Leadership: Definitions and Qualities

SU 3: Leadership - Lecture 1 Overview

• The lecture explores what makes leaders stand out.
• The next session will cover the toxic side of leadership and alternative forms of leadership.
• Topics this session include defining leadership, comparing leadership and management, and identifying the qualities of a good leader.

Defining Leadership

• Leadership involves directing a group toward a shared goal (Hemphill & Coons, 1957: 7).
• Leadership is influencing others to achieve maximum performance on a task or project (Cohen, 1990: 9).
• Leadership is influencing individuals or groups to achieve goals in a specific situation (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988: 86).
• Leadership is interpersonal influence through communication to achieve specified goals (Tannenbaum, Weschler & Massarik, 1961: 24).
• There are many definitions of leadership (Bass, 1981: 89).

Leadership vs. Management

• Leadership establishes a vision, makes it meaningful, communicates effectively, and motivates people, thus creating change.
• Management involves planning, designing, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling OR managing and directing change.
• Leadership is less visible than management.
• Leadership and management are not mutually exclusive; both overlap and occur together.

Qualities of a Good Leader

• Key aspects include visionary thinking, effective communication, integrity, ethics, emotional intelligence, decisiveness, inspiration, motivation, adaptability, collaboration, team building, confidence, continuous learning, and improvement.
• Leadership theories have evolved through various approaches:
  • Traits (1920s)
  • Skills (1940-50s)
  • Styles/Behaviors (1950-60s)
  • Contingency (1960-70s)
  • Transformational Leadership (1980s).

Trait Theories

• Leadership is determined by personality and personal qualities.
• Effective leaders are 'gifted' with divine inspiration and characteristics.
• Leaders are born, not made.
• Lists of traits include intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, sociability, and emotional intelligence.
• Trait theories are intuitively appealing but empirically questionable (Sexton, 2006).
• Thomas Carlyle (1840) believed history is defined by great men.

Skills Approaches (Katz, 1955)

• Skills needed dependent upon management level Middle management level need all 3 skills
• Technical, Human and Conceptual

Style/Behavior Approaches

• Blake & Mouton's Leadership Grid uses people concern and task concern to focus on work, output, and morale.
• Approaches include Country Club Manager, Team Manager, Impoverished Manager, Authority-Obedience Manager

Contingency Theories

• Fiedler's Contingency Model takes leadership and relationship styles into consideration.
• Hersey and Blanchard model use leadership styles dependent on directive behavior

Transformational Leadership

• Transactional leaders meet material and psychic needs in return for 'contracted' services (Bass, 1985:14).
• The "bulk" of leadership models are transactional..
• Transformational leaders engage followers and aim to change and transform people (Burns, 1978: 4).
• Often incorporates visionary leadership.

Elements of Transformational Leadership

• Individualized Consideration: Show concern, identify needs, provide challenges/opportunities, and give feedback.
• Inspirational Motivation: Articulate possibilities, communicate a vision, align organizational goals, and treat threats/mistakes as opportunities.
• Intellectual Stimulation: Stimulate intellect/imagination, question the status quo, encourage imagination/feedback, and support willingness to think.
• Idealized Influence: Display charisma, express confidence, take responsibility, display a sense of purpose, and emphasize accomplishments.

Core Assumptions of Leadership

• Only certain people can 'do' leadership.
• Followers are passive recipients of leader’s orders (Collinson, 2005: 1424).
• Leadership is conceptualized heroically (Alvesson and Spicer, 2010).
• Leadership is inherently 'positive' and unproblematic.