A Paper On Leadership

By Ampy Llorca

 INTRODUCTION

    Over the decades, there has been numerous books, articles, essays, speeches, quotations, anecdotes, blogs among many other communication media on this one word – “leadership.” I could assume it is one of the highest written and discussed subject, and at one stage, in some way, you would have encountered this subject. To prove this, a quick Google search on “Leadership” shows about 2,610,000,000 results in just 0.65 seconds, while “Management” gave about 40,500,000 results in 0.67 seconds.    

    Why is this subject so interesting and relevant throughout the ages?  I believe it is due to our inherent societal behaviour of living in a community where order is the norm and where a figure to look up to is built in our psyche – that figure is a leader.  If we are naturally drawn to a leader, what is this leadership all about? 

LEADERSHIP DEFINED

    There have been many and various definitions of leadership. Here are some of the most respected and influential personalities who define leader/leadership.

• “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” – Warren Bennis

• “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” – Bill Gates

• “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.” – Peter Drucker

• “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

• “Leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.” – John Maxwell.

• “Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.”- Steve Jobs

    From the above definitions, it can be briefly concluded that leadership is a psychological process of influencing others to happily attain specific goals.  As Theo Haimann said, “Leadership is the process by which an executive imaginatively directs, guides and influences the work of others in choosing and attaining specified goals by mediating between the individuals and organisation in such a manner that both will obtain maximum satisfaction.”

    Influencing others is not an easy task since every person is unique and it follows that each person’s approach to leadership is unique.  Thus, leadership styles can be classified according to the leader’s personality traits. 

LEADERSHIP STYLES

    It was in the 1930s that psychologist, Kurt Lewin developed a leadership framework based on a leader's behaviour. He reasoned that there are three types of leaders:

1.    Autocratic leaders: these are leaders who make decisions without consulting their teams. This leadership style is considered appropriate when quick decisions are needed without consensus for a successful outcome.

 2.    Democratic leaders: consents and consider the team’s input prior to making decisions. This leadership style is essential when team agreement matters. Though this style can be difficult to manage when there are plenty different ideas and point of views.

 3.    Laissez-faire leaders: a free-rein style that allow followers to have complete freedom to make decisions, they do not interfere. This style of leadership works well when the team is highly motivated, capable doesn't need close supervision.  

    Since 1939, Lewin's leadership framework has been the basis for many further research studies and articles on organizational behaviours both in theory and in practice. Today there are several leadership styles recognised, among them are: strategic, affiliative, coaching, bureaucratic, cross-cultural, servant, situational, transactional, transformational, participative, pace setting, coercive leadership and many others.

    From all these leadership styles, there three commonalities which are, the leader, the follower and the situation. Each leadership style is suitable depending on the setting within which it is applied, the team members, and the objectives or tasks being undertaken. However, honest self-evaluation, unfortunately, is one of the most difficult skill to master. The good news is that good leadership can be learnt through effective training.

    Leadership on balance is not only about individual qualities but also about management skills where both managers and leaders in an organization endeavour to fulfil the organization’s goals.  It is the flexible leader that adjusts their style of leadership to fit particular tasks, groups, or situations. Afterall, the core of leadership is followership.

LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS

    It should be emphasised that there are as many different leadership styles as there are different leaders. However, generally they can be categorized according to people focus and task focus. To focus on both people and task is not an easy task specially when dealing with diverse personalities. Thus, what are the qualities or characteristics that makes a good leader effective? Doing a search through the internet for what are the leadership qualities from six (6) websites resulted in five to 25 characteristics totalling 49 unique qualities. (see Table 1).

 

Table 1: LEADERSHIP QUALITIES			Table 2: TOP 20 LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
Accountability	Integrity		CHARACTERISTICS	FREQUENCY
Active Listening	Learning agility		Empathy	6
Care for Others	Listening		Integrity	6
Charisma	Loyalty		Communication	5
Commitment and Passion	Managerial competence		Accountability	4
Communication	Motivation		Delegation	4
Confidence	Open-minded		Empowerment	4
Courage	Passion		Humility	4
Creativity and Innovation	Patience		Resilience	4
Decision Making	Perspective		Vision	4
Decisiveness	Positivity		Emotional Intelligence	3
Delegation	Problem Solving		Influence	3
Diplomacy	Purpose		Passion	3
Emotional Intelligence	Resilience		Confidence	2
Empathy	Respect		Decision Making	2
Empowerment	Self-awareness		Honesty	2
Fair Attitude	Self-Confidence		Learning agility	2
Gratitude	Self-Discipline		Motivation	2
Honesty	Sincere enthusiasm		Problem Solving	2
Humility	Supportive		Transparency	2
Influence	Tech-savvy		Commitment & Passion	1
Initiative for action	Transparency
Innovative	Trust
Inquisitiveness	Vision
Inspire Others

 

    From the various qualities mentioned, I have sorted and counted the frequency for each characteristic and the top 20 are presented in Table 2. It is no surprise to find out that both empathy and integrity came out as the top followed by communication. These are the three most significant quality a leader needs to have to gain a following. But that does not mean the rest are negligible.  The other characteristics are also important depending on the project environment.  

 

On Empathy: According to Gary Hamel, the CEO of Strategos, he said “Today, no leader can afford to be indifferent to the challenge of engaging employees in the work of creating the future. Engagement may have been optional in the past, but it’s pretty much the whole game today.”

 

    This means leaders have to engage their team to share a common passion of achievement.

 

On Integrity: This is what Steve Farber, the President of Extreme Leadership Inc., has to say on integrity, “A great leader is someone who does the right thing, even when it’s unpopular or extremely tough to do so. You have to find something to care deeply about in your business and in each individual that touches your business. Do what you love in the service of people who love what you do.”

 

    It is a leader who has resolve in integrity that people look up to and trust to follow. Trustworthiness is the essence of leadership.

 

On Communication: Bestselling author Anthony Robbins say, “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others,”  and to quote former US President Barrack Obama, who said, “It’s important to make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.”

 

    Moreover, until we clearly communicate our vision to our team and tell them the strategy to achieve the goal, it will be most difficult to get the outcome we want.  Excellent communication is the key to good leadership.

 

LEADERSHIP EXPECTATIONS

    Now that you are a leader, what are expected of you? 

 

There are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or influence. Those who lead inspire us.           Whether individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead not for them, but for ourselves. -       Simon Senek, 2009, “Start with Why.”

    Doing a Google Scholar search on the “leadership expectations” resulted in about 2,180,000 results in 0.09 seconds. This only proves that as with the various leadership characteristics, the expectations is as varied as well. However, simply put, leadership is a reflection of the people and the organisation. This is aptly worded by Simon Senek when he said the main reason why many organisations and its people are more progressive and profitable is due to the leaders of these organisations who have the ability to inspire and drive their people to discover their purpose.

 

    As a leader, you need to be an “influencer.” You unify people and get them moving forward to success leading by example. This unifying achievement build genuine relationships where “communication” to clearly convey the organisation’s vision thoughtfully. As your people grow, your leadership progress, and your company builds up (Slater and Taylor, 2017).

 

    Gallup, a private global consulting company, who conducted a study involving more than 500 job roles, listed seven leadership expectations based on behaviour which are: (1) build relationship, (2) develop people, (3) lead change, (4) inspire others, (5) think critically, (6) communicate clearly, and (7) create accountability.

 

MULTA PAUCIS

    Taking note of all the characteristics and expectations of leadership, it can be simply stated that a leader is one who practice social influence that maximises the endeavour of others to achieve a goal and feel good about it.

 

REFERENCES

Center for Creative Leadership, 2020. What Are The Characteristics of a Good Leader? Source: https://www.ccl.org/blog/characteristics-good-leader/. Accessed: 16 November 2020.