Leadership

Using theoretical concepts from the module and practical examples, describe the main characteristic/attributes of leaders and how they might differ in style.

Introduction

In this assignment, I am going to look at the characteristics of leaders. What qualities they all share, their personal attributes and the different styles they adopt. Looking at theories from, Tannenbaum & Schmidt, Douglas McGregor & Kerr & Schriesheim. Also what challenges they may face and looking at focusing your leadership.

Characteristics/attributes:

Ability to make decisions Willingness to lead

Integrity Enthusiasm

Imagination Willingness to work hard

Ability to analyse people, Ability to understand people

data & situations

Be able to deal with difficult Ability to spot opportunities situations

On top of the above, all leaders should be able to plan, initiate, control, support, inform and evaluate within they working lives.

Leadership styles:

Leadership styles cannot be fully explained by behavioural models. The situation in which the group is operating also determines the style of the leadership, which is adopted. Several models exists which attempt to understand the relationship between style & situation, four from the module are described here.

Tannenbaum & Schmidt (1958) who believe in the Autocratic and Democratic model where leaders are somewhere in between using their authority to get the job done or to allow freedom within the team.

Douglas McGregor (1960) who believes in the theory of X & Y.

His model is based on the belief that workers are generally lazy and without a push to achieve they will become disinterested

Theory Y on the other hand believes that workers are keen to do well so are interested in what they do.

Kerr & Schriesheim (1974) The Ohio State Leadership Model, which uses the ideas of leaders which:

- initiate structure

- show consideration

Just by looking at these four theories, you can see that a pattern is emerging. They seem to be either democratic where the leader believes in allowing freedom to their workers, or autocratic where the leader believes that a tight rein on what goes on with their workers is best. But what about leadership attitudes? These appear to be broken into two sections, either Task oriented or People oriented. Once again these are following the same two routes of either democratic or autocratic. Broken down, they are:

Leadership attitudes:

Task oriented leaders, who are most interested in training, instructing behaviour, performance and winning.

Where as

People oriented leaders are more interested in the interpersonal relationships within the team. (Adair 1984).

Based on these two styles, Blake & Mouton developed the Management grid, which classifies leadership styles into:

Country club

Team

Middle of the Road

Impoverished

Authority/Obedience

Country Club

This person uses reward power to maintain discipline and to encourage the team to accomplish its goals.

Team

This type of person leads by positive example and endeavours to foster a team environment in which all team members can reach their highest potential, both with team members and as people. They encourage the team to reach team goals as effectively as possible while working tirelessly to strengthen bonds among various members.

Middle of the Road

This type of person is able to balance the importance of getting the job done in the correct manner while taking into consideration the needs of the team.

Impoverished

This leader uses "delegate or disappear" management style. They are not really committed to either the task accomplishment or maintenance. They allow their team to do whatever they wish & prefer to detach themselves from the team process.

Authoritarian

These leaders are very much task oriented & are hard on their workers. There is little of no allowance for co-operation or collaboration. They are very strong on deadlines and expect their workers to do whatever they are told without question. When something goes wrong, they tend to focus on who is to blame rather than concentrate on what went wrong and how they can prevent it from happening again. This in turn makes it very difficult for the workers to contribute or develop. (Anon 2005)

All these styles have a place in leadership but it is only by studying the situation and the forces affecting it, that you will know which style to choose.

Situational Leadership

Situational leadership operates by using one of four approaches, which was developed by Paul Hersey & Kenneth Blanchard (1988).

1. High task & low relationships is where the leader needs to define the roles & direct the team or individual to get the task done. Communication is largely one-way.

2. High relationship & low task is where the leader needs to support the team after a group decision has