SUMMARY

Summary.....................................................................................................1
Introduction..................................................................................................2
I.

Leadership .............................................................................................3

1- What is Leadership ?..............................................................................3

2- Characteristics of Leadership ................................................................4
3- Roles of Leadership ...............................................................................4
4- Levels and styles of leadership..............................................................5
4.1- Levels of leadership............................................................................5
4.2- Leadership styles ...............................................................................5
II.

Leadership and management .............................................................6

III-

Keys and factors of leadership ...........................................................8

1- Factors of leadership .............................................................................8

2- Keys to effective leadership ..................................................................9
Conclusion ................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION

Todays organizations are complex and need to be able to respond to

increasing economic, market and competitive pressures. Businesses,
government agencies, non-profits, and educational organizations need
leaders who can effectively navigate complex, changing situations and get
the job done.
Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to
accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes
it more cohesive and coherent Leadership is a complex process by which a
person influences others to accomplish a mission, task, or objective and
directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and
coherent. A person carries out this process by applying her leadership
attributes (belief, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills).
Leadership is essentially the core and spirit of or ganizations. As the
people in charge, they not only manage the organization's affairs but also
deal with the general employees face to face. Entrusted with the task to
communicate organizational goals, visions and ideas to employees,
leaders are responsible for maintaining and implementing organizational
rules and systems and even have the final say on promotion, retention and
dismissal. Therefore, in a sense, leaders at all levels are spokespersons of
their own organizations, serving as the bridge and link connecting
employees.
Few things are more important to human activity than leadership.
Effective leadership helps through times of peril. It makes a business
organization successful. It enables a not-for-profit organization to fulfill its
mission. The effective leadership of parents enables children to grow
strong and healthy and become productive adults.
Each of us recognizes the importance of leadership when we vote for
our political leaders. We realize that it matters who is in office, so we
participate in a contest, an election, to choose the best candidate.
Investors recognize the importance of business leadership when they say
that a good leader can make a success of a weak business plan, but that a
poor leader can ruin even the best plan.

I.

Leadership :
1- What is Leadership ?
Leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and
influence the behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of
specific goals in a given situation. Leadership is the ability of a manager to
induce the subordinates to work with confidence and zeal.
Leadership is the potential to influence behavior of others. It is also
defined as the capacity to influence a group towards the realization of a
goal. Leaders are required to develop future visions, and to motivate the
organizational members to want to achieve the visions.
Leadership is the ability to persuade others to seek defined objectives
enthusiastically. It is the human factor which binds a group together and
motivates it towards goals. Leadership as the art of empowering and
mobilizing others to want to accomplish a mutually agreed-upon goal while
advancing the groups integrity and morale.

Definition of a Leader :
A leader is "a person who influences a group of people towards the

achievement of a goal". A leader by its meaning is one who goes first and
leads by example, so that others are motivated to follow him. This is a
basic requirement. To be a leader, a person must have a deep-rooted
commitment to the goal that he will strive to achieve it even if nobody
follows him.
A leader needs to :
Define the task ;
Plan ;
Brief / communicate ;
Control ;
Evaluate ;
Motivate ;
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 Organise.
A leader need also to :
Set a direction ;
Align peoples efforts ;
Bring out the best in people ;
Act as a change agent ;
Handle uncertainty & crises ;

A Leader needs the following qualities :

He/she must personify the key qualities required in your field
technically competent) ;
Enthusiasm ;
Integrity (required to generate trust) ;
Toughness, fairness and being demanding ;
Warmth, humanity and tact ;
Humility (arrogance means you dont learn) ;
2- Characteristics of Leadership :
It is an inter-personal process in which a manager is into influencing
and guiding workers towards attainment of goals.
It denotes a few qualities to be present in a person which includes
intelligence, maturity and personality.
It is a group process. It involves two or more people interacting with
each other.
A leader is involved in shaping and moulding the behaviour of the
group towards accomplishment of organizational goals.
Leadership is situation bound. There is no best style of leadership. It
all depends upon tackling with the situations.
Leadership involves :
Establishing a clear vision ;
Sharing that vision with others so that they will follow willingly ;
Providing the information, knowledge and methods to realize that
vision, and coordinating ;
Balancing the conflicting interests of all members and stakeholders ;
3- Roles of Leadership :
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Leadership is an important function of management which helps to

maximize efficiency and to achieve organizational goals. Following are the
main roles of a leadership in an organization :
Motivation : A leader proves to be playing an incentive role in the
concerns working. He motivates the employees with economic and
non-economic rewards and thereby gets the work from the
subordinates.
Providing guidance : A leader has to not only supervise but also
play a guiding role for the subordinates. Guidance here means
instructing the subordinates the way they have to perform their work
effectively and efficiently.
Creating confidence : Confidence is an important factor which can
be achieved through expressing the work efforts to the subordinates,
explaining them clearly their role and giving them guidelines to
achieve the goals effectively.
Building morale : Morale denotes willing co-operation of the
employees towards their work and getting them into confidence and
winning their trust. A leader can be a morale booster by achieving
full co-operation so that they perform with best of their abilities as
they work to achieve goals.
Builds work environment : Management is getting things done
from people. An efficient work environment helps in sound and
stable growth. Therefore, human relations should be kept into mind
by a leader. He should have personal contacts with employees and
should listen to their problems and solve them.
Coordination : Coordination can be achieved through reconciling
personal interests with organizational goals. This synchronization
can be achieved through proper and effective co-ordination which
should be primary motive of a leader
4- Levels and styles of leadership:
4.1- Levels of leadership:

Effective leaders will understand at what level in the organisation they are
operating and more importantly what they need to be doing at each level.
We can usefully analyse three levels of leadership within an organisation:
People leaders : People leaders are the first official leaders in an
organisation. They are given a role that requires them to lead. This is
different from the more informal leadership role that someone may
choose to take within the organisation.
Operational

leaders

Operational

leaders

usually

have

responsibility for a departmental function or functions. They will

often need to manage managers that are beyond their own
functional area. Their focus is primarily on optimizing the processes
& performance of their unit.
Strategic leaders : Strategic leaders operate at the senior levels in
an organisation and will have responsibility for a (sometimes wide)
range of organizational functions. Their focus is on driving execution.
4.2- Leadership styles :
Leaders do not possess same attitude or same perspective. Few leaders
adopt the carrot approach and a few adopt the stick approach. Thus, all of
the leaders do not get the things done in the same manner. Their style
varies. The leadership style varies with the kind of people the leader
interacts and deals with. A perfect/standard leadership style is one which
assists a leader in getting the best out of the people who follow him.
Some of the important leadership styles are as follows:
Autocratic Leadership : Autocratic leadership is an extreme form
of transactional leadership, where leaders have complete power
over their people. Staff and team members have little opportunity to
make suggestions, even if these would be in the team's or the
organization's best interest.
Bureaucratic Leadership : Bureaucratic leaders work "by the
book." They follow rules rigorously, and ensure that their people
follow procedures precisely. The downside of this leadership style is
that it's ineffective in teams and organizations that rely on flexibility,
creativity, or innovation.
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 Democratic/Participative Leadership : Democratic leaders make

the final decisions, but they include team members in the decisionmaking process. They encourage creativity, and team members are
often highly engaged in projects and decisions.
Laissez-Faire Leadership : This French phrase means "leave it
be," and it describes leaders who allow their people to work on their
own. This type of leadership can also occur naturally, when
managers don't have sufficient control over their work and their
people
II.

Leadership and management :

It is very important to get to grips with the fact that Leadership is
different from Management. Quite simply they are not the same.
Unfortunately common language and parlance in business and the use
of organizational titles like Leader and Manager add to the confusion about
Leadership itself and Management itself.
This means than when looking to improve your 'leadership' or
'management' skills and capabilities you must first stop using the terms as
'the same thing' or interchangeably and recognize differences.

This

differentiation allows you to focus to the specifics needed to enhance

capability and performance in each area.
Considering the contrast between leadership and management provides
another way to arrive at a definition of leadership.
As with leadership, there is no single definition of management. Some
common themes around management include :

Getting

work

done

through

other

people

to

achieve

stated

objectives.

Planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

Clarifying objectives, problem solving, planning work, managing

resources, organizing and coordinating activity, measuring and
controlling performance.
Management is a complex set of interrelated skills and difficult to

execute successfully in a sustained manner.

Management in many ways seeks to ensure an organisation can deliver

consistently and predictably and produces outputs, products and services
that meet the customers needs for quality, at the costs required, within
the budget time and time again. With the complex nature of organizations
today, their complex structures and supply chains delivering this
consistent performance in changing worlds and markets in not easy.
Going to back to Leadership we see it is more closely associated with :

Creating a vision for the future and.

Communicating it, as well as the strategy or direction that needs to

be taken to achieve it to people in a such way that they will support
it, commit to it and are motivated to achieve it.

And Management with :

Planning and budgeting ;

Delivering quality to meet customers defined requirements and

targets ;

Minimising waste ;

Delivery consistency ;

Delivering against budget ;

Delivery to plan ;

Organizing resources, staff, jobs and systems ;

Measuring, monitoring and reporting performance ;

Problem solving to ensure the targets are met and changing

conditions are tackled.

Leadership and management can exist at any level in an organization

within any specific role reqgardless of the roles title.
Leader vs manager :
The first thing we have to do is separate a leader from a
manager . According to the Encarta Dictionary, a :

Manager is somebody who is responsible for directing and controlling

the work and staff of a business, or of a department within it.

Leader is somebody whom people follow.

This is quite difference. However, managers and leaders are different.

We need managers but we are seeing an increasing need to have leaders.
They are not the same thing, the operate differently and they need
different skills.
Leaders and Managers can be compared on the following basis :

The
The
The
The

manager administers; the leader innovates.

manager is a copy; the leader is an original.
manager maintains; the leader develops.
manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses

on people.
The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range

perspective.
The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the

leaders eye is on the horizon.

The manager imitates; the leader originates.
The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own

person.
The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.
III- Keys and factors of leadership :
1- Factors of leadership :
Four key factors that contribute to leadership success or failure. These
are :

The Leader: This is the person who takes charge, and directs the

group's performance.
Followers: These are the people who follow the leader's directions

on tasks and projects.

The Context: This is the situation in which the work is performed.
For instance, it may be a regular workday, an emergency project, or a

challenging, long-term assignment.

Outcomes: These are the results of the process. Outcomes could be
reaching a particular goal, developing a high-quality product, or
resolving a customer service issue.
Many factors affect the leadership style :

Factors affecting leadership style

Personal value systems ;
- Type
of
organisation
Managers experience ;
structure) ;
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(size,

Confidence in subordinates ;
Feelings of security ;
Nature
of
the
business
problems.

Effectiveness of teams
groups ;
Skills
and
experience
subordinates ;
Pressure (time, costs).

and

2- Keys to effective leadership :

The two most important keys to effective leadership :
1. Trust and confidence in top leadership was the sing le most reliable
predictor of employee satisfaction in an organization.
2. Effective communication by leadership in three critical areas was the
key to winning organizational trust and confidence :

Helping

employees

understand

the

company's

overall

business strategy.

Helping employees understand how they contribute to

achieving key business objectives.

Sharing information with employees on both how the

company is doing and how an employee's own division is
doing - relative to strategic business objectives.

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of

CONCLUSION
Interest in leadership increased during the early part of the twentieth
century. Leadership is a valuable skill, especially in the workplace. Some
people seem to be born to lead, and others have to work at it.
Every organization faces challenge that is specific to them that threaten
their survival or obstruct their growth and success. Strategies are worked
out to deal with such challenges. Effective leadership is critical for both
setting the right direction and implementing strategies effectively to drive
business or organizations in the right direction.
A leader with vision has a clear, vivid picture of where to go, as well as a
firm grasp on what success looks like and how to achieve it. But it's not
enough to have a vision; leaders must also share it and act upon it. A
leader must be able to communicate his or her vision in terms that cause
followers to buy into it. He or she must communicate clearly and
passionately, as passion is contagious.
A leader steps up in times of crisis, and is able to think and act
creatively in difficult situations. Unlike management, leadership cannot be
taught, although it may be learned and enhanced through coaching or
mentoring. Someone with great leadership skills today is Bill Gates who,
despite early failures, with continued passion and innovation has driven
Microsoft and the software industry to success.
To succeed, they need effective management to control and improve
performance, processes and systems and effective leadership: to align
their people to the organizations vision and motivate them to want to give
their best to achieve it.
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The key to leadership is having a vision, and being strong enough to say
no and not try to please everybody. That's a recipe for failure. Leadership
is practiced through attitude and actions, rather than words and memos.
There are very, very few organizations today that have sufficient
leadership. Until we face this issue, understanding exactly what the
problem is, we're never going to solve it. Unless we recognize that we're
not talking about management when we speak of leadership, all we will try
to do when we do need more leadership is work harder to manage. At a
certain point, we end up with over-managed and under-led organizations,
which are increasingly vulnerable in a fast-moving world.

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