Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Concept of Leadership
Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing. - Warren Bennis, Ph.D. "On Becoming a Leader"
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Introduction
Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never-ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. This guide will help you through that process. To inspire your people into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain things you must be, know, and, do. These do not come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. The best leaders are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills
Definition of leadership
Leadership is a complex process by which a person influences others to accomplish a mission, task, or objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. A person carries out this process by applying her leadership attributes (belief, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills). Although your position as a manager, supervisor, lead, etc. gives you the authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the organization, this power does not make you a leader...it simply makes you the boss. Leadership makes people want to achieve high goals and objectives, while, on the other hand, bosses tell people to accomplish a task or objective
What is leadership?
Leading people
Influencing people Commanding people Guiding people
Types of Leaders
Leader by the position achieved Leader by personality, charisma Leader by moral example Leader by power held Intellectual leader Leader because of ability to accomplish things
Principles of Leadership
To help you be, know, and do, follow these eleven principles of leadership: 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 reading, self-study, classes, etc. 2. Be technically proficient. As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees' jobs. 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 will sooner or later, do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.
Factors of leadership
The four major factors of leadership are the: Follower - Different people require different styles of leadership. For example, a new hire requires more supervision than an experienced employee. A person with a poor attitude 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: needs, emotions, and motivation. You must know your employees' be, know, and do attributes. Leader - You must have a 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 a follower does not trust or lacks confidence in her leader, then she 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 situations are different. What you do in one leadership situation will not always work in another situation. 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 a 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
To be a good leader, there are things that you must be, know, and do. These fall under the Leadership Framework: 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, straightforward, 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 and 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 moral and esprit in the organization, train, coach, counsel.
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Referent
Reward
Power
Expert
Coercive
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Communication
Many of the problems that occur in a organization are the direct result of people failing to communicate. Faulty communication causes the most problems. It leads to confusion and can cause a good plan to fail. Communication is the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another. It involves a sender transmitting an idea to a receiver. Effective communication occurs only if the receiver understands the exact information or idea that the sender intended to transmit Studying the communication process is important because you coach, coordinate, counsel, evaluate, and supervise through this process. It is the chain of understanding that integrates the members of an organization from top to bottom, bottom to top, and side to side
Introduction To Teams
A team is a group of people coming together to collaborate. This collaboration is to reach a shared goal or task for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. A group of people is not a team. A team is a group of people with a high degree of interdependence geared towards the achievement of a goal or completion of a task...it is not just a group for administrative convenience. A group, by definition, is a number of individuals having some unifying relationship The team members are also deeply committed to each other's personal growth and success. That commitment usually transcends the team. A team outperforms a group. and outperforms all reasonable expectations given to its individual members. That is, a team has a synergistic effect...one plus one equals a lot more than two.
Team members not only cooperate in all aspects of their tasks and goals, they share in what are traditionally thought of as management functions, such as planning, organizing, setting performance goals, assessing the team's performance, developing their own strategies to manage change, and securing their own resources A team has three major benefits for the organization: 1- It maximizes the organization's human resources. Each member of the team is coached, helped, and led by all the other members of the team. A success or failure is felt by all members, not just the individual. Failures are not blamed on individual members, this gives them the courage to take chances. Successes are felt by every team member, this helps them to set and achieve bigger and better successes.
2- There is superior outputs against all odds. This is due to the synergistic effect of a team - a team will outperform a group of individuals. 3- There is continuous improvement. No one knows the job, tasks, and goals better than the team. To get real change, you need their knowledge, skills, and abilities. When they pull together as a team they will not be afraid to show what they can do. Personal motives will be pushed to the side to allow the team motive to succeed.
Use informal processes, such as the way you communicate, showing respect, and appreciating and celebrating their achievements. Your feelings must show commitment, loyalty, pride, and trust in your team. Share the credit. Create subcommittees for key areas and give them decision making authority. Take turns having a different member facilitate or lead the meetings. Talk last in discussions, after you've heard from the others. Be clear about when you're expressing your own personal opinion, that of the organization, or that of the whole team.
Elements of a Team
A common team goal - Although your team might have a number of goals, one of them must stand out. For example, "To produce 10% more widgets than last year without hiring additional personnel." A supporting goal might be, "To provide 40 hours of yearly training for each member." Everyone will know, agree upon, and committed to accomplishing the team goal. Productive participation of all members - This has four levels: Contributing data and knowledge. Sharing in the decision making process and reaching consensus. Making the decision. Making an imposed decision work.
Communication - Open, honest, and effective exchange of information between members. Trust - Openness in critiquing and trusting others. A sense of belonging - Cohesiveness by being committed to an understood mandate and team identity. Diversity - This must be valued as an asset. It is a vital ingredient that provides the synergistic effect of a team. Creativity and risk taking - If no one individual fails, then risk taking becomes a lot easier. Evaluation - An ability to self correct. Change compatibility - Being flexible and assimilating change. Participatory leadership - Everyone must help lead to one degree or another.
Context
Every leader is different, and as a result, has different needs with regard to numbers, skills, cultural dynamics, etc. If you dont have the skills to lead or manage a broad span, yet attempt to do so, it will be your undoing. If your focus is too narrow, youll find yourself with blind spots and operational gaps. Make sure youre sending the correct message.
Understanding
Dont focus on the team you inherit, focus on the team you need if they happen to be one and the same consider yourself lucky. Are you looking for doers, thinkers, or teachers? Do you want to build a team of tactical geniuses, or brilliant strategists, or sage mentors? Compromise has its place, but not where matters of talent are concerned. When it comes to team construct, never settle for less than what you need. You will be held accountable for your decisions in this regard choose wisely.
Thank you