An Introduction to Leadership

MAN101: Principles of Management Class 2

9 Differences Between Being A Leader And A Manager
LEADERS MANAGERS
Create a vision Create goals
Change agents Maintain the status quo
Willing to be themselves (authenticity) Adopt rather than define their own style
Take risks Control risks
Think long-term Think short-term
Grow personally and expand their thinking Rely on existing, proven skills and knowledge
Build relationships Build systems and processes
Coach and mentor Direct and train
Create followers and other leaders Have employees who follow directions

• Leadership is the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or a set of goals.
• Not all leaders are managers, and not all managers are leaders.
• Organisations need leaders and managers.

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Differences Between Leaders and Managers
“Leaders set the vision; managers follow it.”
“Leaders think about ideas; managers think about
execution.”
“Leaders inspire people; managers help facilitate their
success.”
“Leaders look to the future; managers work in the
present.”
“Leaders shape the culture; managers endorse it.”
Differences Between Leaders and Managers
1. Vision vs. Process
• Whereas managers set out to achieve organisational goals through implementing
processes, such as budgeting, organisational structuring, and staffing, leaders are more
intent on thinking ahead, centering on a vision to guide organisational change, and
identifying and capitalizing on opportunities.
2. Aligning vs. Organizing
• Managers pursue goals through coordinated actions and tactical processes, or tasks and
activities that unfold over stages to reach a certain outcome. Leaders, on the other hand,
are less focused on how to organize people to get work done and more on finding ways
to align and influence them.
3. Personal Quality vs. Position
• "Manager" is a title. It’s a role and set of responsibilities. Leadership is the result of
action. It is a quality that needs to be shaped. If you act in a way that inspires,
encourages, or engages others, you are a leader. It doesn't matter what your job title or
position is.
 Trait Theories of Leadership
 Differentiates leaders from non-leaders by focusing on personal
qualities and characteristics.
 The Big-5 Personality Traits
 Extraversion has the strongest association with leadership.
 However, introversion is strongly associated with leadership in some areas.
 Conscientiousness and openness to experience also strongly related to
leadership
 These traits are better at predicting leader emergence than leader
effectiveness
 In other words, someone with these Big-5 personality traits may become a
leader but isn’t necessarily going to become an effective leader.

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 12 Traits All Effective Leaders Must Have
 “A leader must lead but also be ready to follow.”
 “A leader must be aggressive but not overbearing.”
 “A leader must be calm but not robotic.”
 “A leader must be confident but never cocky.”
 “A leader must be brave but not foolhardy.”
 “A leader must have a competitive spirit but also be a gracious loser.”
 “A leader must be attentive to details but not obsessed with them.”
 “A leader must be strong but likewise have endurance, not only physically but mentally.”
 “A leader must be humble but not passive; quiet but not silent.”
 “A leader must be close with subordinates but not too close.”
 “A leader must exercise Extreme Ownership…”
 “All responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader.“
 “Simultaneously, they must employ Decentralized Command (i.e. not micro-manage).
 “A leader has nothing to prove but everything to prove.”

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 Emotional Intelligence (EI)
and Emotion Regulation
EI is your ability to:
 Perceive emotions in yourself and in others.
 Understand the meaning of these emotions.
 Regulate your own emotions.

 Emotion regulation
 Identifying and modifying the emotions you feel using different strategies (e.g.
relaxation; distraction; situation reappraisal; emotional suppression)
 Some emotion regulation strategies work better than others for different people
— and some don’t work well at all.
“Emotional intelligence requires a brain that can use prediction to manufacture a
large, flexible array of different emotions. If you’re in a tricky situation that has
called for emotion in the past, your brain will oblige by constructing the emotion
that works best. You will be more effective if your brain has many options to
choose from.”
 How To Increase Your EI
Keep your “body budget” in good shape
Eat healthfully, exercise regularly, get enough sleep.
But also e.g. massage, meditation, yoga, spending time in nature, reading,
practicing gratitude, positive social contact, and giving.
Gain new emotional concepts
Expanding your vocabulary and having new experiences (e.g. travel) can increase
your empathy.
Learn to distinguish your emotions more finely
Not just e.g. “happy” or “sad”, but what kind of happiness or sadness.
Keep track of positive experiences
Enjoy and really remember all your positive experiences.
Deconstruct and recategorize emotions
“When you feel bad, treat yourself like you have a virus, rather than assuming
that your unpleasant feelings mean something personal.”
Cultivate awe
Especially by being in nature.
What Influences Perception?
 People Perception: How and Why We Judge Others
 Attribution theory: How we judge others based on attributions we make about their
behaviour, and whether it was internally- or externally-caused:
 Internally-caused behaviours are those we attribute to individual control.
 Externally-caused behaviours are those we attribute to situational factors.

 Whether we make an attribution of internally- or externally-caused behaviour depends

on three factors:
 Distinctiveness: “Is it unusual for this person to do something like this?”
 Consensus: “Did other people behave similarly in the same situation?”
 Consistency: “Does this person do this regularly?”
 Fundamental attribution error: Over-estimating internal factors and under-
estimating external factors in others’ failures (i.e. “Too quick to blame the person and
not the situation.”)
 Self-serving bias: Over-estimating external factors and under-estimating internal
factors in our own failures (i.e. “Too quick to blame the situation and not ourselves.”)
 People Perception: How and Why We Judge Others
 Selective perception: It is impossible for us to process all the information we perceive,
so our brains process what it believes is most relevant for us.
 What is “most relevant” is determined by our experiences and aspects of our unique psychology.
 This is fast and efficient, but can also make us see what we “want” to see.

 Halo effect: Forming a positive judgment about someone based on a small number of
positive features about them (e.g. their intelligence; their appearance).
 Contrast effects: Making judgements about people due to our previous interactions
with other people.
 Stereotyping: Making judgements about people based on our perceptions of a group to
which they belong (whether this perception is accurate or not):
 Basic stereotyping (heuristics) is useful and appropriate – and usually accurate.
 The problem is with over-generalization and the inability to separate individuals from groups.
 Authentic Leadership
• A style of leadership that emphasizes transparency, genuineness, and honesty within the
workplace - based on building the leader’s legitimacy through open, encouraging team
relationships with an ethical foundation.
• Authentic leaders seek constant growth through their own experiences, lead by example,
recognize diversity, and foster inclusion. Authentic leaders have the courage to be vulnerable,
embrace integrity and a sense of mission, and build successful teams to deliver strong
business results.
• Embracing an authentic leadership style requires embracing a new mindset. e.g. Failure can
be an option when encouraging new ideas because it creates a learning opportunity.
• During the pandemic, businesses have become the most trusted institution, ahead of
government, media and non-governmental organisations (2021 Edelman Trust Barometer).
Authenticity breeds trust.
• Authentic leadership is not merely a tactic for overcoming times of crisis. It’s a perennial
strategy for rallying teams around an inspiring sense of purpose rooted in a company’s values.
 Characteristics of Authentic Leaders
1. They’re committed to bettering themselves: To become more effective at motivating
and guiding others, authentic leaders need to first focus on bettering themselves.
2. They cultivate self-awareness: One of the most important traits a leader can possess.
Moreover, research shows that companies that employ professionals who exhibit high levels of
self-awareness tend to perform better financially.
3. They're disciplined: With a stronger sense of their motivations and limitations, authentic
leaders can identify their personal leadership style and chart a professional development plan
that capitalizes on their strengths and rectifies their weaknesses.
4. They’re mission-driven: A deep and abiding commitment to a mission is integral to both
authentic leadership and business success.
5. They inspire trust and promote transparency: Authentic leaders help their followers
believe the mission is worthy of pushing forward, even in the face of unexpected hurdles, and
that the vast future ahead of them is worth fighting for, being inspired by, and identifying with.
 The Bottom Line

“Authentic leadership directly influences follower work attitudes,

including organisational commitment, job satisfaction, work
meaningfulness, and engagement.”
(Avolio, 2004)