1

SUMMARY

Summary .................................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 2

I. Leadership .......................................................................................................................... 3

1- What is Leadership ? ........................................................................................................... 3

2- Characteristics of Leadership ............................................................................................. 4

3- Roles of Leadership ........................................................................................................... 4

4- Levels and styles of leadership ........................................................................................... 5

4.1- Levels of leadership ........................................................................................................ 5

4.2- Leadership styles ............................................................................................................ 5

II. Leadership and management .......................................................................................... 6

III- Keys and factors of leadership ....................................................................................... 8

1- Factors of leadership .......................................................................................................... 8

2- Keys to effective leadership ............................................................................................... 9

Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 10

2

INTRODUCTION

Today’s organizations are complex and need to be able to respond to increasing economic,

market and competitive pressures. Businesses, government agencies, non-profits, and

educational organizations need leaders who can effectively navigate complex, changing

situations and get the job done.

Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and

directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent Leadership is a

complex process by which a person influences others to accomplish a mission, task, or

objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. A

person carries out this process by applying her leadership attributes (belief, values, ethics,

character, knowledge, and skills).

Leadership is essentially the core and spirit of or ganizations. As the people in charge, they

not only manage the organization's affairs but also deal with the general employees face to

face. Entrusted with the task to communicate organizational goals, visions and ideas to

employees, leaders are responsible for maintaining and implementing organizational rules and

systems and even have the final say on promotion, retention and dismissal. Therefore, in a

sense, leaders at all levels are spokespersons of their own organizations, serving as the bridge

and link connecting employees.

Few things are more important to human activity than leadership. Effective leadership helps

through times of peril. It makes a business organization successful. It enables a not-for-profit

organization to fulfill its mission. The effective leadership of parents enables children to grow

strong and healthy and become productive adults.

Each of us recognizes the importance of leadership when we vote for our political leaders.

We realize that it matters who is in office, so we participate in a contest, an election, to choose

the best candidate. Investors recognize the importance of business leadership when they say

that a good leader can make a success of a weak business plan, but that a poor leader can ruin

even the best plan.

3

I. Leadership :

1- 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 behavior 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.

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. Leadership as

the art of empowering and mobilizing others to want to accomplish a mutually agreed-upon

goal while advancing the group’s integrity and morale.

Definition of a Leader :

A leader is "a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal".

A leader by its meaning is one who goes first and leads by example, so that others are

motivated to follow him. This is a basic requirement. To be a leader, a person must have a

deep-rooted commitment to the goal that he will strive to achieve it even if nobody follows

him.

A leader needs to :

• Define the task ;

• Plan ;

• Brief / communicate ;

• Control ;

• Evaluate ;

• Motivate ;

• Organise.

A leader need also to :

• Set a direction ;

• Align peoples efforts ;

• Bring out the best in people ;

• Act as a change agent ;

• Handle uncertainty & crises ;

4

A Leader needs the following qualities :

• He/she must personify the key qualities required in your field technically competent) ;

• Enthusiasm ;

• Integrity (required to generate trust) ;

• Toughness, fairness and being demanding ;

• Warmth, humanity and tact ;

• Humility (arrogance means you don’t learn) ;

2- Characteristics of Leadership :

• It is an inter-personal process in which a manager is into influencing and guiding

workers towards attainment of goals.

• It denotes a few qualities to be present in a person which includes intelligence,

maturity and personality.

• It is a group process. It involves two or more people interacting with each other.

• A leader is involved in shaping and moulding the behaviour of the group towards

accomplishment of organizational goals.

• Leadership is situation bound. There is no best style of leadership. It all depends upon

tackling with the situations.

Leadership involves :

• Establishing a clear vision ;

• Sharing that vision with others so that they will follow willingly ;

• Providing the information, knowledge and methods to realize that vision, and

coordinating ;

• Balancing the conflicting interests of all members and stakeholders ;

3- Roles of Leadership :

Leadership is an important function of management which helps to maximize efficiency

and to achieve organizational goals. Following are the main roles of a leadership in an

organization :

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.

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.

5

Creating confidence : Confidence is an important factor which can be achieved

through expressing the work efforts to the subordinates, explaining them clearly their

role and giving them guidelines to achieve the goals effectively.

Building morale : Morale denotes willing co-operation of the employees towards

their work and getting them into confidence and winning their trust. A leader can be a

morale booster by achieving full co-operation so that they perform with best of their

abilities as they work to achieve goals.

Builds work environment : Management is getting things done from people. An

efficient work environment helps in sound and stable growth. Therefore, human

relations should be kept into mind by a leader. He should have personal contacts with

employees and should listen to their problems and solve them.

Coordination : Coordination can be achieved through reconciling personal interests

with organizational goals. This synchronization can be achieved through proper and

effective co-ordination which should be primary motive of a leader

4- Levels and styles of leadership:

4.1- Levels of leadership:

Effective leaders will understand at what level in the organisation they are operating and more

importantly what they need to be doing at each level. We can usefully analyse three levels of

leadership within an organisation:

People leaders : People leaders are the first “official” leaders in an organisation. They

are given a role that requires them to lead. This is different from the more informal

leadership role that someone may choose to take within the organisation.

Operational leaders : Operational leaders usually have responsibility for a

departmental function or functions. They will often need to manage managers that are

beyond their own functional area. Their focus is primarily on optimizing the processes

& performance of their unit.

Strategic leaders : Strategic leaders operate at the senior levels in an organisation and

will have responsibility for a (sometimes wide) range of organizational functions.

Their focus is on driving execution.

4.2- Leadership styles :

Leaders do not possess same attitude or same perspective. Few leaders adopt the carrot

approach and a few adopt the stick approach. Thus, all of the leaders do not get the things

done in the same manner. Their style varies. The leadership style varies with the kind of

6

people the leader interacts and deals with. A perfect/standard leadership style is one which

assists a leader in getting the best out of the people who follow him.

Some of the important leadership styles are as follows:

Autocratic Leadership : Autocratic leadership is an extreme form of transactional

leadership, where leaders have complete power over their people. Staff and team

members have little opportunity to make suggestions, even if these would be in the

team's or the organization's best interest.

Bureaucratic Leadership : Bureaucratic leaders work "by the book." They follow

rules rigorously, and ensure that their people follow procedures precisely. The

downside of this leadership style is that it's ineffective in teams and organizations that

rely on flexibility, creativity, or innovation.

Democratic/Participative Leadership : Democratic leaders make the final decisions,

but they include team members in the decision-making process. They encourage

creativity, and team members are often highly engaged in projects and decisions.

Laissez-Faire Leadership : This French phrase means "leave it be," and it describes

leaders who allow their people to work on their own. This type of leadership can also

occur naturally, when managers don't have sufficient control over their work and their

people

II. Leadership and management :

It is very important to get to grips with the fact that Leadership is different from

Management. Quite simply they are not the same.

Unfortunately common language and parlance in business and the use of organizational

titles like Leader and Manager add to the confusion about Leadership itself and Management

itself.

This means than when looking to improve your 'leadership' or 'management' skills and

capabilities you must first stop using the terms as 'the same thing' or interchangeably and

recognize differences. This differentiation allows you to focus to the specifics needed to

enhance capability and performance in each area.

Considering the contrast between leadership and management provides another way to

arrive at a definition of leadership.

As with leadership, there is no single definition of management. Some common themes

around management include :

Getting work done through other people to achieve stated objectives.

Planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

7

Clarifying objectives, problem solving, planning work, managing resources,

organizing and coordinating activity, measuring and controlling performance.

Management is a complex set of interrelated skills and difficult to execute successfully in a

sustained manner.

Management in many ways seeks to ensure an organisation can deliver consistently and

predictably and produces outputs, products and services that meet the customer’s needs for

quality, at the costs required, within the budget time and time again. With the complex nature

of organizations today, their complex structures and supply chains delivering this consistent

performance in changing worlds and markets in not easy.

Going to back to Leadership we see it is more closely associated with :

Creating a vision for the future and.

Communicating it, as well as the strategy or direction that needs to be taken to achieve

it to people in a such way that they will support it, commit to it and are motivated to

achieve it.

And Management with :

Planning and budgeting ;

Delivering quality to meet customers defined requirements and targets ;

Minimising waste ;

Delivery consistency ;

Delivering against budget ;

Delivery to plan ;

Organizing resources, staff, jobs and systems ;

Measuring, monitoring and reporting performance ;

Problem solving to ensure the targets are met and changing conditions are tackled.

Leadership and management can exist at any level in an organization within any specific

role reqgardless of the roles title.

Leader vs manager :

The first thing we have to do is separate a « leader » from a « manager ». According to the

Encarta Dictionary, a :

Manager is somebody who is responsible for directing and controlling the work and

staff of a business, or of a department within it.

Leader is somebody whom people follow.

8

This is quite difference. However, managers and leaders are different. We need managers

but we are seeing an increasing need to have leaders. They are not the same thing, the operate

differently and they need different skills.

Leaders and Managers can be compared on the following basis :

The manager administers; the leader innovates.

The manager is a copy; the leader is an original.

The manager maintains; the leader develops.

The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people.

The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.

The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.

The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.

The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader’s eye is on the

horizon.

The manager imitates; the leader originates.

The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.

The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.

The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.

III- Keys and factors of leadership :

1- Factors of leadership :

Four key factors that contribute to leadership success or failure. These are :

The Leader: This is the person who takes charge, and directs the group's performance.

Followers: These are the people who follow the leader's directions on tasks and

projects.

The Context: This is the situation in which the work is performed. For instance, it may

be a regular workday, an emergency project, or a challenging, long-term assignment.

Outcomes: These are the results of the process. Outcomes could be reaching a

particular goal, developing a high-quality product, or resolving a customer service

issue.

Many factors affect the leadership style :

Factors affecting leadership style

- Personal value systems ;

- Manager’s experience ;

- Confidence in subordinates ;

- Feelings of security ;

- Nature of the business problems.

- Type of organisation (size, structure) ;

- Effectiveness of teams and groups ;

- Skills and experience of subordinates ;

- Pressure (time, costs).

9

2- Keys to effective leadership :

The two most important keys to effective leadership :

1. Trust and confidence in top leadership was the sing le most reliable predictor of

employee satisfaction in an organization.

2. Effective communication by leadership in three critical areas was the key to winning

organizational trust and confidence :

Helping employees understand the company's overall business strategy.

Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key

business objectives.

Sharing information with employees on both how the company is doing and

how an employee's own division is doing - relative to strategic business

objectives.

10

CONCLUSION

Interest in leadership increased during the early part of the twentieth century. Leadership is

a valuable skill, especially in the workplace. Some people seem to be born to lead, and others

have to work at it.

Every organization faces challenge that is specific to them that threaten their survival or

obstruct their growth and success. Strategies are worked out to deal with such challenges.

Effective leadership is critical for both setting the right direction and implementing strategies

effectively to drive business or organizations in the right direction.

A leader with vision has a clear, vivid picture of where to go, as well as a firm grasp on

what success looks like and how to achieve it. But it's not enough to have a vision; leaders

must also share it and act upon it. A leader must be able to communicate his or her vision in

terms that cause followers to buy into it. He or she must communicate clearly and

passionately, as passion is contagious.

A leader steps up in times of crisis, and is able to think and act creatively in difficult

situations. Unlike management, leadership cannot be taught, although it may be learned and

enhanced through coaching or mentoring. Someone with great leadership skills today is Bill

Gates who, despite early failures, with continued passion and innovation has driven Microsoft

and the software industry to success.

To succeed, they need effective management to control and improve performance,

processes and systems and effective leadership: to align their people to the organization’s

vision and motivate them to want to give their best to achieve it.

The key to leadership is having a vision, and being strong enough to say no and not try to

please everybody. That's a recipe for failure. Leadership is practiced through attitude and

actions, rather than words and memos.

There are very, very few organizations today that have sufficient leadership. Until we face

this issue, understanding exactly what the problem is, we're never going to solve it. Unless we

recognize that we're not talking about management when we speak of leadership, all we will

try to do when we do need more leadership is work harder to manage. At a certain point, we

end up with over-managed and under-led organizations, which are increasingly vulnerable in

a fast-moving world.