Leadership Notes
Influence & Leadership
- Leadership involves influencing individuals to achieve a common goal.
- It also covers planning menus and managing profits.
Espoused Beliefs & Behavior
- Often there's a gap between a leader's stated beliefs and their actual behavior.
- This gap represents a blind spot for individuals and organizations.
Leadership Defined
- Leadership is achieving results through relationships.
- It's a process where an individual influences a group to achieve a common goal.
Components Central to Leadership
- Leaders and Followers:
- Leaders and followers are involved together and need each other.
- Leaders often initiate and maintain the relationship.
- Leaders are not above or better than followers.
- Leadership as a Process:
- Leadership is a process that involves influence.
- It occurs within a group context and attends to common goals.
Leadership Described
- Trait vs. Process Leadership
- Assigned vs. Emergent Leadership
- Leadership and Management
Trait vs. Process Leadership
- Trait Leadership:
- Certain individuals possess special innate characteristics or qualities that differentiate them from non-leaders.
- Resides in select people and is restricted to those with inborn talent.
- Process Leadership:
- Leadership is a property or set of properties possessed in varying degrees by different people.
- Observed in leadership behaviors and can be learned.
Assigned vs. Emergent Leadership
- Assigned Leadership:
- Based on occupying a position within an organization.
- Examples: Team leaders, plant managers, department heads, directors
- Emergent Leadership:
- An individual perceived by others as the most influential member of a group or organization regardless of the individual’s title.
- Emerges over time through communication behaviors.
- Verbal involvement
- Being informed
- Seeking others’ opinions
- Being firm but not rigid
Management vs. Leadership
- Quote: "You manage things; you lead people." ~Grace Murray Hopper
- Focuses on work & tasks
- Involves:
- Planning (to meet or exceed company goals)
- Organizing (what, who, how)
- Controlling (setting a standard, comparing results)
- Budgeting
- Coordinating
- Time Management
- Decision Making
- Problem Solving
Leadership: Relationships (Focuses on Pressing for Change)
- Focuses on Pressing for Change
- Involves:
- Vision (seek and/or create opportunities)
- Motivation (satisfy basic human needs)
- Inspiration (energize followers to achieve)
- Persuasion
- Team work
- Building relationships
- Listening
- Mentoring
Bridging the Gap
Leadership vs. Management
- Leadership:
- Provoking change in the organization's values, mission, vision, and goals.
- Influencing others to achieve new organizational goals.
- Management:
- Promoting stability by focusing on achieving current goals.
Common Traits of a Leader
- High ego strength
- Strategic thinking ability
- Orientation towards the future
- Belief in principles of human behavior
- Strong connections
- Politically astute
- Know how to use power
Leadership Approach
- Be decisive
- Follow through
- Select the best
- Empower employees
- Enhance career development
Self-Reflection
- Consider where you believe you are on the management-leadership spectrum and explain why.