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Leadership Involves an Interaction Between the Leader, the Followers, and the Situation

Leadership Involves an Interaction Between the Leader, the Followers, and the Situation

“The crowd will follow a leader who marches twenty steps in advance; but if he is a thousand steps in front of them, they do not see and do not follow him.”

~ Georg Brandes

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Looking at Leadership Through Several Lenses

Looking at Leadership Through Several Lenses

Studying only leaders provides just a partial view of the leadership process.

Leadership depends on several factors, including the situation and the followers, not just the leader’s qualities or characteristics.

Leadership is more than just the kind of person the leader is or the things the leader does.

The clearest picture of the leadership process occurs only when you look at all three aspects.

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The Interactional Framework for Analyzing Leadership

The Interactional Framework for Analyzing Leadership

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Figure 2-1

The Interactional Framework for Analyzing Leadership (continued)The Interactional Framework for Analyzing Leadership (continued)

The framework depicts leadership as a function of three elements: The leader The follower The situation

A particular leadership situation scenario can be examined using each level of analysis separately.

You can have an even better understanding of the leadership process by examining the interactions of the three elements (overlaps). Example: in-groups and out-groups

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The LeaderThe Leader

Individual aspects of the leadership equation: Unique personal history Interests Character traits Motivation

Leaders differ from their followers. Effective leaders differ from ineffective leaders on

various: Personality traits Cognitive abilities Skills Values

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The Leader (continued)The Leader (continued)

Leaders who are appointed by superiors may have less credibility with subordinates and get less loyalty from them than leaders who are elected or emerge by consensus from the ranks of followers.

A leader’s experience or history in a particular organization is usually important to her or his effectiveness.

A leader’s legitimacy may be affected by the extent to which followers participated in the leader’s selection.

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The FollowersThe Followers

Certain aspects of followers affect the leadership process:ExpectationsPersonality traitsMaturity levelsLevels of competenceMotivation

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The Followers (continued)The Followers (continued)

Workers who share a leader’s goals and values will be more motivated to do their work.

The number of followers reporting to a leader can have significant implications.

Other relevant variables include follower’s trust in the leader and their confidence (or not) that he or she is interested in their well-being.

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Changing Roles for FollowersChanging Roles for Followers

The leader-follower relationship is in a period of dynamic change. Increased pressure to function with reduced resources. Trend toward greater power sharing and decentralized

authority in organizations. Increase in complex problems.

Followers can become much more proactive in their stance toward organizational problems.

Followers can better contribute to the leadership process by becoming better skilled at “influencing upward.”

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The SituationThe Situation

Leadership makes sense only in the context of how the leader and followers interact in a given situation.

The example of Colin Powell illustrates a very complex situation.

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“You’ve got to give loyalty down, if you want loyalty up.”

~ Donald T. Regan,Former CEO and

White House chief of staff

Are Good Women Leaders Hard to Find?Are Good Women Leaders Hard to Find?

Women are taking on leadership roles in greater numbers than ever before.

Problems still exist that constrain the opportunity for capable women to rise to the highest leadership roles in organizations.

Research shows that there are no statistically significant differences between men’s and women’s leadership styles.

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Are Good Women Leaders Hard to Find? (continued)

Are Good Women Leaders Hard to Find? (continued)

Differences that were found:Women had significantly lower well-being

scores.Women’s commitment to the organizations they

worked for was more guarded than that of their male counterparts.

Women were much more likely to be willing to take career risks associated with going to new or unfamiliar areas of the company where women had not been before.

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Research on Second-Generation Managerial Women

Research on Second-Generation Managerial Women

Suggests that many women appear to be succeeding because of characteristics heretofore considered too feminine for effective leadership.

Tend to use interactive leadership – an approach based on enhancing others’ self-worth and believing that the best performance results when people are excited about their work and feel good about themselves. Style developed due to women’s socialization experiences

and career paths.

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The Shift Toward More Women LeadersThe Shift Toward More Women Leaders

Women themselves have changed.Leadership roles have changed.Organizational practices have changed.Culture has changed.

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Factors that explain the shift toward more women leaders:

Leadership and Management RevisitedLeadership and Management Revisited

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Leaders ManagersInnovate Administer

Develop Maintain

Inspire Control

Long-term view Short-term view

Ask what and why Ask how and when

Originate Initiate

Challenge the status quo Accept the status quo

Do the right things Do things right

Leader-Follower-Situation InteractionsLeader-Follower-Situation Interactions

Leaders create environments within which follower’s innovations and creative contributions are welcome.

Leaders encourage growth and development in their followers.

Leaders are generally more interested in the big picture of followers’ work than managers.

Leaders motivate followers more personally.Leaders redefine the parameters of tasks and

responsibilities.

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Manager-Follower-Situation InteractionsManager-Follower-Situation Interactions

Managers are more likely to emphasize routinization and control of follower’s behavior.

Managers tend to assess their followers’ performance in terms of explicit, fairly specific job descriptions.

Managers motivate followers more with extrinsic, even contractual consequences, both positive and negative.

Managers tend to accept the definitions of situations presented to them.

Managers are likely to affect change officially, through control tactics.

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Leadership, Management, and the Disney Brothers

Leadership, Management, and the Disney Brothers

Walt was the leader, Roy was the manager.The success of Disney enterprises was due to their

complimentary contributions.Their success supports Fairholm’s theory that

organizations need good leaders and good managers.

Kotter advises organizations to try and develop leader-managers.

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There is no Simple Recipe for Effective Leadership

There is no Simple Recipe for Effective Leadership

When observing leadership behavior, you need to think about the effectiveness of that behavior in that context with those followers.

A leader may need to respond to: Various followers differently in the same situation. The same follower differently in different situations.

Follower may respond to: Various leaders quite differently. Each other differently with different leaders.

Two leaders may have different perceptions of the same followers or situations.

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Drawing Lessons From ExperienceDrawing Lessons From Experience

The right behavior in one situation is not necessarily the right behavior in another situation.

Although we may not be able to agree on the one best behavior in a given situation, we often can agree on some clearly inappropriate behaviors.

Saying that the right behavior for a leader depends on the situation is not the same thing as saying it does not matter what the leader does.

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SummarySummary

Leadership is a process in which leaders and followers interact dynamically in a particular situation or environment.

The study of leadership must include the followers and the situation.

The interactive nature of leader-followers-situation can help us better understand the changing nature of the leader-follower relationship and the increasingly greater complexity of situations leaders and followers face.

Good leadership makes a difference, and it can be enhanced through greater awareness of the important factors influencing the leadership process.

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