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Leadership

Management Versus Leadership

Manager or leader, which are you? How to distinguish between leadership and management is a never ending question. One problem is that some writers don’t separate them at all. Also, we have too many concepts of leadership. Finally, management is seen in a negative light.

Why Identify Leadership and Management?

Those who refuse to differentiate the two concepts envisage a senior executive in a role with power over a group. For them, it is the same person who does both roles and the two roles are at best a slight difference in emphasis. When you throw in style differences, it is argued, that there is no way to tell them apart.

Confusion About the Meaning of Leadership

Most of our thinking about leadership focuses on the person at the head of a group – the president of a country. the chief executive of a company, the chairperson of a committee or the chief of a tribe. But what about the leadership of Al Gore. He is showing leadership to people around the world who don’t report to him. Whatever groups he might be heading, the main impact of his leadership is outside any particular group. The same is true of Martin Luther King Jr. who showed leadership to the US government when the Supreme Court ruled segregation on buses unconstitutional. This was without being in a member of the government let alone the head of it.

We also use the term leadership in some casual ways that adds to the confusion. We talk about someone leading us in song, leading us to safety through a swamp, or leading a tour. Organizational writers used to say that leaders or managers were those people who provided direction. Now, admitting that direction is to hard for any one person to determine, they have switched to saying that leaders facilitate the identification of new directions in others by being catalysts.

Then there is what might be called thought leadership, where employees with good ideas for new products or better ways of working convince their bosses to adopt their proposals.

The Real Meaning of Leadership

The truth is that our concept of leadership is evolving. It is changing faster in high tech businesses that are driven by innovation than it is in slower changing organizations like charities, communities and stable public sector organizations. What is happening is that the power upon which leadership used to be based is melting away. At one time you had to be physically strong to get to the top, then it was a matter of having a powerful personality. But now we have a war of ideas and it is the power of innovation that determines organizational direction. Thought leadership is the new power. As they say: content is king. Thought leadership is not about holding a position of power over people, which means that all employees can show leadership even if for a moment.

Leadership vs Management

Management is really a role, leadership is an activity. Think of a mother teaching her young child to count to 10. Being a mother means occupying a role, one you will have for life. But teaching is just something the mother does occasionally. Similarly, managers occupy roles in organizations and they occasionally show leadership. But showing leadership now means promoting new directions. It is managers who manage, develop and coach people, because it is their role to get things done as efficiently as possible.

See http://www.leadersdirect.com for more information on this and related topics. Mitch McCrimmon’s latest book, Burn! 7 Leadership Myths in Ashes was published in 2006. He is a business psychologist with over 30 years experience of leadership assessment and executive coaching.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Mitch_McCrimmon/79532

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Leadership

Leadership Found in the Few and the Small

Introduction

Envision an army of ants, multitudes of them carrying food and piling the food on a large rock. These ants are performing their task in uniformity and in a sequential order. The leadership is responsible for delivering the goods in order to maintain the survival of the ant colony.
On the human side, imagine a commanding officer of a unit assigned to a foreign country, responsible for his troops’ safety, operating an efficient command post, defending his country, and operating as an assumed dignified commander.

“Success in leadership, success in business, and success in life has been, is now,

and will continue to be a function of how well people work and play together (Kouzes & Posner, 2002, pg. 21).”

The two films which were selected represented a virtual-time situation, “A Bug’s Life” and a real-time situation “A Few Good Men.” Each film demonstrated a leadership style conducive to its environment and a communication style which revealed its strengths and weaknesses. Both films illustrated deception in leadership, the revelation of power in numbers, and the success and failure of leadership in action.

Analyzing Leadership in the Ants

The main character of this movie was an ant name Flik. Flik was an army ant who had a creative imagination. His role brought challenges to the leadership team and forced them to make a decision to send him away to find an answer to their dilemma of confronting the grasshoppers. In the beginning of the movie, the ants are gathering food and marching the food up to a rock. This gathering of food serves a two-fold purpose:

 

  • First, to feed the swarm of rebellious grasshoppers, led by “Hopper” their leader, and
  • Second, to secure the survival of the ant colony.

 

The story focuses on a colony of ants who seasonally gather food for themselves and a wild gang of rowdy grasshoppers. When bumbling worker-ant Flik (David Foley) destroys the food supply, the angry grasshoppers, lead by the maniacally warped Hopper (Kevin Spacey) threaten to kill the ants if they don’t produce a new supply of food by the time they return, an impossible feat. Flik leaves the anthill in search of help in the form of bigger bugs to wage war against the grasshoppers. What he doesn’t know is he has actually discovered a group of down-on-their-luck traveling circus insects in need of a job. When the ants realize that their heroes are really circus performers (and the circus bugs realize that these grasshoppers are really big and mean) the situation goes from bad to worse. Ultimately the ants use their large numbers to overcome the grasshoppers. (Gore, 1998, http://www.allmovie.com).

Yukl’s definition of leadership basically defined the process in which leadership was demonstrated in “A Bug’s Life.”

 

Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how it can be done effectively, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish the shared objectives (pg. 7).

 

Leadership was prevalent in all parts of the movie. The “Queen Ant” and the “Princess” were the female leaders who were born into their natural assignment by virtue of the fact they were the reproducers of the colony. They performed their assignment with the utmost of integrity, considering the safety and well-being of the colony. Because of this demand, their leadership skills reflected, “….consensus building, inclusiveness, and interpersonal relations, being willing to develop and nurture subordinates and to share power and information with the colony (Carr-Ruffino, 1993; Grant, 1988; Hegelsen, 1990; Rosener, 1990) (Yukl, pg. 412).” The movie demonstrated how each ant was committed to the survival of the ant colony; thus, demonstrating the shared power from the leadership. Leadership’s goal was to organize and protect the colony, laying down their life for one another if necessary.

 

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34, NIV)

 

Although there was a Hierarchical type of leadership, the movie shifted the spotlight to the workers who were part of a “networking” which reflected the Paradigm Shift stated in Benus and Nanus book, written by Chronicler John Naisbitt (1997, pg. 13).

Communication in the Colony

When Flik was sent away to seek help, he heard the colony cheer for his leaving. The colony was communicating a cheer of “yea, he is leaving” but Flik thought they were communicating a cheer of “yea, he is going to find help.” Communication was the main element in this movie. There was:

 

  • Miscommunication – When the colony sent Flik away to seek help, they did not communicate the real reason of why he was being sent away.
  • Non-communication – When Flik hired the circus bugs, he did not communication to them the real purpose of their going to the colony.

 

Body language was prevalent in the movie and reflected powerful emotions throughout
the movie:

 

The face is the language of emotions. Different parts of it are used to display different emotions. Fear is usually looked for in the eyes, as is sadness. Happiness is seen in the cheeks and the mouth as well as in the eyes. Surprise is seen in the forehead, eyes and mouth (Latiolais-Hargrave, 1999, pg. 39).

 

Communication was a powerful tool within the colony expressing emotions, surprise, anger, and deception. The biggest turnaround in the movie took place when the Princess communicated to the colony to rally together and unify for the purpose of saving what generations of ants have fought for. Once the Princess realized the colony was more powerful in number and unity, they were able to defeat the grasshoppers and end their harassment. The model of communication which this movie followed was the Superior and Subordinate Nonverbal Relationships: Appearance, Gesture and Movement, Face and Eye, Vocal Behavior, Space, Touch, Environment, Scent, and Time. This reflected the Higher Status definitions and the relationship to the Lower Status relationships (Goldhaber, 1993, pg. 197).

Analyzing A Few Good Men

The main character of this movie was Navy lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee. He was assigned to defend two Marines who were facing a Court Martial for the death of a fellow Marine. The intensity of the movie bounced leadership off the wall in almost every scene. From the beginning of the assignment of defending the accused until the end of the trial, the leadership and the tremendous interaction revealed a range of leadership from the ethical down to the dark side of charisma.

In this military courtroom drama based on the play by Aaron Sorkin, Navy lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) is assigned to defend two Marines, Pfc. Louden Downey (James Marshall) and Lance Cpl. Harold Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison), who are accused of the murder of fellow leatherneck Pfc. William Santiago (Michael DeLorenzo) at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Kaffee generally plea bargains for his clients rather than bring them to trial, which is probably why he was assigned this potentially embarrassing case. But when Lt. Commander JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) is assigned to assist Kaffee, she is convinced that there’s more to the matter than they’ve been led to believe and convinces her colleague that the case should go to court. Under questioning, Downey and Dawson reveal that Santiago died in the midst of a hazing ritual known as “Code Red” after he threatened to inform higher authorities that Dawson opened fire on a Cuban watchtower. They also state that the “Code Red” was performed under the orders of Lt. Jonathan Kendrick (Keifer Sutherland). Kendrick’s superior, tough-as-nails Col. Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson), denies any knowledge of the order to torture Santiago, but when Lt. Col. Matthew Markinson (J.T. Walsh) confides to Kaffee that Jessup demanded the “Code Red” for violating his order of silence, Kaffee and Galloway have to find a way to prove this in court. A Few Good Men also features Kevin Bacon as prosecuting attorney Capt. Jack Ross, and Kevin Pollak as Kaffee and Galloway’s research assistant, Lt. Sam Weinberg. — (Deming, 1992, http://www.allmovie.com).

The lawyers and the Marine Officers each formed their leadership relationships which described the Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX). This theory “…describes the role-making processes between a leader and an individual subordinate (Dansereau, Graen, & Haga, 1975; Graen & Cashman, 1975) (Yukl, pg. 116).” The exchange relationship usually takes one of two different forms. According to the theory, most leaders establish a special exchange relationship with a small number of trusted subordinates who function as assistants, lieutenants, or advisors (Yukl, pg. 116). In the case of the Marine Commander and the LMX Theory, his intention in usurping his authority was for deceptive purposes. The lawyers utilized the LMX (Yukl, pg. 116) Theory to produce a values and ethical outcome for the Marine prisoners.

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Leadership

Defining Leadership – Trying to Understand

You can ask ten different people what their definition of leadership is and you will probably get ten different answers. Leadership doesn’t have a specific definition. By giving it a definition, you are putting restrictions and limitations on the word and the true value of leadership. Leadership is something that is complicated to explain and understand. It is formless; it doesn’t take on a particular shape or form, nor does it go in one particular direction. A great leader can adjust to any situation at any given time, under any circumstance, and still come out successful.

Leadership is something that can’t be measured or tested by science or technology. Leadership theories are based on an opinion of an individual, i.e., human factors, and no two humans are the same. Although it can’t be measured by science, it is considered a soft science, because you really can’t base it off of experimental data. No one can prove what it is, but they can show what it does. It is like fine art, it crafts in a formless way that tends to go in many different directions at any given time. Leadership is rational and emotional; it involves both sides of human experience, which can include your “firmness, fairness, dignity and compassion.”

Some people believe that being a leader is either in one’s genes or not; others believe that life experiences mold the individual, and no one is born a leader, hence the saying “Leaders are made, not born.” Who’s to say which is right? This saying has been an ongoing debate for years and always will be. But in a sense, they both are right and they both are wrong. “Both views are right in the sense that innate factors, as well as formative experiences, influence many sorts of behavior, including leadership. Yet, both views are wrong to the extent they imply leadership is either innate or acquired” (Hughes, 2006). What matters most is how well a leader makes these factors interact with one another.

Leadership can be created from inspiration and a leader must have a true passion to lead. A true leader understands that leadership is continuous and is a constant learning process. He also understands that leadership is a process and not a position. There are great leaders, but there are not perfect leaders. A great leader must have failed at something in order to succeed. If you have never failed at anything, you can never appreciate the true value of success.

A good leader is someone who utilizes effective leadership skills in dealing with people. They are someone who respects their subordinates as well as their leaders. In reality, a leader is a servant for his subordinates; he works for them just as much as they work for him. A leader must work to make sure that his subordinates are taken care of to the best of his ability by utilizing all of his leadership skills. In turn, his subordinates will take care of him.

Subordinates expect leaders to show them the standard and train them to reach it. They expect leaders to lead by example. Additionally, they expect leaders to keep them informed and not withhold the truth. Leaders may have to ask others to make extraordinary sacrifices to achieve goals. Leaders may have to call on them to do things that seem impossible. “If leaders have trained their people to standard, inspired their willingness, and consistently looked after their interests, they will be prepared to accomplish any goal, anytime, anywhere” (Reeves, 2004).

In reality, most subordinates are leaders. A lot of them just haven’t exercised their true ability to lead. Not to mention the exemplary subordinate who is a self-leader per say. Like a good leader, he can adjust to any situation at any given time. He is very independent and can be depended on. This type of subordinate can help a good leader become better.

Many believe that leadership implies power, but it shouldn’t imply power, it should influence the ability to apply powerful leadership. Power is something that isn’t measured by a position or billet; it is merely a function of the leader, the subordinates, and the situation. Leaders have the potential to influence their subordinates’ behavior, attitude, and growth.

“Leadership allows leaders to have different styles of interaction styles when dealing with individual followers” (Hughes, 2006), hence one of the reasons why leadership will always be open to many different opinions and debates. Study after study has been done on leadership and no one still knows what it is and what makes a true leader. Even those with the most extensive knowledge in leadership research can be poor leaders, which proves, it is not about how much research or studying you do, it’s what you do with it that can make you a success.

In conclusion, we can spend five lifetimes trying to figure out what leadership really is, where it comes from, and which is right or wrong. But it’s not about defining it (it can never be defined, just shown). It’s not about where it comes from, and it’s not about which is right or wrong. It’s about continuous learning, trying to understand it, and which style to use at the right time.

Hughes, R.L., Ginnett, R.C., & Curphy, G.J. (2006). Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Reeves, R. (2004). Changing Your Style. In Leadership.. Retrieved December 12, 2006, from United States Marine Corps Web site: http://www.usmc.mil

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Darnell_E._Patton/119217

 

Leadership

Leadership Exposed: Things You Thought You Knew About Leadership

Much has been written about leadership: rules, pointers, styles, and biographies of inspiring leaders throughout world history. But there are certain leadership ideas that we ourselves fail to recognize and realize in the course of reading books. Here is a short list of things you thought you knew about leadership.

1. Leaders come in different flavors.

There are different types of leaders and you will probably encounter more than one type in your lifetime. Formal leaders are those we elect into positions or offices such as the senators, congressmen, and presidents of the local clubs. Informal leaders or those we look up to by virtue of their wisdom and experience such as in the case of the elders of a tribe, or our grandparents; or by virtue of their expertise and contribution on a given field such as Albert Einstein in the field of Theoretical Physics and Leonardo da Vinci in the field of the Arts. Both formal and informal leaders practice a combination of leadership styles.

o Lewin’s three basic leadership styles – authoritative, participative, and delegative

o Likert’s four leadership styles – exploitive authoritative, benevolent authoritative, consultative, and participative

o Goleman’s six emotional leadership styles – visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding.

2. Leadership is a process of becoming.

Although certain people seem to be born with innate leadership qualities, without the right environment and exposure, they may fail to develop their full potential. So like learning how to ride a bicycle, you can also learn how to become a leader and hone your leadership abilities. Knowledge on leadership theories and skills may be formally gained by enrolling in leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences. Daily interactions with people provide the opportunity to observe and practice leadership theories. Together, formal and informal learning will help you gain leadership attitudes, gain leadership insights, and thus furthering the cycle of learning. You do not become a leader in one day and just stop. Life-long learning is important in becoming a good leader for each day brings new experiences that put your knowledge, skills, and attitude to a test.

3. Leadership starts with you.

The best way to develop leadership qualities is to apply it to your own life. As an adage goes “action speaks louder than words.” Leaders are always in the limelight. Keep in mind that your credibility as a leader depends much on your actions: your interaction with your family, friends, and co-workers; your way of managing your personal and organizational responsibilities; and even the way you talk with the newspaper vendor across the street. Repeated actions become habits. Habits in turn form a person’s character. Steven Covey’s book entitled 7 Habits of Highly Effective People provides good insights on how you can achieve personal leadership.

4. Leadership is shared.

Leadership is not the sole responsibility of one person, but rather a shared responsibility among members of an emerging team. A leader belongs to a group. Each member has responsibilities to fulfill. Formal leadership positions are merely added responsibilities aside from their responsibilities as members of the team. Effective leadership requires members to do their share of work. Starting as a mere group of individuals, members and leaders work towards the formation of an effective team. In this light, social interaction plays a major role in leadership. To learn how to work together requires a great deal of trust between and among leaders and members of an emerging team. Trust is built upon actions and not merely on words. When mutual respect exists, trust is fostered and confidence is built.

5. Leadership styles depend on the situation.

How come dictatorship works for Singapore but not in the United States of America? Aside from culture, beliefs, value system, and form of government, the current situation of a nation also affects the leadership styles used by its formal leaders. There is no rule that only one style can be used. Most of the time, leaders employ a combination of leadership styles depending on the situation. In emergency situations such as periods of war and calamity, decision-making is a matter of life and death. Thus, a nation’s leader cannot afford to consult with all departments to arrive at crucial decisions. The case is of course different in times of peace and order—different sectors and other branches of government can freely interact and participate in governance. Another case in point is in leading organizations. When the staffs are highly motivated and competent, a combination of high delegative and moderate participative styles of leadership is most appropriate. But if the staffs have low competence and low commitment, a combination of high coaching, high supporting, and high directing behavior from organizational leaders is required.

Now that you are reminded of these things, keep in mind that there are always ideas that we think we already know; concepts we take for granted, but are actually the most useful insights on leadership.

Tim Maher is interested in personal development in all its facets and has read many books on this topic. It is an interest that is fed and nurtured by listening to audio books and seminars when possible. To assist your own personal growth journey get your audio resources at ==> [http://www.magillaudiobooks.com/list.aspx?catId=137]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tim_Maher/71401

 

Leadership

The Lead Wolf Model of Leadership

Effective leaders are driven by a model. A model is a tool used to predict future outcomes of current decisions. Effective leaders build their models on the sum of their experiences, knowledge and deeds as well as their mistakes. This truth is at the core of learning how to be a winner instead of a survivor.

o Servant-leadership encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment.

o Recognition and praise raises self-esteem. Positive feedback and ample communication allow employees gratification and a newfound confidence in the organization. Command and control works for the military but leadership in the business environment must be built on dignity and respect. Remember, employees are your most precious asset. Respect them, train them, coach and mentor them, trust them and they will create competitive advantage for your company.

o Companies today are increasingly characterized by a large and incredibly complex set of independent relationships between highly diverse groups of people. To be successful, you must determine how to get active involvement, innovation and creativity out of your employees. Success depends on more than just “best practice” success drivers. Success demands a superior level of leadership–a level that requires deep commitment. This commitment will not flourish in workplace environments that are still dominated by the “slap & point” or the “carrot and stick” method of management often used in the past

o People cannot “Live to Work” they must “Work to Live”. This is about keeping family life and personal values in perspective.

o People are the most important ingredient to every organization and the organizations behavior. People and how they are treated will reflect the organizational characteristics, the way it acts and interacts with its own people.

o Leadership —- Make no mistake – leadership is about Trust – Respect & Integrity.

Employees won’t start respecting you as a leader until you start respecting them

Employees will not trust you as a leader until you start trusting them

Gaining trust and respect from your employees is built on a platform of integrity.

o Ethics are the breeding ground for trust. Do the right thing – always and commit to conducting yourself with the highest standards of ethics and integrity.

o An effective leader is only as good as the people he/she surrounds themselves with.

o “It’s not about power and politics; it’s about principle and process.”

o Employees want to take pride in their leaders. They are eager to give their trust, but demonstrating the kind of leadership character that deserves that trust cannot be over-emphasized.

o Character is built around a true concern for the people within the organization. It is based on fairness and consistency.

o The culture and environment of the organization are going to have a major impact on leadership’s self-expectations. This is a critical element that executives who are not successful fail to recognize. Organizational culture is extremely important to successful growth.

o Problems with staffing and retention may not be due to bad hires or a low unemployment rate. In fact, they may be related to poor leadership insight by not recognizing employees as a core competency in the business strategy. Although employees may not fit the strictest definition of a core competency, it is a fact that employees are the ones responsible for creating many of the core competencies. It is an undisputable fact that failure to recognize the importance of employee contributions will lead to failure regardless of your business strategy.

o The leader has to be an agent of change. Most people in most organizations prefer not to change, It’s scary. One of the roles of leadership is to cause change, to create change, to force change, to instigate change. Whatever verb you want to use.

o Creating change, managing during turbulent times, or fostering growth after restructuring all depends on a balance of leadership. No one person can make a company successful. It takes a lot of people, but one person with a command of leadership can transfer enough influence, creating enough leadership amongst the management group to guarantee success

o Change really occurs more easily when everybody sees the need for it.

o Communication is key in creating an environment that encourages employee retention. Respect, belief in employees, empowerment and involvement are key factors in retaining employees. Effective leadership & respect must be demonstrated at every level in the organization.

o Leadership without communication is like a gun without a bullet. It looks impressive but it can’t do anything.

o Next to people, communication is the most critical element to success, whether the company is in a growth mode or facing challenges to maintain market share. Failure to communicate is like a virus that can lead to total failure.

o Communication is essential to developing trust. Trust is necessary to get people to reach down deep inside and give everything they have under the most difficult circumstances. Trust will allow people to give their discretionary energy to meet objectives.

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