Strategic Leadership

Unit 4: Business Strategy &

Leadership

Lesson 10: Strategic Leadership

April 7, 2023TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander

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Leadership, defined

“Process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.” – Wikipedia (The Free Encyclopedia)

“The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.” - Peter Ducker (Writer, Management Consultant, Self described ‘social ecologist’)

“Leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less.” - John C Maxwell (Internationally respected leadership expert, speaker, coach and author)

“Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential.” – Warren Bennis (American scholar, organizational consultant and author)


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Strategic Leadership Models


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Strategic Leadership ModelsGreat Man Theories

"Great leaders are born, not made"? This quote sums up the basic tenant of the great man theory of leadership, which suggests that the capacity for leadership is inborn. According to this theory, you're either a natural born leader or you're not.

The term "Great Man" was used because, at the time, leadership was thought of primarily as a male quality, especially in terms of military leadership.

The mythology behind some of the world's most famous leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar, Mahatma Gandhi, and Alexander the Great helped contribute to the notion that great leaders are born and not made.

In many examples, it seems as if the right man for the job seems to emerge almost magically to take control of a situation and lead a group of people into safety or success.


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Strategic Leadership ModelsTrait Theories

The trait model of leadership is based on the characteristics of many leaders - both successful and unsuccessful - and is used to predict leadership effectiveness.

The resulting lists of traits are then compared to those of potential leaders to assess their likelihood of success or failure

Core traits identified are: Achievement drive: High level of effort, high levels of ambition, energy and initiative |

Leadership motivation: an intense desire to lead others to reach shared goals | Honesty and integrity: trustworthy, reliable, and open | Self-confidence: Belief in one’s self, ideas, and ability | Cognitive ability: Capable of exercising good judgment, strong analytical abilities, and conceptually skilled | Knowledge of business: Knowledge of industry and other technical matters | Emotional Maturity: well adjusted, does not suffer from severe psychological disorders | Others: charisma, creativity and flexibility

These traits are not responsible solely to identify whether a person will be a successful leader or not, but they are essentially seen as preconditions that endow people with leadership potential


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Strategic Leadership ModelsBehavioral Theories

Behavioral theories of leadership do not seek inborn traits or capabilities. Rather, they look at what leaders actually do.

If success can be defined in terms of describable actions, then it should be relatively easy for other people to act in the same way.

Assumption, leaders can be made, rather than are born. Successful leadership is based in definable, learnable behavior.


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Strategic Leadership ModelsSituational & Contingency Theories

Leadership is a process whereby, the situation can influence which type of leadership behavior to take.

Leaders are most effective when they make their behavior contingent with the situation, this is also know as the contingency approach to leadership. Both internal and external environments can have a significant impact on leader effectiveness.

The overall situational leadership approach suggests that the leader must act in a flexible manner. The leader should be able to diagnose the leadership style appropriate to the situation, and be able to apply the appropriate style.


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Strategic Leadership ModelsHersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership

Theory

The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory was created by Dr Paul Hersey, a professor and author of "The Situational Leader," and Ken Blanchard, author of the best selling "The One-Minute Manager," among others.

The theory states that instead of using just one style, successful leaders should change their leadership styles based on the maturity of the people they're leading and the details of the task.

Using this theory, leaders should be able to place more or less emphasis on the task, and more or less emphasis on the relationships with the people they're leading, depending on what's needed to get the job done successfully.


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Strategic Leadership ModelsHersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership

Theory

The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory was created by Dr Paul Hersey, a professor and author of "The Situational Leader," and Ken Blanchard, author of the best selling "The One-Minute Manager," among others.

The theory states that instead of using just one style, successful leaders should change their leadership styles based on the maturity of the people they're leading and the details of the task.

Using this theory, leaders should be able to place more or less emphasis on the task, and more or less emphasis on the relationships with the people they're leading, depending on what's needed to get the job done successfully.


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Strategic Leadership ModelsTransactional Theory

This style of leadership starts with the idea that team members agree to obey their leader totally when they accept a job.

The "transaction" is usually the organization paying the team members in return for their effort and compliance. The leader has a right to "punish" team members if their work doesn't meet the pre-determined standard.

Team members can do little to improve their job satisfaction under transactional leadership.

Transactional leadership is really a type of management, not a true leadership style, because the focus is on short-term tasks. It has serious limitations for knowledge-based or creative work, however it can be effective in other situations.


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Strategic Leadership ModelsTransformational & Laissez Faire Theory

Transformational Leadership: People with this leadership style are true leaders who inspire their teams constantly with a shared vision of the future.

Laissez-Faire: This French phrase means "leave it be," and it's used to describe leaders who leave their team members to work on their own. It can be effective if the leader monitors what's being achieved and communicates this back to the team regularly. Most often, laissez-faire leadership is effective when individual team members are very experienced and skilled self-starters.


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Leadership Styles

Autocratic Leadership This is an extreme form of transactional leadership (this approach

assumes that work is done only because it is rewarded), where leaders have absolute power over their workers or team.

Staff and team members have little opportunity to make suggest ions, even if these would be in the team’s or the organization’s best interests.

Autocratic leaders make decisions without consulting their teams. This is considered appropriate when decisions genuinely need to be taken quickly, when there is no need for inputs from the team, and when team agreement isn’t necessary fro a successful outcome.

Most people tend to resent being treated like this therefore, autocratic leadership often leads to high levels of absenteeism and staff turnover.


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Leadership Styles

Bureaucratic Leadership Bureaucratic leaders work “by the book”. They follow rules

rigorously, and they ensure their staff follows procedures precisely.

This is a very appropriate style for work involving serious security risks (such as working with machinery, with toxic substances, or at dangerous heights) or where large sums of money are involved (such as handling cash).


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Leadership Styles

Charismatic Leadership A charismatic leadership style can seem similar to

transformational leadership (leads to positive changes in those who follow such leaders), because these leaders inspire lots of enthusiasm in their teams and are very energetic in driving others forward.

However, charismatic leaders tend to believe more in themselves than in their teams, and this creates a risk that a project, or even an entire organization, might collapse if the leader leaves.

In the eyes of the followers, success is directly connected to the presence of the charismatic leader.


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Leadership Styles

Democratic Leadership or Participative Leadership Although democratic leaders make the final decisions, they

invite other members of the team to contribute to the decision-making process.

This not only increases job satisfaction by involving team members, but it also helps to develop people’s skills.

Team members feel in control of their own destiny, so they are motivated to work hard by more than just a financial reward


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Leadership Styles

Laissez-faire Leadership This French phrase means “leave it be”, and it’s used to

describe leaders who leave their team members to work on their own.

It can be effective if the leader monitors what’s being achieved and communicates this back to the team regularly.

Most often laissez-faire leadership is effective when individual team members are very experienced and skilled self-starters.

Unfortunately, this type of leadership also occurs when managers don’t apply sufficient control.


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Leadership Styles

People-oriented Leadership or Relations-oriented Leadership This is the opposite of task-oriented leadership. With people-

oriented leadership, leaders are totally focused on organizing, supporting and developing the people in their teams.

It’s a participative style and it tends to encourage good teamwork and creative collaboration.

Servant Leadership In many ways, servant leadership is a form of democratic

leadership, because the whole team tends to be involved in decision-making.


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Leadership Styles

Task-oriented Leadership Highly task oriented leaders focus only on getting the job

done, and they can be quite autocratic. They actively define the work and the roles required, put

structures in place, plan, organize and monitor. However, because task-oriented leaders don’t tend to think

much about the well-being of their teams, this approach can suffer many of the flaws of autocratic leadership, with difficulties in motivating and retaining staff.


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Leadership Styles

Transactional Leadership This style of leadership starts with the idea that the team

members agree to obey their leader totally when they accept a job. The “transaction” is usually the organization paying the team members in return of their effort and compliance.

The leader has a right to “punish” team members if their work doesn’t meet the pre-determined standard. Team members can do little to improve their job satisfaction under transactional leadership.

This is really a type of management, not a true leadership style because the focus is on short-term tasks.

It has serious limitations for knowledge-based or creative work, however it can be effective in other situations.


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Leadership Styles

Transformational Leadership People with this style are true leaders who inspire their

teams constantly with a shared vision of the future. While this leader’s enthusiasm is often passed on to the

team, he/she need to be supported by “detail people”. That’s why, in many organizations, both transactional and transformational leadership are needed.

The transactional leaders (or managers) ensure that routine work is done reliably, while the transformational leaders look after initiatives that add new value.

April 7, 2023

Thank you

Hardy AlexanderFounder & Director | Triune GlobalBangalore – 560077Contact: +91 96864 48698Email: [email protected] Blog: dayscore.wordpress.com

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