Leading

 Nature of Leadership
o Leadership and Management
 Traits of Effective Leader
 Leadership Skills
 Leadership Style
 Leadership Theories

Nature of Leadership

Leadership is defined as influence, the art or process of influencing people so

that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of
group goals.

Leadership and Management

 Leadership and management are related, but they are not the same. In
most settings, the role of a manager includes both leadership and
management functions. 
 Leadership is about establishing a direction and influencing others to
follow. 
 Management is about successfully administering the many complex
details involved in a business’s operations.
 Leadership pursues change and challenges the status quo, whereas
management seeks to control and provide stability within the existing
circumstances.

Distinctions Between Management and Leadership

Formal vs. Informal Leadership

Formal Leadership

 Formal or Titular leaders are individuals who are assigned titles and

positions of authority and expected to provide leadership.
 Unfortunately, there are plenty of individuals who have formal leadership
positions but do not actually provide strong leadership which is often
problematic and can leave the organization lacking direction and
purpose.

Informal Leadership

 Informal or Emergent leaders are leaders without official position but

exhibit leadership qualities and practices.
  Informal leaders evolve from their expertise or referent power as it is
expressed in the process of group activity.
 They help create the company vision with innovative ideas, and they
inspire and motivate their coworkers. 

Power in Leadership

 Power is the ability to affect the behavior of others.

Types of Power:

1. Legitimate Power – the power granted through the organizational

hierarchy; it is the power defined by the organization to be accorded
to people occupying a particular position; all managers have
legitimate power over their subordinates, hence it is authority.

2. Reward Power – the power to give or withhold rewards, such as

salary increases, bonuses, promotions, praise, recognition, and
interesting job assignments.

3. Coercive Power – the power to force compliance by means of

psychological, emotional, or physical threat; coercion is limited to
verbal reprimands, written reprimands, disciplinary layoffs, fines,
demotion, and termination.

4. Referent Power – a personal power which is based on identification,

imitation, loyalty, or charisma; followers may react favorably because
they identify in some way with a leader, who may be like them in
personality, background, or attitudes.

5. Expert Power – a personal power that accrues to someone based on

the information or expertise that they possess.

Traits of an Effective Leader

1. A high level of personal drive

2. The desire to lead

3. Honesty/Integrity

4. Self-confidence

5. Analytical ability or judgment

 6. Knowledge of the business

7. Charisma

8. Creativity

9. Flexibility

Leadership Styles

A. According to the way the leader uses power:

1. Autocratic  Leadership
o the leader makes decisions without significant employee
involvement in the process. 
o this approach can be faster and more efficient than other styles.

2. Democratic Leadership
o strongly involves the employee team in the decision-making
process.
o promotes the sharing of responsibility, the exercise of delegation
and continual consultation.

3. Laissez-Faire Leadership
o French phrase means “leave it be”, a very hands-off approach to
leadership.
o Instead, employees make decisions on their own. 
o This approach generally leads to lower productivity, but it may be
the best where employees are experts or where creativity is needed.
B. According to the leader’s orientation towards task and people:

1. Task-Oriented Style
o focus on giving instructions and directions to group members to
reach achievement and accomplishment goals more efficiently and
effectively.
o The focus is on the objective analysis of what needs done and the
specific course of actions that should be taken to meet those
needs.
o Employees are seen as resources to be used to accomplish the
goals.
 2. Employee-Oriented Style
o Also called relationship-oriented; focus less on objective actions or
plans and more on building the relationships between themselves
and their followers.
o By encouraging and supporting them, the leader hopes to make
them more qualified, confident, and productive.
o the focus is on developing his employees and inspiring them to
follow the vision the leader has provided.

C. According to the way the leaders approach people to motivate them:

1. Positive Leadership – when the leader emphasizes rewards to

motivate employees like as salary increases, bonuses, promotions,
praise, and recognition.

2. Negative Leadership – when the leader emphasizes punishment to

motivate employees like reprimands, suspension or dismissal.

Contingency Approaches to Leadership Style

 the approaches which is concerned with styles and situations and

effectively matching the leader and the situation.

The various contingency approaches are:

A. Fiedler’s Contingency Model

o Fred Fiedler developed the first comprehensive contingency model
for leadership and proposed that effective group performance
depended on a solid match between the leader’s style and the
degree to which the situation gives control to the leader.
o The situational characteristics are determined by 3 principal
factors:
1. Leader-member relations: the degree to which members have
confidence and trust in their leader (good or poor).
2. Task structure: the degree to which job assignments are
proceduralized (high or low).
 3. Position power: the degree of influence a leader has over power
variables, such as hiring, firing, discipline, promotions and
salary increases (strong or weak).

Fiedler developed the Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) Questionnaire:

o which is used to measure leader’s propensity to one trait or

another.
o The questionnaire asked leaders to react to sixteen sets of
contrasting adjectives that would describe their least preferred
coworker.
o LPCs respondents that described their least preferred coworker in
relatively positive terms, it stood to reason that the leader
employed a relationship-oriented approach.
o Those that described their least favorite coworker unfavorably were
deemed to be more task oriented.

o For example, 3 of the 16 scales are as follows:

B. Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Theory

 o Developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard
o approach to leadership suggests the need to match two key
elements appropriately: the leader’s leadership style and the
followers’ maturity or preparedness levels.
o The theory identifies four main leadership approaches:

1. Telling: Directive and authoritative approach. The leader makes

decisions and tells employees what to do.
2. Selling: The leader is still the decision maker, but he
communicates and works to persuade the employees rather than
simply directing them.
3. Participating: The leader works with the team members to make
decisions together. He supports and encourages them and is more
democratic.
4. Delegating: The leader assigns decision-making responsibility to
team members but oversees their work.

o In addition to these four approaches to leadership, there are also four

levels of follower maturity:

o As a general rule, each of the four leadership styles is appropriate for

the corresponding employee maturity level:
C. Path- Goal Theory

o In the Path-Goal theory, it’s the leader’s job to assist followers in

attaining their goals and to provide the necessary direction and/or
support to ensure their goals are compatible with the overall objectives
of the group or organization.
o developed by Robert House, he determined that there were four types
of leaders that played into this theory:

1. The supportive leader: is friendly and shows concerns for the

followers.
2. The participative leader: checks with followers for suggestions
before making a decision.
3. The directive leader: lets followers know what work is to be done,
gives guidance on how to accomplish tasks.
4. The achievement-oriented leader: sets challenging goals, expects
followers to perform at high levels.
D. Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision-making Model
o The earliest version of this model was proposed by Victor Vroom and
Philip Yetton and later revised and expanded by Vroom and Arthur Jago.
o a contingency approach to group decision making that is designed
specifically to help leaders select the best approach to making decisions.
o Defines five different decision approaches that a leader can use. In order
of participation from least to most, these are:

o To come up with the decision, Vroom, Yetton, and Jago integrated the
following questions in a decision tree: