Leadership [week 5]

Difference between management and leadership:
Managers think incrementally, whilst leaders think radically. Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing [mindtools]. This means that managers do things by the book and follow company policy, while leaders follow their own intuition, which may in turn be of more benefit to the company. Leadership is about setting a new direction for a group whereas management is about directing and controlling according to established principles.


Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the company, and their subordinates work for them and largely do as they are told. Managers tell their subordinate what to do, and the subordinate does this not because they are a robot, but because they have been promised a reward eg a salary for doing so. Leaders do not have subordinates, at least not when they are leading. Some organisational leaders do have subordinates, but only because they are also managers. But when they want to lead, they have to give up formal authoritarian control, because to lead is to have followers, and following is a voluntary activity.
Bass' (1989 & 1990) theory of leadership states that there are three basic ways to explain how people become leaders. The first two explain the leadership development for a small number of people. These theories are:
Some personality traits may lead people naturally into leadership roles. This is the Trait Theory.
A crisis or important event may cause a person to rise to the occasion, which brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person. This is the Great Events Theory.
People can choose to become leaders. People can learn leadership skills. This is the Transformational Leadership Theory. It is the most widely accepted theory today and the premise on which this guide is based.


Managerial grid developed by Blake and Mouton
The Managerial Grid is based on two behavioral dimensions:
Concern for People - This is the degree to which a leader considers the needs of team members, their interests, and areas of personal development when deciding how best to accomplish a task
Concern for Production - This is the degree to which a leader emphasizes concrete objectives, organisational efficiency and high productivity when deciding how best to accomplish a task.


The Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid is a practical and useful framework that helps think about leadership style. By plotting 'concern for production' against 'concern for people', the grid highlights how placing too much emphasis in one area at the expense of the other leads to low overall productivity.
The model proposes that when both people and production concerns are high, employee engagement and productivity increases accordingly this follows the ideas of Theories X and Y, and other participative management theories.


There are 5 key positions on Blake and Moutons grid. The results word be as follows
Someone with an impoverished style would expect minimal effort or concern for either staff satisfaction or work targets. Someone who has a social style of leadership will be attentive to staff needs and has developed satisfying relationships and work culture with little attention to results. A leader who is authoritative concentrates exclusivly on achieving results, peoples needs are ignored and work is organised so that human elements interfere to a minimul extent. One who is a team leader can achieve high work performance through leading commited people who identify themselves with organisational goals. Finaly one who is a middle of the road leader achieves adequate performance through balancing the necessity to get work done with maintaining a satisfactory level of team morale.


Where I previously worked at Martin Mccolls the regional manager was a leader for the team above the area manager. No one saw alot of him however when we did, his leadership style was highly task orientated. He was only interested in what members of staff are good at doing and what they have already achieved. He wasn't interested in how the staff where or if they enjoy their job. He would defnantly fit on the Blake and Moutons grid as a authorative leader. This is because his main concern was always to get the job done the way he wanted it done. He also judged people on the bases of the result of the work they did and no other reason such as how hard they tried.


A strong leader

To me Michael Jackson was the most important leaders in the music industry. I think he was a strong leader because he was able change the way the music industry looked, sounded and felt, he inspired dance with his moonwalk. His video Black or White showed that he wanted the world to know about the cultures of the world, wanted to see walls between black and white fall down, and I think that his life is an inspiration to alot of people. He was followed billions of people from all walks of life, who all wanted to relate themselves to him. Everyone in the music industry and the public saw the bar raised on music video and had to start getting super creative with the way they presented their music on TV. There was no more just standing behind the mic and singing a song into the camera.

Michael Jackson was not a leader as such like Martin Luther King, but he influenced people to help the world, charities, the sick and the poor becuse he showed people that it doesn't matter what colour your skin is, just the spirit you have and it's what on the inside that counts. Michael Jackson helped many charities even out of the public eye, he visited sick fans in hospitals, he donated money to one of his charities he supported: AIDs foundation, he founded his own foundation - Heal the World foundation, the Michael Jackson burns unit and more. He promoted anti discrimination with his music. He broke the music and even race boundaries by making people of all races and cultures fall in love with his infectious music and entertaining talent.

Evaluation

The grid only has two dimensions other factors such as culture, technology, team members, the nature of the task and so on, are not directly considered. extreme scores may appear polarised and lead to value judgments about individual managers. However I think they are not a comprehensive description of performance but a sketch of the preferred style of operating. The model also assumes that a Team leader is optimum style but in some managerial contexts this is not so.

Conclusion
Some leaders are very task-oriented; they simply want to get things done. Others are very people-oriented, they want people to be happy. And others are a combination of the two. If someone prefers to lead by setting and enforcing tight schedules, they tend to be more production-oriented (or task-oriented). If someone makes people their priority and try to accommodate employee needs, then they are more people-oriented. Being aware of the various approaches is the first step in understanding and improving how well one can perform as a manager. It is important to understand how they currently operate, so that they can then identify ways of becoming competent in both realms.


While the grid does not entirely address the complexity of "Which leadership style is best?", it provides an excellent starting place to critically analyze ones own performance and improve their general leadership skills I have found that the basis of leadership is an honorable character and selfless service to your organisation. In employees eyes leadership is everything you do that effects the organiation's objectives and their well-being. Respected leaders concentrate on what they are such as beliefs and character, what they know such as job, tasks, and human nature, and what they do such as implementing, motivating, and providing direction.


References:
J, Bennett.  [1964] What Manner of Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Chicago, Johnson.
P, Piper. [1968]I Have a Dream: The Story of Martin Luther King in Text and Pictures. New York, Time Life Books.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managerial_grid_model
http://www.learnmanagement2.com/leadershipandmanagement.htm
http://www.sos.net/~donclark/hrd/history/grid.html