Learning Objectives: By the end of this lesson learners will be able to do the following:
– Recognize the elements of different leadership theories
– Assess the impact of leadership behavior on organizational performance
– Explain the effects of power and politics on behavior
READ:
Robbins & Judge: Chapter 12 – Leadership
Robbins & Judge: Chapter 13 – Power
Your response needs to be in-depth and thorough.
LECTURE:
In chapter 12, you will have read about the range of styles and behaviors that characterize the traits and habits of different business leaders. There are many ways of defining leadership and many ways that leaders behave. From reading Chapter 12, you will recognize that persons may be drawn to one leadership style over another. The chapter highlights a range of leadership theories that have historically shaped our understanding of leaders’ behaviors. However, in spite of their diversity, leaders are necessary for people to work in organized ways to deliver successful results. I often say that the tone of an organization is set at the top … with the leader. Whether the leader is ethical or compassionate or unscrupulous or any other aspect of character, helps set the tone throughout an organization.
As work settings change the demands that organizations have of leaders have also changed. One emerging approach to leadership is the leader as coach. The leader has an eye toward the goals of the company while modeling the behaviors desired of others and serves as a teacher/guide to help individuals grow, produce, flourish, and do their part in delivering success. This lesson also presents Principles of Leadership that are taught to members of the military. These are principles that the military expects leaders to apply and adopt in order to succeed and perform optimally. As plebes in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, “new” managers of men and women are taught eleven principles of leadership from the Army’s manual, Principles of Leadership. The principles are as follows:
Know yourself and seek self-improvement — understand who you are, your values, priorities, strengths and weaknesses. Knowing yourself allows you to discover your strengths and weaknesses. Self-improvement is a process of sustaining strengths and overcoming weaknesses, thus increasing competence and the confidence people have in your leadership ability.
Be technically and tactically proficient — before leaders can lead effectively, they must have mastered the tasks required by the people they lead. In addition, leaders train their people to do their own jobs while understudying the leader so that they are prepared to replace the leader if necessary. Likewise, leaders must understudy their leader in the event they must assume those duties.
Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions — leading always involves responsibility. Leaders want people who can handle responsibility and help achieve goals. They expect others to take the initiative within their stated intent. When you see a problem or something that needs to be fixed, do not wait to be told to act. Organizational effectiveness depends upon having leaders at all levels that exercise initiative, are resourceful and take opportunities that will lead to goal accomplishment and business success. When leaders make mistakes, they accept just criticism and take corrective action. They do not avoid responsibility by placing the blame on someone else.
Set the example — people want and need their leaders to be role models. This is a heavy responsibility, but leaders have no choice. No aspect of leadership is more powerful. If leaders expect courage, responsibility, initiative, competence, commitment and integrity from their direct reports, they must demonstrate them. People will imitate a leader’s behavior. Leaders set high but attainable standards for performance and are willing to do what they require of their people. Leaders share hardships with their people and know that their personal example affects behavior more than any amount of instruction or form of discipline.
Know your people and look out for their welfare — it is not enough to know the names and birth dates of your people. You need to understand what motivates them and what is important to them. Commit time and effort to listen to and learn about them. Showing genuine concern for your people builds trust and respect for you as a leader. Telling your people you care about them has no meaning unless they see you demonstrating it. They assume that if you fail to care for them daily, you will fail them when the going gets tough.
Keep your people informed — people do best when they know why they are doing something. Individuals affect the bottom line results of companies by using initiative in the absence of instructions. Keeping people informed helps them make decisions and execute plans within your intent, encourages initiative, improves teamwork and enhances morale.
Ensure the task is understood, supervised, and accomplished — your people must understand what you want done, to what standard and by when. They need to know if you want a task accomplished in a specific way or how much leeway is allowed. Supervising lets you know if people understand your instructions; it shows your interest in them and in goal accomplishment. Over-supervision causes resentment while under-supervision causes frustration. When people are learning new tasks tell them what you want done and show them how. Let them try. Observe their performance. Reward performance that exceeds expectations; correct performance that does not. Determine the cause of the poor performance and take appropriate action. When you hold people accountable for their performance, they realize they are responsible for accomplishing goals as individuals and as teams.
Develop a sense of responsibility among your people — people feel a sense of pride and responsibility when they successfully accomplish a new task. Delegation indicates trust in people and encourages them to seek responsibility. Develop people by giving them challenges and opportunities that stretch them and more responsibility when they demonstrate they are ready. Their initiative will amaze you.
Train your people as a team — teamwork is becoming more and more crucial to achieving goals. Teamwork is possible only when people have trust and respect for their leader and for each other as competent professionals and see the importance of their contributions to the organization. Develop a team spirit among people to motivate them to perform willingly and confidently. Ensure that individuals know their roles and responsibilities within the team framework. Train and cross train people until they are confident in the team’s abilities.
Make sound and timely decisions — leaders must assess situations rapidly and make sound decisions. They need to know when to make decisions themselves, when to consult with people before deciding and when to delegate the decision. Leaders must know the factors to consider when deciding how, when and if to make decisions. Good decisions made at the right time are better than the best decisions made too late. Do not delay or try to avoid a decision when one is necessary. Indecisive leaders create hesitancy, loss of confidence and confusion. Leaders must anticipate and reason under the most trying conditions and quickly decide what actions to take. Gather essential information before making decisions. Announce decisions in time for people to react.
Employ your work unit in accordance with its capabilities — leaders must know their work unit’s capabilities and limitations. People gain satisfaction from performing tasks that are reasonable and challenging but are frustrated if tasks are too easy, unrealistic or unattainable. If the task assigned is one that people have not been trained to do, failure is very likely to result.
A lot of these principles are consistent with many of the concepts you have reviewed, discussed, and analyzed throughout this semester. Quite possibly, internalizing these principles can improve the character of a person who aspires to be an effective leader.
As we observe companies failing on a regular basis, organizations that are faced with instability and stress will suffer the same result as all other living things under the same circumstances, they must adapt to what they are faced with or they will become extinct. This elevates the necessity for agility and adaptability as the basis for survival. Most employees must have the goal of becoming great problem solvers with well-honed decision-making skills within their areas of responsibility. The more volatile the environment – the less time to get final approval on every decision from the top. This requires that people be able to identify trends, principals and processes and feel confident in making decisions that advance the organization’s objectives.
Emerging views of leadership require leaders to adapt to the current environment in order to guide followers through challenges, problems, and a variety of issues. Thus the view of a leader as coach. This chapter on leadership has an important role in your understanding of organizations’ behavior since often the responsibility is to the leader and her ability to influence the caliber of performance necessary for a successful outcome. In actuality, the leader cannot effect change alone. The followers have a role and can support or derail the leader’s effectiveness.
B) Video
Look at this TedTalk http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action
C)Read Article: “You can’t be a great manager” in the Resources section for this class. This article will hopefully crystallize concepts of leader as coach.
D) Written assignment 1: The Character of a 21st Century Leader will include the following components:100 pts Chapter 12
In your own words, briefly summarize your understanding of leadership and explain the importance of character in effective leadership. (1 page)
Choose one view of leadership theory that resonates with you, explain it in your own words, and describe how it helps improve performance and productivity among employees. (1 page)
Using the eleven principles of leadership in this lesson, list which principles would be most instrumental in developing an effective leader. Explain your choices. (1 page)
Compare this leadership theory you chose with the view of leader as coach. (This will require you research and explain what it means for a leader to be a coach). How is the view of leader as coach similar or different from the traditional view of leader? How does a leader’s character inform the type of coach she or he becomes? (2 pages)
E) Power and Politics will include the following components: (30 points) Chapter 13
Power and politics are often grouped together and yet together they can more often than not conjure memories of distasteful or ineffective events. The readings bring to the fore several bases of power from which people operate and help us understand how people are able to exert power, even when they may not hold a formal leadership position. People respond differently to the various bases of power. Motivational theorist McClelland, from early in the semester, points out that the need for power can be a motivator. Simultaneously, the misuse of power can be pernicious and can cause harm, from political leadership, to organizational leadership, leadership in communities, or in families. Consider that leaders have followers and through their followers, leaders are able to make change and
Expert and referent power are derived from one’s personal qualities, whereas coercion, reward, and legitimate power are exhibited in organizations.
Expert power refers to persons who through their expertise are able to influence change and lead people. These leaders are respected for their deep knowledge and expertise. Knowledge can be acquired through formal education, top skills, and years of experience. When a leader has an MBA or Doctorate credentials, followers defer to them as the expert. While no one can take away a leader’s expertise, it is incumbent on the leader to keep learning, developing and improving to continuously be respected as the expert.
Referent power refers to a leader’s ability to collaborate and form positive interpersonal relationships, in order to lead and influence change. These leaders tend to be charismatic. Their followers trust, respect, and admire them. This type of power exists due to personal traits and values like integrity and trustworthiness, that help leaders build relationships and influence people to act. Referent power might be one of the most important bases of power that leaders need to have.
Coercive power refers to one’s ability to influence with the use of threats, fear of punishment, or other negative outcomes. People who wield coercive power, do get people to follow their commands and their directions and avoid consequences. However, leaders who constantly use coercive power, will not keep the respect or loyalty of their employees for long.
Reward power refers to leaders’ ability to influence or motivate people to act due to their ability to offer rewards, raises, promotions, awards, or other types of benefits. If your performance review is linked to salary increase of pay raises, then the person who administers your performance appraisal holds reward power.
Legitimate power refers to the ability to influence people to act due to being appointed to a high position of leadership. This power gives the leader control over employees and authority to make far-reaching decisions. For persons with legitimate power, it is important to remember that if employees recognize this authority they will respond favorably and if they do not believe the leader deserves this power, they will not cooperate. It is here that we might see legitimate power take on a coercive trait. It is important for leaders with legitimate power to remember that this appointment was given and it can be taken away.
Powerful leaders can be persuasive and can influence others to buy into their vision. However, leaders have been known to use their power for good or for evil. For some leaders, the access to power can go to their head and cause them to misuse their power. It is essential for leaders to remember that people look to them to be a positive example and rely on leaders to act on their behalf.
Competence appears to offer wide appeal, and its use as a power base results in high performance by group members. A strong leader accepts the political nature of organizations. In fact a great leader has political savvy when she/he learns how to ‘read’ the organization, understand the rules of the organization – both those that are stated and those that are unwritten. Having political savvy in an organization means a person understands how to get things done and how to make changes. Some people are significantly more politically astute than others, meaning that they are aware of the underlying politics and can manage impressions. Those who are good at playing politics can be expected to get higher performance evaluations and, hence, larger salary increases and more promotions than the politically naïve or inept. Some people use their political savvy to make changes for the organization as a whole, while some might behave in pernicious ways when they use this savvy for personal benefits regardless of the cost to others. Be aware of politically savvy who are always thinking, what’s in it for me, compared to what’s in it for the organization as a whole. The politically astute are also likely to exhibit higher job satisfaction and be better able to neutralize job stressors. Specific implications for managers include the following::
To maximize personal power, leaders will want to increase others’ dependence on them. For instance, increase your power by developing knowledge or a skill your boss needs and for which she/he perceives no ready substitute.
No single person will be alone in attempting to build your power bases. There will always be competitors among your colleagues who are also seeking power..
Try to avoid putting others in a position where they feel they have no power. Remember that everyone has some base of power.
By assessing behavior in a political framework, you can better predict the actions of others and use that information to formulate political strategies that will gain advantages for you and your work unit.
Consider that employees who have poor political skills or are unwilling to play the politics game generally relate perceived organizational politics to lower job satisfaction and self-reported performance, increased anxiety, and higher turnover. Therefore, if you are adept at organizational politics, help your employees understand the importance of becoming politically savvy.
Although it is not always easy to admit to ourselves, often we adapt our behavior to suit those in power. To some degree, it is important for organizational success that we do so. After all, people are in positions of authority for a reason, and if no one paid attention to the rules these people put in place, chaos would rule. But is it always ethical for us to defer to the powerful?
More often than we acknowledge, powerful individuals in organizations push our actions into ethical gray areas, or worse. For example, managers of restaurants and stores (including McDonald’s, Applebee’s, Taco Bell, Winn Dixie, and others) were persuaded to strip-search customers or employees when an individual impersonating a police officer phoned in and instructed them to do so. What would you do if you thought a police officer, definitely a symbol of power, ordered you to do something you’d never choose to do as manager?
Outright abuses aside, power is wielded over us in more prosaic ways. For example, many stock analysts report pressure from their bosses to promote funds from which the organization profits most (a fact that is not disclosed to their clients). These might be good funds that the analysts would promote anyway. But maybe they’re not. Should the analyst ever promote the funds without discussing the conflict of interest with the client?
Few of us might think we would perform strip-searches. But examples of power taken to the limit highlight the disturbing tendency of many of us to conform to the wishes of those in power. For all of us, knowing that blindly deferring to those in power might cause us to cross ethical lines is enough to keep us thinking.
Sources: J. Sancton, “Milgram at McDonald’s,” Bloomberg Businessweek, September 2, 2012, 74–75; and A. Wolfson, “Compliance’ Re-Creates McDonald’s Strip-Search Ordeal,” USA Today, September 1, 2012, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/ nation/story/ 2012-09-01/Compliance-strip-search-hoax/57509182/1).
This final part of your paper will ask you to think critically and answer the following question:
5. Having read the chapter and based on your new understanding of the different bases of power, explain: Why don’t more people in organizations question the prudence of what they are being asked to do? Include a critical discussion of leaders and the various bases of power. (1 page)
Here’s an oversimplified eg., of a response: “People in organizations might not be inclined to question the prudence of what they are being told to do if they believe in hierarchy and that the formal leader gives direction, that direction should not be challenged. This way of thinking might simplify the way we work and create a sense of order. However, this way of thinking assumes that the formal leader has expertise, when that might not be so.”