THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP AND THEIR EDUCATIONAL/ SCHOOL

IMPLICATIONS

To many, leaders are born and not made. It is increasingly accepted, however, that in order to be

a good leader, one must have the experience, knowledge, commitment, patience, and most

importantly the skill to negotiate and work with others to achieve goals. Good leaders are thus

made, not born. Bass & Bass (2008) opined that good leadership is developed through a never

ending process of self-study, education, training, and the accumulation of relevant experience.

Jenkins (2013) stated that the basis of a good leadership is strong character and selfless devotion

to an organization. According to Abbasialiya (2010), from the perspective of employees,

leadership is comprised of everything a leader does that affects the achievement of objectives

and the well-being of employees and the organization. Ololube (2013) also added that leadership

involves a type of responsibility aimed at achieving particular ends by applying the available

resources (human and material) and ensuring a cohesive and coherent organization in the

process.

Northouse and Rowe (2007) therefore described leadership as a process whereby an individual

influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Naylor (1999) stated that effective

leadership is a product of the heart and an effective leader must be visionary, passionate,

creative, flexible, inspiring, innovative, courageous, imaginative, and experimental and initiates

change.

A theory is a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that

can be used as principles of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena: Einstein's

theory of relativity. Synonyms: principle, law, doctrine.

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(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/theory)There are many different views of leadership as

there are characteristics that distinguish leaders from non-leaders. According to Wolinski (2010),

all contemporary theories of leadership can fall under one of the following three (3) perspectives:

leadership as a process or relationship, leadership as a combination of traits or personality

characteristics, or leadership as certain behaviors. Charry (2012), noting that scholarly interest in

leadership increased significantly during the early part of the 20th century identified eight (8)

major leadership theories. Although new theories are emerging all of the time, most can be

classified as one of Charry’s eight (8) major types: “great Man” theory, Trait theory, Con

tangency theory, situational theory, behavioral theory, participative theory, transactional/

management theory, relationship/ transformational theory, skills theory.

Great-Man Theory

Great man theories assume that the capacity for leadership is inherent – that great leaders are

born, not made. These theories often portray great leaders as heroic, mythic and destined to rise

to leadership when needed. The term "Great Man" was used because, at the time, leadership was

thought of primarily as a male quality, especially in terms of military leadership. The great man

theory of leadership became popular during the 19th-century. The mythology behind some of the

world's most famous leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar, Mahatma Gandhi, and

Alexander the Great helped contribute to the notion that great leaders are born and not made.

In many examples, it seems as if the right man for the job seems to emerge almost magically to

take control of a situation and lead a group of people into safety or success.

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The effort toward explorations for common traits of leadership is protracted over centuries as

most cultures need heroes to define their successes and to justify their failures. Historian Thomas

Carlyle also had a major influence on this theory of leadership, at one point stating that, "The

history of the world is but the biography of great men." According to Carlyle, effective leaders

are those gifted with divine inspiration and the right characteristics.

In 1847, Thomas Carlyle stated in the best interests of the heroes that “universal history, the

history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at the bottom of the history of the great

men who have worked here”. Carlyle claimed in his “great man theory” that leaders are born and

that only those men who are endowed with heroic potentials could ever become the leaders. He

opined that great men were born, not made. An American philosopher, Sidney Hook, further

expanded Carlyle perspective highlighting the impact which could be made by the eventful man

vs. the event-making man (Dobbins &Platz, (1986).

He proposed that the eventful man remained complex in a historic situation, but did not really

determine its course. On the other hand, he maintained that the actions of the event-making man

influenced the course of events, which could have been much different, had he not been involved

in the process. The event making man’s role based on “the consequences of outstanding capacities

of intelligence, will and character rather than the actions of distinction”. However, subsequent

events unfolded that this concept of leadership was morally flawed, as was the case with Hitler,

Napoleon, and the like, thereby challenging the credibility of the Great Man theory.

Some of the earliest research on leadership looked at people who were already successful

leaders. These individuals’ often included aristocratic rulers who achieved their position through

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 birthright. Because people of a lesser social status had fewer opportunities to practice and

achieve leadership roles, it contributed to the idea that leadership is an inherent ability.

These great men became irrelevant and consequently growth of the organizations, stifled

(MacGregor, 2003). “The passing years have given the coup de grace to another force the great

man who with brilliance and farsightedness could preside with dictatorial powers as the head of a

growing organization but in the process retarded democratization”. Leadership theory then

progressed from dogma that leaders are born or are destined by nature to be in their role at a

particular time to a reflection of certain traits that envisage a potential for leadership.

Pros of the theory

1. We can recognize great people for who they are, and what they’ve done.

2. All men are not created equally, i.e. aptitudes of via nature

3. Great men are born and help shape themselves in the world.

4. The theory encourages society to believe in the great man and heroes.

Cons of the theory

1. Great men have not shaped themselves, they are shaped, in part by society.

2. The theory encourages society to believe in the great man, and not so much in itself or its

people, because you can’t learn to be great, but have to be born great, i.e. anti-societal.

3. Great men and leaders can be made.

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EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

1. This theory could be a somewhat appropriate approach in that it teaches us to recognize

greatness and great people for what and who they are, i.e. people with born talent potential. The

theory could be used to identify great men, and use their life history and circumstances to show

the trials and triumphs that we all may go through, and our commonalities. This could also show

that we all have the potential to be great.

2. We can be great too, individually and collectively, via collectiveness, collaboration, and

relationally. Leadership this way benefits us all.

3. We are products of our society and can all make a difference, individually and collectively.

4. Greatness can be learned.

TRAIT LEADERSHIP THEORY

The early theorists opined that born leaders were endowed with certain physical traits and

personality characteristics which distinguished them from non-leaders. Trait theories ignored the

assumptions about whether leadership traits were genetic or acquired. Jenkins identified two

traits; emergent traits (those which are heavily dependent upon heredity) as height, intelligence,

attractiveness, and self-confidence and effectiveness traits (based on experience or learning),

including charisma, as fundamental component of leadership (Ekvall &Arvonen, 1991).

Max Weber termed charisma as “the greatest revolutionary force, capable of producing a

completely new orientation through followers and complete personal devotion to leaders they

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perceived as endowed with almost magical supernatural, superhuman qualities and powers”. This

initial focus on intellectual, physical and personality traits that distinguished non-leaders from

leaders portended a research that maintained that only minor variances exist between followers

and leaders (Burns, 2003). The failure in detecting the traits which every single effective leader

had in common, resulted in development of trait theory, as an inaccessible component, falling

into disfavor. In the late 1940s, scholars studied the traits of military and non-military leaders

respectively and exposed the significance of certain traits developing at certain times.

Trait leadership theory of leadership is based on the assumption that people are born with

inherited traits and some traits are particularly suited to leadership. The theory was premised on

the notion that leaders are born, not made. The inherited traits enable them become leaders

naturally. Traits, also called disposition can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought

and emotion. Traits are relatively stable over time, differ across individuals and influence

behavior. They are external behaviors that emerge from internal beliefs and processes. Qualities

and personality characteristics that good leaders were believed to possess include objectivity,

judgement, initiative, dependability, drive, a liking for and understanding of people, decisiveness

integrity self-confidence intelligence, physical stature (height weight and appearance).

Frederick Winslow Tylor, the father of scientific management, for example believed that,” the

capacity to make others do what you want them to do” was an inherent characteristic. Indeed, the

list of important qualities of leaders above is not exhaustive. Stogdill (1974) also retrieved thirty-

three studies on leadership traits and found out that there is a general tendency to the effect that

leaders are more intelligent than their followers. In spite of the fact that so many other studies

established some positive relationship between given traits of leaders and their effectiveness as

leaders, trait theories are now largely discrete. Indeed, although it may be possible to show that,

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without certain characteristics, it is difficult to be good leader, it has proved impossible to show

that all with certain characteristics good leaders.

In 1936, psychologist Gordon Allport found that one English-language dictionary alone

contained more than 4,000 words describing different personality traits. He categorized these

traits into three levels:

1. Cardinal Traits: Traits that dominate an individual’s whole life, often to the point that

the person becomes known specifically for these traits. People with such personalities

often become so known for these traits that their names are often synonymous with these

qualities. Consider the origin and meaning of the following descriptive terms: Freudian,

Machiavellian, narcissism, Don Juan, Christ-like, etc. Allport suggested that cardinal

traits are rare and tend to develop later in life.

2. Central Traits: These are the general characteristics that form the basic foundations of

personality. These central traits, while not as dominating as cardinal traits, are the major

characteristics you might use to describe another person. Terms such as intelligent,

honest, shy and anxious are considered central traits.

3. Secondary Traits: These are the traits that are sometimes related to attitudes or

preferences and often appear only in certain situations or under specific circumstances.

Some examples would be getting anxious when speaking to a group or impatient while

waiting in line.

STRENGTHS/ ADVANTAGES OF TRAIT THEORY OF LEADERSHIP

The following are some of the strength of trait theory of leadership: The trait theory is naturally

pleasing theory and gives constructive information about leadership.

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 1. Credibility due to a century of research support.

2. Provides benchmarks for what to look for in a leader.

3. It gives a detailed knowledge and understanding of the leader element in the leadership

process.

4. It makes managers aware of their strengths and weaknesses and plan toward the

development of their leadership qualities.

5. Leaders can utilize the information from the trait theory to evaluate their position in the

organization and assess how their position can be made stronger in the organization.

WEAKNESSES OF TRAIT THEORY OF LEADERSHIP

The following are some the weaknesses of the trait theory of leadership:

1. The trait factor ignores the followers and the situations that also help a leader to be

successful.

2. No universal traits that predict leadership in all situations.

3. Provides little guidance concerning what advice or training to give current or soon-to be

leaders.

4. The model attempt to relate physical traits such as height weight and appearance to

effective leadership. Most of these traits relate to situational factors. Example, a

minimum height and weight might be necessary to perform the task effectively in the

military leadership position. In business organizations, these are not the requirement to be

an effective leader.

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 5. Stogdill (1948). Individuals with such traits do not automatically become leaders, traits

must be relevant to the situation.

EDUCATIONAL/SCHOOL IMPLICATIONS OF TRAIT THEORY OF LEADERSHIP.

Here are some of the Educational /School implications of trait theory of leadership are as

follows:

1. Helps in the selection and appointment of Directors of Education, Circuit Supervisors of

various circuits, Headmasters of Second Cycle Institutions, Head teachers of Basic

Schools and other personnel into any leadership position in the educational sector. Since

the trait theory had stand the test of credibility for century, the ministry of education and

the Ghana education Service can use the theory to assess the leadership qualities of the

applicants vying for the various leadership position in the educational sector and be able to

select the best for effective and efficient administrative management of our institutions.

2. Also, Head teachers and Headmasters can apply the trait theory in the selection of staff

into various leadership position in the schools. Example, girls’ coordinator, music and

cultural master, sport master, head of departments, house masters and guidance and

counselling, coordinators.

3. Teachers can also apply the principle in the selection of students into leadership positions

like the school prefect, class prefect, project officer and the worship prefect to prepare

them for future leadership role.

4. Headmasters and staff can use the trait theory to become aware of their strength and

weaknesses and plan on how best to develop their leadership qualities.

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 5. It also gives a detailed knowledge and understanding of the leadership element in the

leadership process among the staff and students in our schools. However, headmasters,

Directors and Educational Authorities must be mindful of using the trait theory alone in

appointing people to leadership positions since it ignores the followers and the situation

that also help a leader to be successful.

Contingency Theories (Situational)

The theories of contingency recommends that no leadership style is precise as a stand-alone as

the leadership style used is reliant upon the factors such as the quality, situation of the followers

or a number of other variables. “According to this theory, there is no single right way to lead

because the internal and external dimensions of the environment require the leader to adapt to

that particular situation”. In most cases, leaders do not change only the dynamics and

environment, employees within the organization change. In a common sense, the theories of

contingency are a category of behavioral theory that challenges that there is no one finest way of

leading/organizing and that the style of leadership that is operative in some circumstances may

not be effective in others (Greenleaf, 1977).

Contingency theorists assumed that the leader was the focus of leader-subordinate relationship;

Situational theorists opined that the subordinates played a pivotal role in defining the

relationship. Though, the situational leadership stays to emphasis mostly upon the leader, it

creates the significance of the focus into group dynamic. “These studies of the relationships

between groups and their leaders have led to some of our modern theories of group dynamics and

leadership”. The theory of situational leadership proposes that style of leadership should be

accorded with the maturity of the subordinates (Bass, 1997). “The situational leadership model,

first introduced in 1969, theorized that there was no unsurpassed way to lead and those leaders,
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to be effective, must be able to adapt to the situation and transform their leadership style between

task-oriented and relationship oriented”.

This school of thought which seems most modern, is the view that a leader must be flexible and

sensitive enough to respond to the particular indigenous circumstances within which he finds

himself. Even though this approach offers valuable contributions to the study and practice of

leadership, its extreme form, for example when its claim that outmost everything is determined

by the environment could be disastrous. On the whole, advocates of the approach have helped us

to think more about what as leaders we can and ought to do as leaders in different situations.

Fiedler (1987) taught that three things were important for any leader. Thus:

1. The relationship between the leaders and followers: it is believed that the more leaders

are liked and respected, they would more likely have staff support

2. The structure of the task: if the work to be done is clearly stated to the staff, they will be

more likely to do it, and consequently, the leader is likely to be more effective.

3. Position of power: if the purpose of giving power to the leader is for effectiveness of job

output, this would quite likely enhance the influence of the leader

Situational theory helps educational leader/administrator who operates in a constantly changing

environment requiring adaptation to emerging technologies and pedagogies and adoption of

various innovations and who work with highly technical and professional staff who are at various

competency levels in their careers

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EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

As we learn about leaders and what makes them successful or not, I can’t help but think about

my 4th grade teacher. I was an average student but somehow she managed to bring out the best in

me and I made the honor roll that year. Looking at the different aspects that make leaders,

teachers have to adapt to their different students. Every student is different – some are smarter

and grasp things easier while others may struggle and need a bit more help, there are those that

can’t sit still or stop talking and others so shy they don’t speak up at all. Each student requires a

different approach to help him or her learn. Situational leadership looks at leadership in different

situations and each situation that presents itself needs to be addressed differently, and for a leader

to be effective, they must change his or her style to fit those situations (PSU WC, 2016). It can

be divided into two parts: Leadership Style and Developmental Level of Subordinates

(Blanchard, 2008).

Leadership styles are broken down into four different categories of behaviors that are either high

or low in either directive or supportive

styles: Directing, coaching, supporting

and delegating (PSU WC, 2016). Each

one determines what style needs to be

used based on the situation that is

presented and the four different

developmental level of the follower.

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Teachers are leaders to their students and need to be able to change their behaviors to fit the

different situations they are presented with. Each one of their students may fall into a different

level of readiness and teachers need to be able to adjust accordingly. The students (followers)

can fall in to one of four different development levels: two that are follower directed and two that

are leader directed and are organized along a continuum of developmental opportunity of the

follower ranging from high to low.

In the case of the teacher, if one student is able to complete

their assignment then this would be follower directed and

the teacher would only have to intervene minimally to give

instructions on what needs to be done; this would be

characterized as a level four or D4. On the other hand, the

shy student in the corner may need a bit more coaxing so the teacher would have to switch

behavior and become more of a coach to the student. This would be a leader directed situation,

similar to a D2. Seeing as how many classrooms today consist of at lease 25-30 students – that is

a lot of behavior switching!

The successful teacher is one that gets to know his or her students and figure out what works and

what doesn’t. The same can be true of leaders – get to know your followers and find out what

works and what doesn’t. I came across an article that looked at managers of Walgreen’s and how

they got to know their employee’s and used it to their advantage to increase their profits.

Situational Leadership takes the motivational level of employees into consideration when

selecting a leadership style. For example, a motivated and willing employee will require less

coaching than an unmotivated individual.

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Since motivation largely comes from within the individual, head teachers must understand what

motivates their teachers – or risk diminishing engagement and efficiency in our schools

Situational Leadership can provide leaders and managers of schools with the tools necessary to

influence others and to help them appropriately cultivate and exercise their power to influence

and affect change.

Situational Leadership approaches performance as situation-specific, requiring leaders to assess

performance based on a specific task and work climate. This will help leaders in our schools

analyse the task and working climate of both teachers and students when assessing them.

It helps school leaders to use appropriate reward, sanction and make appropriate decisions

relative to the situation in the school

Full range leadership theory

According to Burns (1978), there are basically two types of leadership: transactional and

transformational, the latest being defined as a process in which leaders and followers raise one

another to higher levels of morality and motivation.

In 1985, Bass, extending the theory developed by Burns (1978), proposed an integrative theory

of organizational leadership. This theory, called “The full range leadership theory” (Bass

&Avolio, 1994), includes the three typologies of leadership behavior, and it is considered to be

one of the most widely researched paradigms in the leadership field. Also, Judge & Piccolo

(2004) and Sashkin (2004) explained that this theory has showed substantial validity for

predicting a number of leadership outcomes including leader performance and effectiveness

ratings in addition to follower satisfaction and motivation. From a descriptive perspective,

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Laissez-faire leadership refers to leaders who avoid making decisions and who are focused on

problems that need to be corrected;

The full range of leadership is a general leadership theory focusing on the behavior of leaders

towards the workforce in different work situations. The model relates transactional and

transformational leadership style with laissez-faire leadership style. Bass &Avolio (1991)

introduced the concept that distinguishes these leadership styles. It sorted according to a leader’s

engagement towards his or her team.

The full range leadership theory is organized around two (2) axes: degree of activity and degree

of effectiveness. The activity axis is concerned with how active or passive the leader is in his or

her way of being towards others and towards the aims and goals of the organization. Basically

this axis concerns the leader’s level of engagement and involvement in the leadership process.

On the other hand, the effectiveness axis concerns the effect the specific leadership style has on

follower, group and organizational outcomes such as performance, internal motivation and

wellbeing.

According to Bass and Avolio (1994), "the full range leadership theory - or FRLT - comprises

nine factors reflecting three broad classes of behavior: transformational leadership, with five

distinct factors namely: idealized influence – attributed, idealized influence – behaviors,

inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration.

TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP

Transactional leadership, with three distinct factors (1. contingent reward; 2. management-by-

exception active; 3. management-by-exception passive) and laissez-faire leadership”

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Laissez-

faire
TRANSACTIONAL TRANSFORMATIONAL

Hands-off Management by Contingent Individual Intellectual Inspirational Idealized

leadership exceptional reward consideration stimulation motivation influence

(IC) (IS) (IM) (II)

caring thinking charming influence

Transactional leadership emphasizes the transaction or exchange that takes place among leaders,

colleagues, and followers". Because it is less focused on emotion and inspiration, transactional

leadership is sometimes afforded less respect than transformational leadership. This is

unfortunate, because most leadership positions require elements of both transactional and

transformational leadership. Most commanders, for instance, not only lead people but are also

responsible for managing resources – budgets, facilities, vehicles, etc. These kinds of

responsibilities lend themselves well to the behaviors inherent in transactional leadership.

Management-By-Exception (Putting out the fires): MBE is a recognized and often effective

way of managing systems, processes, resources and in some circumstances, even people. MBE

focuses less on building that contractual relationship between leaders and followers and more on

intervention when followers fail to achieve standards. In short, it is less proactive and more

reactive in nature. It is a form of transactional leadership because MBE is essentially a corrective

transaction – an intervention by leadership to correct a situation. MBE can be positive or

negative, however, most people typically think of a leader’s intervention into their work areas as

a decidedly negative event. Because their intervention may be perceived negatively by their

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subordinates, MBE leaders may generate fear and stifle open communications with their

followers. Further, because these leaders emphasis is so clearly on maintaining standards and

performance objectives, it is likely that creativity will be stifled as well. Risk-taking might

adversely affect desired outcomes, so such behavior will likely be discouraged in an organization

run exclusively using MBE techniques. MBE takes two forms, active and passive. In active MBE

(MBE-A), leaders constantly monitor the processes and subordinate performance for which they

are responsible and intervene at the earliest sign of a problem. A leader exhibiting strong MBE-A

behaviors focuses on mistakes, complaints, adverse trends, failures, deviations from standards,

broken rules or regulations, etc. The passive form of MBE (MBE-P) is even more reactionary

than MBE-A. Instead of monitoring processes and work performance of subordinates, MBE-P

leaders simply wait for something to go wrong. Leaders exhibiting strong MBE-P tendencies will

often claim, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” They are not risk-takers. Leaders exhibiting strong

MBE-P behaviors are unlikely to be perceived as role models by their subordinates. MBE is

entirely appropriate in those situations where a leader has talented followers who can be trusted

to deliver expected results.

• Taking corrective actions

• Setting standards, but waiting for problems to arise before doing anything

• Stressing what people are doing wrong

• Enforcing rules, disliking challenges to the status quo

• Only hearing from the leader when something is wrong • “Uh oh, here he/she comes again!”

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATION

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This is leadership consists of critique that corrects the errors, negative feedback and negative

enforcement. There are two forms of management by reacting to exceptions distinguished: the

active one (heads or circuit supervisors monitors teachers’ teaching, checks their lesson notes,

pupils book etc to check mistakes, failures and deviation from standards) and the passive one

(the leader interferes only when the requirements are violated or if the problems occur. Heads

wait until they hear a complaint from other staffs or pupils before they react.

Contingent Rewards (Let’s make a deal!): CR is an active form of management that is

effective in a wide variety of situations. It recognizes the inherent transactional nature of most

supervisor-subordinate situations and encourages leaders to “contract” with employees to

achieve desired outcomes. For CR to work properly, the leader needs to set goals for their

subordinates, explain the expectations for the subordinate’s work, and define the roles, levels of

authority and responsibility, and pertinent processes so the subordinates will understand what is

expected of them. The subordinates will respond to these instructions by meeting the

performance requirements levied upon them. In response, the subordinates will receive some

agreed upon reward. Typically, we think of the CR as a factor of pay and benefits. This is true

for most routine work; however, there are also CRs for non-routine work. For instance, it is

common in many units for “of-the-quarter” award winners to receive a pass – time off from work

for their outstanding work. If personnel are motivated to superior performance to get this pass –

and the accompanying rewards (often a bag of gifts or even a check) that accompany the award –

then they are working toward a CR; a reward contingent upon their outstanding work. CRs need

not be positive. One can think of CR as a “carrot-and-stick approach” to management. In return

for good performance, subordinates get a reward. In return for failing to achieve established

performance objectives, the subordinates get a negative reward. CR is entirely appropriate when

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dealing with committed, talented people who know the requirements of their jobs and need little

additional encouragement to achieve success. This is not to say that leaders should not try to

employ transformational leadership in those areas that are exceeding production goals, only that

leaders can focus their attention on those groups, offices, or organizations within their span of

control that need more time and attention. Some major shortcomings of CR are that it typically

fails to inspire people to exceed the performance standards outline for them. In fact, in some

work settings workers might actually ostracize co-workers who exceed standards arguing that

they are “giving for free” work that should be compensated. This is not usually a factor for

uniformed personnel, but is a common them in production-worker contract negotiations. Another

potential shortcoming of CR, far more relevant to military personnel, is leadership’s failure to

discern which CRs work and which do not. Military leaders need to understand their

subordinates wants and needs in order to offer CRs that actually stimulate desired behaviors.

Clearly, leaders need to understand both their people and the potential CRs that are available to

them – both positive and negative - in order to employ transactional CR effectively. Failure to

achieve this understanding seriously limits leader’s ability to employ this highly effective

leadership behavior.

• Applying constructive transactions

• Making clear expectations of outcomes and rewards

• Exchanging reward and recognition for accomplishments

• Actively monitoring employee’s progress and providing supportive feedback

• “If you do as we agreed, you’ll get the reward.”

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School/classroom implication: This factor describes the process of exchange between the

leaders and the followers, during which the efforts of the followers are exchanged to a particular

incentive. In such a leadership, the leader tries to agree with the subordinates on what has to be

done and what will be the reward. This is seen in stances where heads set rules and assign roles

and responsibilities to teachers and pupils and stating clearly what is expected of them. Teachers

and pupils are awarded with praise or prizes during speech and prize giving days or promotions

when they achieve tasks assigned to them. Failure to achieve goals also moves with a negative

reward such as reprimand. Teachers have to employ various strategies, including incentives, in

order to attract less motivated students to the process of education.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE

According to Avoid, Bass, & Jung, (1995) and Avoid, Bass, & Jung (1999), Transformational

leadership is related with leaders charisma and with the ability to enact a vision of a more

satisfactory future state, guiding the followers to go beyond their own interests and, at the same

time, considering the moral and ethical implications of their actions and goals. Transformational

leaders are those who transform their followers. Through the use of inspiration and motivation,

they motivate their followers to do more than was originally intended – often more than either

the leader or follower thought was possible. In their book Transformational Leadership, Bass and

Riggio argue that, “Transformational leadership involves inspiring followers to commit to a

shared vision and goals for an organization or unit, challenging them to be innovative problem

solvers, and developing followers’ leadership capacity via coaching, mentoring, and provision of

both challenges and support.” Transformational leaders achieve these superior results by

employing one or more of the behaviors described below.

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Individualized Consideration (Compassionate leader): J. M. Burns, in his 1978 book

Leadership, noted that the ultimate aim of great leaders is to develop their followers into future

leaders. IC is that transformational leadership trait focused on the development of followers. IC

involves a range of behaviors, to include listening, coaching, mentoring and teaching and directly

addresses followers need for achievement and growth. As people think back to the great leaders

they have known in their lives, invariably they recall those leaders that helped them reach their

full potential. Whether it was a coach, a favorite teacher, a commander, or even a parent or a

grandparent, most people recall those leaders most favorably who invested time in getting to

know and develop their followers. These were extraordinary mentoring opportunities; however,

they served other purposes as well. The fact that a busy wing commander would make so much

time to mentor his junior officers helped increase loyalty and job satisfaction across the wing.

This practice was repeatedly praised by unit personnel in their promotion and departure speeches

and figured prominently in unit climate assessment feedback

• Empathizing with individual needs

• Making interpersonal connections with employees

• Genuinely caring and showing this compassion in actions

• Encouraging continuous development and growth of employees

• Sending the message, “I care about you and am looking out for your best interest”

School/ classroom implications: school heads encourages teachers to hone their skills by

providing opportunities for professional development. He/she supports the development of

professional behavior by providing appropriate training opportunities for teacher’s e.g. In-service

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training and courses. This factor is characteristic to leaders who create the climate of reciprocal

support, by attentive regard to individual needs of the followers and also the leader himself takes

the role of the adviser in order to provide a basis for self-realization of the followers. Not only

does the teacher notices and acknowledges individual needs and wishes of the students, he/she

also organizes the process of education in regard to individual abilities, creating an opportunity

for the students to achieve the best results in accordance to their own skills

Intellectual Stimulation (Thinking outside of the box): There is an old saying that “none of us

are as smart as all of us.” For many years “brainstorming” has been a proven technique for

eliciting input to overcome challenges and solve problems. Through IS, leaders stimulate

followers creativity. Leaders employing IS question assumptions, processes and existing

paradigms, forcing their followers to rethink their solutions and create new approaches to

problems. Such leaders include their followers in decision-making related to such improvements.

They support some risk-taking, allowing subordinates to try their ideas and not over-reacting to

failure. If a leader is not accepting of occasional failures, their followers will be unwilling to take

risks. IS cannot solve every problem. Sometimes the people do not possess the expertise or

access to the expertise needed to solve a problem. In other instances, innovative efforts are

stymied by external requirements. In most instances, however, people can and will innovate

improvements in their jobs and the processes in which they are involved if only afforded

opportunities. The results are improved job performance but also increased job satisfaction as

people take ownership of their performance and realize that they are trusted and empowered to

make improvements.

• Encouraging the imagination of employees

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• Challenging the old ways of doing things

• Looking for better ways to do things

• Encouraging followers not to think like him/her

• Willing to take risks for potential gains

• Sending the message, “If we change our assumptions, then ...”

School/ classroom implication: school heads encourage reflection and critical thinking among

teachers. Heads motivate teachers to question continuously problem-solving approaches and to

reflect critically upon various aspects of school practices. Leadership that encourages the

followers to be creative, not to be afraid of innovations and challenging their beliefs and values,

Leaders of schools support the followers when they are trying new ways to create innovative

solutions of educational matters, encourages the followers to think independently and solve the

problems in a careful manner. Allowing stuff to take part in decision making and creating the

room for them to find ways of improving instruction. Only when the teacher himself/herself is

open, creative, continually improving, it is possible to ensure and encourage the students to look

at the world from a new and creative perspective. Such teacher encourages students to open their

mind and think creatively and look at the objects and phenomena from a different perspective.

This is done by acting as a facilitator and allowing pupils to think critically into classroom

problem in order to find solutions.

Inspirational Motivation (Exciting the masses/Sharing the vision): If II is “walking the talk,”

one could argue that IM is “talking the talk.” Leaders with high levels of IM behaviors motivate

and inspire their followers via the spoken word. They develop and clearly articulate a vision and

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the expectations for their follower’s performance. In doing so, they “raise the bar” for their

organization, setting new standards and new targets for their followers efforts. Creating and

sharing a vision for the future, and spurring followers to achieve that vision is a phenomenal

motivator. It lets people know where they are going and encourages them in the journey. People

are more confident if they have a good feel for their future; they feel a sense of belonging and are

more likely to commit to their organization’s efforts

• Inspiring others to perform

• Clarifying where the organization will be in the future

• Creating a strong sense of purpose among employees

• Aligning individual and organizational needs

• Helping followers achieve more than even they thought was possible

• Sending the message, “If we focus on what this organization stands for we can achieve

whatever we desire!”

SCHOOL / CLASSROOM IMPLICATION

Stating the school’s vision and setting clear goals is paramount here. Teacher as a leader is

characterized by the ability to inspire for activity. Those are the leaders who share their

expectations with their followers, inspiring the latter to commit, take responsibility and become a

part of the shared vision. In their practice, the leaders use symbols and emotional appeal in order

to gather the efforts of the group members to reach more than they would have done led only by

their personal interests. In this way, the team spirit is strengthened. These leaders are

characterized by their enthusiasm and optimistic attitude to the future. Teachers are the

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enthusiasts who spread the optimism thus motivating them for a hard work. A teacher is a person

taking charge of the class, gathering students for joint activity. Both within the classroom and the

school, encouraging taking the initiative and aiming for better results.

Idealized Influence (Actions speak louder than words): One can conceive of II as role-

modeling, or “walking the talk.” II often relates to morality and ethics. There are, however, two

aspects of II to consider. First, is the leader’s actual behavior? Leaders with high levels of II

behavior will emphasize shared values (unit, Service, or national), and the collective mission.

They exhibit the Air Force value of service before self, sacrificing personal gain for the mission

and their subordinates. They do the right thing. They are consistent rather than arbitrary and are

willing to take risks for the greater good. In addition to II behaviors, II leaders exhibited

attributes ascribed to them by their followers. The leader’s behavior will generate respect and

admiration among followers. They are endowed by their followers with qualities such as

persistence, determination and courage. The difference between behaviors and attributes might

seem confusing at first, but it really makes a lot of sense

• Demonstrating an inclusive vision

• Walking the walk • Exhibiting great commitment and persistence in pursuing objectives

• Expressing confidence in the vision of the organization

• Developing trust and confidence among employees

• Symbolizing the goals and mission of the organization

• Sending the message, “I believe that this is truly the right thing to do”

SCHOOL / CLASSROOM IMPLICATION

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school heads act as role models for their teachers. He/she sets an example for teachers to

emulate. The school head provides staff with orientation on new models for instruction. And also

a teacher also serves as a role model for students. Usually, the decision of students to become

teachers is determined by a positive example set by the teacher. During the educational process,

the teacher earns the trust of students. He/she recognizes the ability of the students and develops

them.

LAISSEZ-FAIRE (HANDS-OFF LEADERSHIP):

The final leadership behavior to address is laissez-faire (LF) leadership. It is difficult to describe

LF leadership because it is essentially non-leadership. LF leaders do not take stands on issues,

they do not make decisions, they do not develop their people…in short, they do not lead. There is

no exchange between leaders and followers simply because the leaders do not particularly care

about their followers or the challenges they face. Some erroneously argue that LF leadership has

a place in today’s leadership environment. They argue that teams can perform best with little or

no intervention from leaders, except in extraordinary circumstances. Even if they are correct,

they mistake LF leadership for MBE. In most cases, however, people perform best when they get

inspiration and motivation from their leaders – transformational leadership. LF leadership is the

absence of all such inspiration and motivation. It is the absence of caring and direction. So why

are there such leaders? Clearly, very few people would ever set out to become LF leaders. They

devolve to this leadership style because they are distracted by other events in their lives. Perhaps

they are overwhelmed by personal problems or are experiencing physical or psychological

problems that prevent them from being more effective. Still, most FRLM experts agree that the

majority of leaders demonstrate behaviors across the range of the FRLM model – to include LF

leadership – in the performance of their duties. Is it possible that good leaders might demonstrate

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LF behaviors? Absolutely! Good leaders can become distracted and, consequently, fail to pay

proper attention to areas under their control. Clearly LF leadership is not a goal; it is not a type of

leadership leaders typically try to embrace. Instead, it is the result of being distracted; of failing

to provide leadership when and where it is needed. Yet it is important for leaders to grasp LF, its

signs and its consequences, if only to be aware of the tendency for LF behaviors to manifest

themselves when leaders’ attention is diverted.

• Absence of leadership

• Avoiding taking a stand on issues

• Doesn’t emphasize results

• Refraining from intervening when issues arise

• Unaware of employee performance

• “That leader doesn’t even care if we do or if we don’t.”

SCHOOL / CLASSROOM IMPLICATION

This factor shows that there is no leadership because the person follows the policy of non-

interference. Such a person renounces the responsibility, is late solving problems, does not

provide a feedback and does not try to satisfy the needs of other people. There is no exchange

between them and the followers and there are no efforts trying to help them to improve. The

teacher understands his/her work only as teaching a lesson, with teaching prevailing and when

sharing the roles. Teacher takes the central part. There are no attempts to connect with the

students; no additional activity is undertaken during the time in the classroom. Such a teacher

27
does not care for the feedback neither from the students nor from the colleagues. Such a teacher

is usually irritable, unhappy about working hours or salary

From the above, full range of leadership behaviors. Laissez-faire (LF) is the most inactive and

generally least effective of the leader behaviors. Research shows that leaders using this style of

leadership are rarely viewed as effective on the job. Management-by-exception (MBE) is more

effective than laissez-faire, but is generally ineffective leadership. Management-by-exception

behavior often is related to high employee turnover and absenteeism, poor satisfaction and poor

perception of organizational effectiveness. Contingent rewards (CR) can be an effective style of

leadership. However, leaders will not get more than they bargain for when practicing this style of

leadership. It is only with the remaining four behaviors that leaders are able to motivate

followers to perform above expectation.

Behaviorist Theory of Leadership

Behaviour is something that a person does that can be observed, measured, and repeated.

When we clearly define behaviour, we are specifically describing actions. For example; Mavis

talks a lot in class. It is upon these observable and measurable actions that the behaviourist

theory was developed.

Blake and Mouton (1985) explained that great leaders are not born but made. According to the

behaviourist, leaders are not born with any special uniqueness nut can be trained, and traits that a

leader must have can be taught and developed. Therefore anyone can be a leader, but they must

have the proper environment and training for leadership qualities to develop. Naylor (1999) notes

that interest in the behaviour of leaders has been stimulated by a systematic comparison of

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autocratic and democratic leadership styles. It has been observed that groups under these types of

leadership perform differently:

• Autocratically led groups will work well so long as the leader is present. Group members,

however, tend to be unhappy with the leadership style and express hostility.

• Democratically led groups do nearly as well as the autocratic group. Group members

have more positive feelings, however, and no hostility. Most importantly, the efforts of

group members continue even when the leader is absent

Mintzberg (1973), further develop roles that leaders must fulfil and these are: Figurehead role.

Leader role (integrating the organization and motivating), Laison role, Monitor role,

Disseminator role, Spokesman role, Entrepreneur role, Disturbance Handler role, Resource

Allocator role, and finally the Negotiator role. Ulrich, Zenger and smallwood (1999) assert that,

whatever a person’s characteristics might be, in the end, one must focus on results of the

organization in as far as they affect employees, regulatory authorities /governments, customers

and investors. A result oriented person we pay attention to and try to satisfy all four key stake

holders. Kotter (1988) describe what leaders really do as the development of a bold new vision,

an intelligent workable strategy for implementing the vision, eliciting the cooperation and

teamwork from a large network of essential people and relentlessly working to keep key people

in the network strategy motivated towards the vision.

Ohio State University and the University of Michigan used many different techniques, such as

observing leaders in laboratory settings as well as surveying them. This research stream led to

the discovery of two broad categories of behaviours: task-oriented behaviours (sometimes called

initiating structure) and people-oriented behaviours (also called consideration). Task-oriented

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leader behaviours involve structuring the roles of subordinates, providing them with instructions,

and behaving in ways that will increase the performance of the group. Task-oriented behaviours

are directives given to employees to get things done and to ensure that organizational goals are

met. People-oriented leader behaviours include showing concern for employee feelings and

treating employees with respect. People-oriented leaders genuinely care about the well-being of

their employees, and they demonstrate their concern in their actions and decisions. At the time,

researchers thought that these two categories of behaviours were the keys to the puzzle of

leadership when leaders demonstrate people-oriented behaviours, employees tend to be more

satisfied and react more positively. However, when leaders are task oriented, productivity tends

to be a bit higher.

Educational Implications

Day (2000) reviews a variety of practices, such as 360-degree feedback, mentoring, networks,

job assignments, and action learning that can shape the behaviour of individuals in leadership

positions and hence serve as the building blocks of leadership development. There should be

appropriate training and good environment in our schools settings for leadership qualities to

develop. Schools should organized development programs that encourage individuals to see

themselves as leaders and should help facilitate leadership action (DeRue, Ashford, & Cotton,

2009) Understanding the relative importance of specific leader traits and behaviours as predictors

of leadership effectiveness can help organizations improve their leader selection and

development practices. Although contemporary organizations use a wide variety of trait-based

assessments for leader selection (Dobbins &Platz, 1986; Fulmer & Conger, 2004; Phillips&

Schmidt, 2004) leadership development initiatives should encourage individuals to proactively

30
assume their leadership responsibilities rather than passively waiting to act until problems

develop.

Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian leadership, is a leadership style characterized

by individual control over all decisions and little input from group members. Autocratic leaders

typically make choices based on their own ideas and judgments and rarely accept advice from

followers. Autocratic leadership involves absolute, authoritarian control over a group. When

faced with the need to provide a decision, an autocratic leader is one who would come up with a

solution for the entire group. Dessler & Starke (2004) added that the autocratic leader would

solve an issue and make decision for the group using observations and what they feel is needed

or most important for the majority of the group members to benefit at that time. According to

Sauer (2011), the autocratic leadership style does not instill learning mentality which is crucial to

stimulate proactive attitudes among employees.

Characteristics of Autocratic Leadership

Some of the primary characteristics of autocratic leadership include:

 Little or no input from group members

 Leaders make the decisions

 Group leaders dictate all the work methods and processes

 Group members are rarely trusted with decisions or important tasks

 Rely on threats and punishments to influence employees

 Do not trust employees

 There are high- volume production needs on a daily basis

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Benefits of Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic leadership can be beneficial in some instances, such as when decisions need to be

made quickly without consulting with a large group of people. Some projects require strong

leadership in order to get things accomplished quickly and efficiently. In situations that are

particularly stressful, such as during conflicts, group members may actually prefer an autocratic

style. It allows members of the group to focus on performing specific tasks without worrying

about making complex decisions. This also allows group members to become highly skilled at

performing certain duties, which can be beneficial to the group.

Kurt Lewin created the autocratic leadership style theory in 1939 while helping business leaders

better understand their natural leadership styles and what other styles could be implemented in

various work scenarios. The autocratic leadership style is one in which the boss expects

compliance with all work duties and assigned tasks. This leadership style is criticized in today's

modern teamwork environments where facilitating and fostering new ideas and mentoring have

become more prevalent. Individuals who work for autocratic leaders often fear one mistake will

lead to termination. However, there are advantages to the autocratic leadership style to consider.

Clear Vision

The autocratic leader is in charge, and it is the leader's vision that is relayed to employees. There

is no confusion about the direction of the company. Its mission and vision are clear. Unlike a

democratic leadership style where the manager surveys and gets input from the team that could

muddy the vision and question who is in charge, the autocratic style allows no second voices

with contrary opinions. If someone contradicts the autocratic leader, that person most likely

won't remain with the company for long.

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Everyone Knows Expectations

In the same way that the vision is clearly explained and consistently conveyed, employees have

clear expectations set by the autocratic leader. While this could lead to a stressful work

environment where people are concerned that poor performance will lead to dismissal, it does

have an advantage. Think about the sales team that must hit certain numbers to generate the

revenues required to keep the company profitable. Those are goals that must be met.

Some common problems with autocratic leadership:

This style tends to discourage group input. Because autocratic leaders make decisions without

consulting the group, people in the group may dislike that they are unable to contribute ideas.

Researchers have also found that autocratic leadership often results in a lack of creative solutions

to problems, which can ultimately hurt the group from performing. Autocratic leaders tend to

overlook the knowledge and expertise that group members might bring to the situation. Failing to

consult with other team members in such situations hurts the overall success of the group.

Autocratic leadership can also impair the morale of the group in some cases. People tend to

feel happier and perform better when they feel like they are making contributions to the future of

the group. Since autocratic leaders typically do not allow input from team members, followers

start to feel dissatisfied and stifled.

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 How Can Autocratic Leaders Thrive?

The autocratic style can be beneficial in some settings, but also has its pitfalls and is not

appropriate for every setting and with every group. If this tends to be your dominant leadership

style, there are things that you should consider whenever you are in a leadership role.

 Listen to team members. You might not change your mind or implement their advice,

but subordinates need to feel that they can express their concerns. Autocratic leaders can

sometimes make team members feel ignored or even rejected, so listening to people with

an open mind can help them feel like they are making an important contribution to the

group's mission.

 Establish clear rules. In order to expect team members to follow your rules, you need to

first ensure that these guidelines are clearly established and that each person on your team

is fully aware of them.

 Provide the group with the knowledge and tools they need. Once your subordinates

understand the rules, you need to be sure that they actually have the education and

abilities to perform the tasks you set before them. If they need additional assistance, offer

oversight and training to fill in this knowledge gap.

 Be reliable. Inconsistent leaders can quickly lose the respect of their teams. Follow

through and enforce the rules you have established.

 Recognize success. Your team may quickly lose motivation if they are only criticized

when they make mistakes but never rewarded for their successes.

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Conclusion

While autocratic leadership does have some potential pitfalls, leaders can learn to use elements

of this style wisely. For example, an autocratic style can be used effectively in situations where

the leader is the most knowledgeable member of the group or has access to information that other

members of the group do not. Instead of wasting valuable time consulting with less

knowledgeable team members, the expert leader can quickly make decisions that are in the best

interest of the group.

Autocratic leadership is often most effective when it is used for specific situations. Balancing

this style with other approaches including democratic or transformational styles can often lead to

better group performance.

Distributed leadership style

In definitions of traditional leadership by Robbins (1994), leadership is defined as the process of

influencing a group to reach goals. That is to say, when observers are affected by a single

individual in the realization of aims, it is claimed that leadership process is in effect in this

situation. Therefore, the essence of traditional leadership process consists of one individual’s

effect on others. Distributed leadership is a result of reflecting the cognizance on organizational

management regarding the view that leadership roles and positions should be shared. That is to

say, distributed leadership addresses the entirety of human resources in organizations, especially

the academic staff in educational organizations as leaders. According to this leadership model, it

is fundamental to develop leadership potentials of human resources at schools and provide equal

chances and statuses for the staff to realize the goals of the school. The basic philosophy

underlining this approach is the mobilization of shared wisdom and common sense by creating

35
synergy among the staff at organizations and maximization of organizational efficiency,

productivity and competence which will ensure achievement and happiness in the members of

the organization. Distributed leadership model regards the management and operations of

organizations in general and school organizations in particular has complex and complicated

processes. Therefore, school management, which is a complicated and hard task, cannot be left to

a single leader or leadership approach or potential because school structures are not easy to be

managed effectively with the leadership of a single person.

The most important and striking element that separates distributed leadership form the other

leadership concepts explained above is the fact that distributed leadership includes many

elements related to education and is almost fed by educational environments. In this sense,

Halverson (2013), calls distributed leadership as distributed instructional leadership and defines

the concept as generation of an effective leaning climate by the leaders for teachers and students.

Distributed leadership is shared school leadership. Shared school leadership is more than the sum

of knowledge and actions of individual leaders. Structured courses selected as specific leadership

actions are organized as a result of dynamic interaction between many leaders and audiences.

School leadership is defined by Spillane, Halverson & Diamond (2001) as the use of social,

physical and cultural resources in order to obtain identity, acquisition, distinction, coordination

and learning and teaching conditions. Studies on distributed leadership which is a new

instructional leadership model present the finding that it is not possible to create a distributed

leadership model without redesigning the school as an organization. Vision and values at schools

also need to be transformed in this context. Mental processes of school staff in the line of “all

students are intelligent and they can learn” may contribute to the formation of this type of

leadership approach. According to Spillane et. al. (2001), distributed leadership approach carries

36
leadership practices in schools to how social and situational structures should be reestablished.

Distributed leadership is at the center of capacity for creativity. However, it is necessary to

identify the impact of changes at schools and how these approaches can be transferred to practice

at schools. This argument (distributed leadership) will mentally give way to other questions. If

leadership is a shared function, how it will be expressed and defined? Who will distribute

leadership duties and who will organize them? It is believed that these questions will be clear

following discussions. Secondary crucial important issue is becoming our own leaders when we

accept leadership which will create a close and dynamic relationship. Lastly, it is not possible to

assign others in distributed leadership since there are tasks for all and everyone has equal

authority and rights to undertake them

Badaracco (2001) states that Distributed leadership has become a popular ‘post-heroic’

representation of leadership which has encouraged a shift in focus from the attributes and

behaviours of individual ‘leaders’ (as promoted within traditional trait, situational, style and

transformational theories of leadership) to a more systemic perspective, whereby ‘leadership’ is

conceived of as a collective social process emerging through the interactions of multiple actors.

Distributed leadership garnered considerable attention in the United States and abroad. lt is often

used interchangeably with "shared leadership," "team leadership," and "democratic leadership."

Some use distributed leadership to indicate that school leadership involves multiple leaders;

others argue that leadership is an organizational quality, rather than an individual attribute. Still

others use distributed leadership to define a way of thinking about the practice of school

leadership. Distributed leadership is not something ‘done’ by an individual ‘to’ others, or a set of

individual actions through which people contribute to a group or organization...[it]is a group

activity that works through and within relationships, rather than individual action. For Gronn

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(2002), DL offered the promise of a new ‘unit of analysis’ through which leadership could be

understood in a holistic sense rather than simply as the aggregation of individual contributions.

He referred to this dimension of leadership as ‘concertive action’ (as contrasted with ‘numerical

action’) and illustrated his argument with three alternative forms of engagement (‘spontaneous

collaboration’, ‘intuitive working relationships’ and ‘institutionalized practices’) each of which

could be considered as a manifestation of ‘conjoint agency’. In setting out his argument, Gronn

called for a fundamental reframing of leadership, suggesting that it ‘is more appropriately

understood as a fluid and emergent, rather than as a fixed, phenomenon’– a call that has been

enthusiastically received by scholars and practitioners alike. In taking a distributed perspective,

attention turns from generic accounts of the attributes and/or actions of individual leaders to

‘situated leadership practice’ According to Spillane and Diamond (2007b, p. 7) ‘a distributed

perspective on leadership involves two aspects – the leader plus aspect and the practice aspect’.

The ‘leader-plus’ aspect ‘acknowledges and takes account of the work of all the individuals who

have a hand in leadership and management practice’ rather than just those in formally designated

‘leadership’ roles. The ‘practice’ aspect ‘foregrounds the practice of leading and managing

frames it as a product of the interactions of school leaders, followers, and aspects of their

situation’. According to these authors, together these aspects of leadership offer an analytical

framework for ‘examining the day-to-day practice of leadership and management’ rather than

dwelling on ‘leaders and leadership structures, functions and roles’. Distributed leadership,

however, is not the only theory or approach to call for such a reframing of how we understand

leadership. .According to Spillane and Diamond (2007, p. 7) ‘a distributed perspective on

leadership involves two aspects – the leader plus aspect and the practice aspect’. The ‘leader-

plus’ aspect ‘acknowledges and takes account of the work of all the individuals who have a hand

38
in leadership and management practice’ rather than just those in formally designated ‘leadership’

roles. The ‘practice’ aspect ‘foregrounds the practice of leading and managing [. . . and . . .]

frames it as a product of the interactions of school leaders, followers, and aspects of their

situation’. According to these authors, together these aspects of leadership offer an analytical

framework for ‘examining the day-to-day practice of leadership and management’ rather than

dwelling on ‘leaders and leadership structures, functions and roles’.

Characteristics of distributed leadership

 The leader cannot be a single individual and leadership needs to be shared. This

perspective regards leadership as the collective contribution of all leaders to the

organization and therefore it is distinct from all other theories.

 Leadership role is not assigned to an individual in the group; all members of the group

undertake this function willingly as if it is their fundamental duty. Distributed leadership

is classified under two dimensions as adaptive and quantitative behaviors. Adaptive

behavior is related to different units/departments in interaction to behave in a coordinated

manner and quantitative behavior is related to the belief that all individuals in the

organization can be leaders at some point.

 Distributed leadership is the distribution of tasks among the leader and the audience and

integration of these tasks in the long run.

 Distributed leadership can be said to focus on three themes: leadership is shaped as the

common product of the group and as a result of interaction among individuals; borders in

leadership are not definitive and strict, they are open-ended and diversity in practice is

obtained with a part or even all of the members.

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 It is identified that a member can be assigned for duty in some leadership functions and

that some leadership functions can be undertaken by different individuals at different

times.

 It is distributing organizational tasks to the entirety of the organization.

 It is related to distributing leadership functions to the members of the organization or the

team instead of focusing on the hero concept which undertakes all leadership functions

by him/her.

 Distributed leadership is born from cooperation as an important constituent of

organizational life.

 When leadership is distributed, power of formal leaders is not erased but each leader

mutually strengthens the position of the other. There is a positive relationship between

distribution of leadership and development of capacity.

 Leadership is created as a result of ties among individuals. With the help of distributed

leadership, cooperation is created among the actions of individuals and leadership is

realized in this manner.

 Distributed leadership is based on expertise, knowledge and contributions created as a

result of relationships network among individuals who direct, guide and work with

teachers in the process of improving education.

 Student achievement and orientation towards development in teaching are the

foundations of distributed leadership.

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TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE

Transactional leadership, with three distinct factors (1. contingent reward; 2. management-by-

exception active; 3. management-by-exception passive) and laissez-faire leadership”

Transactional leadership emphasizes the transaction or exchange that takes place among leaders,

colleagues, and followers". Because it is less focused on emotion and inspiration, transactional

leadership is sometimes afforded less respect than transformational leadership. This is

unfortunate, because most leadership positions require elements of both transactional and

transformational leadership. Most commanders, for instance, not only lead people but are also

responsible for managing resources – budgets, facilities, vehicles, etc. These kinds of

responsibilities lend themselves well to the behaviors inherent in transactional leadership.

Management-By-Exception (Putting out the fires): MBE is a recognized and often effective

way of managing systems, processes, resources and in some circumstances, even people. MBE

focuses less on building that contractual relationship between leaders and followers and more on

intervention when followers fail to achieve standards. In short, it is less proactive and more

reactive in nature. It is a form of transactional leadership because MBE is essentially a corrective

transaction – an intervention by leadership to correct a situation. MBE can be positive or

negative, however, most people typically think of a leader’s intervention into their work areas as

a decidedly negative event. Because their intervention may be perceived negatively by their

subordinates, MBE leaders may generate fear and stifle open communications with their

followers. Further, because these leaders emphasis is so clearly on maintaining standards and

performance objectives, it is likely that creativity will be stifled as well. Risk-taking might

adversely affect desired outcomes, so such behavior will likely be discouraged in an organization

run exclusively using MBE techniques. MBE takes two forms, active and passive. In active MBE

41
(MBE-A), leaders constantly monitor the processes and subordinate performance for which they

are responsible and intervene at the earliest sign of a problem. A leader exhibiting strong MBE-A

behaviors focuses on mistakes, complaints, adverse trends, failures, deviations from standards,

broken rules or regulations, etc. The passive form of MBE (MBE-P) is even more reactionary

than MBE-A. Instead of monitoring processes and work performance of subordinates, MBE-P

leaders simply wait for something to go wrong. Leaders exhibiting strong MBE-P tendencies will

often claim, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” They are not risk-takers. Leaders exhibiting strong

MBE-P behaviors are unlikely to be perceived as role models by their subordinates. MBE is

entirely appropriate in those situations where a leader has talented followers who can be trusted

to deliver expected results.

• Taking corrective actions

• Setting standards, but waiting for problems to arise before doing anything

• Stressing what people are doing wrong

• Enforcing rules, disliking challenges to the status quo

• Only hearing from the leader when something is wrong • “Uh oh, here he/she comes again!”

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATION

This is leadership consists of critique that corrects the errors, negative feedback and negative

enforcement. There are two forms of management by reacting to exceptions distinguished: the

active one (heads or circuit supervisors monitors teachers’ teaching, checks their lesson notes,

pupils book etc to check mistakes, failures and deviation from standards) and the passive one

42
(the leader interferes only when the requirements are violated or if the problems occur. Heads

wait until they hear a complaint from other staffs or pupils before they react.

Contingent Rewards (Let’s make a deal!): CR is an active form of management that is

effective in a wide variety of situations. It recognizes the inherent transactional nature of most

supervisor-subordinate situations and encourages leaders to “contract” with employees to

achieve desired outcomes. For CR to work properly, the leader needs to set goals for their

subordinates, explain the expectations for the subordinate’s work, and define the roles, levels of

authority and responsibility, and pertinent processes so the subordinates will understand what is

expected of them. The subordinates will respond to these instructions by meeting the

performance requirements levied upon them. In response, the subordinates will receive some

agreed upon reward. Typically, we think of the CR as a factor of pay and benefits. This is true

for most routine work; however, there are also CRs for non-routine work. For instance, it is

common in many units for “of-the-quarter” award winners to receive a pass – time off from work

for their outstanding work. If personnel are motivated to superior performance to get this pass –

and the accompanying rewards (often a bag of gifts or even a check) that accompany the award –

then they are working toward a CR; a reward contingent upon their outstanding work. CRs need

not be positive. One can think of CR as a “carrot-and-stick approach” to management. In return

for good performance, subordinates get a reward. In return for failing to achieve established

performance objectives, the subordinates get a negative reward. CR is entirely appropriate when

dealing with committed, talented people who know the requirements of their jobs and need little

additional encouragement to achieve success. This is not to say that leaders should not try to

employ transformational leadership in those areas that are exceeding production goals, only that

leaders can focus their attention on those groups, offices, or organizations within their span of

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control that need more time and attention. Some major shortcomings of CR are that it typically

fails to inspire people to exceed the performance standards outline for them. In fact, in some

work settings workers might actually ostracize co-workers who exceed standards arguing that

they are “giving for free” work that should be compensated. This is not usually a factor for

uniformed personnel, but is a common them in production-worker contract negotiations. Another

potential shortcoming of CR, far more relevant to military personnel, is leadership’s failure to

discern which CRs work and which do not. Military leaders need to understand their

subordinates wants and needs in order to offer CRs that actually stimulate desired behaviors.

Clearly, leaders need to understand both their people and the potential CRs that are available to

them – both positive and negative - in order to employ transactional CR effectively. Failure to

achieve this understanding seriously limits leader’s ability to employ this highly effective

leadership behavior.

• Applying constructive transactions

• Making clear expectations of outcomes and rewards

• Exchanging reward and recognition for accomplishments

• Actively monitoring employee’s progress and providing supportive feedback

• “If you do as we agreed, you’ll get the reward.”

School/classroom implication: This factor describes the process of exchange between the

leaders and the followers, during which the efforts of the followers are exchanged to a particular

incentive. In such a leadership, the leader tries to agree with the subordinates on what has to be

done and what will be the reward. This is seen in stances where heads set rules and assign roles

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and responsibilities to teachers and pupils and stating clearly what is expected of them. Teachers

and pupils are awarded with praise or prizes during speech and prize giving days or promotions

when they achieve tasks assigned to them. Failure to achieve goals also moves with a negative

reward such as reprimand. Teachers have to employ various strategies, including incentives, in

order to attract less motivated students to the process of education.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE

According to Avoid, Bass, & Jung, (1995) and Avoid, Bass, & Jung (1999), Transformational

leadership is related with leaders charisma and with the ability to enact a vision of a more

satisfactory future state, guiding the followers to go beyond their own interests and, at the same

time, considering the moral and ethical implications of their actions and goals. Transformational

leaders are those who transform their followers. Through the use of inspiration and motivation,

they motivate their followers to do more than was originally intended – often more than either

the leader or follower thought was possible. In their book Transformational Leadership, Bass and

Riggio argue that, “Transformational leadership involves inspiring followers to commit to a

shared vision and goals for an organization or unit, challenging them to be innovative problem

solvers, and developing followers’ leadership capacity via coaching, mentoring, and provision of

both challenges and support.” Transformational leaders achieve these superior results by

employing one or more of the behaviors described below.

Individualized Consideration (Compassionate leader): J. M. Burns, in his 1978 book

Leadership, noted that the ultimate aim of great leaders is to develop their followers into future

leaders. IC is that transformational leadership trait focused on the development of followers. IC

involves a range of behaviors, to include listening, coaching, mentoring and teaching and directly

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addresses followers need for achievement and growth. As people think back to the great leaders

they have known in their lives, invariably they recall those leaders that helped them reach their

full potential. Whether it was a coach, a favorite teacher, a commander, or even a parent or a

grandparent, most people recall those leaders most favorably who invested time in getting to

know and develop their followers. These were extraordinary mentoring opportunities; however,

they served other purposes as well. The fact that a busy wing commander would make so much

time to mentor his junior officers helped increase loyalty and job satisfaction across the wing.

This practice was repeatedly praised by unit personnel in their promotion and departure speeches

and figured prominently in unit climate assessment feedback

• Empathizing with individual needs

• Making interpersonal connections with employees

• Genuinely caring and showing this compassion in actions

• Encouraging continuous development and growth of employees

• Sending the message, “I care about you and am looking out for your best interest”

School/ classroom implications: school heads encourages teachers to hone their skills by

providing opportunities for professional development. He/she supports the development of

professional behavior by providing appropriate training opportunities for teacher’s e.g. In-service

training and courses. This factor is characteristic to leaders who create the climate of reciprocal

support, by attentive regard to individual needs of the followers and also the leader himself takes

the role of the adviser in order to provide a basis for self-realization of the followers. Not only

does the teacher notices and acknowledges individual needs and wishes of the students, he/she

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also organizes the process of education in regard to individual abilities, creating an opportunity

for the students to achieve the best results in accordance to their own skills

Intellectual Stimulation (Thinking outside of the box): There is an old saying that “none of us

are as smart as all of us.” For many years “brainstorming” has been a proven technique for

eliciting input to overcome challenges and solve problems. Through IS, leaders stimulate

followers creativity. Leaders employing IS question assumptions, processes and existing

paradigms, forcing their followers to rethink their solutions and create new approaches to

problems. Such leaders include their followers in decision-making related to such improvements.

They support some risk-taking, allowing subordinates to try their ideas and not over-reacting to

failure. If a leader is not accepting of occasional failures, their followers will be unwilling to take

risks. IS cannot solve every problem. Sometimes the people do not possess the expertise or

access to the expertise needed to solve a problem. In other instances, innovative efforts are

stymied by external requirements. In most instances, however, people can and will innovate

improvements in their jobs and the processes in which they are involved if only afforded

opportunities. The results are improved job performance but also increased job satisfaction as

people take ownership of their performance and realize that they are trusted and empowered to

make improvements.

• Encouraging the imagination of employees

• Challenging the old ways of doing things

• Looking for better ways to do things

• Encouraging followers not to think like him/her

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• Willing to take risks for potential gains

• Sending the message, “If we change our assumptions, then ...”

School/ classroom implication: school heads encourage reflection and critical thinking among

teachers. Heads motivate teachers to question continuously problem-solving approaches and to

reflect critically upon various aspects of school practices. Leadership that encourages the

followers to be creative, not to be afraid of innovations and challenging their beliefs and values,

Leaders of schools support the followers when they are trying new ways to create innovative

solutions of educational matters, encourages the followers to think independently and solve the

problems in a careful manner. Allowing stuff to take part in decision making and creating the

room for them to find ways of improving instruction. Only when the teacher himself/herself is

open, creative, continually improving, it is possible to ensure and encourage the students to look

at the world from a new and creative perspective. Such teacher encourages students to open their

mind and think creatively and look at the objects and phenomena from a different perspective.

This is done by acting as a facilitator and allowing pupils to think critically into classroom

problem in order to find solutions.

Inspirational Motivation (Exciting the masses/Sharing the vision): If II is “walking the talk,”

one could argue that IM is “talking the talk.” Leaders with high levels of IM behaviors motivate

and inspire their followers via the spoken word. They develop and clearly articulate a vision and

the expectations for their follower’s performance. In doing so, they “raise the bar” for their

organization, setting new standards and new targets for their followers efforts. Creating and

sharing a vision for the future, and spurring followers to achieve that vision is a phenomenal

motivator. It lets people know where they are going and encourages them in the journey. People

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are more confident if they have a good feel for their future; they feel a sense of belonging and are

more likely to commit to their organization’s efforts

• Inspiring others to perform

• Clarifying where the organization will be in the future

• Creating a strong sense of purpose among employees

• Aligning individual and organizational needs

• Helping followers achieve more than even they thought was possible

• Sending the message, “If we focus on what this organization stands for we can achieve

whatever we desire!”

SCHOOL / CLASSROOM IMPLICATION

Stating the school’s vision and setting clear goals is paramount here. Teacher as a leader is

characterized by the ability to inspire for activity. Those are the leaders who share their

expectations with their followers, inspiring the latter to commit, take responsibility and become a

part of the shared vision. In their practice, the leaders use symbols and emotional appeal in order

to gather the efforts of the group members to reach more than they would have done led only by

their personal interests. In this way, the team spirit is strengthened. These leaders are

characterized by their enthusiasm and optimistic attitude to the future. Teachers are the

enthusiasts who spread the optimism thus motivating them for a hard work. A teacher is a person

taking charge of the class, gathering students for joint activity. Both within the classroom and the

school, encouraging taking the initiative and aiming for better results.

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Idealized Influence (Actions speak louder than words): One can conceive of II as role-

modeling, or “walking the talk.” II often relates to morality and ethics. There are, however, two

aspects of II to consider. First, is the leader’s actual behavior? Leaders with high levels of II

behavior will emphasize shared values (unit, Service, or national), and the collective mission.

They exhibit the Air Force value of service before self, sacrificing personal gain for the mission

and their subordinates. They do the right thing. They are consistent rather than arbitrary and are

willing to take risks for the greater good. In addition to II behaviors, II leaders exhibited

attributes ascribed to them by their followers. The leader’s behavior will generate respect and

admiration among followers. They are endowed by their followers with qualities such as

persistence, determination and courage. The difference between behaviors and attributes might

seem confusing at first, but it really makes a lot of sense

• Demonstrating an inclusive vision

• Walking the walk • Exhibiting great commitment and persistence in pursuing objectives

• Expressing confidence in the vision of the organization

• Developing trust and confidence among employees

• Symbolizing the goals and mission of the organization

• Sending the message, “I believe that this is truly the right thing to do”

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SCHOOL / CLASSROOM IMPLICATION

School heads act as role models for their teachers. He/she sets an example for teachers to

emulate. The school head provides staff with orientation on new models for instruction. And also

a teacher also serves as a role model for students. Usually, the decision of students to become

teachers is determined by a positive example set by the teacher. During the educational process,

the teacher earns the trust of students. He/she recognizes the ability of the students and develops

them.

LAISSEZ-FAIRE (HANDS-OFF LEADERSHIP) STYLE

The final leadership behavior to address is laissez-faire (LF) leadership. It is difficult to describe

LF leadership because it is essentially non-leadership. LF leaders do not take stands on issues,

they do not make decisions, they do not develop their people…in short, and they do not lead.

There is no exchange between leaders and followers simply because the leaders do not

particularly care about their followers or the challenges they face. Some erroneously argue that

LF leadership has a place in today’s leadership environment. They argue that teams can perform

best with little or no intervention from leaders, except in extraordinary circumstances. Even if

they are correct, they mistake LF leadership for MBE. In most cases, however, people perform

best when they get inspiration and motivation from their leaders – transformational leadership.

LF leadership is the absence of all such inspiration and motivation. It is the absence of caring and

direction. So why are there such leaders? Clearly, very few people would ever set out to become

LF leaders. They devolve to this leadership style because they are distracted by other events in

their lives. Perhaps they are overwhelmed by personal problems or are experiencing physical or

psychological problems that prevent them from being more effective. Still, most FRLM experts

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agree that the majority of leaders demonstrate behaviors across the range of the FRLM model –

to include LF leadership – in the performance of their duties. Is it possible that good leaders

might demonstrate LF behaviors? Absolutely! Good leaders can become distracted and,

consequently, fail to pay proper attention to areas under their control. Clearly LF leadership is

not a goal; it is not a type of leadership leaders typically try to embrace. Instead, it is the result of

being distracted; of failing to provide leadership when and where it is needed. Yet it is important

for leaders to grasp LF, its signs and its consequences, if only to be aware of the tendency for LF

behaviors to manifest themselves when leaders’ attention is diverted.

• Absence of leadership

• Avoiding taking a stand on issues

• Doesn’t emphasize results

• Refraining from intervening when issues arise

• Unaware of employee performance

• “That leader doesn’t even care if we do or if we don’t.”

SCHOOL / CLASSROOM IMPLICATION

This factor shows that there is no leadership because the person follows the policy of non-

interference. Such a person renounces the responsibility, is late solving problems, does not

provide a feedback and does not try to satisfy the needs of other people. There is no exchange

between them and the followers and there are no efforts trying to help them to improve. The

teacher understands his/her work only as teaching a lesson, with teaching prevailing and when

sharing the roles. Teacher takes the central part. There are no attempts to connect with the

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students; no additional activity is undertaken during the time in the classroom. Such a teacher

does not care for the feedback neither from the students nor from the colleagues. Such a teacher

is usually irritable, unhappy about working hours or salary

From the above, full range of leadership behaviors. Laissez-faire (LF) is the most inactive and

generally least effective of the leader behaviors. Research shows that leaders using this style of

leadership are rarely viewed as effective on the job. Management-by-exception (MBE) is more

effective than laissez-faire, but is generally ineffective leadership. Management-by-exception

behavior often is related to high employee turnover and absenteeism, poor satisfaction and poor

perception of organizational effectiveness. Contingent rewards (CR) can be an effective style of

leadership. However, leaders will not get more than they bargain for when practicing this style of

leadership. It is only with the remaining four behaviors that leaders are able to motivate

followers to perform above expectation.

SERVANT LEADERSHIP STYLE

Servant leadership is one of the emerging theories of leadership and it is very different from the

traditional trait, behavioural and situational theories. Servant leadership as first proposed by

Greenleaf (1970) is a theoretical framework which stipulates that a leader’s primary motivation

and role is service to others. Greenleaf first coined this modern term servant leadership in 1970

in the essay entitled, The Servant as Leader (Spears, 1996). According to Greenleaf, servant

leadership begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first then conscious

choice causes one to aspire to lead (Greenleaf, 1991).

Greenleaf was inspired to write about servant leadership when he read the book entitled The

Journey to the East by Herman Hesse. The book is about a band of men on a spiritual journey.

The main character in the book is Leo, who is their servant. Leo is not only their servant, but he

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sings for them and maintains their spirits as well. When Leo disappears, the group falls apart and

abandons the journey. When the narrator of the story meets the group again later on, he realizes

that Leo was in fact, the leader of the group, although he was also serving them. Hence, Leo is

depicted first as a servant and then later on as leader and this is the essence of servant leadership.

In servant leadership, a leader is called to serve the group members or followers while leading

them. This theory advocates that a leader’s primary motivation and role is to serve and meet the

needs of others, which optimally should be the prime motivation for leadership (Russell & Stone,

2002). Greenleaf attached great significance to this idea that true leadership carries with it the

responsibility of first seeking to serve others. He says that true leadership emerges from those

whose primary motivation is a deep desire to help others. It aims at putting the well-being of the

followers before other goals (Greenleaf, 1977). Servant leaders develop people, helping them to

strive and flourish (McMinn, 2001).

Servant leadership is a belief that organizational goals will be achieved on a long term basis only

by first facilitating the growth, development and general well-being of the individuals who

comprise the organization (Stone et al, 2003). It is therefore a leadership style that emphasizes

that leaders should be attentive to the concerns of their followers and empathize with them; they

should take care of them and nurture them (Northouse, 2007). The best test of the leader is

whether those served grow as persons and whether while being served they become healthier,

wiser and more able themselves to become servant leaders (Wheeler, 2011). Servant leadership

theory as an ethical style in leadership and management is quite important among leadership

styles and can be regarded as one of the ideal styles in managing human resources (Mazarei et al,

2013).

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Servant leaders are free to be flexible and situational (Blanchard & Hodges, 2003;Wong, 2003),

because they are no longer imprisoned by their own need for power and pride. They are willing

to employ different kinds of legitimate power to facilitate worker development and accomplish

organizational goals (Bass, 1998; Hersey, Blanchard, & Natemeyer, 2001).

Servant leadership places the interest of followers before the self-interest of a leader, emphasizes

personal development, and empowerment of followers. The servant leader is afacilitator for

followers to achieve a shared vision (Greenleaf, 1977; Spears, 1998; Spears & Lawrence, 2002;

Laub, 1999).

Characteristics of Servant Leadership

Laub (1999) developed a conceptual model consisting of six servant leadership characteristics

which include; develops people, valuing people, building community, displaying authenticity,

providing leadership and sharing leadership. Page & Wong (2000) identified the following

attributes; integrity, humility, servanthood, caring for others, empowering others, developing

others, visioning, goal setting, leading, modeling, teambuilding and shared decision making.

Russell & Stone (2002) identified these attributes; Vision, modeling, communication, persuasion,

honesty, pioneering, credibility, listening, integrity, appreciation, competence, encouragement,

trust, empowerment, stewardship, service, delegation, visibility and influence. Patterson (2003)

came up with a model which comprises of seven dimensions of agape love, humility, altruism,

vision, trust, empowerment and service.

Spears (2004) listed ten characteristics that he perceived servant leaders portrayed and they are;

listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship,

commitment and building society. Enrhart (2004) identified major behaviors of servant leaders as

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forming relationships with subordinates, empowering subordinates, helping subordinates grow

and succeed, behaving ethically, having conceptual skills, putting subordinates first and creating

value for those outside the organization.

Liden et al (2005) identified emotional healing, creating value for the community, conceptual

skills, empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinate first and

behaving ethically. Parolini (2005) further identifies servant leadership as valuing people,

building relational and authentic community and

Providing and sharing leadership. Barbuto and Wheeler (2006) have proposed five dimensions of

servant leadership which include altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive

mapping and organizational stewardship.

Advantages of Servant Leadership Style

• The main advantage of Servant Leadership is that it is very flexible.

• Coworkers are treated with respect as part of a tem who work together to accomplish a

task and make decision with shared information.

• Servant leaders always listen to people before making a decision.

• Accountable to the entire organization.

• Leadership development is possible.

• Servant Leadership develops collaboration, trust, empathy and ethical use of power.

• Servant Leadership removes fear of employee regarding fear of job.

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 • All the above benefits lead to effective and efficient performance for an organization.

SCHOOL / CLASSROOM IMPLICATION

Servant leaders always appreciate, value, encourage and care for their subordinates. This implies

that Head of schools who will practice the servant type of leadership will always value and

encourage their teachers to achieve the objectives of the school. Listening is a critical way

leaders demonstrate

To show respect and appreciation to their subordinates. Therefore Head teachers with this kind of

leadership will listen to the concerns of their teachers. Head teachers will create a good working

environment in terms cordial relationship to promote team work.

A servant leader is always a teacher that is, he is always ready to teach others to become leaders.

This would enable heads of institutions to teach other teachers to become good leaders. Head

teachers would be able to delegate their authorities to teachers to promote subordinates

commitment

CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP STYLE

The charismatic leadership style was one of three leadership types described by Max Weber in

1947, along with the bureaucratic and traditional leadership styles. The charismatic leadership

style is based on a form of heroism or extreme of character, almost of divine origin.

Weber was the first to distinguish between transactional leaders, such as bureaucratic leaders,

and transformational leaders, such as charismatic leaders. Weber also believed that most leaders

exhibited characteristics of all styles.

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The characteristics specific to the charismatic style include:

 Leaders are viewed as having supernatural powers and abilities; the leader is viewed as a

hero by followers

 Leaders are followed because of personal trust, and the charisma the leader exhibits

 Followers are promoted to higher levels of authority based on personal charisma they

display

 There are no formal offices of authority; power is gained through social skills

Charismatic leaders are visionaries. They have a big dream and work toward making it happen.

They look beyond the big picture to see what others are unable to see beyond the horizon. Then

they imagine different ways to create a successful result.

These leaders are also excellent communicators. They must be, because they must convince

others to share the same vision they have. There is an element of belief that charismatic leaders

must inspire in others to begin making progress toward their goals.

A charismatic leader may have a forceful opinion, but they are also sensitive to the emotions,

ambitions, and personal experiences that others have. These leaders recognize that it is the duty

of the leader to adjust their approach to each person instead of forcing others to adjust

themselves to their leadership style.

Most importantly, a charismatic leader is willing to take a risk. They recognize when it is

necessary to be conservative and when a risk could bring in great rewards.

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Besides these characteristics, here are some of the key advantages and disadvantages of

charismatic leadership to consider.

Advantages of Charismatic Leadership

1. It is a leadership style which creates an emotional appeal.

People are inspired by charismatic leaders because they see a chance to reach their own dreams.

These leaders give them a chance to do something that feels bigger than themselves. They want

to follow these people because they feel like there is an emotional connection between

themselves and the leader. With this connection, strong loyalties are often formed by those who

choose to follow a charismatic leader.

2. It gives people a chance to think differently.

When a charismatic leader shares their vision, it gives people a chance to think differently about

a specific subject. In some instances, they can even begin to think of bigger plans or dreams that

are achievable. Even though it sometimes requires a leap of faith to follow a charismatic leader,

when the message is strong enough, there will always be people who are willing to take the risk.

3. It decreases turnover rates within an organization.

Employers often seek out charismatic leaders when they are struggling with high attrition rates.

People feel connected to the charismatic leader more than they do the company, which creates a

workplace that feels more welcoming. People come to work feeling happier. They are

encouraged by the open communication and the rewards which happen because their leader is

willing to take the occasional risk.

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4. It can be used to create a positive impact on society.

One of the best examples of a positive charismatic leader is Martin Luther King Jr. His goal was

to help create change in society by shifting how people thought about specific people, laws, and

circumstances. Not only did he inspire people with his speeches and work, he was also willing to

stand side-by-side with those who shared his vision of a better country and worked just as hard to

create the results he wanted.

5. It prioritizes the learning process.

Charismatic leaders understand that humans are imperfect. They are not seeking out

perfectionism in every project. These leaders do want their followers to learn from their

mistakes. They also learn from their own mistakes. Although this may create tunnel vision, or

even a certain level of arrogance, it can also be the catalyst a company needs to make the final

move toward a final outcome.

6. It creates a shared identity.

When people share an identity as a group, it can turn the impossible into something that is

possible to achieve. This can create a push toward large changes being made in a short time

period.

Disadvantages of Charismatic Leadership

1. It is dependent upon the energy levels of the leader.

Charismatic leadership is centered on the energy levels of the individual involved. Encouraging

people to follow a specific vision or dream can be an exhausting experience. If energy levels

begin to sink, there will be fewer followers willing to come along. If that energy is depressed for

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a prolonged time, then some people may abandon the vision altogether. That is why many

charismatic leaders eventually experience burnout. They’re stuck carrying the emotional load for

everyone.

2. It prevents new learning opportunities from occurring.

Charismatic leaders convince others to follow their own vision. That means people tend to

abandon their own dreams, creativity, or plans because they see something “better” through the

perspective of the leader they choose to follow. Instead of following their own opportunities for

growth, they push the leader to become better, stronger, and more influential. They stop living

for themselves because they focus all their energy toward the goals described by the leader.

3. It can change the value systems of the followers.

People might initially begin to follow a leader because they share the same overall goals that are

being described. Over time, that affiliation can change the personality, value systems, and

spiritual definitions of the person following the charismatic leader. They might find themselves

agreeing to do things that they normally would find to be appalling. The charisma offered by the

leader creates a situation where many believe that the ends will justify the means to get there.

4. It can be used for selfish ambition.

One of the best examples of how charismatic leadership can be used to create harm comes from

Adolf Hitler. He was imprisoned in 1923 because he attempted to seize power through a coup in

Munich. He attacked the Treaty of Versailles, denounced international capitalism, and used his

charismatic charm to influence the electorate. By 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected

party in the Reichstag. Once that happened, the journey toward the Second World War had

begun.

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5. It is not a leadership style which fits into a rigid structure.

Charismatic leaders tend to pursue their own vision at the expense of any rules or regulations that

may be in place. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, like the diner sit-ins that took place during

the Civil Rights Movement. From an organizational standpoint, however, a charismatic leader

can be difficult to handle. There may be rigid regulations or processes that must be followed and

these leaders may choose on their own to go in a different direction.

The advantages and disadvantages of the charismatic leadership style provide a foundation for

people and organizations to chase bigger and better dreams. These leaders can establish a strong

vision, create a meaningful mission, and then recruit people to begin the work required to get

there. That process can be used for good. It can also be used to create harm. That is why there

must always be an emphasis on individual thinking when pursuing the goals of a charismatic

leader.

AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP STYLE

Authentic leadership is a concept introduced by management expert Bill George in his 2003

book "Authentic Leadership" and developed further in the later book "True North." George

describes authentic leadership as a leadership style that is consistent with a leaders' personality

and core values, and that is honest, ethical and practical.

QUALITIES

An authentic leader is more interested in empowering employees than in money or personal

power, and is guided by compassion and heart in everything they do. While many authentic

leaders may have natural abilities, George emphasizes that anyone can become an authentic

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leader through hard work and developing their leadership qualities. Authentic leaders are

dedicated to continued personal growth and committed to building lasting relationships and

strong organizations.

INSPIRATION

Authentic leaders draw their inspiration from their own lives. An example: Starbucks' founder

Howard Schultz was inspired by his fathers' struggles with poor health to make Starbucks the

first American company to provide health care options to part-time employees. Schultz

consciously used his life experiences to build a company that was a reflection of his personal

values.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCES LEADERSHIP STYLES

Even in a world of more than 7 billion people, each one of us is unique. As individual or

different as we are, however, we typically fall into one of only a handful of personality types.

Our personalities, character and other factors determine the type of leaders or followers we

make. Understanding how certain characteristics and circumstances influence leadership style

helps you select a suitable management team to complement your business's mission, culture and

goals, and improves your relationship with your employees. Leadership styles can be influenced

in two ways thus, the internal influence and the external influence

1. Personality Influences

The factors that influence personality are upbringing, gender, introversion, extroversion,

education, religious views, and heritage, self-worth and life circumstances. The positive or

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negative ways in which we handle whatever life hands us often carry over to the way we conduct

managerial or supervisory roles.

For example, imagine a woman who was brought up (or self-taught) to assert herself in a healthy,

non-aggressive way, with a sense of strength and empowerment, and to practice fairness for all,

not just for herself. There's a good chance she'll display a democratic leadership style,

encouraging good communication on all levels and making an approachable and influential

leader.

On the other hand, someone who needs to feel powerful, and who is demanding and

unapproachable, may display a directing or telling style of leadership. Alternatively, a person

who desires to feel liked by everyone or lets workers ultimately lead themselves, can display a

delegative or laissez-faire style of leadership. This could result in low productivity and disrespect

from employees who prefer and require clear directions.

2. Influences of Company Culture

Company culture is driving much of today's workforce including managerial staff. Your

business's mission and how well you articulate it plays a crucial role in attracting effective

leaders and retaining them.For example, suppose you own a whole-foods company and have a

genuine concern for the hungry and homeless in your community, so you donate to shelters and

organize food drives. Your business's efforts will be admired by job seekers with the same

mindset and principles, and attract them to you. If you can spot an applicant who supports your

altruistic goals, there's a good chance he'll make an excellent mentor to the team. Thoughtful,

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insightful leaders who can motivate the workforce are role models who ignite team spirit and

nurture employee morale. Team spirit is vital for any venture and healthy for the bottom line.

EXTERNAL FACTORS

Leaders are able to influence and guide people under them, so an organization can become more

effective in achieving its goals. Styles of leadership are affected by external factors, such as the

organizational environment, demographics, staff characteristics, resources, economic and

political factors, technology and the culture of the organization.

Organizational Environment

Organizations have their own particular work environment with its own values, which is a legacy

of past leaders, as well as current leadership. These values are the care the organization has for

investors, customers, staff and the community, and they determine how the business will be

managed. Goals, values and concepts that define products or services make up the personality of

the organization.

Organizational Resources

Leaders are dependent on organizational resources, such as staff, technology, finances and

physical resources to achieve their goals. The success of management depends on how well

resources are acquired and used.

Employee Roles

When an employee takes on a role in an organization, his position is defined by the tasks and

responsibilities he must perform in relationship with others. Employees have varying levels of

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maturity in approaching tasks and relationships that impact the style of leadership needed to

guide them. Employees also affect the organization by their work ethic and personal values.

Roles have pitfalls and roadblocks that leaders must recognize and reduce in order to help staff

accomplish their tasks.

Organizational Culture

The culture of an organization is a combination of its founders, past and current leaders, history

and crises. Culture is difficult to change, because it is the result of long-held information and

formal systems, traditions, customs and rules that represent the self-image and shared

expectations of the organization. Established rites, such as rituals, routines and a set way of

doing things impacts company norms, such as how a worker can be in good standing and how a

worker can respond appropriately for various circumstances.

Sociological Factors

Leaders need to understand the demographic makeup and cultures of the clients of the

organization and trends in the marketplace to design products and services for particular

populations.

Economic and Political Factors

Leaders must educate themselves on their suppliers, customers and competitors to determine the

economic and current political factors that affect the marketplace. These factors influence how

leaders accomplish their goals.

66
 Technology

Technology can dramatically change the business environment, overnight. Leaders must adjust

their management styles to help the company adapt to technology. Research and development

help leaders to create innovative new techniques that make operations easier.

67
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