Nature of Leadership

What Does It Mean to Be a

Leader?

Definition of Leadership

Leadership is an influence
relationship among leaders
and followers who intend real
changes and outcomes that
reflect their shared purposes.

Ex. 1.1 What Leadership Involves

Influence

Followers

Leader

Shared
purpose

Intention

Personal
responsibility
and integrity

Change

Leadership is a peoples activity and

is different from administrative paper
work or planning activities
Good followers
Effective leader
Effective Follower

Leadership and the business of

living
Consider a leader
Leadership that has big outcomes
often start small
Opportunities for leadership

The new reality of leadership

A survey say that 84 % of the leaders
surveyed say that the definition of
effective leadership is changed in the
first few years of leadership

Ex. 1.2 The New Reality for

Leadership
OLD Paradigm
Stability
Control
Competition
Uniformity
Self-centered
Hero

NEW Paradigm
Change/crisis mgt.
Empowerment
Collaboration
Diversity
Higher purpose
Humble

Leadership and the wall street

meltdown
Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and
ArtherAnderson
Problems arises with loan originators
Failure of responsible leadership

Management and Vision

Management is the attainment of
organizational goals in an effective and
efficient manner through planning,
organizing, staffing, directing, and
controlling organizational resources.

Vision is a picture of an ambitious,

desirable future for the organization or
team

Ex. 1.3 Comparing Management

and Leadership
Management

Leadership

Direction

Planning and budgeting

Keeping eye on bottom line

Creating vision and strategy

Keeping eye on horizon

Alignment

Organizing and staffing

Directing and controlling
Creating boundaries

Creating shared culture and

values
Helping others grow
Reducing boundaries

Relationships

Focusing on objects
producing/selling goods and
services
Based on position power
Acting as boss

Focusing on people inspiring

and motivating followers
Based on personal power
Acting as coach, facilitator,
servant

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Ex. 1.3 (contd.)

Management

Leadership

Personal Qualities

Emotional distance
Expert mind
Talking
Conformity
Insight into organization

Emotional connections (Heart)

Open mind (Mindfulness)
Listening (Communication)
Nonconformity (Courage)
Insight into self (Character)

Outcomes

Maintains stability; creates

culture of efficiency

Creates change and a culture

of integrity

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Position power
A written, spoken, or implied contract
wherein people accept either a
superior or subordinate role and see
the use of coercive as well as
noncoercive behavior as an
acceptable way of achieving
desirable results.

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Theories of Leadership
Great Man Theories
Trait Theories
Behavior Theories
Contingency Theories
Influence Theories
Relational Theories

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Great man theories

TheGreat Man theoryis a 19th-century
idea according to whichhistorycan be
largely explained by the impact of "great
men", orheroes: highly influential
individuals who, due to either their
personalcharisma,intelligence,wisdom,
or political skill utilized theirpowerin a
way that had a decisive historical impact.
The theory was popularized in the 1840s
by Scottish writerThomas Carlyle.
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Trait Theories
The trait model of leadership is based
on the characteristics of many leaders
- both successful and unsuccessful and is used to predict leadership
effectiveness. The resulting lists of
traits are then compared to those of
potential leaders to assess their
likelihood of success or failure.
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Trait Theories.
Scholars taking the trait approach attempted to
identify physiological (appearance, height, and
weight), demographic (age, education and
socioeconomic background), personality, selfconfidence, and aggressiveness), intellective
(intelligence, decisiveness, judgment, and
knowledge), task-related (achievement drive,
initiative, and persistence), and social
characteristics (sociability and cooperativeness)
with leader emergence and leader effectiveness.

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Trait Theories
Successful leaders definitely have interests,
abilities, and personality traits that are
different from those of the less effective
leaders. Through many researches conducted in
the last three decades of the 20th century, a set of
core traits of successful leaders have been
identified. These traits are not responsible solely to
identify whether a person will be a successful
leader or not, but they are essentially seen as
preconditions that endow people with leadership
potential.
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Core Traits
Among the core traits identified are:
Achievement drive: High level of effort, high levels
of ambition, energy and initiative
Leadership motivation: an intense desire to lead
others to reach shared goals
Honesty and integrity: trustworthy, reliable, and
open
Self-confidence: Belief in ones self, ideas, and
ability

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Core traits
Cognitive ability: Capable of exercising
good judgment, strong analytical abilities,
and conceptually skilled
Knowledge of business: Knowledge of
industry and other technical matters
Emotional Maturity: well adjusted, does not
suffer from severe psychological disorders.
Others: charisma, creativity and flexibility

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Behavior Theories
The Behavioral Theory of Leadership.
In response to the early criticisms of
the trait approach, theorists began to
research leadership as a set of
behaviors. They evaluated what
successful leaders did, developed a
taxonomy of actions, and identified
broad patterns that indicated different
leadership styles.
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There are two important Behavioral studies
Ohio State University (1940s)
As leadership studies that were aimed at identifying
the appropriate traits didn't yield any conclusive
results, a group of people from Ohio State University
developed a list of 150 statements from their
generated responses that included 1,800 hundred
statements. The list was designed to measure nine
different behavioral leadership dimensions. The
resulting questionnaire is now well-known as the
LBDQ or the Leaders Behavior Description
Questionnaire.
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As part of the study, the LBDQ was administered
to various groups of individuals ranging from
college students and their administrators, private
companies including military personnel. One of the
primary purposes of the study was to identify
common leadership behaviors. After compiling and
analyzing the results, the study led to the
conclusion that there were two groups of behaviors
that were strongly correlated. These were defined
as Consideration (People Oriented behavioral
Leaders) and Initiating Structure (Task Oriented
Leaders).
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Task oriented leaders

The task concerned leaders are focusing their
behaviors on the organizational structure, the
operating procedures (S.O.P.) and they like to
keep control. Task-oriented leaders are still
concern with their staff motivation; however it's not
their main concern. They will favor behaviors that
are in line with:
Initiating
Organizing
Clarifying
Information Gathering
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People oriented leaders

The people oriented leaders are focusing their
behaviors on ensuring that the inner needs of the
people are satisfied. Thus they will seek to motivate
their staff through emphasizing the human relation.
People oriented leaders still focus on the task and the
results; they just achieve them through different
means. Leaders with a people focus will have
behaviors that are in line with:
Encouraging
Observing
Listening
Coaching and Mentoring
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University of Michigan
Lead by the famous organizational
(1950s)

psychologist, Dr. Rensis Likert, the leadership

studies at the University of Michigan identified
three characteristics of effective leadership;
two of which were previously observed in
studies that had been conducted at Ohio State
University. The study showed that task and
relationship-oriented behaviors weren't of
major significance within the world of
organizational psychology.
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Contingency theory
The Fiedler Contingency Model was
created in the mid-1960s by Fred
Fiedler, a scientist who studied the
personality and characteristics of
leaders. The model states that there
is no one best style of leadership.
Instead, a leader's effectiveness is
based on the situation.
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Influence Theories
Power and influence theories of
leadership take an entirely different
approach these are based on the
different ways that leaders use power
and influence to get things done, and
they look at the leadership styles that
emerge as a result.

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Relational Theory
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)
Theory (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995),
also known as the vertical dyad
linkage theory, proposes that the
quality of the relationship between the
leader and the subordinate influences
performance-related outcomes (for
both the leader and the subordinate).
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Ex. 1.4 Top Seven Reasons for

Executive Derailment
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Acting with an insensitive, abrasive, intimidating,

bullying style
Being cold, aloof, arrogant
Betraying personal trust
Being overly ambitious, self-centered, thinking of
next job, playing politics
Having specific performance problems with the
business
Overmanaging, being unable to delegate or build
a team
Being unable to select good subordinates
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Framework for study

Part 1: Introduction to Leadership
What Does It Mean to be a Leader?

Part 2: Research Perspectives on Leadership

Traits, Behaviors, and Relationships
Contingency Approaches

Part 3: The Personal Side of Leadership

The Leader as an Individual
Leadership Mind and Heart
Courage and Moral Leadership
Followership

Part 4: The Leader as a Relationship

Builder
Motivation and Empowerment
Leadership Communication
Leading Teams
Developing Leadership Diversity
Leadership Power and Influence

Part 5: The Leader as Social Architect

Creating Vision and Strategic Direction
Shaping Culture and Values
Designing and Leading a Learning Organization
Leading Change

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