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MANAGEMENT

To be a successful leader
Globalization has led to emergence of new business environment. These developments demand creative and dynamic manpower. At a time when change is the only thing that is constant, it becomes imperative that we understand the socio-cultural milieu in which we must operate. To be successful, managers one needs to develop a global vision to take full advantage of the opportunities thrown up by globalization. Leadership is an important element of the directing function of management. Wherever there is an organized group of people working towards a common goal, some type of leadership becomes essential. According to Shashi K. Gupta and Rosy Joshi in their book Organisational Behaviour feels that leadership is the ability to build up confidence and zeal among people and to create an urge in them to be led. To be a successful leader, the individual must possess the qualities of foresight, drive, initiative, selfconfidence and personal integrity. Leadership has been defined in various ways. Stogdill has rightly remarked that there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it. As Koontz and ODonnell say, leadership is the ability of a manager/individual to induce subordinates/peers to work with confidence and zeal. Allford and Beaty feel that leadership is the ability to secure desirable actions from a group of followers, voluntarily, without the use of coercion. Management Guru Peter Drucker opines that leadership is not making friends and influencing people. It is the lifting of mans visions to higher sights, the raising of mans personality beyond its normal limitations. In the various definitions of leadership the emphasis is on the capacity of an individual to influence and direct group effort towards the achievement of organizational goals. Thus, we can say that leadership is the practice of influence that stimulates subordinates or followers to do their best towards the achievement of desired goals. From the view-point of official recognition from top, management leaders may be classified as formal and informal leaders. A formal leader is one who is formally appointed or elected to direct and control the activities of the subordinates. He is a person created by the formal structure, enjoys organizational authority and is accountable to those who have elected him in a formal way. The formal leader has a two-fold responsibility. On the one hand he has to fulfil the demands of the organization, while, on the other, he is supposed to help, guide and direct his subordinates in satisfying their needs and aspirations. Informal leaders derive authority from the people who are under their influence. In any organization we can always find some persons who command respect and who are approached to help, guide and protect the interest of the people. They are known as informal leaders. The informal leaders have only one task to perform: to help their followers in achieving their individual and group goals. Informal leaders are created to satisfy those needs, which are not satisfied by the formal leaders. An organization can make effective use of informal leaders to strengthen the formal leadership. between successful leadership and effective leadership. Are the successful managers always effective or is there a distinction between successful leaders and effective leaders? Let us try to understand this relationship: A manager always tries to influence the behaviour of the subordinates through leadership. The subordinate may or may not come up to the expectations of the leader. Moreover, if the behaviour of the subordinate is compatible with the expectations of the leader it may due to two reasons. Impact of leader s appropriate style; Because of the position power of the leader. In the first case, the leader is effective because he has influenced the behaviour of the subordinate and the subordinate sees the accomplishment of his own needs being satisfied by satisfying the goals of the leader and the organization. In the second case, the leader is successful, but he is not effective. It is because of the reason that he has received the desired response from the subordinates by using his power. The position power can be delegated downward in the organization, but the personal power cannot be delegated. It is generated upward from below through acceptance by subordinates. A successful and effective manager is the ideal one whose influence tends to lead to long run productivity. The successful and effective framework is just one way of evaluating the response to a specific behavioural aspect, and not of evaluating performance over time. Leadership is just one of the factors which influences the total performance and performance should be evaluated in the light of all factors.

Successful leadership Vs Effective Leadership


A very important question is whether there is any relationship
340 s NOVEMBER 2001 s THE COMPETITION MASTER

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