An Effective Leader - Essay Example

The Effective Leader This essay will answer the question, “What is an effective leader?” by discussing various leadership theories culled from research. Leadership is one phenomenon that many people have tried to demystify over the years. Many have attempted to define it in accordance to the context it is used. After presenting leadership theories, I will attempt to answer the question posted by summarizing important points discussed, as my own definition. To begin, one general definition of leadership is by Clark (2008) is quoted below as follows; Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills (Clark, 2008, para.3). It has been posited that the effective leader knows how to traverse his own direction in terms of achieving his goals for both himself and the organization he leads. He engages in collaborative efforts with others to come up with strategies in reaching shared goals. He does not direct the limelight to himself and dominate on the power of authority. Instead, he shares power with his members and works hard to help them be more confident in their own abilities and skills. He motivates people to embrace new challenges and opportunities. He easily gains respect due to the positive influence he brings to the organization as everyone follows him in the pursuit of the achievement of goals and the implementation of the common mission everyone has for the welfare of the organization. (Leithwood & Riehl, 2003). From the readings in this course, a leader’s effectiveness will be based on his own and his team’s performance. An effective leader’s team efficiently performs tasks with the strong focus on achievement of goals. The goals may be measurable as in profits, sales increases, return of investment, increase in customers, etc. It may also be subject to personal evaluation as in the subjective ratings of effectiveness that superiors, peers or subordinates endow on leaders. An example is how the members of a leader regard him. If they harbour positive feelings and attitudes towards him, then he is endowed with the power to influence them positively. On the other hand, if members display absenteeism, voluntary turnover, grievances and other negative behaviours, then the leader is not a very effective one. Lastly, the contributions of the leader are measured in terms of quality of group processes. He is able to elicit group cohesiveness, collaboration and cooperation. He is also good at motivating members to engage in solving problems, coming up with good decisions and in resolving conflicts (Course notes). The abundant research done on leadership reflects its importance to people and organizations seeking the favourable traits of a leader as well as effective approaches in leadership. Yukl (2006) categorized the studies in various leadership approaches. One category is the Behavior Approach. This approach studies patterns of behaviors typical of certain leaders when he leads his followers. Power-Influence approach is yet another leadership approach. This is a more leader-centered approach that assumes that apart from using power to manage subordinates, it can also be used to influence people within and outside the organization. Still another leadership approach is the Situational Approach. This views leadership as influenced by many other elements such as members’ characteristics, the kind of work in the organization, the type of organization (whether it is a profit, non-profit, government, non-government, etc.) and the effect of the external environment. Finally, Yukl (2006) identifies the last leadership approach to be an Integrative Approach. From the title itself, it implies that it integrates more than one type of leadership together. A convenient way to analyze leadership style was designed by Blake and Mouton (1985). They interpreted four types of leadership using a grid based on leaders’ positions on two axes: the “concern for people” axis and the “concern for task” axis (Blake & Mouton, 1985). One type of leadership studied is the authoritarian leadership. Leaders belonging to this type are known to score “high on task” but “low on relationship” with people. The authoritarian leader is concerned about accomplishing tasks without regard for the effect on his subordinates. He is prone to assign blame to others when things go wrong and is blind to his own faults that may have contributed to the failure. Instead of the proactive move of focusing on what went wrong and investigating its cause and prevention in the future, this type of leader refuses to accept excuses or disagreements to his ideas. His subordinates find it difficult work with him because they cannot express their sentiments and are dissuaded from contributing their own ideas Blake & Mouton’s Team Leader scores “high on task” and “high on relationships”. This type of leadership is considered ideal. His positive example encourages his team to work in a conducive environment wherein the members feel free to contribute to the success of the organization. They are empowered to maximize their potentials both as a team and as individuals. Members are highly motivated and productive. The Country Club Leader is another kind of leader who scores “low on task” and “high on relationships”. Rewards are used as manipulative tools to maintain the necessary discipline within the team and in motivating members to work towards their goals. His nature is to please others so it becomes difficult for him to be punitive even if it is called for. An example is punishing members who prove to be ineffective in their jobs. He refuses to implement punitive measures because he is afraid of jeopardizing relationships. The last type of leader is the Impoverished Leader who scores “low on task” and “low on relationships” making him the worst kind of leader (Blake & Mouton, 1985). He is very inefficient because he relies on delegation of tasks to certain members and then go on his own way without following up on the results. This type of leadership may be compared to the Laissez-faire leader, in the sense that he is very lenient in allowing the team to just do whatever they want. He is not committed to his own leadership so he has little regard to task accomplishment or the sustenance of harmony amongst his members. (Blake & Mouton, 1985). More recent theories on leadership take from the established theories from the past and enhanced it to fit the present context. Many leadership models have been formulated, and are still being fine-tuned. One model is the Five Leadership Practices by Kouzes and Posner (2007). This model contends that there are traits that people seek in a leader that make them follow willingly. When leaders follow the proposed five basic practices, success comes to them. The five practices of successful leaders are challenging, inspiring, enabling, modeling to and encouraging their followers. The first leadership practice recommended by Kouzes & Posner (2007) is to keep on constantly challenging the established systems and practices in the organization with the intention of improving them. Good leaders tirelessly search for opportunities that help them change, grow and improve to higher heights. They try out various strategies they believe will work and accept the consequences and treat it as a lesson learned (Kouzes and Posner, 2007). They adapt to change well and are not afraid to leave their comfort zones in the interest of finding the best option. A leader’s vision for the organization is well imbibed by followers and together, the optimistically foresee an ennobling future (Kouzes and Posner, 2007). People’s values, interests, hopes and dreams are tapped by leaders in order for them to jointly look towards the same direction (Five Practices of the Exemplary Leader, n.d.). Leaders enable people to move towards their goals by equipping them with the right tools and methods in problem-solving. Collaboration is fostered among members (Kouzes and Posner, 2007). Entrusting followers with tasks builds up their confidence that they are capable and elicit in them the confidence that they can do more for the organization. Leaders sustain their roles as good role models, even in the most dire situations. Optimism is one attitude that they possess that is strong enough to influence their followers. Success-oriented opportunities are provided to members to build up their confidence fuel them with more zest for success in bigger goals (Kouzes and Posner, 2007). Finally, Kouzes & Posner (2007) believe that leaders recognize the individual contributions of their followers and celebrate their accomplishments as a team. Such positive response pushes people to work even harder. Apart from being intellectually adept, effective leaders are likewise emotionally capable. From the 1920’s, Thorndike has already identified that true intelligence was not limited to the academic component but also comprises emotional and social components as well (Mandell & Pherwani, 2003). Salovey and Mayer (1990) explained the concept of social intelligence by clarifying what emotional intelligence is. According to these scholars, emotional intelligence is the "ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's own thinking and actions" (Salovey & Mayer, 1990, p. 189). Daniel Goleman worked extensively on emotional intelligence and his work has inspired more researchers to study it further and apply new knowledge about the topic to various situations that prove to benefit organizations (Detterman, 2005). Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee (2002) have identified various styles of leadership employed by emotionally- intelligent leaders. Such styles show great influence over members of organizations. One emotional leadership style is the Visionary leadership. This is the kind of leadership which uses draws inspiration from the vision they hold, expresses self-confidence, self-awareness and empathy towards others (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2002) as its prevailing emotional intelligence competencies. The visionary leader lives out his purpose in life and calibrates it to the values held by his members. Being empathetic to his members is one strong competency that allows this leader to sense how his members feel and to understand their point of view. Thus, he is able to share with them a vision he has that they can relate to and support. Transformational leaders or those constantly seeking and advocating for positive changes in the organization are usually considered as visionary. Their leadership is considered as effective in shepherding their people towards the successful fulfillment of their goals (Burns, 1978; Bass & Avolio, 1996; Tichy & Devanna, 1986). The special skill of understanding and expressing emotions effectively and eliciting motivation from others are qualities that mark a charismatic leader. Transformational leadership and emotional intelligence have been studied to have several similarities. Trust is one commonality between the two. This value is an important component of transformational leadership (Bass, 1990). Trust is also necessary in emotional intelligence (Cooper, 1997). An organization will not operate well without trust. Another shared characteristic of transformational leadership and emotional intelligence is motivation. Highly respected and effective leaders use motivational strategies in communicating to members their vision (Bass, 1990). Motivation brings about positive self-confidence and the enhanced ability to deal with conflict and tolerance for stress. Again, these traits describe people with high emotional intelligence (Mandell & Pherwani, 2003). Research on the relationship between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence has proven to be very useful to managers and organizations. It guides them in the hiring process to select candidates who score high in emotional intelligence, as these people are likely to become good transformational leaders in the future (Bass, 1985), The coaching leadership style may be described as characterized by deep conversations between a leader and his members, going beyond their short-term concerns. They delve deep into a member’s exploration of his own dreams, life goals and career hopes. Even if it seems that this style of leadership is geared towards the personal development of members rather than on their professional development, it is effective in bringing out highly positive emotional responses and outcomes. This is because the leader invests highly on rapport-building so he could gain the trust of his members. When trust is gained, members are more open to feedback about their work and they are accepting of the fact that their hard work not only fulfills the leader’s interests but also their own. The coaching leadership style is ideal for workers who are committed to their own professional development. It will not be effective when applied to workers lacking in motivation and requiring the leader’s constant prompts and directions. Goleman, Boyatzis & McKeee (2002) contend that the effective coach is very sensitive to the members and are adept in motivating them to pursue their goals by conveying their confidence in the potentials of his members to strive for their best. Another identified emotional leadership style is the Affiliative leader. He does not emphasize the accomplishment of goals as much as workers’ emotional needs. A happy workplace is maintained, comprising harmony and team resonance (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2002). Lastly, Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee (2002) describes another emotionally intelligent leader as the democratic leader. He encourages his members to express their views freely about issues that concern them and listens to all angles. It is very helpful to brainstorm ideas on how to implement a common vision. It becomes likely that new ideas are generated on how to execute such vision (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2002). Democratic leaders make use of the emotional competencies produced by working as a team and collaboration. It also emphasizes conflict management especially if the group is comprised of members with diverse backgrounds. Fullan (2004) also conceived of another leadership theory known as Components of Leadership. He proposed that it takes five major components to be an effective and successful leader. These are aptly identified as having moral purpose in his leadership, an understanding of change and knowing how to deal with it, adeptness in building relationships, creation and sharing of knowledge with others, and ability to see coherence in complexity. All five components spark energy, hope and enthusiasm in members, making them more committed to pursue the leader’s goals. The positive atmosphere propagated by these components become sustained and lessen, if not prevent negative outcomes. French, Simpson & Harvey (2001) came up with a controversial view of contemporary leadership which makes one think about previously inconceivable ways to view leadership. According to them, the stereotype that leaders usually possess positive qualities and capabilities may also include ‘negative capability’. Leadership has always been associated with knowledge that is manifested in the leader’s action, work and achievement. However, these authors present another dimension of leadership which is based on non-knowledge and not being in control of the situation. It ‘humanizes’ the leader and implies that a leader should be humble enough to admit his own limitations. Such a concept is refreshing because it shows that a leader can live and tolerate ambiguity no matter how uncomfortable it may seem and be content with not knowing everything at once. Hutter (1982) interprets it as the ability to engage with change in a non-defensive manner without being overwhelmed with pressure that may come with it. It also indicates that the leader is empathetic to others involved in the change and is flexible enough to adapt to change, even to tolerate a loss of self. It may also be tolerant of a loss of rationality that he knows he can recreate himself in another character or environment (Hutter, 1982). One researcher who was widely discussed in the module was Bass (1990) and how he differentiated between two basic styles of leadership influences. He compared the transactional and transformational styles of leadership. The transactional style is based on a “transaction” or an exchange as in the leader will give something in return if a member will do what he wants. In contrast, the transformational style builds the engagement and participation in the process of change. This leads them to perform better altogether. The transformational leadership is believed to have four dimensions (Den Hartog et al ,1997). First is charisma. The leader shows a clear vision and an achievable mission to his members that instill pride in them. He gains their respect and trust. Second dimension is inspiration. It shows whether the leader behaves like a good role model or if he communicates a worthy vision, and expects high standards from his members. Another dimension is the individual attention a leader offers to each member. The leader invests in establishing a closer relationship with each member as he coaches, mentors and gives feedback on the performance of their tasks. Lastly, Bass identifies the dimension of intellectual challenge. This poses challenges to members to come up with fresh ideas to improve or change systems that did not work in the past and establishing a culture of successful problem solving. In sum, to answer the question, “What is an effective leader?”, my answer based on the prevailing leadership theories is: A good leader is possesses a clear vision of how he wants the organization to be. He has the knowledge and skills called for in handling the huge responsibility of bringing the vision to fruition. His positive attitude and high emotional intelligence allows him to share his leadership with people he considers as keys to organizational success and he does not see himself as the main factor in the institution of change. A leader is caring, considerate and sensitive. He is not only concerned with the growth and development of the institution but of each of his members as well. References Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership performance beyond expectations. New York: Free Press. Bass, B. M. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, 18, 19-31. Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1996). Transformational leadership development: Manual for the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists. Blake, R. R. and Mouton, J. S. (1985). The Managerial Grid III: The Key to Leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co. Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row Clark, D. (2008) Concepts of Leadership in Hutter, A.D. (1982) Poetry in psychoanalysis: Hopkins, Rosetti, Winnicott. International Review of Psycho-Analysis 9, 303-16. Retrieved on April 15, 2011 from http://nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcon.html Den Hartog, D., et al. (1997) Transactional Versus Transformational Leadership: An Analysis of the MLQ., Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 70: 19 Course Notes, Pscyh 4112 Five Practices of the Exemplary Leader (n.d.) Retrieved on 18 April, 2011 from www.managementcentre.co.uk/knowledge_base.../exemplary_leader.pdf French, R., Simpson, P. & Harvey, C. (2001), ‘Negative capability’: the key to creative leadership. Presented at the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations 2001 Symposium. Retrieved on April 15, 2011 from www.sba.oakland.edu/ispso/html/2001Symposium/french.htm Fullan, M. (2004) Leading in a Culture of Change Personal Action Guide and Workbook. Jossey-Bass Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. & McKee, A. (2002) Primal Leadership. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA Hutter, A.D. (1982) Poetry in psychoanalysis: Hopkins, Rosetti, Winnicott. International Review of Psycho-Analysis 9, 303-16. Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2007). The leadership challenge, 4th edition. San Francisco, Ca: Jossey- Bass Liethwood, K.A. & Riehl, C. (2003 ) What We Know About Successful School Leadership. NCSL. Mandell, B. & Pherwani, S. (2003) Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Transformational Leadership Style: A Gender Comparison, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 3 Salovey, P., & Mayer, J.D. (1990) Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition & Personality. 9 (3), 185-211. Tichy, N. M., & Devanna, M. A. (1986). The transformational leader. New York: John Wi ley & Sons. Yukl, G. (2006) Leadership in Organizations. Prentice-Hall Read More