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LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP
Concept of Leadership is very important in organizations because leaders are the ones who make things
happen. Without leaders, an organization would find it difficult to get things done. Leaders mostly help
others to learn – just as a coach would help players play instead of playing himself. This lecture
introduces students to the concept of leadership and leadership effectiveness by providing working
definitions and by emphasizing the cultural limitations of the concepts. It presents several cultural
models that are used throughout the text to explain cross-cultural difference in leadership. There is no
universally agreeable definition of leadership. Just go and type “leadership” on Google and you can
find more than 186,000,000 different pages of reference on web. It involves influencing attitudes,
behaviors, beliefs and feelings of people and believes to be an important topic. Peter Drucker the guru of Management defines Leadership as “The only definition of a leader is
someone who has followers." While John C Maxwell defines "leadership is influence - nothing more,
nothing less." According to John W. Gardner Leadership is “the process of persuasion and example by
which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to take action that is in accord with the
leader’s purpose, or the shared purposes of all.”
Remember Leadership is a process and not a position. This important process has three important
components/ingredients. 1) Leader, 2) Followers and 3) Situation. These three components play very
important role on the process of leadership.

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

Leadership, then, is the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals. Trust is the
foundation of leadership. Leaders develop an environment of trust where the organizational members
tend to establish a follower-ship with the leader.

Who is a leader? A leader is defined as any person who influences individuals and groups/teams
within an organization, helps them in the establishment of goals, and guides them toward achievement
of those goals, thereby allowing them to be effective.

Characteristics of Successful Leaders Effective and successful leaders have certain characteristics.
They are good communicators, they motivate others (team members), they are good team builders,
solve problems of others and of organizations, they are good listeners and resolve conflicts, anticipate
change and mange it within team and organizations, they encourage risk taking by their team members
and also to promote the creativities.
If you study the life of successful leaders, you can find them a challenger of the process, they inspire a
shared vision, enable others to act, they model the way by showing the path, encourage the followers,
act as change agent and take followers to the destination.
Similarly, we also discussed leaders of corporate sector who created impression in this world.
1. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
2. Sam Walton, former CEO of Wal-Mart
3. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric
4. Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler
5. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple
6. Walter E. Disney Walt Disney
7. Henry Ford Ford Motor
8. William C. Procter Procter & Gamble
9. Asa G. Candler Coca-Cola
10. Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computer
11. Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel
12. Ted Turner, founder of CNN
13. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com
14. Phil Knight, CEO of Nike
15. Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM
16. Robert W. Johnson Jr. Johnson & Johnson
Think of someone in your life whom you would consider as “Leader”. What are the qualities of
character that this person has? I try to enlist few important characters that person “leader” may have..
Are we born with these qualities or are they learned behaviors? To some degree we have all of them --
some more so than others. We must choose and work to strengthen these qualities in ourselves if we
are to be effective leaders.
Do we really need leaders? Consider how life would be different without leadership in e.g. Families,
Education, Businesses, Service Associations, Teams, Countries and World.

Why Study Leadership?
_ Understanding leadership helps organizations:
To select the right people for leadership positions
To train people in leadership positions to improve to improve their performance
_ Who benefits?
Leaders, followers, organizations and society as a whole.
Honest, trustworthy
Good role model
Caring
Committed
Good listener
Treats people with respect
Positive, enthusiastic
Risk taker
Planner
Decision Maker
Consistent
Open
Accountable
Transparent
Responsible
Sensitive
Connected to the Community
Knowledge
Wisdom
Social Skills

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