Leadership Midterm Review

Other leadership styles:

Autocratic (North korea) - one person controls all the decisions and allows very little input from members (so a self appointed leader)

Democratic (Canada) - Members can also participate in decisions making (leaders are elected by others) 

Laissez faire (SLC/Leadership class) - a hands off approach allowing group members to make decisions (everyones a leader) 

Great Man Theory (19th century, 1800s): First theory created to understand leadership

Main Idea: Leaders are born not made and possess certain characteristics which were inherited not learned. 

• Thomas Caryle contributed to make the theory

• Believes that leaders were sent down from god to lead others

• Leader’s traits set them apart from others and they are able to accomplish goals without fail for their followers

• 19th century beliefs- Leaders can only be male

Historical Context: 

• Individuals who were influential, unique, had high natural abilities, high intellect, high leadership, and were decisive have a huge historical effect.

• Theory implies that all “great men” are heroes and leaders 

Characteristics of “Great” Leaders

• Vision - having an idea/goal and knowing how to reach it 

• Confidence - To believe in yourself and others

• Resilience - never stepping down from a challenge

• Decisiveness - being able to make hard decisions

• Intelligence - knowing how to use your intelligence in the right way

• Charisma - being able to get people’s attention

Examples of great leaders throughout history:

• Alexander the great, George Washington, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mendela

Criticisms 

• Most of the traits associated with with being a good leader are “male” traits

• Not everyone who possesses natural leadership qualities will grow to become a great leader

Trait Approach

Definition: A person's personality and leadership style is determined through character traits that are impactful to that person.

• Leaders all have different skills and personality traits, 

  • Central traits: self-confidence, determination, integrity, sociability, intelligence

• Emphasizes the critical role that traits have on one’s leadership 

• Leaders must possess traits relevant to the situation

• Traits of a leader are different from group members

• Traits a leader possess must be relevant to the situation

• Recognized leadership can be determined by both situational and personal factors

Trait Breakdown: 

Self-Confidence: The ability to be certain about one's capacity and abilities

• Feeling worthy regardless of your imperfections

• Includes self esteem/self-assurance: belief that one can make a change

• Allows a leader to influence others

Determination: The desire to get the job done

• Characteristics: 

  • initiative, persistence, dominance, drive

• Importance: 

  • Representation of motivation, sets expectations, boosts morale

• Strategies/Examples: 

  • Goal setting, Affirming, Energizing 

Integrity: a leaders ability to have strong moral principles and to demonstrate how honorable and reliable they are

• Importance: Allows a leader to be trusted and relied on, creates dependability and loyalty, and provides support to encourage a sense of community

Sociability: A leader’s inclination to seek out pleasant social relationships

• Importance: Emotional health, strong relationships and networks, strong communication 

Intelligence: Intellectual Ability + Emotional Ability

• Intellectual Ability: ability to solve problems and develop ideas

  • Leaders generally have higher intelligence than nonleaders

  • Thrive in verbal, perceptual and reasoning ability

  • Having too high of an intellectual ability can be counterproductive

• Emotional Ability: ability to assess situations and communicate

  • Leaders understand themselves an can interpret others

  • Balancing emotions and developing relationships

  • Combining emotions with thinking

  • MSCEIT (Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test)

Strengths:

• Appeal:

  • Leaders are seen as special and skilled

  • People like seeing their leaders as gifted people

• History:

  • Backed by extensive research; credible 

• Focus: 

  • Centers on leader’s personality traits

• Goals

  • Guides in identifying and assessing leaders

Criticisms: 

• Ambiguous:

  • Century of research leads to excessive and complex data

• Situational:

  • Ignores that effective traits vary by situation

  • Assumes leadership traits are universal

• Subjective:

  • Research often reflects researcher biases

  • Inconsistent focus across studies; some traits emphasized, others ignored

• Unsuitable: 

  • Views traits as fixed, limiting growth and development

  • Difficult to apply for training and personal development in leadership 

Situational Approach Theory: 

Leadership styles used in different situations 

• Developed based on a 3-D management style theory

• Used in organizational leadership training and development

• Leader should adapt their leadership style to the demands of different situations

Leadership styles: 

Directing (S1): Communicative, goal achievement, less time offering support, gives instructions and watches to make sure they are followed (High directive, low supportive) 

Coaching (S2): Communicative, goal achievement, meeting the needs of others, very supportive, still gives instructions and plays a strong role in the final decisions made (High directive, high supportive) 

Supporting (S3): No specific goal, supportive: listens, praises, feedback, etc., employees use their skills to lead, complete, and decide tasks and decisions (Low directive, high supportive) 

Delegating (S4): Less task input, not much support, has confidence in subordinates skills, less involvement in planning, details, follow through, etc. (Low directive, low supportive) 

Development Levels: 

Development 1: Lack competence (knowledge), highly committed, excited to work and challenge themselves

Development 2: Some competence, not committed, when working on something new they lose interest and motivation to do it

Development 3: Average or high competence, low commitment, have the skills to complete the task but don’t feel like they can

Development 4: Highest competence, highest commitment, they have the skills and the motivation to get the task done 

• Leaders have to change leadership style based development (competence and commitment) levels of subordinates 

• Leaders identify development stage based on subordinate capabilities, and leaders behaviour evolves when development levels change

Strengths: 

• Used to train leaders

• What you should and shouldn't do in certain scenarios

• Builds a flexible leader (can change to the situation) 

Weaknesses: 

• Not much research has been done 

• Up to interpretation, the author doesn’t make it clear how competence and confidence for 4 levels of development

Path Goal Theory: 

Definition - 

• Focuses on how leaders motivate followers/subordinates to achieve goals within a team setting 

  • Highlighting the relationship between leadership styles and member characteristics

  • Helps leaders: Define clear goals, clarify the path to achieving those goals, Remove obstacles for employees and provide ongoing support. 

  • Is integrated with the expectancy theory: people are motivated to put forth a higher level of effort if they think it will result in higher performance and reward 

Strengths of path goal theory: 

• Useful theoretical framework - 

  • Leaders understand how different leadership styles impact group satisfaction and performance 

  • Thus guiding leaders in choosing the best style for specific tasks and subordinates 

• Focus on motivation - 

  • Integrated motivation (expectancy theory) principles into leadership 

  • Encourages leaders to build team confidence and motivation  

• Highly practical - 

  • Provides ways leaders can clarify goals, move obstacles and offer support 

  • Focuses on helping subordinates achieve goals with clear guidelines 

Criticisms of path goal theory: 

• Complex/confusing - 

  • Includes many leadership styles (directive, supportive, participative and achievement orientated) 

  • Difficult to apply consistently 

  • Too broad and involves many factors (like task structure, goal clarity, worker ability, leadership style) 

• Poor theoretical support issues 

  • Not a lot of support for the overall theory 

  • Inconsistent results for directive leadership 

  • Mainly focuses on directive and supportive leadership and pays less attention to the other styles of leadership (participative & achievement orientated) 

• Poor explanation of motivation 

  • Incorporates expectancy theory 

  • Lacks clarity on how leadership behaviors influence motivation 

  • Does not explain how influence is created 

  • Those who practice this theory are often left with an unclear understanding about how it affects the amount of expectation and motivation 

• Leader dependency 

  • It puts an emphasis on leaders who provide guidance and support, showing the amount of dependency 

  • Could be counterproductive: they shouldn't just depend on the leader as this can limit group members development 

Leadership Styles/Behaviors 

Supportive:

• Leaders are friendly, approachable, and considerate.

• They attend to the needs of others, show supportive behaviors, and treat everyone as equals.

Participative:

• Leaders involve team members in decision-making.

• They consult with subordinates, seek their ideas and suggestions, and use these inputs to determine the team's direction.

Directive:

• Leaders provide clear instructions and expectations.

• They specify how tasks should be performed, set time requirements, and establish performance standards.

Achievement-Oriented:

• Leaders set challenging goals and high standards.

• They encourage confidence, push for high performance, and support the team in achieving these goals.

Leadership style preferences based on subordinate traits:

• Supportive Leadership: Preferred by those with strong affiliation needs.

• Directive Leadership: Suitable for individuals who are dogmatic and need structure in uncertain situations.

• Participative Leadership: Favored by those who desire control (enables a sense of involvement).

• Achievement-Oriented Leadership: Appeals to those with ambitious needs.

Transformational Leadership:

Definition: 

• Process that changes and transforms

• Correlates with emotions, ethics, values and long term goals

2 types of leadership:

• Transactional 

  • Managerial leadership 

  • Focuses on the role of supervision, organization, and group performance 

  • Leader is able to see what the followers want and help them achieve a level of performance that results in satisfying rewards 

  • Reward system (maslow's law)

  • Leader pays attentions to the followers work in order to find faults 

  • Leader is directive and action oriented

  • Effective in crisis and emergency

• Transformational 

  • inspire, stimulate and motivate followers to achieve results greater than what was planned originally 

  • Person inspires others  

  • Creates a connection that raises motivation and mortality 

  • Eg. Gandhi wanted to raise hope of others, also made change for himself 

How does Charisma tie into Transformational Leadership?:

• Charismatic leaders are very similar to transformational leadership

• Traits include:

  • Dominance, influential, confident, a sense of moral values, charismatic   

• This results in:

  • Trust, acceptance, affection,obedience and heightened goals, involvement with followers towards reaching a common goal

Model of transformational leadership 

• Background 

  • Developed by Bernard Bass, mid 1980s 

  • Refined on Mac Gregor Burns concept of transformational leadership 

• Key ideas 

  • Focusses on giving more attention to followers than leaders 

  • Transformational and transactional leadership seen as continuum 

• Charisma is needed but not sufficient enough for transformational leadership

• Motivating Followers 

  • 1. Raising awareness of important goals

  • 2. Encourages self awareness for team/organization

  • 3. Moving followers to higher level needs 

Transformational Leadership Factors:

• Inspirational Motivation 

  • High expectations to their followers 

  • Motivation to be committed and be a part of the shared vision 

  • Leaders use symbols and emotional appeals to focus group members 

• Intellectual Stimulation 

  • Creative, innovative, and challenge their own beliefs and values as well as those of the leader and the organization 

  • Support followers 

  • Engage in careful problem solving

• Individualized Consideration

  • Supporting climate 

  • Carefully listen to individual needs of followers 

  • Leaders act as coaches 

  • Leaders may use delegation to help flowers grow through personal challenges

• Contingent Reward 

  • Exchange process between leaders and followers (reward system) 

  • Agreement from followers on what must be done and payoffs for the people doing it

• Management Expectation 

  • Corrective criticism and negative feedback, negative reinforcement 

  • 2 different forms: Active and Passive 

    • Active: Watches followers closely for mistakes or rule violations, then take corrective action

    • Passive: Intervenes only after standards have not been met 

  • Both use negative reinforcement patterns than positive reinforcement pattern described in “contingent reward”

Non Leadership Factor:

Laissez-Faire-

• Represents absence of leadership

• Leader abdicates responsibility, delays decisions, gives no feedback, makes little effort to help followers meet their needs

• No exchange with followers or attempt to help them grow

Transformational Leadership Strategies 

• 1. Clear Vision 

  • Compelling, realistic, and simple vision

  • Aligns with organizational needs

  • Helps individuals understand their roles 

• 2. Social Architects 

  • leader shape shared values and norms 

  • Communicate clear direction 

  • Foster an organizational culture 

• 3. Trust Creation 

  • Create trust through consistency 

  • Articulate and stand by vision 

  • Build integrity within the organization 

• 4. Positive self regard 

  • Strong self awareness of strengths and weaknesses 

  • Emphasize strengths to inspire followers 

  • Fosters confidence and high expectations among team members 

Kouzes and Posner:

• Who are they?

  • 2 people who interviewed 1300 managers about leadership

• What did they do?

  • Came up with 5 fundamental practices that allow for leaders to accomplish amazing things

• What were these things?

  • Model the way, encourage the heart, enable others to act, inspired a share vision, and challenge the process 

How does this work?

• 1. Set out to empower followers and help them during change 

• 2. Gets followers to think about their own self interest

• 3. Empowering environment which allows for freedom for collaboration

• 4. Leaders are strong role models to encourage others

• 5. Creative visions that share the collective interest of the group 

• 6. Leaders are social architects 

Application:

• Can be used in recruitment, promotion, training, and development

• Can be used to improve teamwork, help decision making groups, quality initiatives, and reorganizations

• Programs using transformational leadership require people to take the MLQ, which can help people improve their leadership attributes overall

Characteristics:

• Confident

• Competent 

• Articulate

• Good listeners 

Strengths:

• Widely researched

• Intuitive appeal

• People are attracted to this type of leadership

• Incorporates followers and leaders

• Emphasis on followers needs morally uplifting

• Effective 

Criticism:

• Locks conceptual Clarity

• Overlapping Concepts

• The MIQ used for measuring leadership has flaws and isn't entirely accurate

• Treats leadership as a personality trait rather than a behavior that people may learn from

• Can be elist and anti-communist

• Probably focuses on leaders rather than giving others attention

• Potentially can be abused /corrupted