Times of Crisis - Informal Leadership - Essay Example

Informal Leadership Name Course Institution Date Introduction Informal leadership involves leaders who do not hold a position in the leading or managing a body in an organization without being formally appointed to do so. They mostly emerge from the workers in any sub-unit in an organization. They are more understood and respected by their workmates because they view them as people of their level and these leaders strive to work towards satisfying their needs. They are sometimes an impediment to the success of any unit if they happen to influence their fellow workmates to oppose their formal leaders’ agenda or vision. Leadership and management go hand in hand, thus complements each other. There is a thin line separating leadership from management. Generally, leadership can be contrasted from management by the fact that leaders have the ability to influence and align people’s vision towards attaining organizational goals through innovation, motivation, aspiration and communication. On the other hand, managers control a group or set of entities through processes like planning, staffing, problem solving, etc. in order to attain the same goals (Brooks, 2009 pp. 171). Also managers rely on control through circles of power therefore they have subordinates while leaders, through circles of influence develop followers and inspire trust. Power bases Expert power involves the leader having more knowledge and skills of handling issues or tasks than the followers. This gives him an advantage where consulted or use the experience in solving problems facing the people.Referent power involves leading by example. The informal leader will always do what he expects his followers to imitate. This helps one to establish paths or strategies that favour the people he is leading. Reward power is mainly used by formal leaders but informal leaders use recognition as a reward to the group they lead. Connection power- networks of informal leaders are a powerful tool they use in influencing their followers. This involves the influential or the important people one knows in the society (Barry & James 2012, pp.114). These people can be used by informal leaders as protection or funding them if a need arises.Coercive powerarises where one has the authority to threaten or punish a member for going against the norms. This is always used by formal leaders and managers. Power of influence occurs naturally in informal leaders and is the tool one uses to gather people together. Informational power comes up when one has some vital information or data needed by the group he is leading. He controls the people by providing or with holding that information to them.Inasmuch as informal leaders may neither use coercive power in leading people nor reward power directly, they may as well use it tactically to lead people. Leadership Styles The leadership style used by informal leaders is mostly performance-based and focuses on mobilizing people with the leader being an example to get the job done. Transformational leadership is the best as it aims at collaborating with members and in the long run, another leader may also emerge among the team members to help gear towards the vision (Jackson & Parry 2008 pp. 85). Charismatic leadership involves creating a powerful self-image that attracts people to choose him/her as their leader. This is mostly used by formal leaders. If used by an informal leader, chances will be high that he/she will be absorbed into formal leadership.Authoritarian or autocratic leadership cannot be used by informal leaders per se. they may use it indirectly by sparking a debate to influence other members to judge another who happens to deviate from the group’s norms. Democratic leadership involves people in decision making thus encourage group participation and this is what informal leaders use. Laissez faire or delegative involves a leader who minimizes his involvement in decision making. This can also take effect when encouraging the members to participate towards attaining particular goals. Personal Experience I once found myself leading our college’sChess team to play against our rivals, the neighbouring college.I made use of my personal attributes like powerful persuasive skills and expertise, which according to Brooks (2009) fall under the trait theory. I therefore thought of using the power of influence in influencing the team’s way of thinking through a speech when the captain and manager were not around. This was successful because 80% of the players were of the same thought like mine. Some disagreed with my opinion but I acknowledged their views,too, because they were still my friends and good players whom we depended upon. I had to make sure that I maintain the trust they had in me.I embraced some expert power because I had expertise and experience in playing Chess. I trained the members on some bits the manager had never taught them. I used reward power at the same time by promising the team members that we would organize for a contest with our senator-something everyone desired in the county,who was also good at playing chess, but this would happen if we win the game at hand. This was connection power, in knowing and possessing the senator’s contacts. This was a motivation to the team mates because the manager could never have offered such an idea. Later, in the course of planning, I overheard that the college had decided to postpone all outings to facilitate effective voting in of new officials. I had to withhold this information which I realized later that it was another base of power, which is informational power(Rudolph, 2005, pp. 385). If the members could have got wind of this, they probably could have adhered to the college’s requirement. I used referent power where I led the team by example. They were to believe in me,for the sake of winning, and get back to the team manager’s way of doing things once we were done with our mission of record breaking win.The greatest challenge I faced were the couple of members who were against my idea. I used some power of influence by threatening them that we would never associate ourselves with them and also, I criticized and rebuked their cowardice which also bore fruits. We went and played the game successfully and won with a great margin. Power base that could have used apart from the above iscoercive power could have been used because some members seemed to oppose almost every idea that I put across. They were members who wanted to lead others thus saw it unfit for me to lead. In future, if I ever find myself in a situation like this, I will be keen to identify the members who are always on the opposition side and to use all ways possible to influence them and convince them to join the majority. It is important to use democratic leadership that involves others in decision making to reduce the chances of making wrong decisions that may later pose a negative effect in an organization(Pye,2005, pp. 40). This will at the same time help me develop better ways of handling followers. I also realize that it is a risk to lead others as an informal leader because the authorized leaders can expel or sack you if it is in a profit-making organization in case of any collision. Conclusion All the power bases are important in leading people as an informal leader (Rudolph 2005, pp. 375). There should be a power base(s) giving the informal leader an upper hand compared to the formal leaders in order to win their trust. This can be gained through embracing all the bases of power and capitalizing on the bases that the formal leaders lack. Generally, informal leaders operate as risk takers because they are at risk of colliding with the formal leaders in an organization. One may risk his job or reputation in the organization. Therefore, one should find tactics for survival, where for instance, one can use connection power for security purposes in case there is some misunderstanding with the management. An informal leader should always strive to make peace with every member and address issues affecting them in order to gain their trust and loyalty. This differentiates him from the formal leaders. References Barry Z. & James, M. K. 2012 The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations Jossey-Bass, New Jersey, pp. 114-129 Brooks, I. (2009) Organisational behaviour: individuals, groups and organization. 4th ed. Harlow, UK: Pearson. Jackson, B. and Parry, K. (2008) A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying leadership. London: Sage Pye, A. (2005). ʻLeadership and organizing: sensemaking in actionʼ, Leadership, 1 (1), pp. 31 -49. Rudolph, W. G. 2005, Leadership, Miramax, New York, pp. 375-402 Read More