What is Leadership

Leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and influence the
behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in a given
situation. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work
with confidence and zeal.

Leadership is the potential to influence behaviour of others. It is also defined as the

capacity to influence a group towards the realization of a goal. Leaders are required
to develop future visions, and to motivate the organizational members to want to
achieve the visions.

According to Keith Davis, “Leadership is the ability to persuade others to seek

defined objectives enthusiastically. It is the human factor which binds a group
together and motivates it towards goals.”

Characteristics of Leadership

1. It is a inter-personal process in which a manager is into influencing and

guiding workers towards attainment of goals.
2. It denotes a few qualities to be present in a person which includes
intelligence, maturity and personality.
3. It is a group process. It involves two or more people interacting with each
other.
4. A leader is involved in shaping and moulding the behaviour of the group
towards accomplishment of organizational goals.
5. Leadership is situation bound. There is no best style of leadership. It all
depends upon tackling with the situations.

Importance of Leadership

Leadership is an important function of management which helps to maximize

efficiency and to achieve organizational goals.

The following points justify the importance of leadership in a concern.

1. Initiates action- Leader is a person who starts the work by communicating

the policies and plans to the subordinates from where the work actually starts.
2. Motivation- A leader proves to be playing an incentive role in the concern’s
working. He motivates the employees with economic and non-economic
rewards and thereby gets the work from the subordinates.
3. Providing guidance- A leader has to not only supervise but also play a
guiding role for the subordinates. Guidance here means instructing the
subordinates the way they have to perform their work effectively and
efficiently.

Leadership styles
No matter what their traits or skills, leaders carry out their roles in a wide variety of
styles. Some leaders are autocratic. Others are democratic. Some are participatory,
and others are hands off. Often, the leadership style depends on the situation,
including where the organization is in its life cycle.

The following are common leadership styles:

 Autocratic. The manager makes all the decisions and dominates team
members. This approach generally results in passive resistance from team
members and requires continual pressure and direction from the leader in
order to get things done. Generally, this approach is not a good way to get the
best performance from a team. However, this style may be appropriate when
urgent action is necessary or when subordinates actually prefer this style.

 Participative. The manager involves the subordinates in decision making by

consulting team members (while still maintaining control), which encourages
employee ownership for the decisions.

A good participative leader encourages participation and delegates wisely, but never
loses sight of the fact that he or she bears the crucial responsibility of leadership.
The leader values group discussions and input from team members; he or she
maximizes the members' strong points in order to obtain the best performance from
the entire team. The participative leader motivates team members by empowering
them to direct themselves; he or she guides them with a loose rein. The downside,
however, is that a participative leader may be seen as unsure, and team members
may feel that everything is a matter for group discussion and decision.

 Laissez‐faire (also called free‐rein). In this hands‐off approach, the leader

encourages team members to function independently and work out their
problems by themselves, although he or she is available for advice and
assistance. The leader usually has little control over team members, leaving
them to sort out their roles and tackle their work assignments without
personally participating in these processes. In general, this approach leaves
the team floundering with little direction or motivation. Laissez‐faire is usually
only appropriate when the team is highly motivated and skilled, and has a
history of producing excellent work.

Many experts believe that overall leadership style depends largely on a manager's
beliefs, values, and assumptions. How managers approach the following three
elements—motivation, decision making, and task orientation—affect their leadership
styles:

 Motivation. Leaders influence others to reach goals through their approaches

to motivation. They can use either positive or negative motivation. A positive
style uses praise, recognition, and rewards, and increases employee security
and responsibility. A negative style uses punishment, penalties, potential job
loss, suspension, threats, and reprimands.
  Decision making. The second element of a manager's leadership style is the
degree of decision authority the manager grants employees—ranging from no
involvement to group decision making.

 Task and employee orientation. The final element of leadership style is the
manager's perspective on the most effective way to get the work done.
Managers who favor task orientation emphasize getting work done by using
better methods or equipment, controlling the work environment, assigning and
organizing work, and monitoring performance. Managers who favor employee
orientation emphasize getting work done through meeting the human needs of
subordinates. Teamwork, positive relationships, trust, and problem solving are
the major focuses of the employee‐oriented manager.

Keep in mind that managers may exhibit both task and employee orientations to
some degree.

The managerial grid model, shown in Figure and developed by Robert Blake and
Jane Mouton, identifies five leadership styles with varying concerns for people and
production:

 The impoverished style, located at the lower left‐hand corner of the grid,
point (1, 1), is characterized by low concern for both people and production;
its primary objective is for managers to stay out of trouble.
  The country club style, located at the upper left‐hand corner of the grid,
point (1, 9), is distinguished by high concern for people and a low concern for
production; its primary objective is to create a secure and comfortable
atmosphere where managers trust that subordinates will respond positively.

 The authoritarian style, located at the lower right‐hand corner of the grid,
point (9,1), is identified by high concern for production and low concern for
people; its primary objective is to achieve the organization's goals, and
employee needs are not relevant in this process.

 The middle‐of‐the‐road style, located at the middle of the grid, point (5, 5),
maintains a balance between workers' needs and the organization's
productivity goals; its primary objective is to maintain employee morale at a
level sufficient to get the organization's work done.

 The team style, located at the upper right‐hand of the grid, point (9, 9), is
characterized by high concern for people and production; its primary objective
is to establish cohesion and foster a feeling of commitment among workers.

The Managerial Grid model suggests that competent leaders should use a style that
reflects the highest concern for both people and production—point (9, 9), team‐
oriented style.

Power versus authority

Effective leaders develop and use power, or the ability to influence others. The
traditional manager's power comes from his or her position within the organization.
Legitimate, reward, and coercive are all forms of power used by managers to change
employee behavior and are defined as follows:

 Legitimate power stems from a formal management position in an

organization and the authority granted to it. Subordinates accept this as a
legitimate source of power and comply with it.

 Reward power stems from the authority to reward others. Managers can give
formal rewards, such as pay increases or promotions, and may also use
praise, attention, and recognition to influence behavior.

 Coercive power is the opposite of reward power and stems from the authority
to punish or to recommend punishment. Managers have coercive power when
they have the right to fire or demote employees, criticize them, withhold pay
increases, give reprimands, make negative entries in employee files, and so
on.

Keep in mind that different types of position power receive different responses in
followers. Legitimate power and reward power are most likely to generate
compliance, where workers obey orders even though they may personally disagree
with them. Coercive power most often generates resistance, which may lead workers
to deliberately avoid carrying out instructions or to disobey orders.

Unlike external sources of position power, personal power most often comes from
internal sources, such as a person's special knowledge or personality characteristics.
Personal power is the tool of a leader. Subordinates follow a leader because of
respect, admiration, or caring they feel for this individual and his or her ideas. The
following two types of personal power exist:

 Expert power results from a leader's special knowledge or skills regarding

the tasks performed by followers. When a leader is a true expert,
subordinates tend to go along quickly with his or her recommendations.

 Referent power results from leadership characteristics that command

identification, respect, and admiration from subordinates who then desire to
emulate the leader. When workers admire a supervisor because of the way he
or she deals with them, the influence is based on referent power. Referent
power depends on a leader's personal characteristics rather than on his or her
formal title or position, and is most visible in the area of charismatic
leadership.

The most common follower response to expert power and referent power is
commitment. Commitment means that workers share the leader's point of view and
enthusiastically carry out instructions. Needless to say, commitment is preferred to
compliance or resistance. Commitment helps followers overcome fear of change,
and it is especially important in those instances.