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Big Dog's Leadership Page - Concept of Leadership
by Donald Clark, copyright 1997, revised 1998
Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people
who do the right thing. - Warren Benniss, Ph.D. "On Becoming a Leader"
Introduction
Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower,
you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never-ending
process of self-study, education, training, and experience. This guide
will help you through that process.
To inspire your people into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain
things you must be, know, and, do. These do not come naturally,
but are acquired through continual work and study. The best leaders
are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills.
Before we get started, lets define leadership. Leadership is a complex
process by which a person influences others to accomplish a mission, task,
or objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive
and coherent. A person carries out this process by applying her leadership
attributes (belief, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills).
Although your position as a manager, supervisor, lead, etc. gives you the
authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organization,
this power does not make you a leader...it simply makes you the
boss. Leadership makes people want to achieve high goals
and objectives, while, on the other hand, bosses tell people to accomplish
a task or objective.
Bass's theory of leadership states that there are three basic ways to
explain how people become leaders. The first two explain the leadership
development for a small number of people. These theories are:
-
Some personality traits may lead people naturally into leadership roles.
This is the Trait Theory.
-
A crisis or important event may cause a person to rise to the occasion,
which brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person.
This is the Great Events Theory.
-
People can choose to become leaders. People can learn leadership skills.
This is the Transformational Leadership Theory. It is the most widely accepted
theory today and the premise on which this guide is based.
When a person is deciding if he respects you as a leader, he does not think
about your attributes. He observes what you do so that he can know
who you really are. He uses this observation to tell if you are
a honorable and trusted leader, or a self serving person who misuses her
authority to look good and get promoted. Self serving leaders are not as
effective because their employees only obey them, not follow them. They
succeed in many areas because they present a good image to their seniors
at the expense of their people.
The basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service
to your organization. In your employees' eyes, your leadership is everything
you do that effects the organization's objectives and their well being.
A respected leader concentrates on what she is [be] (beliefs and
character), what she knows (job, tasks, human nature), and what
she does (implement, motivate, provide direction).
What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided
by those they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain
respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying
a strong vision of the future.
Principles of Leadership
To help you be, know, and do, (1) follow
these eleven principles of leadership (later sections will expand on gaining
an insight into these principles and providing tools to perform them):
-
Know yourself and seek self-improvement. In order to know yourself,
you have to understand your be, know, and do, attributes.
Seeking self-improvement means continually strengthening your attributes.
This can be accomplished through reading, self-study, classes, etc.
-
Be technically proficient. As a leader, you must know your job and
have a solid familiarity with your employees' jobs.
-
Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions. Search
for ways to guide your organization to new heights. And when things go
wrong, they will sooner or later, do not blame others. Analyze the situation,
take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.
-
Make sound and timely decisions. Use good problem solving, decision
making, and planning tools.
-
Set the example. Be a good role model for you employees. They must
not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see.
-
Know your people and look out for their well-being. Know human nature
and the importance of sincerely caring for your workers.
-
Keep you people informed. Know how to communicate with your people,
seniors, and other key people within the organization.
-
Develop a sense of responsibility in you people. Develop good character
traits within your people that will help them carry out their professional
responsibilities.
-
Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished. Communication
is the key to this responsibility.
-
Train your people as a team. Although many so called leaders call
their organization, department, section, etc. a team; they are not really
teams...they are just a group of people doing their jobs.
-
Use the full capabilities of your organization. By developing a
team spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department,
section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.
Factors of leadership
The four major factors of leadership are the:
-
Follower - Different people require different styles of leadership.
For example, a new hire requires more supervision than an experienced employee.
A person with a poor attitude requires a different approach than one with
a high degree of motivation. You must know your people! The fundamental
starting point is having a good understanding of human nature: needs, emotions,
and motivation. You must know your employees' be, know, and do
attributes.
-
Leader - You must have a honest understanding of who you are, what
you know, and what you can do. Also, note that it is the followers, not
the leader who determines if a leader is successful. If a follower does
not trust or lacks confidence in her leader, then she will be uninspired.
To be successful you have to convince your followers, not yourself or your
superiors, that you are worthy of being followed.
-
Communication - You lead through two-way communication. Much of
it is nonverbal. For instance, when you "set the example," that communicates
to your people that you would not ask them to perform anything that you
would not be willing to do. What and how you communicate either builds
or harms the relationship between you and your employees.
-
Situation - All situations are different. What you do in one leadership
situation will not always work in another situation. You must use your
judgment to decide the best course of action and the leadership style needed
for each situation. For example, you may need to confront a employee for
inappropriate behavior, but if the confrontation is too late or too early,
too harsh or too weak, then the results may prove ineffective.
Various forces will affect these factors. Examples of forces are your relationship
with your seniors, the skill of your people, the informal leaders within
your organization, and how your company is organized.
Attributes
If you are a leader that can be trusted, then the people around you will
learn to respect you. To be a good leader, there are things that you must
be, know, and do. These fall under the Leadership Framework:
-
BE a professional. Examples: Be loyal to the organization, perform
selfless service, take personal responsibility.
-
BE a professional who possess good character traits. Examples: Honesty,
competence, candor, commitment, integrity, courage, straightforward, imagination.
-
KNOW the four factors of leadership - follower, leader, communication,
situation.
-
KNOW yourself. Examples: strengths and weakness of your character,
knowledge, and skills.
-
KNOW human nature. Examples: Human needs and emotions, and how people
respond to stress.
-
KNOW your job. Examples: be proficient and be able to train others
in their tasks.
-
KNOW your organization. Examples: where to go for help, its climate
and culture, who the unofficial leaders are.
-
DO provide direction. Examples: goal setting, problem solving, decision
making, planning
-
DO implement. Examples: communicating, coordinating, supervising,
evaluating.
-
DO motivate. Examples: develop moral and esprit in the organization,
train, coach, counsel.
Environment
Every organization has a particular work environment that dictates to a
considerable degree how its leaders respond to problems and opportunities.
This is brought about by a heritage of its past leaders and its present
leaders. Leaders exert influence on the environment by three types of actions:
-
The goals and performance standards they establish.
-
The values they establish for the organization.
-
The business and people concepts they establish.
Successful organizations have good leaders who set high standards and goals
across the entire spectrum such as strategies, market leadership, plans,
presentations, productivity, quality, and reliability.
Values reflect the concern the organization has for its employees, customers,
investors, vendors, and surrounding community. These values define the
manner in how business will be conducted and what type of business the
organization will engage in.
Concepts define what products or services the organization will offer
and the methods and processes for conducting business.
These goals, values, and concepts make up the organization's "personality"
or how the organization is observed by both outsiders and insiders. This
personality defines the roles, relationships, rewards, and rites that take
place.
Roles are the positions that are defined by a set of expectations about
behavior of any job incumbent. Each role has a set of tasks and responsibilities
that may or may not be spelled out. Roles have a powerful effect on behavior
because money is paid for the performance of the role, there is prestige
attached to a role, there is a sense of accomplishment or challenge, etc.
Relationships are determined by a role's tasks. Some tasks are performed
alone, but most are carried out in relationship with others. The tasks
will determine who the role-holder is required to interact with, how often,
and towards what end. Also, the greater the interaction, the greater the
liking. This in turn leads to more frequent interaction. In human behavior,
its hard to like someone whom we have no contact with, and we tend to seek
out those we like. People tend to do what they are rewarded for, and friendship
is a powerful reward. Many tasks and behaviors that are associated with
a role are brought about by these relationships. That is, new task and
behaviors are expected of the present role holder because a strong relationship
was developed in the past, either by that role holder or a prior role holder.
There are two distinct forces that dictate how to act within an organization:
culture and climate.
Each organization has its own distinctive culture. It is a combination
of the founders, past leadership, current leadership, crises, events, history,
and size. This results in rites: the routines, rituals, and the "way we
do things." These rites impact individual behavior on what it takes to
be in good standing (the norm) and directs the appropriate behavior for
each circumstance.
The climate is the feel of the organization, the individual and shared
perceptions and attitudes of the organization's members. While the culture
is the deeply rooted nature of the organization that is a result of long-held
formal and informal systems, rules, traditions, and customs; climate is
a short-term phenomenon created by the current leadership. Climate represents
the beliefs about the "feel of the organization" by its members. This individual
perception of the "feel of the organization" comes from what the people
believe about the activities that occur in the organization. These activities
influence both individual and team motivation and satisfaction. Such activities
include:
-
How well does the leader clarify the priorities and goals of the organization?
What is expected of us?
-
What is the system of recognition, rewards, and punishments in the organization?
-
How competent are the leaders?
-
Are leaders free to make decision?
-
What will happen if I make a mistake?
Organizational climate is directly related to the leadership and management
style of the leader, based on the values, attributes, skills, and actions,
as well as the priorities of the leader. The ethical climate then is the
"feel of the organization" about the activities that have ethical content
or those aspects of the work environment that constitute ethical behavior.
The ethical climate is the feel about whether we do things right; or the
feel of whether we behave the way we ought to behave. The behavior (character)
of the leader is the most important factor that impacts the climate.
On the other hand, culture is a long-term, complex phenomenon. Culture
represents the shared expectations and self-image of the organization.
The mature values that create "tradition" or the "way we do things here."
Things are done differently in every organization. The collective vision
and common folklore that define the institution are a reflection of culture.
Individual leaders, cannot easily create or change culture because culture
is a part of the organization. Culture influences the characteristics of
the climate by its effect on the actions and thought processes of the leader.
But, everything you do as a leader will effect the climate of the organization.
Leadership Models
Leadership models help us to understand what makes leaders act the way
they do in certain situations. The ideal is not to lock yourself in to
a type of behavior discussed in the model, but to realize that every situation
calls for a different approach or behavior to be taken. Two models will
be discussed, the Four Framework Approach and the Managerial
Grid.
In the Four Framework Approach, Bolman and Deal (2) suggest
that leaders display leadership behaviors in one of four types of frameworks:
Structural, Human Resource, Political, or Symbolic. The style can either
be effective or ineffective, depending upon the chosen behavior in certain
situations.
-
Structural Framework - In an effective leadership situation the
leader is a social architect whose leadership style is analysis and design.
In an ineffective leadership situation the leader is a petty tyrant whose
leadership style is details. Structural Leaders focus on structure, strategy,
environment, implementation, experimentation, and adaptation.
-
Human Resource Framework - In an effective leadership situation
the leader is a catalyst and servant whose leadership style is support,
advocate, and empowerment. In an ineffective leadership situation the leader
is a pushover, whose leadership style is abdication and fraud. Human Resource
Leaders believe in people and communicate that belief; they are visible
and accessible; they empower, increase participation, support, share information,
and move decision making down into the organization.
-
Political Framework - In an effective leadership situation the leader
is an advocate, whose leadership style is coalition and building. In an
ineffective leadership situation the leader is a hustler, whose leadership
style is manipulation. Political leaders clarify what they want and what
they can get; they assess the distribution of power and interests; they
build linkages to other stakeholders; use persuasion first, then use negotiation
and coercion only if necessary.
-
Symbolic Framework - In an effective leadership situation the leader
is a prophet, whose leadership style is inspiration. In an ineffective
leadership situation the leader is a fanatic or fool, whose leadership
style is smoke and mirrors. Symbolic leaders view organizations as a stage
or theater to play certain roles and give impressions; these leaders use
symbols to capture attention; they try to frame experience by providing
plausible interpretations of experiences; they discover and communicate
a vision.
This model suggests that leaders can be put into one of these four categories
and there are times when one approach is appropriate and times when it
would not be. Any one of these approaches alone would be inadequate. We
should be conscious of all four approaches and not just rely on one. For
example, during a major organization change, a structural leadership style
may be more effective than a visionary leadership style; while during a
period when strong growth is needed, the visionary approach may be better.
We also need to understand ourselves as each of us tends to have a preferred
approach. We need to be conscious of this at all times and be aware of
the limitations of our favored approach.
The Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid (3) uses
two axis. "Concern for people" is plotted using the vertical axis and "Concern
for task" is along the horizontal axis. They both have a range of 1 to
9. The notion that just two dimensions can describe a managerial behavior
has the attraction of simplicity. These two dimensions can be drawn as
a graph or grid:
High 9
P 8
E 7
O 6
P 5
L 4
E 3
2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Low High
TASK
Most people would fall somewhere near the middle of the two axis. But,
by going to the extremes, that is, people who score on the far end of the
scales, we come up with four types of leaders: Authoritarian (9 on task,
1 on people), Team Leader (9 on task, 9 on people), Country Club (1 on
task, 9 on people), and Impoverished (1 on task, 1 on people).
Authoritarian Leader - high task, low relationship - 9,1: People who
get this rating are very much task oriented and are hard on their workers
(autocratic). There is little or no allowance for cooperation or collaboration.
Heavily task oriented people display these characteristics: they are very
strong on schedules; they expect people to do what they are told without
question or debate; when something goes wrong they tend to focus on who
is to blame rather than concentrate on exactly what is wrong and how to
prevent it; they are intolerant of what they see as dissent (it may just
be someone's creativity) so it is difficult for their subordinates to contribute
or develop.
Team Leader - high task, high relationship - 9,9: This type of leader
leads by positive example. She endeavors to foster a team environment in
which all team members can reach their highest potential, both as team
members and as people. She encourages the team to reach team goals as effectively
as possible, while also working tirelessly to strengthen the bonds among
the various members. They form and lead the most productive teams.
Country Club Leader - low task, high relationship - 1,9: This leader
uses predominantly reward power to maintain discipline and to encourage
the team to accomplish its goals. Conversely, she is almost incapable of
employing the more punitive coercive and legitimate powers. This inability
results from the leaders' fear that using such powers could jeopardize
her relationships with the team members.
Impoverished Leader - low task, low relationship-1,1. This person uses
a "delegate and disappear" management style. Since he is not committed
to either task accomplishment or maintenance; he essentially allows the
team to do what ever it wishes and prefers to detach himself from the team
process by allowing the team to suffer from a series of power struggles.
The most desirable place for a leader to be along the two axis at most
times would be a 9 on task and a 9 on people, the Team Leader. However,
do not entirely dismiss the other three. Certain situations might call
for one of the other three to be used at times. For example, by playing
the Impoverished Leader, you allow your team to gain self-reliance. Be
a Authoritarian Leader to instill a sense of discipline in an unmotivated
worker. By carefully studying the situation and the forces affecting it,
you will know at what points along the axis you need to be in order to
achieve the desired result.
The Process of Great Leadership
The road to great leadership (4) (common
to successful leaders):
-
Challenge the process - First, find a process that you believe needs to
be improved the most.
-
Inspire a shared vision - Next, share you vision in words that can be understood
by your followers.
-
Enable others to act - Give them the tools and methods to solve the problem.
-
Model the way - When the process gets tough, get your hands dirty. A boss
tells others what to do...a leader shows it can be done.
-
Encourage the heart - Share the glory with your followers' heart, keep
the pains in your heart.
References
1. U.S. Army Handbook (1973). Military Leadership.
Return
2. Bolman, Lee and T. Deal (1991). Reframing Organizations.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Return
3. Blake, Robert R. and Jane S. Mouton (1985). The
Managerial Grid III: The Key to Leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing
Co.
Return
4. James M. Kouzes & Barry Z. Posner (1987).
The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Return
Notes
Created May 11, 1997. Last update - September 9, 1998.
Return to Big Dog's Leadership Page
Donald R. Clark
donclark@nwlink.com
