Introduction and Objectives

Types of Leadership

WHAT TYPE ARE YOU?

As you read through the following characteristics of leadership types, mark with a blue pen those attributes that describe you. Then, go over the items you circled in blue and mark with a yellow highlighter any characteristics you believe may be detrimental to your effectiveness. Finally, read the lists again and circle with a red pen attributes you think would be beneficial for you to develop.

 

After you finish this exercise, you should have a clear picture of your current leadership assets and liabilities. Using what you have recorded, you can put together a plan to become a more effective leader. By reading the definitions you may realise that you already possess many of the characteristics that make great leaders.

 

THE DECISIVE LEADER

This type of leadership is singled out by their action orientation. They excel in their willingness to make hard decisions and take firm action.

 

• These leaders are innovative, entrepreneurial and forward thinking.
• “Do it; fix it; try it.” They move quickly and always have a sense of urgency.
• These leaders move quickly when opportunity presents itself.

• They are bold. Boldness is the willingness to initiate action in the face of uncertainty and possible failure.
• These leaders move to engage the competition (the enemy) in the marketplace, rather than wait for the competition to come to them.
• They have the courage to “stay the course” when the going gets tough and when the outcome looks uncertain.
• These leaders are willing to deal with conflict by confrontation rather than by evasion.

 

THE STRATEGIC LEADER

These leaders that are continually thinking through and planning their next moves and the consequences of those moves.

 

• They are capable of grasping the "big picture."
• Before acting, they consider all the possible consequences of a decision.
• They can react quickly to changes in the situation; they remain flexible.
• They articulate their visions, strategies and plans with clarity.
• They make sure that everyone who is expected to help achieve the objective knows exactly what it is.
• They constantly communicate values, ideals, standards - the “why" of what people are doing.
• These leaders are excellent, low-pressure salespeople. They are always selling their ideas and their views of the situation.

 

THE INSPIRATIONAL LEADER

This type of leader has the ability to inspire and motivate. They are leaders with an underlying vision of something greater, bigger, beyond and themselves.

 

• They have vision and goals that excite and inspire people.
• They set goals that give a clear sense of purpose and direction.

• They arouse excitement and enthusiasm.
• They are committed, intense and dedicated to their goals.
• These leaders empower others to perform beyond their previous levels of accomplishment - by continuous encouragement and positive expectations.
• Leaders inspire loyalty - by being loyal to their followers and to their organisations.
• They know themselves, their strengths and weaknesses.
• Because they have high self-esteem, these leaders have high levels of self-honesty. They are willing to be themselves and to be natural with others.

 

THE COMMITTED LEADER

These leaders are driven and committed to succeed.

 

• These leaders never use the word failure. Instead, they use expressions like "learning experiences."
• They are committed to excellence, to quality in everything they do.
• They encourage and inspire everyone around them to think in terms of success.
• They are future/opportunity-orientated versus past/problem-orientated.
• They believe that trust and credibility are the basis of modern leadership.
• They stand up and speak out for what they believe in.
• They keep their promises to their followers and to everyone else.
• They set high standards of integrity throughout the organisation.

 

THE MOTIVATIONAL LEADER

These leaders put meaning and purpose into work.

 

• They make the job significant and important.
• They focus attention on why people are doing what they are doing.
• They are motivated by their vision of a greater potential in themselves and in their organisations.
• They motivate themselves by continually setting higher goals, by striving to exceed their previous levels of accomplishment.
• They motivate themselves by gaining the commitment and support of others.
• They are sensitive to others and to the situation. They are inordinately perceptive.
• They always act on the side of fairness to all concerned.

 

THE DEVELOPMENTAL LEADER

This type of leadership has the ability to bring together, train and develop winning teams.

 

• Theses leaders surround themselves with good people - the best they can find.
• They provide clear coaching. On a winning team, it is clear who calls the shots.
• They have an intensive people development and training focus.
• They place a heavy emphasis on planning - good market intelligence, facts, statistics and accuracy.
• They put people where their strengths can make the greatest contribution.
• They quickly weed out incompetent behaviours; they set demanding standards.
• They encourage open communications at all levels.
• They have a commitment to excellence and personal pride in themselves and in their organisation.

 

LEADERS WHO ‘LEAD BY EXAMPLE’

These leaders are excellent role models.

 

• They set a good example in their behaviour and in their conduct.
• They are aware that others are observing them and are aware of their effect on the morale of others.
• They do not allow themselves the luxury of discussing their doubts or uncertainties with their followers as they know the effect this will have on morale.
• They are approachable, human and down to earth.
• They practice "management by wandering around" 50% or more of their time.
• They get regular, timely information through continuous interaction with their people.

• They read, study and learn throughout their lives. They are lifelong learners.
• They seek the advice of others.
• They work to build on their strengths, to make themselves better and more effective.
• They work to overcome or compensate for their weaknesses.

 

THE CHARISMATIC LEADER

They have a high degree of ‘personal power’. People act for them because they like and respect them.

 

• They are assertive, comfortable with their surroundings and exude confidence.
• "Liking" is a key factor in influencing others. Eighty-five percent of leadership success is based on interpersonal skills.
• They inspire trust and confidence in themselves and their mission - by believing in themselves and in their followers.
• They identify the key people, inside and outside their organisations whose help or influence might be needed.
• They develop and maintain relationships with other key, talented people whose help they may need in the future.
• These leaders recognise that power is the ability to elicit favours from people over whom they have no control.
• The principle of reciprocity is practised by leaders who know that the way to get people to do things for them is to do things for others first.

• They spend a great proportion of their time listening carefully.
• They listen with undivided attention. They focus intently on the person speaking.

Leadership competencies

Research into the productivity of high-performance managers has found that they share common characteristics. These can be categorised as leadership competencies and are proved to be essential for a manager to lead a team successfully. We have listed these competencies below.

 

• Setting goals and objectives
• Thinking strategically
• Communicating effectively
• Managing time and priorities
• Achieving quality
• Taking ownership and responsibility
• Motivating and influencing
• Reviewing and evaluating

 

When they make decisions, they make them with the end in mind. This comes from a clear vision of what their organisation is trying to achieve. Here management must play a critical role in creating a mission statement that crystallises the company's key business goals. This should not be framed and hung on the wall like a piece of office art, but instead must be communicated over and over again through memos, newsletters, and meetings. This helps everyone to make decisions with the end in mind.

 

They create action plans designed to implement the company's mission. Typically, star performers establish precisely what they intend to accomplish in specific time frames, such as one month, six months, a year. Although they remain focused on these time-sensitive objectives, they remain flexible enough to change their tactics if business conditions or the prevailing economic environment change. For example, assume that a general manager is seeking to increase profits by 5 percent over the course of a year, mostly by increasing sales. Then bang, a recession hits in midstream. Rather than throwing in the towel, she sticks to her profit goal, but focuses more intensely on cutting expenses than on increasing sales. To do this, she reviews the company's procedures with an eye toward engineering the assembly line to wring excess costs out of the system. In this way, the manager stays focused on her objective, but pursues new means of achieving it.

 

Turning intentions into actions, effective managers muster the resources necessary to accomplish their action plans. First, they determine what they will need - raw materials, additional employees, creative input, capital, alliances inside and outside of the company. Then they act to assemble these resources in a way that makes the work process more efficient.

 

For example, a sales manager who is determined to speed shipments to customers may create an alliance with the warehouse manager, promising faster sales and re-order data in return for accelerated order processing. The bottom line: there is greater collaboration among the company's employees, resulting in the realisation of its goals and greater creativity. They recognise that influencing colleagues and motivating staff workers is integral to getting things done on time and to the correct specifications.

 

They are good at managing priorities to reflect the company's objectives. Their thinking goes like this: "Here's what I am going to do today. This task is a top priority not because it is the project I want most to clear from my desk, or because someone is pressing me to do it, but because it will draw the straightest line between my work and the company's goals."

 

They are skilled at balancing the quality/quantity equation that is inherent in all work. For example, a well-intentioned but relatively unproductive employee may take pride in saying, "I always do everything perfectly." When management counters that the quest for perfection caused the company to miss the deadline for a key delivery, he returns to the same myopic theme: "Yes, but you have to admit my work was done beautifully."

 

Recognising instinctively that this is unacceptable, the best performers strive to achieve the delicate balance between quality and quantity. This means doing the best work in the time frame and the quantities required to meet the customer's expectations and the company's strategic goals.

 

They take ownership of the projects and responsibilities assigned to them. Super managers always demonstrate a "can do" attitude. They rarely shun responsibility. Instead, they consider completion of a project to be a personal responsibility, and they work to influence others along the assembly line to help achieve stated goals (which, as we have noted, are always linked to the company's objectives). Assume, for example, that your IT manager is asked to produce monthly reports tracking the company's sales trends. Soon after the manager sets out to generate the data, he faces a roadblock: an administrator in the sales department is reluctant to release the necessary reports on a timely basis. Rather than pointing a finger at the administrator and taking a "don't blame me" attitude, the IT manager goes through back channels to tap new sources of data, making certain that the reports are produced on time. Because he "owned" the project, he refused to let it be derailed. This resourcefulness and determination makes the super performer an unstoppable and powerful force for increased productivity.

Task versus Relationship Leadership strategies

Manager’s natural characteristics (or styles) are as diverse as the people they manage. How you deal with one of your team and how you speak to them in a specific situation may be different to the way that you would deal with another in the same situation. How they respond to you can be a direct reaction to how you have spoken or dealt with the issue. The old adage ‘it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it’ rings true in many instances, especially in a boss-subordinate relationship.

 

By analysing your predominate management style and how it motivates or de-motivates your staff may allow you to examine the interactions you have with staff members and develop more effective strategies for leadership.

 

Task Behaviour versus Relationship behaviour

 

Task behaviour is when your actions are centred on the task - the job that needs to be done. Relationship behaviour is when your actions are more centred towards relationships with your people.

 

Someone who concentrates on task behaviour to get the job done:

 

• Concentrates on numbers.

• Is very target/results orientated.

• Is activity centred.

• Believes in hands-on involvement.

 

The benefits of being task orientated are:

 

• Hits target/gets results.

• Gets a job done quickly.

• Keeps control.

• Avoids waste (profitable).

 

Examples of Relationship Behaviour

 

• Someone who concentrates on people.

• Helping people to achieve their full potential.

• Counsels staff members at length.

• Believes in being available at all times.

 

Benefits of being relationship orientated

 

• Staff members like you.

• Builds confidence in staff.

• Manager has two-way communication with staff.

• Good teamwork.

• Helps development of subordinates.

 

 

There are problems associated with being too task orientated:

 

• Communication is one way - downwards from the manager.

• There is little or no feedback from staff.

• Numbers rule.

• People don't get developed and may lose interest in the job.

• Results are short lived.

• Turnover of staff may be unacceptably high.

• No manager = No results.

 

There are also problems of being too relationship orientated:

 

• Managers may be too involved with people’s problems.

• Not result-orientated and have a greater potential to miss targets.

• Staff members see you as one of them not as a manager.

• Difficult to reprimand staff as relationship issues override task issues.

• Quality orientated rather than volume orientated.

• Manager is more inclined to procrastinate and is prone to complacency.