EMOTIONAL

INTELLIGENCE (EI)

Emotion is a wide range of observable behaviours, expressed feelings, and changes in

the state of mind and body. Feelings, emotions, our likes, and dislikes, give our
individual lives meaning and cause us to be happy or unhappy, satisfied or dissatisfied.
Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. By understanding
one's own feelings, they can understand and evaluate others.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the capability of individuals to recognize their own and
other people's emotions, discern between different feelings and label them
appropriately, use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour, and manage
and/or adjust emotions to adapt to environments or achieve one's goal(s). It is the ability
to deal with other people successfully.

Although the term first appeared in a 1964 paper by Michael Beldoch, it gained
popularity in the 1995 book by that title, written by the author, psychologist, and science
journalist Daniel Goleman.

There are currently several models of EI. Goleman's original model may now be
considered a ​mixed model ​that combines what have subsequently been modelled
separately as ​ability EI ​and ​trait EI​. Goleman defined EI as the array of skills and
characteristics that drive leadership performance.

The ​trait model ​was developed by Konstantin Vasily Petrides in 2001. It "encompasses
behavioural dispositions and self-perceived abilities and is measured through
self-report. The ​ability model​, developed by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 2004,
focuses on the individual's ability to process emotional information and use it to navigate
the social environment.

Studies have shown that people with high EI have greater mental health, job
performance, and leadership skills although no causal relationships have been shown
and such findings are likely to be attributable to general intelligence and specific
personality traits rather than emotional intelligence as a construct. For example,
Goleman indicated that EI accounted for 67% of the abilities deemed necessary for
superior performance in leaders, and mattered twice as much as technical expertise or
IQ.
Other research finds that the effect of EI on leadership and managerial performance is
non- significant when ability and personality are controlled for, and that general
intelligence correlates very closely with leadership. In addition, studies have begun to
provide evidence to help characterize the neural mechanisms of emotional intelligence.

Criticisms have centred on whether EI is a real intelligence and whether it has

incremental validity over IQ and the Big Five personality traits. Review finds that, in
most studies, poor research methodology has exaggerated the significance of EI.
Definitio
ns

Emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability to monitor one's own and other
people's emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them
appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour.

Emotional intelligence also reflects abilities to join intelligence, empathy and emotions to
enhance thought and understanding of interpersonal dynamics. However, substantial
disagreement exists regarding the definition of EI, with respect to both terminology and
operationalisations.

Models of
EI

Currently, there are three main models

of EI:

1. Ability model 2. Mixed model (usually

listed under trait EI) 3. Trait model

Different models of EI have led to the development of various instruments for the
assessment of the construct. While some of these measures may overlap, most
researchers agree that they tap different constructs. Specific ability models address the
ways in which emotions facilitate thought and understanding. For example, emotions
may interact with thinking and allow people to be better decision makers (Lyubomirsky
et al. 2005).

A person who is more responsive emotionally to crucial issues will attend to the more
crucial aspects of his or her life. Aspects of emotional facilitation factor is to also know
how to include or exclude emotions from thought depending on context and situation.
This is also related to emotional reasoning and understanding in response to the
people, environment and circumstances one encounters in his or her day-to-day life.

ABILITY
MODEL

Salovey and Mayer's conception of EI strives to define EI within the confines of the
standard criteria for a new intelligence. Following their continuing research, their initial
definition of EI was revised to "The ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to
facilitate thought, understand emotions and to regulate emotions to promote personal
growth."

However, after pursuing further research, their definition of EI evolved into "the capacity
to reason about emotions, and of emotions, to enhance thinking. It includes the abilities
to accurately perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist
thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate
emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth."
The ability-based model views emotions as useful sources of information that help one
to make sense of and navigate the social environment. The model proposes that
individuals vary in their ability to process information of an emotional nature and in their
ability to relate emotional processing to a wider cognition. This ability is seen to manifest
itself in certain adaptive behaviours. The model claims that EI includes four types of
abilities:

1. ​Perceiving emotions ​– the ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces,

pictures, voices, and cultural artifacts—including the ability to identify one's own
emotions. Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect of emotional intelligence,
as it makes all other processing of emotional information possible. 2. ​Using emotions
– the ability to harness emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities, such as
thinking and problem solving. The emotionally intelligent person can capitalize fully
upon his or her changing moods in order to best fit the task at hand. 3.
Understanding emotions ​– the ability to comprehend emotion language and to
appreciate complicated relationships among emotions. For example, understanding
emotions encompasses the ability to be sensitive to slight variations between
emotions, and the ability to recognize and describe how emotions evolve over time.
4. ​Managing emotions ​– the ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in
others. Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even
 negative ones, and manage them to achieve intended goals.

The Ability EI model has been criticized in the research for lacking face and predictive
validity in the workplace. However, in terms of construct validity, ability EI tests have
great advantage over self-report scales of EI because they compare individual maximal
performance to standard performance scales and do not rely on individuals'
endorsement of descriptive statements about themselves.

MIXED
MODEL

The model introduced by Daniel Goleman focuses on EI as a wide array of

competencies and skills that drive leadership performance. Goleman's model outlines
five main EI constructs (for more details see "What Makes A Leader" by Daniel
Goleman, best of Harvard Business Review 1998):

1. ​Self-awareness ​– the ability to know one's emotions, strengths, weaknesses,

drives, values and goals and recognize their impact on others while using gut
feelings to guide decisions.

2. ​Self-regulation ​– involves controlling or redirecting one's disruptive emotions and

impulses and adapting to changing
circumstances.

3. ​Social skill ​– managing relationships to move people in the desired

direction

4. ​Empathy ​– considering other people's feelings especially when making

decisions

​ being driven to achieve for the sake of

5. ​Motivation –
achievement
Goleman includes a set of emotional competencies within each construct of EI.
Emotional competencies are not innate talents, but rather learned capabilities that must
be worked on and can be developed to achieve outstanding performance. Goleman
posits that individuals are born with a general emotional intelligence that determines
their potential for learning emotional competencies. Goleman's model of EI has been
criticized in the research literature as mere "pop psychology" (Mayer, Roberts, &
Barsade, 2008).
TRAIT
MODEL

Konstantinos Vasilis Petrides ("K. V. Petrides") proposed a conceptual distinction

between the ability based model and a trait based model of EI and has been developing
the latter over many years in numerous publications. Trait EI is "a constellation of
emotional self-perceptions located at the lower levels of personality." In lay terms, trait
EI refers to an individual's self-perceptions of their emotional abilities. This definition of
EI encompasses behavioural dispositions and self- perceived abilities and is measured
by self-report, as opposed to the ability based model which refers to actual abilities,
which have proven highly resistant to scientific measurement.

Trait EI should be investigated within a personality framework. An alternative label for

the same construct is trait emotional self-efficacy. The trait EI model is general and
subsumes the Goleman model discussed above. The conceptualization of EI as a
personality trait leads to a construct that lies outside the taxonomy of human cognitive
ability. This is an important distinction in as much as it bears directly on the
operationalization of the construct and the theories and hypotheses that are formulated
about it.

General
effects

A review published in the journal of ​Annual Psychology ​found that higher emotional
intelligence is positively correlated with:

1. ​Better social relations for children ​– Among children and teens, emotional
intelligence positively correlates with good social interactions, relationships and
negatively correlates with deviance from social norms, antisocial behaviour
measured both in and out of school as reported by children themselves, their own
family members as well as their teachers.

​ High emotional intelligence among adults is

2. ​Better social relations for adults –
correlated with better self-perception of social ability and more successful
interpersonal relationships while less interpersonal aggression and problems.

3. ​Perception of being more positive ​– Other individuals perceive those with high EI
to be
 more pleasant, socially skilled and empathic to be
around.

​ High EI is correlated with better

4. ​Better family and intimate relationships –
relationships
with the family and intimate partners on many
aspects.
5. ​Better academic achievement – ​ Emotional intelligence is correlated with greater
achievement in academics as reported by teachers but generally not higher grades
once the factor of IQ is taken into account.

6. ​Better social relations during work performance and in negotiations – ​ Higher

emotional intelligence is correlated with better social dynamics at work as well as
better negotiating ability.

7. ​Better psychological well-being ​– Emotional intelligence is positively correlated

with higher life satisfaction, self-esteem and lower levels of insecurity or depression.
It is also negatively correlated with poor health choices and behaviour.

Criticis
ms

1. Cannot be recognized as form of

intelligence

Goleman's early work has been criticized for assuming from the beginning that EI is a
type of intelligence or cognitive ability. Eysenck (2000)] writes that Goleman's
description of EI contains unsubstantiated assumptions about intelligence in general,
and that it even runs contrary to what researchers have come to expect when studying
types of intelligence: "[Goleman] exemplifies more clearly than most the fundamental
absurdity of the tendency to class almost any type of behaviour as an 'intelligence'... If
these five 'abilities' define 'emotional intelligence', we would expect some evidence that
they are highly correlated; Goleman admits that they might be quite uncorrelated, and in
any case if we cannot measure them, how do we know they are related? So the whole
theory is built on quicksand: there is no sound scientific basis."

Similarly, Locke (2005) claims that the concept of EI is in itself a misinterpretation of the
intelligence construct, and he offers an alternative interpretation: it is not another form or
type of intelligence, but intelligence — the ability to grasp abstractions — applied to a
particular life domain: emotions. He suggests the concept should be re-labelled and
referred to as a skill.

The essence of this criticism is that scientific inquiry depends on valid and consistent
construct utilization, and that before the introduction of the term EI, psychologists had
established theoretical distinctions between factors such as abilities and achievements,
skills and habits, attitudes and values, and personality traits and emotional states.

​ erges and conflates such accepted

Thus, some scholars believe that the term ​EI m
concepts and definitions.

2. Confusing skills with moral

qualities

Adam Grant warned of the common but mistaken perception of EI as a desirable moral
quality rather than a skill, Grant asserting that a well-developed EI is not only an
instrumental tool for accomplishing goals, but has a dark side as a weapon for
manipulating others by robbing them of their capacity to reason.

3. Has little predictive

value

Landy (2005) claimed that the few incremental validity studies conducted on EI have
shown that it adds little or nothing to the explanation or prediction of some common
outcomes (most notably academic and work success).

Landy suggested that the reason why some studies have found a small increase in
predictive validity is a methodological fallacy, namely, that alternative explanations have
not been completely considered: "EI is compared and contrasted with a measure of
abstract intelligence but not with a personality measure, or with a personality measure
but not with a measure of academic intelligence." Landy (2005)

Similarly, other researchers have raised concerns about the extent to which self-report
EI measures correlate with established personality dimensions. Generally, self-report EI
measures and personality measures have been said to converge because they both
purport to measure personality traits. Specifically, there appear to be two dimensions of
the Big Five that stand out as most related to self-report EI – neuroticism and
extroversion. In particular, neuroticism has been said to relate to negative emotionality
and anxiety. Intuitively, individuals scoring high on neuroticism are likely to score low on
self-report EI measures.
The interpretations of the correlations between EI questionnaires and personality have
been varied. The prominent view in the scientific literature is the Trait EI view, which
re-interprets EI as a collection of personality traits.

COMPONENTS
OF EI

According to Daniel Goleman, there are five main elements / components of emotional
intelligence.

1.
Self-Awareness
2.
Self-Regulation
3. Motivation 4.
Empathy 5.
Social Skills

1.
Self-Awareness

It refers to how aware you are and how accurately you can assess your emotions. Most
of us are so busy with the daily drudgery that we rarely take a step back and think about
how we’re responding to situations and how we come across. The other source of
self-awareness is recognizing how others respond to us. This is the ability to recognize
and understand ones moods, motivations, and abilities. This is often challenging
because we tend to see what we want to see. And we tend to avoid the uncomfortable
action of asking others for feedback.

To grow in your self-awareness, consider building time for reflection into your day. Also
consider getting into the routine of collecting specific feedback from people who will be
honest and whose ideas you value. A large study that compiled thousands of data
points found that leaders who sought out negative feedback were much more
self-aware and effective than those who sought out positive feedback.

Goleman says to achieve a state of complete self-awareness, an individual must be

able to monitor their emotional state and identify their emotions. Traits that prove an
individual as emotionally mature include: confidence, the ability to laugh at one’s self
and their mistakes, and the awareness of how you are perceived by others.

2.
Self-Regulation

Self-management is your ability to control your emotions. This is the ability to control
ones impulses, the ability to think before you speak/react, and the ability to express
yourself appropriately. This component also includes your transparency, adaptability,
achievement, and optimism. Goleman defines emotional maturity in this component as
being able to take responsibility for your actions, being able to adapt to change, and the
ability to respond appropriately to other people’s irrational emotions or behaviour.

A key factor is whether you react or respond to situations. Answer these

questions:

• When you get an irritating email, do you write back right

away?

• Do you sometimes find yourself regretting how you handled yourself, wishing that
you had been more calm and poised?

• Do you lose patience or rush

others?

If your answer is yes to any of these questions, you may be in the habit of reacting
rather than responding. When you react, you do what comes naturally, which is going
with the emotional part of your brain. When you respond, you act against what is
natural, which is why it is difficult. You engage the rational part of your brain and select
the best response.

3.
Motivation

It refers to having an interest in learning and self-improvement. It is having the strength

to keep going when there are obstacles in life. It is setting goals and following through
with them. Goleman would define an emotional mature individual in this category to
have traits such as having initiative and the commitment to complete a task, and having
perseverance in the face of adversity.
4.
Empathy
This is the ability to understand other people’s emotions and reactions. Empathy can
only be achieved if self-awareness is achieved. Goleman believes that one must be
able to understand themselves before they can understand others. Emotional maturity
in this category includes people having traits such as perception of others, being
interested in other people’s worries and concerns, the ability to anticipate someone’s
emotional response to a problem or situation, and the understanding of societies norms
and why people act the way they do.

5. Social
Skills

This is the ability to pick up on jokes, sarcasm, customer service, maintaining

friendships and relationships, and finding common ground with others. Goleman states
that emotional maturity in this component defines someone who has good
communication skills, good time management, the ability to be a leader or manage a
group of people, and the ability to resolve difficult situations or conflicts using
negotiation or persuasion.

Besides these five components, some researches have mentioned that there are also
some other components viz., Social Awareness and Relationships Management. A brief
description about these components is given below:

6. Social
Awareness

Your organizational awareness, focus on service, and level of empathy compose your
social awareness. Improve your organizational awareness by fine-tuning your radar for
the emotional climate in groups, and recognizing power dynamics. Improve your service
orientation by fine- tuning your radar for your customers’ or clients’ needs. Do this by
first and foremost, always taking personal responsibility even when things aren’t going
well.

Other strategies to enhance your service orientation include being as available and
responsive to your customers as possible, and coming up with a system to regularly
gather feedback.

7. Relationship
Management

Developing others, serving as an inspiring leader and catalyst for change, collaborating
with a high performing team, and managing conflict are part of relationship
management. You are high on this characteristic if others perceive you as likeable and
you’re able to work well with diverse groups, even in the face of stress and conflict.

As you can imagine, to do this requires the above three characteristics, plus finesse in
dealing with others. If you can create and communicate an inspiring vision and help
them to do difficult things, such as embrace change, you are definitely high on this
characteristic.
Emotional Intelligence – An Important
Leadership Trait

An emotionally intelligent individual is both highly conscious of his or her own emotional
states, even negativity—frustration, sadness, or something more subtle—and able to
identify and manage them. These people are also especially tuned in to the emotions
others experience. It’s easy to see how a sensitivity to emotional signals from within and
from the social environment could make one a better friend, parent, leader, or romantic
partner.

A leader’s emotional intelligence can have far-reaching influence over their

relationships, how they manage their teams, and generally how they interact with
individuals in the workplace.

What happens when leaders aren’t emotionally

intelligent?

• Most leaders frequently face stressful situations. Leaders who are low in emotional
intelligence tend to act out in stressful situations because they’re not able to manage
their own emotions. They may be prone to behaviours such as yelling, blaming, and
being passive aggressive. This can create an even more stressful environment,
where workers are always walking on eggshells trying to prevent the next outburst.

• Not being emotionally intelligent can inhibit collaboration. When a leader doesn’t
have a handle on his own emotions and reacts inappropriately, most of his
employees tend to feel nervous about contributing their ideas, for fear of how the
leader will respond.

• A leader who lacks emotional intelligence doesn’t necessarily lash out at his / her
 employees. Not being emotionally intelligent can also mean an inability to address
situations that could be fraught with emotion. Most leaders deal with conflict, and a
leader who isn’t clued into others’ emotions may have a difficult time recognizing
conflict and dealing effectively with its resolution.

What happens when leaders are emotionally

intelligent?

• Leaders who are emotionally intelligent foster safe environments, where

employees feel comfortable to take calculated risks and to voice their opinions.
Working collaboratively isn’t just a goal, but it gets woven into the organizational
culture.

• When a leader is emotionally intelligent, s/he can leverage emotions for the good of
the organization. Leaders often have to act as change agents, and if they are aware
of how others will react emotionally to changes they can anticipate this and plan the
most appropriate ways to introduce and carry out the change.

• Emotionally intelligent leaders don’t take things personally and are able to forge
ahead with plans without worrying about the impact on their egos. Although some
people tend to have more emotional intelligence than others, it is definitely a trait
that can be measured and developed.
LEADERSHIP
COMPETENCIES

Leadership competencies are leadership skills and behaviours that contribute to

superior performance. By using a competency-based approach to leadership,
organizations can better identify and develop their next generation of leaders.

While some leadership competencies are essential to all firms, an organization should
also define what leadership attributes are distinctive to the particular organization to
create competitive advantage.

ESSENTIAL LEADERSHIP
COMPETENCIES

A focus on leadership competencies and skill development promotes better leadership.

However, skills needed for a particular position may change depending on the specific
leadership level in the organization. By using a competency approach, organizations
can determine what positions at which levels require specific competencies.
When selecting and developing leaders, HR professionals should consider the
competencies that the individual possesses and compare those to the ones that need
further development for success in a leadership role. By looking at his/her current
competencies and comparing those to the skills necessary to fill a leadership position,
organizations can make better informed decisions in hiring, developing and promoting
leaders.

The much needed leadership competencies

are:

1. Demonstrating Strong Ethics and Providing a Sense of

Safety

This theme combines two of the three most highly rated attributes: “high ethical and
moral standards” and “communicating clear expectations”. Taken together, these
attributes are all about creating a safe and trusting environment. A leader with high
ethical standards conveys a commitment to fairness, instilling confidence that both they
and their employees will honour the rules of the game. Similarly, when leaders clearly
communicate their expectations, they avoid blindsiding people and ensure that
everyone is on the same page. In a safe environment employees can relax, invoking the
brain’s higher capacity for social engagement, innovation, creativity, and ambition.

2. Empowering Others to
Self-Organize.

Providing clear direction while allowing employees to organize their own time and work
was identified as the next most important leadership competency. No leaders can do
everything themselves. Therefore, it’s critical to distribute power throughout the
organization and to rely on decision making from those who are closest to the action.
Research has repeatedly shown that empowered teams are more productive and
proactive, provide better customer service, and show higher levels of job satisfaction
and commitment to their team and organization. And yet many leaders struggle to let
people self-organize. They resist because they believe that power is a zero-sum game,
they are reluctant to allow others to make mistakes, and they fear facing negative
consequences from subordinates’ decisions.

3. Fostering a Sense of Connection and

Belonging.

Leaders who “communicate often and openly” and “create a feeling of succeeding and
failing together as a pack” build a strong foundation for connection. We are a social
species — we want to connect and feel a sense of belonging. From an evolutionary
perspective, attachment is important because it improves our chances of survival in a
world full of predators.

There are some simple ways to promote belonging among employees: Smile at people,
call them by name, and remember their interests and family members’ names. Pay
focused attention when speaking to them, and clearly set the tone of the members of
your team having each other’s backs. Using a song, motto, symbol, chant, or ritual that
uniquely identifies your team can also strengthen this sense of connection.

4. Showing Openness to New Ideas and Fostering Organizational

Learning.

What do the attributes “flexibility to change opinions”, “being open to new ideas and
approaches”, and “provides safety for trial and error” have in common? If a leader has
these strengths, they encourage learning; if they don’t, they risk stifling it.

To encourage learning among employees, leaders must first ensure that they are open
to learning (and changing) themselves. Try to approach problem-solving discussions
without a specific agenda or outcome. Withhold judgment until everyone has spoken,
and let people know that all ideas will be considered. A greater diversity of ideas will
emerge.

Admitting we’re wrong isn’t easy. Failure is also required for learning, but our relentless
pursuit of results can also discourage employees from taking chances. To resolve this
conflict, leaders must create a culture that supports risk-taking.

5. Nurturing
Growth.

“Being committed to my ongoing training” and “helping me grow into a next-generation

leader” make up the final category. All living organisms have an innate need to leave
copies of their genes. They maximize their offspring’s chances of success by nurturing
and teaching them. In turn, those on the receiving end feel a sense of gratitude and
loyalty. Think of the people to whom you’re most grateful — parents, teachers, friends,
mentors. Chances are, they’ve cared for you or taught you something important.
When leaders show a commitment to our growth, the same primal emotions are tapped.
Employees are motivated to reciprocate, expressing their gratitude or loyalty by going
the extra mile. While managing through fear generates stress, which impairs higher
brain function, the quality of work is vastly different when we are compelled by
appreciation. If you want to inspire the best from your team, advocate for them, support
their training and promotion, and go to bat to sponsor their important projects.

TOP 10 LEADERSHIP
COMPETENCIES

1. ​Social Intelligence (SI). ​This is not only one of the best predictors of effective
leadership, but it is poorly understood and under-researched. Social Intelligence is
quite broad, but can best be seen in terms of understanding of social situations and
dynamics, and ability to operate effectively in a variety of social situations. Social
Intelligence is a constellation of social performance, sensitivity to social situations, and
role-playing skill are critically important for effective leadership.

To develop SI, expose yourself to different people, different social situations, and
work to develop your social perceptiveness and ability to engage others in
conversation

2. ​Interpersonal Skills​. Interpersonal skills could be seen as a subset of social

intelligence, but these are the more relationship-oriented aspects of social
effectiveness. We often talk about the “soft skills” of the leader, and these are best
represented by interpersonal skills.

To develop interpersonal skills, become an active listener, work on conversational

and speaking skills, and work on your personal relationships with friends, relatives,
and your significant other. These skills will generalize to workplace relationships.
More on soft skills here.

​ complement to social intelligence, emotional

3. ​Emotional Skills / Intelligence (EI). A
intelligence is our ability to communicate at the emotional level, understand emotions
and emotional situations, and be in tune with our own emotions. These are particularly
related to leadership “charisma.”
 To develop EI, practice “reading” others’
emotion. Learn to regulate and control
outbursts. Practice expressing feelings and
– learning how to express emotions
communication here.
nonverbal cues, particularly cues of
your emotions and your emotional
become an effective emotional “actor”
appropriately. More on emotional

​ rudence is one of Aristotle’s cardinal virtues. A synonym is “wisdom,”

4. ​Prudence. P
but it comes from being able to see others’ perspectives and through being open to
and considering others’ points of view.

To develop Prudence, Listen to others. Work to be more open and more broad
minded. Learn to ask for others’ opinions and consider them as you choose a
course of action.
5. ​Courage. A​ second cardinal virtue is “Fortitude,” or courage. This is having the
courage to take calculated risks and the courage to: (a) stand up for what you believe;
(b) do the right thing.

To develop Courage takes some effort, but is rooted in developing and holding
onto strong personal values. If you truly value something or someone you will have
the courage to stand by your principles (and your people). More on leader virtues
here.

6. ​Conflict Management​. This is a “higher order” interpersonal skill that involves

helping colleagues to avoid or resolve interpersonal conflicts. Leaders are often called
upon to adjudicate when members are in conflict, but it also involves having the ability
to either avoid or resolve your own conflict situations.

A big part of conflict management is helping conflicting parties to collaborate (a

win-win outcome) or to compromise (each party needs to be flexible and give up
something).

7. ​Decision Making.​ One of the core competencies for leaders is the ability to make
good decisions or lead a good decision making process. There are better and worse
ways to make decisions, and a good leader understands when to make a decision,
when to consult subordinates or peers and bring them into the decision making
process, and when it’s time to step back and let others decide.
 To develop Decision Making Skills, Experience and studying when decisions have
gone wrong and gone right is the best way to hone these skills. We often learn
more from our mistakes than from our successes.

8. ​Political Skills​. Let’s face it. Every group or organization is, at its core, full of
politicking. People will try to bend rules, gain allies, and push their personal agenda,
etc., in order to try to get ahead. An effective leader is a good political player, who
knows how the game is played, but can also manage political behaviour so that it does
not lead to group or organizational dysfunction.

To develop Political Skills, similar to many of the more highly-developed leadership

competencies, political skills are learned through experience and learning about
people and social dynamics.

​ t its core, leadership is about influencing others, so a great leader

9. ​Influence Skills. A
is a master of social influence, and able to wield power effectively and fairly. Calling on
your interpersonal ("soft") skills can make you much more influential in a leadership
role.

To develop Influence Skills. Training in debate helps with making reasoned,

well-thought- out arguments. Seeing things from another's perspective can help
you understand what they want from a negotiation, and allows you to focus on
win-win situations.
10. ​Area Expertise / Competence​. Many people might list this first, but in today’s
world, knowledge of all aspects of the job is not as important as it used to be. In
high-tech industries, or creative firms, team members may have more relevant
knowledge and expertise than leaders. Still, it is important that leaders develop their
expertise in the particular situation, organization, or industry in which they lead.

To develop Area Expertise. Like all of these competencies, development is a

lifelong process. Effective leaders gain expertise and competence and try to learn
as much as they can about their product, their organization, and their team
members. Study the organization. Study competitors. Continue your education.

LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL

CULTURE
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE is a set of rules and standards which lead to the
behaviour of its member through words, interpersonal relationships and gestures also
the leadership is about predicting the future and fostering follower to change. The
relation between both concepts contributes to either raising or minimizing the
productivity of any company.

According to Schein (1987), organizational culture is a paradigm that was created or

developed by a group of people to be a standard for the current and the new
employees, to learn how to cope, how to perceive and how to think about any upcoming
problem.

Schein (1992) divided organizational culture into three

levels:

• The first level consists of visible organizational process and various artifacts
including facilities, offices, and furnishings.
• The second level, called, “espoused values,” it doesn’t reflect the organization’s
operations every day it deals with the declared culture of an organization such as the
organization's philosophy, missions, goals, and strategies.
• The third level called, “underlying assumptions” which relates to beliefs, perceptions,
thoughts and feelings of the group.

Every organization needs a leader to commit to a challenge, to foster followers and to

be a powerful influence for them to translate that into productivity by sharing a certain
vision of future. Barkdoll (2006) assumed that all leaders attempt to change the culture
of the organization to fit their preferences. Thus, the successfulness of a company can
be predicted when there is a strong leadership with a vision to make the organization
perform better.

According to Kouzes and Posner (2003), there are five practices of exemplary leaders:
they challenge the process, spur a shared vision, model the way, encourage the heart,
and enable others to act.
Relationship between Leadership and Organizational
Culture:

Organizational Culture and Leadership is hand in hand together in building, controlling

and enhancing organizational performance, but the question is how far the relation is
between both. However if leadership and organizational culture can work together, then
leadership can play a major role and be an effective factor in changing organization's
culture when needed, also to foster and impact it when there is a decision or plan by
decision makers (Bass, 1990).

There is no specific leadership characteristic to promote a healthy organizational

culture. But to have a successful organization you have to combine between the
organizational culture’s standards and the employees’ personal win. Therefore, a leader
should have the skills of sharing his vision and motivating the subordinates to reach the
desired goal altogether.

There is no specific leadership characteristic to promote a healthy organizational

culture. But to have a successful organization you have to combine between the
organizational culture’s standards and the employees’ personal win. Therefore, a leader
should have the skills of sharing his vision and motivating the subordinates to reach the
desired goal altogether.

Including team member in the process of taking final decisions, encouraging their
creativity and giving them trust will be helpful in the results of a healthy organizational
culture, and in having high job satisfaction and productivity this is why a democratic
style approach will be highly recommended.

Employees' sense of affiliation is normally developed when the organization embraces

positive group norms. That's mean to make employees show commitment; the
organizational culture should practice some constructive orientations to produce high
emotional and standardizing relation to their employees (Simosi & Xenikou, 2010).

There is a link between the transformational and transactional leadership and

organizational commitment (Burns, 1987; Bass & Avolio 1994). According to Simoni and
Xenikou (2010), Transformational leaders have the ability to inspire followers and the
capability of anticipating the upcoming challenges and, therefore, to proactively prepare
the required plans that will raise the expectation and the sense of confidence to their
followers. Which in return will elevate the degree of commitment to the company.

On the other hand, and because transactional leaders constantly focused on their
relationship with their employees on transactions (Bass & Avolio, 1993). Then the
transactional leadership is essentially comforting both organizations’ and employees’
satisfaction for short-term. Transactional Leaders influence the level of commitment for
the organizational cultures based on the contingent reward that is expected by
followers, transactional leaders always clarify the roles and the tasks of their followers
that also lead to higher productivity.

Culture, leadership, and strategy are the triumvirate that together steer the organization
toward excellence—and much like any triumvirate, being in sync is necessary for an
effective working relationship. Leadership and culture are the crosshairs that, when
coordinated, can give an
organization a competitive advantage. Conversely, poor leadership can reinforce the
wrong values, behaviours, and attitudes, creating interferences that can shape a toxic
culture and create discord between an organization’s image and how it actually
operates. Below are three key areas where the intersection between leaders and culture
is paramount:

1. A leader needs to align with the culture and model desired behaviours. An
organization’s culture isn’t always “right,” and a leader’s approach certainly isn’t
infallible either. However, the leader’s behaviour sets the tone for the organization.
Leaders’ values, actions, and the development of their teams need to visibly reinforce
the culture of the organization. Through the example they set, leaders shape the
culture in their words and actions every day. These actions then gain momentum
through structures and policies to shape how employees operate.

2. A leader needs to understand his or her fit within the culture and use that
awareness to drive positive change. Some leaders tend to “go with the flow,”
leveraging existing channels to get things done. Others may tend to move outside of
traditional processes, leveraging different values or behaviours to achieve results.

Leaders aware of their place within the existing culture can more effectively drive
change. An effective leader uses this self-awareness to inform an intentional
approach toward daily decision-making, recognizing that each action shapes the
culture in which they operate.

3. A leader needs to connect with employees’ hearts and minds, aligning to a common
purpose. Emotions are the driving force behind human behaviour, more so than
rational calculation. To shape and sustain organizational culture, leaders need to
connect with the emotional side of the workforce, creating a shared sense of purpose
and motivation. To have a healthy organizational culture a leader should act with his
subordinate based on the type of the work.

Both organizational culture and leadership are important in building a healthy

organization. There is an argue about what of these concepts comes first, there is no
consensus about it but of sure organizational culture impact the leadership style and
also leadership impact and foster the performance of the organization where both
embodies all the values in building, controlling and enhancing organizational
performance.
There are several characteristics a leader should play or act to foster subordinates and
to gain their trust, for example, a leader should have empathy and should heal the
personal well-being of their followers. Whatever the leadership style or the situation or
the targeted goal, an organization and a leader should always act ethically in building
strategies because ethics always comes first, and if an organization loses ethics this
may lead off losing the trust of followers.
BREAKTHROUGH
LEADERSHIP

Breakthrough Leadership transforms good managers into great leaders. Breakthrough

Leadership is a blended, cohort-based program that helps organizations transform
midlevel managers into more effective leaders. Based on the research and writings of
Harvard Business School Professor Linda A. Hill and former business executive Kent
Lineback, Breakthrough Leadership stresses the three imperatives every manager must
follow to be a successful and effective leader: manage yourself, manage your network,
and manage your team.

The Five Skills of a Breakthrough

Leader

How does a $ 2 billion-dollar company become a $ 5 billion company in a few years?

Why do some companies excel at innovation and demonstrate exceptional generational
growth while others fail to sustain the growth engine? The key to exceptional business
is exceptional people, and to build the business, you must build the people.

Great business leaders, consistently exhibit exceptional personal power—an inordinate

ability to turn insights, inspiration and intentions into reality without controlling,
manipulating or dominating their people. In the process, they build exceptionally
talented people who build businesses with sustainable, generational growth.

These leaders have five specific traits that distinguish them as “breakthrough
leaders."

TRAIT # 1: BREAKTHROUGH LEADERS LEAD PEOPLE BY ENROLLMENT

AND ENGAGEMENT

Breakthrough leaders lead people, not companies. They recognize that leading,
motivating, and coaching is about the people and not about an organization.
Understanding what drives individual behaviour is important, as is recognizing how to
motivate and inspire. The breakthrough leader observes others and knows that
ultimately, people want to lead their own lives. Employees want to be empowered and
inspired, but they want to travel their own journey.

A breakthrough leader’s power does not come from title or authority, it comes from
authenticity and the ability to relate to people, enrol them in the journey and engage
their energies and emotions in the goals of the organization. The breakthrough leader
works to inspire and empower the individual, and that means being flexible enough to
relate at many different levels—even when the individual in question rebels against
authority.

These leaders lead from the front with words and actions that are congruent. They
recognize that you can’t lead from the back and have a clear understanding of what’s
going on in the trenches. To be effective, the leader needs to be in front of the customer
and in front of and with the employees. The breakthrough leader understands
generational, cultural and individual differences and intrinsic desires, because they lead
people, not processes or organizations.
TRAIT # 2: BREAKTHROUGH LEADERS LIVE THE
VISION NOW

Breakthrough leaders know that “the vision” doesn’t exist in some far-off future. The
vision is where you come from each day. It is how you think, and how you act. Living the
vision means making an intentional effort to achieve goals now and bring the future into
the present.

These leaders live in alignment with their vision. They think the vision, act the vision,
and communicate the vision. If a leader’s goal were to create an environmentally
friendly company, that leader would do everything possible to personify that vision
immediately, even if it will take years to bring the vision to fruition completely. Office
supplies, cleaning products, plants in the lobby, and even the food served in the
company cafeteria would reflect the vision. The leader’s personal choices, from his
clothing to the car he drove, would symbolize his commitment to the vision.

TRAIT # 3: BREAKTHROUGH LEADERS RAISE

STANDARDS

Breakthrough leaders set “impossibly high” standards for themselves. They understand
that they need to demand more from themselves than they do from the people they
lead. This goes beyond the simple notion of being a good role model. The breakthrough
leader believes that anything is possible; therefore, he consistently strives to achieve
the impossible.

A common mistake a new leader makes is to continue to operate at the level that got
him to his current position. They assume they’re already “good enough,” not realizing
that the new promotion requires an entirely new level of standards. This leads to their
slippage into “Business- as-Usual” mode without raising their own standards. When a
leader fails to raise his own standards, he lowers the standards for the entire
organization. By showing that there’s never a point where one gets to rest on one’s
laurels, the breakthrough leader sets the example that continual growth is an essential
part of the company’s culture.

TRAIT # 4: BREAKTHROUGH LEADERS ARE LEADERS,

MANAGERS AND COACHES

Breakthrough leaders shift between three roles: leader, manager and coach. They lead
people, manage “stuff” and coach performance. When leaders collapse those roles into
one, they don’t live up to their breakthrough potential. The roles become jumbled with
none of them done to their maximum level.

For instance, we have seen many executives putting every task on their “to do” list,
operating as if they can manage every task. This type of leadership disempowers the
organization. It doesn’t take people skills to manage paper and projects (stuff).
However, it does take people skills to work with people. They are different jobs. When a
leader acts as a manager, he should be working on timelines, projects and
deadlines—not developing staff. People cannot be managed; they can be led and
inspired. They manage themselves. A leader manages the tools, environment and
processes around people to help them succeed and empowers staff by giving them the
tools and skills to manage themselves.
When a leader is working with his team and sees a performance issue, his role at that
point is coaching. Again, this is a different function. It requires one-on-one attention,
perhaps reinforcing a vision, providing help developing skills or making sure the
employee is in alignment with the overall goals of the company.

Great leaders understand the distinction between leader, manager, and coach and they
sharpen their skills to become good at all three.

TRAIT # 5: BREAKTHROUGH LEADERS

CREATE LEADERS

The role of the breakthrough leader is to create more leaders, not followers. A company
with one powerful leader and a collection of acolytes is limited regardless of the leader’s
vision and talents. A breakthrough company needs people at every level who can lead
in alignment with the company’s vision.

Creating leaders entails a certain amount of openness and self-assurance from the
Breakthrough Leader. Someone who feels threatened by the growth of the people who
work for him is likely to stunt that growth. What the breakthrough leader understands is
that the organization’s overall success is a reflection of his leadership. A team that
produces great results, growth and innovation shows that the head of that team is a
superb leader.

Breakthrough leadership is not a new phenomenon; it is a persistent characteristic of

capitalism. History shows us that companies die. Furthermore, company lifespans,
which have never been very long, are continually decreasing. In 2014 Eric Knight, a
senior lecturer of Sydney Business School, reported that over the last 50 years, the
average lifespan of S&P 500 companies shrunk from 60 to 18 years. Companies are
now dying in their mid-teens because the beat-rate of every industry in all parts of the
world has rapidly increased.

Executives are typically talented, energized, committed and hard-working. Alas they can
also be wrong. They can be mistaken in their reading of market trends, in their
understanding of customer requirements and their competition. It doesn’t need to be this
way if senior executives commit to systematically reassessing and resetting their
world-view, their industry-view and their self-view. Doing so will open the opportunity for
some breakthrough thinking, setting them and their company on a fresh growth
trajectory.

Breakthrough thinking, that is, seeing opportunities for value creation, however, is
insufficient. Breakthrough leadership is required to motivate and enable an organisation
to embrace the change journey so it can adapt and thrive in new circumstances.

Importance of breakthrough
leadership

Top executive pay is often seen as a symbol of everything that is wrong with capitalism
today. However, what these leaders are paid to do should be examined.
Breakthrough leaders’ value derives from their successful navigation of the
ever-changing markets in which they operate. They are paid to ensure that the
enterprise survives against the odds. The best executives take advantage of the
breakthrough opportunities that arise when there are significant gradual or sudden
technological, political, regulatory or socio-economic shifts that can be taken advantage
of to move the business forward. A great breakthrough leader knows when their
business model is not aligned to one of the opportunities opened up by one of these big
shifts. They are masters of change management.

Good leadership today or breakthrough leadership for

tomorrow?

Most of today’s top executives have an enhanced ability to execute the existing
business model. Their track record is a testament to their understanding of their market,
organisation and culture. The challenge they need to open up to is: will this remain the
right way? Is now the time to change? The difficulty is that as markets change around a
company, who is going to lead the evolution of the company and business model itself?
Without the leadership of the most senior executives and go to people, change cannot
happen.

What is therefore required of breakthrough leaders is persuasive strategic insight, an

understanding of the changes needed to address opportunities and the leadership,
courage and ability to champion and lead the transitions required. Breakthrough leaders
have to listen, perceive changes and not become too vested in how a company
achieved success in the past. This is simple advice, but mostly this is a path few
choose.

Netflix started out as a successful mail order DVD rental business and created its now
ubiquitous online streaming service before its previous service went into decline. Aldi
challenged its already successful business model by re-engineering its product offering,
its in-store experience and its communications to become the UKs most loved brand.
DBS, one of Singapore’s leading banks, successfully challenged its approach to
customer service and leveraged the insights garnered in its customer-led digital
transformation. It was recently named the “World’s Best Digital Bank” by Euromoney in
2016.

Leading through purpose to sustain

success
In young companies, senior executives are extremely close and hands on with their
people and their customers. But that disappears as a company gets more successful,
bigger and more complex. More processes and management layers are added, while
company purpose gets diluted. Senior executives spend more time on stakeholders like
investors, unions or regulators and slowly lose focus on customer-centricity and values.

However, companies that are able sustain success for long periods have a stronger set
of beliefs about company purpose that are resistant to short-termism and doing
whatever it takes to hit the quarterly numbers. At these companies, beliefs and impact
are cherished. The “one right way” syndrome is fiercely challenged.
The Toyota Way, the Hilti Culture Journey and Apple University all embrace the
adaptation challenge and embody the type of commitment to company values that
breeds long term success.

Today’s senior executives should not get caught up in pursuing growth at all costs.
Their primary focus should be on being stewards of the values and beliefs that were
essential to creating the conditions for success and knowing when to adapt to changing
circumstances. Breakthrough leaders are emotionally engaged and know what to do
next in terms of selling beliefs and values to bring the organisation on board to make
change happen.

Extraordinary events – positive or negative -- are temporary openings for

breakthroughs in personal growth, organizational development, and human progress.
Breakthrough leaders seize these moments to explore a world of new possibilities for
themselves, for their organizations, for society.

1. People need to believe. The primary motivation in life is the search for meaning
and purpose. Humans have a will to meaning. Human beings, says Charlotte Bühler,
live "with intentionality, which means living with purpose. The purpose is to give
meaning to life..." We cannot live without beliefs.

2. People need to belong. The need to belong is a potent human force that finds
expression in personal relationships, work relationships, community involvement,
participation in voluntary associations, national pride, patriotism, tribal loyalties and
religious allegiances. "Social needs" are powerful motivators-needs "for belonging,
for association, for acceptance by one's fellows, for giving and receiving friendship
and love." The need to belong is hard-wired. Indeed, the human brain has a
specialized organic ability to perceive social events and human interactions.
 Belonging has measurable positive effects on subjective well-being, mental and
physical health, and the body's biochemistry.

3. People need to contribute. The reciprocity principle-the obligation to give, the

obligation to receive and the obligation to repay-is universal. It is a principal
component of all moral codes. The principle is so fundamental that it defines
humanity. The need to contribute to others and to accept contributions from others is
hard-wired into us as a species.

4. People seek transcendence. Why do bad (or good) things happen? The need for
answers may be especially acute in the face of disaster, but transcendence above
the trials and travails of life is an eternal and universal quest. Every culture grapples
with the big questions: Why are we here? Where do we come from? Where are we
going? The quest for transcendence takes many forms-science, religion, spirituality,
philosophy, space exploration, devotion to callings and careers, the inner journey of
self-realization, etc. Transcendence is possible in any circumstance. Victims of
calamities, disasters or life- threatening events transcend the suffering and sorrow of
their experiences by construing meaning in them, using their experiences to enrich
their lives and the lives of others. With a higher purpose in life, a person can survive
and rise above almost anything.
5. Leaders and institutions (organizations, governments, family, religion, etc.)
facilitate or deny the human needs to believe, belong, contribute and seek
transcendence. Leaders and institutions facilitate by creating the space, opportunity
and resources for the expression of belief, belonging, contribution and
transcendence; they deny these by limiting, suppressing or opposing their
expression.

Breakthrough leadership is critical for the expression of the human needs for
believing, belonging, contributing and transcending-especially in trying times.

1. Extraordinary events-positive or negative-are temporary openings for

breakthroughs in
personal growth, organizational development and human
progress.

o ​Extraordinary events are openings for breakthroughs because they suspend

beliefs about what is possible and what is not. The world paused in wonder and
awe when the first human set foot on the moon; even the war in Biafra was
temporarily halted. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the
 Pentagon demonstrated that the impossible was possible, shattering the widely
held belief in the inviolability of the American homeland.

o ​Extraordinary events are temporary openings for breakthroughs because-as

hard as it is to imagine at the time-the extraordinary eventually becomes routine.
Moonwalks, space stations and space walks now seem ordinary, and rarely even
make the front page of the evening paper.

2. A breakthrough leader seizes the temporary openings created by extraordinary

events to facilitate the expression of the human needs for believing, belonging,
contributing and transcending.

o ​Organizations often operate as though people leave their beliefs, passions,

fears, politics, etc. on the doorstep as they enter a corporate world of rationality,
efficiency and reason. Breakthrough leaders recognize this as fiction, and create
the space, opportunity and resources for the expression of human needs.

o ​Facilitatingthe expression of human needs is empowering and beneficial to the

individual, the organization and the larger society. Denying their expression has
the opposite effect.

o ​Anything is possible. Recent events just proved that. Breakthrough leaders use
the openings created by extraordinary events to explore a world of new
possibilities-for themselves, for their organizations, for society.
Breakthrough leaders are role models in words and deeds of the expression of
belief, belonging, contribution and transcendence.

1. Begin with
yourself.

o ​What is your personal "strong idea"? What are your core beliefs, values,
aspirations, ideals? How do you live your strong
idea?

o ​How have you personally expressed the need to belong? In trying times,
people often re-connect with old friends and family, complete unfinished
business in their relationships, go out of their way to be courteous and
forgiving, etc.
 o ​How have you personally responded to the events? What contributions
have you made to help others? Have you donated blood, expertise, money,
time, emotional support, etc.?

o ​What is your struggle for transcendence? What is the meaning of the

events for you? What fears and hopes do you have? How are your core ideas
tested by the extraordinary events? What breakthroughs in personal
understanding do you have?

o ​How will you change your behaviour as a result of the events? What will
you do
personally to make the world a better, safer, more humane
place?

2. Use the organization's resources, formal and informal, to respond to the

immediate crisis, to develop and strengthen the organization, and to further the
organization's long-term contribution to society.

o ​Your people are waiting to hear from you. Silence is not strength. A strong
leader shares openly with others. Start with what you have learned about
yourself. Eloquence is not important. What you say-indeed the mere act of
trying to say it- will enable and empower others. It frees them to speak what is
on their minds and in their hearts.

o ​Extraordinary
events call for more than a token
acknowledgement.

o ​Yourpeople are already talking about the events and their meaning. Create
the space and opportunity for conversation, such as community town halls,
discussion groups, chat rooms, etc.
Examples of "Breakthrough
Leadership"

A Story from a New Yorker Close to

Ground Zero

"On the 11th, we went to donate blood and found long lines of people who were
waiting to donate blood, but no one was actually available to draw blood from the
donors. The Red Cross is now saying that they have enough blood in inventory that
they cannot store any more. Of course, the blood supply is adequate because few
people were injured. There were upward of 20,000 people in the WTC. About
three-fourths of these escaped with minor injuries, about 800 were hospitalized and
about 6,000 perished. The rescue teams have found no survivors since the first
afternoon.

"Here in Manhattan the problem has been that more people want to help than are
needed. On the 12​th​, someone told me there was a need for people to make
sandwiches for the rescue workers. So, my wife and I went to make sandwiches. By
the time we got there, they already had too many workers. But I got there early enough
on the 13​th ​that they let me make sandwiches for one hour. Then they asked the first
shift to leave so that another shift of sandwich-makers could start. On the 14​th​, we
were allowed to help make 3,000 sandwiches."

o ​Disasters activate and heighten the human need to contribute to others. The
outpouring of help and assistance of all kinds in the wake of the terrorist attacks is
testimony to it. People become frustrated and feel powerless when they can't do
something in response. (See "A story from a New Yorker close to Ground Zero.")

• ​Yourpeople want to contribute, and will do so with or without you. It's better that
they do it with you. Some of the noblest responses to the September 11​th ​tragedy
have been grassroots movements. With the power of an organization behind them,
your people can do even more.

• ​Use
the organization's resources to make contributions. This could include setting
up relief funds, giving people paid time off for community service, matching
monetary contributions made by your people, making your facilities available to relief
workers, setting up a company blood bank, etc.

• ​Usethe occasion to discuss (and develop) your organization's "strong idea." (Does
it have a strong idea, aside from maximizing shareholder wealth? People will exert
extraordinary effort in service of a higher cause. Maximizing shareholder wealth is
not one of them.)

• ​It's
no longer business as usual. The typical responses to economic downturns,
such as layoffs, only make things worse. Layoffs tell your people, "We don't care
what you believe. You don't belong here. We don't want your contribution."
 • ​Seek unusual responses. Make unreasonable requests in service of the greater
good. Challenge your people to come up with creative and imaginative alternatives
to the usual responses.

• ​A
world of unprecedented possibilities is open-for a moment. Seize it and do
something good with it.

Our responses, individually and collectively, shape the legacy of trying times. How we
respond makes a difference. We can respond in ways that make the recent events just
another footnote in the seemingly endless human history of savagery, suffering and
pain. Or we can respond in ways that become the opening of a new chapter in human
evolution.

In Gander: The Hospitality of Perfect

Strangers

The leaders of Gander, and other cities in Newfoundland, provide an excellent example
of "breakthrough leadership." When more than 50 commercial airliners were forced to
land on their island on September 11, these leaders capitalized on an extraordinary
event to achieve a breakthrough in "organizational development and human progress."
They organized their towns to not only house their visitors, but also gave special care to
the elderly and the pregnant, kept families and plane passengers together, provided
medical services, arranged for phone calls to families, fed them, took them on
"excursions" and provided them transportation to the laundromat. The experience not
only transformed these towns, but also transformed the passengers, who became
friends, exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch and organized scholarship
contributions for the children of Gander.

STRATEGIC
LEADERSHIP

Strategic Leadership is the ability of influencing others to voluntarily make decisions that
enhance the prospects for the organisation's long-term success while maintaining
long-term financial stability. Different leadership approaches impact the vision and
direction of growth and the potential success of an organization. To successfully deal
with change, all executives need the skills and tools for both strategy formulation and
implementation.

Strategic leadership refers to a manager’s potential to express a strategic vision for the
organization, or a part of the organization, and to motivate and persuade others to
acquire that vision. Strategic leadership can also be defined as utilizing strategy in the
management of employees. It is the potential to influence organizational members and
to execute organizational change.

Strategic leaders create organizational structure, allocate resources and express

strategic vision. Strategic leaders work in an ambiguous environment on very difficult
issues that influence and are influenced by occasions and organizations external to their
own.
The main objective of strategic leadership is strategic productivity. Another aim of
strategic leadership is to develop an environment in which employees forecast the
organization’s needs in context of their own job. Strategic leaders encourage the
employees in an organization to follow their own ideas. Strategic leaders make greater
use of reward and incentive system for encouraging productive and quality employees
to show much better performance for their organization. Functional strategic leadership
is about inventiveness, perception, and planning to assist an individual in realizing his
objectives and goals.

Strategic leadership requires the potential to foresee and comprehend the work
environment. It requires objectivity and potential to look at the broader picture.

A few main traits / characteristics / features / qualities of effective strategic leaders that
do lead to superior performance are as follows:

Loyalty- Powerful and effective leaders demonstrate their loyalty to their vision by
their words and actions.

Keeping them updated- Efficient and effective leaders keep themselves updated
about what is happening within their organization. They have various formal and
informal sources of information in the organization.

Judicious use of power- Strategic leaders makes a very wise use of their power.
They must play the power game skilfully and try to develop consent for their ideas
rather than forcing their ideas upon others. They must push their ideas gradually.

Have wider perspective/outlook- Strategic leaders just don’t have skills in their
narrow specialty but they have a little knowledge about a lot of things.
 Motivation- Strategic leaders must have a zeal for work that goes beyond money
and power and also, they should have an inclination to achieve goals with energy
and determination.

Compassion- Strategic leaders must understand the views and feelings of their
subordinates, and make decisions after considering them.

Self-control- Strategic leaders must have the potential to control

distracting/disturbing moods and desires, i.e., they must think before acting.

Social skills- Strategic leaders must be friendly and

social.

Self-awareness- Strategic leaders must have the potential to understand their own
moods and emotions, as well as their impact on others.
Readiness to delegate and authorize- Effective leaders are proficient at delegation.
They are well aware of the fact that delegation will avoid overloading of
responsibilities on the leaders. They also recognize the fact that authorizing the
subordinates to make decisions will motivate them a lot.

Articulacy- Strong leaders are articulate enough to communicate the vision (vision
of where the organization should head) to the organizational members in terms that
boost those members.

Constancy/ Reliability- Strategic leaders constantly convey their vision until it

becomes a component of organizational culture.

To conclude, Strategic Leaders can create vision, express vision, passionately possess
vision and persistently drive it to accomplishment.

TEAM
LEADERSHIP

A TEAM LEADER is someone who provides guidance, instruction, direction and

leadership to a group of individuals (the team) for the purpose of achieving a key result
or group of aligned results. The leader often works within the team, as a member,
carrying out the same roles but with the additional 'leader' responsibilities - as opposed
to higher level management which often has a separate job role altogether.

In order for a team to function successfully, the team leader must also motivate the
team to "use their knowledge and skills to achieve the shared goals.". When a team
leader motivates a team, group members can function in a goal oriented manner. A
"team leader" is also someone who has the capability to drive performance within a
group of people. Team leaders utilize their expertise, their peers, influence, and/or
creativeness to formulate an effective team. Team Leadership plays a major part in a
team’s success or failure.

Team leader core

responsibilities:

• Assemble team members with a combination of skills required to accomplish goal.

Quickly unite a team around new or revised goals in a fast changing environment
• Develop a strategy by which team members can use to reach the project goal.
Take on board diverse and often strongly held views amongst funders, trustees,
staff, service users and partner agencies in developing strategy
• Assign tasks to team members including those that they will
manage
• Determine completion timeline and monitor progress to ensure project is on
track
• Communicate progress to upper level
management
• Develop innovative teams who can quickly take advantage of new
opportunities
• Preserve team spirit and optimism in times of resource
scarcity.
Leadership
Style

The style adopted by the leader will have a major impact on the performance of the
team. Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership model suggests that leaders
should adopt a different style depending on each given situation and the development
level of the team.
Teams go through stages of development as they move from ‘forming’ to maturity. A
major role for the leader is to help the team develop through stages until they reach high
performance. Helping teams through these stages includes adapting your leadership
style. In the early stages a more directive approach helps to build safety, trust and
confidence in the leader’s ability. As teams become more effective, a more participative
style of leadership becomes appropriate. Responsibility and leadership can be shared
amongst team members.

The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said of

leadership:

“As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the
people honour and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate.
When the best leader’s work is done the people say ‘we did it ourselves’.’’

Developing Team Leadership Skills involves the following

skills.

◾ Building Trust ◾
Demonstrating Courage ◾
Challenging ◾ Providing
Focus ◾ Communicating
Effectively

TEAM LEADERSHIP
MODEL:

While there are several Team Leadership models, Hill's Team model is perhaps one of
the best known ones as it provides the leader or a designated team member with a
mental road map to help diagnose team problems, and then take appropriate action to
correct team problems (Northouse, 2007).

Four Layers or Steps in the Team

Leadership Model

1. ​Top layer:​ Effective team performance begins with leader’s mental model of
situation and
 then determining if the situation requires Action or Monitoring? 2. ​Second Layer​: Is it
at an Internal or External leadership level? 3. ​Third layer:​ Is it Task, Relational, or an
Environmental intervention? Select a function
depending on the type of intervention. 4. ​Bottom layer:​ Correctly performing the
above three steps create high performance
through development and maintenance
functions.

Hill's Team Leadership

Model

TEAM LEADERSHIP FUNCTION

INTERVENTIONS

Internal Task
Functions:

• Focus on goals by clarifying and/or getting

 agreement
• Restructure plans, processes, role etc. in order to gain desired results (process
improvement)
• Guide the decision-making process so that better information is obtained,
coordination is better, focusing on issues, etc.
• Train members through both for and informal
means
• Assess performance an confront when
necessary

Internal Relationship
Functions:

• Coach team
members
• Use more collaborative methods to involve all team members (this survey includes
questions to determine if the environment is collaborative)
• Manage conflict
• Build commitment and esprit de corps through the use of ethos
leadership
• Satisfy team members'
needs
• Model what you expect from your team
members

External Environmental
Functions:

• Network to increase influence and gather

information
• Advocate by representing your team so that it shows them at their
best
• Get support for your team by gathering resources and recognition for your
team
• Buffer the team from environmental
 distractions
• Assess the environment through surveys and other performance indicators to
determine its impact on the organization
• Share information with the team

Effective Qualities of a Team

Leader

An effective team leader has a variety of traits and characteristics that encourage team
members to follow him. Team leaders naturally possess certain qualities, such as
compassion and integrity, or learn leadership skills through formal training and
experience. The qualities of an effective team leader inspire the trust and respect of the
team and stimulate production within the workplace.

1. A Clear
Communicator

Effective team leaders communicate clearly. Quality verbal and written communication
skills allow leaders to present expectations to team members in a way workers can
understand. Effective communication skills also allow team leaders to listen to the input
of others.

2. Strong Organisational
Skills

Effective team leaders possess exceptional organizational skills. Organizational skills

help team leaders plan objectives and strategies, which allow team members to perform
optimally. Organized team leaders put systems in place that maintain order and guide
team members toward meeting company goals and objectives.

3. Confident in the
Team

An effective team leader is confident in his abilities, as well as confident in the abilities
of his team members. A confident leader is secure in the decisions he makes that affect
his team. A self-confident team leader also reassures team members of his authority
within the organization.
4. Respectful to
Others

A quality team leader is respectful of his team members. A respectful leader empowers
employees by encouraging them to offer ideas about decisions that affect them. This
lets team members know that the leader respects their input and opinions.

5. Fair and Kind ​A quality team leader treats team members fairly. He is consistent with
rewards and recognition, as well as disciplinary action. A fair leader ensures all
employees receive the same treatment.

6. An Example of
Integrity

An effective team leader is honest and open with his team members. Leaders who
possess integrity gain the trust of team members because he does what he says he will
do and treats others the same way he wants to be treated.

7. Influential in Core
Areas

Influential leaders help inspire the commitment of team members to meet company
goals and objectives. Influential leaders also help manage change in the workplace by
gaining the confidence of workers through effective decision making and
communication.

8. Willing to
Delegate

Effective team leaders know how to share leadership through delegation. Delegating
certain tasks to trustworthy team members allows the leader to focus on improving
workplace functions and production.

9. Powerful
Facilitator

Effective team leaders are powerful facilitators. As a facilitator, team leaders help
workers understand their goals. They also help organize an action plan to ensure team
members meet their goals and objectives more efficiently.

10. A Skilled
Negotiator

Team leaders utilize negotiation skills to achieve results and reach an understanding in
the event of a workplace conflict. Team leaders who negotiate effectively streamline the
decision-making process, as well as solve problems for the best interest of everyone
involved.
TRANSACTIONAL VS. TRANSFORMATIONAL
LEADERSHIP

Transactional and Transformational Leadership are polar opposites when it comes to

the underlying theories of management and motivation. Transactional leaders focus on
organization, supervision and group performance, whereas transformational leaders
focus on change within the organization.

Transactional
Leadership

Transactional leadership styles are more concerned with maintaining the normal flow of
operations – this style is best described as “keeping the ship afloat.” Transactional
leaders use disciplinary power and an array of incentives to motivate employees to
perform at their best. The term “transactional” refers to the fact that this type of leader
essentially motivates subordinates by exchanging rewards for performance.

Transactional leadership is about managing work. It’s the day-to-day management of

the work that needs to get done. Transactional leaders are leaders who exchange
tangible rewards for the work and loyalty of followers.

A transactional leader generally does not look ahead in strategically guiding an

organization to a position of market leadership; instead, these managers are often
concerned with making sure everything flows smoothly today.

Transformational
Leadership

Transformational leadership styles focus on team-building, motivation and collaboration

with employees at different levels of an organization to accomplish change for the
better. These leaders set goals and incentives to push their subordinates to higher
performance levels, while providing opportunities for personal and professional growth
for each employee.

A transformational leader goes beyond managing day-to-day operations and crafts

strategies for taking his company, department or work team to the next level of
performance and success.

Transformational leadership styles can be helpful to the strategic development of a

small business. Small businesses with transformational leaders at the helm can shoot
for ambitious goals, and they may achieve rapid success through the vision and
teambuilding skills of the leader.

Transformational leadership is about leading people. It’s the development of individual

potential and the engagement of employees that drives emotional commitment to the
work. Transformational leaders are leaders who engage with followers, focus on higher
order intrinsic needs, and raise consciousness about the significance of specific
outcomes and new ways in which those outcomes might be achieved.
Comparison / Differences between Transactional and Transformational
Leadership
BASIS / CRITERIA T R A N S AC T I O N A L T R A N S F O RMAT I O N A L ​Meaning
A leadership style that employs
rewards and punishments for motivating followers is Transactional Leadership.
A leadership style in which the leader employs charisma and enthusiasm to inspire his
followers is Transformational Leadership. ​Concept L​ eader lays emphasis on his
relation with followers.
Leader lays emphasis on the values, ideals, morals and needs of the followers. ​Nature
​ ettled Environment Changing the
Responsive / Reactive Proactive ​Best suited for S
existing organizational
culture ​Works w​ ithin the organizational
culture
to change the organizational culture by implementing new ideas ​Style B ​ ureaucratic
Charismatic ​Focused on ​Planning and Execution Innovation ​Employees achieve
objectives
through rewards and punishments set by leader
​ otivates followers by
through higher ideals and moral values ​Motivational tool M
appealing to their own self- interest
Motivates followers by encouraging / stimulating them to put group interests first
Management Style Management-by-exception:​
maintain the status quo; Stresses correct actions to improve performance.
 Individualized consideration​: Each behaviour is directed to each individual to express
consideration and support. ​Intellectual stimulation:​ Promotes creative and innovative
ideas to solve problems. ​No. of leaders in a group
Only one More than One
Businesses need both transactional and transformational leaders. They need you to
manage the business and lead the people. Different management styles are suited to
different situations. When it comes to front-line supervisors of minimum-wage
employees, for example, a transactional leadership style can be more effective. Shift
supervisors at a fast food restaurant will be much more effective if they are concerned
with ensuring all of the various stations run smoothly, rather than spending their time
thinking up better ways to serve hamburgers.
On the other hand, CEOs or sales managers can be more effective if they are
transformational leaders. Executive managers need the ability to design and
communicate grand strategic missions, passing the missions down to transactional
leaders for implementation of the details.

However, there has been recent arguments that transformational leadership may be
more effective in a long-term setting. “Research evidence clearly shows that groups led
by transformational leaders have higher levels of performance and satisfaction than
groups led by other types of leaders,” explained psychologist and leadership expert
Ronald E. Riggio. The reason, he suggests, is that transformational leaders believe that
their followers can do their best, leading members of the group to feel inspired and
empowered.

Where transactional leadership

works:

Rules, procedures and standards are essential in transactional leadership. Followers

are not encouraged to be creative or to find new solutions to problems. Research has
found that transactional leadership tends to be most effective in situations where
problems are simple and clearly-defined. While transactional leadership can be effective
in some situations, it is generally considered an insufficient and may prevent both
leaders and followers from achieving their full potential.

Where transformational leadership

works:

In their classic text, Transformational Leadership, authors Bass and Riggio

explained:
“Transformational leaders...are those who stimulate and inspire followers to both
achieve extraordinary outcomes and, in the process, develop their own leadership
capacity. Transformational leaders help followers grow and develop into leaders by
responding to individual followers’ needs by empowering them and by aligning the
objectives and goals of the individual followers, the leader, the group, and the larger
organization.”

People leaders transform organizations because

they:

1. Inspire with long-term vision and engage people in meaningful ways to bring a
shared
vision to
life.

2. Originate by seeking diverse points of view and being inclusive in

decision-making.

3. Challenge the status quo by continually asking “what’s new?” and “what’s
next?”

4. Build success through employee commitment and emotional

engagement.

5. Communicate openly and frequently to create clarity and to invite all voices
in.

6. Listen and learn from others, regardless of positional power or

hierarchy.

7. Set standards of excellence based on potential, not past

performance.

8. Take risks on people and ideas, trusting and allowing others to fail
forward.

9. Build people so people can build the

business.

10. Put people first, ahead of deliverables and deadlines and

distractions.
CONCLUSI
ON

According to some researchers, transactional leadership is best while some think that
transformational leadership is better. So the debate is never ending, for the two
leadership styles. In my opinion, there is no standard leadership style which is best
suited to all the circumstances. So, an organisation should not rely on a single
leadership style. It must employ the requisite leadership style as per its needs and
prevalent conditions.

If you are searching for the best leadership style between transactional and
transformational leadership, then you will end up saying that both are having its merits
and demerits. It depends on the situation which leadership style will be most appropriate
to it.

LEADERSHIP THROUGH
EMPOWERMENT

Researchers from Penn State, Claremont McKenna College, and Tsinghua University
find that only rare, "​transformational leaders​" are able to prevent employees from being
excessively reliant on their bosses, cultivating instead a staff that feels empowered and
self-guided. Trust and business acumen are some of the cornerstones in building this
type of work culture. We can use this wisdom to train informed and decisive teams that
we can trust. Here are six specific ways to empower your employees and get back
precious time.

1. Encourage In-The-Moment
Feedback

It's common for companies to conduct employee surveys occasionally to discover

workplace concerns, workflow issues, and success stories. However, these issues can
get lost with time, and it's difficult to bring up specific issues if they happened too long
ago.

Instant, on-the-spot feedback is one way for your team to communicate workflow issues
to one another, so that proper action can be taken right away. Make sure to set ground
rules for this feedback – it must be both constructive and respectful. Essentially, you
want your team to trust you and each other to deliver honest and helpful praise and
criticism.
2. Cultivate the Executive
Mentality

How often have you heard someone say that they have no idea what their boss does?
Even if you’re busy and an effective leader, your team can quickly lose respect for you if
a certain transparency isn't in place. Chances are, most of your employees aren't used
to thinking at the executive level, since they’re busy with their own tasks and processes.
However, you don't want them to get so wrapped up in the small things that they can't
see the big picture.
Host regular meetings with your team, and share with them the large happenings within
your organization. Help your team understand the main goals that you’re driving toward.
Give them a rundown on how other divisions are performing – the more pieces of the
puzzle your team gains, the easier it will be for them to enter the "executive mind-set."

3. Present New Challenges and

Opportunities

It's important to challenge your employees so they can demonstrate and achieve their
full potential. For example, you might notice that your sales representative tends to rely
heavily on email interactions – challenge them to get on the phone instead, and get
outside of their comfort zone. You can also work with their unique interests and abilities
– for example, you might notice that an employee loves to assist her team with
processes. Invite this person to lead a customer workshop, so that she can develop her
presentation skills and build stronger client bonds. Or you might discover that a
co-worker is bilingual, and ask him to work with international customers. If you're out of
ideas, sit down with each member of your team and ask them what types of
experiences would help them grow professionally.

4. Respect Their
Boundaries

This step is a natural follow-up to "present new challenges." While you want to push
your employees to embrace new experiences, you don’t want to shove them so far out
of their comfort zone that it becomes a negative experience. For example, you shouldn't
ask an employee to take on a task that’s outside the realm of their role – they’ll feel like
you've tossed them out to the lions. If you're ever unsure about an employee's comfort
level, don't hesitate to check in and ask!
5. Give Them
Flexibility

Okay, so you might be used to gripping the steering wheel really tight while directing
your team. It's time to let your employees drive. Examine your workflow, and identify key
areas that would benefit from greater flexibility and creative input. These tasks might
include content creation, marketing strategies, and company events. Sit down with your
team and explain how much flexibility they will each have within a task. Don't leave it
open-ended – give them some parameters to work with so that they're not overwhelmed
with options.

6. Don't
Babysit

Giving up control and empowering your team can be a terrifying experience for many
leaders. You might feel compelled to watch their every move and peek over their
shoulders. But by
monitoring someone's every move, you're actually impeding his or her ability to grow.
Give your team some space, trust them, and you might be impressed by what they're
able to achieve. Tim Ferriss wrote about his difficulty with coming to this decision and
how successful it was in his book, The 4-Hour Workweek. He’s now a strong advocate
for employee autonomy.

Breaking out of the traditional leader-follower mind-set can help you create stronger
staff bonds founded on trust, self-confidence, and achievement. When you create room
for independent work and decision-making, your team might discover that they're able to
achieve far more than they originally thought possible. Test drive these leadership
techniques, and see what your own team is really capable of.

GENDER ISSUES AND

LEADERSHIP

In many areas of society, men have long dominated leadership positions. This
dominance was especially apparent in business, where female members of boards of
directors and corporate executives had been scarce. Over the past three decades,
however, women have entered more leadership positions throughout industry. The
trend has provided an opportunity to examine differences in how men and women
perform in the role of leaders.

Gender and leadership is a subject that is concerned with two main questions: (1) What
are the determinants of male/female differences in who assumes leadership positions
and in leadership behaviour? and (2) How is leadership a gendered concept?

Social scientists distinguish between "gender" and "sex." Sex refers to the basic,
biologically given physiological differences between males and females. Gender refers
to a culture's social construction of differences between the sexes. These include the
different traits, roles, behaviours, attitudes, and aptitudes males and females are
expected to display. Gender displays reinforce claims of membership in a sex.

Expressions such as "gendered practices," "gendered language," and "gendered jobs"

are used to emphasize the tenet that gender involves a process of social construction,
and to make gender a more central explanation of organizational behaviour phenomena
such as leadership.

The term "leaders" refers to persons holding formal positions of leadership in complex
organizations in industry, government, education, politics, the arts, sciences, and
professions. Historically, gender precluded most females from becoming leaders in such
organizations; as a result, the assumption that males were better suited than females
for leadership roles was, until recently, rarely questioned.

Since the early 1970s, the foundation of that assumption has been shaken by the large
number of women who, according to Bass and Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership, have
(1) been elected prime minister (in Britain, Canada, India, Pakistan, the Philippines,
Norway, Sri Lanka, etc.) and to other high government offices; (2) been elevated to
managerial positions in business
organizations; and (3) earned Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees. In
addition, the assumption that leaders are to be men has come under scrutiny by a
growing body of scholarly writing on the subject of gender and leadership.

Interest in gender and leadership started in the United States in the early 1970s, when
women slowly began to seek and gain entry into management. Two types of literature
sought to aid women's advancement. Practical, "how to" advice books warned that the
predominantly male corporate world was, for women, akin to foreign, hostile, enemy
territory: to be successful, women needed to learn and adapt themselves to the local
language, dress, and customs.

This theme is reflected in titles such as The Managerial Woman: The Survival Manual
for Women in Business, by Margaret Hennig and Anne Jardim; Games Mother Never
Taught You, by Betty L. Harragan; and Making It in Management: A Behavioural
Approach for Women Executives, by Margaret Fenn.

The other body of literature—more academic in its content and research—provided the
rationale for eliminating barriers (such as discriminatory policies) to women's progress in
organizations and management. It argued that differences between women's and men's
ability to carry out responsible jobs are minimal, once women attain the appropriate job
qualifications. Women, thus, deserved equal opportunity in early childhood as well as
higher education, and equal access to all types of job training and development.
Women would then be able to compete with men for leadership positions and other
jobs.

Other books and articles in the 1970s assailed society's loss of talent from the large
pool of motivated females prohibited from many jobs simply because of their sex. These
"human capital" theorists argued that such a gross underutilization of resources was
wasteful, irrational, and disadvantageous to a firm's profitability and competitiveness.
Both the equal opportunity and human capital arguments are based on the assumption
that when a woman's advancement in a career is based on merit alone, she will be able
to excel and advance into management and leadership positions if she desires.

The human capital theory presaged an argument that emerged in the mid-1980s: that a
company's profits could be bolstered by the special qualities women possess—a
proclivity for cooperative decision making, ability to share power and communicate well,
experience in nurturing the development of others, and comfort with less hierarchical
organizations. Increased foreign competition made U.S. companies aware of the failings
of the traditional, military, authoritarian leadership style, and thus the utilization of
female talent was seen as a possible source of competitive advantage. This theme is
reflected in the titles of books and articles such as The Female Advantage: Women's
Ways of Leadership, by Sally Helgesen; "Women as Managers: What They Can Offer to
Organizations," by Jan Grant; and Feminine Leadership, or How to Succeed in
Business without Being One of the Boys, by Marilyn Loden.

At the same time, the idea that females possess a natural leadership advantage over
males gained popularity in both academic and management circles, some scholars
voiced a more critical view. They maintained that the idea of extracting the value of
feminine skills and qualities in the global marketplace was exploitative. Such a plan is
part of a managerial ideology that dehumanizes and subordinates all workers, not
females only. These writers were less concerned
with the relationship between gender and leadership per se. Their primary interest was
the issue of power, and how the gender categories "male" and "female" are part of a
system of power relations that empowers some and exploits others.

WHY SO FEW WOMEN

LEADERS?

Why are there differences between males and females in who becomes a leader? This
is one main question of concern to writers in the area of gender and leadership. Though
the situation has improved recently for women in the United States and other western
countries, throughout human history women have not traditionally been found as
leaders, outside the family, in complex organizations — those corporations, legislatures,
universities, and financial institutions that greatly influence society.

Several reasons are cited for the low proportion of women leaders. One is that females'
life aspirations are diminished by their early childhood socialization in the nuclear family.
Generally, the nuclear family transmits definitions of appropriate gender behaviour to
children. For girls, this includes submissiveness, passivity, avoidance of aggression and
competition, reticence to take risk, and other qualities our culture considers "feminine."
Research shows that even when high school boys and girls have the same college and
career aspirations, the boys receive significantly more parental encouragement to
pursue their goals.

One result of this childhood socialization is the tendency for adult women to be
stereotyped as less well-suited than men for leadership roles. Several studies have
shown that people perceive successful managers to have the characteristics typically
associated with men, though the actual qualities successful managers possess are a
combination of masculine (e.g., forcefulness, self- confidence, task orientation, initiative)
and feminine (e.g., concern for people, feelings, and relationships) traits.

An obvious consequence of this is that a man is more likely to be selected for a

leadership position than is a woman of equal qualification. Thus, a woman who aspires
to leadership positions must overcome both her childhood socialization, which
discouraged development of some essential qualities, and a popular perception of the
maleness of leadership — both of which tangibly reduce the chance she will be judged
qualified.

In addition to socialization and stereotyping, other barriers to females' upward mobility

into leadership positions include: (a) discrimination against them in personnel decisions
involving promotion, selection, and supervision; (b) a dearth of women and men willing
to mentor women; (c) management development opportunities that are based on job
rotation: geographic mobility can create difficulties for a woman's children and destroy
her spouse's career; (d) coincidence of the biological clock and some professions' "up
or out" policies, such as professors' tenure clock and lawyers' partner clock; and (e) the
perception of women as "outsiders" because of their physical differences, stereotyping,
and exclusion from some social clubs and activities where important networks are built
and maintained.

Other reasons why women ascend to leadership positions less frequently than men are
that women most frequently inhabit managerial positions with little power, little
advancement opportunity, or where other women are so rare that their presence is
attributed to their sexuality
or affirmative action, or it is used as a symbol of the organization's enlightenment.
Outside their paid jobs, women usually have significant responsibility for the care of
their families and home, thereby depleting the energy they might otherwise devote to
the pursuit of leadership positions of consequence.

DO MALE AND FEMALE LEADERS BEHAVE

DIFFERENTLY?

Though females' early socialization and other obstacles may impede them from
becoming leaders, those who do ascend do not behave significantly differently from
men in the same kinds of positions. Some studies have been able to discern differences
in leadership style and managerial behaviour, but most have not.

Studies have examined male/female differences in three main types of managerial

behaviour. The first is task accomplishment style, which is how much the leader
initiates, organizes, and defines work activities and processes. The second is
interpersonal style, which is how much the leader builds morale, relationships,
satisfaction, and commitment in the organization. The third is decision-making style,
which is how much the leader encourages a participative, democratic approach as
opposed to an autocratic approach.

Some studies find differences between males' and females' task accomplishment styles
and interpersonal styles. Males tended to be more task-oriented; females tended to be
more relationship-oriented. These differences, however, have been observed only in
men and women subjects of laboratory experiments, that is, people asked to speculate
how they would behave if they were leaders. Differences disappear in studies where
actual managers are compared: most conclude that women do not behave differently
from men in the same or similar kind of leadership position. Moreover, experienced
women managers show no differences in leadership abilities from experienced male
managers. These women, in fact, are likely to more closely resemble their male
counterparts in drive, skills, temperament, and competitiveness, than the average
woman in the population.

Some difference has been found in males' and females' decision-making styles.
According to Gary N. Powell's comprehensive study, Women and Men in Management,
women tend to employ a more democratic, participative style while men tend to take a
more autocratic, directive approach. This difference has appeared in both laboratory
studies and observations of real leaders. Some scholars thus argue that women's
tendency to negotiate, mediate, facilitate, and communicate is the more effective
leadership style than men's emphasis on power and control; and because this
"feminine" style reduces hierarchy, satisfies subordinates, and achieves results, it
should be the norm to which men are compared. There is some evidence that this is
occurring: most mainstream writers now urge managers to adopt a caring, cooperative,
collaborative, nurturing, connective, servant leadership style.

During the late 1990s medical science found a physical basis for some of these basic
differences in leadership qualities. As asserted by Dorion Sagan in "Gender Specifics:
Why Women Aren't Men," the structure of the female brain affords women several
biological and cognitive advantages. This was thought to be in large part due to the
connector between the two sides of the brain being larger in women than in men,
resulting in a better ability on the female's part to
integrate left brain/right brain activities. Women were thought better able to follow
several trains of thought at the same time, while men appeared better able to focus on
single topics.

HOW IS LEADERSHIP
GENDERED?

The other main question of concern to writers in the area of gender and leadership is
whether "leadership position" is implicitly a gendered concept. To answer this question,
first one has to understand how organizations, including their leadership positions, are
one place where gender is produced. In her article "Gendering Organizational Theory,"
Joan Acker argues that gender is part of the logic used in organizations to determine
what practices will be adopted. Organizations profess themselves to be gender-neutral,
for example, with their practice of filling an abstract job with a person who possesses
the requisite qualifications. But when the "job description" for a leadership position
includes 12-hour days, business meetings and social events on weekends, and little
time for non-job-related obligations, many women (and, increasingly, men) cannot
qualify because of their family responsibilities. The ostensibly gender-neutral job, then,
is not. It and the organization in which it exists are part of the gendered substructure of
society. They assume and thereby replicate conventional gender roles: man working
full-time for a lifetime in a job outside the home; woman working in the home to take
care of him, the family, and any spill over from his job.

In this view, all social practices are structured in relation to gender. This includes the
social practice of organizing businesses, schools, governments, and the like, and
including leadership positions in the design of these organizations. Because social
practices replicate the reproductive division of people into male and female, they are
said to be "gendered." Thus, gender becomes a property of institutions and the human
and historical processes that create them. It becomes a characteristic of not individual
people but collectivities. To think of gender— and leadership—in this way is a
considerable advance. Doing so provides an explanation for the difficulties women
traditionally have experienced ascending to leadership positions and performing leader
roles with comfort and ease.

Gender Differences in
Leadership

Research reveals small but significant differences in the way men and women are
perceived in leadership roles, their effectiveness in such positions, and their leadership
styles. Studies conducted in the 1980s and early 1990s found that women adopt
participative styles of leadership and were more often transformational leaders than
men, who more commonly adopted directive, transactional styles. Women in
management positions tend to demonstrate the importance of communication,
cooperation, affiliation, and nurturing more than do men in the same positions. The
studies also showed men as more goal- and task-oriented and less relationship- and
process-focused than women.

CONFLICTING
STUDIES

Nonetheless, studies demonstrating distinct leadership styles between men and woman
do not represent the final word. Other research has found limited evidence for
significant differences between the behaviours of male and female leaders. In 2011,
Anderson and Hanson found
differences in decision-making styles, but none linked directly to differences in
leadership effectiveness. They found no distinction in types or degree of motivation or in
leadership styles overall. Other studies show similar results, challenging the notion that
leaders' sex shapes their performance as a leader. Management guru Rosabeth Moss
Kanter studied men and women in a large corporation and found that differences in their
behaviour resulted not from gender but from organizational factors. In Kanter's study,
 men and women, given the same degree of power and opportunity, behaved in similar
ways.

KEY
POINTS

• ​Research on ​leadership ​differences between men and women shows conflicting results.
Some research states that women have a different style of leadership than men, while
other studies reveal no major differences in leadership behaviours between the ​genders​.

• ​Areasof study have included ​perceptions ​of leadership, leadership styles, leadership
practices, and leadership ​effectiveness​.

• ​Somestudies have found women ​leaders ​tend to demonstrate more ​communication​,

​ ffiliation​, and nurturing than men in leadership.
cooperation, a

• ​Maleleaders have been shown to be more goal – and task – oriented and less
relationship – and process – focused than women.

POER DYNAMICS AND

LEADERSHIP

Understanding Power, Leadership and Connection

between them

Let us first discuss what’s power, leadership and what’s the connection between these
two before discussing the power dynamics and it’s influence on leadership.

Power ​is a process by which ideas manifest. Power is broadly defined as the ability of
an individual to exercise some form of control over another individual. There is a distinct
relationship between power and influence. Power is a person’s ability to control
activities of other individuals. In many instances, power leads to leadership. Power is
often used by individuals for their own personal benefits just as the saying goes, ‘Power
Corrupts’.

Here power has two predominant forms – influence or coercion. Through influence and
coercion, humans engage with their environment and others. This is taken to the
extreme by those who explain or limit power to a specific manifestation or source (what
the power receiver experiences - force, wealth, norms, rules OR the “source” of the
power - expert power, reward power, legitimate power, referent power, and coercive
power).

According to Robert Greene, power is the measure of the degree of control an individual
has over circumstances in his life and the actions of the people around him. Greene
adds that power is having influence over the environment and the people around one.
So, basically, power is the ability to influence people for the purpose of achieving an
objective. It is also the ability to command the respect of others to the extent that they
are willing to subject themselves to one’s control. The influence or control could either
be direct or indirect depending on the level of interaction between the leaders and those
that are influenced.

Power helps the leader to get things done, so it is a resource. It is a resource that
confers on the holder the ability to control others. It makes leaders more assertive and
confident; it provides them the ground for taking actions that those who lack such power
cannot take. It is for this reason that leaders need power. Without power, a leader will
only have wishes; he will hardly get things done.

Power derives mainly from the respect or fear people have for an individual either
because of who he is or what he represents.

Here comes the differentiation between the power initiator, the process, the precursor
(latent power), and reaction (post-process) stages. Latent power is that which is
generally described when discussing a “powerful” entity or individual. It seems like many
people consider the potential for manifestation, based on available resources and
history, to be power. This means that we need to consider latent power not as power
per-se, but power in potential.

Latent power is missing three key ingredients /

criteria:

1. A guiding idea or purpose, a “spark” if you

will.

2. A specific strategy to see the overall vision come to

fruition, and

3. The will to
act.

When these are added then a power process takes place and latent power becomes
active – this is power as we experience it every day in our relationships and
environment. Active power comprises the above three ingredients / criteria and it is how
we shape our world.

This state of affairs brings us to know about ​Leadership​. Northouse defines leadership
as a process where an individual influences a group to meet goals. It is a process where
one unit influences other units to act in achieving a mutually shared vision.

Leadership is the ability to inspire people to follow your instructions voluntarily and
manage the completion of a project without exercising any form of force. Leadership is
dependent on power; a good leader is one who has some form of power.

Essentially, leadership is the use of power processes to enlist other units, elicit a mutual
desire for the future (criteria 1 of active power), and present a road-map of intent (a
“strategy”) how to create that future (criteria 2). But leadership also uses these power
processes as the mechanism for persuasion, guidance, and continual adaptation to
circumstances as each unit participates in manifesting the vision and changes the world
(this maintains criteria 3).
This contrasts management, for instance, which engages in power processes
delineating resources and time, agenda setting, etc. These act as a framework limiting
leadership while providing structure to the different relationships and power processes.

A leader is an effective individual who creates a vision, motivates people to work

towards achieving the vision, coaches and builds the team that will pioneer the
completion of the vision and manages the end delivery of the vision.

An example of
sorts:

When actor A engages in a power process - takes/has an idea and seeks to manifest it
through word and/or deed - the receivers of that process (actors B+) experience A’s act
as an attempt to align their reality with A’s vision for the future. This is not leadership.
This is A trying to orchestrate events with little to no regard for B’s perspective on reality
or the future.

If B’s post-process experiences (reactions) are positive (that is to say, B considers A’s
vision and the strategy used or proposed as ethical and effective) then there is a
likelihood that B will ascribe to the new reality or the envisioned reality as set forth by A.

If B’s post-process experience is negative, this may still put B in a situation where B
accepts this new reality/envisioned reality due to a lack of acceptable alternatives. This
goes along with the conceptual framework set forth by Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for
Meaning, where future thinking gives purpose to present difficulties.

So, the experience B goes through might be described as A’s leadership, or

management, or torture. Leaders can use power processes to engage with others to get
things done, but so can managers, torturers, parents, coaches, kids, detainees,
everybody...

It will be the nature of the process that will determine the relationship. So we can argue
that, if A continually engages in power processes that effectively and ethically
orchestrate events towards a vision and keeps B a willing participant, actively ascribing
and working towards the vision set forth , then not only is A acting in leadership, but B is
engaging in followership.

But, and this is important, the follower also uses power processes in their relationship
with the leaders and each other, pulling towards their perspectives on manifestation. It
is this give and take that provides substance to the relationship and provides a basis for
trust and understanding. This is the structure of the ideational unit.

In some structures, the position of A and B may be set. In others there may be dynamic
or continual emergent leadership. We might find the first in a military or a business,
while the second might be found in a parent/family relationship with the parents
switching off leadership given different situations, objectives, goals, and relations. Each
bringing different skills to guide the family.
But these positions, situations, skills, etc., are not leadership. They are pieces of the
leadership puzzle that might fit, or not, given the power process, the relational dynamic,
and the environment.

And this brings us to know the ​connection ​between power and leadership. While
leadership needs power processes, power processes are not dependent on leadership.
Each iteration of a power process - “manifestation of an idea” - doesn’t require
leadership, it needs a spark, strategy and the will to manifest. Getting others to willingly
and continually participate in manifesting an idea that requires leadership, which is
nothing without active engagement in power processes.

Relationship between Leadership and

Power

In the words of Seckler-Hudson, “​Leadership ​in large organizations may be defined as

influencing an energizing of people to work together in a common effort to achieve the
purposes of the enterprise.” In his opinion.
Leadership depends on the following three
things:

(a) The
individual.

(b) The
followers.

(c) The
conditions.

Much depends on the leader and his qualities of guiding and advising others but an
equal weight should be given to the followers. His basic function is to persuade, to
influence, to motivate and to inspire.

Power o ​ n the other hand, indicates coercion, authority, command and in any
organization, these have to be activated for the accomplishment of certain tasks but
“leadership act represents a choice of these instruments.”

Power is one-way traffic or a one-way current. It is one-way journey which goes from
the leader downward. It is not A.C. but D.C. current. The conditions or situations also
affect leadership; to which power is somewhat blind.

Leaders get things done because they have power. Their ability to achieve set goals
and impact positively on those around them is determined by the level of power they
can muster. No matter how noble the intentions of a leader are, they remain in the realm
of mere aspiration until he has the commensurate power to bring the intentions to life.
So, power is the wings with which vision flies.
Differences between Power and Leadership
POWER LEADERSHIP ​
BASIS OF COMPARISON ​ Definition ​Ability of an individual to
exercise some form of control over another individual
Ability to create a vision, motivate people to work towards achieving the vision, coaching
and building the team that will pioneer the completion of the vision and managing the
end delivery of the vision Credibility Not needed Needed Source Authority Personal
attribute Nature Controlling and forceful in making
followers follow commands
Involves inspiring the subordinates to complete tasks Dependence Not dependent on
leadership. One can have power but not be a leader.
 Requires power in order to be effective. All leaders require some form of power in order
to successfully inspire subordinates. Types Coercive, Legitimate, Expert,
Referent and Reward
Autocratic, Democratic, Transformational, Monarchical and Laissez-faire
TYPES OF POWER
There are two types of power; personal and positional / formal.
PERSONAL POWER
This is the influence wielded by a person consequent upon his admirable character
which endears him to the people. His power is not derived from the position he occupies
but from his conduct and attitude. Leaders who leverage on personal power symbolize
the aspiration of the people. So, both the people and the leader connect and are able to
commune even when no word is uttered.
Dr. Tai Solarin, a Nigerian, had awesome personal power. He never held any important
office apart from being the founder and principal of Mayflower School, Ikenne, but he
commanded a lot of respect across the length and breadth of Nigeria while alive. He
was not a politician, a businessman, a clergy or a monarch; yet, he was loved and
idolized by many people who probably never met him. He had no formal platform, but
he had a huge following. The secret was his reputation. Solarin had built a reputation as
a diligent, disciplined, honest, humble, courageous and conscientious Nigerian. These
are the qualities Nigerians want in their leaders and this man, who never held any
political office, had them. So, he wielded enormous power over a number of Nigerians
to the extent that his word was law to them.
POSITIONAL / FORMAL
POWER

The power wielded by a person because of the office he occupies is positional. This
power is important because it is what gives legitimacy to the holder. Company
executives, pastors, imams, monarchs, governors or presidents all rely on positional
power to perform the functions of their offices. Without the power, they may get stuck
and unable to do what they are supposed to do.

BETWEEN PERSONAL AND POSITIONAL or

FORMAL POWERS

While positional power is bestowed, personal power is earned. Positional power can be
acquired instantly but personal power takes time to build and could be lost in a jiffy. To
be successful in an office, a leader should combine the two. He needs positional power
to get his team members to do what is expected of them but requires personal power to
get them to go beyond duty.
A leader who relies solely on positional power to get his job done will be at best an
average performer. To stand out from the crowd, a leader needs personal power as
much as he needs positional power. He can get personal power if he is conscientious,
considerate, honest and fair.

John French and Bertram Raven, in 1959, identified five sources / types / bases of
power viz.; Legitimate, Reward, Expert, Referent and Coercive. These five sources of
power are split into two categories. Formal or Positional power, defined by a person’s
position within an organization (sometimes referred to as positional power), and
personal power, which is defined by the person’s followers. Formal Power Sources are
Legitimate, Reward, and Coercive Powers and the rest two (Expert, and Referent
powers) come under Personal Power sources.

1. Legitimate
Power

This is the power that a leader has when the followers believe that the leader has “a
right” to instruct them and that they have an obligation to follow instructions. Sometimes
legitimacy power is created by the leader’s job title (such as captain, doctor, parent,
religious leader or company director), combined with the follower’s belief that the job
title gives the leader the right to give them orders.

This form of power gives the ability to link certain feelings of obligation or notion of
responsibility to the management. Rewarding and punishing employees can be seen as
a legitimate part of the formal or appointed leadership role. Legitimate power is usually
based on a role. This form of power can easily be overcome as soon as someone loses
their position or title. This power is a weak form to persuade and convince other people.

More broadly, legitimate power is based on social rules and can be have several
different forms and not just be based on position:

• Legitimate position power: The social norm of obeying people in a superior

position.

• Legitimate power of reciprocity: The norm that we should repay those who
help us.

• Legitimate power of equity: The norm of fair play and due

compensation.
• Legitimate power of responsibility: The norm of social responsibility in helping
others (the 'power of the powerless').
2. Reward
Power

This type of influence is created when the leader is able to offer a reward to his
followers for completing tasks in a certain manner. This type of power involves the
ability of individuals to delegate matters to other people they do not wish to do and to
reward them for this. This form of power is based on the idea that, as a society we are
more inclined to do things well when we are getting something in return for this. The
most popular forms are promotions or compliments. Rewards in the workplace can take
a variety of forms from chocolates, gift vouchers and holidays to promotions,
commission and pay rises. This reward will only be effective if;

Firstly – the reward should appeal to the followers. For example there is no point
offering chocolate as a reward to somebody who likes crisps. This is because they will
not view chocolate as a reward, so there is no incentive to complete the task.

Secondly – the followers have to believe that the leader will give them the reward
promised once the task is completed by them.

Thirdly – the reward should be proportionate to the task the follower has to complete.
For example it would be disproportionate to reward an employee with a promotion for
making a cup of tea. Similarly a follower would feel undervalued, if rewarded with a £5
gift voucher after they spent six months doing their manager's job without a pay rise.

This type of power needs to be used carefully to prevent followers becoming

accustomed to rewards and refusing to complete routine tasks without a reward.
Generally rewards should not be offered to followers / employees to complete duties
which are a normal part of their role. This is because as an employee, they are under a
contractual obligation to complete these tasks and they are already rewarded for this
through their salary. The other reason why rewards should be offered carefully, is that
frequent use can reduce the impact or influence that offering a reward initially had on
the follower. Followers will soon tire of the reward especially if the reward is small, for
example chocolates or flowers.

The problem with this form of power is that when the reward does not have enough
perceived value to others, the power is weakened. One of the frustrations when using
rewards is that they often need to be bigger than the last time if they are to have the
same effect. Even then, when they are given regularly, employees can become satiated
by the rewards and as a result, they will lose their effectiveness.
3. Expert
Power

As the title suggests a leader has expert power when the followers believe that the
leader has “expert” knowledge or skills that are relevant to the job or tasks they have to
complete.
Often an experienced member of the team or staff in an organisation, can have expert
power even though they are not a supervisor or manager. This form of power is based
on in-depth information, knowledge or expertise. These leaders are often highly
intelligent and they trust in their power to fulfil several organizational roles and
responsibilities.

This ability enables them to combine the power of reward in the right mode. The fact is
that if someone has a particular expertise within an organization, they can often
persuade employees, who trust and respect them, to do things for them. This expertise
is greatly appreciated and forms the basis of this type of leadership.

4. Referent
Power

This is created when the followers believe that the leader possess qualities that they
admire and would like to possess. The followers identify with their leader and attempt to
copy their leader. As referent power is dependent on how the follower views the
personality of their leader, a leader will not have referent power over every follower they
lead. Some leaders will have referent power over just a few, whilst others such as
Gandhi have led millions through their personality and charisma.

This form of power is about management based on the ability to administer to someone
a sense of personal acceptance or approval. The leader in this form of power is often
seen as a role model. Their power is often treated with admiration or charm. This power
emanates from a person that is highly liked and people identify strongly with them in
some way.

A leader who has referent power often has a good appreciation of their environment and
therefore tends to have a lot of influence. Responsibility in this form of power is heavy
and one can easily lose oneself in this. In combination with other forms of power, it can
be very useful. Celebrities often have this form of power in society, but also lose a lot of
power because of certain circumstances.

5. Coercive
Power

This is the opposite of reward power because this power is based on the leader having
control over what happens if followers do not act as required. If followers do not
undertake the action required, the leader will impose a penalty. Penalties take a variety
of forms including withdrawal of privileges, job losses, verbal abuse, and withdrawal of
job promotion opportunities. In all cases the leader will need to choose the penalty
carefully to prevent breaking the law or being the subject of an employment tribunal.
The main objective of coercion is compliance.

Coercive power requires followers to believe that the leader has the ability to impose the
stated penalty. Also the penalty has to be something that the followers do not want to
have imposed on them. For example a penalty results in coffee being banned is unlikely
to influence a tea drinker. Finally (just as the reward in reward power should be
proportional to the action taken by the follower), the penalty should be proportionate to
the action not completed by the follower.
For example, it would be disproportionate to punish an employee for the first time, if
they do not return from their lunch break at the stated time. Similarly it is
disproportionate to reduce the wages of an employee who hasn't completed his duties
over a six month period by Rs. 100 when their monthly pay is Rs. 1000.

Coercive powers should be used carefully; overuse can lead to unhappy employee
followers. Unhappy followers can be negative or unmotivated, they may resign or adopt
a “work to rule” attitude. Work to rule is where employees refuse to undertake any
duties (or adopt working practices) that are not stated in their contract.

The force of power is also associated positively with punitive behaviour and negatively
associated with conditional reward behaviour. This form of power often leads to
problems. In many cases this form of power is abused. Coercive power can lead to
unhealthy behaviour and dissatisfaction at work. Leaders who use this leadership style
rely on threats in their management styles. Often these threats relate to dismissal or
demotion.

Later, researchers have added three more power sources and these additional three
power sources can be grouped under Personal Power Sources.

6. Informational
Power

Raven (1965) added a sixth source: informational power. This is providing information to
a person that results in them thinking / acting in a different way. Information by itself
may not be enough for this and may hence be supported by an argument as to why the
information should be believed. If the information is accepted then 'socially independent
change' occurs as the person continues to believe this information to be true and acts
accordingly.

7. Charismatic
Power

Similarly, charismatic leaders have the ability to influence others. While they may or
may not have an established network of contacts, they usually have a natural ability to
persuade or inspire others.

8. Moral
Power

A leader who has moral power over his or her employees and exhibits ethical leadership
has been placed on a pedestal, so to speak, due to their beliefs and actions. A leader’s
good qualities can lead to them having moral power over an employee, because the
employee may be inspired to replicate the leader’s actions.

HOW TO APPLY THE TYPES OF

POWER

It is important to understand the types of power because they have a huge impact on
employee engagement, employee motivation, and also organizational culture. There are
two main situations where the types of power can be applied in the workplace:
1. If you find yourself in a leadership position and you want to get something achieved.
In this situation think about what you would like to get achieved and which type of
power you’re naturally drawn to. Check the list of power types to see if there is a better
power base to approach the situation from. Remember to think not just about the thing
you want to achieve right now, but also the other implications, such as company
culture and how others will perceive you.

2. If you feel powerless. It might not seem obvious but we all hold a little power even in
the most challenging situations. Check the list of power bases and see how you can
take back some power from the situation.

The ability to change both your leadership style and the power base from which you
operate are important skills in situational leadership. The reason for this is because if
you approach a problem from the perspective of each power base, then each power
base will have a varying degree of effectiveness.

Purpose of
power

Hardly does anyone aspire to an office with the aim of misusing the power conferred on
him by the office. But it has been proven repeatedly that many leaders along the line
abuse their offices and bring untold hardship on the people and incalculable damage to
the organization because at a point they start to think that the power they hold is about
them. So, they begin to have a larger than life impression of themselves and start
working for their own interest instead of the good of the organization and its people.
This causes the fortune of the organization to nosedive.

One fact a leader should never lose sight of is that leadership is all about the led and
none about the leader. Hence, the primary assignment of the leader is to ensure the
wellbeing of his team members. That is why Plato says that the leader must be willing to
sacrifice his interests for the good of the group.

In Book II of The Republic, Plato writes, “In a city of good men, if it came into being, the
citizens would fight in order not to rule ... There it would be clear that anyone who is
really a true ruler doesn’t by nature seek his own advantage but that of his subjects.
And everyone, knowing this, would rather be benefited by others than take the trouble to
benefit them.”

Therefore, the power conferred on a leader by the office occupied is to be used for the
good of others, not for self. To do this, the leader must note the following:

A. POWER IS FOR
SERVICE

The main purpose of power is to serve others. Power is meaningless if it is not used for
this purpose. The most powerful individuals and organizations across the world are
those who are committed to serving others. A leader who wants to increase his power
must learn to serve others.
Zig Ziglar, an American writer, says anyone can get anything he wants provided he is
willing to help enough people get what they want. Service does not bring anyone down;
it is the way to success and increased influence. The reason is that the ones that are
served see themselves as indebted to the one who serves them and wait for the
opportunity to reciprocate.

B. POWER IS FOR HELPING THE

POWERLESS

Those elected into offices were given the mandate to do for the rest of the society what
they cannot do for themselves. They were not elected to lord it over others but to
improve the lot of the people, especially the powerless. A good leader uses his power to
protect the rights and interests of the powerless.

Similarly, those appointed to run organizations got the appointment to do for the owners
those things they cannot do by themselves or don’t want to do by themselves. So, the
owners look up to those who run the organizations to improve their lot by running the
organizations profitably.

C. POWER IS FOR EMPOWERING

OTHERS

A leader is supposed to use his power to add value to others. Power is not for the
purpose of improving the holder; it must be deployed to transform the lives of others.
Having this understanding helps the leader to cautiously use power for the purpose of
enhancing the quality of lives of others by helping them to realize their goals and
aspirations.

How leaders increase

power

It is paradoxical but no leader increases his power by holding on to it. Every leader that
must grow in power must learn to share the power with others. The target of a great
leader is not to be the only one who has the power; his aim is to replicate himself in
others. A great leader is a teacher; he is ever willing to pour himself into those around
him. So, a great leader is not known by what he can do but by what he teaches others
to do as well.

Great leaders never hoard power; rather, they use their power to empower others and
by doing so, they are never out of power because even when they are physically out of
power, a part of them, which they have deposited in others, remains in power.

With respect to power utilisation, there are three types of

leaders.

The first category i​ s made up of leaders who understand their power and use it
appropriately. Such leaders are like salt, they change the situation of their nation or
organization for the better.
An example was Lee Kuan Yew. He understood the enormity of the power he held as
the first Prime Minister of Singapore and he used this to transform the people and the
country. When he started out, Singapore was not better than a poor fishing outpost that
was enmeshed in corruption. At his exit, the country had become prosperous with a
world class work ethic. Yew used power properly and power did not fail him.
The second type i​ s the group of leaders who abuse their power. They believe the power
conferred on them is only to be deployed for their own good, so they focus solely on
what they can use their position to achieve for themselves alone. Consequently, they
bully and manipulate their followers. They deploy divide and rule tactics to elongate their
hold onto power. Their misuse of power results in the weakening of the system and the
pauperization of the people. But they end up as the worst victims of their misdeed
because they end up on the wrong side of history.

The third type ​is the group of leaders who do not understand the essence of the power
they hold and as a result refrain from using it. These leaders are not conscious of the
positive changes they could effect in their organizations by their effective use of power
and so shy away from deploying it. When a leader fails to make use of the power vested
in him, he is unable to harness the potentialities of the organization and the people’s
ingenuity and, as a result, subjects his organization to stagnation or retrogression.
Power fails such leaders because they fail to use it.

Summa
ry

As can be seen, each of the powers is created by the followers belief; if the follower
does not hold the requisite belief, then the leader is not able to influence them.

◾ Reward power needs followers to believe the leader will reward them. ◾
Coercive power needs followers to believe the leader will punish them. ◾
Legitimate power needs followers to believe the leader has the right to instruct
them. ◾ Referent power needs followers to believe the leader has desirable
qualities. ◾ Expert power needs followers to believe the leader is an expert.

Beliefs alone determine the type of power, a leader has over the follower; whether the
follower’s beliefs are correct is irrelevant. Each of the leadership powers can be used by
themselves or combined so that the leader has maximum influence.

The use of one power could lead to a decrease in another for example coercive power
(which necessitates the use of punishment) may decrease the leader’s referent power, if
it causes the followers to change their mind about the leader's qualities.

LAST
LINE

POWER IN THE HANDS OF HE, WHO DOES NOT KNOW ITS

ESSENCE, IS A TRAGEDY.