LEADERSHIP:Characteristics of Successful Leader, Why Study Leadership?

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Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

Lesson 03

LEADERSHIP

Concept of Leadership is very important in organizations because leaders are the ones who make things

happen. Without leaders, an organization would find it difficult to get things done. Leaders mostly help

others to learn just as a coach would help players play instead of playing himself. This lecture

introduces students to the concept of leadership and leadership effectiveness by providing working

definitions and by emphasizing the cultural limitations of the concepts. It presents several cultural

models that are used throughout the text to explain cross-cultural difference in leadership. There is no

universally agreeable definition of leadership. Just go and type "leadership" on Google and you can

find more than 186,000,000 different pages of reference on web. It involves influencing attitudes,

behaviors, beliefs and feelings of people and believes to be an important topic.

Peter Drucker the guru of Management defines Leadership as "The only definition of a leader is

someone who has followers." While John C Maxwell defines "leadership is influence - nothing more,

nothing less." According to John W. Gardner Leadership is "the process of persuasion and example by

which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to take action that is in accord with the

leader's purpose, or the shared purposes of all."

Remember Leadership is a process and not a position. This important process has three important

components/ingredients. 1) Leader, 2) Followers and 3) Situation. These three components play very

important role on the process of leadership.

Leaders are those persons who are able to influence others and who possess managerial authority.

Leadership, then, is the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals. Trust is the

foundation of leadership. Leaders develop an environment of trust where the organizational members

tend to establish a follower-ship with the leader.

Who is a leader? A leader is defined as any person who influences individuals and groups/teams

within an organization, helps them in the establishment of goals, and guides them toward achievement

of those goals, thereby allowing them to be effective.

Characteristics of Successful Leaders Effective and successful leaders have certain characteristics.

They are good communicators, they motivate others (team members), they are good team builders,

solve problems of others and of organizations, they are good listeners and resolve conflicts, anticipate

change and mange it within team and organizations, they encourage risk taking by their team members

and also to promote the creativities.

If you study the life of successful leaders, you can find them a challenger of the process, they inspire a

shared vision, enable others to act, they model the way by showing the path, encourage the followers,

act as change agent and take followers to the destination.

Similarly, we also discussed leaders of corporate sector who created impression in this world.

9. Asa G. Candler Coca-Cola

1. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft

10. M ichael Dell, founder of Dell Com puter

2. Sam Walton, former CEO of Wal-Mart

11. Andy Grove, form er CEO of Intel

3. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric

12. Ted Turner, founder of CNN

4. Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler

13. Jeff Bezos, founder of Am azon.com

5. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple

14. Phil Knight, CEO of Nike

6. Walter E. Disney Walt Disney

15. Lou Gerstner, form er CEO of IBM

7. Henry Ford Ford Motor

16. Robert W . Johnson Jr. Johnson &

8. William C. Procter Procter & Gamble

Johnson

Leadership & Team Management MGMT 623

Think of someone in your life whom you would consider as "Leader". What are the qualities of

character that this person has? I try to enlist few important characters that person "leader" may have..

Consistent

· Honest, trustworthy

Open

· Good role model

Accountable

· Caring

Transparent

· Committed

Responsible

· Good listener

Sensitive

· Treats people with respect

Connected to the Community

· Positive, enthusiastic

Knowledge

· Risk taker

Wisdom

· Planner

Social Skills

· Decision Maker

Are we born with these qualities or are they learned behaviors? To some degree we have all of them --

some more so than others. We must choose and work to strengthen these qualities in ourselves if we

are to be effective leaders.

Do we really need leaders? Consider how life would be different without leadership in e.g. Families,

Education, Businesses, Service Associations, Teams, Countries and World.

Why Study Leadership?

Understanding leadership helps organizations:

To select the right people for leadership positions

To train people in leadership positions to improve to improve their performance

Who benefits?

Leaders, followers, organizations and society as a whole.

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