CHAPTER ONE

1. INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP

1.1Leadership Definition

An organization has the greatest chance of being successful when all of the employees work
toward achieving its goals. Since leadership involves the exercise of influence by one person
over others, the supervisors/managers is a critical determinant of organizational success. The
idea of leadership irrespective of different terms used as directing, executing, supervising,
ordering, commanding, etc. is to put into effect the decisions, plan and programs, that have
previously been worked out for achieving the goals of the group.

Leadership can be defined in different ways:

 Leading is the process of establishing direction and influencing others to follow that
direction. It is the process by which one person influences the thoughts, attitudes, and
behaviors of others. Leaders set a direction for the rest of us; they help us see what lies
ahead; they help us visualize what we might achieve; they encourage us and inspire us.
Without leadership a group of human being quickly degenerates into argument and
conflict, because we see things in different ways and lean toward different solutions.
Leadership helps to point us in the same direction and harness our efforts jointly.
Leader’s ability to get other people to do something significant that might not otherwise
do.
 Leadership is a dynamic relationship based on mutual influence and common purpose
between leaders and collaborators in which both are moved to higher levels of motivation
and moral development as they affect real, intended change. (Kevin Freiberg and Jackie
Freiberg, 1996).
 Leadership is the process of influencing employees to work toward the achievement of
objectives.
 A few years ago, 54 scholars from 38 countries reached a consensus that leadership is the
ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute to the effectiveness and
success of the organizations of which they are members.

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  Leadership is the process by which a person exerts influence over other people and
inspires, motivates, and directs their activities to help achieve group or organizational
goals.
 Leadership is the art or process of influencing people so that they strive willingly and
enthusiastically toward the accomplishment of group goals. Influencing people so that
they will strive willingly and with zeal and confidence toward the achievement of a group
goal implies many things. Enthusiasm affects seriousness, and intensity in the execution
of work: confidence reflects experience and technical ability.

The distinction between leader and leadership is important. The leader is the individual who is
able to exert influence over other people to help achieve group or organizational goals;
leadership is the function or activity this individual performs. Leadership includes/involves many
activities in the manner in which a leader influences actions of subordinates such as:

Leaders apply various forms of influence-from subtle persuasion to more assertiveness- to

ensure that followers have the motivation and role clarity to achieve specified goals.
Leaders also arrange the work environment-such as allocating resources and altering
communication patterns-so that employees can achieve corporate objectives more easily.
Provide meaningful direction.
Motivate workers through meeting their expectation.
Issuing of orders that are clear, complete, and practicable.
Take responsibility for the direction and actions of a team.
Accepting responsibility for mistakes/wrong decisions.
Being flexible: prepared to adapt goals in the light of changing situations.

1.2. Leadership versus Management

Leadership and management are not the same. People tend to use the terms manager and leader
interchangeably. However, that usage is not correct. Management and leadership are related but
different concepts. Leadership is one of the five management functions (planning, organizing,
staffing, leading, and controlling). Someone can be a manager without being a true leader. There
are managers –you may know of some-who are not leaders because they do not have the ability
to influence others. There are also good leaders who are not managers. The informal leader, an

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employee group member, is a case in point. The leader of the work group may emerge informally
as the choice of the group. If a manager is able to influence people to achieve the goals of the
organization, without using his or her formal authority to do so, then the manager is
demonstrating leadership.

According to John P.Kotter in his book, A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from
management (1990), managers must know how to lead as well as manage. Without leading as
well as managing, today’s organizations face the threat of extinction. Management is the process
of setting and achieving the goals of the organization through the function of management. A
manager is hired by the organization and is given formal authority to direct the activity of others
in fulfilling organization goal. Thus, leading is a major part of a manager’s job. Yet a manager
must also plan, organize, staff, and control. Generally speaking, leadership deals with the
interpersonal aspects of a manager’s job, whereas planning, organizing, and controlling deal
with the administrative aspects. Leadership deals with change, inspiration, motivation, and
influence. Management deals more with carrying out the organization’s goals and maintains
equilibrium.

Management produces a degree of predictability and order. Leadership produces change. Kotter
believes that most organizations are under lead and over managed. He sees both strong
leadership and strong management as necessary for optimal organizational effectiveness,

Leadership and management are both important, but they seek to do different things. About 40
years ago Kurt Lewin put it this way. Every organization structures itself to accomplish its goals
in a way that is in tune with or responsive to its environment. Once the efficiency of the
organization is established, people go about simply maintaining the system, assuming that the
environment will stay the same. Management, then, is the main focus because it keeps the
organization going well with little change. But the thing is: the environment for any organization
is always changing. There are always shifts in consumer tastes, social attitudes, society’s culture,
technology, historic events, and so on. The world is not static as we assume. Organizations tend
not to spot these changes quickly, often because of a "management orientation" which is focused
more on "looking in" instead of "looking out". Over time, the organization can become less and
less in tune with or responsive to its environment, creating more and more management

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problems. Times like this require organizations to think more in terms of leadership. Leaders
begin to ask questions like, "What is really going on here? How do we become relevant again?
How do we fulfill our goals in these new times? What will prompt people to think that what we
do is meaningful?" Leaders seek to bring their organization more in line with the realities of their
environment, which often necessitates changing the very structures, resources and relationships
of their organization which they have worked so long and so hard to manage. And yet, as they
do, leaders can bring renewed vitality to their people.

The key point in differentiating between leadership and management is the idea that employees
willingly follow leaders because they want to, not because they have to. Leaders may not possess
the formal power to reward or sanction performance. However, employees give the leader power
by complying with what he or she requests. On the other hand, managers may have to rely on
formal authority to get employees to accomplish goals.

Managers plan, organize, staff, lead and control. They may or may not be effective in influencing
their subordinates or team members to set and achieve goals. Leaders, on the other hand are
involved in single function of management that is leading. Leadership involves creating and
sharing visions, generating strategies to bring visions to realize. Therefore, leaders and managers
are not necessarily the same; it is mainly leading performs only one aspect of management
functions. Managers can be leader because they can perform leading function. But may not be
effective leaders since they may not have enough ability to influence others.

In addition to the above explanations, the following table summarizes some of differences
between management and leadership.

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MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP
Requires five functions: planning, organizing, A major part of a manager’s job
staffing, leading and controlling
Emerge formally. Managers need formal The leader of the work group may emerge
authority to be effective. informally as the choice of the group.
Deals with both the interpersonal and Deals with the interpersonal aspect of a
administrative aspect of a manager’s job. manager’s job.
Managers deals more with carrying out the Deals with change, inspiration, motivation and
organization’s goals and maintain equilibrium influence
Managers may have to rely on formal authority Leaders may not possess the formal power
to get employees to accomplish goals.
Groups are often more loyal to a leader than a Groups are often more loyal to a leader than a
manager manager
Managers focus of system and structures Focus on people
Managers relies on control Leaders inspires trust
Managers imitates Originates
Accepts the status quo Challenges the status quo
Managers asks how and when Leaders asks what and why

1.3. What Makes Effective Leadership

Effective leadership is the process of achieving desired results through people’s willing
participation. The heart of this definition is: desired results (goals), through people, and willing
participation-people willingly follow leaders because they want them.

When leaders are effective, the influence they exert over others helps a group or organization
achieve its performance goals when leaders are ineffective, their influence does not contribute to,
and often detracts from goal attainment.

Beyond facilitating the attainment of performance goals, effective leadership increases an

organization’s ability to meet all the contemporary challenges-including the need to obtain a

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competitive advantage, the need to foster ethical behavior, and the need to manage a diverse
workforce fairly and equitably.

Warren Bennis, who devoted decades to researching leadership issues, concludes that virtually
all leaders of effective groups share four characteristics in common:

1. They provide direction and meaning to the people they are leading. This means they
remind people what is important and why what they are doing makes important
difference.
2. They generate trust.
3. They favor action and risk taking. That is, they are proactive and willing to risk failing in
order to succeed.
4. They are surveyors of hope. In both tangible and symbolic ways they reinforce the notion
that success will be attained.

Some of the qualities effective leaders possess are the following:

Passion: An effective leader is a person with a passion for a cause that is larger than they are.
Someone with a dream and a vision that will better society or at least some portion of it. Without
passion, a leader will not make the necessary courageous and difficult decisions and carry them
into action. This is not to imply that all decisions are of this nature. But you can be sure, some of
them will be. The leader without a passion for a cause will duck.

Holder of Values: Leadership implies values. A leader must have values that are life-giving to
society. It is the only kind of leadership we need. This then also implies values that are
embedded in respect for others. So, often we think of people skills or caring about people as
being “warm and fuzzy.” A leader can be of varying ‘warmth and fuzziness,” but a leader has to
respect others. You can’t lead without it. Otherwise we are back to manipulation. Respect means
also that one can deal with diversity a critical need for a leader in today’s world probably
always has been, although diversity may have been more subtle in the homogenous societies of
the past.

Vision: This is a bit different than passion, but in other ways it isn’t separable. If one doesn’t
care about a subject, an issue, a system, and then one won’t spend the time thinking about how it

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could or should be different. Yet, one could have strong feelings about something and not good
ideas, particularly if she didn’t spend a good deal of time studying the topic. Thus a leader has to
have some ideas about change, about how the future could be different. Vision then is based on
two components that leaders also need: creativity and intellectual drive.

Creativity: One has to try to think out of the box to have good visions and to come up with
effective strategies that will help advance the vision. The need for a sense of humor, it’s a
creative skill that is in great need by leaders.

Intellectual Drive and Knowledge: A leader has to be a student. In general it is hard for a
leader to be around enough other leaders to pick this up just through discussion. A leader has to
be a reader and a learner.

Confidence and Humility Combined: While one can have a great vision and good ideas for
change, and even passion for it, if one isn’t confident, then action will not occur. Without action,
there is no change. Yet, paradoxically, a leader needs to have humility. No matter how creative
and bright one is, often the best ideas and thinking are going to come from someone else. A
leader needs to be able to identify that, have good people around who have these ideas. This
takes humility, or at least lack of egocentricity. The leader is focused on the ends and doesn’t
have to see him/herself always as the conduit or creator of the strategy to get to that end.

Communicator: None of the above assets will work for a leader if she can’t speak or write in a
way to convince others that they should follow along, join the team, and get on board. All the
above gets to the old adage that a leader knows how to do the right thing and a manager knows
how to do things right. But a leader has to be a manager, too.

Planner/Organizer: Someone who can see what needs to be done and help the team plan and
organize the getting it done. Management is getting things done through people. While a writer
or other visionary person may be very influential, even seminal for the cause of change, this is
not quite the definition of a leader. A leader means to me, someone who is taking action, trying
to get others to do something they want to see done.
Ability to understand human behavior: A leader should be able to understand employees’
needs and problems so as to make them work with willingness and enthusiasm.

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Social skill: An effective leader should know the strengths and weaknesses of people working
with him/her. If he/she is helpful friendly, encourages other to succeed, and appreciates the
group members’ viewpoints, people will certainly cooperate with him/her and work their / oral
best towards the achievement of the organizational goals.
Teaching ability (being model): The best way to lead is guiding practically. A leader should
not be in a position to push his subordinates from behind.
Readiness to accept responsibility / criticisms and to take appropriate corrective measures
– An effective leader or manager should understand that error is human but repeat is a mistake.
What so over a leader tries to be systematic, mistakes are created but he should be able to take
remedial measures and take control over the situation.
Emotional stability and fairness – The effective leader poses resolutions indiscriminately after
gathering sufficient information and investigating the possible causes. Moreover, he is relatively
free from bias and prejudice and takes consistent actions.

1.4. Importance of leadership for good Governance and Development

R.J. House defines Leadership as the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable
others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are
members (House, R. J. 2004). Leadership therefore, implies relationship of power- the power to
guide others.
The term Governance describes the process of decision making and the process by which
decisions are implemented (or not implemented). It is a process whereby public institutions
conduct public affairs, manage public resources, and guarantee the realization of human rights.
By extension, Good Governance accomplishes all of the foregoing in a manner essentially free of
abuse and corruption, and with due regard for rule of law (Wikipedia). This however, has
different conceptualization to different people. Stoker (1998) purported that “the essence of good
governance is its focus on governing mechanisms which do not rest on recourse to the authority,
and sanctions of governments”.
While good governance requires mass participation in the decision making process of a country,
aims at integrating the existence and fate of others, leadership should ensure that ethical norms
and behavioral ideals not be imposed but freely embraced; motivation not be reduced to coercion
but grow out of authentic inner commitment, the search for truth not be stifled but rather

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questioning and creativity should be encouraged. Followers should not be mere means to self-
satisfying ends for the leader but should be treated as ends in themselves.
Leadership, therefore, must engender in its mechanisms, institutions, and structures, a system
that fosters integrity, authenticity, credibility, visibility, honesty, loyalty and the ultimate ethical
value, justice.
Leaders are important in any form of community development because they are responsible for
shaping a Community focus, listening to the people's needs, make important decisions for the
benefit of the community have foresight, encourage fair treatment of people, and develop
partnerships that will benefit the community.
The primary focus of any community leader is to shape the peoples' needs and direct all their
actions towards it. They are a platform of voice and action whom the people can talk to, and who
will listen, making them instrumental in any progress for the community.
Leaders are also chosen because of their capability to make important decisions on behalf of the
community and in order to do this must be good listeners. There may be small groups within the
community that have conflicting issues, and both sides must be listened to and understood well
by the leader.
A leader's foresight is crucial in anticipating the outcome of their decisions and community's
actions for the rest of the groups. Good foresight means understanding the past and assessing the
present to produce a good future. People in communities can be extremely diverse, and a good
leader is essential in promoting fair treatment of everyone no matter what their stand or position
is. Each of their values and heritage plays an important role in shaping the community, which a
leader can take to mould them for development and progress. Leaders also play an important role
in fostering partnerships beyond their circle that will contribute to the betterment of their
community. These partnerships should allow for more diverse services and products that the
community can enjoy as a whole. Leadership in community development is an important role
that can make or break the progress of the people involved. They should be chosen well, and a
good leader will bring paramount success in helping their communities enjoy more services and
a better life. So, leadership is important for insuring good governance and development of the
community as well as country as a whole.

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