Leadership Unplugged: Why do we
need leadership when we have
innovative toys! Part 1
Professor Don Olcott, Jr., FRSA
Co-Director, Co-Director uImagine Digital
Learning Lab
Leadership Defined
Management is a set of processes that can keep a
complicated system of people and technology running
smoothly. The most important aspects of management
include planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing,
controlling, and problem solving. Leadership is a set of
processes that creates organizations in the first place or
adapts them to significantly changing circumstances.
Leadership defines what the future should look like,
aligns people with the vision, and inspires them to make
it happen despite the obstacles. (Kotter, 2012, p. 28).
Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.
Leadership Defined
I define leadership as leaders inducing followers to act
for certain goals that represent the values and the
motivations – the wants and needs, the aspirations and
expectations – of both leaders and followers. (Hickman,
2010, p. 68)
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership (Excerpts). In G. R. Hickman (Ed.), Leading
organizations: Perspectives for a new era (2nd Ed.)(pp. 66-75). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Leadership Defined
Leadership “is the ability to step outside the culture . . .
to start evolutionary change processes that are more
adaptive” (Schein, 1992, p. 2).
Schein, E. H. (1992). Organizational culture and leadership
(2nd Ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
“Leadership is the process of influencing others to
understand and agree about what needs to be
done and how to do it, and the process of
facilitating individual and collective efforts to
accomplish shared objectives” (Yukl, 2013, p. 7).
Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organization (8th Ed.). New York: Pearson.
Who was the best leader you ever
followed?
WHY?
What made this person a unique
leader?
Characteristics of Visionary
Leaders
Transformational Leaders
Yukl, 2013

Compelling vision for the future state of affairs.

Charisma and competencies to lead change.

Strong communication skills and personal values.

People are the organisation’s most valuable asset.

Participatory decision making and management – inclusive.

Surrounds him/her self with talented people.

Consummate role model and leads by example.

Calm under fire.

Sets the bar for ethical and moral leadership.
Leadership and Technology

Leadership empowers technology to help meet the strategic,
instructional, service, and research missions of the university.

Technology, it and of itself, is simply a tool. It is not a panacea for
resolving all the challenges of the modern organisation.

The days of the all-knowing, all powerful single leader are gone –
the world is simply to complex in 2015.

The thriving, adaptive 21st century organisation is about distributed
leadership – recognising there is leadership talent across the
university and tapping this collective leadership.

Leadership talent exists at the unit level – it is not the exclusive
domain of senior positions in the organisation.
Lessons from Practice

Misguided leadership decisions are considerably more detrimental
for the organisation than errors in technology choices.

Whether a single or dual mode distance learning university,
technology does not differentiate your organisation in a competitive
market.

Visionary leadership differentiates the organisation from competitors
by articulating a composite set of ‘value-added’ benefits – quality,
service, diversity, regional, innovative, affordable, and employment
for graduating students.

Technology is an enabler for leadership because of creative people.
References
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership (Excerpts). In G. R. Hickman (Ed.), Leading
organizations: Perspectives for a new era (2nd Ed.)(pp. 66-75). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Hickman, G. R. (2015). Leading Organizations: Perspectives for a New Era (3rd Ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.
Schein, E. H. (1992). Organizational culture and leadership (2nd Ed.). San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organization (8th Ed.). New York: Pearson.
Thank You!
dolcott@csu.edu.au
http://uimagine.edu.au