1.3 Leadership

One way to explore the definition of leadership is to identify key words or terms that describe what a leader does. For example, a leader creates a caring and trusting environment where team members are influenced to identify with the task and purpose of a common goal to the point of being inspired and personally motivated to use their skills to achieve it. Leaders, in this case, influence people to act in a particular direction, and by doing so, the leader’s desired outcome is achieved. For example, a leader may influence individuals to create a new, popular product, or personally speaking, a leader can influence a group of friends to eat at a certain restaurant. Leadership doesn’t always have to be in a business context! Consider how these key leadership principles or terms develop a positive leadership climate in the following examples:

Here is another way of defining leadership using the same principles: Leaders influence a person or group of followers by using charismatic inspiration and earn their trust by setting an example of selfless sacrifice and care that motivates the followers into achieving an individual or group goal in pursuit of the organization’s vision. For example, Southwest Airlines has a servant leadership attitude that motivates employees and satisfies customers. This has resulted in forty consecutive years of profit for the company. See Video Clip 1.1 for a discussion on servant leadership and how Southwest Airlines attributes this mission to continuous profitability.

Leadership definitions require a very personal definition that identifies with your personality style based on an understanding of the behavioral sciences. Each leader is responsible for developing his or her unique definition and then applying it in word and deed on a consistent and predictable basis to earn enough trust to influence the follower to willingly achieve a task or goal.

Leadership artThe application of effects and understanding of behavioral and leadership sciences to one or more employees and other organizational stakeholders in order to influence the attainment of an organizational goal or objective. The application involves the effective use of people skills to influence stakeholder behavior. Also involves a conceptual understanding of strategic and operational art that results in a leader’s ability to articulate a grand vision or end state for an organization. involves a thorough understanding of behavioral sciences. This means leaders need to understand their personality and possess effective people skills before they can understand those they want to influence. Leadership art also involves an understanding of strategic and operational art. Having this understanding provides leaders with the ability to conceptualize and articulate a grand vision or end state for an organization.

LeadersAlso referred to as leadership, can be defined in many ways as it applies to the particular organization mission and structure. The role of a leader is focused on following a group process. It involves behavioral sciences as it includes personality, induces follower or subordinate compliance, exercises personal influence to achieve motivation and interaction in others, possesses particular personal behaviors, involves persuasion and power relationships, and is goal oriented. are experts in understanding all facets of the organizational relationships between operations, research and development, training management, marketing, information technology, human resources, logistics, and sales. This does not mean they are experts in each area, but it does mean they possess the ability to become generalists of each and can synchronize the separate activities into a unified effort. For example, a chief executive officer of an organization—in order to effectively coordinate activities—should know a bit about accounting, sales, and operations. These organizational functions or departments represent examples of a few areas of leadership and management expertise. The key is that leaders may not be “the expert” in a specific skill set to the extent that, say, a marketing or information technology manager is, but they understand how to synchronize the manager’s efforts by communicating clear tasks and purposes to the entire organization to achieve the organization’s vision.

Managers understand their specific responsibility and role within a segment of the organization. Managers do possess leadership traits and skills but are limited in that they are expected to perform in a routine and narrower segment of an organization. Their responsibility is focused on their team performance as it relates to the organization and not on the performance of all teams functioning in a synergetic manner for the good of the organization. Managers leave this to the organization’s leader to accomplish. If a manager’s area is performing to standard and meets the expected outcome, he or she is content.

A leader should develop the conceptual ability to create a long-term plan of action (leaders develop strategic visions). In turn, a manager is focused on a short-term plan of action (a manager’s operational view). The manager also has to be concerned with day-to-day activities, whereas the leader’s focus may be on monthly, quarterly, and annual results (not that the manager is not concerned, as he or she does provide the results). We call this conceptual gift or ability the art of leadership. Conceptual art is the ability to develop a long-term strategy by understanding management science and synchronizing many management activities (marketing, sales, product development, human resources, information technology, logistics, etc.) to attain results at the decisive time and place of the leader’s choosing (creating a synergistic effect for the organization).

Leaders and managers are required to understand behavioral and management sciences to be effective in the dyadic relationship between them and the followers. Though each party needs to understand behavioral and management science, the leaders and managers require unique types of expert knowledge of an occupational or professional skill area. An example is that a leader may have unique expert knowledge in personal management, business management, and leadership at the strategic and operational levels of a company, whereas a manager may be an expert in human resources, operations, or marketing or sales skills at the operational or program-management level of the same company. In this example, leadership requires a broader understanding of behavioral and management science than the manager would be expected to have in performing his or her organizational role. In this scenario, leaders directly or indirectly influence management activities and possess unique management or administrative science skills to synchronize the entire organization’s efforts, while managers are delegated the authority to administer a specific organizational team within the larger organization. Examples of administrative management areas that require unique occupational managerial skills include the following:

Another difference between leadership and management is that leaders are more attuned to behavioral sciences—that is, both cognitive (thoughts) and behavioral (actions)—as they relate externally and internally to all managerial roles and work to synchronize their management efforts. Because of this, leaders may be more attuned to individuals’ emotional intelligence and influencing individual role personalities across a broad range of skills. This can occur, for example, when leaders indirectly use personal power, specifically referent power, to influence the entire organization with the use of written, video, or other technology-based communication, such as blogs. The leader uses referent and expert power in a very direct manner to influence the management team member, who then influences his or her workers. Managers, in turn, understand how to direct individual behaviors and may focus more on leveraging position power (legitimate, reward, coercive, informational, and ecological powers) to influence subordinates to commit to the management team goal. Managers are more inclined to direct bureaucratic actions in executing their supervisory role to accomplish the short-term, day-to-day wins necessary to achieve the long-term organizational vision and operational intent.

Each department can be organized differently. Small organizations may have a few people, with only one or two people to perform the day-to-day operations, whereas a larger organization may have several suborganizations with two to five sections in each that are responsible for different services or products. These departments may require many employees organized into subteams, or sections, with project or program managers within each section responsible for the day-to-day execution of the operational plan.

Are leadership and management roles similar in any way? We believe so, and this can be demonstrated by understanding the managerial sciences. What is managerial scienceSkill sets leaders attain over the course of their professional development, such as accounting, finance, operations, human resources, information technology, marketing, and so on, that are learned in administrative management or business management studies.? Managerial science skills are learned in administrative management and business management studies. Leaders and managers learn about specific skill sets related to their occupation in courses such as strategic management and policy development, finance, project management, information technology, and business management. The number of unique skills a leader is required to possess varies depending on the leadership or management level. An example of management distribution is when a manager occupies various levels of management activities with different skills, such as simultaneously directing and monitoring the daily activities of a technology department, a finance department, and a marketing team. Some of these management functions can be grouped together under one manager. For example, finance and human resources each have a manager who reports to an executive team leader or director. Other examples are operations, sales, and marketing functions, which each have a manager and an executive leader who not only synchronize their activities but also develop the policy they act on. Table 1.1 provides an example of management activities requiring executive leadership. The point is that each management skill set or activity requires leadership if you are going to have an organization that produces a service or product. Leaders, however, can take their skill set and move to a different organization and still lead effectively. Meanwhile, a manager may be purely focused on a particular occupational or professional skill set in an organization, which confines him or her to exercising his or her unique expertise. An example is a manager who uniquely understands a specific management area such as marketing, finance, operational, logistics, information technology, or human resources. The manager may be skilled only within one particular area and can expertly manage only this area effectively and efficiently.

Executive leaders who serve as chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief operational officer (COO), or in research and development and sales departments are the people who set or contribute to developing organizational policy and are responsible for helping to shape the organization’s strategic vision, mission, and operational intent. Table 1.1 provides an example of the chain of responsibility or authority where the CFO, COO, and various executive vice presidents report to the CEO. Though not a rule, a COO can be responsible for the organization’s operational departments such as marketing, logistics, sales, customer relations, and training. The executive leaders accomplish their roles by leading the managers who supervise their areas of responsibility. An example is when the CFO is responsible for leading the finance and the human resource functions of the organization—in this case, the CFO is leading the managers who supervise the two departments they are the focal leader for, while the CFO is the focal leader for the two managers. What this example demonstrates is there can be several levels of leadership and management functions that require widely different leadership and management skills. In this case, you have an executive team led by the CEO and comprising the COO, CFO, and executive vice presidents (sales, marketing, etc.), who in turn lead the effort in developing strategy and form policy, as well as create the vision, mission, and operational intent for the organization. At the next level, you find the department management teams with specific management and professional skills in areas of operations, marketing, information technology, and so on. These managers report to a focal executive leader who has executive leadership and management training, as well as a functional knowledge of the professional skills required at the various management levels he or she supervises.

Managers are independent in operating their department but are dependent on each other to synchronize their specific department operational role with other department managers in terms of accomplishing the overall organization vision and mission. For example, the executive leader’s long-term strategy is operationalized by the management teams to meet day-to-day, short-term goals. In this case, the management teams are each supporting efforts to the larger organization’s main effort to accomplish the vision and mission within the operational constraints identified in a strategic management plan.

Leadership team members possess managerial skills, but they are focused on leading the management staff at the strategic operational level. The focus at this level is on organizational strategy or strategic management (including the development of a vision, mission, and operational intent). A manager, in turn, has to understand how to take the organization’s strategy and operationalize it. They then meet daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual goals or objectives in accordance with the leadership team’s influence. To meet these demands, the managers implement managerial sciences within their expertise.

This is why some employees are elevated within specific departments, as they truly understand their jobs within the context of a specific organization. A leader, however, may have a specific managerial skill but also possess a broader and more general leadership skill set that allows him or her to artfully synchronize several department functions to meet the organizational vision and mission.

Understanding a pragmatic definition of charisma is important to becoming an effective leader. Charismatic leaders vary widely in their pragmatismA practical approach to problems and affairs that relates to matters of fact., flexibility, and opportunism and display different styles to achieve their end goal. Styles such as transactional leadership or transformational leadershipAppealing to the moral values of followers in an attempt to raise their conscientiousness about ethical issues and to mobilize their energy and resources to reform institutions. are examples of what charismatic leaders may use in leading followersAn employee who acknowledges the specified leader or manager who provides the guidance, direction, and purpose of an organization or group to accomplish a specified task or project. or subordinatesSomeone whose primary work activity is directed and evaluated by a specified leader or manager. to resolve a particular situation presented to them. An example of transactional leadership is when a leader motivates followers by appealing to their self-interests and exchanging benefits that satisfy the needs of the leader and the followers.

The aim of transformational leadership is to appeal to the moral values of followers by raising their conscientiousness about ethical issues. By accomplishing this, the leader impacts the moral and ethical direction of an organization, and in addressing specific ethical issues, the leader influences follower motivation in conjunction with organizational resources to reform or transform the direction of the institution to perform in a moral and ethical manner. Inspirational leadershipAnother term that can be used to describe transformational leadership where the component behaviors associated with the term include a few relationship-oriented behaviors, such as supporting and developing, and a few change-oriented behaviors, such as articulating an appealing vision and encouraging innovative thinking. is another term that can be used to describe transformational leadership where leaders motivate by focusing on relationship-oriented behaviors such as providing coaching or support and skill development to the followers. In addition, inspirational leaders encourage employees to think innovatively.

Being a pragmatic leader involves increasing attention to the follower’s immediate or situational needs so the follower can continue to identify with the leader. Accomplishing this provides an enduring dyadic follower-leader relationship that may be fueled by the leader’s charismatic style. Charismatic leaders continuously espouse their vision and influence followers to move toward attaining it rather than just adhering to the short-term, day-to-day routine task manager’s focus.

Leaders are positioned throughout the organization to perform a myriad of management tasks for the focal leader of the organization. In this case, leaders are also required to exhibit followership traits throughout the organization’s leadership hierarchy. Though these leaders hold legitimate roles, each differs in authority and responsibility. For example, leaders designated as program managers report to operational directors; directors report to executive administrators; executives report to the CEO; and even the CEO reports to a board of directors, oversight committee, and investors. In each case, organizational success is dependent on each leader demonstrating good followership traits.

The leader’s abilities need to be commensurate with the situation’s requirement. Important leader skills and traits may include judgment and decision-making abilities; expert management skills such as in operations, marketing, finance, information technology, sales, or logistics; communication skills; the ability to persuade others; and the ability to understand calculated risk taking. This list is not exhaustive and of course depends on the profession or work environment requirements.

Charismatic leaders’ personality characteristics are important to understand in terms of their having high self-esteem and taking ownership of their actions. Charismatics tend to be altruistic, gregarious, generous, open, honest, and deeply concerned for others. Charismatic leaders are also highly sensitive to the needs of followers, communicate effectively, are willing to take personal risks, are considered change agents, and are idealistic in their vision of the future. Regardless of the situation, they are consistent in displaying high levels of emotional intelligence, self-assurance, self-determination, and freedom from internal or political conflict, and they are principally minded, demonstrating strong moral and ethical conviction in their beliefs. Bernard M. Bass, in the Handbook of Leadership, identifies the personality characteristics of charismatics (see Table 1.2).

Leadership requires the ability to conceptualize a vision and synchronize a staff activity to develop a long-range plan of action. This can be referred to as the art of leadership and can be extended into the science of management and supervision. Another distinguishing characteristic is that leadership and management require different professional or vocational skills. Leaders set themselves apart by having a broader or deeper understanding of behavioral sciences and how their actions or communications affect followers, in addition to management science, whereas managers have to understand the various sciences of management involving a narrower focus on their roles to develop processes to accomplish the specific tasks of their division or department.

The distinction and relationship between the leading and managing concepts proves challenging for both scholars and the business community. The perspective is that management is a component of leadership, with each having very distinct concepts in application.

When the leadership team of an organization gathers, who is in charge? Are they all? Or is one person selected as the spokesperson for the group—or as the speaker, president, department chair, dean, or any other title you would like to bestow on the position that holds the focal responsibility and authority for the organization’s vision, mission, and goals? The notion of one person in charge at all times may not sit well with some followers desiring to have a flatter, or nonhierarchical, organization. This is why leaders delegate and spread authority and responsibility, tied to constraints or limits, to carry out actions across the organization. The result could be more efficiency and effectiveness in products or services for certain types of organizations with highly skilled people. But the overall responsibility always lies in the one leader in charge.

Using the concept of unity of leadership, the leaders can never subordinate their personal responsibility for leading and managing a successful organization. If the subordinate leader or manager they authorize to take actions on their behalf fails, they fail as well because they may have displayed poor judgment in selecting the individual and possibly did not coach and supervise the subordinate properly.

Managers, in contrast to charismatic leaders, tend to feel victimized by self-doubts and personal traumas in circumstances where they have to reprimand or remove nonperforming subordinates. Regardless of the length of service or career successes, managers in nearly every case have to report to the organization’s focal leader. Because of being between the leader and the led, some managers may feel responsible for subordinates’ failures, and removing or reprimanding them causes self-doubt as to how effective they are in their role. To reduce self-doubt, managers should realize the level, or constraints, of authority they have in using coercive or reward powers to influence the behavior of subordinates. Communicating with supervisors to define the level of authority and responsibility they have can help remove self-doubt in taking remedial actions to improve subordinate performance. If they have taken a remedial approach before removing a subordinate, they can reduce their personal anxiety or trauma and the ensuing guilt when taking the final step. The level of authority and responsibility from leader to manager represents a significant distinction between the two roles. Leaders influence followers to motivate them into achievement for the group and for themselves using a behavioral science approach involving emotional charismatic and inspirational appeals. Managers instead are more concerned with the transactional processes between the employee and themselves, using extrinsic motivators aimed at changing short-term behaviors to support the leader’s long-term vision.

A major distinction between leaders and managers is that leaders tend to listen to followers’ recommendations. Based on followers’ input, leaders are more apt to adjust their short-term operational plans of action or direct managers to do so. Receipt of new bottom-up information from followers allows leaders to quickly identify opportunities or threats that affect the long-term attainment of their organization’s vision. Where managers are reluctant to leave the day-to-day processes, leaders should be very adaptive and flexible when the situation dictates an operational adjustment to attain the end-state vision of the organization.