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The Leadership Experience
Chapter 1
Leadership is one of the evolving disciplines because the concept of leadership will continue to evolve and grow. Leadership is defined as an influential relationship among leaders and followers who aim at bringing changes. There are different elements of leadership such as influence, intention, followers, shared purpose, personal responsibility and integrity, and change. Leadership is more like people activity and it is distinct from other planning activities and administrative paperwork. There are different stereotypes that are parallel to understanding leadership, such as leaders are above other people in world. A critical understanding affirms that leadership is something that can come from anywhere and mitigating stereotypes can facilitate the understanding of leadership. The Leaders’ Bookshelf asserts that all great leaders started their leadership journey in small ways. Leadership is nothing dramatic it is just an everyday way of acting and thinking. With the passage of time, several different opportunities for leaders are introduced such as social media, model commerce, geopolitical ways and social media. All these platforms have shared an overall understanding of leadership. According to a survey from the Centre for Creative Leadership, 84 percent of the leaders think that the definition of leadership has been changed with the first few years of the 21 century. Present century has brought a change from old paradigm to new paradigm, where the roles of a leader are changed from organizer to change manager, from controller to a facilitator, from hero to being humble and from celebrating “leaders as hero” to “celebration of hard work”, from competitor to collaborator, and from diversity avoider to diversity promoter. It is important to note that leadership is different from management. The difference between leaders and managers can be found in five different and crucial areas of organizational performance such as aligning followers, creating leaders, outcomes, providing direction, developing personal qualities and building relationships. There are different theories that are used to define and provide a historical overview of leadership, such as Great Man Theories, Trait Theories, Behavior Theories, Contingency Theories, Influence Theories, and Relational Theories. There are different ways of becoming a leader as well, especially through learning, such as practicing the act of leadership, emulating successful leaders, finding a mentor that can provide feedback, completing a leadership course to improve skills and work to develop the personal traits of patience and empathy.
Chapter 2
Leadership is a combination of different traits, also called the trait approach which includes qualities such as appearance, intelligence, self-confidence, and honesty. Optimism and self-confidence are the two major points of effective leadership. Some other characteristics are, honesty, integrity, drive, and understanding strengths. After the identification of strengths, an effective leader is required to match his strengths with the set roles. There are three types of leadership roles, termed as operational roles, collaborative roles and advisory roles. Along with the attributive approaches, some behavioral approaches are also required such as autocratic versus democratic behaviors. According to the Ohio State Studies, leadership is reflected in behaviors as well, it is not confined to the personal traits or the focus for subsequent research. However, the University of Michigan Studies has highlighted that the effectiveness of a leader is determined by the productivity of its subordinate groups. The University of Texas has proposed a Leadership Grid that builds on the work of Ohio State and Michigan Studies, depicting a two-dimensional model along with five major leadership styles associated with it. These leadership styles are team management, country club management, impoverished man agent, middle of the road management and authority compliance management. It is asserted that in today’s turbulent environment, entrepreneurial leadership is one of the major concerns that are a crucial source of innovation and change.
Chapter 3
There are several new dimensions introduced to address and find the universal traits that could determine effective leadership. One such approaches is the Contingency Approach, meaning that one thing depends on the other things and there must be an appropriate fit between the behaviors of the leaders. Another approach is Universalistic Approach that refers to outcomes such as performance and satisfaction. the outcome of the cognitive approach is also the same. Another theory of leadership is developed by Hersey and Blanchard’s also called Situational Leadership Theory that focuses on the situation to make the required and suitable decision. There are four different styles of situational leadership, selling, delegating, participating and telling. These styles are accompanied by three levels of readiness such as high readiness, moderate readiness, and very high readiness. Fielders’ Contingency Theory is another leadership style that took all the possible and present elements into considerations while making decisions. The context of this theory highlights the presence of follow up by a task-oriented leader who has the power to take charge and provide directions. Another theory is "Path-Goal Theory", which refers to the leaders’ responsibility to increase the motivation of subordinates with an aim to arrange organizational and personal goals. The Contingency Approach comprises three contingency situations, leadership style and followers. There are four types of behaviors that a leader can adopt in Path-Goal leadership theory, supportive, directive, participative and achievement-oriented leadership. “Vroom-Jago Contingency Model” is another leadership style or approach that signifies leadership similar to the previous model but there are some differences such as focusing of varying degrees of participative leadership, identification of situational factors and diagnostics situations. The final contingency approach to leadership highlight substitutes for leadership that makes the leadership style unnecessary or redundant.
Chapter 4
This chapter signifies self-awareness as something that is mandatory in the experience of leadership, taking into account the individualistic differences that can affect leader as well as leadership personality, style of thinking, decision making and different attitudes and values. “The Big Five Personality” dimension examines the scoring of different dimensions of extroversions, emotional stabilities, openness to experiences and the conscientiousness of the individual. There are some major indications that design dimensions associated with successful leadership, taking into account that low score on various dimesons can also mark a leader effective, however, two major and important traits are majoritarianism and the focus of control. Values also play a major role in determining the preference of a person in terms of practicing leadership because it affects individualists' attitude. There are two sets of assumptions, Theory X and Theory Y, that highlights different attitude of leader about people in general. It is asserted that differences in values, attitude and personality influence perception, which is similar to the process used by people to organize, interpret and select information. There are some perceptual distortions associated with differences in personality such as stereotyping, perceptual defense and halo effect. Attribution is another major aspect that determines how people explain the cause of different events and behaviors, based on the perception, people may opt for either external or internal attributions. Cognitive style is another major area of individual difference where the whole brain concept explains the difference between right-brained versus left-brain thinking and then conceptual thinking versus experimental thinking. There are some important tips for how leaders can work more effectively with different types of personalities such as understanding their personalities, treating others with respect, listening to others, unique abilities of the people and circumventing the communication breakdown. Creating a positive environment is another major element that is assoiled with keeping diverse people focused on their goals rather than on personality differences.
Chapter 5
There are different ways of leading others, where personal experience is one of the most recommended and widely used potions. It comprises of sniffed and subtle aspects such as feelings, beliefs, and thoughts that appeal to the others. It is also called leading with Head and Heart and it tends to deals with organizational issues such as operational issues, goals, strategies, and finances. In addition, mental models are also of prime importance as they display the internal picture of leader's thoughts, relationships, and actions. Mental model is the theory that determines what people think about some particular systems and their expected behaviors. The mental models of leaders help to understand and govern their interpretations and experiences of how they act to particular people and situations. There are some challenges as well associated with mental model such as navigation through different ambiguities and complexities on a global scale. One of the major topics discussed in the chapter is of developing the leader’s mind. There are some attributes that make up the mind of a leader such as independent thinking which empowers questioning the interpretation of data and systems according to some personal ideas, beliefs and thinking contradicting the set rules, categories and routines. Mindfulness is another state of focused attention on the current movement, depicting readiness to create some new categories. Open-mindedness infers the power of conditioning that can limit behaviors and think, also called Pike Syndrome. System thinking refer to the ability of a readers to see the synergy of the whole rather than examining a single element of a system. Another concept is Personal Mastery that infers understanding oneself in ways that can facilitate the required activities. Emotional intelligence is also identified as an element that can improve leadership such as the person’s abilities to identify, understand and perceive things.
Chapter 6
This chapter identifies different ideas that are related to moral leadership and the understanding of leadership courage. It is evident that people look for trustworthy and honest leader, while leaders have to face a lot of pressures in order to meet the demands of the stakeholders, increase profits and cut the overall cost so there is a conflict of expectation. However, it is the responsibility of the organization to include those leaders who act on the basis of moral principles. It is asserted that leaders are the symbol of ethnic culture and immoral acts can not only compromise the performance of the organization but it also tarnishes the expectations of employees associated with them. There are some particular characteristics of ethical leaders such as straightforwardness, decision making, honesty and humble attitude. Such leadership characteristics infer the favor and concern of great goals and strive for fairness. Moral development is another major dimension of leadership because there are different frames of moral development used by leaders to enhance their moral development and empower follower. leaders know how to focus on the higher and prominent stages of moral development that fits primarily on the needs of the followers and universal moral principles. With the passage of time, there is a shift in ideas reflecting control versus services because of the changing ideologies between leaders and followers. The continuum of leader’s follower relationship varies from authoritarian managers to participative manager and then to stewardship that has now led to servant leadership. Leadership courage is also one of the major elements to discuss because courage is all that a leader needs such as mental and moral strength to confront challenges, withstand upcoming dangers and persevere through thick and thin.
Chapter 7
Followership is one of the basic aspects that complete leadership. The significance of followership within an organization is increasingly recognized over time. There are a lot of leaders and followers who are interdepended and there is a greater ratio of followers as compared to the leader. Hierarchical management is compulsory to followership because the people who manage both up and down the hierarchy are more successful, however, managing can be difficult for the new leaders. The strategies for the management include helping leaders being a resource and building positive relationships with the leader along with viewing leaders in a realistic manner. Leaders who have followers are more self-motivated positive because they take actions and get tasks done. It is also important that an effective leader is both active and independent within an organization because becoming an effective follower depends on not becoming alienated, having a passive approach and become a pragmatic survivor. Effective followership is not as easy as it appears to be because effective followers display the courage that can assumes responsibility, participate in transformation and they serve others whenever required. Positive followership is a two-way relationship, where a follower also wants its colleagues to be competent and honest. Also, they want their leaders to be inspirational and forward-thinking because these are the traits that can distinguish a leader from a follower. There are four specific ways through which leaders can enhance the abilities and contributions of followers such as offering clarity of direction, providing opportunities for growth and give constructive feedback from different organizational intrusions. Feedback is another major element of followership because a follower also seeks feedback that is specific and timely along with a prime focus on performance rather than on the person. As a follower focuses on the future target than adhering and counting the mistakes of the past.
Chapter 9
Communication is one of the major elements in effective leadership. Leaders should be communication champions because only then they would be able to inspire and unite people around them in a common-sense of purpose and identity. It is asserted that effective leaders lead the strategic conversation and get the people to initiate conversation across the borders. The topics of communication of leaders are also significant such as vision, valued or organizational and strategic themes. There are six major elements that can facilitate strategic communication such as asking questions, open communication climate, use of stories, active listening, use of dialogues and candor. Each of the attributes plays a major role in communication such as building trust, increasing opportunities, facilitating communication and enable employees to gain benefits, it is asserted that not all the benefits are promoted through interpersonal communication but some of the benefits require the platform of intrapersonal communication. Communication also help the leaders to get on the same board as that of the followers and connect with the employees on an emotional level and become more influential. It doesn’t mean that the communication of a leader is beating around the bush, in fact, leaders’ communication is purpose directed with an aim to accomplish visions. There are four major steps for this art of persuasion such as building goals on common grounds, listen, establishing credibility and make a position that is compelling to others. There are several challenges in communication, where a major challenge is promoted by electronic communication because of inappropriate use and these channels are not effective for sensitive and complex messages. The cutting communication channels that are being faced by the leader are the communication of uncertainties through social media applications and unnecessary exchange of information. For electronic communication, there are four major skills to consider such as be visible, calm attitude, getting awful truth out and communicating a vision for the future.
Chapter 10
Leading teams is another major topic of discussion in experiencing leadership. There are many leaders who are called upon so that they can facilitate their team rather than managing the teams. It is highlighted that teams can only be effective only if a leader is useful in providing coordination and adequate sharing of information that is required to accomplish the interdependent tasks. Functional teams are typically a part of traditional organization structure, where cross-departmental teams are formed so that different projects of special importance can be formed. It is asserted that a self-directed realm is more meaning-centered as compared to the leader centered and leader directed teams. teams are also similar to the dilemma because individuals have to give up their independence and make sacrifices for the teams. The free-rider and the dysfunctional teams also propose some major issues. It is highlighted that the team leaders play a major role in the high-performance achievement of the team. There are five major attributes that can be provided by leaders to improve the performance of the team, such as clear objectives, compelling purpose, diversity of skills, specified roles and the authoritative decision that can help in improve coaching. There are different changes that a team has to undergo over time such as the establishment of norms, encourage cohesiveness of teams and impart competencies that can encourage employees to play their part. There are some major competencies of a successful team such as planning, goal setting, performance management, problem-solving, conflict resolution and positive communication. These are set rocailles, applicable to both global and virtual terms. It is also highlighted that there is some conflict faced by teams such as conflict of goals, scarcity of resources and the difference of statutes that can demolish the balance of the team and mitigate cooperation between people. There are several solutions that are promoted to overcome the conflicts and issues such as negotiation, win-win assumptions and the distributive negotiation that can facilitate groups.
Chapter 11
Developing leadership diversity is another major element in leadership diversity. It is asserted that diversity is a fact of life in today's world and leaders can bring a commendable change in organizations by keeping pace with the changing environment. It is found that the customer base, population as well as the workforce is changing in the US. In addition, the organizations in operation rely on a more global level with which they can deal with diversity on the broader stage as compared to the past. there are different definitions of diversity, taking into account that definition is broadened in the past few years to make more inclusive teams along with the recognition of the same broad spectrum of characteristics. The actual definition of diversity not only embraces different and changing dimensions such as gender and race but it also includes characters such as income level, style, and nationality. There are different reasons asserting the necessity of diversity such as the need to value different notions to become more problem solving and become parallel to the rapidly changing environment. Diverse workplace improves employee creations by imparting positive potential. Other major benefits are interactive leadership, relationship building, and valuable qualities. There are different challenges to address in terms of diversity such as understanding the hardship of employees, domain male culture stereotypes and glass ceiling. The issues of social and cultural value differences are also important. In 21 century, the ultimate goal of the leader is to build organizations in the form of an integrated community in which everyone is encouraged, committed to a common purpose and respected.
Chapter 12
Leadership is specifically about leadership power and influence. It is highlighted that leader use power and political procedures to influence each other and get their task done. there are four major types of influential leadership, termed as transformational leadership, charismatic, Machiavellian-style and coalitional leadership. These are some specific styles that are used by leaders to accomplish their goals. It is highlighted that power is one of the abilities that can influence leader to reach the desired goal whereas power is termed as both soft or hard. hard power includes trends, legitimate and coercive power that is associated with a formal position of the authority. On the other hand, soft skills include referent power and expert that is based on the personal qualities, leader’s knowledge and expertise. There are three major outcomes of the use of power, such as resistance, compliance, and commitment. It is highlighted that the effective use of hard skills and, position power can lead to the follower complaints while excessive use of position power can lead to resistance where follower response is generated by commitment. It is asserted that power is developed, acquired and exercised through different political activities. There is a different frame of reference in which leaders interact with the followers and make decisions such as structural, symbolic, political and human resource framework references. A common observation is, usually leaders start with structural and then they proceed with other frames of reference as they mature in their leadership. There are different leadership tactics that are used by leaders guided by six principles, rational persuasion, friendliness, higher vision, developing cooperation, direct appeal, and reciprocity. However, the point of consideration is the way in which power is used by different leaders and how they strive to be fair in their dealings with others.
Chapter 13
Leadership is all about strategic direction and creating vision. Leaders establish different organization direction through strategy and visions. Leaders are responsible for studying the environment of an organization and consider how it can be modified to make it fit for the future. Shared vision is always found and assumed to be the attractive and it defines the idealistic nature of the organization as credible. Leaders are responsible for making real differences in their organization where they are capable of linking their vision to the strategic action, Here, it is asserted that superior organization performance is not just a matter of luck but it is determined by the decisions that are taken by the leaders. A leader and power vision link present and future along with energizing employees and focuses attention. This vision can also define meaning to work and establish a standard of excellence that demands workers to give their best. Mission is the hallmark of the company and it is an ultimate expression of the vision of the company. Effective leaders frame some noble purposes that can inspire followers and help them to maintain competitive advantages. Framing organizational purpose help leader to make their work meaningful, adhering to four basics of purpose, excellence, discovery, heroism, and altruism. Strategic management is another serious task of converting vision and mission into action. Strategies changes with a vision where successful companies develop those strategies that can build on the core competencies and develop synergy along with creating values for the customers. Strategies are executed through different structures and systems that act as a basis for the architecture of how things should have done and dealt with within an organization. So, an organization has to bring its vision on the same board as that of direction in order to be successful and it can only be achieved with the help of a leader
Chapter 14
Leadership is directly concerned with culture and values. So, creating a culture is one of the major jobs of a leader. Culture is defined as a set of norms, assumptions, and values that are shared by different members of the organization and they are taught to the new members as correct values. There are two major and critical functions that are served by culture, one is to integrate the organization members so that they can become relevant to each other and to help an organization adapt to the environment. It is observed that strong and responsive cultures can cast a positive impact on the outcomes of an organization where strong culture is appreciated because the right culture can drive high importance. Leaders try to build high performance culture by emphasizing both solid business operations and values which are termed as the drivers of organization success. Three is a cultural gap when the organizational culture is not in alignment with the needs of the strategies of the company. Leaders use different stories, symbols, selections, and sialyation to instill and strengthen the required cultural values. Also, leaders influence the cultural values in a strong manner through their fair actions. The visions, strategy and external environment of the company play a central role in determining the efficiency of any organization. Also, ethics is the code of moral values and principles that can govern the behavior of a person or the group with a reference to what is right or what is wrong. Leaders shape the organization by different culture-based values, based on personal values which they want to be honored by the power of the organization. Spiritual leadership is another ideology that is practiced by leaders to embed a positive attitude towards culture and incorporate social and moral values within the company.
Chapter 15
Leading is the most crucial task that is required of a leader. There are different tools and approaches that are available for a leader to create engage and facilitate flexibility. It is highlighted that the increased space of change within the global environment has led to the greater problems for a leader who is struggling for his organization to adapt to some skills. Many of the people have a natural resistance to change, but a leader serves as role models who can facilitate this change in attitude and convert resistance to acceptance. Change leaders are those leaders who aim at bringing changes and such leaders are more courageous, more capable and has the power to change other leaders who are weak. Change leader believes in the capacity to apply the responsibility for change and learn from their own mistakes. There are a lot of changes that are difficult to implement, such changes can be incorporated by change leader by following eight-stage models of planned change. The steps of this model are, light a fire for change, bring right people on board, develop competitive strategy and visions keep maximum energy, generate short term wins and institutionalize the change in organizational culture. Appreciative inquiry is one of the critic approaches to change and it engages different elements in an organization for change. Appreciative inquiry infers a positive approach that is guided by dream, destiny, design and discovers. One of the significant challenges in leading change is the “innovation and change”, such challenges require a leader to incorporate creativity by facilitating lateral thinking, brainstorming, immersion, fostering creative situation and allowing pauses. An undeniable role is played by the change initiatives that assert that leaders should strive to understand the reason for resisting change and provide positive approaches that can help them become adaptive to change. These strategies should be supportive relationships, emotional attraction, a depiction of novel behaviors and involvement along with after action reviews.
