Questions of Leadership
Elizabeth Kelley, PhD.
March 3, 2007
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Questions of Leadership
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Question
What is leadership?
Is leadership important?
How do management and leadership differ?
Are leaders born or made?
What do leaders do?
6 How do you lead effectively in emerging environments?
7A & B Why transformational leadership?
What IS transformational leadership?
8 What kind of leadership will organizations need in the future?
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Effective Leaders
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Elizabeth 1
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Gandhi
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Winston Churchill
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Oprah
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Louise Arbour
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Ordinary Guy
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Norman Horrocks, OC
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Question #1
What IS Leadership?
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Various Definitions
Leadership is the process by which a person exerts influence over other people and inspires, motivates, and directs their activities to help achieve group or organizational goals .
(McShane, 2000)
To take people to places they would not have gone, and have them do things they would not have done…. Because it is their own idea!
(Kelloway, 2004)
Leadership is an intangible quality with no definition. That’s probably a good thing, because if the people being led knew the definition, they would hunt down the leaders and kill them.
(Scott Adams,
2000)
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Question #2
Is Leadership Important?
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It Depends on Who You Ask
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Implicit Leadership Perspective
Leadership Substitutes
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YES!!!
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 complex, changing environment lateral leadership requirement employee retention
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Question #3
How Do Management and
Leadership Differ?
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Various perspectives
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Management is doing something right; leadership is doing the right thing
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Management deals with systems and structures; leadership deals with people and ideas
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Managers control complexity; leaders initiate change
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Question #4
Are Leaders Born or Made?
GREAT MAN STUDIES
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Leadership Competencies
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Drive
Leadership motivation
Integrity
Self-confidence
Intelligence
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Knowledge of the business
Emotional intelligence
Tolerance to
Stress
HEIGHT
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Leadership Competencies
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Indicate potential, not performance
Perceptions
Chicken or egg?
Universality bias
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Question #5
What Do Leaders Do?
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Behavioural Studies
Two independent behavioural dimensions: people-oriented and task-oriented
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Results in four styles of leadership
People-oriented – satisfied employees
Task-oriented – inconclusive
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Universality bias
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Context Bias in Theory
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How does context influence management thought?
Cold War climate – Leadership theory connection
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Contingency Approach
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IT DEPENDS!!!
Focus on relationship between leader and follower
Different styles for different situations
Transactional – focus on results, getting job done
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Emerging Organizational
Environments
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Issues:
Information – access, control, usage, privacy, security, technology
Distance – remote workers, customers, suppliers
Diversity – generational, cultural, gender, ability
Corporate social and environmental responsibility
Integrity
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CHANGE
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Question #6
How to Lead Effectively in
These Environments?
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Transformational Leadership
Aim is to elevate followers to higher levels of performance (Burns and Bass)
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Also called “full range leadership” and/or “authentic leadership”
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Focuses on leader-follower relationship
Incremental to transactional leadership
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Question #7A
Why Transformational Leadership?
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It works
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 unequivocal support in a variety of environments
(Judge & Piccolo) increased employee job satisfaction, organizational commitment, retention, information sharing, innovation, individual and unit bottom line performance
It can be taught
 improved organizational and individual performance after training
(Barling, Weber &
Kelloway)
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Question #7B
What specifically IS it?
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Idealized influence – Leader engenders faith, trust and respect by consistently doing the right thing
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Inspirational motivation – Leader sets high standards, presents a vision, convinces individuals they can perform beyond expectations; consistent actions cultivate trust
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Intellectual stimulation – Leader encourages followers to think for themselves, develops future leaders
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Individualized consideration – Leader treats each employee as an individual, focuses on employee development, demonstrates compassion
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Ways to Enact TFL
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Idealized influence – make decisions transparent; give the decision and its rationale
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Inspirational motivation – talk positively, express confidence in others; use the self-fulfilling prophecy – “I know you can do it”
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Intellectual stimulation – ask “What if?”, “What do you think we should do?”; STOP answering questions
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Individualized consideration – make time for others as individuals, MBWA, assign tasks on the basis of individual abilities and developmental needs
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RRSP MODEL
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Transformational Stories
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Ordinary Guy
Stacey, the teacher
Jack Welch…not?
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Question #8
What kind of leadership will organizations need in the future?
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Future Leadership Style
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Helping others succeed
Flexible
Collaborative
Inclusive
Participative
Relationship-oriented
Encourage knowledge sharing and creation
Encourage innovation
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
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Leadership in Other Emerging
Contexts
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Remote leadership
Knowledge-based organizations
Multi-generation workforces
Cross cultural workforces
Social/environmentally conscious organizations
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Nothing New Under the Sun?
To lead people, walk beside them.
As for the BEST leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The Next
Best, the people honor and praise. The
NEXT, the people fear; and the NEXT, they hate.
When the BEST leader's work is done the people say, "We did it ourselves".
Lao Tzu
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Questions of Leadership…and some suggested answers
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# Question
What is leadership?
Answer
Influence, inspire, your choice
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Is leadership important?
How do management and leadership differ?
Are leaders born or made?
What do leaders do?
Yes, very (but not everyone agrees)
They are two ends of a continuum of full range leadership; both required
Yes; you can learn to be transformational; some do it naturally
It depends on who/when you ask – people and task;
Transformational Leadership 6 How do you lead effectively in emerging environments?
7A Why transformational leadership?
It works and it can be taught
7B What IS transformational leadership?
A leadership style that aims to elevate performance beyond expectations: ask questions, empower, role model, articulate a vision and are CONSISTENT
8 What kind of leadership will organizations need in the future?
Transformational leadership
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