I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony

orchestra. But I don't think that's quite it; it's more like jazz. There is more improvisation.
- Warren Bennis

Concepts of Leadership
The meaning of a message is the change which it Human
produces in the image. - Kenneth Boulding in The Relations
Image: Knowledge in Life and Society
 The six
Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and most
willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good importa
leaders develop through a never ending process of self- nt
study, education, training, and experience. This guide will words:
help you through that process. "I admit
I made a
To inspire your workers into higher levels of teamwork, mistake.
there are certain things you must be, know, and, do. These "
do not come naturally, but are acquired through continual
work and study. Good leaders are continually working and - Author
studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT unknow
resting on their laurels. n

Before we get started, lets define leadership. Leadership is  The five

a process by which a person influences others to most
accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a importa
way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders nt
carry out this process by applying their leadership words:
attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, "You
knowledge, and skills. Although your position as a did a
manager, supervisor, lead, etc. gives you the authority to good
accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organization, job."
this power does not make you a leader, it simply makes you  The four
the boss. Leadership differs in that it makes the followers most
want to achieve high goals, rather than simply bossing importa
people around. nt
words:
 "What
is your
opinion.
"
 The
three
most
importa
nt
words:
"If you
Bass' (1989 & 1990) theory of leadership states that there please."
are three basic ways to explain how people become leaders.  The two
The first two explain the leadership development for a most
small number of people. These theories are: importa
nt
 Some personality traits may lead people naturally words:
into leadership roles. This is the Trait Theory. "Thank
 A crisis or important event may cause a person to you,"
rise to the occasion, which brings out extraordinary  The one
leadership qualities in an ordinary person. This is most
the Great Events Theory. importa
 People can choose to become leaders. People can nt word:
learn leadership skills. This is the Transformational "We"
Leadership Theory. It is the most widely accepted  The
theory today and the premise on which this guide is least
based. importa
nt word:
When a person is deciding if she respects you as a leader, "I"
she does not think about your attributes, rather, she
observes what you do so that she can know who you really
are. She uses this observation to tell if you are an
honorable and trusted leader or a self-serving person who
misuses authority to look good and get promoted. Self-
serving leaders are not as effective because their employees
only obey them, not follow them. They succeed in many
areas because they present a good image to their seniors at
the expense of their workers.

The basis of good leadership is honorable character and

selfless service to your organization. In your employees'
eyes, your leadership is everything you do that effects the
organization's objectives and their well-being. Respected
leaders concentrate on what they are [be] (such as beliefs
and character), what they know (such as job, tasks, and
human nature), and what they do (such as implementing,
motivating, and providing direction).

What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want

to be guided by those they respect and who have a clear
sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A
sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision
of the future.

The Two Most Important Keys to

Effective Leadership
According to a study by the Hay Group, a global
management consultancy, there are 75 key components of
employee satisfaction (Lamb, McKee, 2004). They found
that:

 Trust and confidence in top leadership was the

single most reliable predictor of employee
satisfaction in an organization.
 Effective communication by leadership in three
critical areas was the key to winning organizational
trust and confidence:
1. Helping employees understand the
company's overall business strategy.
2. Helping employees understand how they
contribute to achieving key business
objectives.
3. Sharing information with employees on both
how the company is doing and how an
employee's own division is doing - relative
to strategic business objectives.

So in a nutshell -- you must be trustworthy and you have

to be able to communicate a vision of where the
organization needs to go. The next section, "Principles of
Leadership", ties in closely with this key concept.

Principles of Leadership
To help you be, know, and do; (U.S. Army, 1983) follow
these eleven principles of leadership (later chapters in this
guide expand on these and provide tools for implementing
them):

1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement - In

order to know yourself, you have to understand
your be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-
improvement means continually strengthening your
attributes. This can be accomplished through self-
study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting
with others.
2. Be technically proficient - As a leader, you must
know your job and have a solid familiarity with
your employees' tasks.
3. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for
your actions - Search for ways to guide your
organization to new heights. And when things go
wrong, they always do sooner or later -- do not
blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective
action, and move on to the next challenge.
4. Make sound and timely decisions - Use good
problem solving, decision making, and planning
tools.
5. Set the example - Be a good role model for your
employees. They must not only hear what they are
expected to do, but also see. We must become the
change we want to see - Mahatma Gandhi
6. Know your people and look out for their well-
being - Know human nature and the importance of
sincerely caring for your workers.
7. Keep your workers informed - Know how to
communicate with not only them, but also seniors
and other key people.
8. Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers
- Help to develop good character traits that will help
them carry out their professional responsibilities.
9. Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised,
and accomplished - Communication is the key to
this responsibility.
10. Train as a team - Although many so called leaders
call their organization, department, section, etc. a
team; they are not really teams...they are just a
group of people doing their jobs.
 11. Use the full capabilities of your organization - By
developing a team spirit, you will be able to employ
your organization, department, section, etc. to its
fullest capabilities.

Factors of leadership
There are four major factors in leadership:

Follower
Different people require different styles of leadership. For
example, a new hire requires more supervision than an
experienced employee. A person who lacks motivation
requires a different approach than one with a high degree of
motivation. You must know your people! The fundamental
starting point is having a good understanding of human
nature, such as needs, emotions, and motivation. You must
come to know your employees' be, know, and do attributes.

Leader
You must have an honest understanding of who you are,
what you know, and what you can do. Also, note that it is
the followers, not the leader who determines if a leader is
successful. If they do not trust or lack confidence in their
leader, then they will be uninspired. To be successful you
have to convince your followers, not yourself or your
superiors, that you are worthy of being followed.
Communication
You lead through two-way communication. Much of it is
nonverbal. For instance, when you "set the example," that
communicates to your people that you would not ask them
to perform anything that you would not be willing to do.
What and how you communicate either builds or harms the
relationship between you and your employees.

Situation
All are different. What you do in one situation will not
always work in another. You must use your judgment to
decide the best course of action and the leadership style
needed for each situation. For example, you may need to
confront an employee for inappropriate behavior, but if the
confrontation is too late or too early, too harsh or too weak,
then the results may prove ineffective.

Various forces will affect these factors. Examples of forces

are your relationship with your seniors, the skill of your
people, the informal leaders within your organization, and
how your company is organized.

Attributes
If you are a leader who can be trusted, then those around
you will grow to respect you. To be such a leader, there is a
Leadership Framework to guide you:

BE KNOW DO
BE a professional. Examples: Be loyal to the organization,
perform selfless service, take personal responsibility.

BE a professional who possess good character traits.

Examples: Honesty, competence, candor, commitment,
integrity, courage, straightforwardness, imagination.

KNOW the four factors of leadership - follower, leader,

communication, situation.

KNOW yourself. Examples: strengths and weakness of

your character, knowledge, and skills.

KNOW human nature. Examples: Human needs, emotions,

and how people respond to stress.

KNOW your job. Examples: be proficient and be able to

train others in their tasks.

KNOW your organization. Examples: where to go for help,

its climate and culture, who the unofficial leaders are.

DO provide direction. Examples: goal setting, problem

solving, decision making, planning.

DO implement. Examples: communicating, coordinating,

supervising, evaluating.

DO motivate. Examples: develop morale and esprit de

corps in the organization, train, coach, counsel.

Environment
Every organization has a particular work environment,
which dictates to a considerable degree how its leaders
respond to problems and opportunities. This is brought
about by its heritage of past leaders and its present leaders.

Goals, Values, and Concepts

Leaders exert influence on the environment via three types

of actions:

1. The goals and performance standards they establish.

2. The values they establish for the organization.
3. The business and people concepts they establish.

Successful organizations have leaders who set high

standards and goals across the entire spectrum, such as
strategies, market leadership, plans, meetings and
presentations, productivity, quality, and reliability.

Values reflect the concern the organization has for its

employees, customers, investors, vendors, and surrounding
community. These values define the manner in how
business will be conducted.

Concepts define what products or services the organization

will offer and the methods and processes for conducting
business.

These goals, values, and concepts make up the

organization's "personality" or how the organization is
observed by both outsiders and insiders. This personality
defines the roles, relationships, rewards, and rites that take
place.

Roles ad Relationships

Roles are the positions that are defined by a set of

expectations about behavior of any job incumbent. Each
role has a set of tasks and responsibilities that may or may
not be spelled out. Roles have a powerful effect on
behavior for several reasons, to include money being paid
for the performance of the role, there is prestige attached to
a role, and a sense of accomplishment or challenge.

Relationships are determined by a role's tasks. While some

tasks are performed alone, most are carried out in
relationship with others. The tasks will determine who the
role-holder is required to interact with, how often, and
towards what end. Also, normally the greater the
interaction, the greater the liking. This in turn leads to more
frequent interaction. In human behavior, its hard to like
someone whom we have no contact with, and we tend to
seek out those we like. People tend to do what they are
rewarded for, and friendship is a powerful reward. Many
tasks and behaviors that are associated with a role are
brought about by these relationships. That is, new task and
behaviors are expected of the present role-holder because a
strong relationship was developed in the past, either by that
role-holder or a prior role-holder.

Culture and Climate

There are two distinct forces that dictate how to act within
an organization: culture and climate.

Each organization has its own distinctive culture. It is a

combination of the founders, past leadership, current
leadership, crises, events, history, and size. This results in
rites: the routines, rituals, and the "way we do things."
These rites impact individual behavior on what it takes to
be in good standing (the norm) and directs the appropriate
behavior for each circumstance.

The climate is the feel of the organization, the individual

and shared perceptions and attitudes of the organization's
members. While the culture is the deeply rooted nature of
the organization that is a result of long-held formal and
informal systems, rules, traditions, and customs; climate is
a short-term phenomenon created by the current leadership.
Climate represents the beliefs about the "feel of the
organization" by its members. This individual perception of
the "feel of the organization" comes from what the people
believe about the activities that occur in the organization.
These activities influence both individual and team
motivation and satisfaction, such as:

 How well does the leader clarify the priorities and

goals of the organization? What is expected of us?
 What is the system of recognition, rewards, and
punishments in the organization?
 How competent are the leaders?
 Are leaders free to make decisions?
 What will happen if I make a mistake?

Organizational climate is directly related to the leadership

and management style of the leader, based on the values,
attributes, skills, and actions, as well as the priorities of the
leader. Compare this to "ethical climate" -- the "feel of the
organization" about the activities that have ethical content
or those aspects of the work environment that constitute
ethical behavior. The ethical climate is the feel about
whether we do things right; or the feel of whether we
behave the way we ought to behave. The behavior
(character) of the leader is the most important factor that
impacts the climate.

On the other hand, culture is a long-term, complex

phenomenon. Culture represents the shared expectations
and self-image of the organization. The mature values that
create "tradition" or the "way we do things here." Things
are done differently in every organization. The collective
vision and common folklore that define the institution are a
reflection of culture. Individual leaders, cannot easily
create or change culture because culture is a part of the
organization. Culture influences the characteristics of the
climate by its effect on the actions and thought processes of
the leader. But, everything you do as a leader will affect the
climate of the organization.

For an activity, see Culture and Climate.

For information on culture, see Long-Term Short-Term

Orientation.

Leadership Models
Leadership models help us to understand what makes
leaders act the way they do. The ideal is not to lock
yourself in to a type of behavior discussed in the model, but
to realize that every situation calls for a different approach
or behavior to be taken. Two models will be discussed, the
Four Framework Approach and the Managerial Grid.

Four Framework Approach

In the Four Framework Approach, Bolman and Deal

(1991) suggest that leaders display leadership behaviors in
one of four types of frameworks: Structural, Human
Resource, Political, or Symbolic. The style can either be
effective or ineffective, depending upon the chosen
behavior in certain situations.

Structural Framework
In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a social
architect whose leadership style is analysis and design.
While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a
petty tyrant whose leadership style is details. Structural
Leaders focus on structure, strategy, environment,
implementation, experimentation, and adaptation.

Human Resource Framework

In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a catalyst
and servant whose leadership style is support, advocation,
and empowerment. while in an ineffective leadership
situation, the leader is a pushover, whose leadership style is
abdication and fraud. Human Resource Leaders believe in
people and communicate that belief; they are visible and
accessible; they empower, increase participation, support,
share information, and move decision making down into
the organization.

Political Framework
In an effective leadership situation, the leader is an
advocate, whose leadership style is coalition and building.
While in an ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a
hustler, whose leadership style is manipulation. Political
leaders clarify what they want and what they can get; they
assess the distribution of power and interests; they build
linkages to other stakeholders, use persuasion first, then use
negotiation and coercion only if necessary.

Symbolic Framework
In an effective leadership situation, the leader is a prophet,
whose leadership style is inspiration. While in an
ineffective leadership situation, the leader is a fanatic or
fool, whose leadership style is smoke and mirrors.
Symbolic leaders view organizations as a stage or theater to
play certain roles and give impressions; these leaders use
symbols to capture attention; they try to frame experience
by providing plausible interpretations of experiences; they
discover and communicate a vision.

This model suggests that leaders can be put into one of

these four categories and there are times when one
approach is appropriate and times when it would not be.
Any one of these approaches alone would be inadequate,
thus we should strive to be conscious of all four
approaches, and not just rely on one or two. For example,
during a major organization change, a structural leadership
style may be more effective than a visionary leadership
style; while during a period when strong growth is needed,
the visionary approach may be better. We also need to
understand ourselves as each of us tends to have a preferred
approach. We need to be conscious of this at all times and
be aware of the limitations of our favoring just one
approach.

For an activity, see Bolman and Deal's Four Framework

Approach.

Managerial Grid

The Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid (1985) uses two

axes:

1. "Concern for people" is plotted using the vertical

axis
2. "Concern for task" is along the horizontal axis.

They both have a range of 0 to 9. The notion that just two

dimensions can describe a managerial behavior has the
attraction of simplicity. These two dimensions can be
drawn as a graph or grid:

High 9 Country Club Team Leader

P 6
E
O 5
P
L 4
E
3

1 Impovished Authoritarian

0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Low High
TASK
Most people fall somewhere near the middle of the two
axes. But, by going to the extremes, that is, people who
score on the far end of the scales, we come up with four
types of leaders:

 Authoritarian (9 on task, 1 on people)

 Team Leader (9 on task, 9 on people)
 Country Club (1 on task, 9 on people)
 Impoverished (1 on task, 1 on people).

Authoritarian Leader (high task, low relationship)

People who get this rating are very much task oriented and
are hard on their workers (autocratic). There is little or no
allowance for cooperation or collaboration. Heavily task
oriented people display these characteristics: they are very
strong on schedules; they expect people to do what they are
told without question or debate; when something goes
wrong they tend to focus on who is to blame rather than
concentrate on exactly what is wrong and how to prevent it;
they are intolerant of what they see as dissent (it may just
be someone's creativity), so it is difficult for their
subordinates to contribute or develop.

Team Leader (high task, high relationship)

This type of person leads by positive example and
endeavors to foster a team environment in which all team
members can reach their highest potential, both as team
members and as people. They encourage the team to reach
team goals as effectively as possible, while also working
tirelessly to strengthen the bonds among the various
members. They normally form and lead some of the most
productive teams.

Country Club Leader (low task, high relationship)

This person uses predominantly reward power to maintain
discipline and to encourage the team to accomplish its
goals. Conversely, they are almost incapable of employing
the more punitive coercive and legitimate powers. This
inability results from fear that using such powers could
jeopardize relationships with the other team members.

Impoverished Leader (low task, low relationship)

A leader who uses a "delegate and disappear" management
style. Since they are not committed to either task
accomplishment or maintenance; they essentially allow
their team to do whatever it wishes and prefer to detach
themselves from the team process by allowing the team to
suffer from a series of power struggles.

The most desirable place for a leader to be along the two

axes at most times would be a 9 on task and a 9 on people
-- the Team Leader. However, do not entirely dismiss the
other three. Certain situations might call for one of the
other three to be used at times. For example, by playing the
Impoverished Leader, you allow your team to gain self-
reliance. Be an Authoritarian Leader to instill a sense of
discipline in an unmotivated worker. By carefully studying
the situation and the forces affecting it, you will know at
what points along the axes you need to be in order to
achieve the desired result.

For an activity, see The Leadership Matrix.

The Process of Great Leadership

The road to great leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 1987) that
is common to successful leaders:

 Challenge the process - First, find a process that

you believe needs to be improved the most.
 Inspire a shared vision - Next, share your vision in
words that can be understood by your followers.
 Enable others to act - Give them the tools and
methods to solve the problem.
 Model the way - When the process gets tough, get
your hands dirty. A boss tells others what to do, a
leader shows that it can be done.
 Encourage the heart - Share the glory with your
followers' hearts, while keeping the pains within
your own.

References
Bass, Bernard (1989). Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership:
A Survey of Theory and Research. New York: Free Press.
 Bass, Bernard (1990). From transactional to
transformational leadership: learning to share the vision.
Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 18, Issue 3, Winter, 1990,
19-31.

Blake, Robert R. and Mouton, Janse S. (1985). The

Managerial Grid III: The Key to Leadership Excellence.
Houston: Gulf Publishing Co.

Bolman, L. and Deal, T. (1991). Reframing Organizations.

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kouzes, James M. & Posner, Barry Z. (1987). The

Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Lamb, L. F., McKee, K. B. (2004). Applied Public

Relations: Cases in Stakeholder Management. Mahwah,
New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Routledge

U.S. Army. (October 1983). Military Leadership (FM 22-

100). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

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Created May 11, 1997
Updated May 21, 2008

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