BBE2023

LEADERSHIP FOR
A CHANGING
WORLD Topic 1:
Defining Leaders
and Leadership
Who is a leader?

Doing leadership actions or holding a leadership position does not make you a
leader. Leaders embody leadership mindsets and actions. It’s who you are as a
person that makes you a leader.

Leader refers to a person who does the following:

• Creates an inspiring vision of the future.
• Motivates and inspires people to engage with that vision.
• Coaches and builds a team, so that it is more effective at achieving the vision.
Who is a leader?

• A basic requirement to be a leader is one who goes first and leads by example, so that
others are motivated to follow him. Hence, a leader must have a deep-rooted
commitment to the goal that he/she will strive to achieve it.

• A leader is "a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a
goal". In communicating your goal (AIMS), a leader should meet the following criteria:
• Achievable ... realistic yet faith stretching
• Inspiring ... challenging your people to give of their best
• Measurable ... quantifiable
• Shared ... declaring your conviction in and commitment to the goal
Who is a leader?

• The next requirement is the realization of that goal. This cannot be

achieved alone, without the help of others (followers). The leader must
integrate his (or the organization's) goal with his followers’ personal goals
and then communicates this goal in such a way that they embrace it too
and the goal becomes a common goal.

• To have followers, one must have their trust. How do you win their trust?
Why would others trust you? Most important, are you worthy of their
trust?
Qualities of a Good Leader

Everyone can be a leader, yet only a select few can become a great leader.
The route to leadership is never an easy one.

Successful leaders demonstrate the following leadership qualities in their

personal and professional lives, inspiring others to take action and set a
course for future success.

Strong leaders also practice key behaviours on a regular basis in order to

strengthen the positive impact of these qualities.
Qualities of a Good Leader
Personal Traits (Quality) of a Good Leader

Honesty
• One of the leadership qualities that define a good leader is honesty. Your
company and its employees are a reflection of yourself, and if you make honest
and ethical behaviour as a key value, your team will follow. Thus, you need to
“lead by example”.

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
– John C. Maxwell
Personal Traits (Quality) of a Good Leader

Positive attitude
• Remember that everyone on your team is a person. To keep your team
motivated towards the continued success of the company (business), you
need to promote a fine balance between productivity and playfulness. If
your team is feeling happy and upbeat, chances are they won’t mind
staying that extra hour to finish a report or devoting their best work to the
brand.
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right
things.” -Peter Drucker
Personal Traits (Quality) of a Good Leader

Communication
• Good communication is an important leadership attribute. Communication should be
consistent when it comes to establishing work expectations or giving constructive
feedback.
• With great communication, your employees/team members will have a broad
understanding to what they are working for. On contrary, without clear
communication, employees/team members will have trouble to 
understand your mission, goals, and vision.

“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you
celebrate victory or when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is
danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” - Nelson Mandela
Personal Traits (Quality) of a Good Leader

Delegate
• Always remember that you can’t do everything on your own. Good leaders recognise that
delegation does more than simply passing the task to someone else. It is trusting and
believing that your employees/team members are able to handle the task given to them.

• Delegating to others shows that you have confidence in their abilities, and this can result
in a positive morale in the workplace. Your employees/team want to feel appreciated and
trusted. Hence, by giving them a task, they would generally feel honoured that they got
selected and they would feel the importance of having them around.
Personal Traits (Quality) of a Good Leader

Confidence
• As a leader, it is your responsibility to maintain the team morale and keep moving forward. Keep your
confidence level up and assure everyone that setbacks being looked into. By staying calm and confident,
the team would not worry as they put their trust in you.

Commitment
• Showing your commitment sets the example for others to follow and leads to greater loyalty and respect
for you as a leader. Set the tone of commitment, and others will follow suit.
• Remember that if you expect your team to work hard and produce quality work, you need to lead by
example. There is no greater motivation than seeing their leader working alongside everyone else. By
proving your commitment to the company and especially your team, you will not only earn the respect of
your team but will also instil that same hardworking drive among your staff.
Personal Traits (Quality) of a Good Leader

Creativity
• A good leader is someone the team could look up to for answers or solutions. Thus, it is up to you to think
outside the box when any issues arise.
• You could also gather the team and start brainstorming ideas to build upon some of your ideas. When you
get your employees involved in a decision or an idea, they often felt the importance of their existence in
the company. They feel respected and wanted and at times, even looking forward to work better!
Inspire
• Another quality that defines a good leader is being inspiring. Leaders need to be a source of inspiration,
and a motivator towards the required action or cause. Hence, when your team are drowning in workload
or their morale is low, as a leader you need to start finding ways to inspire them. It is your job to keep
spirits up, and that begins with an appreciation by giving words of encouragement for the hard work that
they have put in.
Personal Traits (Quality) of a Good Leader

Empathy
• Empathy is the ability to understand or feel what other people are experiencing. At times, leaders need to look after
their team‘s feelings. Extraordinary leaders praise in public and address problems in private.

Enthusiastic
• Although the responsibilities and roles of a leader may be different, the leader needs to be seen as part of the 
team working towards the goal. A good leader is enthusiastic about their role as leader, work or cause. This kind of
leader will not be afraid to roll up their sleeves and get dirty. People will respond more openly to a person of passion
and dedication.
Personal Traits (Quality) of a Good Leader

Focus
• A good leader is generally focus and they able to think rationally. Not only does a
good leader view a situation as a whole, but he/she is able to narrow down the
cause as well as find the solution to the problem.

Self-Driven
• Leaders should also be self-driven to work harder in wanting to achieve better
results. They are the driving force in the team and also someone the team could
look up to and encourage the rest to work together.
“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads,
and the boss drives.” - Theodore Roosevelt
Personal Traits (Quality) of a Good Leader

Accountability
• A good leader takes responsibility for everyone’s performance as well as their own. When things are going well, they
praise. When problems arise, they identify them quickly, seek solutions, and get the team back on track.
• The best leaders guide employees through challenges and are always on the lookout for a solution. Instead of making
things personal when they encounter problems or assigning blame to individuals, good leaders look for constructive
solutions and focus on moving forward.

Responsible
• The last quality that defines a good leader is being responsible. Great leaders know that when it comes to their
company or workplace, they need to take personal responsibility for failure.
• A good leader does not make excuses; they take the blame regardless and then work out how to fix the problem as soon
as possible.
Becoming a Successful Leaders?

• One classic understanding of good leadership was derived by Kouzes and Posner
in The Leadership Challenge, who use data from over 1.3 million people about the
observable skills and behaviors of leadership.
• They found that despite differences in culture, gender, age, and other
variables, they listed good leaders as follows:
i. effectively model the way,
ii. inspire a shared vision,
iii. challenge the process,
iv. enable others to act, and
v. encourage the heart. 
Becoming a Successful Leaders?

Great leaders are made, not born. Leadership is more an art than it is a science, and anyone
can become a better, more effective, and more successful leader. Maximize your
effectiveness as leaders by emulating these habits.

1. Perspire
• A significant part of great leadership begins and ends with effort--lots of effort. Learn how
to work well with others, how to build effective teams, and how to envision a bright future
for your business and then guide people toward it. Learn everything you can about the art
and practice of business, yourself as a leader, and your organization. 
Be relentless in your pursuit to be the best leader you possibly can.
Becoming a Successful Leaders?

2. Show grace under pressure

• When times are tough, be that person in your organization who people look to for inspiration.
• Avoid simply talking about what you would do. Instead, take action--especially when a response and
action are what is needed to get things back on track.
• Learn to assess situations, act decisively, and find ways to reassure your employees and help them
overcome their own feelings of self-doubt and anxiety in challenging or changing times.
• Calmly guide your organization through the inevitable rough patches with poise, confidence and heart.
Becoming a Successful Leaders?

3. Have integrity
• Employees want their leaders to be honest, fair, candid, and forthright, and
to give everyone an equal shot at opportunities, including promotions,
assignments, and training.
• When you act with integrity, your employees will respond in kind--and they
will be more loyal to you and your business.
Becoming a Successful Leaders?

4. Inspire teamwork
• Recognize that for most people to do their very best work, they require the support and
input from co-workers, peers, and their boss.
• Form teams and groups whose synergy and efforts really get things done.
• When you support your employees by 
creating this kind of environment in your own business, you can expect turnaround times
to decrease while engagement, self-direction, and productivity increase.
Becoming a Successful Leaders?

5. Have unwavering faith in yourself and your people

• Have faith in your vision for your organization, regardless of what lies ahead.
• Know, in your heart, that you and your team can accomplish anything you set out to accomplish if you work together
toward the organization's goals.
• You will undoubtedly encounter setbacks along the way, but don't let opposition deter you if you truly believe what you
want is reasonable and right for your organization. Think of setbacks as merely providing you with more information
about what you truly want.
• Confident leaders use lessons learned from setbacks to improve their own performance--and the performance of their
business.
Becoming a Successful Leaders?

6. Communicate
• Remarkably successful leaders make a habit of communicating candidly and often to
everyone in their organizations.
• They inform, provide feedback, and motivate by really connecting with their employees
and opening channels for their employees to communicate with them. By doing so,
they're making a positive impact.
Becoming a Successful Leaders?

7. Look at the big picture

• Much of every leader's job is dealing with crises and problems--it's a key part of the
position. But the most successful leaders always remember to step away from the
everyday issues they must deal with to look at the big picture.
• This means keeping an eye on the horizon for new opportunities to be acted on, and new
problems to be avoided. If you find yourself constantly surprised by new developments in
your business or markets, then you're not taking enough time to look at the big picture.
What Makes a Bad Leader?

There are some stand out traits that a lot of ineffective leaders demonstrate that
can affect their performance and in turn, the performance of their team.

• They don’t have empathy for others

Empathy requires the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
Empathy requires a high level of emotional intelligence and is often
underutilised in cases of poor leadership. Unresponsive leaders will often not be
able to emotionally connect with those around them. They will also disregard
the needs or requests of those around them as unimportant or trivial.
What Makes a Bad Leader?

• They play the blame game

• Strong leaders will take responsibility for their actions and will defend those around them to their upmost. Poor
leaders will do exactly the opposite. They will blame those around them and will evade their responsibilities to
save face.

• When the blame game has been demonstrated as a fixture of the behaviour of a leader, it can be hard to regain
morale from the team around them. Instead of looking for scapegoats, good leaders look for partners in their
team to problem solve and deliver lasting solutions that work.

• They fear change

• Good leaders acknowledge that change is necessary for developments to happen and for growth to occur.
Ineffective leaders will avoid change at any cost. New systems, innovations and divergent opinions will be opposed
and side-lined in favour of what has worked to date.
What Makes a Bad Leader?

• They are not a good listener

• Part of feeling empathy for someone else is being able to listen to what they have to say,
really hear what it being said and being able to respond accordingly. Poor leaders will only
focus on the ideas that back up their own perspective. They will disregard differing opinions
and will not engage when the person they disagree with is speaking. They will avoid having
open discussions with those around them and will instead revert to their own opinion when
making all decisions.

• They are inconsistent

• Good leaders not only walk the talk, but they inspire others to do the same. Leaders who are
inconsistent in their behaviour can leave a team baffled and confused, increasing the
likelihood of costly and time-consuming mistakes and missed connections.
What Makes a Bad Leader?

• They don’t recognise individual achievement

• Great leaders have a special ability of being able to single out individual achievement while still
making each of their team members feel necessary and valued. Poor leaders will not bother to
acknowledge their team, no matter how well they perform. Leaders who don’t push their teams to
achieve more, and don’t recognise high achievement when it does happen, will soon be faced with a
situation where no one will wish to work outside their comfort zone, or be motivated to do so.

• They don’t communicate

• Poor leaders fail to inform others of decisions being made. They don’t clarify important things with
people and are surprised when others don’t understand them. They assume that others have the
same opinion as them. They don’t ask for feedback or are dismissive of it when they receive it.
Defining Leadership

• The phenomenon of leadership has been ever present in human relations.

• According to Stogdill that the word “leader” has origins back to the 1300s
and the word “leadership” dates back to the 1800s. He reviewed over
3,000 studies directly related to leadership and suggested that there are
almost as “many different definitions of leadership as there are persons
who have attempted to define the concept” (Stogdill, 1974, p. 7).
• Bennis and Nanus (1985) found 350 definitions from thousands of studies.
• Rost (1991) found 221 definitions in 587 books and articles written from
1900 to 1990.
Defining Leadership

• Is leadership a position of office or authority? Is leadership an ability in the sense that he is a leader
because he leads?

• We all may know or hear of people who are in positions of leadership but who are not providing
leadership. A position of office is no guarantee of leadership but it helps in the sense that a leadership
position usually commands a listening ear from its people and that is a good starting point for anyone
who desires to be a leader. 

• A requirement for leadership is personal vision - the ability to visualize your goal as an accomplished
fact.

"The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain
trumpet."  Theodore M. Hesburgh
Defining Effective Leaderships

• The concept of leadership effectiveness is difficult to define because it is a complex

concept that attempts to capture myriad components: multiple organizational
contingencies and various personal and interpersonal behaviors.

• Stogdill (1974), Bass (1981), and Bass and Stogdill (1990) catalogued and interpreted
almost five thousand studies of the concept and found great variance in its definition.

• People seem to accept a default position that leadership is simply what leaders do and
that leaders are simply people in positions of power over others.
Defining Effective Leadership

• One inclusive definition of leadership effectiveness is “the successful

exercise of personal influence by one or more people that results in
accomplishing shared objectives in a way that is personally satisfying to
those involved.”
Defining Effective Leadership - Center for Creative
Leadership (CCL)

• Another overall definition of leadership based on robust research of the

Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), offers a concise definition of effective
leadership as “a social process that enables individuals to work together to
achieve results.”

• What’s useful about this definition is that it describes effective leadership

as a social capability that can occur at any level in an organization where
people influence each other. Leadership is therefore more dependent on
personal attributes rather than a position within the organization.  
Defining Effective Leadership – McKinsey &
Company

Another integrated view of leadership is reflected in a recent report -

The McKinsey Insights 2019. The report defines effective leadership as “a set of
behaviours that, in a given context, align an organization, foster execution and
ensure organizational renewal.”

The McKinsey Insights 2019 report also points out that good leadership is enabled
by an underlying set of both skills and mindsets. The McKinsey report highlights the
inclusion of competencies such as self-awareness, introspection, constructive
attitudes and mindsets for effective leadership. In fact, it is these social and
emotional competencies that distinguish the good leaders from the great ones. 
Defining Effective Leadership - Daniel Goleman

• In his foundational work on emotional intelligence and leadership, Daniel

Goleman articulates the important of someone's Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
and technical skills as distinguishing characteristic of a great leadership.

• Emotional intelligence, in other words, is a critical driver for effective

leaders. It is defined as the ability to know and handle ourselves and our
relationships, and includes the competencies of self-awareness, self-
management, motivation, empathy and social skills. 
Defining Effective Leadership - Daniel Goleman

According to Daniel Goleman the following Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and technical skills
apply directly to what makes a great leader:

• Self-Awareness.  Having an intimate knowledge of one's inner emotional state. An

effective leader knows their strengths, weaknesses, when they're working in flow and
when they’re over-worked. Knowing themselves, including their capabilities and
limitations, allows them to reach their maximum potential and take care of their own
needs. 

• Self-Management. Being able to direct oneself effectively. Knowing how to get things

done, how to organize tasks and how to avoid procrastination. Being able to generate
energy for projects while being calm when needed. Making decisions quickly when
necessary while also slowing down to consider all the options on the table.
Defining Effective Leadership - Daniel Goleman

• Motivation. Getting motivated from a sense of alignment with one's values and using that

motivation to demonstrate resilience when facing obstacles. Leaders don’t lead by telling
people what they have to do. Instead, leaders cause people to want to help them. A key
part of this is cultivating a desire to help others.
 
• Empathy: Empathy is the ability to experience and relate to the thoughts, emotions, or
experience of others. It is therefore key for leaders, who so frequently must interact with
other individuals, groups and organizations, to build connection in an authentic manner. 

• Social Skills. Understanding social networks and key influencers in that social network is
another key part of leadership. Who moves the hearts of the group? How is the
organization structured? Leaders know they're working towards a goal that’s greater than
themselves and focus on what's most beneficial for the larger group. 
Attributes of Effective Leadership

• Why are some individuals more effective than others at influencing

people?  Effectiveness in leadership has been attributed to:
(1) persuasion skills,
(2) leadership styles and
(3) personal attributes of the leader.
Leadership versus being a leader

Leadership – action oriented/process Being A Leader – traits/personality

• To cast vision is leadership. • To be visionary is to be a leader

• To organize people toward an objective is • To be influential is to be a leader.
leadership.
• To anticipate change is to be a leader.
• To observe market trends is leadership.
• To be inspirational is to be a leader.
• To step on stage and inspire others is leadership.
• To model how to determine right things is to
• To teach others the right things is leadership.
be a leader.
• To solve problems is leadership.
• To recognize opportunities is to be a leader.
• To make decisions is leadership.
• To be a wise decision-maker is to be a leader.
• To have an organizational role is leadership.
• To have spiritual authority is to be a leader.