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Lesson#17
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BECOMING A LEADER
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BECOMING A LEADER
We started this topic in lecture number 16. Becoming a leader! What Does It
Mean & How Do You Get
It? Three competency of a Leader were discussed. Leading the organization,
Leading others and
Leading oneself.
Leaders do know their strengths, know their weakness, know their opportunities,
know their challenges,
know who they are as an individual and do know yourself?
“Leadership is not a matter of luck. The harder you work, the luckier you are.”
Career Paths and Leadership:
Every leader has some career path in his professional life. Through career
path, a leader moves upwards
gradually in the organization and influences other employees through his/her
behavior, personality, and
attitude. John Maxwell defines Leadership as Influence.
Let’s discuss the contribution/work of different people on leadership.
HOWARD HYDEN Leadership Core Competencies:
Howard Hyden explains the leadership core competencies in five categories;
Creating more leaders: Leaders always create more leaders within the
groups or team by influencing
his/her behavior and trained them for future leadership.
Empowerment (letting go): Leader also believe on the empowerment and
delegation of powers to
his/her followers. This will encourage them to make independent decisions and
also take risks.
_ Communication: One of
the core competencies of leader is a good communicator. Leader always
communicates in a well manner. He/she can communicate vision, direction and
decisions etc in
proper way. Proper communication system in a team/organization cab be key to
success.
_ Vision: Leader are
visionary and they keenly observers the dynamics of organization and its
environment. Make pro-active decisions and strategy accordingly.
_ Patience: They are the
patience. Take times to understand situation and make logical decisions.
_ Strategic thinking:
They are the strategic thinkers and develop strategies in the changing
environments..
TOM PETERS: 10 Traits of Leaders:
Tom peters presents ten traits of leaders which are;
Leaders Create Opportunities: leaders always create the opportunities for
his/her followers to move
forward and for group, team or organization.
_ Leaders Do!: leaders
always do the right thing right.
_ Leaders re-do: leaders
have the habit of re-do the wrong work or task to correct them. They learn
from their mistakes.
_ Leaders Convey a Grand
Design: leader always convey/show a bigger picture of the
organization/team to the other employee/followers.
_ Leaders Make Mistakes:
leader may also make mistake and learn lessons from these mistakes.
_ Leaders Nurture Other
Leaders: they also take care for the other members. Provide them
opportunities to learn and grow. They develop and train more leaders within
their team/organization
for future.
_ Leaders are Great
Performers: they are the great performers. They make examples for others to
follow.
_ Leaders Accept
Responsibility: they always accept the responsibility for his/her deeds and
also
for their followers.
_ Leaders Take Breaks:
they also take some break time for relaxation to re-cope energy and
strength.
_ Leaders do Stuff That
Matters: they always do important task which are important for team,
groups and themselves.
KEN SHELTON: Seven Traits of Great Leaders:
Leaders identify, cultivate, and inspire enthusiastic followers for
achievement of organizational goals.
Their Focus in always on their efforts that what they are doing and what they
want to do.
_ They face and overcome great
difficulties occur in the organization.
_ They expect more from
themselves than they do from others team members.
_ They are not afraid to make
tough decisions.
_ They have a vision and utmost
faith in themselves to fulfill that vision.
_ They are ambitious for
themselves, their companies, and their people.
WARREN BENNIS: Four Competencies of Great Leaders:
Warren Bennis presents the four competencies of great leader.
Management of Attention: leaders are the committed about work and pay
full attention to complete
the task as per requirement by putting attention on work and other team members.
Management of Meaning: they are innovators as they always make the new
ideas, thoughts and
provide the guide line that how this can be fulfilled.
Management of Trust: Not only building their own trust but also build
trust in others.
Management of Self: they also put attention on self management that how
they can improve himself,
what new skill they should have learn.
WARREN BENNIS:
Five Common Ingredients of Great Leaders:
_ Vision: they are
visionary.
_ Passion: they have a
great passion of work.
_ Integrity: they are the
honest
_ Trust: they are the
trust worthy.
_ Curiosity and daring:
they are curiosity and bold.
SHEILA MURRAY BETHEL:
Qualities of Leadership: Sheila Murray Bethhel presents the qualities of
leadership;
_ They have a mission that
matters.
_ They are big thinkers
_ Be ethical
_ They are change master
_ They are sensitive
_ They area risk taker
_ They are decision maker
_ They use power wisely
_ They are a good communicator
_ They are team builder
_ They are courageous
_ They are committed
So we can see that the ideas of mostly the writers are similar and they discuss
almost similar trait/
characteristics of a leader. For leadership to occur, someone must provide the
spark for action, energy
and purpose
Motives for leadership: there are three motives of leadership;
1. Power: is the desire to influence, give orders, and carry them out.
2. Achievement: is the need to create/ achieve and build something of
value
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3. Affiliation: is an interest in knowing and helping others.
Power-Oriented Leader: they strive for leadership because of the formal
authority it brings. They are
the bold and have a dominance role in the organization.
Achievement-Oriented Leader: they want to discover, create, and build
some thing. They are the
creative and innovators and always try to achieve some thing new. They are
competent, skillful and
productive.
Affiliation Leader: they have high concern for human welfare and care
about others and has a desire to
serve. They are helpful, unselfish and considerate of the well being of others.
Points to Remember:
_ An individual will prefer
one or two social motives over the others. Preference depends on cultural
values, personal traits, and experiences.
_ Leadership is exerted to
satisfy one or a combination of the three motives. Motivated by power,
achievement, or affiliation
_ Leaders and followers are
happiest in situations that allow expression of personal social motives.
We will shift now to another important topic “Power”. Does having power make a
leader? To answer
this question we need to understand basic concepts of power and its relationship
with the process of
leadership.
Elements of Leadership:
_ Power: is the
possession of control, authority, or influence over others. (Webster’s).
Leadership
power comes from the followers’ willingness to be influenced, induced, control
and guide.
Sources of Leadership Power:
_ The following are the
sources of a leader’s power;
1. A leader’s authority most commonly stems from the position to which he or she
is appointed
and the power to reward or punish individuals.
2. An authority in his or her field has expert power, and others do what is
asked of them out of
respect. Referent power is based on personal magnetism and charisma.
3. Formal leaders get some of their authority through their position.
4. Informal leaders get their authority through charisma.
How Do Some People Become Leaders?
_ They are the center of an
activity and every one is focusing on him.
_ Their personality is so
impressive.
_ Have a good team of followers
_ Persuasion
_ Status in the organization
formally given by the top management.
_ Power/influence
Understanding Power: before understanding power we need to ask some
questions by our self;
1. What is power?
2. How do leaders acquire the power needed for leadership?
3. What are organizational politics?
4. How do organizational politics affect the Leadership?
CONCEPT OF POWER:
Power: is the ability of one person or group to cause another person or
group to do something they
otherwise might not have done is the principal means of directing and
controlling organizational goals
and activities.
Influence: is the process of affecting the thoughts, behavior, & feelings
of another person.
Authority: is the right to influence another person formally given by the
organization. A legitimate
power is known as authority.
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Principles of Power:
• Power is perceived
• Power is relative
• Power bases must be coordinated
• Power is a double-edged sword (used and abused)
Historian Lord Acton once said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.”
Dependency: The Key To Power: If you want to get things done in a group
or organization, it helps to
have power. As a leader if you want to maximize your power, you will need to
increase others’
dependence on you. You can, for instance, increase your power in relation to
your boss by developing
knowledge or a skill that he/she needs and for which he/she perceives no one
ready to substitute. You
will not be alone in attempting to build your power bases. Others, particularly
employees and peers,
will be seeking to make you dependent on them. The result is a continual battle.
While you seek to
maximize others’ dependence on you, you will be seeking to minimize your
dependence on others, and,
of course, others will be trying to do the same.
The General Dependency Postulate
_ The greater B’s
dependency on A, the greater the power A has over B.
When you possess anything that others require but that you alone control,
you make them dependent
upon you and, therefore, you gain power over them.
_ Dependency, then, is
inversely proportional to the alternative sources of supply.
This is why most organizations develop multiple suppliers rather than using
just one.
What Creates Dependency?
_ Importance.
_ To create dependency, the
thing(s) you control must be perceived as being important.
_ Organizations actively seek to
avoid uncertainty.
_ Therefore, those individuals
or groups who can absorb an organization’s uncertainty will be
perceived as controlling an important resource.
_ Scarcity.
_ A resource needs to be
perceived as scarce to create dependency.
_ Low-ranking members in an
organization who have important knowledge not available to highranking
members gain power over the high-ranking members.
_ The scarcity-dependency
relationship can further be seen in the power of occupational
categories.
_ Individuals in occupations in
which the supply of personnel is low relative to demand can
negotiate compensation and benefit packages, which are far more attractive than
can those in
occupations where there is an abundance of candidates.
_ Non-substitutability.
_ The more a resource has no
viable substitutes, the more power that control over other
resource.
Two Faces of Power:
Personal Power: used for personal gain. It is too dangerous when a person
use the power for its own
interest. It may destroy the organization.
Social Power: this is used to create motivation and to accomplish group
goals.
Forms of Power:
• Personal power
– Use of personal influence of events.
– not arrogance.
• Professional power
– use of professional expertise and competence, embedded within an
organization, to
make change or make a contribution.
• Positional power
– Granted by the organization.
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Other Sources of Power
• Connection power
• Information power
• Group decision making power
• Organization power
• Coalition power |
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