People, Culture and
Contemporary
Leadership
Workshop Week 7
Perspectives on Leadership
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Workshop Objectives
• To understand what is meant by leadership.
• To identify the link between leadership and performance.
• To understand the anti-leadership perspective.
• To be able to identify the different leadership roles.
• To understand the concept of leadership effectiveness.
• To understand the concept of followership.
• LO3 - Describe contemporary approaches to leadership.
• LO4 - Analyse the characteristics and psychology of different leaders.
• LO5 - Apply leadership skills across a variety of domains.
What is Leadership?
Leadership?
Leadership?
Leadership?
Leadership?
• The ability to inspire confidence and support among the
people who are needed to achieve organisational goals.
• Leadership Effectiveness refers to attaining desirable
outcomes such as productivity, quality, and satisfaction in
a given situation.
• Leadership Process elements include:
– Leader
– Group Members
– Context of the Situation
Meaning of Leadership
Source: Dubrin (2013)
Leadership?
• Leadership is a partnership between leaders and
group members and thus involves a sharing of
leadership responsibility.
• The power between leaders and group members is
approximately balanced, meaning this partnership
occurs when control shifts away from authoritarianism
toward shared decision making.
• Additionally, leadership often shifts depending on the
expertise needed as most relevant at the moment.
What this means is that the most senior individual on a
work team is not always the leader based on seniority.
Source: Dubrin (2013)
Leadership is a Partnership
• Factors necessary for a valid partnership and shared
responsibility include:
– Exchange of purpose
– A right to say no
– Joint accountability
– Absolute honesty
• The leadership role within a team is seldom the
responsibility of only one person.
• Leadership may shift, depending on whose expertise is
the most relevant at the moment.
Leadership is a Shared
Responsibility
Source: Dubrin (2013)
• Leadership is a relationship between the
leader and the people being led.
• “Leadership isn’t something you do to
people. It’s something you do with them.”
- Ken Blanchard
• How leaders build this relationship has
changed as technology and the use of
social media and email has increased.
Leadership is a Relationship
Source: Dubrin (2013)
• Research shows leadership matters when:
– Leader is perceived to be responsible and inspirational.
– Leaders throughout the organisation are involved in making decisions and these individuals are knowledgeable about the problem to be resolved.
– Leaders change, company performance changes.
• Statistical analysis suggests the leader might be responsible for between 15-45% of a firm’s performance.
• Study findings have shown the leader’s activities have a 66% probability of achieving a positive outcome in an organisation’s performance.
Source: Dubrin (2013)
Leadership and Performance
• Watch the following TED talk and answer the following questions with the person next to you.
• https://www.ted.com/talks/roselinde_torres_what_it_take s_to_be_a_great_leader#t-510287
• Questions – What is leadership?
– What do leaders do?
– How do they do it?
Activity - Video
https://www.ted.com/talks/roselinde_torres_what_it_takes_to_be_a_great_leader#t-510287
• Arguments against the importance of leadership include:
– Substitutes exist for leadership; factors in the work
environment that provide guidance and incentives to
perform, make the leader’s role almost superfluous.
– Leaders can be irrelevant; people lead themselves
and outside influences can overwhelm them; factors
outside the leader’s control have a larger impact on
business outcomes than do leadership actions.
– Organisational systems are far too complex to
attribute success to leadership; forces outside the
leader’s control determine a company’s fate.
Anti Leadership Movement
Source: Dubrin (2013)
• Figurehead
• Spokesperson
• Negotiator
• Coach and Motivator
• Team Builder
• Team Player
• Technical Problem Solver
• Entrepreneur
• Strategic Planner
• Executor
Leadership Roles
Activity – Leadership Roles
• You work as an HR leader in a large corporation and
have just received a call from the police to say there is a
suspicious package in the office canteen.
• In groups of 3 or 4, come up with three actions for each
of the leadership roles that would be most appropriate in
dealing with that problem.
Activity - Leadership
• The things I would find personally satisfying about
leadership are:
• 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
• The things I would find personally frustrating about
leadership are:
• 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Leadership Effectiveness
Source: Dubrin (2013)
• Whether or not a leader is effective depends on four sets of variables:
1. Group Member Characteristics
• Attributes of the group members
• Examples include their intelligence and high level of motivation to assist the leader with doing an outstanding job
2. Leader Characteristics & Traits
• Leader’s inner qualities that help the leader function effectively in many situations
• Examples include self-confidence and problem-solving ability
3. Leader Behaviour & Style
• Activities the leader engages in, including his/her characteristic approach
• Examples include participative leadership, task-orientation behaviour
4. Internal & External Environment
• Elements/forces of the situation that may or may not be within the leader’s control
• Examples include economy, diversity of workforce, organisational culture
Leadership Effectiveness
• To be an effective leader, one needs good followers.
• Leaders cannot exist without followers.
• Key aspects of effective group members: – Types of followers.
– Personal characteristics of productive followers.
– Importance of collaboration between leaders and followers.
• Followers differ in their individual engagement approach to being a group member.
Source: Kellerman (2007)
1. Group Member Characteristics
Types of Followers
Source: Kellerman (2007)
Activity - Types of Followers
Source: Kellerman (2007)
Which type of follower are you in this class?
Activity - Leadership
• On your own complete the following exercises:
1. Leadership Self-Assessment Quiz
2. Leadership Skill-Building Exercise
• Find a buddy and discuss the following:
1. What is your readiness for a leadership role and why?
2. What are your key capabilities and what do you need to
develop?
• Leadership is multi-faceted.
• For leadership to be effective, a number of
key attributes must be present.
• Followership refers to the behaviour of
group members.
• Leaders have a number of different roles.
Summary
Any Questions?
Activity – Do Before Next Week
• Undertake the free 16PF test either:
www.psychometrictest.org.uk
or
http://personality-testing.info/tests/16PF.php.
• Using research that you undertake, interpret
your results and their meaning for leadership for
discussion in the next workshop.
• Log your reflections in your journal.
28
http://www.psychometrictest.org.uk/
http://personality-testing.info/tests/16PF.php
• From today’s workshop:
– What have you learned about leadership?
– What has surprised you?
– What have you learned about yourself?
– How could you apply these learnings in the
workplace?
– How could these learnings be reflected in
Assessment 2?
Activity – Journal Reflection
Assessment 2 - Overview
• Refer to subject outline.