and its maintenance. Along with the task roles and group
building roles he has his own individual roles. Thus, a leader has multifarious roles to play.
Leadership Roles
Group Task Roles Group Building and Individual Roles
Maintenance Roles
Initiator contributor Encourager Aggressor
Information seeker Harmonizer Blocker
Opinion seeker Compromiser Recognition seeker
Information giver Gatekeeper and Expeditor Self confessor
Opinion giver Standard setter Play boy
Elaborator Group observer and Dominator
Coordinator Commentator Help seeker
Orienter Follower Special interest Pleader
Evaluator-critic
Energizer
Procedural technician
Recorder

Leadership Functions
Primary Leadership Functions Accessory Leadership Functions
Executive Exemplar
Planner Symbol of the group
Policy maker Substitute for individual responsibility
Expert Ideologist
External group representative Father figure
Controller of internal relations Scapegoat
Purveyor of rewards and punishments
Arbitrator and mediator
Actual leaders must be visionaries. They must have a proper vision and perception of the
relations of the present and future, and must articulate the possibilities of the people. The
leader’s role is conspicuously identified by the position he occupies, which may provide a high
degree of coordination and efficiency. The bureaucratic content of the group management in
the Indian business, on the contrary, has brought with it some sort of ready-made leadership.
Such a philosophy assigns each individual his functions, the area of his authority, and the
standards of proficiency. Any member or group leader is harnessed to ensure the exact
performance essential to keep the system under control.
Ineffective Leadership Behaviour
An obvious first characteristic that a leader should possess is ruthless honesty with himself.
This is a rare quality in most failing leaders (and even in some successful ones). The following
are the most visible signals of failure in a leader:
- if one cannot see where the short – or long-term profitability will come from
- if an individual feels under pressure after the first three months in his job (it is
normal to feel that way during the first three months)
- when one feels that the subordinate (s) can certainly do the job better
- when one feels continuously tired and depressed
- when one thinks more about past triumphs than future achievements
- when one wishes that nobody sitting in the board room should realize that he/she
doesn’t have a clue what to do next.
Executive Leadership “Defined”
Executive leadership is an ability to influence the actions of others. This influence must be one
that includes the ability to recruit and to retain loyal followers who are effective in the
attainment of the company’s goals. A leader’s sources of influence stem initially from his
power base. That is, once he is hired and made manager in charge, he is given a certain
amount of power. And his staff people will respond to his wishes merely because he has that
“power.” Though in the long run, his influence upon the staff personnel will depend on his
ability to persuade them, either by reasoning power or the power of his personality.
Of course, to be an effective leader in business, one has to have a fundamental grasp of key
management areas, such as finance, marketing, and administration. Beyond that, creativity
and common sense judgment certainly are essential. When executive leadership is proposed
along these lines, leadership improvement can be approached with optimism. It presumes that
leadership, as a personal skill, can be acquired and improved. Leadership, which is defined by
one’s behaviour –what to do and how to do it – can be learned by an aspiring executive. All it
takes is a little inspiration mixed in with a little perspiration.
Situational Leadership
According to Situational Leadership, there is no one best way to influence people. Which
leadership style a person should use with individuals or groups depends on the maturity level
of the people the leader is attempting to influence, as illustrated in the following figure.
Style of Leader
High High Task
Relationship
Relationshi and
(LOW)
p High
and Relationshi
Low Task S2 p
S3

S4 S1
(HIGH)
Low High Task
Relationshi and
Behaviour
p Low
and Relationshi
s Low Task p
(LOW) (HIGH)
TASK BEHAVIOUR
Immature
HIGH MODERATE LOW
Mature
M4 M3 M2 M1
Maturity of Follower (s)

The preceding figure portrays the relationship between task-relevant maturity and the
appropriate leadership styles to be used as followers move from immaturity to maturity. As
indicated, the readers should keep in mind that the figure represents two different phenomena.
The appropriate leadership style (style of leader) for given levels of follower maturity is
portrayed by the prescriptive curve going through the four leadership quadrants. This bell-
shaped curve is called a prescriptive curve because it shows the appropriate leadership style
directly above the corresponding level of maturity. Each of the four leadership styles -
“telling,” “selling,” “participating,” and “delegating” – identified in the above figure is a
combination of task and relationship behaviour.
Task behaviour is the extent to which a leader provides direction for people : telling them what
to do, when to do it, where to do it, and how to do it. It means setting goals for them and
defining their roles.
Relationship behaviour is the extent to which a leader engages in two-way communication with
people : providing support, encouragement, “psychological strokes”, and facilitating
behaviours. It means actively listening to people and supporting their efforts.
The maturity of followers is a question of degree. As can be seen in the figure, some bench
marks of maturity are provided for determining appropriate leadership style by dividing the
maturity continuum below the leadership model into four levels : low (M1), low to moderate
(M2), moderate to high (M3), and high (M4).
Managerial Grid Styles
One very popular approach to identifying leadership styles of practicing managers is Robert R.
Blake and Jane S. Mouton’s Managerial Grid. It shows that the two dimensions of grid are
Concern for People along the vertical axis and Concern for Production along the horizontal axis.
The Five basic styles identified in the grid represent varying combinations of Concern for
People and Production:
Team Leadership (9,9) : Production is achieved by the integration of task and human
relationship requirements. The leader’s major responsibility is to attain effective production
and high morale through the participation and involvement of people in a team approach.
Practical Leadership (5,5): The aim is to maintain a balance between high productivity and
good human relations. The leader strives to find the middle ground so as to have reasonable
production with good morale.
Task-Oriented Leadership (9,1): Good relations are incidental to high production. The
leader emphasizes production goals by focusing on the planning, direction and controlling of all
activities.

Relationship-Oriented Leadership (1,9): Production is incidental to good human relations.

The leader focuses on the development of harmonious group relations so that work
organisation is pleasant.
Impoverished Leadership (1,1): Minimum influence is exerted in interaction with others.
Little concern for production or people is expressed. Most activities performed are routine.
A Manager should aim to move towards Team Leadership, which is ideal for excellence in
management, as a dominant style.
A Typology of Leaders
Charismatic
This style is most successful when a particular business requires spending a few years to take
important decisions and decisive action. Charismatic leaders persuade people fast to agree to
their strategies and are the most skilled at convincing people that they can outperform their
self-perception.
• Superior Intelligence
Superior intelligence is most successful in businesses where there are large numbers of highly
qualified or bright people, where they find it easier to accept a superior intelligence leader.
They tend to develop an exaggerated respect for brainpower as they have invested so much of
their lives in achieving qualifications in contrast to the emotional intelligence, which is more
important for leaders than plain IQ.
• Autocratic
The autocratic style is most successful in a crisis, when an organisation has to change rapidly,
whether growing or turning itself from decline to growth. It can also be useful during periods of
highly competitive battle for market share, when new products are battling it out in the market
place.
• Shepherd
The shepherd style is most akin, in its behaviour patterns, to the shepherd who tends his flock.
This type of leader treats his or her employees, customers and other stakeholders with care
and solicitude. He /she tends to push rather than pull and allows people time to come
alongside the leader’s point of view. The shepherd tends to be a gentle but strong soul, who
usually understands people very well and attracts much love and devotion from the staff and
personnel in general. They are usually spoken of in terms such as ‘strong but gentle’ and
‘dependable’.
• Army General
This style follows the classical army analogy. The army general type of leader, like his army
counterpart, tries to set great examples but expects his people to follow his commands
unquestioningly. They assume obedience and followership. They exude an air of having a
total grasp of the situation and exhibit supreme confidence that their solutions and
explanations are right, appropriate and need not be questioned.
Their command style does not come from a need to order people, or an inability to listen to
others, but from self-confidence in their right to lead and ability to do so. In the same way that
many lower ranks in the armed forces accept their positions unquestioningly (especially after
suitable training), so also do the subordinates of this style of leader. Usually the general is a
decent sort, who has a good sense of community and social values of a conservative nature.
• Princely leader
The princely leader is seen as a natural aristocrat. He / she appears to have been born to lead
and emanates a natural style of leadership, with an easy sense of knowing the right thing to do
and when. This type of leader is attractive, radiating a sense of dignity and a natural right to
be the leader. This serves to facilitate a preference to be carefully selective about whom he or
she talks to, meets or takes data from. This can be useful, in terms of managing his or her
time, but can lead to problems with subordinates or business associates who find the style
annoying or who are easily intimidated.
The princely leader is most successful in long-established businesses that have powerful
brands and dependable market share. They are most vulnerable when under attack, because
they find it hard to respond with alacrity.
• Nature’s native
The nature’s native leader is one who always looks comfortable in the leading position. A
typical leader with this style would be UK’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair or US President John
Kennedy. They look as if leadership is what they were born to do. People who work for these
nature’s native leaders cannot possibly imagine having them as their subordinate. They are

envied for the naturalness of their gifts and qualities of leadership, but are rarely resented –
they don’t excite that type of shallow response in people who work with and for them.
Nature’s natives are effective under most circumstances. However, they excel in large-scale,
multinational or global organizations, because their style transcends local or national, culturally
narrow behaviour and enables them to fit into most nationalities and cultures.
Facets of Leadership Effectiveness
Whether in business, industry, government, or academia, leaders achieve results with and
through others. Whether called management, supervision, or administration, the underlying
process is to establish direction and the coordination in accomplishing results. In everyday
settings the exercise of leadership may generate a range of emotional responses like
enthusiasm, apathy, anger, commitment etc. These varied emotions merely tell us that
leadership is demonstrated in many different ways.
The exercise of effective leadership is a poorly understood process; however, it can be
described by identifying six elements, or aspects of leadership.
The first three elements, initiative, inquiry, and advocacy, reveal how a leader shapes his or
her influences, on outer events. The other three, conflict solving, decision-making, and
critique, are concerned with how the leader utilizes the resources of others with and through
whom results are accomplished.
Initiative: A leader exercises initiative whenever he or she concentrates effort on a specific
activity - to start something, to stop something, or to shift the direction or character of a
current activity. When leadership is exercised in a vigorous way and others pick up the spirit
of it and join in, much can be accomplished. If a leader exerts vigorous effort but others
ignore it, then the obvious conclusion is that the initiative is ineffective.
Inquiry: The leader needs to have a full and comprehensive grasp of the situations for which
he/she is responsible. This involves the element of inquiry: thorough learning about the
background and current status of problems, procedures, projects, and so on, and about the
facts regarding the people involved in them. Without sound knowledge of situations in all these
relevant aspects, it is clear that the exercise of leadership will be less effective than it might
have been.
Advocacy: Several people who are together in a working relationship are likely to have
different points of view on how to approach or deal with various issues. Advocacy conveys the
idea that the leader expresses his or her convictions and stimulates others to do likewise. All
the members of the group let each other know where they stand, what they think, and how
they feel about issues facing them.
Conflict Solving: Whenever an issue is complex and there is no self-evident solution, various
participants are likely to have different perspectives on what to do. Such conditions often lead
to conflict. The approach of finding reasons/causes of conflict permits conflict solving by
getting to the roots of disagreement or controversy and reaching based on understanding and
agreement.
The advantages are numerous, and yet it is noteworthy that this approach to conflict solving is
rare. The main advantage comes from eliminating the source of tensions. In the absence of
tensions, people can continue to deal with one another in an open way without withholding,
ridiculing, manipulating, or being defensive.
Decision Making: The act most commonly associated with leadership involves making
decisions. Decision making, however, can be no stronger than the initiative behind it, the
inquiry on which it is based, the advocated positions which have been deliberated, and the
resolution of disagreements and controversies through insight.
Critique: Critique means learning about how things have been done and how they or similar
activities might be undertaken in a sounder manner in the future. When past experience
proves sound, it becomes possible to get quicker results, to improve quality, to innovate – to do
whatever is basic to success better than it has been done previously.
Critique frequently is confused with criticism, but the two are not the same. Criticism implies
evaluation and `s of good or bad, relative to personal worth. Critique involves learning from
experience what is sound and what is unsound. Criticism is person- centered, while critique is
work-centered. In the latter case people are studying how to increase their effectiveness.
The Role of the Team Leader
The team leader has a unique and crucial role in the development of the group. Team
members invariably watch their leader’s management style and evaluate his or her ability to
promote openness, co-operation and team debate. Without effort, personal integrity and trust,
a team cannot be developed.

The team leader must be aware of the needs of the group and have sufficient understanding of
the concept of team building to steer the group through a series of developmental states. An
open approach is vital. All issues affecting the group must be talked through, feedback given
and received and time spent clarifying expectations. The team leader must demonstrate the
high level of openness that is an essential characteristic of the team approach and be watchful
towards team members, identifying their individual needs and enabling each to be developed
and strengthened as the work of the team continues.
It is important to ensure that the following guidelines are followed :
• All team members are clear about the objectives of the team
• Individual skills are identified and roles clarified
• The team is structured appropriately for the needs of the task
• The team reflects on its work methods and sets targets for improvement
• The team develops a self-discipline that uses time and resources well
• The team has sufficient opportunities to meet and work through any problems
• The team supports members and develops close relationships
• The team has open relationships and is prepared to confront difficulties and blockages to
effectiveness
There is a distinct link between leadership and change, especially change, that is imposed and
can be seen as unwanted but necessary change. We can think of change as being confronted
with different circumstances requiring different responses and behaviours on our part, which
need to become ingrained ways of how we conduct ourselves. Dealing effectively with change
is essentially about being able to alter previous behaviour and develop different behavioural
practices that are adequate for changed circumstances. This requires learning, which
presupposes the development of different ways of observing and taking action.
A leader should be flexible and adaptable in being able to foresee and deal with change in
order to stay competitive. The notion of the learning organisation was popularized a number of
years ago, and what is required now are leaders and who are flexible and adaptable learners.
Organisations have been likened to living systems. Just as living systems need to adapt to
changes in the environment in order to survive, so do people and the groups they are part of.
Biologically it has been shown that adapting is about learning, about not remaining trapped in
habitual ways of being and responding. The demands nowadays are for business leaders to be
willing to become different observers of what is required; it is through observing differently
that creative and innovative responses are generated.
Leaders are also, required to do more than that. Their way of being, their ways of observing
and acting, also need to be influential in shifting others as learners. To be able to move others
out of their traditional ways of observing and learning without alienating them, so that the
collective wisdom that resides with many organisational employees becomes an invaluable
resource in dealing with the change process.
• Is there “buy in” to the vision and does it address the primary concerns of employees?
• How acutely are the leaders listening to others, and if they aren’t what are they missing?
• How do the leaders rate as learners? And
• To what extent do their conversational actions generate new insights, productive actions
and positive results from others?
Technical professionals are highly specialized and managing them according to traditional
principles may meet with only minimal success.
• Technical professionals want autonomy:
They are frequently achievement-orientated people who seek motivation from their work.
Technical professionals’ desire for autonomy usually means that they want a large role in
setting goals and making decisions. Many would prefer to manage themselves.
• Technical professionals need a sense of achievement:
They often find the greatest challenge in tasks that require high levels of skill and effort; they
want to do difficult jobs well and make significant accomplishments. Support and recognition
from management and colleagues also generates commitment, along with their organisation’s
and their profession’s acceptance and recognition of the results they achieve.

• Technical professionals fear burnout:

Burnout happens when the professional loses a sense of accomplishment from work, is
emotionally exhausted, and feels powerless to influence change. A fear of obsolescence often
accompanies this. When skills are underutilized, apathy, burnout, or alienation may result.
• Technical professionals are loyal to their profession first:
Loyalty to the company often is second. College graduates in entry-level marketing positions,
for example, are more apt to align career objectives with the company promotion path than are
entering engineers or accountants.
• Technical professionals resist participating in company missions:
With their tendency to pursue professional goals first and their need for control over their work,
technical professionals are more resistant than are most occupational groups to committing to
mandate organisation goals.
• Technical professionals need collegial support, stimulation, and sharing:
The potential for competition is high among bright, ambitious people with strong egos. It can
cause insecurity for some. That insecurity can reduce risk taking and, in time, take a toll on
innovation. Collegial support is important to these professionals, many of whom seek an
environment that uses the energy derived from different knowledge and experience base.
Technical leaders must manage a productive balance between teamwork and individual
creativity.
Special knowledge, strategies, and tactics would be a substantial challenge to leadership
candidates with high levels of interpersonal skill and aptitude. The challenge is even greater
for most technical leaders, who often come to management positions because of their
technical competence, not their inter-personal abilities. Many such leaders assume their
responsibilities without adequate role models. And while superior technical ability can
influence short-term managerial success, interpersonal effectiveness is necessary for a
technical leader’s long-term achievement.
In general, technical leaders who come from technological backgrounds have abilities,
personalities, and interests that are oriented more toward things than people. They can
manage the technical aspects of the job but are not adept at managing the people involved in
it. But the fast-paced, competitive world of technology requires balanced leaders who are
responsive to the needs of technical professionals and to the organisation’s strategic
objectives.
Most technical professionals have aptitudes that do not focus on interpersonal skills; their
education leaves little room, if any, for courses in behaviour science. In addition, the
organisation hires them on the basis of technical competence, and most of them work for
someone whose orientation is similar – heavily technical, and light on people skills. The
training functions in technology-orientated organisations must know how to compensate for
that lack.
Technical professionals are more self-directed than most occupational groups, so classic
management prescriptions – with the manager as a controller of work – are likely to be
demotivating.
Coach for peak performance:
The most effective technical leaders are coaches; they listen, ask questions, facilitate,
integrate, and provide administrative support. They develop ideas rather than demonstrate
power by withholding it. They encourage self-management rather than promote dependency.
Coaching strategies and their accompanying skills are most notable in three critical leadership
situations:
• Aligning individual and organisational goals: The most effective technical leaders are
sensitive to blending individual and organisational goals through a balanced leadership
approach that relies heavily on coaching. They are able to use technology to serve market
needs while remaining sensitive to the needs of the technical professional.
• Making performance analysis: Successful technical leaders bring their critical and logical
thinking to the analysis of performance problems – missed deadlines and cost overruns, for

example. They are good at determining whether a performance discrepancy is due to a

skill deficiency (rarely the case) or to inappropriate performance consequences (usually the
case).
• Managing Change: Change is a way of life in the technical organisation; the leader is often
the one who determines whether people resist or welcome it. Many technical professionals
welcome change, challenge, and variety. But further investigation usually turns up a leader
who coaches them through change by making certain that they know the reasons for it. An
effective coach also involves technical professionals extensively in the implementation of
change.
Successful leaders teach subordinates how to take advantage of organisational opportunities,
such as engaging in a high-visibility project that might resolve a major quality issue. They are
also quick to remove organisational obstructions from the path to innovation. They do so by
• Providing resources to support creative endeavours
• Preventing the organisational bureaucracy from interfering with the technical professional’s
work
• Taking steps to gain management support for a professional’s idea or proposal.
Enriching the job is an important strategy for motivating the technical professional. Variety, an
emphasis on performance over process, and challenge must be integral parts of the work. The
most effective technical leaders address three critical components of professional
development:
• They provide: the business perspective. Technical professionals often generate ideas,
become absorbed in following them, and wander off the organisation’s strategic path. The
leader must focus that energy by providing a vision of where the organisation is today and
where it is heading.
• They build: and encourage champions. Taking ownership of an innovative idea and
running with it is a powerful professional development experience. The leader’s
responsibility is to nurture and protect the fragile growth of ideas that might otherwise be
trampled by the bureaucracy or uprooted by someone uneasy with the unfamiliar.
• They facilitate: career development. Although career development is primarily the
technical professional’s responsibility, effective leaders take a proactive role in encouraging
it.
Encouraging innovation requires shifts in fundamental management techniques; the most
important of which may be the use of teamwork. Science and technology are becoming too
complex for most technical professionals to be able to make meaningful contributions on their
own. More and more basic inventions, minor and major breakthroughs, and creative
inspirations come from group collaborations.
The technical professional’s need for autonomy, achievement, professional growth, and
challenge finds its fullest satisfaction when the structure of the job and the relationship with
the manager promote and support self-management for the employee.
• Sharing information: Information enhances a sense of empowerment. Professionals who
receive as much information as possible about a project have much higher motivational
levels.
• Delegating responsibility: The delegation of meaningful tasks and responsibilities is
enriching and empowering. Technical leaders who seek opportunities to delegate and who
skill fully communicate and transfer responsibilities maintain motivated project teams.
• Encouraging upward communication: Endorsing and reinforcing two way communication
plays a major role in facilitating self-management. This builds trust and an increased sense
of ownership in projects and organisational objectives.
Dealing with Problem Members
A great deal has been written about problem members of a group. There are an infinite
number of these, but the most common are the overly vocal member and the silent member.
Give time, the group may in its own way silence the vocal member. If not, the leaders can
incorporate the following:
• Avoid eye contact with him or her, thus decreasing the opportunity for admission to
discussion

• Deliberately call on other members of the group;

Say, “Mr. Shah, we’ve heard a great deal from you – let’s hear some other viewpoints.”
• If all else fails, the leader can take the vocal member aside at a break and suggest privately
that others have contributions to make, which he or she is inhibiting.
• To encourage a silent member, it is helpful to know the reasons for the silence. Does he or
she feel too inexperienced? The leader can suggest, “Let’s hear from someone else who
has a fresh viewpoint.” Does the silent member feel “above it all”? One solution is to say,
“Mr. Mehta has had a great deal of experience in this”. Could you give us some of your
views, ____?”
• Or maybe the silent member just doesn’t feel like participating at the moment. He or she
should be left alone for a while.
Conclusion
There is a need to look into training within technology-ridden organisations to develop
technical leaders who can address the special needs of professionals. Such training will enable
organisations to realize the highest degrees of innovation, teamwork, and sustained
commitment among technical professionals. It will also enable to develop the individuals with
the successful qualities of a leader.
A leader has to be natural. An artificial presence can prevent the leader from being natural,
balanced, and rounded. Leaders need each of those qualities, because if they have to waste
energy constraining their natural selves then the necessary freedom to be creative and
intuitive will be destroyed. The leader needs to be relatively objective in judgements.
Although great leaders do not need to be perfect, they need to know how to take the
organisation to ever-greater heights of achievement.
The leader needs to be strategic, visionary, attractive, and fun to work for. Above all, the
leader needs to be creative, because creativity is the vital catalyst for the creation of wealth,
excitement and fun. Creativity is one of those special attributes that give meaning to life.
Today’s organisation needs liberating leadership, enabling those in managerial roles to harness
the skills and talents of everyone in their particular section. As liberating leaders, they create
situations where continuous improvement can occur. They demonstrate, by their own
behaviour, how people can be liberated to maximize their skills. They recognize the need for
continuing change and urge everyone to meet the challenges that brings, supporting and
encouraging them to reach their full potential.
In a liberating environment, managers no longer have to take command and control of
everything, with a responsibility for all decision-making. Instead, they must become
facilitators, coaches, enablers and supporters, encouraging those closest to the tasks to take
their own decisions. Liberating leadership should be promoted at all levels of an organisation.
It represents a radically new form of leadership that rejects position, status and hierarchy. In
short, liberating leadership is Democracy at Work.
A leader listens to the ideas, needs, aspirations, and wishes of the followers and then within
the context of his own well-developed system of beliefs, responds to these in an appropriate
fashion. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The true leader enables his
followers to realise their full potential, both personal and corporate. He is responsible, for
identifying, developing and nurturing future leadership. Effective leaders encourage contrary
opinions, which to them is an important source of vitality. Leaders owe a clear statement of
values to the organisation. These values should be well understood, be agreed to and shape
out corporate and individual behaviour. Good leaders owe their followers certain maturity and
corporate rationality. Maturity is expressed in a sense of self-worth and belonging, a sense of
expectancy and responsibility, a sense of accountability and equality.
Effective leaders owe their people space, in the sense of freedom. Finally, the most important
of all, leaders are responsible for effectiveness. They are responsible for doing the right thing
and must deal with it personally; realising effectiveness comes through enabling people to
reach their potential - both, personal and corporate potential.
Bk P139 Pg. 1,3,4,8,11,14,15
Efficiency in industry and commerce depends upon the maximization of the resources available
– financial, technical and human. The most important and the most difficult is the
maximization of the human resources, which, at its best, amounts to effective leadership.
Too often a man is made a foreman because he is a good craftsman, or he is made a manager
because he is a good chemist, engineer, accountant or salesman, but he receives no training in
management skills. Little wonder he sometimes fails or manages without distinction. A
manager must, of course, have the technical competence necessary to achieve the results

required, but he must also have the requisite understanding and skill needed in his unique
position of having to get work done by others, that is, to lead others.
As some of the older methods of motivation become less effective, the importance of the
leader increases. In an era of high employment, fear of the sack is fortunately no longer the
driving force it once was. Bonuses and similar financial incentives are limited in what they can
achieve; and as the amounts rise men can afford to take value judgments as to whether to
work less hard for less money. Good fringe benefits and welfare provisions may attract people
to an organization, but they will not, in the long germ, affect performance on the job.
Moreover, in many fields the satisfaction provided by the job itself is no longer an incentive as
the skills which gave the job its interest are superseded by new machinery or automatic control
mechanisms.
More and more the manager has to stand or fall by his own performance as a leader. The
responsibility for ensuring that each person gives of his best to his work rests squarely with
him, whether he be called departmental head, chief accountant, office manager,
superintendent or foreman. He is responsible and accountable for the work of his
subordinates. He has to get work done through them, and his aim must be to make full use of
their strengths, abilities and qualities, minimize the effects of their deficiencies and, where
possible, constantly try to improve their performance.
This is the object of effective leadership. It makes sense both psychologically and
economically. For most individuals it is important that their abilities should be fully used. For
the enterprise and for the country it is essential that manpower shall not be wasted.
There is an ever increasing demand for managers who are also effective leaders.
How then can a manager improve his performance as a leader? Basically his effectiveness as a
leader depends on this ability to influence, and be influenced by, the group and its members in
the implementation of a common task.
In practice this means:
(4) ensuring that the required TASKS are continually achieved
(5) meeting the NEEDS OF HIS GORUP for team-work and team-spirit
(6) meeting the NEEDS OF EACH INDIVIDUAL member of the group.
The successful leader functions in all three areas, often simultaneously. (Examples of actual
leadership actions in each of them are given in the respective check lists on pages 6, 9 and
12.)
These three areas interact upon each other. A simple model illustrates this:
Task
Team Individual
Maintenance Needs
The circles overlap. If the task circle is backed out, so too are large segments of the group and
individual circles. Thus lack of attention to the task causes disruption in the group and
dissatisfaction to the individual. Conversely, achievement of objectives is essential if group
and individual morale is to be high.
Black out the group needs circle from the model and the other two are affected. Unless the
leader actively sees that the needs of the group, as a group, are satisfied, his chances of
achieving the required results, in the long term, are jeopardized.
Ignore the needs of the individual and the effectiveness of both task and team is reduced.
The areas of group and individual needs may also be looked on as storage batteries, which
may from time to time become exhausted – for instance after a period of high pressure. In this
case the leader must see that they are re-changed by paying them extra attention.
Meeting Individual Needs
We must not forget that each member of the group needs; to continue to live and express
himself as an individual; to provide for those dependent upon him; to find satisfaction in his

work and his recreation; to win acceptance by those groups of which he feels a member. In
ofer to satisfy these needs he must exert himself – he must get involved.
Fortunately for the manager, there is a high coincidence between these needs and his own
obligation to achieve results through the best use of resources – in this case, human.
If the degree of motivation is to be sufficient to give satisfaction at work he:
• 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
• must feel that the job itself is challenging, is demanding the best of him, is giving him
the responsibility to match his capability
• must receive adequate recognition for his achievements
• must have control over those aspects of his job which have been delegated to him
• must feel that he, as an individual, is developing, that he is advancing in experience
and ability.
To provide the right ‘climate’ and the opportunities for these needs to be met for each
individual in the group is probably the most difficult but certainly the most challenging and
rearding task of the leader.
Team Maintenance
Although we are employed by companies on the basis of individual contracts, it is in groups or
teams that the majority of our work is conducted – in the design office, the purchasing section,
the ‘twilight’ shift, the ‘heavy’ gang.
A group exists as an entity and, as with individuals, no two groups are alike. A group has
power to set its own standards of behaviour and performance and to impose them even when
contrary to the interest of the individual and the organization.
The successful leader understands that a group has its own personality, its own personality, its
own paper, its own attitudes, its own standards and its own needs. He achieves his success by
taking these things into account. He has constantly to respond to the needs of the group. At
times this means withdrawing from his position ‘way out front’ and concentrating on ‘serving
those who serve him’. On these occasions he is prepared to represent the group and speak
with its voice. At the same time he avoid ‘over-identifying’ with the group.
The key functions of the leader in meeting group needs are:
• To set and maintain group objectives and group standards.
• To involve the group as a whole in the achievement of objectives.
• To maintain the unity of the group and to see that dissident activity is minimized
Performance of the Role
Most of what has been said up till now in this book, and in particular the check lists, concern
the leader’s analysis of the task, of the group, and of the individual needs. The leader then
takes a decision and acts.
It would be wrong to conclude, however, that just anyone attempting to go through the actions,
the function of the leader described here, would inevitably be an effective leader.
How he performs these necessary actions, his ‘style of leadership’, is another factor and on this
will depend his acceptance or rejection by the group and the individuals composing it. He must
be sufficiently sensitive to the needs of the situation to know when it would be right, for
example, to take decisions and actions directly himself; when to consult the group before
deciding; when to consult the group before deciding; when to delegate. He also learns to be
flexible and to suit his actions to the requirements of the often changing occasion.
Factors affecting his style of leadership include:
• those in the situation – is it a precedent? Will company policy be affected?
• Those in the individuals and the group – are they capable of contributing usefully to a
right decision? It is the overall advantage to push more responsibility down to them?
The main factor, however, is that of the ‘person’ of the leader himself. Perhaps a better word
for this is integrity, in the sense of the ‘wholeness and the wholesomeness’ of the man.
This integrity is best seen reflected in the sort of comment a subordinate makes about a
respected manager who is also a successful leader:
• He is ‘human’ and treats us as human beings.
• He has no favourites; he doesn’t bear grudges.
• It is easy to talk to him – he listens and you can tell he listens.
• He keeps his word and he is honest.
• He doesn’t dodge unpleasant issues.
• He explains why – or else why he can’t

• He’s fair with his praise as well as his criticisms and he criticizes without making an
enemy of you.
• He is fair to us as well as the company.
• He drives himself hard so you don’t mind him expecting the best of you.
Bk. Q58 – Pg. 98,99

Leadership concerns the total manner in which a manager influences actions of subordinates.
First, it includes the issuing of orders that are clear, complete, and within the capabilities of
subordinates to accomplish. Second, it implies a continual training activity in which
subordinates are given instruction to enable them to carry out the particular assignment in the
existing situation. Third, it necessarily involves the motivation of workers to try to meet ht
expectations of the manager. Fourth, it consists of maintaining discipline and rewarding those
who perform properly. In short, leading is the final action of a manager in getting others to act
after all preparations have been completed.
The manner is which activities are directed depends upon the manager’s own personal traits
and the situation involved. In leadership, more than any other function. The manager must
determine an approach alone, after surveying the possibilities that are open. Each manager
will do well to act as an individual and not to try to act as others act or to proceed according to
the textbook. Moreover, a manager will be involved in various situations calling for different
approaches. If subordinates are unskilled and need detailed instructions, the manager may
find the direct, simple order advisable. If the subordinates are highly educated persons in a
research activity, a permissive and consultative approach may be advisable. In cases of
emergency, the manager may assume a ‘take charge’ role and give short, clear authoritative
commands, whereas if action is not pressing, a deliberate and analytical attitude may be
appropriate.
Bk P111 Pg. 293
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality” - Warren G. Bennis
Bk P111 Pg. 295-299

Leadership is a Mutual Influence Process
The discussion on the nature of leadership till now makes a reader believe that leadership is
unidirectional, i.e., the leader influencing his followers. It is true that leadership refers to the
influence of the leader on followers. At the same time, the characteristics of employees and
their tasks do yield influence on the leader. Leadership is, therefore, a mutual influence
process.
Leader’s Influence on Followers: Why is leader able to influence his followers? What
makes followers simply obey whatever their leader says? A leader is able to change the
behaviour of his followers because he enjoys power which comes to him from at least five
sources. They are: (1) reward power which refers to the leader’s capacity to reward
followers. (2) coercive power which is the flip side of reward power and refers to the leader’s
capacity to coerce or punish followers, (3) legitimate power which refers to the power a
leader possesses as a result of occupying a particular position or role in the organization, (4)
expert power that refers to power that a leader possesses as a result of his knowledge and
expertise regarding the tasks to be performed by subordinates; and (5) referent power which
is dependent upon the extent to which subordinates identify with, look up to, and wish to
emulate the leader.
Followers’ Influence on Leader: The fact that the followers and situations will influence
their leader is a recent discovery. Several sources of influence on the leader’s behaviour are
identified. The more important of them are: (1) responses or performance of subordinates; (2)
characteristics of subordinates, namely, male or female, young or old, personal background,
and the like; (3) the nature of the task; (4) organizational policy and climate; (5) peers and
their influence on the leader; and (6) influence of superiors on the leader.
The importance of leadership is too well-known to need any emphasis.
Leadership is the process of committing a group of people to specific goals. Without
leadership, an organization would be what the sage Valmiki wrote in the Ramayana:
“Like a heard of cattle without a keeper
Like an army without a general

Like a night without moon

Like a group of cows without a bull
Such would be the country
Where the king is not seen.
A leader not only commits his followers to organizational goals, he also pools needed
resources, guides, and motivates subordinates to reach the goals.
The leadership process is similar in effect to that of the secret chemical that turns the insect
pupa into a butterfly with all the beauty that was the pupa’s potential. Leadership, then,
transforms potential into reality. This role is often seen in giant firms and tiny units. In all
cases, leadership is the ultimate act that identifies, develops, and uses the potential that is in
an organization and its people.
Leadership is not the mere using of people and their potential for realizing an organisation’s
goals. It has the ultimate aim of raising the level of human conduct and ethical aspiration of
both the leader and the led. This aspect of leadership is what Burns calls the transforming
leadership. The leader should elevate, inspire, and evangelize his followers to higher things in
life.
High sounding words indeed! In reality, effect of leadership on organizational effectiveness
seems to be relative because of the following possibilities
• Poorly performing organizations find it difficult to attract best leaders.
• Not all leaders have the same abilities and experience.
• Environmental and organizational factors can override any effects the leader may have.
• Organizations continue to flourish even after the change of leadership.
Formal and Informal Leadership
Formal leadership occurs when a manager leads by exercising formal authority. The exercise
of formal authority through such acts as assigning duties derives, from the manager’s official
position within the organization’s hierarchy of authority. Any employee who is assigned a
managerial position has the opportunity and responsibility to exercise formal leadership in
relation to subordinates. Some managers have a better understanding of the authority and
formal relationship with subordinates provided by a managerial position; they are more
influential in ensuring that subordinates’ work effort are productive. These managers are better
leaders.
Informal leadership arises when a person without formal authority is influential in directing the
behaviour of others. Although not formally appointed or elected, he becomes a leader through
his actions or personal attractions.
Formal and informal leadership coexist in almost every work situation. Manager must often
work with subordinates who defer to a strong informal leader within their peer group.
Managers themselves may act as formal leaders in some situations and as informal leaders in
others. When acting as a formal leader, the manager follows the chain of command and exerts
influence downward in the hierarchy of authority from manager to subordinates. By contrast,
when acting as an informal leader, the manager influences employees outside the formal
organizational chain of command. Interpersonal charisma or persuasiveness is required for
informal leadership because the informal leader lacks formal authority.
Bk P111 Pg. 323-328
Transformational Leadership
In explaining the concept of transformational leadership, two styles of leadership are talked of.
The are : transactional and transformational. Transactional leaders determine what
subordinates needs to do to achieve their own and organizational objectives, classify those
requirements, and help subordinates becomes confident that they can reach their objectives
by expending the necessary efforts. The styles leadership we discussed till now belong to the
transactional leadership. Transformational leadership implies a process whereby an individual
attempts to elevate his or her consciousness ( chetana ) so that various common place
conflicts and dualities begin at higher levels of synthesis. Stated differently, transformational
leadership attempts to change the whole organization from one “style” or “culture” to another.
As was pointed in the beginning of this chapter, transformational leadership has the ultimate
aim of raising the level of human conduct and ethical aspiration of both the leader and the led.
The leader’s main thrust is to elevate, inspire, and evangelize his followers ( and himself or
herself ) to higher things in life.
The late J.R.D. Tata comes to one’s memory in the context. His qualities of head and heart
moved everybody who ever came into contact with him. If Tata group of companies stand
distinct in our corporate world – in terms of profitability, professional management and social

responsiveness – credit goes to the transformational leadership of J.R.D. Transformational

leaders are characterized by distinct skills. They are: (1) anticipatory skills – foresight into a
constantly changing environment; (2) visionary skills – a process of persuasion and example by
which a person or leadership team induces a group to take action in accord with the leader’s
purposes or, more likely the shared purposes of a larger group; (3) value – congruence skills –
the need of corporate leader to be in touch with employees; economic, safety, psychological,
spiritual, sexual, aesthetic, and physical needs tin order to engage people on the basis of
shared motives, values, and goals; (4) empowerment skills – the willingness to share power
and to do so effectively; and (5) self-understanding – introspective or self-understanding skills
as well as frameworks within which leaders understand both their own needs and goals of
those of their employees.
Situation-style match
Situation Recommended Leadership Style
1. People in a state of confusion or panic High task and low relationship or
because of crisis such as materials authoritarian.
shortage, equipment failure, or natural
disaster.
2. Complex technology, inexperienced High task and low relationship at the outset.
employees.
3. Undesirable, repetitive job, average High relationship and low task.
employees.
4. Self-sufficient, capable, workers Low task and low relationship or free-rein.
performing job they enjoy.
5. Employees dislike working, job is High relationship and high task.
undesirable.
6. Start-up of new operation, job descriptions High relationship and high task.
are vague.
7. Group of people “doing time” until High relationship and low task.
retirement.
8. Inexperienced but well meaning High relationship and high task.
employees.
9. Repetitive work; employees with High relationship and low task.
average motivation.
10. Employees are performing independent High task; emphasis on relationship depends
tasks requiring coordination by leader. on emotional maturity of employees.
11. Emotionally immature employees; High task and low relationship.
average skill level.
12. Employees are child like or “prima High relationship and low task.
donnas” but talented.
We need more of transformational leaders for our economy. Our economy is now thrown open
for global competition. Foreign companies are entering our country in a large number. In
order to maintain our own identity and to sustain our ethos and at the same time to accept
what is good for our business we need more transformal leaders. Specifically, we need more of
J.R.D. Tatas.
Charismatic Leadership
Charisma is a leadership trait that can help influence employees to take early and sustained
action. Charismatic leaders are dynamic risk-takers who show their expertise and self-
confidence, express high performance expectations, and use symbols and language of inspire
others. They can also be warm mentors who treat employees individually and guide them to
take action.
What is the effect of charismatic leadership on followers’ performance and satisfaction? There
is positive correlation between charismatic leadership and high performance and satisfaction
among followers. People working for charismatic leaders are motivated to work extra, because
they like their leader, express greater satisfaction.
But charismatic leadership may not always be needed to achieve high levels of employee
performance. It may be most appropriate when the follower’s task has an ideological
component. This may explain why, when charismatic leaders surface, it is more likely to be in
politics, religion, wartime, or when a business firm is introducing a radically new product or
facing a life-threaturning crisis. Such conditions tend to involve ideological concerns.
Behavioural components of charismatic and noncharismatic leaders

Noncharismatic Leader Charismatic Leader

Relation to Status Quo Essentially agrees with status quo Essentially opposed to status
and strives to maintain it quo and strives to change it
Future Goal Goal not too discrepant from Idealized vision which is highly
status quo discrepant from status quo
Likableness Shared perspective makes Shared perspective and

him/her likable. idealized vision makes him/her
a likable and honorable hero
worthy of identification and
imitation.
Trust worthiness Disinterested advocacy in Disinterested advocacy by

persuasion attempts incurring great personal risk
and cost.
Expertise Expert in using available means to Expert in using unconventional

achieve goals within the means to transcend the existing
framework of the existing order order.
Behaviour Conventional, conforming to Unconventional or

existing norms counternormative
Environmental Low need for environmental High need for environmental

Sensitivity sensitivity to maintain status quo sensitivity for changing the
status quo
Articulation Weak articulation of goals and Strong articulation of future

motivation to lead vision and motivation to lead
Power Base Position power and personal Personal power ( based on

power (based on reward, expertise, respect, and
expertise, and liking for a friend admiration for a unique hero )
who is a similar other)
Leader-Follower Egalitarian, consensus seeking, or Elitist, entrepreneur, and

directive exemplary
Nudges or orders people to share Transforms people to the
his/her views radical changes advocated
Charismatic leaders may become a liability to an organization once the crisis and need for
dramatic change subside. This is so because, in times of peace, charmistic leader’s
overwhelming self-confidence often becomes a liability. He or she is unable to listen to others,
becomes uncomfortable when challenged by aggressive subordinates, and begins to hold an
unjustifiable belief in his or her “rightness” or issues.
Peter F. Drucker observes that charisma makes a leader inflexible convinced of his own
infallibility, with inability to change. “History Knows” writes he, “no more charismatic leaders
than this century’s triad of Stalin, Hitler, and Mao – the misleaders who inflicted as much evil
and suffering on humanity as have ever been recorded. This is what happened to Stalin, Hitler
and Mao, and it is a commonplace in the study of ancient history, that only Alexander the
Great’s early death saved him from becoming an ineffectual failure”.

There is a distinct link between leadership and change, especially change, that is imposed and
can be seen as unwanted but necessary change. We can think of change as being confronted
with different circumstances requiring different responses and behaviours on our part, which
need to become ingrained ways of how we conduct ourselves. Dealing effectively with change
is essentially about being able to alter previous behaviour and develop different behavioural
practices that are adequate for changed circumstances. This requires learning, which
presupposes the development of different ways of observing and taking action.
A leader should be flexible and adaptable in being able to foresee and deal with change in
order to stay competitive. The notion of the learning organisation was popularized a number of
years ago, and what is required now are leaders and who are flexible and adaptable learners.
Organisations have been likened to living systems. Just as living systems need to adapt to
changes in the environment in order to survive, so do people and the groups they are part of.
Biologically it has been shown that adapting is about learning, about not remaining trapped in
habitual ways of being and responding. The demands nowadays are for business leaders to be
willing to become different observers of what is required; it is through observing differently
that creative and innovative responses are generated.
Leaders are also, required to do more than that. Their way of being, their ways of observing
and acting, also need to be influential in shifting others as learners. To be able to move others
out of their traditional ways of observing and learning without alienating them, so that the
collective wisdom that resides with many organisational employees becomes an invaluable
resource in dealing with the change process.

• Is there “buy in” to the vision and does it address the primary concerns of employees?
• How acutely are the leaders listening to others, and if they aren’t what are they missing?
• How do the leaders rate as learners? And
• To what extent do their conversational actions generate new insights, productive actions
and positive results from others?

Technical professionals are highly specialized and managing them according to traditional
principles may meet with only minimal success.
Technical professionals want autonomy:

They are frequently achievement-orientated people who seek motivation from their work.
Technical professionals’ desire for autonomy usually means that they want a large role in
setting goals and making decisions. Many would prefer to manage themselves.
Technical professionals need a sense of achievement:

They often find the greatest challenge in tasks that require high levels of skill and effort; they
want to do difficult jobs well and make significant accomplishments.
Support and recognition from management and colleagues also generates commitment, along
with their organisation’s and their profession’s acceptance and recognition of the results they
achieve.
Technical professionals fear burnout:

Burnout happens when the professional loses a sense of accomplishment from work, is
emotionally exhausted, and feels powerless to influence change.
A fear of obsolescence often accompanies this. When skills are underutilized, apathy, burnout,
or alienation may result.
Technical professionals are loyal to their profession first:

Loyalty to the company often is second. College graduates in entry-level marketing positions,
for example, are more apt to align career objectives with the company promotion path than are
entering engineers or accountants.

Technical professionals resist participating in company missions:

With their tendency to pursue professional goals first and their need for control over their work,
technical professionals are more resistant than are most occupational groups to committing to
mandate organisation goals.
Technical professionals need collegial support, stimulation, and sharing:

The potential for competition is high among bright, ambitious people with strong egos. It can
cause insecurity for some. That insecurity can reduce risk taking and, in time, take a toll on
innovation.
Collegial support is important to these professionals, many of whom seek an environment that
uses the energy derived from different knowledge and experience base. Technical leaders
must manage a productive balance between teamwork and individual creativity.
Special knowledge, strategies, and tactics would be a substantial challenge to leadership

candidates with high levels of interpersonal skill and aptitude. The challenge is even greater
for most technical leaders, who often come to management positions because of their
technical competence, not their inter-personal abilities. Many such leaders assume their
responsibilities without adequate role models. And while superior technical ability can
influence short-term managerial success, interpersonal effectiveness is necessary for a
technical leader’s long-term achievement.
In general, technical leaders who come from technological backgrounds have abilities,
personalities, and interests that are oriented more towards things than people. They can
manage the technical aspects of the job but are not adept at managing the people involved in
it. But the fast-paced, competitive world of technology requires balanced leaders who are
responsive to the needs of technical professionals and to the organisation’s strategic
objectives.
Most technical professionals have aptitudes that do not focus on interpersonal skills; their
education leaves little room, if any, for courses in behaviour science. In addition, the
organisation hires them on the basis of technical competence, and most of them work for
someone whose orientation is similar – heavily technical, and light on people skills. The
training functions in technology-orientated organisations must know how to compensate for
that lack.
Technical professionals are more self-directed than most occupational groups, so classic
management prescriptions -–with the manager as a controller of work – are likely to be
demotivating.
Coach for peak performance
The most effective technical leaders are coaches; they listen, ask questions, facilitate,
integrate, and provide administrative support. They develop ideas rather than demonstrate
power by withholding it. They encourage self-management rather than promote dependency.
Coaching strategies and their accompanying skills are most notable in three critical leadership
situations:

• Aligning individual and organisational goals: The most effective technical leaders are
sensitive to blending individual and organisational goals through a balanced leadership
approach that relies heavily on coaching. They are able to use technology to serve market
needs while remaining sensitive to the needs of the technical professional.
• Making performance analysis: Successful technical leaders bring their critical and logical
thinking to the analysis of performance problems – missed deadlines and cost overruns, for
example. They are good at determining whether a performance discrepancy is due to a
skill deficiency (rarely the case) or to inappropriate performance consequences (usually the
case).
As a result, the technical professionals they manage quickly address and correct
performance deficiencies.
• Managing Change: Change is a way of life in the technical organisation; the leader is often
the one who determines whether people resist or welcome it.
Many technical professionals welcome change, challenge, and variety. But further
investigation usually turns up a leader who coaches them through change by making
certain that they know the reasons for it. An effective coach also involves technical
professionals extensively in the implementation of change.
Successful leaders teach subordinates how to take advantage of organisational opportunities,

such as engaging in a high-visibility project that might resolve a major quality issue. They are
also quick to remove organisational obstructions from the path to innovation. They do so by
• Providing resources to support creative endeavors
• Preventing the organisational bureaucracy from interfering with the technical professional’s
work
• Taking steps to gain management support for a professional’s idea or proposal.
Enriching the job is an important strategy for motivating the technical professional. Variety, an
emphasis on performance over process, and challenge must be integral parts of the work.
The most effective technical leaders address three critical components of professional
development:
• They provide: the business perspective. Technical professionals often generate ideas,
become absorbed in following them, and wander off the organisation’s strategic path. The
leader must focus that energy by providing a vision of where the organisation is today and
where it is heading.
• They build: and encourage champions. Taking ownership of an innovative idea and
running with it is a powerful professional development experience. The leader’s
responsibility is to nurture and protect the fragile growth of ideas that might otherwise be
trampled by the bureaucracy or uprooted by someone uneasy with the unfamiliar.
• They facilitate: career development. Although career development is primarily the
technical professional’s responsibility, effective leaders take a proactive role in encouraging
it.
Encouraging innovation requires shifts in fundamental management techniques; the most

important of which may be the use of teamwork. Science and technology are becoming too
complex for most technical professionals to be able to make meaningful contributions on their
own. More and more basic inventions, minor and major breakthroughs, and creative
inspirations come from group collaborations.

The technical professional’s need for autonomy, achievement, professional growth, and
challenge finds its fullest satisfaction when the structure of the job and the relationship with
the manager promote and support self-management for the employee.
• Sharing information: Information enhances a sense of empowerment. Professionals who
receive as much information as possible about a project have much higher motivational
levels.
• Delegating responsibility: The delegation of meaningful tasks and responsibilities is
enriching and empowering. Technical leaders who seek opportunities to delegate and who
skillfully communicate and transfer responsibilities maintain motivated project teams.
• Encouraging upward communication: Endorsing and reinforcing two-way
communication plays a major role in facilitating self-management. This builds trust and an
increased sense of ownership in projects and organisational objectives.
Conclusion
There is a need to look into training within technology-ridden organisations to develop

technical leaders who can address the special needs of professionals. Such training will enable
organisations to realize the highest degrees of innovation, teamwork, and sustained
commitment among technical professionals.

Business Leadership Cii

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Исходное описание:

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Business Leadership Cii

Загружено:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Business Leadership Program 1

Organisations are like aircrafts. They don’t run by themselves, except

The Anglo-Saxon root of the words ‘lead’, ‘leader’, and ‘leadership’ is

Leadership is the most important means of direction. To lead is to guide,

Leadership deals more with ideas, beliefs and relationships. Hence, it

Leadership is defined as “a process in which one person sets the

In the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences leadership has been defined as

For Private Circulation Only

Business Leadership – Myth or Reality

Business Leadership – The Paradigm Shift

Who is an Effective Business Leader?

How to Acquire Business Leadership Skills

To be a good business leader, one needs to develop an articulated vision.

For Private Circulation Only

• The leader should create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately

Approaches to Business Leadership Style

• A business leader is an influential person. His ideas flow into the

How a Business Leader Fosters Achievement Motivation

Ways by which a leader infuses sustained achievement motivation are:

For Private Circulation Only

• Measuring motivation of each individual to provide an indication of

How a Business Leader Creates an Environment for Team

A business leader creates a cohesive, dynamic team by:

For Private Circulation Only

Issues in leadership – traits, personality, styles etc

The Key Traits of Leaders

The vital traits of a leader are:

- Ability to get into leadership positions.

The ability to get into leadership positions - This is best observed in

The competency to arrive at good quality judgment than any

The capacity for survival – Leaders survive because they manage to

The potential to select effective subordinates - Having to dismiss a

The capability to inspire ‘ordinary’ people to perform above par –

The efficiency to make a profound difference to the organisation

The Key Skills of Leaders

The vital skills of leaders are as follows:

Communication skills - As competence is ineffective without

Numerical skills - In addition to the verbal ability, the leader in the

measure themselves and are measured by others with numbers).

Skill to assess People - An ability to assess people and their skills

Work effectively under pressure - A great leader has the ability to

Relaxation – A leader needs to know when to relax. This will be

Inspiring followers - Leaders who encourage people to strive for and

Common Characteristics of Leaders

Leaders share certain common characteristics which infuse the whole of

For Private Circulation Only

It would be wrong to conclude that just anyone attempting to go through

Factors affecting a leader’s style of leadership include:

For Private Circulation Only

• He explains why – or else why he can’t

Of course, to be an effective leader in business, one has to have a

Styles of a Leader – Situational Leadership

For Private Circulation Only

(LOW) Task Behaviour (HIGH)

Maturity of Follower (s)

Task behaviour is the extent to which a leader provides direction for

Relationship behaviour is the extent to which a leader engages in two-

The figure portrays the relationship between task-relevant maturity and

The maturity of followers is a question of degree. As can be seen in the

For Private Circulation Only

Managerial Grid Styles

Team Leadership: Production is achieved by the integration of task and

A Manager should aim to move towards Team Leadership, which is ideal