BUCHAREST UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC STUDIES

FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Entrepreneurial education between art and

science. Leadership is a science but it is also an
art!

Coordinating Professor,
Marta-Christina Suciu

Cojocaru Ana-Maria
Crciun Doina-Veronica
Dasclu Delia

Bucharest,2013
 1. Concepts of leadership
People tipically think of a leader as being the person at the top, but it is more to be said when
it comes to being a leader. The first problem with all of the stuff that is out there on leadership
is that we have not got a clue what we are talking about.
Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an
effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study,
education, training, and experience (Jago, 1982).

Before we get started, lets define leadership.

Leadership is the art by which a person influences others by empowering and

mobilizing them to accomplish an objective and, also, a leader directs the organization in a
way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. This definition is similar to Northouse's (2007,
p3) definition Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of
individuals to achieve a common goal. Thus, the job of a leader is not to create followers, it to
create more leaders.
Effective leaders must be able to enable others to do things, as well as get them to do it. A
leader is most effective if followers are both able and willing. Hence, want to is also a
critical part of this definition. In addition to being willing and able, mobilizing implies getting
the group to follow through will action.
The leader and the group must all be working towards the same ends, leadership is not shown
by dictators who force others to work towards a goal they do not support.
Effective leaders are able to keep the group honorable and adhering to moral and ethical
principles. It is important to remember that an effective leader is not just responsible for the
group completing a task, but also responsible for the team and its enjoyment and feelings
towards others on the team and the work. It is often too easy for a leader to focus too much on
either the task or team members feelings.

Great leaders become leaders to achieve something, not to be someone.

John Boyd, the fighter pilot who invented the OODA loop fast decision-making matrix
(Observe, Orientate, Decide, Act) said its the fundamental choice facing us all in life: to do or
to be. Too many leaders sacrifice integrity to become a leader. They work out how to get
there and play the system. Hence the paradox that a large number of great leaders are not in
formal leadership positions within the hierarchy, as they refuse to choose placement over
integrity. Theres a lot of truth in that. Positional leaders those who are most driven by the
need to be the leader often have a stifling effect on growth, as they see other potential and
existing leaders as threats.
The four factors of leadership
Leader

A grea leade must have an honest understanding of who he is, what he knows, and what he
can do. Also, note that it is the followers, not the leader or someone else who determines if the
leader is successful. If they do not trust or lack confidence in their leader, then they will be
uninspired. To be successful you have to convince your followers, not yourself or your
superiors, that you are worthy of being followed.

Followers

Different people require different styles of leadership. For example, a new hire requires more
supervision than an experienced employee. A person who lacks motivation requires a different
approach than one with a high degree of motivation. A leader must know his people! The
fundamental starting point is having a good understanding of human nature, such as needs,
emotions, and motivation. He must come to know his employees' be, know and do attribues.

Communication

He leads through two-way communication. Much of it is nonverbal. For instance, when he

sets the example,that communicates to his people that he would not ask them to perform
anything of which he would not be willing to do. What and how he communicates either
builds or harms the relationship between he and his employees.
Situation
All situations are different. What a leader does in one situation will not always work in
another. He must use his judgment to decide the best course of action and the leadership style
needed for each situation.
For example, he may need to confront an employee for inappropriate behavior, but if the
confrontation is too late or too early, too harsh or too weak, then the results may prove
ineffective.

Also note that the situation normally has a greater effect on a leader's action than his or her
traits. This is because while traits may have an impressive stability over a period of time, they
have little consistency across situations (Mischel, 1968).

Various forces will affect these four factors. Examples of forces are his relationship with his
seniors, the skill of his followers, the informal leaders within your organization,how his
organization is organized and the openness of people to understand, accept and follow his
ideas.

Boss or Leader?
Being a manager, supervisor, lead, etc. gives someone the authority to accomplish certain tasks
and objectives in the organization (called Assigned Leadership), this power does not make him a
leader, it simply makes him the boss (Rowe, 2007). Leadership differs from being a boss in that it
makes the followers want to achieve high goals (called Emergent Leadership), rather than simply
bossing people around (Rowe, 2007). Thus he gets Assigned Leadership by his position and he
displays Emergent Leadership by influencing people to do great things.

2. Max De Prees approach about leadership being an art in his

book, Leadership is and art (2004)

Of the dozen or so books published in the last few years that have stressed the role of the
leader in achieving corporate excellence, this is the one that puts forward one forgotten but
essential truth about leadership: Leaders have ideas.

The art of leadership, as Max says, is liberating people to do what is required of

them in the most effective and humane way possible. To do this effectively requires clear
thinking about their own beliefs: They must have thought through their assumptions about
human nature, the role of the organization, the measurement of performance (and the host
of other issues) . In short, the true leader is a listener. The leader listens to the ideas, needs,
aspirations, and wishes of the followers and then within the context of his or her own well-
developed system of beliefs responds to these in an appropriate fashion. That is why the
leader must know his own mind. That is why leadership requires ideas. And that is what this
book is: a compendium of ideas about organizational leadership.

The book is about the art of leadership: liberating people to do what is required of
them in the most effective and humane way possible.
How is normal and essential. Why we get those results is more important.
Leadership is an art, something to be learned over time, not simply by reading books.
Leadership is more tribal than scientific, more a weaving of relationships than an amassing
of information, and, in that sense, I dont know how to pin it down in every detail.

In adition of all the ratios and goals and parameters and bottom lines, it is fundamental
that leaders endorse a concept of persons. This begins with an understanding of the diversity
of peoples gifts and talents and skills.

Understanding and accepting diversity enables us to see that each of us is needed. It also
enables us to begin to think about being abandoned to the strenghts of others, of admitting that
we cannot know or do everything.

The simple act of recognizing diveristy in corporate life helps us to connect the great
variety of gifts that people bring to the work and service of the organization. Diversity allows
each of us to contribute in a special way, to make our special gift a part of the corporate effort.
Recognizing diversity helps us to understand the need to produce great or charismatic or well-
known leaders. The measure of leadership is not the quality of the head, but the tone of the
body.

The art of leadership require us to think about the leader-as-steward in terms of relationships:
of assets and legacy, of momentum and effectiveness, of civility and values.

Leaders should leave behind them assets and legacy. Leaders owe their institutions
vital financial health, and the relationships and reputation that enable continuity of the
financial health. Leaders must deliver to their organizations the appropriate services, products,
tools and equipment that people in the organization need in order to be accountable.

Leaders owe the organization a new reference point for what caring, purposeful, committed
people can be in the institutional setting. Notice that what people can do is merely a
consequence of what people can be.

Leaders owe the corporation rationality. Rationality gives reason and mutual
understanding to programs and to relationships. It gives visible order. Excellence and
commitment and competence are available to us only under the rubric of rationality. A rational
environment values trust and human dignity and provides the opportunity for personal
development and self-fulfilment in the attainment of the organizations goals.

Business literacy, understanding the economic basis of a corporation, is essential. Only a

group of people who share a body of knowledge and continually learn together can stay vital
and viable.

Leaders owe people space, space in the sense of freedom. Freedom in the sense of
enabling their gifts to be exercised. We need to give each other the space to grow, to be
ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both
give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing and inclusion.

Leaders are obligated to provide and maintain momentum. Leadership comes with a lot of
debts to the future. There are more immediate obligations as well. Momentum is one.
Momentum in a vital company is palpable. It is not abstract or mysterious. It is the feeling
among a group of people that their lives and work are intertwined and moving toward a
recognizable and legitimate goal.

Leaders are responsible for effectiveness. Much has been written about effectiveness
some of the best of it by Peter Drucker. He has such a great ability to simplify concepts. One
of the things he tells us is that efficiency is doing the thing right, but effectiveness is doing the
right thing. Leaders can delegate efficiency, but they must deal personally with effectiveness.
Of course, the natural question is how. We could fill many pages dealing with how to be
effective, but we would like to touch on just two ways:

The first is the understanding that effectiveness comes about through enabling other to
reach their potential both their personal and their corporate or institutional potential.

In some South Pacific cultures, a speaker holds a conch shell as a symbol of a temporary
position of authority. Leaders must understand who hold the conch that is, who should be
listened to and when. This makes is possible for people to use their gifts to the fullest for the
benefit of everyone. Sometimes, to be sure, a leader must choose who is to speak. That is the
part of the risk of leadership. A leader must assess capability. A leader must be a judge of
people.

Another way to improve effectiveness is to encourage roving leadership. Roving

leadership arises and expresses itself at varying times and in varying situations,
according to the dictates of those situations. Roving leaders have the special gifts or
the special strengths or the special temperament to lead in these special situations.
They are acknowledged by others who are steady to follow them.