Unit 14 Leadership

Leadership

Leadership is needed at all levels in organization. It is likely, however, that the leadership qualities required by a supervisor or manager are not the same as those required by the chief executive of a company. A typical definition is that the leader “provides direction and influences others to achieve common goals ”. This is true in the case of supervisors and managers, but is it a good definition of the leader of organization? A chief executive must indeed give ‘direction’ but he must do much more than that. He must create ‘a sense of excitement’ in the organization, and convince staff that he knows where the business is going. In addition he must be a focus for their aspirations. Leadership is the ability to influence employees to work toward the achievement of organizational goals.

When psychologists and other researchers first studied leadership they tried to find out if leaders had special personal qualities or skills. The trait approach seemed to be very reasonable. However, as early as the 1950s, it had been discredited. It is generally agreed now that you cannot say a person is a leader because he/she possesses a special combination of traits. All you can say is that some qualities, like above-average intelligence and decisiveness, are often associated with leaders.

There are three basic styles of leadership: autocratic, democratic and free rein. No particular style of leadership is best in all situations.

Autocratic leaders make all the decisions and then tell employees what must be done and how to do it. These leaders generally use their authority and economic rewards as incentives to get employees to comply with their decisions. An advantage of autocratic leadership is that it allows managers to make decisions quickly because they do not have to consider input from a lot of people. Its major disadvantage is its disregard for the ideas of employees. However, the autocratic style can be very effective when employees are unskilled, untrained, or unmotivated.

Democratic leaders allow their employees to get involved in decisions. He presents a decision situation to subordinates and encourages them to express opinions and contribute ideas. After that he considers the employees’ points of view and makes the decision. Employees who have been involved in decision making generally require less supervision than those not similarly

involved. Democratic leadership does slow the decision-making process, however.

Free-rein leaders let their employees work without much interference. Such leaders set performancestandards and allow subordinates to find their own ways to meet them. For this style to be effective, employees must know what the standards are, and they must be motivated to attain the standards. The free-rein style of leadership can be a powerful motivator because it shows a great deal of trust and confidence in the employee.

The effectiveness of the autocratic, democratic, and free-rein styles depends on several factors. One consideration is the type of employees. An autocratic style of leadership is generally needed to motivate unskilled, unmotivated employees; highly skilled, trained, and motivated employees may respond better to democratic or free-rein leaders.

Two other considerations are the abilities of the manager and the situation itself. If the special task force must be set up to solve a quality control problem, a normally democratic manager may give free-rein to the task force. Many managers, however, are unable to use more than one style of leadership. Some are unable to allow their subordinates even to participate in decision making, let alone make any decisions. When, the situation requires quick decisions, an autocratic style of leadership may be best. The leadership style that is "best" depends on specific circumstances.

In a book called The Winning Streak, the authors studied leadership in some top British companies and identified some characteristics of the chief executives of the companies, which made them good leaders: firstly, the leaders were ‘visible’. They didn’t hide away in some ivory tower at Head Office. Instead, they made regular visits to plants and sites, toured around their companies and talked to employees. Leaders made their presence felt. Besides being visible, the leaders of these top companies provided ‘clear mission’. In their words, they knew where the organization was going and persuaded staff to follow them. Sometimes, they spelled out the mission in a written statement of their principles in annual reports and covered in documents matters like employees, clients, creativity, market position and profitability.

Finally, the leader is not only someone who lifts a man’s vision; he/she must also protect and promote the organization’s values.

1 Find English equivalents from the text:

стройка, вмешательство, устанавливать стандарты работы, вовлекать в процесс принятия решений, пренебрегать, достичь общих целей, черта характера

2 Answer the questions
What are the functions of a leader?

What are the major types of leaders and what are their main characteristics?

What does the effectiveness of leadership styles depend upon?

Up to you…

Men and women are considered to have different management styles. Mark the following statements according to whether they are more typical for men or women. Then choose the most important ones.

1) Being able to take the initiative 2) Being a good listener 3) staying calm under pressure 4) being prepared to take risks 5) being conscientious and thorough 6) having good communication skills 7) being energetic and assertive 8) getting the best out of people 9) being independent and autocratic 10) being supportive towards colleagues 11) being able to delegate 12) motivating by example 13) Having a co- operative approach 14) being single-minded and determined 15) being a good time- manager

Links

Leadership styles are described there:

www.hwlink.com.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14