Leadership What is Leadership? Leadership is one of the most important aspects of management.

While to some it means charisma, to others, it means power and authority. Effective leadership is required to lead & guide the subordinates to perform organizational tasks effectively & efficiently. Koontz has defined Leadership as the art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievements of group goals. According to Peter Drucker Leadership is the lifting of mans visions to higher sights, the raising of mans performance to higher standards, the building of mans personality beyond its normal personality. According to George.K.Terry Leadership is the activity of influencing people to strive willingly for group objectives Alford & Beatty define, Leadership is the ability to secure desired actions from a group of followers voluntarily, without the use of coercion. Formal leadership occurs when an organisation officially bestows upon a leader the power and authority to guide and direct others in the organisations. Informal leadership occurs when others in the organisation unofficially accord a person the power and influence to guide and direct their behaviour. The person who guides and influences the behaviour of others is called LEADER and the people guided or influenced are called the FOLLOWERS. The main characteristics of leadership are as follows: 1. Leadership is a continuous process of influencing people. 2. Leadership is a personal quality 3. The success of a leader depends on the acceptance of his leadership by the followers.

NATURE AND CHARACHTERISTICS

1. Presence of followers: A leader has to have followers. The leader cannot exercise leadership, if there are no followers. A person can be a leader only when people get influenced by him, and agree to accept him as leader. 2. Common interest: there must be a common interest for the leader and the group. If there is any clash in interest the group will leave the leader and join a leader having common interest. 3. Cooperation: Through effective leadership the leader should try to influence his followers and secure willing cooperation from them, in order to achieve the common goal. 4. Discipline and dedication: A good leader sets a good example for his followers. A good leader should be disciplined and dedicated. The subordinates judge leader by what he does and how he behaves. 5. Dynamic process: leadership is a dynamic process and continuous process of influencing the behaviour of others. There is a constant need of influencing the followers. 6. Active participation: there must be a working relation between the leader and followers. The leader not only needs to secure active participation of his followers, but he also, needs to take active part in the activities of the group. 7. Achievement of goals: the purpose of leadership is to achieve some desired goals. The leader and the followers should work together to achieve the goals. 8. Leadership styles: it is for the leader to decide which type of leadership style he should follow. However good leaders follow situational leadership style. 9. Superior knowledge and skill: the leader is expected to have superior knowledge and skills as compared to his subordinates. Otherwise the followers may not respect the leader and obey the leader. 10.Continuous process: leadership is a continuous process. It is an on going activity of influencing the subordinates or followers to achieve the common goals.

Qualities of a good leader

1. Good personality: personality is the sum total of physical, mental and social qualities. Most good leaders have pleasing personality. Good height, good physique and a pleasing personality would be an asset to a leader. 2. Intelligence: A leader should have a good educational or technical knowledge. He needs to have superior knowledge than that of his followers, if not his followers may not respect him. 3. Initiative: leaders need to have the quality on initiative. They should be in a position to do the right things at the right time without being told by others. 4. Innovative: A leader needs to have an innovative mind. He should have the imagination to develop new ideas or new ways in handling the activities. Followers expect their leaders to be innovative. 5. Self-confidence: A leader must have self-confidence. This will enable him to solve problems and face challenging situations. If he lacks selfconfidence, then he may not be able to influence his followers. 6. Good communicator: good leaders are effective communicators. He should not only issue orders and instructions, but should ensure that the followers have understood his orders clearly. 7. Coach and guide: The leader should act as a coach and a guide to direct the efforts of his subordinates. As a coach he may actively direct the followers as to what to do, how to do and when to do a particular activity. As a guide, he may provide advice as and when the followers require to carry out their activity. 8. Proper judgement: he must be in a position to judge certain situations effectively. Whenever there are disputes among the followers, he may play the role of the judge and solve the problem. 9. Human skills: a good leader is the one who commands popular following. The knowledge of good human skills is very important to the leader, as he has to constantly interact with the followers. 10.Administrative skills: the leader also needs to have good administrative skills. He should have the ability to plan, to organise, to direct and to control the activities of the group.

Functions of leadership
Leadership requires better understanding of human psychology so that those who are leading and those who are being led may be in a position to learn all about each other as far as possible. This is also required to attain the objectives of the enterprise with (1) smoothness (2) efficiency (3) sound judgement (4) fairness. A business leader does not represent himself only but his enterprise as well as his staff. Leadership functions of a manager are closely related with managerial functions he performs. Nonetheless, the leadership functions are somewhat different. Following are the important functions: 1. Developing teamwork: one of the primary functions of the leader is to develop and combine his followers as a team. Given the followers competence, potential and needs, the leader needs to create a congenial healthy environment for his work-team. 2. Representing the team: the leader serves as a linking-pin between his/her team members and management. As and when required the leader communicates the probates the problem and grievances of his subordinates to the management. 3. Counseling the workmen: when team members face problem in doing their work, they seek guidance and advice from their leader. The problem may be technical or emotional in nature. 4. Managing time: one of the functions of the leader is to ensure the timely completion of activities undertaken by his/her team members. He has to appreciate the time saying, A stitch in time saves nine. 5. Using proper power: leader has to exercise his power and authority over his subordinates as per the demand of the situation. Exercise of power needs to stimulate positive response from the subordinates. 6. Securing group effectiveness: the leader needs to provide for a reward system to improve the efficiency of capable workmen, delegate authority, and invite participation of employees in decision-making. Availability of necessary and adequate resources and communicating necessary information to the employees also help leader secure effectiveness of group-effort.

Leadership styles
The ways the leader influences the followers is called leadership styles. Every leader develops a style in managing the activities. Such styles vary from leader to leader, from situation to situation, and from organisation to oraganisation. In the words of Edwin Flippo, Leadership style is a pattern of behaviour designed to integrate organisational and personal interest in pursuit of some objectives. The main types of styles followed are as follows: 1. Autocratic style: the leader centralises power and decision making in himself/herself. The leader commands complete control over the subordinates who are compelled to obey the orders. The subordinates have no opportunity to make suggestions or take part in decision-making functions. The autocratic style is suitable in the following situations: 1. The subordinates are incompetent and inexperienced. 2. The leader wants to be active and dominant in decision-making. 3. The leader is highly competent for making a right decision. The limitations of autocratic style are: 1. It results in a low morale and job dissatisfaction. 2. Employees efficiency tends to decline over period. 3. Potential leader does not give the employees opportunity to exhibit their capabilities. 2. Bureaucratic style: this type of leadership is followed in government departments. The bureaucrats often follow rules and regulations in totality. They strictly follow the scalar chain principle, even in the case of urgency. The features of bureaucratic style are: 1. The bureaucrat takes the decision by strictly following the principle. 2. The subordinates are often not consulted. 3. The bureaucrat often avoids responsibility. 4. This style results in delay and red tapism, and unwanted paper work.

3. Participative style: the leader not only consults the subordinates, but also allows them to take part in decision-making. Hence, this style is known as participative style. The benefits of participative style are: 1. It gives opportunity to the subordinates to develop their potential abilities and assume greater responsibility. 2. It provides job satisfaction, on the one hand, and improves the morale of subordiantes, on the other. 3. Subordinates participation in decision making helps make right decisions because two heads are better than one It also suffers from many limitations they are: 1. Decision-making is a time consuming process. 2. There is possibility that a few dominant subordinates may influence decision in their favour. 3. There is no sense of responsibility. 4. Sometimes the decisions taken become distorted because many cooks spoil the broth . 4. Consultative style: in this type, the leader consults his subordinates before taking a decision. The leader feels, that it is always advisable to consult the subordinates. The leader is more open-minded and would welcome suggestions from the subordinates before making a decision. The benefits of this style are: 1 1. The leader consults the followers before making a decision. 2.The leader is open minded and open to suggestions. The limitations if this style are: 1. Decision-making takes a long time. 5. Laissez faire style: in this style, the leader shares the problem with the group. He acts more as a chairperson in generating and evaluating alternatives in search of group consensus. The benefits on such style are: 1. Good relationship between the leader and followers. 2 2. It creates a healthy working atmosphere. The limitations of this style are: 1. It gives full freedom to subordinates. 3 2. It creates chaos and mismanagement in decision-making.

5. Paternalistic style: this style aims at creating a family atmosphere within the organization. The leader is respected and treated as a father figure by the subordinates. The following points need to be noted: This style is mostly followed in Japanese organizations. The leader considers himself a father figure. Mostly the leader takes the decision. The leader may consult the subordinates. The leader is responsible for decision-making. The relations are very homely. This style is more suitable in small organizations, where there are a handful of employees, and just one leader or boss. 6. Sociocratic style: sociocrats attempt to run the organization as a club. They believe that good fellowship or friendship is more important than productivity. They keep people happy even at the cost of the organization. They believe in warm and pleasant social atmosphere. For them, the interest of subordinated comes first, and then that of the organization. 7. Neurocratic style: a neucrocrat is highly task oriented and wants to get the things done at any cost. He is highly sensitive and gets quickly upset at failures. In such a kind of style leader may be emotional and eccentric. The leader is responsible for decision-making, but he may shift the responsibility on to his subordinates. 8. Situational style: now a days, in most well managed organisations, the leader follow situational leadership style. This means, the leadership style varies depending upon the situation. In other words, the leader may be autocrat at times, consultative at times, and participative at times, depending upon the decision and situation.

Leadership Quotes
All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else is the essence of leadership. John Kenneth Galbraith This is pre-eminently the leadership quality--the ability to organize all the forces there are in an enterprise and make them serve a common purpose. Men with this ability create a group power rather than express a personal power. Mary Parker The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. . . The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully. Walter Lippmann The secret of a leader lies in the tests he has faced over the whole course of his life and the habit of action he develops in meeting those tests. Gail Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there. John Kotter The leader innovates; the manager administrates. The leader focuses on people; the manager focuses on systems and structure. The leader inspires; the manager controls. The leader is his own person; the manager is a good soldier. The leader sees the long-term; the manager sees the short-term. The leader asks "what and why?"; the manager asks "how and when?" The leader does the right thing; the manager does things right. Warren Bennis They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea. Francis Bacon

Leadership theories
There are a number of theories, which provide explanation regarding various aspects of leadership phenomenon. Trait theory This is the earliest of theory as described by Kelly attempting to classify what personal characteristics like physical, personality, and mental are associated with leadership success. Illustrated traits which researchers attributed to leaders were such aspects as height, weight, physique, good health, high level of energy, good appearance, intelligence, scholarship, good judgement and decision making, insight, originality, dominance, persistence, self-confidence, ambition and so on. Since all individuals did not have these qualities, only those who had them were considered potential leaders. However, this theory suffers from the following limitations: 1. The Trait theory is not accepted as a valid theory. 2. There is no consistent set of traits emerged from research studies that successfully differentiated leaders from non-leaders. 3. It is difficult to measure many of these traits. Hence it is difficult to distinguish between leader and followers. These limitations made researchers give up the study of traits to understand leadership and started to focus their efforts on observing the behaviours of leaders Behavioural theories According to this theory leadership can be defined in terms of what leaders do rather than what they are. In other words, leadership can be identified by reference to their behaviour in relation to followers. Behavioural theories differ from trait theory in at least two ways. First, actual leader behaviours, not the personal traits are the main focus. Second, while most trait theories endeavored to distinguished between Leaders and non-leaders, behavioural theories attempted to determine how different kinds of behaviours affect performance and satisfaction of the followers. The two important behavioural theories are Ohio State University studies and the studies of Michigan University.

Fielders contingency model According to the contingency theories of leadership, the success of leadership depends upon the situation in which the leader operates. Fred.E.Fielder developed a contingency model of leadership. According to him, a leaders effectiveness depends upon the following three situational factors: 1. Leader-followers relations, that is the degree of followers trust, confidence and respect for the leader. 2. Task structure, that is the nature of task performed bed by the subordinates. 3. The Status power, that is the degree of power associated with the position or status held by the leader in the organisation. The most favourable situation for leaders to influence their group is one in which they are well liked by the members, the task performed is highly structured and the leader has enough power attached to his/her position in the organisation. Path-goal Leadership Theory Robert house has developed a path-goal theory of leadership initially presented b presented by Martin Evans. This theory is based on the expectancy theory of motivation. The theory states that leaders exercise four different kinds of styles. Directive leadership (giving direction to the subordinates rather than seeking their cooperation), Supportive leadership (being friendly and approachable to the followers), Participative leadership (asking for suggestions from the followers before making decisions) and Achievement-oriented leadership (setting challenging goals and assignments). The pathgoal theory postulates that leaders become effective due to their influence on followers motivation, ability to perform, and their satisfaction. Leader motivates the employees by influencing their expectations relating to the performance and attractiveness of goal. The subordinates feel satisfied when they believe that their job performance will lead to desirable outcomes. They will be able to achieve their goals with hardwork.

The managerial grid

One of the most widely known styles of leadership is the managerial grid (re-named leadership grid in 1991) developed by Blake and Mouton. The grid is based on two underlying dimensions labeled as Concern for Production and Concern for People. Based on these two dimensions, the authors have generated a 9 by 9 grid representing concern for production along horizontal dimension and concern for people along the vertical dimension. These two dimensions are equivalent to the consideration and initiating structure dimensions. Blake and Mouton have identified the five distinct leadership styles. 1.The impoverished manager (1,1) has low concern for both production & people. He exerts the minimum efforts to get essential work done, while maintaining the organisational membership. This style of management is similar to laissez-faire style. 2. The country-club manager - (1,9) has high concern for people but low concern for production. Good feelings towards followers are the hallmarks of such managers. 3. The authority-obedience manager (9,1) has more concern for production but low concern for people. Production maximization is the hallmark of such manager. This style is similar to autocratic style of leadership. 4. The team manager - (9,9) has high concern for both production and people. 5. The organisation man manger (5,5) has moderate levels of concern for both production and people. Such manager goes along to get along, conforming to and maintaining the status quo. The best style for all managers, in all organisations, and under all situations is the team manager style. However the managerial grid too ignores the situational factors in management. In spite of this, the managerial grid is widely used as a training tool for improving the leadership behaviour of people in organization.

Leadership differs from management

Some people treat leadership and management as same. However, leadership differs from management. While leadership involves influencing people to strive towards the achievement of group goals, management involves planning, organising, staffing, directing, and controlling group activities to accomplish organisational goals. While leadership involves influencing people to strive towards the achievement of group goals, management involves planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling group activities to accomplish organisational goals. Leadership is a part of management bent but not all of it. This implies that a strong leader can be a weak manager because he/she is weak in managerial activities like planning and organising. A manager can be a weak leader and still be an acceptable manager, especially if he happens to manage people who have strong inner achievement drives. Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus have differentiated leadership from management by stating that managers are people who do things right, and the leader are people who do the right things. Managements efficiency lies in climbing the ladder of success, leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

Leadership 1. Leader leads people. 2. Leader can use his/her informal influence . 3. Leader creates a vision and inspires the other to achieve the vision. 4. Leader possesses non-sanctioned

Management 1. Manager manages things. 2. Managers hold formal positions. 3. Managers achieve results by directing the activities of others. 4. Manager enjoys formal designated

influencing ability. 5. Leader inspires enthusiasm.

authority. 5. Manager engenders fear.

Followership
A leader provides more benefits than burden for followers. Yet, in order to accomplish group goals, there must be a positive exchange between the leader and followers. Chester Bernard applied such an analysis to managers and subordinates more than 60 years ago. More recently, this viewpoint has been expressed by social exchange theories. These theories propose that leadership is an exchange process between the leader and the followers. Some studies indicate that followers may actually affect leaders as much as leaders affect followers. In one study it was found that when the subordinates were not performing well, the leaders tended to emphasize the task; but when they were doing a good job, leaders placed greater emphasis on relationships. Another study showed that, in newly formed groups, leaders might adjust their supportive behaviour in response to the level of group cohesion. Apart from the above, in organisational setting, there is a hierarchy of leadership. That is, leaders are also followers. Even the CEO of the company must report to the Board of Directors. In fact, being an effective follower is a testing ground for future leaders. Newstrom and Keith hold that many people fail in their jobs not as a result of any skill deficiencies, but because they lack followership skill. According to them, followership behaviour includes the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Not competing with the leader to be in limelight. Being loyal and supportive, a team player. Not being a yes person who automatically agrees. Acting as a devils advocate by raising penetrating questions. Constructively confronting the leaders ideas, values, and actions. Anticipating potential problem and preventing them.

References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Handbook of Leadership - R.M.Stogdill Principles of Management - George.R.Terry Essentials of Management - Harold Koontz Leaders: The Strategies for taking charge - Warren Bennis A theory of leadership effectiveness Fred. Fielder The Managerial grid R.R.Blake Leadership James.m.Burns Internet