The intent of this blog is to discuss the concepts of leadership for the management course of Corporate Leadership Development under the guidance of Dr. T. Prasad. This blog touches upon my concept of leadership derived from the study of various leadership theories developed by various researchers.
Leadership
is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and
directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent.
Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as
beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. Although one’s
position as a manager, supervisor, lead, etc. gives him/her the authority to
accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organization, this power does not make you a leader. It simply
makes you the boss. Leadership differs in that it makes the
followers want to
achieve high goals, rather than simply bossing people around. Leadership
implies the organization or mobilization of people and resources (economic,
political and other) in pursuit of particular ends.
Leadership
is a complex process by which a person influences others to accomplish a
mission, task, or objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it
more cohesive and coherent. A person carries out this process by applying her
leadership attributes (belief, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and
skills). So
in a nutshell - one must be trustworthy and must be able to
communicate a vision of where the organization needs to go.
Leadership is the kind of responsibility, which aims at achieving
particular ends, by utilizing available resources (human and material), to make
organization cohesive and coherent. Researchers have proposed different styles
of leadership; but there is no particular style of leadership which can be said
universal.
The
skills considered important today include, vision and strategic planning, a
desire to innovate, a willingness to take considered risks, the ability to
create and sustain growth, the ability to delegate and collaborate, excellent
communication skills, Risk management and crisis intervention skills. In
addition to these skills which are very important for the progress of a
successful non-profit organization, or any other organization; there are
certain characteristics which differentiate this kind of organizations.
Bass [Bass, 1990] has identified numerous definitions of leadership and the ones I can relate myself to are
“Leadership as
personality and its effects”
The degree of influence a person influences on others has a direct bearing on his personality. We see eminent personalities like Steve Jobs, Narendra Modi, Angela Morkel etc who have given new dimensions to leadership by the sheer power of their personality. They inspire, excite, invigorate and guide their followers to an extent that their vision becomes the vision of their followers. However, this kind of leadership has a disadvantage of being too person specific and may have disastrous consequences if used wrongfully. A horrific example of such a type of leadership is the one by Adolf Hitler where he took Germany to World War -II by the force of his personality.
“Leadership as a form of persuasion”
Leaders necessarily have to persuade their followers. Coercion can bring out maximum from the individual but may not bring out the best from him/ her. In order to extract the best from every follower, a leader has to 'sell' his vision and goals. It is important that his followers understand that vision, internalize it and also align their own goals with the leader's goals. That is the power of persuasion that an influential leader wields. A good example of leadership by persuasion is the conception and development of Tata Nano. Ratan Tata was able to persuade not only his employees but also his suppliers for fulfilling his dream of a $2000 (INR 1 lac) car. It was this vision that reverberated through out the Tata Motors and resulted into the creation of Nano, world's cheapes car for the commoners.
“Leadership as the
initiation of structure”
Leadership is not a passive occupancy of a position or acquisition of a
role but a process of originating and maintaining the role structure – the
pattern of role relationships in the entire team. The leader's role is to influence his/her team's behavior in a way conducive to the needs and expectations of the organization. Leader is endowed with this responsibility because his probability of molding the team-structure is much higher than any other team-member because the team believes his legitimate power.
Hence we see that Leadership is not a unique role not it requires a single skill set. Leadership is both an art and science and pervades through the entire spectrum of management function and lies at the edifice of the organizational development.
