The skills a leader portrays are as varied as the type of people who embody leadership. Even if skills could be narrowed down to general categories, the manifestation of those categorized skills would be incredibly varied. This post will examine just a few aspects of leadership as explored in A Leader's Companion.
Warren Bennis looks at the question "How do organizations translate intention into reality and sustain it?" as a means to boil down the over 350 definitions to leadership (Wren, 1995). Bennis construed a list of four traits that 90 exemplary CEOs displayed in varying capacities depending on their specific role. He narrowed down these leaders' key traits to 1) vision, 2) communication and alignment, 3) persistency, consistency and focus, and 4) empowerment.
Hackman and Johnson continued the examination of a leader's skills and focused on the communication skills that are inherently necessary to demonstrate the four traits of leadership that Bennis described. Hackman and Johnson detailed that leadership is communication that pushes individuals and groups forward to meet goals and needs. Because communication can be learned and improved, Hackman and Johnson suggest that leadership can be grown and cultivated. Leaders are essentially engaging in what they call "impression management" which reacts to the needs and desires of followers to give the appropriate impression (Wren, 1995).
It may be a cliche example, but I have a memory burned into my brain that embodies the clearest form of Warren Bennis' four traits as well as the focus on communication that Hackman and Johnson highlight. In the book, Friday Night Lights (which was subsequently made into a movie and television show), the Coach Gaines gives a rousing speech at halftime of the state championship game (Bissinger 2000). The speech can be seen portrayed in this video. It is evident that he moves his team through the art of communication while portraying his vision for the team, his focus and his empowerment of the players to take destiny into their own hands.
When I sit and think on the power of communication, it necessitates that whatever the next step is in my career involves the consistent focus on improving communicative abilities. Communication sets people apart from one another in their ability to portray feelings, emotions, directives and visions in a manner that inspires action. Communication takes different forms in different environments and occupations but the improvement of communication will always be valuable.
Bissinger, H (2000) Friday Night Lights: A Team, A Town, and a Dream. Cambridge, MA: De Capo Press
Wren, J (1995) A Leader's Companion. New York: The Free Press
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Leaders and Followers are People Too!
Amongst leadership studies and the plethora of theories, it is important not to forget that both leaders and followers are individuals. Organizations can be dissected and examined but the actual action of leadership must still happen in a person to person capacity. This leads to the necessity of exploring the act of leading individuals. Wren's text utilizes excerpts from Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy's book, Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Leadership, to discuss the importance of leading the individual.
The first excerpt focused on the idea of motivation of the individual. The importance of motivation was shown by the polling of employees who believed they could give up to 20 percent less effort at work without anybody noticing and they could also give 20 percent more effort without anybody noticing (Wren 1995). It is proposed that 40 percent gap can be bridged most easily through proper motivation of the employees. Motivation is ascribed to be influenced by three different theories: the need theories, the cognitive theories and situational approaches. In need theories, motivation is piqued by fulfilling basic needs of the individual. The idea is that an employee or follower is more apt to be successfully motivated when their basic needs are being met and even some higher needs are being fulfilled. In cognitive theories, they are concerned with satisfying the conscious thought processes followers utilize when deciding on personal motivation. This is more of an intellectual approach to motivation. Finally, situational approaches can be generalized as placing the emphasis of motivation specifically on the situation that the follower is found in. The leader is flexible in their motivating tactics in order to react to the constantly changing environment.
Next, the examination of power, influence and influence tactics was conducted in order to discuss how to bring about change after motivation of followers. As defined by Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, power is described as the potential to influence another person. Influence is the ability to change an individual or group's attitudes, values, beliefs or behaviors due to the use of influence tactics. Influence tactics are therefore the actual actions and behavior utilized to create the change. There are identified five sources from which a leader can influence their followers: expert power, referent power, legitimate power, reward power, and coercive power (Wren 1995). Expert power can be held by anyone holding the power of knowledge and this is notable because knowledge is blind to class or social standing. Referent power is found in the strength of relationships between a leader and followers that can be utilized to exact influence. Legitimate power is solely dependent on an organizational role. This type of power is typically given to an individual by someone in a higher level of legitimate power. Reward power is most often exhibited by someone also holding legitimate power because reward power involves the ability for an individual to give a reward based off of performance. Finally, coercive power is the opposite of reward power because it is the influence of a negative consequence for undesirable action. Given these avenues of power, there is outlined methods for influence tactics. These include rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation, ingratiation, personal appeals, exchange, coalition tactics, pressure tactics and legitimizing tactics.
William Wilberforce has become famous for being able to forge the path to the abolition of slavery and subsequent reformation of morals in England. In order to do this, Wilberforce exerted multiple influence tactics in order to pass the bill that he believed in (Guinness 1999). These tactics were useful because Wilberforce displayed many of the modes of power that Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy outline. Wilberforce is an ideal example for being able to utilize both the innate and given power by use of influence tactics in order to influence individuals who in turn influenced a nation's course of morality.
The office of leadership is one that requires lifelong learning. This section of Wren's text was saturated with theory and practical outlook on the role of leading individuals. As I move forward into positions and arenas that inherently require leadership of some form, the ability to learn about, evaluate and critique different theories and ideas about leadership is invaluable. And, so it begins...
Guinness, O (1999) Character Counts. Grand Rapids: Baker Books
Wren, J (1995) A Leader's Companion. New York: The Free Press
The first excerpt focused on the idea of motivation of the individual. The importance of motivation was shown by the polling of employees who believed they could give up to 20 percent less effort at work without anybody noticing and they could also give 20 percent more effort without anybody noticing (Wren 1995). It is proposed that 40 percent gap can be bridged most easily through proper motivation of the employees. Motivation is ascribed to be influenced by three different theories: the need theories, the cognitive theories and situational approaches. In need theories, motivation is piqued by fulfilling basic needs of the individual. The idea is that an employee or follower is more apt to be successfully motivated when their basic needs are being met and even some higher needs are being fulfilled. In cognitive theories, they are concerned with satisfying the conscious thought processes followers utilize when deciding on personal motivation. This is more of an intellectual approach to motivation. Finally, situational approaches can be generalized as placing the emphasis of motivation specifically on the situation that the follower is found in. The leader is flexible in their motivating tactics in order to react to the constantly changing environment.
Next, the examination of power, influence and influence tactics was conducted in order to discuss how to bring about change after motivation of followers. As defined by Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy, power is described as the potential to influence another person. Influence is the ability to change an individual or group's attitudes, values, beliefs or behaviors due to the use of influence tactics. Influence tactics are therefore the actual actions and behavior utilized to create the change. There are identified five sources from which a leader can influence their followers: expert power, referent power, legitimate power, reward power, and coercive power (Wren 1995). Expert power can be held by anyone holding the power of knowledge and this is notable because knowledge is blind to class or social standing. Referent power is found in the strength of relationships between a leader and followers that can be utilized to exact influence. Legitimate power is solely dependent on an organizational role. This type of power is typically given to an individual by someone in a higher level of legitimate power. Reward power is most often exhibited by someone also holding legitimate power because reward power involves the ability for an individual to give a reward based off of performance. Finally, coercive power is the opposite of reward power because it is the influence of a negative consequence for undesirable action. Given these avenues of power, there is outlined methods for influence tactics. These include rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation, ingratiation, personal appeals, exchange, coalition tactics, pressure tactics and legitimizing tactics.
William Wilberforce has become famous for being able to forge the path to the abolition of slavery and subsequent reformation of morals in England. In order to do this, Wilberforce exerted multiple influence tactics in order to pass the bill that he believed in (Guinness 1999). These tactics were useful because Wilberforce displayed many of the modes of power that Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy outline. Wilberforce is an ideal example for being able to utilize both the innate and given power by use of influence tactics in order to influence individuals who in turn influenced a nation's course of morality.
The office of leadership is one that requires lifelong learning. This section of Wren's text was saturated with theory and practical outlook on the role of leading individuals. As I move forward into positions and arenas that inherently require leadership of some form, the ability to learn about, evaluate and critique different theories and ideas about leadership is invaluable. And, so it begins...
Guinness, O (1999) Character Counts. Grand Rapids: Baker Books
Wren, J (1995) A Leader's Companion. New York: The Free Press
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