Leadership
Definitions
1. The act of leading a group of people or an organization
2. A process of social influence in which one can enlist the aid and
support of others in the accomplishment of a common task
3. The art of leading others to deliberately create a result that wouldn’t
have happened otherwise 4
Different types of leaderships:
1. Authoritarian: An authoritarian leader is one who keeps strict, close
control over his followers. He possesses total authority over his
followers and no one is allowed to challenge his authority. Countries
that operate under authoritarian leadership include Cuba and North
Korea.
2. Democratic: A democratic leader gets his followers to participate in
decision making and values the opinions of his followers. This can
get the followers to feel more involved and their morale can be
boosted, which often leads to higher productivity. In a democratic
leadership system, the leader acts as a person who gets to make the
final
decision.
3. Laissez-faire: Laissez-faire(French phrase for “leave it be”)
leadership is described as a hands-off leadership style where the
leaders give their followers the right to make their own decisions
regarding the completion of their work. The leader’s role is to assign
tasks to his followers for them to complete, and the leader will not
directly participate in the decision making unless his followers
request
it.
4. Transactional: A transactional leadership system is a meritocratic
system, where workers receive certain tasks to perform and are
rewarded or punished based on their performance. This allows the
leader to promote the compliance of his followers and leaders who
use this form of leadership pay attention to followers’ work in order to
find faults and correct them. It focuses on supervision and group
performance as this form of leadership makes the assumption that
followers need to be carefully monitored to ensure that expectations
are
met.
5. Transformational: A transformational leader enhances the morale
and efficiency of the followers through a variety of mechanisms, such
as being an inspiring role model, This often leads to positive changes
for the followers which improves their performance results.
6. Educational: The vision, skills, and capabilities that principals need
to possess to build and maintain their schools. These same qualities
are also used to attract talented teachers, and create educational
programmes that can provide children with a conducive academic
environment.
7. Entrepreneurial: An entrepreneurial leader is one who organises a
group of people in order to achieve a common goal, using proactive
entrepreneurial behavior by optimising risk, innovating to take
advantage of opportunities, taking personal responsibility and
managing change within a dynamic environment for the benefit of the
organisation.
8. Servant Leadership: A servant leader is one who always puts the
need of others before him and aims to help others whenever possible.
It is often associated with the democratic style as his priority is to
encourage subordinates to unfold their full potential. By being a
“servant” to one’s subordinates, a leader can gain the support of his
subordinates easily which can improve efficiency and productivity.
List of quotes
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower” Steve Jobs
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other” John F.
Kennedy
“The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on
leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an
organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and
continually develops them.” John Maxwell
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”
John Maxwell
“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to
change. The leader adjusts the sails.” John Maxwell
“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”
Kenneth Blanchard
“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who
empower others.” Bill Gates
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no
path and leave a trail.” Harold R. McAlindon
“Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want
done because he wants to do it.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the
formula for failure: Try to please everybody.” Herbert B. Swope
“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes
people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”
Rosalynn Carter
“A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward” Ovid
“A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the
crowd” Max Lucado
“Education is the mother to leadership” Wendell Willkie
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and
become more, you are a leader” John Quincy Adams
“Leaders aren’t born, they are made” Vince Lombardi
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing”
Albert Schweitzer
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is
done, his aim fulfilled, they will say:we did it ourselves” Lao Tzu
Examples of Leaders (Asia)
1. Lee Kuan Yew
a.
Transformational and Charismatic Style
Lee Kuan Yew demonstrated both transformational and charismatic
leadership styles, explaining why he is such a great all-rounded
leader. He is able to inspire and motivate people, at the same time
able to bring about huge changes. He has managed to transform
Singapore drastically by appealing to his followers’ values and sense
of higher purpose to execute his vision for a new and improved
Singapore, also being able to align his vision with his followers
b.
Servant Leadership
Lee Kuan Yew has always been concerned with developing his
people’s welfare and socioeconomic status, health and education
standards. He did not ignore the needs of the country and solved
many of Singapore’s problems, which was one of the factors that
kept him in power for such a long time. For example, there was a
shortage of housing so he organised housing to be built on
government owned land. He always ensured that his people’s
interests were placed first and his three main concerns were national
security, the economy, and social issues.
c.
Democratic Leadership
Lee Kuan Yew consistently consulted his cabinet and party members
as well as other experts and the people of Singapore when it came to
decision making. This can be shown by how during Lee Kuan Yew’s
political reign he started the “Meet-The-People” campaign where the
political leaders would meet the ordinary Singaporeans and ask them
about what they think could be improved.
Examples of accomplishments: He increased Singapore’s GDP per
capita increased from $516.26 in 1965 to $11,645.41 in 1990 before
he stepped down.
2. Aung San Suu Kyi
a.
Background
Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese opposition politician and chairman of
the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma. She was under
house arrest for 21 years from 1989 to 2010, but is now running for
the next presidential elections in 2015 while pushing for constitutional
reforms and fighting for the freedom of her country
b.
Fighting for democracy
Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988, after years living and
studying abroad, only to find widespread slaughter of protesters
rallying against the brutal rule of dictator U Ne Win. She spoke out
against him and initiated a nonviolent movement toward achieving
democracy and human rights. In 1989, the government placed Suu
Kyi under house arrest, and she spent 15 of the next 21 years in
custody. In 1991, her ongoing efforts won her the Nobel Prize for
Peace,
3. Sim Wong Hoo
a.
Background
Mr Sim Wong Hoo is the founder, CEO and chairman of Creative
Technology, a designer and manufacturer of products for personal
computers and personal digital entertainment devices. Creative is
notable for products such as the SoundBlaster audio card and the
Creative ZEN range of audio and media products.
b.
Transformational Leadership
Sim Wong Hoo had a vision of selling 100 million units of something
back when Creative was only a tiny little company. He knew that
people would make fun of him for his ridiculous vision, but that did
not stop him from being creative. He shared his vision with his team
of about 10, including himself, working day and night to develop a
new motherboard, the BIOS, a sound card, a new graphics board
and a Chinese OS. Everyone strived to achieve this goal and
together they build the vision for Creative. However, things did not
turn out as planned, but he still strived to achieve his vision. His
dream eventually came true when Creative had sold over 100 million
units of Sound Blasters.
Examples of accomplishments:
His foresight has led him to become the youngest billionaire in
Singapore at the age of 45
Examples of Leaders (Global)
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. is vividly remembered as an inspirational leader. His
famous speeches such as his “I have a dream” speech at the civil rights
march in Washington of August 1963 inspired people of all races, and
created an unprecedented coalition for anti-racist legislation. He
spearheaded the nonviolent civil rights movement in america and used his
charisma to gain the support of many other African-Americans as well as
american whites.
Example of his accomplishments as a leader: He brought bus segregation
in 1920s to an end by organizing a mass boycott where a large number of
African-Americans refused to board buses which practiced racial
segregation.
Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi is widely recognized as one of the 20th’s Century’s greatest
political and spiritual leaders. Honored in India as the father of the nation,
he pioneered and practiced the principle of Satyagraha-resistance to
tyranny through mass nonviolent civil disobedience. Through this, Gandhi
led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and
freedom across the world.
Examples of accomplishments: Freed India from the British through nonviolent protests
Winston Churchill
Churchill was a charismatic and transformational political leader. His
leadership skills were called upon during the time of crisis in World War II.
His inspiring speeches encouraged the British to be courageous and
hopeful in a time of despair, one of his famous quotes being
“Never,never,never give up”.
Examples of accomplishments as leader: Prime Minister of UK during
World War II, maintained a strong stand against Hitler and would not
cooperate with him
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs, ex-CEO of Apple Inc, is widely recognized as a charismatic
pioneer of the personal computer revolution and his influential career.
Besides being charismatic, he also had vision of what he wants to do and
was detail-oriented, ensuring that his goals were accomplished. All of this
made him one of the greatest entrepreneurial leaders in history.
Examples of accomplishments: He increased the value of 100 Apple
shares, from $1369 in 1997 to 150,590 in 2011. Apple cash reserves also
increased from 1.2 billion in 1997 to 75.9billion in 2011.
Arguments For and Against
Authoritarian leadership
Arguments for:
1. If a decision needs to be made quickly, an authoritarian leadership
style is the most efficient as it tells the subordinates exactly what they
are supposed to do
2. For subordinates who are less capable, a good leader who utilizes an
authoritarian style can take charge of the group and assign tasks to
different subordinates
3. It allows group members to focus on performing specific tasks
without having to worry about making complex decisions, which
allows group members to become highly skilled at performing certain
duties.
Arguments against:
1. Subordinates may view the leader as bossy and controlling, causing
them to have a poor relationship with their leader. This creates an
unhappy work environment which could potentially lead to poor
quality of work.
2. Creativity is severely limited as since one person gets to make all the
decisions, people in the group do not get to contribute their ideas
Democratic leadership
Arguments For:
1. It leads to a creative work environment as all members are
encouraged to share ideas and opinions
2. Group members feel more involved and committed, making them
more likely to care about the end result.
3. There is stronger team bonding within the group as they can share
their ideas with one another and discuss about it, in addition to the
leader being more popular with his subordinates. A positive work
environment like this can increase the productivity of the group.
Arguments against:
1. It is time-consuming as leaders have to take into account
everybody’s opinion before making a decision.
2. Group members may lack the necessary knowledge of expertise to
make quality contributions to the decision-making process.
3. Even though it encourages communication between group member,
communication errors may occur which leads to further complications
4. People may see their leader as easy-going and lose their respect for
their leader, causing the leader to be unable to establish a
professional relationship with his followers
Laissez-faire leadership
Arguments For:
1. It is effective if group members are highly skilled, motivated and
capable of working on their own.
2. It gives group members freedom to do whatever they see fit without
having a leader to tell them what to do, which could lead to increased
productivity
Arguments against:
1. It is ineffective if group members are incapable of doing things
without the guidance of a leader, and if left to their own devices they
will fail to produce satisfactory work.
2. Group members can lose their motivation to do work without having a
leader.
Transactional leadership
Arguments For
1. Followers that are motivated by a system of rewards and
punishments will work well under a transactional leader
2. It clarifies everyone’s roles and responsibilities
3. It is effective in areas where it is clear what the goals and objectives
are and there is little room for creativity or innovations
Arguments against
1. It limits creativity and is almost only effective for simple tasks where
no creativity is needed
2. It is a very basic form of motivation which would not be effective for
workers who wish to engage in a professional environment at a
higher level as they are motivated by other things.
3. It does not improve job satisfaction
Transformational leadership
Arguments For
1. Transformational leaders inspire their followers by being a role model
and expecting the best out of everyone and themselves, leading to
higher productivity and engagement
2. It can lead to improvements in the followers as a result of the
influence by the leader
Arguments Against
1. It depends entirely on the leader
2. It lacks necessary details required to get things done as the leaders
imply provide a vision or an objective everyone should be headed
towards
3. It assumes that everyone wants to work together as a group towards
a goal with little or no merit. Some workers would not want to work for
something with no immediate reward
Controversies
.
Does a good leader have to be a moral one/bring benefits to his
followers?
One of the biggest controversies of all time regarding leadership is whether
or not people like Adolf Hitler can be considered a good leader. They
managed to influence the people into believing in their goals and following
them willingly, but they manipulate the people to do things that are immoral
and unjust. This depends on one’s definition of leadership. If leadership
refers to the ability to influence others to support a common cause, Hitler
would be one of the best leaders as no other person in history has
influenced as many people willingly into supporting one common cause.
However, others make the argument that Hitler was a horrible leader as he
did not lead his citizens to a good cause. In the end, he led Germany to its
downfall so he cannot be considered a good leader as he did not bring
about good for his followers. There is also the argument that he rose to
power not because of his charisma, but because of his manipulative
abilities through deceiving the people and eliminating any political enemies.
Does a good leader really need the popularity of the people?
Another controversy is whether a leader can be considered good as long
as he can get things done. This mostly applies to authoritative leaders who
are usually not well-liked by his followers or subordinates but he can still
get things completed. Some leaders get work done by using force of using
a disincentive in the form of harsh punishments to force their subordinates
into getting things done. This has proven to be an effective form of
leadership, despite being unpopular. Thus, the controversial question
would be whether a good leader have to get his followers to willingly et a
task completed.