BASIC PROCESSES OF LEADERSHIP

Leadership in Organization Assignment

Submitted to
Kathmandu University School of Management
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
By
Group One:
Aliska Bajracharya
Apar Bhattarai
Anamol Bisht
Sapan Dulal
Shikha Dhamala
Sonam Jalan
Udit Jha
Jasmine Karanjit
Submitted to
Professor Subas K.C.
April, 2016

Table of Content

Background......................................................................................................................................1
Case Background.............................................................................................................................1
Envisioning......................................................................................................................................2
Convincing.......................................................................................................................................3
Influencing.......................................................................................................................................4
Empowering.....................................................................................................................................5
Energizing........................................................................................................................................5
Relating............................................................................................................................................7
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................8

Background
Knowing how to be an effective leader is a calling card for success. But the hard truth is
there are plenty of leaders who dont have the skills to lead a meeting, much less a department
or a company. There are people who are genuine and seemingly effortless leaders-charismatic
and inspiring, who make people want to work harder. And then there are those that struggle to
have a say in matter of things.
There are specific traits that are prevalent based on literature and experience that has
maligned the following six dimensions:
-

Envisioning
Convincing
Influencing
Empowering
Energizing
Relating

Case Background
KUSOM Annual Festival (KAF) is an annual three-day festival organized by the students
of Kathmandu University School of Management. The program hosts a series of events over a
couple of weeks with inspirational titles: We Care, We Collaborate and We Celebrate.
Furthermore, the event also has smaller events that the students are free to hold, one of which
was the mini marathon this year. Each event has its own mission and objectives and often lead by
students who have a clear knowledge of the expected outcomes and the code of conduct for
organizing such a grand event. The Head Organizer leads the entire event and under him are the
different team heads such as:

Organizin
g Head
Maketing
Head

Finance
Head

Logistics
Head

Media and
PR

Book
keepers

Trackers

Sponsorsh
ip seekers

Volunteer
s

Volunteer
s

Figure 1: Organizational Structure of the KUSOM Annual Festival

Envisioning
Prior to proceeding with any plans, any leader must first must have a vision of an idea of
what to do. As Robert Jarvik eloquently put it Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed
sense of fear and on concept of the odds against them. This essentially captures the fact that
leaders assess the resources that they have to create something that could be done instead of
something that has already been done. Though not unique, this concept is a vital trait amongst
leaders especially in the current day and age where the role of the top dog is being redefined
constantly. This prerequisite trait may seem obvious to most, nevertheless, be crucial for any
progress to be made at any institution. The KAF event is no exception.
The entire structure of the KAF event has to be carefully thought out from the logistics,
costs, sponsorship, marketing among a plethora of other activities needed to start this
complicated task, that too in a short time with a massive work load from the undergraduate and
graduate courses. For this case, we are going to use Jack Dunigans tips for envisioning
(thepracticalleader.com, 2013):

Find out what the group can be at its best: This is achieved by clearly articulating a attractive
and achievable feat of success to the team. Delivering the concept of past successes and

failures to the team can enable the leader to set the bar for success and possibly attempt to

one up the previous KAF team for a moral high ground in the future.
Point towards solutions not problems: Intuitively, the course of action would be towards
being a problem solver, not a creator. With the task of managing so many different
stakeholders including the school management, promoters, advertisers, students amongst
many others, the organizing team will have a huge mountain to climb, hence problems will
manifest themselves. The task of the leader is to come up with solutions to keep the team

focused on the goal at hand.

Define overarching goals that unite people and focus energy: The key concept here is
synergy. Executing the notion of teamwork properly can make or break the success factor of
the tem. The goal in question must be crystal clear. Nevertheless, there should be a constant
yardstick laid out to celebrate small milestones through out the course of the event. Instead of
constantly reminding what there is yet to be done, small achievements should be celebrated
to bolster the confidence of the team.
These points are key to becoming a three dimensional leader.

Convincing
Intuitively, all programs, including the KAF event, must be synchronous with the element
of synergy present with all activities in the three-day (or possibly more) event. Hence the
program coordinator must convince his or her organizing team to share the same vision that they
envision for the project in hand. Without convincing, the process would not move ahead and the
project would eventually be a failure.
Consequently, the KAF event will require convincing in a myriad of methods because, as
mentioned before, there are a lot of stakeholders of the event for the team to get on board. The
vision must be shared and respected by all and hence, needs ample persuasion from the team. To
see what is required, Patsy Karakoff, Psy. D. has handily come up with steps to identify the steps
of proper persuasion (impactfactory.com, n.d.).

Establish Credibility
Credibility at a college festival with peers will require the gaining of confidence via the
leaders expertise in the field, possibly from involvement in past events and from work
experience. Furthermore credibility also comes from the relations that they have created
in the past to create an environment that people are willing to follow your lead.

Understand your Audience

Goals and vision should be relatable. Hence, it should be pitched in a manner that the
team as well as the target audience should easily relate to. This will increase the
credibility all the while luring the team to adhere to the leaders vision.

Reinforce your position with vivid language and compelling evidence

Analogies are crucial in convincing people. Relatable stories, experience or positions are
most likely to be followed and thus, a leader must be able to convince others by being an
example or role model.

Leadership that connects emotionally

Having a high Emotional Intelligence means that a leader can relate to others in a team.
They need to be self aware of their own capabilities as well as the capabilities of others in
the team.

Influencing
There can be no leadership without influence, because influencing is how leaders lead.
Leaders understand that a primary part of their job is to influence others towards a desired
outcome. They use influence to set the strategy and get everybody on board. Influential leaders
stand out because of the things that they do and say every day. Influence doesnt cost money, but
it does take effort. Leadership is influence. (Maxwell, 2016)
KAF, the mega event of KUSOM definitely requires an influencing leader. The KAF
coordinator holds an influencing power. He /she must make sure that group of individuals are
working together for a purpose and producing common shared results.

Vision Development: The most influencing condition of all is when the entire KAF teams
(Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3) align with its mission, and peoples passions and purpose

synchronize with each other.

Individual consideration: KAF coordinator can influence the entire team through one-on-one
interaction such as coaching and mentorship. Individualization is very important because it

provides the space needed to try and have permission to make mistakes.
Reward Development: KAF leader can use levers such as rewards to mold behavior to
specific actions. More importantly, he or she should know which rewards drive the right kind
of behaviors. Even small achievements could be recognized behind the mass to boost up the
enthusiasm.

Empowering
At the heart of leadership is the leaders relationship with followers. People will entrust
their hopes and dreams to another person only if they think the other is a reliable vessel.
(George, 2001) These leaders reflect traits of an empowering leader. These leaders discover
that helping people find purpose delivers superior results than forcing subordinates to be loyal
followers. By giving others the latitude to lead, they expand their own potential impact.
There was a time when leaders thought their role was to exert power over others. Todays
best leaders people like Fords Alan Mulally, General Motors Mary Barra, and Googles
Larry Page recognize their leadership is most effective when they empower others to step up
and lead. Thats exactly what the new generation of Gen X and Millennials expect from their
leaders, and they respond with great performance.
In case of KAF, the coordinator being empowering leader can foster empowerment by:

Nurturing open communication- Active listening is one of the most important abilities of
empowering leaders, because people sense such individuals are genuinely interested in them

and not just trying to get something.

Treating every team equally- equal distribution of resources (decision making power, finance,

logistics depending upon the size and degree of impact of the event)
Supporting teams' independence- giving those reasons and opportunities to stretch out on
their own and even lead others. Division of power amongst the vice coordinators of

respective Day.
Appreciating Teams' Efforts be it a large or small; finding ways to say "thank you" or
celebrating the good things teams do.

"A team of empowered leaders all rowing in the same direction is hard to beat." says Bill Goerge
Energizing
Leadership is all about harnessing energy your own energy, and the energy of those in
your organization. (George 2001) True leaders, those who have incredible clarity of vision and
purpose people like Howard Schultz of Starbucks and Mohammad Yunus of Gramin Bikas Bank
rely on massive amounts of energy, harnessed on three levels namely Individual, Team and
Organization.
For the KAF team of the next year the leader should not forget that at the end of the
day, everyone is a volunteer. If a leader want their very best, leader have to have their hearts.

Leader cant demand this or even buy it with a paycheck. Leader has to earn it. Without a doubt
KAF is not an individual event, one needs a team to make this event successful. A team
comprises of students from undergraduate and graduate program, whereby collaborating
everyone to 1 goal is a difficult task. For this the leader should focus on three different levels:
a. Individual: Leaders must find the source of his/her personal energy in order to persevere
despite obstacles and setbacks. Finding your own personal source of energy is the foundation
for true leadership. Once you clarify your purpose and the values you will use to achieve it,
youre on the way toward creating a better future. The leader might have lots of conflicting
priorities study, assignments, exams and others. Although these are the roles that each of us
have to fulfill, a leader should find a source of energy in it.
b. Team: Leaders must harness the energy of team members toward a shared vision. But
energizing yourself isnt enough; leader has to align the energy of others in organization
toward a shared purpose. Energizing teams is about turning individual employees into coleaders. As we have three different days or KAF and for each day we need to have a separate
coordinator thus the leader should align each of these three coordinators vision into one.
c. Organization: Leaders must galvanize the energy of the entire organization to sustain longterm success. KAF is an annual event of KUSOM and its reputation of KUSOM as well.
There has been times that sponsors have backed out because of non participation from all
KUSOMITES and the reputation has been at stake, thus one should not only energize the
team instead all KUSOMITES should be energized by the leader as it needs participation of
all. By energizing individuals and then continuously managing the brains, bones, and nerves
of the company, leaders will build a strong reputation of KAF that will sustain high
performance over the years.

Relating
Trust and transparency have become popular workplace demands as employees seek to
be aware of what is real and true. Volunteers of KAF have grown tired of surprises as every
meeting with the university management gives them new shocks. They want to exist in a work
environment that allows one to have greater clarity of thought by eliminating the unknowns that
continue to creep into our minds with each decision. None of the leader of KAF has been able to
relate this part with their volunteers. They desire their leaders to be proactive in sharing where

the program is headed and forthright about its future. In other words, they want every leader to
relate to themselves. Being relatable is a powerful thing, if you can trust yourself and be trusted
by others. The reason most leaders are not relatable in KAF is because they believe they will be
viewed as less authoritative; that the credentials they worked so hard to attain will lose their
power, leverage and gravitas. This is the problem with most leaders, they are not aware of the
reality that exists around them. Teams want to relate to its leaders. Volunteers want to know that
their leaders have experienced the same problems and/or how they have overcome personal
hardships. The digital age has allowed people to learn more about their leaders.

As such,

Facebook has suddenly given people the permission to enter a leaders personal space; a place
they were previously prohibited from entering. The digital age has changed the levels of
relations that we expect from people too.

Bibliography
George, D. (2001). Eyewitness To Power: The Essence of Leadership Nixon to Clinton. Simon &
Schuster.
Maxwell, J. C. (2016, April 5). THE THREE TYPES OF MENTORS EVERY PERSON NEEDS
TO HELP THEM GROW. Retrieved April 9, 2016, from
http://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog: http://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog

Dunigan,J.(2013,January7).9tasksofleadershipTask#1=EnvisioningGoals.RetrievedApril09,2016,from
http://thepracticalleader.com/9tasksofleadershiptask1envisioninggoals/