BECOMING A LEADER:Elements of Leadership, CONCEPT OF POWER,

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UNDERSTANDING POWER:Sources of Power, Responses to the Use of Power, Managing Political Behavior >>

Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

Lesson 17

BECOMING A LEADER

We started this topic in lecture number 16. Becoming a leader! What Does It Mean & How Do You Get

It? Three competency of a Leader were discussed. Leading the organization, Leading others and

Leading oneself.

Leaders do know their strengths, know their weakness, know their opportunities, know their challenges,

know who they are as an individual and do know yourself?

"Leadership is not a matter of luck. The harder you work, the luckier you are."

Career Paths and Leadership:

Every leader has some career path in his professional life. Through career path, a leader moves upwards

gradually in the organization and influences other employees through his/her behavior, personality, and

attitude. John Maxwell defines Leadership as Influence.

Let's discuss the contribution/work of different people on leadership.

HOWARD HYDEN Leadership Core Competencies:

Howard Hyden explains the leadership core competencies in five categories;

Creating more leaders: Leaders always create more leaders within the groups or team by influencing

his/her behavior and trained them for future leadership.

Empowerment (letting go): Leader also believe on the empowerment and delegation of powers to

his/her followers. This will encourage them to make independent decisions and also take risks.

Communication: One of the core competencies of leader is a good communicator. Leader always

communicates in a well manner. He/she can communicate vision, direction and decisions etc in

proper way. Proper communication system in a team/organization cab be key to success.

Vision: Leader are visionary and they keenly observers the dynamics of organization and its

environment. Make pro-active decisions and strategy accordingly.

Patience: They are the patience. Take times to understand situation and make logical decisions.

Strategic thinking: They are the strategic thinkers and develop strategies in the changing

environments..

TOM PETERS: 10 Traits of Leaders:

Tom peters presents ten traits of leaders which are;

Leaders Create Opportunities: leaders always create the opportunities for his/her followers to move

forward and for group, team or organization.

Leaders Do!: leaders always do the right thing right.

Leaders re-do: leaders have the habit of re-do the wrong work or task to correct them. They learn

from their mistakes.

Leaders Convey a Grand Design: leader always convey/show a bigger picture of the

organization/team to the other employee/followers.

Leaders Make Mistakes: leader may also make mistake and learn lessons from these mistakes.

Leaders Nurture Other Leaders: they also take care for the other members. Provide them

opportunities to learn and grow. They develop and train more leaders within their team/organization

for future.

Leaders are Great Performers: they are the great performers. They make examples for others to

follow.

Leaders Accept Responsibility: they always accept the responsibility for his/her deeds and also

for their followers.

Leaders Take Breaks: they also take some break time for relaxation to re-cope energy and

strength.

Leaders do Stuff That Matters: they always do important task which are important for team,

groups and themselves.

Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

KEN SHELTON: Seven Traits of Great Leaders:

Leaders identify, cultivate, and inspire enthusiastic followers for achievement of organizational goals.

Their Focus in always on their efforts that what they are doing and what they want to do.

They face and overcome great difficulties occur in the organization.

They expect more from themselves than they do from others team members.

They are not afraid to make tough decisions.

They have a vision and utmost faith in themselves to fulfill that vision.

They are ambitious for themselves, their companies, and their people.

WARREN BENNIS: Four Competencies of Great Leaders:

Warren Bennis presents the four competencies of great leader.

Management of Attention: leaders are the committed about work and pay full attention to complete

the task as per requirement by putting attention on work and other team members.

Management of Meaning: they are innovators as they always make the new ideas, thoughts and

provide the guide line that how this can be fulfilled.

Management of Trust: Not only building their own trust but also build trust in others.

Management of Self: they also put attention on self management that how they can improve himself,

what new skill they should have learn.

WARREN BENNIS:

Five Common Ingredients of Great Leaders:

Vision: they are visionary.

Passion: they have a great passion of work.

Integrity: they are the honest

Trust: they are the trust worthy.

Curiosity and daring: they are curiosity and bold.

SHEILA MURRAY BETHEL:

Qualities of Leadership: Sheila Murray Bethhel presents the qualities of leadership;

They have a mission that matters.

They are big thinkers

Be ethical

They are change master

They are sensitive

They area risk taker

They are decision maker

They use power wisely

They are a good communicator

They are team builder

They are courageous

They are committed

So we can see that the ideas of mostly the writers are similar and they discuss almost similar trait/

characteristics of a leader. For leadership to occur, someone must provide the spark for action, energy

and purpose

Motives for leadership: there are three motives of leadership;

1. Power: is the desire to influence, give orders, and carry them out.

2. Achievement: is the need to create/ achieve and build something of value

Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

3. Affiliation: is an interest in knowing and helping others.

Power-Oriented Leader: they strive for leadership because of the formal authority it brings. They are

the bold and have a dominance role in the organization.

Achievement-Oriented Leader: they want to discover, create, and build some thing. They are the

creative and innovators and always try to achieve some thing new. They are competent, skillful and

productive.

Affiliation Leader: they have high concern for human welfare and care about others and has a desire to

serve. They are helpful, unselfish and considerate of the well being of others.

Points to Remember:

An individual will prefer one or two social motives over the others. Preference depends on cultural

values, personal traits, and experiences.

Leadership is exerted to satisfy one or a combination of the three motives. Motivated by power,

achievement, or affiliation

Leaders and followers are happiest in situations that allow expression of personal social motives.

We will shift now to another important topic "Power". Does having power make a leader? To answer

this question we need to understand basic concepts of power and its relationship with the process of

leadership.

Elements of Leadership:

Power: is the possession of control, authority, or influence over others. (Webster's). Leadership

power comes from the followers' willingness to be influenced, induced, control and guide.

Sources of Leadership Power:

The following are the sources of a leader's power;

1. A leader's authority most commonly stems from the position to which he or she is appointed

and the power to reward or punish individuals.

2. An authority in his or her field has expert power, and others do what is asked of them out of

respect. Referent power is based on personal magnetism and charisma.

3. Formal leaders get some of their authority through their position.

4. Informal leaders get their authority through charisma.

How Do Some People Become Leaders?

They are the center of an activity and every one is focusing on him.

Their personality is so impressive.

Have a good team of followers

Persuasion

Status in the organization formally given by the top management.

Power/influence

Understanding Power: before understanding power we need to ask some questions by our self;

1. What is power?

2. How do leaders acquire the power needed for leadership?

3. What are organizational politics?

4. How do organizational politics affect the Leadership?

CONCEPT OF POWER:

Power: is the ability of one person or group to cause another person or group to do something they

otherwise might not have done is the principal means of directing and controlling organizational goals

and activities.

Influence: is the process of affecting the thoughts, behavior, & feelings of another person.

Authority: is the right to influence another person formally given by the organization. A legitimate

power is known as authority.

Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

Principles of Power:

· Power is perceived

· Power is relative

· Power bases must be coordinated

· Power is a double-edged sword (used and abused)

Historian Lord Acton once said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Dependency: The Key To Power: If you want to get things done in a group or organization, it helps to

have power. As a leader if you want to maximize your power, you will need to increase others'

dependence on you. You can, for instance, increase your power in relation to your boss by developing

knowledge or a skill that he/she needs and for which he/she perceives no one ready to substitute. You

will not be alone in attempting to build your power bases. Others, particularly employees and peers,

will be seeking to make you dependent on them. The result is a continual battle. While you seek to

maximize others' dependence on you, you will be seeking to minimize your dependence on others, and,

of course, others will be trying to do the same.

The General Dependency Postulate

The greater B's dependency on A, the greater the power A has over B.

When you possess anything that others require but that you alone control, you make them dependent

upon you and, therefore, you gain power over them.

Dependency, then, is inversely proportional to the alternative sources of supply.

This is why most organizations develop multiple suppliers rather than using just one.

What Creates Dependency?

Importance.

To create dependency, the thing(s) you control must be perceived as being important.

Organizations actively seek to avoid uncertainty.

Therefore, those individuals or groups who can absorb an organization's uncertainty will be

perceived as controlling an important resource.

Scarcity.

A resource needs to be perceived as scarce to create dependency.

Low-ranking members in an organization who have important knowledge not available to high-

ranking members gain power over the high-ranking members.

The scarcity-dependency relationship can further be seen in the power of occupational

categories.

Individuals in occupations in which the supply of personnel is low relative to demand can

negotiate compensation and benefit packages, which are far more attractive than can those in

occupations where there is an abundance of candidates.

Non-substitutability.

The more a resource has no viable substitutes, the more power that control over other

resource.

Two Faces of Power:

Personal Power: used for personal gain. It is too dangerous when a person use the power for its own

interest. It may destroy the organization.

Social Power: this is used to create motivation and to accomplish group goals.

Forms of Power:

· Personal power

Use of personal influence of events.

not arrogance.

· Professional power

use of professional expertise and competence, embedded within an organization, to

make change or make a contribution.

· Positional power

Granted by the organization.

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