Characteristics of Admired Leaders - Coursework Example

Leadership Style of the of the Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Managerial Roles 3 2. Characteristics of Admired Leaders 4 3. Best American Leader 5 4. Credibility making a difference 5 5. The two types of motivation are positive and negative motivation. 6 6. Knowing yourself as a leader 6 7. General Frank Savage (in the movie Twelve O’ Clock High) as a leader 7 8. Appreciation of the constituents and their diversity 7 9. Situational leadership theory 7 10. Affirming the shared values 8 11. Transformational Leadership 8 12. Personality Type 8 13. Story telling of a leadership competency 9 References 10 1. Managerial Roles Managerial roles are the duties that are performed by the heads of an organization. He can be in charge of all the departments with the responsibility of looking at the welfare of all the members in the organization and their individual careers. According to Mintzberg, the activities or the roles of a manager can be diversified into ten different roles. All these ten roles include formal authority over the organizational units. This formal authority gives status to the managers which help in building various interpersonal relations. This enhances in making access to different information which in turn helps the managers in making decisions and planning for strategies. Management is not similar to leadership (Bertocci, 2009; Monica, 1983). Roles of a leader include leadership activities from multiple positions within a social structure. In this situation, a president as well as a clerical officer can lead. It allows the utilization of different leadership abilities which are generated from the personal abilities. Management Leadership What do managers do? What do leaders do? Managers focus on managing activities like time, money, paperwork, equipment etc. Leaders focus on influencing people to follow them. The activities performed by managers Planning Controlling Organizing Coordinating Budgeting Directing Decision making Strategy Problem solving The leaders focus on: Vision Inspiration Motivation Persuasion Teamwork Relationships Listening Influencing The difference in the roles of leaders and managers in respect of a particular activity is shown below: Leaders Synergy Managers Providing vision Employee empowerment Providing resources Pursuing opportunities Strategic Achievement Reducing risks. Inspiring Teamwork Coordinating Leading improvisation Innovation Providing structure Thus it can be concluded that the role of a manager is not similar to the role of a leader (Goldsmith, 2010). The managers are mainly problem solvers who perform the task of managing activities whereas the leaders aim at influencing the people to follow them (Sims, 2002). 2. Characteristics of Admired Leaders Here we come to know the characteristics of an admired leader (Kouzes & Posner, 2011). The characteristics that should be possessed for becoming an effective leader are: Integrity: The leader should have the ability to influence the followers by winning their trust. He should be trustworthy and convicted towards his followers. Competence: The leader should be capable of maintaining the leadership position within the organization, influencing the followers and motivating them in improving their performances. The leader should be efficient in order to increase the productivity of the entire organization by influencing the subordinates. Inspiring capability: The leader should have the ability to inspire his followers. It is the leadership achieved through identification or the admiration from the followers. Ambitious: A leader should always be goal oriented. He should always set a goal for himself and his organization which has to be achieved. He should be aspiring and hard working. Broad minded: A leader should be open minded and tolerant in accepting the unpredictable outcomes in future. He should be flexible in nature so that he can easily adapt to the changes in the environment and consequently influence the followers in adapting to such changes. Cooperative: A leader should be cooperative, collaborative and should believe in team work. It is the individual performances of the team members which together constitutes the performance of a team and which helps in the better performances of an organization. Courageous: A leader should be bold, gutsy and daring to face all the situations and overcome them. Determined: A leader should be dedicated, determined and persistent. Fair minded: The leader should be unprejudiced and of forgiving nature. The willingness to forgive others will help to create interpersonal relationship within the organization. 3. Best American Leader The best leader chosen for evaluating the leadership style is John Chambers. He has been the CEO and the Chairman of Cisco systems. He was born on 23rd August 1949 in Cleveland. He joined Cisco in the year 1991 as the senior Vice President in the field of Sales and Operations. He became the CEO of the company in January 1995 and in November 2006 he became the chairman of the board. His leadership style was based on five main pillars. Two of the most prominent skills are: Changing leadership style: According to John Chambers, collaboration cannot be achieved if the leader follows extremely command and control techniques. According to him those companies and their respective leaders who cannot bring about a change in their leadership style (even if it is working effectively), will be left behind. According to him a leader should keep on changing his leadership style. Collaborative leadership includes involving others in the decision making, listening to their ideas and striking comprises. Changing incentives: John Chambers suggested that rewarding of individual works is another leadership strategy while planning for the collaboration. Planning for an effective reward strategy will help in engaging the employees within the organization. 4. Credibility making a difference It states how the people actually feel when they work with the leaders whom they admired. They feel valued, challenged, enthusiastic, motivated, inspired, proud and respected. When the people work with those leaders whom they have admire then they feel good about themselves (Allgeier, 2009). Thus it can be concluded that high credibility results in intense commitment. Commitment will enable these people in generating great businesses. The six disciplines of credibility which has helped in the foundation of leadership are: The first discipline of credibility is knowing and discovering yourself. The second discipline of credibility is the appreciation of the constituents as well as their diversity. The third discipline of credibility is the affirmation of the shared values. The fourth discipline of credibility is the developing capacity. The fifth discipline of credibility is serving a particular purpose. The sixth discipline of credibility is sustaining hope. 5. The two types of motivation are positive and negative motivation. Generally motivation means positive motivation (Naidu & Rao, 2008). It influences the people to do their work in the best possible way and improve their performance in a consistent manner. In this type of motivation, rewards and various other facilities are provided to motivate them in making better performances. These rewards may be financial or non financial. Negative motivation mainly focuses on the control of the negative efforts of work (Evans, Jamal, & Foxall, 2007). It creates a feeling of fear among the workers that they have to suffer, in case of lacking good performances. It is mainly based on the particular concept that if a worker fails to perform well and achieve the desired goal then he will be punished. Both the motivations focus on inspiring and motivating the will of people to work. But the approaches are different. When the employees of an organization are performing well then positive motivation approach should be followed. On the other hand, when the performance of an employee in the organization is deteriorating then negative motivation approach should be used to provide a feeling of fear to him that continuation of poor performances will result in negative outcomes. 6. Knowing yourself as a leader The context of the leadership has changed. Previously, the leaders used to work in an organization where people used to share a common set of values and cultures (Bennis, 2009). But in recent days the leaders bring in groups of people with different perspectives, cultures, values etc. These people are different from the leaders as well as from each others. Thus the leaders need to be aware of their social identity. Self knowledge has been known as one important hallmark of the leaders. Self knowledge enables the leaders to drive the followers and ultimately the entire organization in the path of success. 7. General Frank Savage (in the movie Twelve O’ Clock High) as a leader In the movie (Twelve O’ Clock High), the leadership style of Frank Savage has been very significant. This movie shows the story related to an American Bomber Group which has become low in their performances and morale after suffering from huge losses due to severe attacks by the German fighters. Now Frank Savage was sent to lead this group. Most of the movie deals with the struggle of General Frank Savage in training and leading this group into a well disciplined fighting unit, in spite of the huge losses and the attacks of the German fighters. The movie tells us how a leader has inspired his group to recognize and understand their responsibility and pride for the country and to work beyond their responsibilities and capabilities to maintain the pride of the country. 8. Appreciation of the constituents and their diversity This leadership skills actually includes learning of how to see things and understand them from someone else’s perspectives, empathy etc (Muhammad, 2009; Jillson, 2013). The more the leader as well as the followers understands each other’s concerns, perspectives and values, the greater becomes their ability to work in a coordinated manner together. Appreciation of the diversity involves appreciating someone by building trust. The most effective way of building trust is listening very carefully to the dreams, hopes and wishes of the constituents. The leaders should appreciate the diversity by welcoming of feedback and other divergent viewpoints. 9. Situational leadership theory This states that there is no existence of a single and best leadership style as it is totally task relevant (Fairholm & G. W. Fairholm, 2009). Fred is an employee in the organization who has appeared late twice in the office and his efficiency towards the work is also deteriorating with time. When the manager calls him for finding a solution to the problem his approach can be in any one of the four leadership styles as given below: Directing style: The manager will directly inform Fred that he will not be allowed to come late in office from the next time and if he does so, then severe steps will be taken which can bring an adverse situation for Fred as well. Coaching style: The manager will provide information to Fred that his performance is deteriorating and this will have a negative effect on Fred when the performances of the employees will be evaluated. Supporting style: The manager will converse with Fred and ask for the reason behind his deteriorating performances. The manager will try to find out a solution to the problem by supporting him in his problems. Delegating style: The manager will only inform Fred about his performance deterioration. He will leave the rest part, i.e. how to improve his performance, on Fred and then monitor his progress. These are the four approaching styles of the leaders while solving the problems based on various situations. 10. Affirming the shared values Affirming the shared values is one of the disciplines of credibility (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). According to the authors, the shared values are the main sources for building genuine and productive working relationship. One primary objective in doing this is the formation of cooperative communities which promote these commonly shared values. The net effect is that the problems are solved from the root level and the finger pointing of the employees to each other gets eliminated. The authors support the utilization of the organizational systems for the reinforcement of these shared values. The leaders provide orientation classes, various training and development programs and other promotional activities to foster such an environment which puts values at the front position of the organization. 11. Transformational Leadership In the public speech ‘I have a dream’ by Martin Luther King Jr., he focused on putting an end to the concept of racism in United States. This speech became one of the most defining moments for ‘American Civil Rights Movement’. This speech was delivered to more than 250000 civil right followers or supporters. In this speech Martin Luther King Jr. has used the concept of inspirational motivation where he has guided the followers by providing a sense of meaning as well as challenge (Gilbert, 2012). He has delivered the speech optimistically and enthusiastically in order to encourage the spirit of commitment and team work. 12. Personality Type It has been assessed from the test of the personality type that I belong to the group of mechanic personality type. People belonging to this personality type possess excellent skills with the mechanical things (Berens & Nardi, 1999). They value the internal system of the organization. Even if the other employees in the organization are of different personality type, I will develop an understanding with them and try to cooperate with them for making better performances. 13. Story telling of a leadership competency Previously, I used to work for Unitex Pvt. Ltd. I was the Senior Coordinator in the Finance Department. The main problem which I faced was that there was no unity among my team members. I had to work hard to build interpersonal relationship with the employees. It had been a tough task for me to develop an understanding with them. In order to achieve competitive advantage over the competitors, it was very important to work as a team. I motivated my team members in making better performances and made them realize that without the team efforts, it will not be possible to meet the goals and objectives of the company. My team members cooperated with each other and helped the company to achieve its target goal of earning a profit of £ 500 million within two years. References Allgeier, S. (2009). The Personal Credibility Factor: How to Get It, Keep It and Get It Back (If You have Lost It). New Jersey: FT Press. Bennis, W. G. (2009). On Becoming a Leader. New York: Basic Books. Berens, L. V. & Nardi, D. (1999). The Sixteen Personality Types: Descriptions for Self-discovery. Calif: Telos Publications. Bertocci, D. I. (2009). Leadership in Organizations: There is a Difference between Leaders and Managers. Maryland: University Press of America. Evans, M., Jamal, A. & Foxall, G. (2007). Consumer Behaviour. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Fairholm, M. R. & Fairholm, G. W. (2009). Understanding Leadership Perspectives: Theoretical and Practical Approaches. New York: Springer. Gilbert, K. (2012). Transformational Leadership. North America: Xulon Press. Goldsmith, S. (2010). Principles of Health Care Management: Foundations for a Changing Health Care System. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Jillson, C. (2013). American Government: Political Development and Institutional Change. New York: Taylor & Francis. Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z. (2011). Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Monica, E. L. (1983). Nursing Leadership and Management: An Experiential Approach. Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Muhammad, R. (2009). True Leadership for Teams and Organizations Who Desire Success: Our Youth + Our Change = Our Future. Indiana: AuthorHouse. Naidu, N. V. R. & Rao, T. K. (2008). Management and Entrepreneurship. New Delhi: I. K. International Pvt Ltd. Sims, R. R. (2002). Managing Organizational Behaviour. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More