LEADERSHIP CONCEPT
DEFINITION OF LEADERSHIP:-
Leadership, as a
process, shapes the goals of a group or organization, motivates behavior toward
the achievement of those goals, and helps define group or organizational
culture. It is primarily a process of influence.
According to C.I. Bernard – ‘Leadership is the quality of
behaviour of the individuals whereby they guide people or their activities in
organised efforts’.
According to Bernard Keys and
Thomas – ‘Leadership is the process of influencing and supporting others
to work enthusiastically towards achieving objectives’.
Koontz and O’Donnell, “Leadership is the process of influencing
people so that they will strive willingly towards the achievement of group
goals.”
Chester I. Bernard, “Leadership refers to the quality of the
behaviour of the individual whereby they guide people on their activities in
organised work.”
LEADERSHIP STYLE:-
·
Autocratic leadership style: It refers to a
leadership style where the leader takes all the decisions by himself.
·
Democratic leadership style: It refers to a style
where the leader consults its subordinates before taking the final decision.
·
Laissez-faire or Free-rein leadership
style: It
refers to a style where the leader gives his subordinates complete freedom to
take the decisions.
OBJECTIVES OF LEADERSHIP:-
(i) To develop the feeling of
cooperation and coordination,
(ii) To determine and provide
the needful directions about good or bad as well as right or wrong conducts and
behaviour as may be applicable in society,
(iii) To determine and
formulate the equitable and justified behavioural norm in society,
(iv) To develop new, innovative
and creative ideas, outlooks and approaches among people,
(v) To determine and make the
perspective visions and missions for the well-being of human life in society,
(vi) To determine some learning
aspects to follow the concept of truth, purity, politeness, and justifications
among every people in society,
(vii) To develop enthusiasms,
loyalty and devotional behaviour and attitudes,
(viii) To determine and provide
needful directions for making team spirit among people,
(ix) To provide due importance for common interest in a group or
society,
(x) To provide some leading
guidelines for developing better work environment.
NATURE OF LEADERSHIP:-
(1) Leadership as a Status
Group:
It refers to a situation where
a person moves to leadership position by reason of heredity (as when he is a
descendant of a business family), or when he is elected or selected to a
leadership position.
(2) Leadership as a Focal
Person:
According to this view,
leadership vests the people who are regarded as leaders by virtue of positions
held by them in an organization, such as persons elected or selected to
positions of directors, executives, administrators, managers, or chiefs of
departments in an organization.
(3) Leadership as a Function:
The leadership function
comprises activities that facilitate the achievement of group goals. The person
who performs this function is regarded as leader. And while there are several
people involved in working towards accomplishment of group goals and there are
many factors, including luck, that determine the result of their collective
efforts, but the credit or discredit for success or failure of the group effort
will be attributed to the leader of the group.
According to this view,
leadership is an interactive process in which leaders and followers exchange
influence, i.e., the leader influences the followers by his ideas, direction
and support, and the followers influence the leader by their ideas, suggestions
and contribution to the achievement of group goals.
QUALITIES
OF GOOD LEADERSHIP:-
1.
Selflessness: The base and the heart of leadership quality is
selflessness. The leader should set his objectives without being selfish and
self-centric. The other two elements that a leader should have along with
selflessness is are character and knowledge. Leaders, by the energy of their
character, get the job done by managing people suitably. And on the ground of
their knowledge, decides what to do in any circumstances. Sheer character not
assisted by knowledge puts a ceiling in a leader’s capability.
2.
Courage: The
most astonishing human quality that a leader must retain is the courage to face
the situations and take responsibility for success and failure of the decision
taken by him or by his/her team members. A good leader is the one who has the
courage to take responsibility for failure but gives credit to his/her team
when succeeds.
3.
Will power: Will
power is a quality which is uniformly required in all prominent leaders.
Thousands of difficulties emerge, and failures took place while executing
plans. A good leader should have strong willpower to face hurdles instead of
getting disappointed with failures while implementing the plans. The strong
will power of a leader boosts his/her teammates will power and encourages them
to give their best.
4.
Efficient communication: Good communication is the key to become an admirable
leader. The logic behind it is clear if the leader carries all types of
leadership qualities, yet if he fails to communicate properly, he will never be
an admirable leader.
5.
Knowledge: Leaders
learn by way of their exertions which build up their knowledge. They intensify
their experience by working in the department of work which can’t be
interchanged by any device. A leader is also enforced to have a knowledge of
handling people; although, appropriate knowledge of job also strengthens the
confidence level of the leaders.
6. Honesty and Integrity: Honesty and integrity are the priceless assets of a leader and treated as the most commendable attribute of a leader. The leader should be honest with both his employees and the management of the organization. A leader should always keep their integrity above all else as once it ruins; it gets lost forever.
7.
Consistency: Leadership
effectiveness without consistency is illogical. The path of every leader is
rare to oneself. Consistency helps in attaining a leadership position; however,
it is not the only approach for effective leadership; it works along with other
aspects of good leadership quality. A good leader can correct the rough spots
but never let their team confuse by displaying inconsistency in his/her
decisions.
8.
Visionary outlook: It is one of the unique traits of the leader. They must be
competent to look further where the company is standing today, recognize where
the business is moving, and use that perspective to run the company ahead.
FIG- Qualities of good leadership
FUNCTIONS
OF A LEADER:-
1. Develop
a feeling of mutual interest among the group members,
2. Promote
cooperation and effective communication to ensure maximum efficiency of the
group,
3. Foster
a feeling of team spirit among the group members, and
4. Manage
strife and dissension efficiently and constructively.
LEADERSHIP
SKILLS:-
To be a successful and lovable leader, the one should possess
some extraordinary skills which make them distinct from others. Few imperative
skills that every leader should have are as follows:
1.
Taking responsibility and initiatives: Good leaders are always ready to take
responsibility and have plenty of initiatives, i.e., they are always eager to
do something new and different for the betterment of the organization.
2.
Motivate and inspire: Efficient Leadership builds motivation by inspiring and
encouraging their team member’s work as magnificent motivation expands
productivity and delivers the strength to the enterprise.
3.
Understand and empathize: It’s human physiology if one gets an appreciation, they
perform with more enthusiasm, and a good leader should always keep this in mind
that his followers are the one who leads him to the path of success. Thus,
appreciating them and understanding their aspects becomes the moral
responsibility of the leader.
4.
Lead by example: Numerous outstanding leaders become an example for the new
leaders. They should lead their followers by giving examples of extraordinary
achievements they can get by following their path. Leadership is an art of
managing the groups or teams in a synchronized manner so that the leader and
employees both get benefited.
5.
Think Strategically, flexibly and creatively: An energetic leader must anticipate such
strategies that are creative and flexible and always ready to adopt the
suggestions of his followers. It will increase the confidence of the employees
and enhances their creativity and encourages them to achieve their targets.
6.
Give appropriate and constructive feedback: In a leadership trail, the leader may
face diversified complications and various unfavourable circumstances, yet his
teammates are the one who confronts such situations along with them and
together explores the solution. Thus, it’s the liability of the leader to give
appropriate and constructive feedback of their team member’s work.
IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP:-
Enterprises have accomplished remarkable
success with the help of magnificent leaders. For displaying the importance of
such leadership, the following points are summed up below:
1.
Development
of creativity: It
flourishes creative followers in the enterprise. Innovative staff members bring
success and develop the goodwill of the enterprise.
2.
Guiding
people: A
leader must guide, advise and manage the groups. He performs the role of
friend, guide and philosopher of his supporters and takes a start in all
activities. A leader offers advice and direction and uses his ability in the
preferred interests of the organization.
3.
Developing
teamwork: The
continuous functioning of the enterprise count on the team spirit. Leaders
impart a sense of socialism in the staff and oblige them to work as a team. For
strengthening the team spirit, leaders are obligated to harmonize diverse
interests and diversified goals to restore stability.
4.
Creation
of confidence: Leadership
generates confidence in a team member by way of direction and honest advice.
Good leadership impress followers and can acquire high performance from them.
It accomplishes the enterprise’s purpose and the followers by building steady
confidence and obtaining their follower’s loyalty.
5.
Creation
of a favourable work environment: A good leadership constitutes an
encouraging favourable work environment in the enterprise so that their team
members will be able to work evenly, efficiently and without any conflict.
APPROACHES TO
THE ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP:-
Trait
Approach
The first major approach to
leadership is commonly referred to as the trait
approach to leadership because the approach looks for a series of
physical, mental, or personality traits that effective leaders possess that
neither non-leaders nor ineffective leaders possess. We start with this
approach to leadership predominantly because it’s the oldest of the major
approaches to leadership and is an approach to leadership that is still very
much in existence today.
Situational Approach
As trait approaches became more passé, new approaches to
leadership began emerging that theorized that leadership was contingent on a
variety of situational factors (e.g., task to be completed, leader-follower
relationships/interactions, follower motivation/commitment, etc.). These new
theories of leadership are commonly referred to as the situational approaches.
Functional Approach
In both the trait and situational approaches to leadership, the
primary outcome called “leadership” is a series of characteristics that help
create the concept. The functional approach,
on the other hand, posits that it’s not a series of leadership characteristics
that make a leader, but rather a leader is someone who looks like, acts like,
and communicates like a leader. To help us understand the functional approach
to leadership, we’ll examine two different sets of researchers commonly
associated with this approach.
Relational Approach
The next approach to leadership is called the relational approach because it focuses not on
traits, characteristics, or functions of leaders and followers, but instead the
relational approach focuses on the types of relationships that develop between
leaders and followers.
Transactional Approach
Transactional leadership,
which focuses on an array of exchanges that can occur between a leader and her
or his followers. The most obvious way transactional leadership is seen in
corporate America is the use of promotions and pay raises. Transactional
leaders offer promotions or pay raises to those followers who meet or exceed
the leader’s goals. Rewards are seen as a tool that a leader utilizes to get
the best performance out of her or his followers. If the rewards no longer
exist, followers will no longer have the external motivation to meet or exceed
goals.
Transformational leadership, on the other hand, can be defined as
the “process whereby a person engages with others and creates a connection that
raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower.
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