Leadership checklist

What kind of managers bring the best of you?

What kind of leader brings out the best in you?

Put the above types “a” – “f” in your personal order of preference

Best = 1 and worst = 2

Identify the style (s) of your present leader.

Identify which style(s) you yourself use predominantly with your own staff

They are shown on the graph:

The two ends of the graph, A and B, show the extreme styles of leadership.

A shows a leader who will exercise his authority to the full allowing the team no freedom to make any decisions. This is known as “dictatorship”.

B shows a leader who sits back and lets the team lead itself, providing no motivation or direction. This is known as “abdication”.

However, these two styles are extremes. The majority of effective leaders will choose a leadership style somewhere between A and B. The range of styles shown on the graph is split into three distinctive leadership groups:

Directive

Participative

Delegative

Directive

Directive leadership is leader orientated. Here the leader will assess the objective and decide on the relevant course of action to take. He will then decide whether to “tell” or “sell” the decision to the team or individual.

Participative

Participative leadership includes both the leader and the team. Here the leader will discuss the objective with the team or individual before reaching a decision. He will then decide whether to adopt a “CONSULT” or “JOIN” style.

Delegative

Delegative leadership allows the team or individual to make the final decision.

By looking at the different leadership styles, it can be seen that one particular style cannot be classified as being better than the rest. If he wants to become effective, then, the leader must be prepared to use the style, which is most appropriate for the particular situation. The style he uses will depend on:

The degree of trust or confidence that the leader has in his team.

The leader’s confidence in himself.

The confidence that the leader’s superiors have in him.

The ability of his team.

Time constraint

Range of behaviour

Each type of action is related to the degree of authority used by the leader and to the amount of freedom available to the subordinates in the decision making process.

The behaviour seen on the left of the diagram is that of a leader who maintains the highest degree of control whilst that seen on the right of the diagram is of a leader who relinquishes a high degree of control. Looking more closely at each of the styles:

1) Leader makes decision and announces it

The leader identifies the problem, considers the alternative solutions, chooses one of them, makes the decision and then tells his subordinates. He provides absolutely no opportunity for them to be involved in the decision making process.

2) Leader “sells” decision

The leader, as before, takes responsibility for the identification of the problem and in arriving at the relevant decision. Rather than telling his subordinates, he persuades them to accept his view. By adopting this style he recognises the possibility that he may be faced with some resistance, but he hopes to minimise the resistance by the soundness of his system.

3) Leader presents ideas and invites questions

Here the leader has arrived at a decision and now seeks acceptance of his ideas and wishes to provide an opportunity for his staff to get a greater understanding of the reasons behind his decision. After explaining his ideas he invites questions from the subordinates, in the hope that his answers will enable them to better understand his reasons.

Leader presents tentative decision subject to change

This leader allows his subordinates to exert some influence in the decision making process. The initiative for identifying the problem still remains with the leader and, although he has made a decision, he presents this decision to the group for their reaction. He wishes to know the feelings of those of his subordinates who will be affected by his thoughts. Although he wishes to hear their opinions and views, he will reserve the right to make the final decision.

Leader presents problem, gets suggestions, makes decision

The leader still identifies the problem but, prior to this situation, has always presented the staff with a solution. However, in this situation, the subordinates get the first chance to suggest solutions, and their function now is to increase the range of alternatives available to the leader. He is in fact using the group’s expertise, skill and experience in arriving at a decision. From all the alternatives presented, the leader then selects the one that he regards as the most relevant.

Leader defines limits, asks group to make decision

At this point on the spectrum, the leader passes to the group the right to make decisions. Before doing so, however, he identifies the problem to be solved and the limits within which the subordinates must operate in order to arrive at a solution.

Leader permits subordinates to function within limits defined by superior

In this instance, the staff undertakes the identification of the problem, thinks of alternative ways of solving it and then decides on the most suitable solution. If the leader participates in the decision making process, he does so as an equal member of the team. The only limits imposed are those specified by the organisation.

A leader’s success will depend on the style he adopts. The style will depend upon different factors:

His personality

The situation

His authority

His staff

The leader may not actually sit down and think about which style he wants to adopt, but it is important to consider the varying styles that affect leadership.

- Initiating structure

Here the leader defines the jobs of the subordinates and takes a greater role in planning, controlling, initiating new ideas and criticising his subordinates.

- Consideration

This places emphasis on mutual trust and respect between the leader and subordinate. The leader has great consideration for his subordinates’ feelings and there is plenty of two-way communication.

Subsequent research has confirmed the Ohio State University findings. All this knowledge is valueless, however, unless leaders create an environment that enables and encourages employees to achieve personal and corporate goals. The way in which a leader deals with subordinates will to a considerable degree be determined by the assumptions he makes about people.

“Action Centred Leadership” (ACL) is a model developed by Dr. John Adair to explain the main responsibilities of a leader. The model is based on his research between 1960 and 1967, while he was a Senior Lecturer in Military History and Leadership Training Adviser at Sandhurst. Dr. Adair developed and applied to training the functional view of leadership. The essence of this he distilled into the three inter-related but distinctive requirements of a leader.

These are:

To define and achieve the job or task.

To build up and co-ordinate a team to do this.

To develop and satisfy the individuals within the team.

Leadership may be defined therefore as:

- that part of management concerned with getting results through people,

- the efficient and effective use of resources to achieve an objective,

- the influencing of individual and group behaviour towards the optimal attainment of the organisation’s goals.

Management and leadership are not therefore the same. One is spontaneous, the other voluntary. In fact, however, it is not always possible to distinguish between the two.

Leaders’ tasks

The leader’s task must be to satisfy all three areas of need by achieving the task, building the team and satisfying individual needs. If the leader concentrates only on the task (e.g. going all out for production schedules) while neglecting the training, encouragement and motivation of his team and individuals, he may do very well in the short term. Eventually, however, the performance and quality of work will get poorer and poorer. Similarly a leader who concentrates only on creating team spirit while neglecting the task and the individuals will not get a maximum contribution from his people. They may enjoy working in a happy fashion in his team but will lack the real sense of achievement which comes from accomplishing a task to the utmost of individual ability.

Basis of authority

How does a leader obtain authority?

To achieve effective leadership you need to have two forms of authority. See diagram:

Leader’s authority

1) Formal authority

As a leader you have a certain amount of authority given to you as part of your job. This is formal authority, without which you will have no status within your team.

If you rely solely on your formal authority you will gain little or no respect. This will lead to an unco-operative and uncommitted team.

2) Earned authority

Earned authority is based on a foundation of trust. By trusting your team, and by encouraging them to trust you, you will gain their respect.

Qualities of leaders

What are the qualities of a successful leader?

Early writers on leadership took the view that the personality of the leader was all-important; they said that leaders were born, not made. They compiled lists of the personal qualities (intelligence, integrity, steadfastness, etc.) that were needed in a successful leader. These lists were not based on careful observation and research and it was not an approach that could lead to ways of improving leadership behaviour.

Later work on leadership has been conducted from a behavioural point of view; leaders and their subordinates were studied in actual work situations in order to discover whether certain kinds of leadership behaviour are more effective than others. From many hundreds of studies quite consistent results have been obtained.