“THE FIRST RESPONSIBILITY OF A LEADER IS TO DEFINE
REALITY. THE LAST IS TO SAY THANK YOU. IN BETWEEN, THE
LEADER IS A SERVANT.”
LEADERSHIP
Chapter 12
WHAT IS LEADERSHIP? (PG. 284)


Behavior/communication that influences, directs,
or controls a group
Counteractive influence when groups get off
track
CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE
LEADERS

Identifying attributes;


intelligence, enthusiasm, dominance, self confidence,
and social participation
Physical traits;

Larger, more active, and better looking than other
group members
TRAIT VS FUNCTIONAL APPROACH

Trait approach


indentify the sort of person who should be appointed
to a leadership position
Functional approach

communicative behaviors a leader needs in order to
help a group to function effectively
THE TRAIT PERSPECTIVE

View of leadership as the personal attributes or
qualities that leaders posses.

useful in one situation may not be in another


Leading troops into battle vs conducting a business meeting
Does not identify
Traits important to becoming a leader
 Traits important to maintaining the position.


Not the most useful approach
THE FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Behavior that may be performed by any group
member to maximize group effectiveness
FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE: GROUP
NEEDS AND ROLES (PG. 285)

The major leadership behavior fall in two
categories
1) task leadership- aim specifically at accomplishing
a group goal
 2) process leadership (group building or
maintenance)- help maintain a satisfactory
interpersonal climate within a group


Both types of leadership are essential
WHEN YOU NEED TASK LEADERSHIP
(PG. 286)
Lose track of where they are going
 Cannot seem to get started
 One person monopolizes the conversations while
others remain silent
 Leader has a responsibility to keep a group
moving.


“leader” does not mean they are the best equipped for
the job
TASK LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS

Initiating

Task oriented group discussions need to generate
ideas.


Coordinating


Ex) “lets get this meeting under way” “lets consider an
alternative plan”
Point out the “groupness”
Summarizing
How discussion has progress and what needs to be
accomplished
 Helps motivate toward end goal

TASK LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS CONT’D

Elaborating
Ideas can be visualized
 When an idea is brought up several things might
happen;

1. members might be in favor and some not
 2. another idea might be suggested and recorded
 3. idea might have fallen flat and elaboration might give it a
fighting chance

TASK BEHAVIORS SUMMARIZED


Initiating, coordinating, summarizing, and
elaborating are types of communicative behaviors
Making suggestions, offering new ideas, giving
information, asking for information, and making
procedural observations
FUNCTIONAL APPROACH SUMMARY

The functional approach reveals;

leadership skill is associated with the ability to
analyze a groups process
 choose appropriate behaviors to further that process

PROCESS LEADERSHIP

For a group to function effectively,
Address external task of group
 Address needs of each member

• Maintain a satisfying group climate
• Failure can lead to a breakdown in Group’s performance
PROCESS LEADERSHIP

Four major process leadership behaviors that
enhance the groups climate:
Releasing Tension
 Gatekeeping
 Encouraging
 Mediating

RELEASING TENSION
Suggest a Coffee Break
 Get a Good Laugh


Both can renew a groups energy and improve
member satisfaction
GATEKEEPING
Coordinated group discussions
 Ensures more input along the task dimension
 Higher member satisfaction

ENCOURAGING

Increases
Cohesiveness
 Member satisfaction
 Productivity

MEDIATING

Aimed at:
Resolving conflicts
 Releasing tension
 Renewing a groups energy

IMPORTANT

Both task and process leadership are essential to
the success of a small group.
SITUATIONAL PERSPECTIVE: ADAPTING
STYLE TO CONTEXT

A perspective that views leadership as the
interaction among the group’s task needs, process
needs and goals, leadership style, and situational
variables that influence groups
LEADERSHIP STYLE (P 290)



Relatively consistent pattern of behavior
reflecting a leader’s belief’s and attitudes
No two people can act as a leader at as a leader
in the precisely the same way.
Three Styles: Authoritarian, Democratic, and
Laissez-Faire
AUTHORITARIAN (P.291)
They assume positions of intellectual and
behavioral superiority in groups
 This leader usually dictates task, decisions and
work companion for each member
 Usually groups with highly structured goals and
high stress moves towards this style.

DEMOCRATIC (P.291)
They tend to try to encourage and direct
members of the group in making decisions
 Leader discusses steps for activities and goals
and leaves division of tasks to the group
 Let’s group member work freely with anyone
 Leader tends to voice praise or criticism

LAISSEZ-FAIRE
Avoids dominating group and assumes group will
direct itself
 Allows the group complete freedom in decisions
 Supplies various materials and information when
asked but doesn’t lead discussion on how to
accomplish group’s task

HERSEY AND BLANCHARD’S SITUATIONAL
MODEL (P.292)
This model uses various combinations of task and
relationship leadership behavior to describe
leadership style as it relates to different
situations
 The style of leaders in this model: telling, selling
participating, and delegating
 These four leadership styles usually start off at a
low maturity and moves to high maturity.

HERSEY AND
BLANCHARD’S
SITUATIONAL
MODEL
Telling Selling Participating Delegating
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
(PG 296)


Changes the organization by realigning its
culture with a new vision and restructuring its
shared assumptions and norms.
Have a sense of vision and purpose.
FOUR DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS
Idealized leadership
 Inspirational motivation
 Intellectual stimulation
 Individual consideration

3 CRITICAL SKILLS OF
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Building shared vision
 Surfacing and challenging mental models
 Engaging in systems thinking

BUILDING SHARED VISION

Encouraging individuals to express their visions
of group or organizational goals while
encouraging the development of a common,
positive view.
SURFACING AND CHALLENGING
MENTAL MODELS
Identifying and challenging assumptions without
creating defensiveness.
ENGAGING IN SYSTEMS THINKING

Understanding groups and organizations and the
great complexity that characterizes them
requires that leaders look beyond day-to-day
operations to find underlying themes, forces of
change, and interrelationships.
THE MINNESOTA STUDIES (PG 297)

Leaders emerge through a “method of residues,”
whereby group members are rejected for the role
of leader, until only one remains.
PHASE I
Quiet ones who do not actively participate in
discussions
 Talkative but overaggressive or dogmatic group
members

PHASE II
Style is perceived as disturbing.
 Ones who have an authoritarian style (too bossy
or dictatorial)
 Ones who are unable to contribute
 Ones who are too process-oriented

LEADERSHIP AND GENDER (PG 300)


1960s and 1970s – Women were reluctant to
assume leadership roles.
1980s – most effective leader is a leader who
could draw from a repertoire of both traditionally
male and traditionally female behaviors.
TASK-RELEVANT COMMUNICATION

Sole significant predictor of emergent leadership.

-Katherine Hawkins
LEADERSHIP AND SELF DECEPTION
Leaders in organizations tend to ignore upward
communication from non-managerial staff
members, especially when that communication is
critical of management.
 The First step leaders can take to better
themselves and their situation is to develop
awareness of their own tendencies toward self
deception.


To do this, higher status members of a group or
organization can not always think they are going to
have the best ideas and take everyone’s thoughts in
to consideration.
LEADERSHIP TRAINING…
“Research consistently indicates that the
productivity of a group improves if its members
are trained”
 Training involves instruction to help and
encourage the development of skills, rather than
the way you think.


Training emphasizes what you can DO not
necessarily just the way you THINK.
LEADERSHIP TRAINING…

One proven method of training is providing
feedback to the members of a group regarding
their individual performance.

Studies show that when members know they are
being evaluated, they tend to work harder.


People need a more objective eye than their own to see what
they are doing and how the can do it better.
Another productive way of training is the use of
simulations.
LEADERSHIP TRAINING…

“A simulation is a structured exercise that
creates conditions that participants might
confront outside the training environment”.
It allows users to experiment without any
unnecessary risks.
 Many leadership or management training programs
recreated conditions of the work environment.

LEADERSHIP EXAMPLE

War games

The conditions of war are re-created so the trainees
can experiment them in a way that is not life
threatening.
MILITARY WAR GAMES
SUMMARY

Good training should provide you with a broad
array of behaviors and give you the
understanding and ability to know when, how,
why, and where to use these behaviors.