Leadership

Leadership is defined as the art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and
enthusiastically towards the achievement of group goal.

It is important to have the element of willingness as mentioned in the above definition. This element
differentiates successful and effective leaders from the “common run of the managers”. Motivating and
influencing people to move towards a common goal are all essential elements of management but the
willingness of the followers to be led highlights a special quality that puts a leader high above others.

Leadership can be summarized as personal quality of an individual that influence the behavior of followers. It is
an important function of management. It is an act of influencing people so that the followers follow the path of
leader. A successful leader must lead to stimulate and inspire the followers to achieve organizational goals.

In an organization the manager is a leader and other subordinates are followers. A manager cannot manage
effectively unless he can lead his subordinates effectively. Hence a leader may or may not be a manager but a
successful manager must be a leader.

Formal and informal leadership

Leadership can be formal or informal. The formal leadership occurs when a person is appointed or elected as an
authority figure. For example anyone who is appointed to the job of a manager is also given the authority to
exercise formal leadership in relation to his subordinates. Similarly a formally elected leader of a country or
state acquires the authority of leadership in giving direction to the country or state.
The informal leadership emerges when a person uses interpersonal influence in a group without designated
authority of power. These leaders emerge in certain situations because of the charm, intelligence, skill or other
traits and to whom other people turn for advice, direction and guidance. Religious and civic leaders, teachers fit
into this category. Successful managers who exercise their given authority in a formal way are also capable of
exercising informal leadership relationships with people both within as well as outside the organization.

Personal characteristics of leaders

Leadership is an intangible quality and its effectiveness can best be judged by the behaviour and attitude of
followers. Even though personal backgrounds and personalities differ widely, some of the factors such as
education and socio-economic status are poor indicators of judgements of successful leaders. However some
behavioral characteristics may be common to most of the successful and effective leaders. Some of these
characteristics are:

1. Ability to inspire others: This ability may be due to some internal charisma that is an inborn trait and
may not be a learnable factor.

2. Problem solving skills: An effective leader has developed the patience and ability to look at the
problem from various angles and get down to the cause of the problem. He tries to solve the problem
from its roots rather than the symptoms of the problem.

3. Emotional maturity: Emotional stability and maturity is a major ingredient for effective leadership. It
pertains to good adjustment to life, calm, cool and calculated reaction to undesirable situations and
obstacles and normal acceptance of success as well as failure. Such leaders are self-confident, rational
and are open-hearted towards differences in opinions and opposing viewpoints. They have a balanced
outlook towards life and the world. They are warm and sensitive and not vindictive in nature.
 4. Ability to understand human behavior: A leader understands the needs, desires and behaviour of his
subordinates and shows respect for such desires. He is emotionally supportive and is careful enough to
avoid ego-threatening behavior. He gives credit to subordinates when their efforts are successful.

5. Verbal assertiveness: A leader must be an effective orator and must be confident of his views and
opinions. He must communicate his views honestly and in a straight forward manner without fear of
consequences.

6. Willingness to take risks: Routine work, no matter how well done, never makes a leader. Successful
leaders always charter the unknown, accept and seek new challenges. However the risks must be
calculated ones and outcomes of actions be reasonably predicted. Should these risks result in failure, a
leader must take full blame and responsibility and not shift blame on others even though they may be
operative factors. He must willing to tolerate frustration and defeat and learn from these failures.

7. Dedication to organisational goals: A leader must demonstrate his dedication and commitment to the
organization’s mission, goals and objectives by hard work and self sacrifice. He must make sure that his
followers fully understand the organisational objectives and are equally dedicated and willing to work
for these objectives.

8. Skill in the art of compromise: Settling differences is a vital part of leadership and genuine differences
must be solved by compromise and consensus. This will include faith in the fairness of the leader. He
must be willing to give in where necessary and must be able to take criticism with grace. However we
must not compromise for the sake of compromising or just smooth sailing but must be willing to take a
stand on controversial issues and accept the consequences of his stand.

Difference between Leader and Manager

1. Leaders create a vision, managers create goals: Leaders paint a picture of what they see as possible and
inspire and engage their people in turning that vision into reality. They think beyond what individuals do. They
activate people to be part of something bigger. They know that high-functioning teams can accomplish a lot
more working together than individuals working autonomously. Managers focus on setting, measuring and
achieving goals. They control situations to reach or exceed their objectives.
2. Leaders are change agents, managers maintain the status quo: Leaders are proud disrupters. Innovation is
their mantra. They embrace change and know that even if things are working, there could be a better way
forward. And they understand and accept the fact that changes to the system often create waves. Managers stick
with what works, refining systems, structures and processes to make them better.
3. Leaders are unique, managers copy: Leaders are willing to be themselves. They are self-aware and work
actively to build their unique and differentiated personal brand. They are comfortable in their own shoes and
willing to stand out. They’re authentic and transparent. Managers mimic the competencies and behaviors they
learn from others and adopt their leadership style rather than defining it.
4. Leaders take risks, managers control risk: Leaders are willing to try new things even if they may fail
miserably. They know that failure is often a step on the path to success. Managers work to minimize risk. They
seek to avoid or control problems rather than embracing them.
5. Leaders are in it for the long haul, managers think short-term: Leaders have intentionality. They do what
they say they are going to do and stay motivated toward a big, often very distant goal. They remain
motivated without receiving regular rewards. Managers work on shorter-term goals, seeking more regular
acknowledgment or accolades.
6. Leaders grow personally, managers rely on existing, proven skills: Leaders know if they aren’t learning
something new every day, they aren’t standing still, they’re falling behind. They remain curious and seek to
remain relevant in an ever-changing world of work. They seek out people and information that will expand their
thinking. Managers often double down on what made them successful, perfecting existing skills and adopting
proven behaviors.
7. Leaders build relationships, managers build systems and processes: Leaders focus on people – all the
stakeholders they need to influence in order to realize their vision. They know who their stakeholders are and
spend most of their time with them. They build loyalty and trust by consistently delivering on their promise.
Managers focus on the structures necessary to set and achieve goals. They focus on the analytical and ensure
systems are in place to attain desired outcomes. They work with individuals and their goals and objectives.
8. Leaders coach, managers direct: Leaders know that people who work for them have the answers or are able
to find them. They see their people as competent and are optimistic about their potential. They resist the
temptation to tell their people what to do and how to do it. Managers assign tasks and provide guidance on how
to accomplish them.
9. Leaders create fans, managers have employees: Leaders have people who go beyond following them; their
followers become their raving fans and fervent promoters – helping them build their brand and achieve their
goals. Their fans help them increase their visibility and credibility. Managers have staff who follow directions
and seek to please the boss.

Leadership Styles

Autocratic leadership style

When the authority and decision making power are concentrated to the leader it is known as autocratic
leadership style. There is no participation by subordinates. The leader takes full authority and assumes full
responsibility. Planning, policies and other working procedures are predetermined by the leader alone. The
convey the information about what to do and how to do. They never take any advice or suggestions of other
people. They structure the entire work situation in their own way and expect the workers to follow their orders
and tolerate no deviation from their order. They are just like tyrant rulers. The leader who believes and exercises
the autocratic leadership style is known as autocratic leader.

Features:
1. He/she makes his own decisions and he/she doesn’t not take any advice of others because he/she thinks
he/she is only superior.
2. His/her position gives him/her personal authority and right to lead the members in any way he/she
desires.
3. Reward and punishment is exercised by him/her very strictly. Autocratic leadership style believes on
negative motivational tools.
4. An autocrat leader does not give full information to the members. There is only one way communication
in order to maintain the position.
5. An autocratic leader describes each job in detail and imposes rigid work standard on his employees. It
means the subordinates are compelled to certain work assigned for him.
Advantages:
1. It is useful in emergency or in war,
2. When the workers are undisciplined and uneducated it gives the best results.
3. When the laborers are not organized, it is more effective.
4. There is no need of trained labor. It may be used for untrained workers.
5. It is a prompt process of decision making as the single person decides for the whole group.
Disadvantages:
1. Subordinates are not involved in the process of decision making in autocratic leadership style
2. It doesn’t emphasize on correct evaluation of employee’s performance
3. The moral of employees is so low.
4. There is no chance of management development.
5. There is no chance of two-way communication.
6. Creative ideas and thinking cannot be used in autocratic leadership style.
7. The employees perform the work with negative motivation.

Democratic leadership style:

When the authority and decision making power are decentralized to the subordinates is known as democratic
leadership style. There is participation by subordinates. The leader delegates authority and provides
responsibility even to the followers. Planning, policies and other working procedures are determined by the
leader along with suggestions of the followers. He conveys the information about what to do and how to do just
as a consultant. He takes advice and suggestions of other people. They structure the entire work situation in
democratic way. They are just like democratic rulers. The leader who believes and exercises the democratic
leadership style is known as democratic leader.

Features:
1. A democratic leader delegates the responsibility as per the capability of the employee
2. There is participation of all subordinates in decision making
3. Human values are also given preference. The leader gives concerns for the followers
4. Democratic leader imposes flexible work standard, designs goals with freedom for the performance of
work.
5. A democratic leader emphasizes in results than on action

Advantages:
1. Good cooperation among employees is made in democratic leadership style.
2. Employees are highly satisfied and their morale is boosted
3. Efforts are recognized; employees are motivated
4. It helps in increasing in productivity.
5. Policies, planning and other working procedures become better because different kinds of logic, ideas
and creativity are mixed
6. Subordinates have enjoy considerable freedom of action. It helps to increase the personal growth and
gets opportunity to utilize their capabilities

Disadvantages:
1. It takes long time in decision making
2. It is not suitable for untrained subordinates
3. A leader may to be responsible in his style
4. It is not suitable when the followers are undisciplined and untrained
Laissez faire or Free reign leadership style:
When all the authority and responsibility are delegated to the subordinates is known as Free reign leadership
style. The leader who believes on this style is known as free reign leader. The free reign leader doesn’t use the
power and leaves the power to the subordinates. He/she doesn’t provide any contribution to make planning and
policies. This type of leadership style is very useful when group members are intelligent and fully aware of their
roles and responsibilities.

Features:
1. It creates an environment of freedom individuality as well as team spirit
2. Subordinates have complete freedom in decision making
3. The subordinates are self-directed, self-motivated and self-controlled
4. The role of free reign leader is to provide facilities, materials and information to the employees.
5. The leader does not interfere in making plans and policies

Advantages:
1. The employees are satisfied in their job because they are free in decision making
2. The morale of employees is developed.
3. The employees are highly developed because there is maximum possibility for the development of
workers.
4. The creativity and potentiality of subordinate are fully utilized.
5. It is highly creative with a free and informal work environment

Disadvantages:
1. Leader contribution is ignored.
2. Insecurity and frustration may develop due to lack of specific decision making authority and guidance
3. It will result in disorganised activities that may lead to inefficiency and chaos
4. Subordinates do not get the guidelines of the leader.
5. Due lack of leader intervention, some members may put their own interests above the group and team
interests
6. Team spirit may suffer due to possible presence of some non-cooperative members
Leadership Theories

For a number of years, researchers have examined leadership to discover how successful leaders are created.
Experts have proposed several theories, including the trait, behavioral, contingency models of leadership.

The Trait Theory of Leadership

The search for the characteristics or traits of effective leaders has been central to the study of leadership.
Underlying this research is the assumption that leadership capabilities are rooted in characteristics possessed by
individuals. Research in the field of trait theory has shown significant positive relationships between effective
leadership and personality traits such as intelligence, extroversion, conscientiousness, self-efficacy, and
openness to experience. These findings also show that individuals emerge as leaders across a variety of
situations and tasks.

The Behavioral Theory of Leadership

In response to the early criticisms of the trait approach, theorists began to research leadership as a set
of behaviors. Behavioral theories focus on the behavior of the leaders as opposed to their mental, physical or
social characteristics as propounded by Trait Theory. Behavioral theorists evaluated what successful leaders
did, developed a taxonomy of actions, and identified broad patterns that indicated different leadership styles.
Thus researchers were able to measure the cause an effects relationship of specific human behavior from
leaders. The theory promulgates that anyone with the right conditioning can become a leader and these qualities
are not genetic. In other words, leaders are made not born.

The behavioral theories first divided leaders in two categories. Those that were concerned with the tasks and
those concerned with the people. Throughout the literature these are referred to as different names, but the
essence are identical.

The Contingency Theory of Leadership

Both trait and behaviour theories attribute leadership performance on the basis of certain traits or in terms of
leader’s behavior. The contingency theories state that an analysis of leadership involves not only the individual
traits and behaviour but also a focus on the situation. The leadership behaviour is used in combination with
work groups contingencies to predict performance outcomes. The effectiveness of leader behaviour is
contingent upon the demands imposed by the situation The focus is on the situation in which leadership is
exercised and not upon the leader. Different type of situations demand different characteristics and behaviours
because each type of leader faces different situations. Similarly, a successful leader under one set of
circumstances maybe a failure under a different set of circumstances.

According to this approach, called contingency theory, no single psychological profile or set of enduring traits
links directly to effective leadership. Instead, the interaction between those individual traits and the prevailing
conditions is what creates effective leadership. In other words, contingency theory proposes that effective
leadership is contingent on factors independent of an individual leader. As such, the theory predicts that
effective leaders are those whose personal traits match the needs of the situation in which they find themselves.
The Contingency Leadership theory argues that there is no single way of leading and that every leadership style
should be based on certain situations, which signifies that there are certain people who perform at the maximum
level in certain places; but at minimal performance when taken out of their element.

To a certain extent contingency leadership theories are an extension of the trait theory, in the sense that human
traits are related to the situation in which the leaders exercise their leadership. It is generally accepted within the
contingency theories that leader are more likely to express their leadership when they feel that their followers
will be responsive.
There are four contingency variables that influence leaders behavior. First, there are the characteristics of the
leader himself. These characteristics include the personality of the leader relative to his ability to respond to
situational pressures as well as his previous leadership style in similar situations.
The second variable relates to the characteristics of the subordinates. The subordinates are important
contributors to a given operational situation. The situation is very much depend upon whether the subordinates
prefer a participative style of leadership and decision making and their motivations in the situation. Are the
subordinates motivated by intrinsic satisfaction of performing their task well or do they expect other types of
reinforcements?
The third factor involves the group characteristics. If the group is highly cohesive it will create a more cordial
situation than if the group members do not get along with each other so that the leadership style will vary
accordingly.
The fourth situational factors relates to the organisational structure. The organisational structure is the formal
system of authority responsibility and communication within the company. Factors such as hierarchy of
authority, centralized or decentralized decision making and formal rules and regulations would affect the leader
behavior. Contingency theories of leadership attempts to account systematically for any relationship between
the situational factors and the leadership effectiveness.

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

Fred Fiedler was one of the earliest proponents of a leadership model that explicitly accounted for situational
factors. He proposed in 1967 a theoretical explanation for interaction of three situational variables that affect the
group performance. These three variables are:
1. Leader-member relations,
2. Task structure, and
3. Leaders positional power
These variables determine the extent of the situational control that the leader has.

Leader-member relations: This relationship reflects the extent to which the followers have confidence and
trust in their leader as to his leadership ability. A situation in which the leader member relations are relatively
good with mutual trust and open communication is much easier to manage than a situation where relationships
are strained.

Task structure: It measures the extent to which the tasks performed by the subordinates are specified and
structured. It involves clarity of roles as well as clearly established and defined number of steps required to
complete the task. When the tasks are well structured and the rules policies and procedures clearly written and
understood there is little ambiguity as to how the job is to be accomplished.

Position power: Position power refers to the legitimate power inherent in the leaders organisational position. It
refers to the degree to which leader can make decisions about allocation of resources, rewards and
sanctions.Lowposition power indicates limited authority. A high position power gives the leader the right to
take charge and control the situation as it develops.

The most favourable situation for the leader then would be when the leader relationships are positive, the task is
highly structured and the leader has substantial power authority to exert influence on the subordinates.

The leadership model proposed by Fiedler measures the leadership orientation and effectiveness with a
differential type of attitude scale that measures the leaders esteem for the “least preferred co-worker” or LPC
as to whether or not the person the leader least likes to work with is viewed in a positive or negative way. For
example if a leader would describe his least preferred co-worker in a favourable way with regard to success
factors as friendliness, warmth, helpfulness, enthusiasm and so on then he would be considered high on LPC
scale. In general high LPC leader is more relationship oriented and low LPC leader is more task oriented. A
high LPC leader is most effective when situation is reasonably stable and requires only moderate degree of
control. The effectiveness stems from motivating group members to perform better and be dedicated towards
goal achievement. A low LPC leader would exert pressure on the subordinates to work harder and produce
more. These pressures would be directed through organisational rules, policies and expectations.

One of the basic conclusions that can be drawn from Fiedler's contingency model is that a particular leadership
style will be more effective in one situation and the same style maybe totally ineffective in another situation
and since a leadership style is more difficult to change, the situation should be changed to suit the leadership
style. The situation can be made more favourable by enhancing relations with subordinates, by changing task
structure or by gaining more formal power that can be used to induce a more conducive work setting based
upon personal leadership style.