LEADERSHIP STYLES Excerpt
What is leadership?
In order to understand how to become a leader, we should first define what leadership is.
Leadership is an ability of an individual to influence others in ways that help reach group or organizational goals. A leader’s essential goal is to create a purpose or mission of the organization and strategy for attaining it (whereas the manager’s goal is to implement this strategy).
You are now probably asking: “How do leaders influence others?” According to “the theory,” they use position and/or personal powers.
Position power comes from the posts individuals hold, i.e., individuals can influence others because such powers are associated with their jobs. Such powers are available to anyone that holds a particular position. Position power has four different sources:
- Legitimate power – individuals gain such power when others recognize and accept his or her authority;
- Reward power – the power to control the rewards others receive, e.g., a supervisor can reward others by recommending a pay raise;
- Coercive power – the capacity to control punishment;
- Information power – power gained by having access to valuable data or knowledge
Personal Power: Another source of power comes from the unique qualities of an individual. Such power is called personal power. There are four sources of personal power:
- Rational persuasion – the ability to provide logical arguments and factual evidence to support his/her arguments;
- Expert power – the power individuals gain when others recognize their expertise on a topic;
- Referent power – the power individuals gain because they are liked and admired by others;
- Charisma – power that comes from an engaging and magnetic personality
The first and most basic prerequisite for leadership is the desire to lead. After all, becoming an effective leader takes hard work. If you’re not prepared to work hard at developing your leadership skills or if, deep down, you’re really not sure whether you want to lead or not, you’ll struggle to become an effective leader.
Using the Right One for the Situation
From Mahatma Gandhi to Winston Churchill to Martin Luther King, there are as many leadership styles as there are leaders. Fortunately, businesspeople and psychologists have developed useful and simple ways to describe the main styles of leadership. These can help aspiring leaders understand which styles they should use.
So, whether you manage a team at work, captain a sports team, or lead a major corporation, which approach is the best? Consciously or subconsciously, you’ll probably use some of the leadership styles in this article at some point. Understanding these styles and their impact can help you develop your own personal leadership style and help you become a more effective leader.
With this in mind, there are many different frameworks that have shaped our current understanding of leadership, and many of these have their place, just as long as they’re used appropriately. This article looks at some of the most common frameworks and then looks at popular styles of leadership.
Leadership Theories
Researchers have developed a number of leadership theories over the years. These fall into four main groups:
1. Behavioral theories – What does a good leader do?
Behavioral theories focus on how leaders behave. Do they dictate what needs to be done and expect cooperation? Or do they involve the team in decisions to encourage acceptance and support?
In the 1930s, Kurt Lewin developed a leadership framework based on a leader’s decision-making behavior. Lewin argued that there are three types of leaders:
- Autocratic leaders make decisions without consulting their teams. This is considered appropriate when decisions genuinely need to be taken quickly, when there’s no need for input, and when team agreement isn’t necessary for a successful outcome.
- Democratic leaders allow the team to provide input before making a decision, although the degree of input can vary from leader to leader. This type of style is important when team agreement matters, but it can be quite difficult to manage when there are lots of different perspectives and ideas.
- Laissez-faire leaders don’t interfere; they allow people within the team to make many of the decisions. This works well when the team is highly capable and motivated and when it doesn’t need close monitoring or supervision. However, this style can arise because the leader is lazy or distracted, and, here, this approach can fail.
Similar to Lewin’s model, the Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid helps you decide how best to lead, depending on your concern for people versus your concern for production.
The model describes five different leadership styles: impoverished, country club, team leader, produce or perish, or middle of the road. These descriptions will help you understand your own leadership habits and adapt them to meet your team’s needs.
Clearly, then, how leaders behave impacts their effectiveness. Researchers have realized, though, that many of these leadership behaviors are appropriate at different times. So, the best leaders are those who can use many different behavioral styles and use the right style for each situation.
To be continued…
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TWELVE GOLDEN RULES OF PEOPLE MANAGEMENT (Excerpt)
As a company organizes and staffs to achieve success, it typically operates within a framework of well-defined management principles. The difficulty lies not in gaining acceptance of those basic management concepts but in implementing them when dealing with specific individuals in real-world situations.
This white paper defines twelve rules, guidelines really, that should help you grasp key concepts needed to deal with a wide range of “people issues.”
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Valuable Principles of Leadership Application Excerpt
Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership
- Model the Way
- Inspire a Shared Vision
- Challenge the Process
- Enable Others to Act
- Encourage the Heart
Ten Commitments of Leadership
- Find your voice by clarifying your values
- Set the example by aligning actions with shared values
- Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities
- Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations
- Search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow and improve
- Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes
- Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust
- Strengthen others by sharing power and discretion
- Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence
- Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community
Do you want to learn more? Then email us at info@DIADconsulting.com and request our White Paper, “Leadership Styles.”
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IDENTIFYING NEW LEADERS IN YOUR COMPANY
The search for the next generation of leaders is one of the greatest challenges for organizations.
Organizations are concerned with how to identify new leaders. This becomes even more critical when you consider that a large part of a company’s success comes from the decisions made by its leaders. Choosing the right people now will have a direct impact on future business growth.
Some companies look for candidates outside the company to fill important roles, even given the costs and risk of hiring someone who may not adapt to the company culture.
Among other companies, there is often a lack of basic talent management tools. This leads to even more doubts about how to identify new leaders properly.
This article offers some tips to help you identify the new leaders who are currently hidden in your company.
It is not intended to imply that you should not look to outside candidates. New blood may be exactly what you need. However, it is worthwhile to look at existing talent to meet your needs. This can be cost-effective and also be less stressful to the organization.
Which strategies can be employed to help a company identify new leaders?
Prioritize the workforce
Developing and maintaining collaborators is cheaper than looking for new professionals in the market. Tools such as corporate e-learning make this process easier.
To help companies identify new leaders, internal leadership development programs are great ways to assess and identify promising candidates.
Support from outside consultants can help develop these programs. However, they must be tailored to the company’s needs. An off-the-shelf methodology will not always fit the organization’s environment. It may not meet the company’s real development needs.
Promotions and encouraging job-rotation
When feasible, provide job rotation, whereas employees are allocated to different functions within the company. The challenges that arise from coming into contact with new responsibilities in unfamiliar roles allow people to broaden their knowledge and develop their abilities.
Align performance targets
Market dynamics and increasingly rapid changes also impact performance reviews. They occur in ever shorter time frames. In some cases, even on a daily basis. The great benefit of conducting “real-time” performance reviews lies in promoting and accelerating change. They help to quickly align performance targets with the desires and goals of employees with strong leadership potential.
How to identify new leaders with the right characteristics?
- Carry out predictive evaluations
Predictive tools make it possible to evaluate people’s work behavior and why they behave that way. The patterns identified indicate what the person’s behavior will likely be in the future in similar contexts.They are useful for identifying collaborators with strong potential and those who are incompatible with leadership roles.
First, managers should determine what abilities and characteristics are required for each role. They should be evaluated with the organization’s future in mind so that new leaders can put the business strategies into practice.
Specialized software solutions are helpful in this step. Predictive evaluations involve large amounts of data. Without the help of technology, the process is simply not easy.
- Focus on the candidate’s ability
Performance history is one element that helps measure the experience and abilities of a candidate. Be cautious at this point. Don’t focus too much on performance, but rather prioritize potential when looking for new leaders.Some collaborators demonstrate exceptional performance and are interested in assuming leadership roles but may be considered unfit in terms of potential.
Managers need to focus on the capabilities of candidates. It is crucial to identify their goals in relation to the company and if there is potential to grow to communicate clearly, outlining one’s vision and building a team to develop and influence team members.
- Look for a coach
The integration of people tends to be better under leaders who guide and assist in their professional development, making coaching one of the necessary skills for new leaders. Thus, when looking for potential candidates, look for people who are able to inspire, guide, and stimulate their future employees. - Evaluate how the candidate relates to the company
Leaders with great potential will demonstrate a high level of interest in the company’s goals. They will be involved in the organization’s plans and future strategies. When evaluating candidates, ask yourself these questions:- Does this collaborator proactively contribute good ideas?
- Does he/she propose strategies to improve the work environment, simplify a process, or improve results?
- Does he/she show interest in going beyond the expected to get results on behalf of the team and the organization?
If you answered “yes” to these questions, you have likely identified an employee with the characteristics of a future leader.
- Get candidate references
Talk to managers and other employees who work (or have worked) closely with the potential candidates. Using this feedback, identify which characteristics are relevant for leadership roles.Just be careful who you talk to for references to eliminate the risk of bias.
- Look for result-oriented people
Look for leaders who demonstrate motivation to achieve results. These people like new challenges and take them on as a way to broaden their knowledge. They care about the quality of their work and always strive for improvement.In conclusion, there are probably people who have strong leadership potential among your company’s collaborators. Maybe they are not aware of this potential, but you can help them find it.
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