New Directions in Leadership Thinking

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New Directions inLeadership Thinking

• Dr Brad Jackson
• Pacific Regional Workshop on Leadership
  Development
• July 7, 2005

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How Do We Develop Leaders?

• Leadership cannot be taught but it can be learned
• No substitute for learning from experience but
  needs to be situated in a planned and integrated
  model of leadership development
• Learning from experience affected by the amount
  of challenge, variety of task and feedback
  quality
• Leadership theory helps leaders make sense of
  their development as leaders, challenges their
  assumptions and opens up new horizons

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Four Different Ways of Understanding Leadership

• Person is it WHO leaders are that makes them
  leaders?
• Result is it WHAT leaders achieve that makes
  them leaders?
• Process is it HOW leaders get things done that
  makes them leaders?
• Position is it WHERE leaders operate that
  makes them leaders?
• (Keith Grint, 2005)

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What is Leadership ?

• The process of influencing the activities of
  an organized group in its efforts toward goal
  setting and goal achievement
• (Stogdill, 1950, p. 3)
• Three key components to this definition
• - an interpersonal process between one person
  and a group
• - cant have leaders without followers
• - criterion for effective leadership goal
  achievement

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Whats the difference between Leadership and
Management?

• Managers and leaders are entirely different
• leaders develop visions and drive changes while
  managers monitor progress and solve problems
  (Zalenik, 1977)
• managers do things right, while leaders do the
  right thing (Bennis and Nanus, 1985)
• Distinction between leadership and management is
  blurred
• Leadership is a key role of the manager (Drucker,
  1955 Mintzberg, 1955)
• Good guy (i.e. leader) v Bad guy (i.e
  manager) distinction is a romantic notion and not
  helpful (Rost, 1991)

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The Common Sense Approach

• aka Implicit leadership theory
• Inductive approach
• Isolates fundamental truths about leadership
• Based on direct and indirect experience

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What do you think are the key qualities of
effective leaders?

• ________________________________
• ________________________________
• ________________________________
• ________________________________
• ________________________________
• ________________________________

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The Scientific Approach

• Deductive Approach
• Develop a theory of how leadership ought to work
• Conduct rigorous analytical experiments to test
  the theory
• Enormous effort put into this--yet results have
  been disappointing
• Little in the way of consensus

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Traditional Leadership Theories

• Leaders Influence Mandators
• Trait Theories
• Style Theories
• Contingency Theories

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New Leadership Theories

• Leaders Managers of Meaning
• Transactional Leadership
• Transformational Leadership
• Level 5 Leadership

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Transformational Leaders

• Do not accept the status quo
• Create a graphic and compelling vision of the
  future
• Act as role models
• Are often referred to as tough
• Energise and inspire others
• Are said to be charismatic (Greek gift)
• Are very instrumental in times of turbulence /
  crises
• Provide sense of individual consideration
• Provide stimulation (intellectual and emotional)
• May be able to train people in transformational
  characteristics (James MacGregor Burns,
  1978)

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Level 5 Leadership Hierarchy

• Level 5 Executive builds enduring greatness
  through a paradoxical blend of personal humility
  and professional will
• Level 4 Effective Leader catalyses commitment to
  vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling
  vision, stimulating higher performance standards
• Level 3 Competent Manager organises people and
  resources toward the effective and efficient
  pursuit of predetermined objectives
• Level 2 Contributing Team Member contributes
  individual capabilities to the achievement of
  group objectives and works effectively with
  others in a group setting
• Level 1 Highly Capable Individual makes
  productive contributions through talent,
  knowledge, skills and good work
  habits (Jim Collins, 2001, Good to
  Great)

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View from the TopLevel 5 Leaders

• Are a study in duality they are modest and
  willful, shy and fearless. They act with quiet,
  calm determination and they rely principally on
  inspired standards, not inspiring charisma, to
  motivate. They channel their ambition into the
  company, not the self. They also look in the
  mirror, not the window, to apportion
  responsibility for poor results, never blaming
  other people, external factors or bad luck.
  Similarly, they look out of the window to
  apportion credit for the companys success to
  employees, external factors or good
  luck. (Jim Collins, 2001, Good
  to Great)

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Four ImportantNew Directions in Leadership

• Leadership and Emotions
• Leadership and Culture
• Distributed Leadership
• Authentic Moral Leadership

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Leadership and Emotions

• An emotionally intelligent leader can monitor
  his or her moods through self-awareness, change
  them for the better through self-management,
  understand their impact through empathy, and act
  in ways that boost others moods through
  relationship management (Goleman,
  Boyatzis McKee, 2001)

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Leadership and Culture

• Theoretical work and and practical
  application in non-American contexts will
  inevitably move leadership theory away from its
  overly American emphases and biases towards a
  more international perspective (J
  ames MacGregor Burns, 2005)

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The GLOBE ProjectUniversally effective
behaviours

• Charismatic/value-based leadership
• Visionary, inspirational, integrity,
  self-sacrifice, decisive
• Team oriented leadership
• Collaborative, team integration, diplomatic,
  administratively competent
  (Robert House et al, 2004)

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The GLOBE ProjectLocally effective
ineffective behaviours

• Participative leadership
• Participative, non-autocratic
• Humane oriented leadership
• Modesty, humane
• Autonomous leadership
• Individualistic, independent, autonomous, unique
• Self-protective leadership
• Self-centred, status conscious, face saver,
  procedural

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The Rise of theTranscultural Creative Leader

• Looking for people who can learn how to
• Transcend their childhood acculturation and
  respect very different cultures
• Build cross-cultural partnerships of mutual
  trust, respect, and obligation
• Engage in cross-cultural creative problem solving
  to resolve conflicts
• Help construct third cultures in various
  operations (Graen Hui, 1999)

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Distributed Leadership

• In the twenty-first century organization, we
  need to establish communities where everyone
  shares the experience of serving as a leader, not
  sequentially, but concurrently and collectively.
  These I call leaderful organizations.
  (Joseph Raelin, 2003, p. xi)
• The model makes the case for the end of
  leadership as we commonly know itthat is,
  rank-based managementand introduces a method for
  developing an organisation into a true society of
  peers. I call this model the peer-based
  organization. (Jeffrey Nielsen, 2004,
  p. x)

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Authentic Leadership

• Owning ones own personal experiences (values,
  thoughts, emotions and beliefs) and acting in
  accordance with ones true self
• Leader-follower relationships characterised
  by
• transparency, openness trust
• guidance towards worthy objectives
• emphasis on follower development (Wi
  lliam Gardiner et al, 2005)

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Moral Leadership

• As a concept, leadership should mean a set of
  values dedicated to promoting human development
  for the common good of people in a democratic
  environment, both at the national and
  international levels (Adel Safty,
  2003,)
• The modern leader is willing to take
  responsibility without waiting for a request or
  bureaucratic permission (Ronald
  Heifertz, 2003)

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In Conclusion

• Leadership, then, is not just a theoretical
  arena but one with critical implications for us
  all and the limits of leadership--what leaders
  can do and what followers allow them to do--are
  foundational aspects of this arena. Leadership,
  in effect, is too important to be left to
  leaders (Keith Grint, 2005)

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