COMPONENTS & PROCESS OF LEADERSHIP

(Experiential Activities)
AIM:
To understand the components and process of leadership through the experiential activities.

BASIC CONCEPTS:
Leadership is both a research area and a practical skill encompassing the ability of an individual or
organization to "lead" or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. Specialist literature debates
various viewpoints, contrasting Eastern and Western approaches to leadership, and also (within the West)
United States versus European approaches. U.S. academic environments define leadership as "a process of
social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common
task". leadership is a process whereby an individual, or clique, is able to influence others to internalize a
collective vision and mobilize them toward attaining that vision. Effective leadership transforms people’s goals
and ambitions, even their identities, and replaces self-oriented behavior with group-oriented behavior. The
exercise of power over people to force them, through rewards and punishments, to comply with commands and
bend to one’s will is not leadership. It is the responsibility of leaders to develop a vision for the people and
institutions they guide. They must establish what matters and explain why, so they can set direction, and inspire
others.
But leadership does not depend on one’s title, seniority, or ability to exert power. Leaders can emerge at any
level if they can cultivate a desire in those with whom they collaborate to strive toward a common goal, which
can be accomplished successfully through any number of approaches. And recent research on leadership skills
confirms the increasing importance of inner resources such as self-awareness and self-mastery

 DEFINITIONS OF LEADERSHIP:
 “Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust
among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential.” Warren Bennis
 “leadership is a complex phenomenon that touches on many other important organizational, social and
personal processes. It depends on a process of influence, whereby people are inspired to work towards
group goals, not through coercion, but through personal motivation.” (Bolden, 2004)
 “Leadership over human beings is exercised when persons with certain motives and purposes mobilize,
in competition or conflict with others, institutional, political, psychological, and other resources so as to
arouse, engage, and satisfy the motives of followers.” (Burns, 1978)
 “Leadership is the lifting of a man’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a man’s performance to a
higher standard, the building of a man’s personality beyond its normal limitations.” Peter Drucker
 “The process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation, while operating to
accomplish the mission and improve the organization.”
 “Leadership should be defined in terms of the ability to build and maintain a group that performs well
relative to its competition.” (Hogan & Kaiser, 2005)
 “Leadership is the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations.” (Kouzes &
Posner, 1995).
  “Leadership is a process whereby an individual influence a group of individuals to achieve a common
goal.” (Northouse, 2010,)
 “Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and collaborators who intend real changes that
reflect their mutual purposes.” (Rost, 1997)
 “Leadership is defined as the initiation and maintenance of structure in expectation and interaction.”
(Stogdill, 1974).
 “Leadership is a process of interaction between persons who are participating in goal-oriented group
activities.” (Stodill & Shartle, 1948)
 (a) influencing individuals to contribute to group goals and (b) coordinating the pursuit of those goals.
(Van Vugt, Hogan, & Kaiser, 2008,)
 “a process of motivating people to work together collaboratively to accomplish great things.” (Vroom &
Jago, 2007)
 “Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done
and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared
objectives.” (Yukl, 2010)
 “Leadership is viewed as a process that includes influencing the task objectives and strategies of a group
or organization, influencing people in the organization to implement the strategies and achieve the
objectives, influencing group maintenance and identification, and influencing the culture of the
organization.” (Yukl & Van Fleet, 1990,)
 “Leadership inevitably requires using power to influence the thoughts and actions of other people.”
(Zeleznik, 1977)

 COMPONENETS OF LEADERSHIP:
There are different components of leadership, some researcher also called these important components as
the process of leadership. They are given below:

 LEADERSHIP ORIENTATION AND COMMITMENT

Leadership orientation and commitment is normally a one to two-day orientation session in which key leaders
from the organization learn about High Performance. In this session participants go through an organization
simulation to experience the difference between traditional and High-Performance work systems. As they learn
and discuss principles of High Performance, they will learn about the transformation process, explore the level
of trust within the organization, and identify change needs driving their organization.
 ASSESSMENT OF THE BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATION
Key leadership, with a cross-section of people from the organization, analyzes a business case study to learn
how to use the Transformation Model as a framework for organization analysis. Then, applying the
Transformation Model to their own organization, they systematically analyze seven key elements: current
results; the business environment; the current strategy; current core processes, current structure; and
coordination and development systems.
Following their analysis, they summarize key issues to address and identify organization strengths, weaknesses,
and alignment issues. Armed with comprehensive assessment data, they can develop a list of change initiatives
for improving the organization and moving toward High Performance. The assessment process can be
modularized into half-day sessions spread over a nine to ten week's period, or it can be accomplished more
quickly in a single three-day session. This step often surfaces significant problems within the organization,
creating a sense of direction and momentum for needed changes. Every participant will come away from this
dynamic session with a greater sense of responsibility, know-how, and enthusiasm for making the business
succeed.
 DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGY AND VISION
During the process they review their strategy and vision based on current business realities, refocusing and
redefining their strategy to fit marketplace and competitive demands. Specifically, they will accomplish the
following during the process:
1. Understand the demands of the current business environment;
2. Forecast the future business situation
3. Clarify a mission that motivates and inspires
4. Identify the principles by which people will conduct themselves
5. Define future customers and how they will deliver value to them
6. Identify core competencies needed to succeed in the long run
7. Create a long-term business focus and identify anchors that distinguish them from competitors
8. Set short-term performance goals
9. Identify performance initiatives and establish a master plan to implement the strategy
The strategy development process often requires several in-depth exploration and discussion sessions which
may be accomplished over a period of weeks or months, depending on the size, motivation, and complexity of
the organization. Clearly, the process must be tailored to the individual needs of each organization. We are
confident that senior leadership will emerge from the strategy development sessions being very clear about their
strategy and united in their commitment to implement it throughout the organization.
 CHARTERING THE CHANGE PROCESS
During this step, senior leadership determines the need for organization redesign to address organization
weaknesses and alignment issues identified during assessment. They create a design charter, outlining the
expected outcomes and the scope and parameters of the redesign process. They assign resources, establish time
frames, and identify a design team to participate in and guide in-depth process analysis and redesign of the
organization as necessary. They also determine the scope of the development process, identifying leadership
training, employee orientation, team development, technical skills development, interpersonal skills
development, and other projected training and development needs. These plans are factored in with strategic
initiatives and change opportunities identified during strategy development and assessment to create an overall
change plan. The charter is then shared with employees to communicate the need for change and explain how
the transformation process will work throughout the organization.
 INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT OF BUSINESS PERFORMANCE.
Management of business performance, especially in today’s complex and rapidly changing environment, can be
extremely challenging. Consequently, management behavior can be short-term and crisis-oriented. Managers
and supervisors alike often react to demands which seem urgent, but may only be symptoms of deeper causes
related to flawed processes or systems. A further problem is that work may be segmented into functional areas,
promoting poor communication, turf battles, lack of problem ownership, and general inefficiency. In step five,
Integrated Management of Business Performance, leaders develop a common plan and establish management
processes to proactively manage the short and long-term performance of the business. One of the first tasks here
is to help leaders begin to work as a team as they share responsibility for the overall management of the
enterprise.
During assessment, the organization identified key results areas and current performance in those areas. During
strategy development, the leaders identified ideal key results areas, how they will measure them, and what their
goals are. Armed with this data, the leadership team outlines a process for how they will monitor, track, and
integrate performance throughout the organization on an ongoing basis, including common initiatives, clear
expectations, and consistent performance metrics. This may lead them into discussion or readjustment of
recognition, reward, or performance management systems as well.

 NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADERSHIP:

The Nature and Characteristics of leadership in Organizational behavior is mentioned below
 Leadership implies the existence of followers: We appraise the qualities of leadership by studying his
followers. In an organization leader are also followers for e.g.: - Supervisor works under a branch head.
Thus, in a formal organization a leader has to be able to be both a leader as well as a follower, and be
able to relate himself both upward and downward.
 Leadership involves a community of interest between the leader and his followers: In other words, the
objectives of both the leader and his men are one and the same. If the leader strives for one purpose and
his team of workers work for some other purpose, it is no leadership.
 Leadership involves an unequal distribution of authority among leaders and group members: Leaders
can direct some of the activities of group members, i.e., the group members are completed or are willing
to obey most of the leader's directions. The group members cannot similarly direct the leader's activities,
though they will obviously affect those activities in a number of ways.
 Leadership is a process of Influence: Leadership implies that leaders can influence their followers or
subordinates in addition to being able to give their followers or subordinates legitimate directions.
 Leadership is the function of stimulation: Leadership is the function of motivating people to strive
willingly to attain organizational objectives. A successful leader allows his subordinates (followers) to
have their individual goals set up by themselves in such a way that they do not conflict with the
organizational objectives.
 A leader must be exemplary: In the words of George Terry - "A Leader shows the way by his own
example. He is not a pusher; he pulls rather than pushes".
 A Leader ensures absolute justice: A leader must be objective and impartial. He should not follow
unfair practices like favoritism and nepotism. He must show fair play and absolute justice in all his
decisions and actions.
 Leadership is to be concerned about values. Followers learn ethics and values from their leaders.
Leaders are the real teachers of ethics, and they can reinforce ideas. Leaders need to make positive
statements of ethics if they are not hypocritical.
 Leading is a very demanding job both physically and psychologically. The leader must have the
strength, power, and ability to meet the bodily requirements; zeal, energy, and patience to meet the
mental requirements for leading.
 Leadership derives from the power and is similar to, yet distinct from, management. In fact, “leadership”
and “management” are different. There can be leaders of completely unorganized groups, but there can
be managers only of organized groups. Thus it can be said that a manager is necessarily a leader but a
leader may not be a manager.
 Leadership is essential for managing. The ability to lead effectively is one of the keys to being an
effective manager because she/he has to combine resources and lead a group to achieve objectives.
 Leadership and motivation are closely interconnected. By understanding motivation, one can appreciate
better what people want and why they act as they do. A leader can encourage or dampen workers’
motivation by creating a favorable or unfavorable working environment in the organization.

 THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP:
 Trait theory:
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. Scholars taking the trait approach
attempted to identify physiological (appearance, height, and weight), demographic (age, education and
socioeconomic background), personality, self-confidence, 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.Successful leaders definitely have interests, abilities, and personality traits that are
different from those of the less effective leaders. Through many researchers 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.
 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 one’s self, ideas, and ability
 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
 Strengths/Advantages of Trait Theory
 It is naturally pleasing theory.
 It is valid as a lot of research has validated the foundation and basis of the theory.
  It serves as a yardstick against which the leadership traits of an individual can be assessed.
 It gives a detailed knowledge and understanding of the leader element in the leadership process.
 Limitations of The Trait Theory
 There is bound to be some subjective judgment in determining who is regarded as a ‘good’ or
‘successful’ leader
 The list of possible traits tends to be very long. More than 100 different traits of successful leaders in
various leadership positions have been identified. These descriptions are simply generalities.
 There is also a disagreement over which traits are the most important for an effective leader
 The model attempts to relate physical traits such as, height and weight, to effective leadership. Most of
these factors relate to situational factors. For example, a minimum weight and height might be necessary
to perform the tasks efficiently in a military leadership position. In business organizations, these are not
the requirements to be an effective leader.
 The theory is very complex
The trait theory gives constructive information about leadership. It
can be applied by people at all levels in all types of organizations. Managers can utilize the information
from the theory to evaluate their position in the organization and to assess how their position can be made
stronger in the organization. They can get an in-depth understanding of their identity and the way they will
affect others in the organization. This theory makes the manager aware of their strengths and weaknesses
and thus they get an understanding of how they can develop their leadership qualities.

 Behavioral theory:

 Contingency Theories: Focus on situations

Proponents of contingency approaches state that optimal leadership is contingent upon
various situations. For example, whilst some situations may require an autocratic style, others
may need a more participative approach.
 Fiedler's Contingency Model of leadership effectiveness:
Fiedler (1967) believed that an individual's leadership style is extremely difficult to change and is effective only
in certain situations. The model states that there is no one best style of leadership. The model proposes that
effective group performance depends on the proper match between the 1) leadership orientation and 2) the
situation.
1. Leadership orientation: Fielder differentiated between two types of leader's orientation— either task oriented
or relationship oriented. If the orientation is relationship-oriented the leaders are primarily concerned with
fostering good relationships with subordinates, and are considerate. If their orientation is Task- oriented they are
primarily concerned with getting the job done. Fiedler believes a key factor in leadership success is the
individual's basic leadership style. So he created the Least Prefer Co-worker (LPC) Questionnaire. LPC is an
instrument that measures whether a person is task or relationship oriented. If the low LPC score then the person
is task oriented and if the high LPC score then the person is relationship oriented
2. Situation: Fiedler broke situations control’ into three major components (given
below). Situations are favorable if all three dimensions are high.
• Leader-member relations - Degree to which a leader is accepted and supported by the group members.
• Task structure - Extent to which the task is structured and defined, with clear goals and procedures.
• Position power - The ability of a leader to control subordinates through reward and punishment.
Situational favorability refers to the degree to which a situation enables a leader to exert influence over a group.
High levels of these three factors give the most favorable situation, while low levels, the least favorable.
Relationship-motivated leaders are most effective in moderately favorable situations. Task-motivated leaders
are most effective at either end of the scale. Fiedler suggests that it may be easier for leaders to change their
situation to achieve effectiveness, rather than change their leadership style.
After knowing the leadership style through LPC and defining all the situations, we will choose the leader who
will fit for the situation. Two ways in which to improve leader effectiveness
1) Change the leader to fit the situation and
2) Change the situation to fit the leader.
 Strengths
1. It was the first theory to emphasize the contingency approach and hence highlighted
the importance of the situation.
2. Led to a lot of research and alternative contingency models.
Weakness
1. Fiedler’s contingency theory has drawn criticism because it implies that the only alternative for a mismatch
of leader orientation and an unfavorable situation is changing the leader.
2. Other criticisms concern the methodology of measuring leadership style through the
LPC inventory and the nature of the supporting evidence.
Hersey and Blanchard’s ‘Situational Leadership Theory’ (SLT): Hersey and Blanchard developed the Tri-
Dimensional Leadership Model in 1969 and took Fiedler’s ideas to the next level by arguing, contrary to
Fiedler, that leaders can and should adapt their leadership style to fit the situation. According to this model, the
leader has to match the leadership style according to the readiness of subordinates which moves in stage and has
a cycle. Therefore, this theory is also known as the life-cycle theory of leadership.
1. Leadership Styles: The situational model places combinations of task and relationship
behaviors into four quadrants. Each quadrant calls for a different leadership style:
• Telling/directing (S1) –Leaders tell their people what to do and how to do it (high task/low relationship). The
“telling” style is very directive because the leader provides a lot of task input but a minimum amount
of relationship behavior.
• Selling/coaching (S2) – Leaders provide information and direction, but there's more communication with followers. Leaders "sell" their
message to get people on board (high task/high relationship).
• Participating/supporting (S3) – Leaders focus more on the relationship and less on direction. The leader works
with the team, and shares decision-making responsibilities (high relationship/low task).
• Delegating (S4) – Leaders pass most of the responsibility onto the follower or group. The leaders still monitor progress, but they're less
involved in decisions (low relationship/low-task).
Effective leaders are versatile in being able to move around the matrix according to the situation, so there is no
style that is always right.
2. Developmental level/follower readiness: Follower readiness is defined as the extent to which a group member
has the ability and willingness to accomplish a specific task. It can have 4 levels:
• D4 - High Competence, High Commitment
• D3 - High Competence, Variable Commitment
• D2 - Some Competence, Low Commitment
• D1 - Low Competence, High Commitment
• 3. Matching leaders and followers:
development scale and matches his or her behavior style to the follower’s
The leader evaluates the follower on the readiness or
development level. The curve demonstrates that as followers move from the lowest level of development toward
higher levels, the amount of supportive behavior that leaders should exhibit first increases at a fairly dramatic
rate and then begins to decrease at about the same rate. Directive behavior, on the other hand should constantly
decrease at a steady rate.
By erecting a perpendicular line from any point on the development or readiness scale, we can determine the
appropriate amount of directive and supportive behavior at the point where the line intersects the bell curve. If,
for example, we were to draw a perpendicular line directly up from the D1 to the bell curve, we see that the
amount of directive behavior necessary is at about 80 percent of the maximum, while supportive behavior is at
about 35 percent of the maximum.
The curve demonstrates that as followers move from the lowest level of development toward higher levels, the
amount of supportive behavior that leaders should exhibit first increases at a fairly dramatic rate and then begins
to decrease at about the same rate. Directive behavior, on the other hand should constantly decrease at a steady
rate.
Strengths: The situational model represents a consensus of thinking about leadership behavior: competent
people require less specific direction than do less competent people. It
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has proved to be useful as the basis for leadership training. The situational model also corroborates common
sense and is therefore intuitively appealing.
Limitations: Research evidence for the situational model has been mixed. A major concern is that there are few
leadership situations in which a high-task, high-relationship orientation does not produce the best results.
Several studies have found that the model “lacks empirical support” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2010).
Tannenbaum and Schmidt's continuum of leadership behavior
In an extension to the style approaches, Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958) suggested a continuum from 'boss-
centred leadership' at one end to 'subordinate-centred leadership' at the other. Within the two extremes of the
continuum lie a multitude of options. They noted that a leader's choice of a leadership pattern should be based
on forces in the boss, forces in the subordinates, and forces in the situation.
Modern approaches to leadership
Authentic Leadership
“This is the real me”—William James,
Authenticity is a complex concept that emphasizes the importance of being trustworthy and living in a way in
which words match actions and vice versa. Those being led by authentic leaders will recognize that they are
ethical and that they generate trust in their employees. George (2003) describes authentic leadership as a
leadership style that is consistent with a leaders' personality and core values, and that is honest, and ethical.
According to Northouse (2013), AL can be defined from three different viewpoints, including: intrapersonal,
developmental, and interpersonal.
• The intrapersonal perspective; The authentic leader is in touch with his true self.
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• The interpersonal perspective; The leader develops an authentic relation with the followers and followers identify with the values advocated
by the leader.
• The developmental perspective: Authentic leadership develops in people over a lifetime and can be
triggered by major life events, such as a severe illness or a new career.
Rather than conceiving of authenticity as an either/or construct, it is best to recognize that authenticity
exists on a continuum and that the more people remain true to their core values, identities,
preferences and emotions, the more authentic they become.

Transformational Leadership
The original concept of transformational leadership is attributed to James MacGregor Burns, who
proposed the idea in 1978. In his theory two types of leadership were contrasted: transactional and
transformational.
• Transactional Leaders: These are leaders who guide or motivate their followers in the direction of
established goals by clarifying role and task requirements
• Transformational leadership: According to Burns (1978), transformational leaders transform others
by inspiring them to achieve extraordinary results. Such leaders commit themselves to developing
others to their fullest potential. Followers are able to elevate themselves beyond self-interest and to
achieve extraordinary accomplishments that serve some greater good. Steve Jobs illustrates
transformational leadership.