Leadership

Leadership is the process of management that influences an individual or group of people's behavior for achieving specific goals. It is the personal quality of an individual. We can define a leader as someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority. The objective of leadership is to influence so that important goal can be achieved.

Leadership

Leadership is the ability to persuade others to seek defined goals enthusiastically. It is the human factors that bind a group together and motivates them towards the goal. It is an important factor in the development and success of an organization. It is the personal quality of an individual. We can define a leader as someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority. The objective of leadership is to influence so that important goal can be achieved.

Thus, the exercise of influence is the essence of leadership behavior. Leaders are people who can influence the behavior of others without having to rely on force. One cannot be a leader unless there are people- followers. It is an important and necessary skill for achieving individual, group, and organizational performance.

According to Stephen Robbins, "Leadership is the ability to influence a group towards the achievement of goals.”

According to L.P. Alford and H.R. Beatty - "Leadership is the ability to secure desirable actions from a group of followers voluntarily without the use of coercion."

Therefore, leadership is the process of influencing behavior and efforts of an individual or a group for achieving common goals.

Qualities of Leadership

Leaders must possess and develop certain qualities for influencing and getting the best result from their subordinates. Different experts have suggested varied qualities. However, leadership qualities can be classified into two categories:

1. Personal Qualities
2. Managerial Qualities

Personal Qualities

A successful managerial leader should possess the following personal traits:

1. Self-Confidence:
   A good leader must have self-confidence and strong will power. He should remain enthusiastic and cheerful in the case of obstacles; otherwise, he cannot enjoy the trust of his subordinates. Self-confidence helps a leader to make his followers able to understand all his activities about the work.
   
   
2. Flexibility:
   A leader should have an attitude of flexibility in order to become successful. He should be prepared to accommodate other’s viewpoints and alter his decisions if needed. It is very important, particularly when conditions in all spheres are changing rapidly.
   
   
3. Take Lead and Initiative:
   A leader should have the ability to take the lead and initiative. The business consists of uncertainties and complexities, which requires the leader to take decisions promptly. Hence, the leader must possess a quality of imagination, creative abilities, and courage to face realities boldly and peacefully.
   
   
4. Dynamic Personality:
   A leader should possess a charming and cheerful personality. He should have a strong personality, good health, cool temper, conversational ability, and decent behavior. He requires tremendous stamina and vigor for hard work. The dynamic personality helps to be a good and capable leader. A leader must have a dynamic personality so that it would be helpful for him attaining good and better performance.
   
   
5. Intellectual Capacity:
   The leader should be somewhat intelligent than his followers. A leader should have the ability to think logically analyze the situation accurately and interpret the problems clearly. It is difficult for anyone to become a successful leader without it. So an individual must have an intellectual capacity to be a good leader.
   
   
6. Vision and Foresight:
   A leader should be able to anticipate or visualize the potential trends and develop his policies and programs with foresight. He needs a sound judgment and the ability to take right decisions at the right time.
   
   
7. Sense of Responsibilities:
   A leader should have a sense of responsibilities and must be in a position to bear the burden of all his decisions upon himself. He must also be responsible for the things and men over whom he exercises authority. He should be dependable so that subordinates can trust him. A leader must have a good sense of responsibilities so that his followers would able to understand his working level.
   
   
8. Character:
   A leader should be a man of character. The strong character of a leader will set an example before the followers. He should possess traits like honesty, loyalty, and personal integrity. His actions and attitudes should be morally justifiable. This will create confidence among followers.

Managerial Qualities

A successful leader should possess certain qualities that are important from the point of view of management. The important managerial traits are as follows:

1. Technical Knowledge:
   A leader should be technically competent. He should have technical knowledge about the job and organization. This will enable him to make the right decisions on different matters. A leader must have technical abilities to do a job effectively. It is an essential part of a leader. With his technical knowledge, he can guide his followers.
   
   
2. Situational Adaptation:
   Today’s environment is dynamic and rapidly changing. A leader should be adaptable to the changing situations. His concern for people and concern for a job should be situation-specific.
   
   
3. Motivation Skills:
   A leader must possess motivating skills to include subordinates towards predetermined performance. Motivation factor is very important to the followers for doing the job said by a leader. A good leader must have motivational skills for making his followers active towards the work. For this purpose, he must have knowledge of the needs of subordinates and must apply appropriately motivated techniques.
   
   
4. Effective Communication:
   A leader must be an effective communicator. He must ensure the maintenance of a two-way communication system so that the leader and the followers both are free to exchange views freely without interruptions. Effective communication is needed for interacting with his followers for decision-making about a particular job. It is an essential part of the leader.
   
   
5. Human Relations:
   Leadership is primarily concerned with influencing and managing people. A leader should be social. He should keep a good relationship with his followers as well as other people. There should be a good relationship between the leader and followers so that the work done will be effective. He must be able to win the confidence and loyalty of people. He has to inspire and motivate the personnel. Hence, he must be well versed in the task of human relations.
   
   
6. Power of Judgment:
   A leader should possess the power of judgment and ability to take the right decision at the right time. The power of judgment depends on one’s self-confidence and self-control. A leader should have the quality to judge whether the decision made by him is correct or not. He must judge the right things about his working performance. It is an important quality of a leader.

Functions of Managerial leader

There is a number of function to be performed by a leader. There is no single set of functions that are performed by the leader. It is observed that a leader performs one set of functions in one situation and in another situation his functions may be quite different. The functions to be performed by a leader depends on the nature of the organization and its business. However, there may be some general functions of a managerial leader.

According to management scholars, a leader performs about 14 functions generally and these functions can be categorized into three broad groups:

Setting and Achieving Organizational Goals

1. Goal Setter:
   A leader may either establish the organizational goals and objectives himself or he may participate with the seniors or subordinates with regard to determining and formulating the organization’s goals and objectives.
   
   
2. Planner:
   Planning is one of the functions to be performed by a leader. It is intermediate between the formulation of objectives and execution. A leader prepares a work plan, work schedules, and operational procedures and assigns the tasks to the subordinates.
   
   
3. Executive:
   A leader performs the role of an executive and in this regard, a leader takes the responsibility to see whether appropriate works and activities are rightly and correctly carried out or not.

Planning Operations of the Organization

1. Expert:
   A leader is an expert in the principal activities of all organizations. Generally, it is observed that technical information and skills are useful in instructing and guiding the subordinates for effective work procedures.
   
   
2. External Group Representative:
   In a large organization, external contact dealing with all the workers may not be possible. It may not be economical and convenient too. In such a situation, a single representative may deal with outside individuals or groups.
   
   
3. Substitute for Individual Responsibility:
   A leader is accepted by the people, followers, and subordinates, very easily relieves other members of the group of certain responsibilities, and latterly, they all express their trust in his decision.
   
   
4. Controllers of Internal Relation Within the Organization:
   One of the functions of the leader is to see, supervise and control the function of various sections of his organization and try his best to coordinate the activities with the organization.
   
   
5. Administrators of Reward and Punishment:
   As a leader, he is involved in a day to day affairs of the business and supervises the activities. Thus, he is also involved in the administration and encourages, upgrades and promotes the workers who deserve and simultaneously he also reproves, transfers and fires the poor performers.
   
   
6. Arbitrator and Mediator:
   A leader always tries to maintain harmony among the workers. Being head and leader, he always tries to keep the peace among competitive subordinates.

Symbolic Figure For the Group

1. Exemplar:
   A leader, as he commands some specific qualities, capable of making fine distinctions, having subtle senses to elaborate the situation and take the right decision to achieve something, has been accepted as a model for others to emulate.
   
   
2. Symbol For the Group:
   A leader is accepted as an honorable symbol of the group. He provides a kind of continuity and stability to the group. He stands for the group despite changes in circumstances and membership of the groups.
   
   
3. Ideologist:
   A leader must have his own unique ideas concerning the group, its work, mission, etc. He is accepted by the followers as the source of beliefs also. Thus, he is required to function, act and perform as an ideologist.
   
   
4. Father Figure:
   A leader, being the head acts as a father figure within the organization. By playing this role, he fulfills an emotional role for the members of the group. The followers also feel some sort of security with a sense of strength in themselves.
   
   
5. Scapegoat:
   The leader also functions as a scapegoat. He provides a ready target for the aggressions of the members of the group. If he fails to achieve a target, the failure can be projected upon him. For example- a marketing manager may be blamed for the sales decline in the market and the stock remained unsold in the warehouse because of his inefficiency and wrong sales planning and execution.

Leadership Styles

There are several theories of leadership behavior and styles. The behavioral pattern of leaders in directing the behavior of the members in order to achieve the organizational goals is known as a leadership style. Leadership style depends on several factors and it is dynamic. A leader may adopt various leadership styles in different types and situations. Again, the style may be changed due to the changes in the perception of the followers and organizational atmosphere. Thus, leadership styles can be categorized into three types. They are:

1. Autocratic Leadership
2. Democratic Leadership
3. Laissez-Faire Leadership

Autocratic Leadership

In this style of leadership, a leader alone determines policies and makes plans for the group or organization. It means the power, authority, and decision-making rights are centralized in the leader. Through which, a leader directs others what to do and how to do. Perhaps, he assumes himself as god and follows the formula as ‘Do what I say.’ Thus, the person who does not follow him, he will be punished.

Advantages:

• It provides strong motivation and reward to the leader.
• It permits quick decision making.
• It increases work efficiency and productivity.
• It makes a leader easier to implement the decisions in the organization.

Disadvantages:

• It is less popular in the long-run process.
• An autocratic leader dictates the subordinates.
• In the absence of a leader, an organization gets threatened.
• There is one-way communication.

Democratic Leadership

In this style of leadership, all and the entire group is involved and participates in and accepts responsibility for goal setting and achievement. It means subordinates enjoy freedom in action and the leader also shows much concern for the people. The power and authority are decentralized and the leader takes a decision by consulting the subordinates.

Under this method of leadership, a leader encourages and inspires the subordinates in such a way and manner that they will be ready to take initiation and show their creativity by participating in setting plans and policies. It involves the subordinates to participate in the decision-making process. So, this style of leadership is being preferred and practiced by many organizations and workers' participation in management is getting popularity in these days.

Advantages:

• It facilitates to make the best decisions.
• It motivates the subordinates to operate the assigned job using their zeal and enthusiasm.
• It facilitates to take corrective action effectively and efficiently.
• It develops positive attitudes and reduces resistance.

Disadvantages:

• It is time-consuming.
• Subordinates may feel frustrated when they are not consulted on time.
• It discourages the leaders.
• It requires persuasive and communicative skills.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

Under this style of leadership, a leader entrusts the decision-making authority to his subordinates. The leader delegates all his authority so that the subordinates themselves take decisions. This type of leader is known as a Laissez-Faire leader. He avoids using power and leaves it to his subordinates to establish the goals. He lets them plan, organize and proceed to attain the goals. He does not direct and hardly makes any contribution to the overall effort. Hence, it is a permissive style of leadership where there is the least intervention by the leader. There is complete freedom for a group or individual for decision-making.

Advantages:

• It helps to increase the efficiency of the subordinates.
• There is a positive effect on the job satisfaction and morale of the subordinates.
• It increases the devotion of the subordinates towards the organization and its activities.

Disadvantages:

• It is a delay in operation.
• It discourages the leader to increase efficiency and creativity.
• This style is suitable if the subordinates are not qualified to accept the responsibilities which are delegated.