Lead 1010 Exam #1 Study Guide

Why is there a need for us to be aware of what is happening around the world?

• leaders understand the information is power

• Decisions at all levels of government impact us directly

• failure to be aware of what is happening in the community can be costly

• if you aren’t paying attention others are, and they will use it to their advantage

What are the important functions of the media in a free society?

• The media needs to bring things in the dark into the light

  • let citizens share their opinion on what’s going on (criticize government openly and loudly!)

• informs the public

• holds people and institutions accountable

• helps to facilitate change

• provides for a public exchange of ideas

What was the impact from the rapid changes in the media over the last 10 years?

• traditional media are declining (newspapers, television, radio)

• people are paying less attention to actual news (ex: focusing instead on celebrity gossip) → “infotainment”

• quality and truthfulness varies dramatically on internet news sources

• there is a growing lack of trust in traditional news gathering organizations

Benefits of media in the 21st century

• instantaneous information

• diverse news sources

• news sources from all over the globe give broader perspective

• individuals have the potential to be more empowered

Challenges of media in the 21st century

• there is a cost to “free” media but we don’t want to pay it

• live in our own news bubble → hard to agree on facts

• too many sources can overwhelm and cause cynicism

• short attention spans

• lack of editing

• filtering

• AI (what’s real?)

• infotainment (what consumer wants vs. what the consumer really needs)

Misinformation

incorrect or misleading information

Disinformation

deliberately deceptive and propagated information

Issues we need to consider when we look at stories in the news

• is there such a thing as objective reporting?

• opinion as fact

• lack of common experiences as a society

• who (if anyone) checks the facts? who does the vetting of information?

• 24 hours news cycle and the “talking heads”/experts

• new sources are becoming political brands

• half truths/conspiracy theories

• the dangers of AI

• our own lack of knowledge on key issues and basic facts

• the willingness to treat all sides of an issue the same regardless of the known facts

• speed at the expense of accuracy

What can we do to get more reliable information?

• select reliable sources of information with a proven track record

• maintain a healthy skepticism about new especially if stories appear incredible

• ask yourself “how do they know that?” Look for corroborating sources

• beware of TikTok and similar platforms which put forth questionable material and can lead you down a rabbit hole

• don’t rush to judgment. Speed is not always our friend

• educate yourself on some of the basics of history, geography, economics and politics

• be willing to admit we made a mistake

The impact of leaders in an organization → making a difference

• leadership skills can be learned

• leadership skills can be practiced to be effective

• leadership does not operate in a vacuum; effective leadership at all levels is essential to any organization; other factors can and do influence the success of an organization

The impact of leaders in an organization → NOT making a difference

• substitutes for leadership: other factors provide guidance and incentives to perform

• leadership irrelevance: situations matter more to outcomes

• complexity theory: leaders can do little to alter the course of complex organizations

Roles of leaders

• Figurehead - ceremonial activities (ex: modern day royalty)

• Spokesperson - answering inquiries inside and outside

• Negotiator - making deals for needed resources

• Coach, Motivator - inspiring people within the organization

• Team builder - creating and maintaining a cohesive unit

• Team player - loyalty to the organization and its members

• Problem solver - helping members solve technical problems

• Develop other leaders ! empower others, makes your job better and easier

• Entrepreneur -promoting innovation

• Strategic planner - shaping the future

• Executer - making things happen

• The common thread: the leader inspires and influences

Satisfactions of leaders

• Power and prestige

• Helping others develop

• High income and other perks

• Status

• Opportunities to advance

• Being on the inside

• Controlling resources

Frustrations of a leader

• long hours - often uncompensated (typically no overtime)

• A lot of headaches

• Perform or be fired

• Limited authority to carry out responsibilities

• Loneliness

• Human resource problems

• Office politics

• Conflicting goals

• Being perceived as unethical

What does it mean to be a follower?

• providing honest feedback and input for leaders

• work with the leader for the benefit of the organization and to accomplish agreed upon goals

What are the different types of followers?

• Isolates: completely detached and passively support the status quo by not taking action to bring about changes

• Bystanders: free riders who are typically detached when it fits their self-interests.

• Participants: show enough engagement to invest some of their own time and money to make a difference, such as taking the initiative to learn new technology that would help the group

• Activists: are considerably engaged, heavily invested in people and processes, and eager to demonstrate their support or opposition

• Diehards: super-engaged to the point that they are willing to go down for their own cause, or willing to oust the leader if they feel he or she is headed in the wrong direction

What are the qualities of effective followers?

• Self-management

• Commitment

• Competence and focus

• Courage

General traits of effective leaders

• Observed both with and outside of work

• Self-confidence: self assured and projecting confidence

• Humility: acknowledge shortcomings; putting others in the limelight

• Core self-evaluations: self esteem, locus of control (do I believe I have some ability to control things, or leave it up to fate), generalized self-efficacy, emotional stability

• Trustworthiness: consistency between words and deeds

• Authenticity: being honest about personality, values, beliefs. Being yourself

• Extraversion: outgoing, upbeat, gregarious

• Assertiveness: letting others know where you stand in a tactful way

• Enthusiasm, optimism, warmth: connecting with the group

• Sense of humor: be self-effacing

Task related traits of effective leaders

• Passion for work and people: obsession for achieving goals

• Emotional intelligence: connecting with others and understand their needs

• Flexibility and adaptability: ability to adjust to changing conditions

• Internal locus of control: take responsibility for events

• courage: face responsibility and put reputation on the line

Motives of leadership

Leaders are interest in INFLUENCING others; want to occupy a position of responsibility for others and to control them

• Achievement motivation: finding joy in accomplishment for its own sake. Desire to:

  • Achieve through their efforts and take responsibility for success or failure

  • Take moderate risks that can be handled through their own efforts

  • Receive feedback on their level of performance

  • Introduce novel, innovative, or creative solutions

  • Plan and set goals

• Power motives: they act with vigor and determination to exert their power, they invest much time in thinking about ways to alter the behavior and thinking of others, and they care about their personal standing with those around them

• Personalized Power Motive - seek power to further own

interests; focus on trappings of power. Don’t worry if not

everyone likes them.

• Socialized Power Motive – using power to achieve

organizational goals/vision

Strengths of the trait approach to leaders

• focuses on the personal attributes and characteristics that distinguish leaders from followers

• intuitively appealing: fits the popular clear image that leaders are special people who possess unique gifts or extraordinary qualities to inspire others

• deep research backing: supported by long research that consistently identify specific traits like intelligence, self-confidence, and integrity

• leader-centric focus: provides a precise and deep understanding of how an individual’s personal characteristics influence the leadership process

• useful for personal self-assessment: helps individuals evaluate their own personal traits to recognize their unique strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement

• guidance for personnel selection: helps organizations identify and select candidates who naturally exhibit profiles, qualities, or potential aligned with successful leadership

Limitations of the trait approach to leaders

• fails to consider the environment, situation, or organization context in which leadership occurs

• neglect of situational context: assumes certain traits guarantee leadership effectiveness, ignoring that different scenarios require vastly different behaviors or skills

• no definitive or universal list: research has produced an endless, ambiguous list of over 100 different traits, with little agreement on which ones are actually essential

• leader-centric and ignores followers: the theory focuses exclusively on the individual leader and fails to account for leader-follower relationships or the needs of the team

• limited value for training: because personality traits are viewed as mostly fixed or innate characteristics, the approach offers little practical guidance for teaching or developing leadership skills

• subjective and biased interpretation: early studies relied heavily on subjective judgments of “good” leadership and often suffered from historical demographic and gender biases

The meaning of charismatic leadership

• A relationship between the leader, group members, and other stakeholders

• a special quality of leaders whose purposes, power, and extraordinary determination differentiate them from others

• based on perceptions; attributions made by group members about characteristics of leaders and results they achieve

Types of charismatic leaders

• Socialized charismatic: restrains the use of power to benefit others

  • Followers are empowered and responsible; identify more with the message, not the leader

• Personalized charismatic: primarily serves own interests, exercises few restraints on power

  • Followers are obedient, submissive, dependent; identify more with the leader than the message

• Office holder charismatic: leadership is the property of the office occupied

• Personal charismatic: gains esteem through faith others have in them

• Divine charismatic: originally a theological concept; endowed with grace

• Celebrity charismatic: focus on personal fame

the characteristics of effective (charismatic) leaders

• Visionary: offers exciting image of where group is headed

• Excellent communication skills: uses colorful language, metaphors, and analogies

• Inspires trust: integrity of leader motivates group

• Makes members feel capable: builds confidence, empowers

• Emotional expressiveness, warmth: expresses feelings openly and honestly (verbal/non verbal)

• Romanticizes risk: feels empty without challenges

• Unconventional strategies: innovate, thinks outside the box

• Self-promoting personality: toots their own horn

• Challenges, prods, pokes: tests self confidence of followers

• Dramatic and unique: great leaders are great actors

communication style of charismatic leaders

• Management by inspiration

  • Articulates a highly emotional message

  • Uses metaphors and analogies

  • Gears language to different audiences

• Management by story telling:

  • Inspires and instructs by interesting stories

• Extensive use of social networks

  • Face to face; personal interactions

  • Social networking sites; posting inspiring and motivating messages

what is transformational leadership?

one who brings about positive, major changes in an organization; developing and transforming people

how does transformational leadership take place?

• Raising people’s awareness

• Helping people look beyond self-interest

• Helping people search for self-fulfillment

• Helping people understand the need for change

• Investing managers with a sense of urgency

• Committing to greatness

• Adopting a long-range perspective and at the same time observing organization issues from a brand rather than a narrow perspective

• Building trust

• Facilitating proactive behavior

• Concentrating resources on areas that need the most change

attributes of transformational leaders

• They are charismatic, specifically agreeable and extraverted

• Higher emotional intelligence

• Positive core self-evaluations

• Create a vision

• Encourage the personal development of their staff

• Give supportive leadership

• Use empowerment

• Are innovative thinkers

challenge of charismatic leadership

• “since perfection is the end, often the most heinous actions can be tolerated as seemingly necessary means to that end”

• Followers become less proactive because the charismatic leader’s views and actions are the only ones that matter

• People will comply with what the charismatic leader wants, but the passion vanishes because because the people do not feel they are contributing, leading to cynicism and a lack of listening

Nelson Mandelas leadership qualities

• perseverance and determination (continuing his fight even in jail)

• honesty and justice (school election, refusal to take position)

• level-headedness (planning ahead, even through the unexpected)

• self-assurance

• respect

• future vision

• compromise

• equality

• symbol

• situational leadership

Stanley McChrystal Ted Talk - Major Points

• “Leaders can let you fail, and yet not let you be a failure”

• Transparency, willing to listen, understanding that in order to lead, have to do what those you are leading have done

• Watch and take care of each other

• Good because their willing to learn and to trust, not good because their right

• The “inversion of expertise”: junior team members often understand new technologies and fast-moving environments better than senior leaders do; leaders must listen, learn, and use reverse mentoring

• shared purpose and trust: strong relationships act as the glue for a team. “never leave a falling comrade” → show power of mutual support

• handling failure: a good leader is not always right, must be willing to learn from mistakes.

The Dark Side of Charisma Ted Talk - Major Points

• Learn more from negative leadership, learn how not to do it, so therefore you learn how to do it

• Charisma has our ability to fog our perception of leaders who are confident vs actually competent

• Charisma is based on emotional exploitation

• Charisma masks psychopaths

• Charisma fosters collective narcissism

• “Them vs us”

• Rise within times of crisis, courageous truth tellers, authentic in positive and negative way

Hold Yourself Accountable - Time Article Major Points

• holding yourself accountable leads to a more likelihood of happiness and successfulness in work and relationships

• taking ownership for actions and reactions lets you lets you avoid anger, cynicism, envy, and frustration and instead focus on positive emotions and healthy living

• research has shown that when employees feel accountable for their work, they are more likely to contribute to solving problems and achieving organizational goals

• the fastest way to enhance relationships is to remove the blame that breaks them down