MODULE – 4

LEADERSHIP STYLES & SKILLS

STYLES OF LEADERSHIP
Leadership styles can vary significantly based on the personality, preferences, and situational context of leaders. Each
leadership style has its own strengths and weaknesses, and effective leaders often adapt their approach based on the
needs of the situation and the characteristics of their team members. By understanding the various leadership styles and
their implications, leaders can better navigate complex challenges and inspire their teams to achieve success.

• Autocratic Leadership:
In this style, the leader makes decisions independently without seeking input from team members. The leader maintains
full control over the decision-making process and often dictates tasks and procedures. While autocratic leadership can
be efficient in certain situations, it may lead to low morale and limited creativity among team members.

• Democratic Leadership:
Democratic leaders involve team members in the decision-making process, soliciting their input, ideas, and feedback.
This collaborative approach fosters a sense of ownership and engagement among team members, leading to higher
morale and creativity. Democratic leadership promotes teamwork and empowers individuals to contribute to the
organization’s goals.
• Laissez-Faire Leadership:
Laissez-faire leaders adopt a hands-off approach, providing minimal guidance or direction to team members. Instead,
they delegate tasks and responsibilities and allow team members to work independently. While laissez-faire leadership
can promote autonomy and innovation, it may also lead to confusion and lack of accountability if not properly managed.
• Transformational Leadership:
Transformational leaders inspire and motivate their followers to achieve common goals by articulating a compelling
vision and fostering a sense of purpose and passion. They encourage innovation, creativity, and continuous
improvement, empowering individuals to reach their full potential. Transformational leadership promotes collaboration,
growth, and organizational change.
• Transactional Leadership:
Transactional leaders focus on setting clear expectations and goals for their team members and providing rewards and
incentives for achieving them. They establish formal structures and processes for performance management,
emphasizing accountability and adherence to standards. Transactional leadership can be effective in maintaining
stability and achieving short-term objectives but may lack vision and inspiration.
• Servant Leadership:
Servant leaders prioritize the needs and well-being of their followers, focusing on serving others rather than exerting
authority. They cultivate a culture of empathy, humility, and collaboration, putting the interests of their team members
first. Servant leadership fosters trust, loyalty, and a sense of community, creating a supportive and inclusive work
environment.

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• Charismatic Leadership:
Charismatic leaders possess strong charisma and charm, captivating and inspiring their followers through their
personality and vision. They exude confidence, enthusiasm, and optimism, rallying others around their ideas and goals.
Charismatic leadership can be highly motivating and engaging but may rely too heavily on the leader’s personality rather
than sustainable strategies.
• Transactional Leadership:
Transactional leaders focus on setting clear expectations and goals for their team members and providing rewards and
incentives for achieving them. They establish formal structures and processes for performance management,
emphasizing accountability and adherence to standards. Transactional leadership can be effective in maintaining
stability and achieving short-term objectives but may lack vision and inspiration.

CLASSIC SKILLS OF LEADERS

To be an effective leader, a person should possess certain skills that can steer and motivate the team members toward
success.

The following list examines 15 important leadership skills:

Open communication. A good leader keeps an open line of communication with team members and can succinctly
explain organizational goals and tasks using different types of communication channels, such as one-on-one sessions,
email, video, chat, phone calls and social media. An effective leader also shares clear messages and makes complex
ideas easy to understand for everyone.

Empathy. Empathetic leadership focuses on identifying with others and understanding their perspective. Leaders who
show empathy are successful because they can better understand how the employees feel about their work environment.
This enables the leaders to bring positive changes to the workforce.

Strategic thinking. Leaders need strategic and critical thinking skills, as they are tasked with challenging decision-
making. A strong leader makes well-researched and objectively scrutinized decisions that can lead an organization
toward achieving its goals.

Creativity. A creative leader can brainstorm new ideas and inspire others toward creativity and innovation. For example,
a successful leader will always recognize and reward employees for their creative input.

Positivity. A great leader brings positivity into the work environment, which in turn uplifts the employees and
encourages them to perform better. Positivity can be cultivated by showing care, respect, diplomacy and empathy toward
the team.

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Flexibility. The best leaders get out of their comfort zones and quickly adapt to changing work conditions. They wear
multiple hats and can problem solve and improvise on the fly. A successful leader also promotes employee engagement
and is willing to accept constructive feedback from the team.

Conflict resolution. A great leader not only knows how to avoid conflicts in the workplace but can also resolve them in
an efficient and timely manner. While resolving conflicts, the leader stays level-headed and decides analytically.

Time management. This is an essential skill for leaders, as they need to delegate tasks, prioritize commitments, set
attainable goals and multitask. Successful leaders practice time management skills by setting SMART goals for
themselves and their team members.

Reliability. A strong leader is dependable and one that people can count on for fulfilling commitments and meeting
deadlines. This encourages the team to appreciate the leader's decisions and follow in their footsteps.

Mentorship. Great leaders are always ready to mentor and teach to bring out the best in their employees. They put in a
lot of effort to make the team successful by using positive reinforcement, clarity, motivation and by rewarding
achievements.

Recognizing potential. Great leaders have a keen eye for recognizing potential talent and competencies in the workplace.
They also don't shy away from acknowledging the abilities and achievements of their employees.

Responsibility. The success and failure of a team ride on the shoulders of a leader. Therefore, leaders should be
accountable for their actions and willing to take the blame when mishaps happen. Great leaders take responsibility and
devise strategies for improvement instead of pointing fingers and blaming others.

Organization. Leadership positions depend heavily on organizational skills. A successful leader can handle a variety of
different projects, spend ample time on each, prioritize and ensure that all project deadlines are met.

Delegation. Sometimes, it's difficult for leaders to let go of the projects they're passionate about. However, a great leader
knows the strengths and key skills of each employee and delegates accordingly based on the project requirements. This
also helps with relationship building within the team as employees feel valued, respected and trusted.

Feedback. Effective leaders never miss an opportunity to provide constructive feedback to team members regarding
their performance. Without feedback, employees can't gauge where they stand and which areas they need to improve
on.

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COMMUNICATION SKILLS SIGNIFICANCE7

Communication skills help to plan, manage, organize, promote, innovate various marketing, management, development,
construction processes, and systems. Communication skills are important to market and promote the business.
Communication skills help to build and inspire people to work towards organizational goals. And communication skills
are the method that a business can use to provide great customer experience.

Communication skills are important to remove the communication gap between employer and employees.
Communication skills help to reduce stress and improve productivity. And this is the way that inspires everyone to
achieve the organizational goals effectively and happily. That’s why communication skills are very important in business
management and organizations.

Communication skills help to do strategic business planning:

Communication skills help in generating new business ideas and plans. When business leaders communicate with each
other in a meeting, then it’s for a reason that is profitable for both.

Effective communication enables team members to share the new ideas, a method to reduce the cost, increase the
profitability and problem-solving tips/methods/presentations in a group discussion or meetups.

But it happens, when the team leader has effective listening skills and positive body expression. When a boss and team
leader is a good listener then it increases the confidence in team members to communicate solutions.

Else there are many leaders and boss talk too much and listen less and behave rudely. This creates a communication
gap between employee and boss. And the boss and company never get the benefits from the knowledge of their
employees, especially in strategic planning.

That’s why communication skills are important in business. It’s not only important for the employees so that they can
present the idea clearly and confidently but communication skills also help boss and leaders to listen and understand
what others think about their business plans and ideas.

Communication skills help to manage people and sources:

Communication skills help managers and business owners to manage the team and resources effectively. the goal of
management is to increase the productivity of each team member and at the same time reduce the wastage of resources.
But to achieve this goal they have to be effective in verbal, written, presentation skills and positive body language.

For example, if any new employee is not feeling confident in the office and not getting the ideas how to start then it’s a
duty of a manager to go and communicate with that person and make eye contact. He/She can discuss certain methods,

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stories, goals, tips and even a friendly handshake can boost the morale of the person. The overall goal is to increase the
confidence of the person at work. But it’s not possible, without effective communication.

Effective Communication skills help to promote business:

You want to build the presence of your business online or want to promote it locally, you need marketing skills. And
communication skills are one of the most important marketing skills in itself.

What and how you communicate about your profession and business, it matters the most when someone asking you or
you’re introducing it to potential clients. Your style of presentation, communication, vocabulary, body language, and
listening make it possible to get the projector spread a positive impact on your business in front of people. People
remember you, how you did it with them.

Everything that you do in marketing from social media posts to blog post, search engine ads to display ads, radio ads to
TV ads, everything is communicating about you and your product/services.

Your text, images, infographics, videos, likes, shares, selfies and updates communicating about you online and offline.
Many people can take it positively and many will take it negatively. But directly and indirectly, it is marketing.

The more you think and analyse the goals of your business and potential customers, the better you can communicate
with them through the blog post, social media, videos, and advertisements. And better and effective communication
market your personality, business and goals in the market more than dull and negative communication.

Communication skills enhance the innovative capabilities of organizations:

When a team member communicates with each other with respect then it combines the sense of friendship. And this
friendship between different experts, departments, leaders will build learning and knowledge sharing environment and
increase the capacity of working hard.

Communication skills help to engage/retain/attract new and old team member:

Effective communication in managerial position and leadership in a company inspire people to work with focused to
achieve organizational goals. It helps to build long-term work partnerships with clients and team members. When
manager and leaders behave respectively with the teams and clients and help and communicate softly and friendly in
the various negative and complex situation then it converts small teams of people into bigger teams, small company into
a big company. that’s why communication skills are important in business.

In conclusion, it can say that communication skills are the first skills that are important to start, operate, market and
expand the business.

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Following are the things that can help to improve communication skills:

1) Knowledge about the subject, skill, and situation more broadly.

2) The habit of learning and listening to others.

3) Low level of ego.

4) Respect for others.

5) Capacity to appreciate others efforts.

DECISION MAKING SKILLS

Decision-making is a leadership skill that managers use to assess a situation and determine how the organization may
proceed. The decision-making process involves the following steps:

Devising solutions: After learning more information about the case, the manager creates one or several possible
solutions.

Weighing options: The manager analyses the advantages and disadvantages of each option and explores alternative
solutions if needed.

Identifying the challenge: In this step, the manager discovers an issue and determines the circumstances that led to the
situation.

Making a choice: Once a thorough assessment takes place, the manager makes a final decision about what action to
take.

Informing others of the decision: The manager informs employees of the decision and explains how the decision
influences the workplace.

Analytical Skills

Analytical skills help you collect and assess information before you make a final decision. An analytical person zooms
out on the problem, looks at all the facts, and tries to interpret any patterns or findings they might see. These kinds of
skills help you make fact-based decisions using logical thinking.

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Emotional intelligence

Individuals with high emotional intelligence are better at controlling and processing emotions in challenging situations.
This skill set enables managers to empathise with the feeling of their team members, making it easier to communicate
with each of them. It allows them to have a healthy discussion about a challenge and create an environment where each
person’s thought process receives an acknowledgement.

Critical thinking skills

Critical thinking skills are essential for decision-making because it allows managers and leaders to gather information
and analyse it to extract critical data. These skills ensure that a leader’s decisions offer a desirable outcome and minimise
the risk of errors that might disrupt the project or company’s growth. Critical thinking skills involve a lot of research
and reflection on past scenarios to solve similar challenges.

Logical reasoning

Leaders evaluate all the data and facts presented for making critical business decisions. To ensure you make the right
decision, it is essential to evaluate and review the advantages and disadvantages of your decision. When choosing
between alternatives, consider every data point to guide decision-making. Decisions backed by data and reasoning help
you stay committed to achieving organisational goals.

Creativity Skills

Decision-making isn’t just all facts and figures; it also requires creative thinking to brainstorm solutions that might not
be so straightforward or traditional. Creative decision-makers think outside of what’s been done before and develop
original ideas and solutions for solving problems. In addition, they’re open-minded and willing to try new things.

Collaboration Skills

Good decisions take into account multiple ideas and perspectives. Collaboration skills help you find a solution by
working together with one or more teammates. Involving numerous people in the decision-making process can help
bring together different skillsets, exposing you to other problem-solving methods and ways of thinking.

Leadership Skills

While collaboration is often crucial for good decision-making, someone must take the lead and make a final decision.
Leadership skills can help you consider all perspectives and decide on a singular solution that best represents your team
members’ ideas.

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You don’t need to be a manager to take the lead in decision-making. Even if you don’t have the final say, speaking up
and sharing your ideas will not only help you stand out at work but prove you can be an effective leader.

EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Emotional management skills are abilities that help you regulate your emotional responses to situations. They are
a key part of emotional intelligence, which is a term that refers to a person’s ability to identify and understand their own
emotions and those of other people. Emotional management skills may take time and effort to develop, but they can
help you become an effective professional and supportive teammate.
For developing emotion management skills, being open to one’s thoughts and feelings is not enough. You must have
complete authority over changing your thoughts and feelings that are generated whenever your values are touched by
the actions of a person or an event. This is important because the change in your thoughts and feelings is what helps
change your emotions, preventing from reactive outbursts.

• Resolving conflict with colleagues or clients

• Giving presentations or speaking publicly
• Assisting customers
• Leading performance evaluations
• Training new teammates
• Mentoring colleagues
• Completing tasks under time constraints
• Adapting to changes in project plans

Emotional management skills

Reflection
Reflecting allows you to discover why you had a certain emotional reaction to a situation or person and can help you
resolve conflicts by separating the emotion from the situation. For example, if you had a conflict with a colleague about
a decision they made while you were absent from work, it might help to reflect on whether you disagree with their
decision or whether you feel insecure that you weren’t present for the discussion. Knowing the cause of your feelings
might help you reach a compromise with your colleague.
Self-awareness
Self-awareness is a skill that allows you to predict how a situation or person might affect you by understanding your
own emotional state. It can allow you to observe your emotional reactions to situations and learn how to improve your
responses. For example, if you understand that being prepared allows you to feel calmer and more confident at work,
then you can take steps to ensure that you’re as prepared as possible for the workday. Feeling secure in your work
environment can lower your stress levels and make you more resilient to changes or obstacles.
Acceptance
A key emotional management skill is the ability to accept your emotions without assigning a value to them, which can
help you react rationally to a situation that’s causing you to feel a certain way. By accepting your emotions, you can
often recover from an emotional reaction more easily, allowing you to focus on the next task. Learning to accept your
own emotions can also help you develop empathy towards others by relating your emotions to their own.
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to relate to how other people feel in a situation using your own experience. Using empathy in the
workplace can help you build rewarding relationships with colleagues and prevent conflicts. You can use empathy to

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recognize when a colleague needs help managing their workload and understand when they become frustrated at an
obstacle or delay. Understanding their feelings can help you work with them to create a solution to the problem.
Perspective
Developing a sense of perspective can help you manage your emotions by placing them into context. For example, if
you feel nervous before giving a presentation to an audience, you can put that emotion into perspective by recognizing
that it’s normal to feel some anxiety about public speaking and that many successful professionals feel this way.
Perspective can remind you that emotions are a healthy response to situations and that you can overcome them to
accomplish your tasks.
Steps to improve:
Stop. This may be the most difficult of all three steps because you need a very strong will power. The next time your
emotions are so strong that you feel hijacked by them and feel a strong urge to take an action that you may regret later
on, stop right there and think! Start looking for cues and the thoughts and feelings that have aggravated that behavior.
Drop. Now that you are through with the most difficult part, engage yourself in an activity that will help you calm
down. Without dropping the intensity of your emotions, you may never be able to think clearly and rationally.
Process. Now you’ll be in a better position to think about it all and come up with an appropriate reaction. First of all,
identify the emotions you are feeling. It is better to update you ‘emotions-vocabulary’ for this purpose. Once you have
identified what precisely it is that you’re feeling, think about its source and find out why you are feeling that way. Once
you have the answers to both these questions right in front of you, you are the better judge of which is the best way to
proceed, bearing in mind your ultimate goals as well as personal values.

PUBLIC RELATION SKILLS

Public relations skills are a wide range of capabilities and proficiencies that typically fall under the category of
communications and marketing. These skills can be put to use for a variety of purposes, from introducing new products
or services to enhancing the reputation of a company. In most cases, public relations skills help shape public opinion,
which is especially helpful if a company wants to reshape its brand.
Public Relations experts ought to possess the following skills for a highly successful and rewarding career.
Creative
A public relations expert needs to be extremely creative and should be able to think out of the box. He/She should be
able to come out with innovative ideas to promote the organization and its products among the target audience. In today’s
world of fierce competition, it is really essential for marketers and public relations experts to experiment with new ideas
/concepts and develop something which would benefit the end-users.
Excellent Writing Skills
A Public Relations expert needs to write well. He ought to be creative and should master the art of putting thoughts into
meaningful words. Your words need to create the desired impact and influence the customers. Make sure whatever you
write is relevant and puts your organization in the best light.
Focussed
Stay focussed and take care of even the minutest details. Do not ignore even the slightest doubt. Even a single detail left
unattended can become a major cause of concern in the future. Crosscheck every single detail and observation before
jumping to the final conclusion.
Study a lot
Public relations experts ought to study a lot and do extensive research before designing public relations activities.

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Good Communication Skills
Public Relations experts must master the art of effective communication skills. It is really essential to speak well. Don’t
just speak for the sake of it. Public relations experts must ensure the recipients have understood what they intend to
communicate. Two-way communication is the essence of effective public relations. Whatever you communicate ought
to make sense and well understood by target customers.
Proactive
A public relation professional ought to be proactive and on his toes always. He needs to have a strong grasping power
with an eagerness to learn. Lazy individuals generally do not make good public relations professionals.
Competitors research
Keep your eyes and ears open. Find out what your competitors are upto. It is really important to keep a close watch on
competitor’s activities and initiatives. You may draw inspiration from them but following them blindly would do no
benefit and in turn tarnish your organization’s image.
Loyal towards your Job
Be loyal towards your job. Remember a public relations job is not only a nine to six job. You need to stay back sometimes
even at odd hours and you can’t just complain. At times you need to meet lots of people in a single day but one can’t
crib. One needs to be a little flexible. Make that little extra effort to satisfy your clients.
Be Friendly
A Public relations expert needs to have strong networking skills. As a Public relations representative one needs to have
a strong association with people from media industry (TV, Radio, Print Newspapers/Magazines), employees, investors,
shareholders, partners etc. Sometimes it really becomes essential to flash your smile and get your work done. Never
ever spoil your relationship with anyone. Don’t fight with anyone. If you do not like someone, the best way is to ignore.
You never know when you might need the other person.
Pleasing Personality
Public Relations Professionals need to have a pleasing personality. Make sure you dress smartly. Public relations experts
need to be extroverts.
Tech savvy
Depend on social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut, Twitter to spread awareness and promote your organization.
In workplace:
Flexibility: Being a public relations specialist requires you to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. For example, in
one public relations campaign, your main responsibility may be to introduce a new product. In another, it may be to
announce a shift in the company’s direction. You need to be flexible enough to be equally effective in both roles.
Initiative: Self-motivation is an important aspect of public relations work. You should be able to quickly figure out how
you can benefit your client, whether it involves learning about new communication strategies or doing industry research.
Teamwork: Public relations professionals rarely work alone. In most cases, you will work as part of a team that may
include researchers, marketers and others in similar roles. You need to be able to work well with others in high-pressure
situations in order to carry out the most effective campaign possible.
Brand management: Public relations work often involves enhancing the reputation of your company’s brand. You
should be able to leverage your brand’s strengths and present them in a way that appeals to the public.
How to improve public relations skills

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 Public relations are a fast-paced industry, so you should improve your skills regularly to remain competitive. Here are
some suggestions on how you can improve your public relations skills.

1. Learn new skills

Public relations work can place you in many situations, with new lessons to be learned every step of the way. Use these
situations as opportunities to learn new skills, some of which you will be able to apply to other campaigns in the future.

2. Be aware of industry trends

The longer you work in the PR industry, the more aware you will be about what other people are doing. Pay attention
to what others are doing in your niche, as well as what is going on in the wider industry. It can be beneficial to follow
social media postings of prominent PR professionals and to regularly monitor trade sites and publications to stay current
with new trends.

3. Try different writing styles

Experiment with different approaches to writing and voices you can use when communicating with the public. Over
time, you may find yourself developing your own voice and gravitating toward it most of the time, which can give your
writing a strong personal identity. Try spending some time every day to write and communicate with others to enrich
your voice and to help you become a more versatile PR professional.

4. Set goals for personal and professional development

Setting goals for yourself and striving to achieve them is an effective strategy for improving your skills as a public
relations professional. For example, you could aspire toward better engagement over the next few months or increase
the view count of a particular video. Establishing personal and professional goals will give you something to work
toward and help you measure your progress.

5. Learn more about your client’s focus

Ultimately, public relations work is about helping your clients achieve their goals. Whether they are launching a new
brand, signifying a change in company direction or enhancing the company’s reputation, your role is to help them meet
these objectives as effectively and as efficiently as possible. Therefore, you should constantly strive to learn as much as
you can about your client and how you can help them realize their goals.

PERSONAL ETHICS INTRODUCTION, MEANING

Personal ethics is the code of ethical guidelines that guide you in your personal and professional life. They often develop
from your core values and work ethic into actionable goals used in a variety of challenging situations. Your personal
ethics can, and likely will, contain common ethical guidelines that other people share, but they will vary in their level
of importance and how to maintain them.

Some common personal ethics include:

• Integrity
• Selflessness
• Honesty
• Loyalty

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 • Equality and fairness
• Empathy and respect

Self-respect

Personal ethics are moral guidelines that can help you through tough situations and make the best decisions. You are
likely to use your personal ethics to develop your career and handle many different workplace scenarios. You can
develop a clear and effective personal ethics statement that outlines the values you practice in professional settings. In
this article, we discuss what personal ethics is, describe how to write a statement and provide a sample to help you craft
your own.

What are personal ethics?

Personal ethics is the code of ethical guidelines that guide you in your personal and professional life. They often develop
from your core values and work ethic into actionable goals used in a variety of challenging situations. Your personal
ethics can, and likely will, contain common ethical guidelines that other people share, but they will vary in their level
of importance and how to maintain them.

Some common personal ethics include:

• Integrity
• Selflessness
• Honesty
• Loyalty
• Equality and fairness
• Empathy and respect
• Self-respect
• Personal ethics statement

A personal ethics statement is a written declaration of your closely held ethical principles.

Personal ethics statements can be developed for several reasons, including:

College applications: Many colleges are asking for written personal ethics statements from applicants to better
understand the qualities and characteristics of prospective students. These statements can help students stand out from
the other applicants when their personal ethics align with that of the university or college. Plus, many colleges are
making it a requirement in the application process so they can take a closer look at behaviour and motivations.

Job applications: Some companies are also asking for personal ethics statements because jobs are becoming more
competitive. Personal ethics statements can be a part of the process for any job, but it is most common for leadership
positions. Companies frequently look to improve and shape the quality of leadership within they have, which results in
asking candidates to detail their personal ethics and apply them to their work and leadership potential.

Performance evaluations: Companies also ask for personal ethics statements at performance reviews to deeply analyze
employees’ actions and how they implement the company’s—and their own ethics while on the job. These statements
can be very telling since they show whether an employee understands the ethical implications of their actions and are
working toward better alignment with the company’s values.

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Personal ethics are moral guidelines that can help you through tough situations and make the best decisions. You are
likely to use your personal ethics to develop your career and handle many different workplace scenarios. You can
develop a clear and effective personal ethics statement that outlines the values you practice in professional settings. In
this article, we discuss what personal ethics is, describe how to write a statement and provide a sample to help you craft
your own.

Benefits of having a personal ethics statement

There are many benefits to having a personal ethics statement both for your career. Defining your personal ethics makes
it easier to talk about in a well-thought-out manner, which may improve your performance in an interview. Personal
ethics statements also:

Help you understand your priorities. Having a clear understanding of what matters most to you can assist you in
advancing your career. Defining your personal ethics statement can help you understand your priorities. If you prioritize
putting other people’s needs first, then you are more likely to be happy in a job where you help people. If you prioritize
doing a good job and being highly productive, then you may make a good business leader. These differences in your
priorities can help you determine what type of job is best for you and what jobs you should avoid because of conflicts
with your personal ethics.

Make decisions easier. Alongside clarifying your priorities, having a personal ethics statement can also make decisions
easier. There are many situations where you will need to decide on the right course of action. This is especially true if
you lead a team or are a high-level executive in your company. Having a list of criteria can make weighing your options
easier.

Improve goal-setting. Once you know what you will and won’t focus on, you can use your personal ethics statement
to set goals for your development. You can identify which values matter most to you and identify opportunities and
future steps you should pursue.

Refine your leadership style. Creating a personal ethics statement is an effective way to help advance your career,
especially when applying to a leadership position or a position that requires a strong set of personal ethics. Knowing
what you value and what you stand for can help you decide on a leadership style that enables you to lead teams to
progress and success.

RESOLUTION OF CONFLICTS: METHODS, KENNETH THOMAS’S FIVE STYLES OF CONFLICT

RESOLUTION

Conflict resolution skills are required for a wide range of positions across many job sectors. This requirement is based
around the fact that conflict tends to reduce productivity and create a difficult work environment, leading to unwanted
turnover in staff and reduced morale.

Individuals who are able to resolve conflicts are often excellent mediators, rational, and able to manage difficult
personalities from a place of empathy.

Conflict resolution is the process by which two or more parties reach a peaceful resolution to a dispute.

In the workplace, there can be a variety of types of conflict:

Conflict may occur between co-workers, or between supervisors and subordinates, or between service providers and
their clients or customers.

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Conflict can also occur between groups, such as management and the labour force, or between whole departments.

The Conflict Resolution Process

The resolution of conflicts in the workplace typically involves some or all of the following processes:

Recognition by the parties involved that a problem exists.

Mutual agreement to address the issue and find some resolution.

An effort to understand the perspective and concerns of the opposing individual or group.

Identifying changes in attitude, behaviour, and approaches to work by both sides that will lessen negative feelings.

Recognizing triggers to episodes of conflict.

Interventions by third parties such as Human Resources representatives or higher-level managers to mediate.

A willingness by one or both parties to compromise.

Agreement on a plan to address differences.

Monitoring the impact of any agreements for change.

Disciplining or terminating employees who resist efforts to defuse conflicts.

Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann developed five conflict resolution strategies that people use to handle conflict,
including avoiding, defeating, compromising, accommodating, and collaborating.

This is based on the assumption that people choose how cooperative and how assertive to be in a conflict. It suggests
that everyone has preferred ways of responding to conflict, but most of us use all methods under various circumstances.
It is helpful to understand the five methods, particularly when you want to move a group forward.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES

Here are the five conflict management styles according to Thomas, K.W., and R.H. Kilmann:

Accommodating

This is when you cooperate to a high-degree, and it may be at your own expense, and actually work against your own
goals, objectives, and desired outcomes. This approach is effective when the other party is the expert or has a better
solution. It can also be effective for preserving future relations with the other party.

Avoiding

This is when you simply avoid the issue. You aren’t helping the other party reach their goals, and you aren’t assertively
pursuing your own. This works when the issue is trivial or when you have no chance of winning. It can also be effective
when the issue would be very costly. It’s also very effective when the atmosphere is emotionally charged and you need

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to create some space. Sometimes issues will resolve themselves, but “hope is not a strategy”, and, in general, avoiding
is not a good long-term strategy.

Collaborating

This is where you partner or pair up with the other party to achieve both of your goals. This is how you break free of
the “win-lose” paradigm and seek the “win-win.” This can be effective for complex scenarios where you need to find a
novel solution. This can also mean re-framing the challenge to create a bigger space and room for everybody’s ideas.
The downside is that it requires a high-degree of trust and reaching a consensus can require a lot of time and effort to
get everybody on board and to synthesize all the ideas.

Competing

This is the “win-lose” approach. You act in a very assertive way to achieve your goals, without seeking to cooperate
with the other party, and it may be at the expense of the other party. his approach may be appropriate for emergencies
when time is of the essence, or when you need quick, decisive action, and people are aware of and support the approach.

Compromising

This is the “lose-lose” scenario where neither party really achieves what they want. This requires a moderate level of
assertiveness and cooperation. It may be appropriate for scenarios where you need a temporary solution, or where both
sides have equally important goals. The trap is to fall into compromising as an easy way out, when collaborating would
produce a better solution.

LATEST TRENDS / CURRENT SCENARIO OF BUSINESS LEADERSHIP

Investing in diversity and inclusion

The importance of embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) and prioritizing it at the leadership level will help
unleash the potential of your employees, helping to create a better and more engaged workforce. It also helps to increase
the company’s earnings.

Addressing inequality within your culture

According to Gallup’s recent report, Employee Burnout: Causes and Cures, “76 percent of employees experience
burnout on the job at least sometimes, and 28 percent say they are burned out ‘very often’ or ‘always’ at work.” And
the top factor causing burnout? Unfair treatment at work.

Leaders have the responsibility to ensure that the workplace is as fair and equitable as possible. It isn’t easy to know
where to get started, and I suggest you start with pay. Complete a full assessment of employee compensation, looking
at it from all angles such as gender, role and the gap between individual contributors, mid-level managers and executive
leadership. Then address the inequalities. There is no reason a CEO should make 350 times more than that of the typical
worker or that the sole purpose of your company is to maximize value for its shareholders. These are some reasons we
find ourselves in this situation of staggering inequality and deep distrust of our leaders.

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Learning to lead several generations

In today’s professional environment, baby boomers, Generation X, Generation Z, and millennials are all working side
by side in a multigenerational workforce that boasts different values and working styles. And as people live longer,
they’re working more too: Senior employees can easily be 50 years older than a company’s youngest workers, resulting
in the need for leaders who are able to adjust their leadership style according to who they’re managing.

Fostering emotionally agile leadership

The frequency of burnout in a business is based on factors that rise and fall on leadership, such as constantly changing
or unclear instructions, an unrealistic workload, and low emotional reserves. Burnout has been even more abundantly
clear since the COVID-19 pandemic, with an increase of engagement to 40 percent for those working in an office and
41 percent for those working remotely before abruptly crashing. Employee well-being and engagement seem to be
connected and correlated with causation: engagement decreases burnout, with an increase in productivity and well-
being, but when engagement and well-being decrease, burnout increases.

Embracing an experimenter’s mindset

There is no doubt that more disruption lies ahead; it’s the new norm. What you did yesterday will most likely not work
tomorrow. Yes, it can change that fast, just as we experienced in March 2020. To be future-ready, you must be willing
to try new things, to experiment.

At our company, we are experimenting in all facets of our organization: product development, customer success, digital
customer experiences and employee training and education. We have banned the words, we are the expert, and are
teaching people how to embrace the learner’s mind and not fear failure. Possessing a learner’s mind does not mean
taking significant risks.

DEVELOPMENT AND PROBLEMS FACED BY WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Development of Women Entrepreneurs

Right efforts on all areas are required in the development of women entrepreneurs and their greater participation in the
entrepreneurial activities. Following efforts can be taken into account for effective development of women
entrepreneurs.

Consider women as specific target group for all developmental programmes.

Better educational facilities and schemes should be extended to women folk from government part.

Adequate training programmes on management skills to be provided to women community.

Encourage women’s participation in decision-making.

Vocational training to be extended to women community that enables them to understand the production process and
production management.

Skill development to be done in women’s polytechnics and industrial training institutes. Skills are put to work in
training-cum-production workshops.

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Training on professional competence and leadership skill to be extended to women entrepreneurs.

Training and counselling on a large scale of existing women entrepreneurs to remove psychological causes like lack of
self-confidence and fear of success.

Counselling through the aid of committed NGOs, psychologists, managerial experts and technical personnel should be
provided to existing and emerging women entrepreneurs.

Continuous monitoring and improvement of training programmes.

Activities in which women are trained should focus on their marketability and profitability.

Making provision of marketing and sales assistance from government part.

To encourage more passive women entrepreneurs the Women training programmes should be organized that taught to
recognize her own psychological needs and express them.

State finance corporations and financing institutions should permit by statute to extend purely trade related finance to
women entrepreneurs.

Women’s development corporations have to gain access to open-ended financing.

The financial institutions should provide more working capital assistance both for small scale venture and large-scale
ventures.

Making provision of micro credit system and enterprise credit system to the women entrepreneurs at local level.

Repeated gender sensitization programmes should be held to train financiers to treat women with dignity and respect as
persons in their own right.

Infrastructure, in the form of industrial plots and sheds, to set up industries is to be provided by state run agencies.

Industrial estates could also provide marketing outlets for the display and sale of products made by women.

A Women Entrepreneur’s Guidance Cell set up to handle the various problems of women entrepreneurs all over the
state.

District Industries Centres and Single Window Agencies should make use of assisting women in their trade and business
guidance.

Programmes for encouraging entrepreneurship among women are to be extended at local level.

Training in entrepreneurial attitudes should start at the high school level through well-designed courses, which build
confidence through behavioural games.

More governmental schemes to motivate women entrepreneurs to engage in small scale and large-scale business
ventures.

Involvement of Non-Governmental Organizations in women entrepreneurial training programmes and counselling.

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Problems of Women Entrepreneurs in India/Challenges faced by Women Entrepreneurs

Women in India have faced many problems to get ahead their life in business. Women entrepreneurs face a series of
problems right from the beginning till the enterprise functions. The problems of Indian women pertain to her
responsibility towards family, society and work.

The traditions, customs, socio cultural values, ethics, motherhood, physically weak, feeling of insecurity etc. are some
peculiar problems that the Indian women are coming across while they jump into entrepreneurship.

Women in rural areas have to suffer still further. They face tough resistance from men. They are considered as helpers.
The attitude of society towards her and constraints in which she has to live and work are not very conducive.

Besides the above basic problems, the other problems faced by women entrepreneurs are as follows:

1. Family ties

Women in India are very emotionally attached to their families. They are supposed to attend to all the domestic work,
to look after the children and other members of the family. They are over burden with family responsibilities like extra
attention to husband, children and in laws, which take away a lot of their time and energy. In such situation, it will be
very difficult to concentrate and run the enterprise successfully.

2. Male dominated society

Even though our constitution speaks of equality between sexes, male chauvinism is still the order of the day. Women
are not treated equal to men. Their entry to business requires the approval of the head of the family. Entrepreneurship
has traditionally been seen as a male preserve. All these put a break in the growth of women entrepreneurs.

3. Lack of education

Women in India are lagging far behind in the field of education. Most of the women (around sixty per cent of total
women) are illiterate. Those who are educated are provided either less or inadequate education than their male
counterpart partly due to early marriage, partly due to son’s higher education and partly due to poverty. Due to lack of
proper education, women entrepreneurs remain in dark about the development of new technology, new methods of
production, marketing and other governmental support which will encourage them to flourish.

4. Social barriers

The traditions and customs prevailed in Indian societies towards women sometimes stand as an obstacle before them to
grow and prosper. Castes and religions dominate with one another and hinders women entrepreneurs too. In rural areas,
they face more social barriers. They are always seen with suspicious eyes.

5. Shortage of raw materials

Neither the scarcity of raw materials nor availability of proper and adequate raw materials sounds the death-knell of the
enterprises run by women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs really face a tough task in getting the required raw
material and other necessary inputs for the enterprises when the prices are very high.

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6. Problem of finance

Women entrepreneurs have to struggle a lot in raising and meeting the financial needs of the business. Bankers, creditors
and financial institutes are not coming forward to provide financial assistance to women borrowers on the ground of
their less credit worthiness and more chances of business failure. They also face financial problem due to blockage of
funds in raw materials, work-in-progress finished goods and non-receipt of payment from customers in time.

7. Tough competition

Usually, women entrepreneurs employ low technology in the process of production. In a market where the competition
is too high, they have to fight hard to survive in the market against the organized sector and their male counterpart who
have vast experience and capacity to adopt advanced technology in managing enterprises

8. High cost of production

Several factors including inefficient management contribute to the high cost of production, which stands as a stumbling
block before women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs face technology obsolescence due to non-adoption or slow
adoption to changing technology, which is a major factor of high cost of production.

9. Low risk-bearing capacity

Women in India are by nature weak, shy and mild. They cannot bear the amount risk which is essential for running an
enterprise. Lack of education, training and financial support from outsides also reduce their ability to bear the risk
involved in an enterprise.

10. Limited mobility

Women mobility in India is highly limited and has become a problem due to traditional values and inability to drive
vehicles. Moving alone and asking for a room to stay out in the night for business purposes are still looked upon with
suspicious eyes. Sometimes, younger women feel uncomfortable in dealing with men who show extra interest in them
than work related aspects.

11. Lack of entrepreneurial aptitude

Lack of entrepreneurial aptitude is a matter of concern for women entrepreneurs. They have no entrepreneurial bent of
mind. Even after attending various training programmes on entrepreneur ship women entrepreneurs fail to tide over the
risks and troubles that may come up in an organizational working.

12. Limited managerial ability

Management has become a specialized job which only efficient managers perform. Women entrepreneurs are not
efficient in managerial functions like planning, organizing, controlling, coordinating, staffing, directing, motivating etc.
of an enterprise. Therefore, less and limited managerial ability of women has become a problem for them to run the
enterprise successfully.

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13. Legal formalities

Fulfilling the legal formalities required for running an enterprise becomes an upheaval task on the part of an women
entrepreneur because of the prevalence of corrupt practices in government offices and procedural delays for various
licenses, electricity, water and shed allotments. In such situations women entrepreneurs find it hard to concentrate on
the smooth working of the enterprise.

14. Exploitation by middle men

Since women cannot run around for marketing, distribution and money collection, they have to depend on middlemen
for the above activities. Middlemen tend to exploit them in the guise of helping. They add their own profit margin,
which result in less sales and lesser profit.

15. Lack of self-confidence

Women entrepreneurs because of their inherent nature, lack of self-confidence, which is essentially a motivating factor
in running an enterprise successfully. They have to strive hard to strike a balance between managing a family and
managing an enterprise. Sometimes she has to sacrifice her entrepreneurial urge in order to strike a balance between the
two.

ONLINE LEADERSHIP

Online leadership is a social influence process, mediated by technology, to produce a change in attitudes, feelings,
thinking, behaviour, and performance with individuals, groups, or organizations to direct them toward achieving a
specific goal; As stated by Avolio and Kahai (2002), this involves enhancing the relationships among organizational
members in a context in which work is mediated by technology. In this case, communication and the collection and
dissemination of information occurs via information technology. Traditionally, leadership in organizations involve face-
to-face interactions. Now, leaders may lead entire projects from a distance and interact with followers solely through
information technology. Today, organizations are incorporating technology that interactions, creating a need for e-
leadership. This wiring involves forms of technology such as videoconferencing, online collaboration software, cell
phones, e-mail, and Wi-Fi. As a result, organizations are struggling with technological-integration issues while
employees face a steep learning curve; However, our understanding of how information systems change human
dynamics has lagged behind the introduction and use of new technology. Thus, technology is being used without
knowing the full extent of its impact on human dynamics in organizations.

Online leadership Research

Researchers have investigated online leadership in both the organizational and laboratory setting. According to Avolio
and Kahai (2002), field studies of virtual teams suggest that early interactions during the formation of the teams can
predict subsequent trust, satisfaction, and performance. For example, teams who spent early meetings identifying team
members and clarifying expectations were found to have higher performance several months later. Thus, in order to
provide virtual teams with a reason to work together, e-leaders should promote interdependence and reliance on each
other. It must be noted that virtual teams may be geographically and culturally dispersed. Thus, in order to foster close
relationships in geographically dispersed team, leaders should encourage a variety of task related communication.
Online leadership has also been investigated in more controlled settings. According to, controlled experiments on e-
leadership suggest that participative leadership may be more suitable for generating solutions for un- or semi-structured
problems while directive leadership may be more suitable for generating solutions for structured problems. These studies
also report that features of the groupware system that is used for communication may substitute for leadership. Finally,
controlled experiments also report that motivation is enhanced by anonymity. Thus, e-leaders should probably consider
using anonymous chat rooms and polls as mentioned previously.

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Online Leadership Approaches/Styles

Online leadership can involve the same style and content as traditional face-to-face leadership, especially as the
advancement of technology enables more visual virtual interactions. Participative leadership involves creating
opportunities for individuals to be more involved in decision-making. Considering the importance of having members
involved in the decision-making process, participative e-leaders can use technology such as chat rooms with anonymous
input and electronic polls as tools to inform both their followers and themselves. Like the more traditional
transformational leadership, e-leadership can also be inspiring. To this end, e-leaders can use tools such as e-mail to
communicate compelling visions, pride in the accomplishments of followers, or excitement about new ventures.

Successful online leadership

No one can deny that being a successful leader requires building relationships and trust. However, in the case of e-
leadership, one may have the added challenge of building relationships and trust more rapidly. Close personal
relationships are possible in virtual settings and leaders can aid in fostering them by considering factors of media
richness. In choosing modes of communication, these leaders must consider its capacity to provide immediate feedback,
availability of personalization, language variety. To this end, leaders need to learn the vividness and interactivity of
media to make their presence felt in a positive way. Avolio and Kahai (2002) mention that successful e-leadership
involves an appropriate balance of traditional and new methods, avoiding misunderstandings by carefully and clearly
communicating intent to followers, using technology to reach out to others in responsive ways, and using technology to
deal with greater workforce diversity.

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