Human Relations– MGMT611 VU

Lesson 17

BECOMING A LEADER-1

Quotations

The truly successful person is essentially a dissenter and is always dissatisfied with the status quo.

Everything is always impossible before it works. That is what entrepreneurs are all about—doing what
people have told them is impossible.

Leadership and leader

Leadership plays significant role in managing and leading workers’ behaviours and expectations. It is
considered to be the job of a leader to give direction to the employees and getting the maximum output.
Bass (1990), in the handbook of leadership broadly defines leadership in the following words as cited by
Komin (1994),

…an interaction between two or more members of a group that often involves a structuring of the situation
and the perceptions and expectations of the members. Leaders are agents of change, persons whose acts
affect other people more than other people’s acts affect them. Leadership occurs when one group member
modifies the motivation or competence of others in the group.

Leadership is the process of bringing about positive changes and influencing others to achieve
organizational goals. Change and influence are the key words. People tend to be influenced by a person of
high—but not unreasonable—self-confidence. Leaders should be a good follower as well.

Assessing leadership role

Leadership abilities can be assessed and measured through the instrument given below.
Indicate the extent to which you agree with each of the following statement.
Use a 1-5 scale: 1=disagree strongly; 2=disagree; 3=neutral; 4=agree; 5=agree strongly

Sr Dimension DS D N A AS
1 It is enjoyable having people count on me for ideas and 1 2 3 4 5
suggestions.
2 It would be accurate to say that I have inspired other people. 1 2 3 4 5
3 It is good practice to ask people provocative questions about 1 2 3 4 5
their work.
4 It is easy for me to complement others. 1 2 3 4 5
5 I like to cheer up people even when my own spirits are down. 1 2 3 4 5
6 What my team accomplishes is more important than my 1 2 3 4 5
personal glory.
7 Many people imitate my ideas. 1 2 3 4 5
8 Building team spirit is important to me. 1 2 3 4 5
9 I would enjoy coaching other members of the team. 1 2 3 4 5
10 It is important to me to recognize others for their 1 2 3 4 5
accomplishments.
11 I would enjoy entertaining visitors to my firm even if it 1 2 3 4 5
interfered with my completing a report.
12 It would be fun for me to represent my team at gatherings 1 2 3 4 5
outside my department.

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13 The problems of my teammates are my problems too. 1 2 3 4 5
14 Resolving conflict is an activity I enjoy. 1 2 3 4 5
15 I would cooperate with another unit in the organization even 1 2 3 4 5
if I disagreed with the position taken by its members.
16 I am an idea generator on the job. 1 2 3 4 5
17 It is fun for me to bargain whenever I have the opportunity. 1 2 3 4 5
18 Team members listen to me when I speak. 1 2 3 4 5
19 People have asked to me to assume the leadership of an 1 2 3 4 5
activity several times in my life.
20 I have always been a convincing person. 1 2 3 4 5

Total score …………………….

Scoring and interpretation: Calculate your total score by adding the numbers ticked. A tentative
interpretation of the scoring is as follows:
90-100 High readiness for the leadership role
60-89 Moderate readiness for the leadership role
40-59 Some uneasiness with the leadership role
<39 Low readiness for carrying out the leadership role

Source: DuBrin, Andrew J. ‘Human Relations: Career and Personal Success’, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.

Effective leadership

Effective leadership at the top of organizations is necessary for prosperity and even survival. Yet leadership
is also needed at lower levels.
A team leader is a person who facilitates and guides the efforts of a small group that is given some authority
to govern itself.
An organization does not exist in a vacuum but is embedded in a societal/ cultural environment and the
latter exerts its pervasive influence on the organizational actors-employees and managers alike- in terms of
what they bring with them to the work place, like patterns of values, beliefs and social relationship
behavioural patterns. (Komin, 1994).
Every organization has its culture and that culture expects roles of the employees /managers according to
their culture.

Character Attributes of Leaders

People must have these attributes to be a leader. If these attributes are not found in a person, he/she can be
a manager but not a leader.
1. Integrity 2. Honesty
3. Loyalty 4. Selflessness
5. Compassion 6. Competency
7. Respectfulness 8. Fairness
9. Responsibility 10. Decisiveness
11. Spiritual appreciation 12. Cooperativeness

Traits and Characteristics of Effective Leaders

Effective leaders have the “right stuff,” meaning that certain inner qualities contribute to leadership
effectiveness in a wide variety of situations. Persons avoid taking responsibilities. It is difficult to make them
learn the ability of taking responsibility. Technical skills can be taught but developing the characteristic of
responsibility and how to lead others is difficult. Persons wait (Davis, 67: 302) indefinitely, for someone else
to decide, rather than make decisions themselves.

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Effectiveness means that the leader helps group members accomplish their objectives without neglecting
satisfaction or morale. Achievement- motivated persons are the best source of competent leadership in an
organization and those persons with more achievement motivation tend to rise the highest. (Davis, 67)

1. Emotional Intelligence

A current conception of emotional intelligence is so broad that it encompasses many traits and behaviours
related to leadership effectiveness, including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and
relationship management.
Self-awareness, the ability to understand your own emotions, is the most essential of the four emotional
intelligence competencies.
Relationship management deals with a variety of interpersonal skills.
Emotional intelligence can be developed through working on some of its components such as learning to
control your temper, and developing empathy by listening to people carefully. Empathy means to put
oneself in someone’s shoes.

2. Trustworthiness

Both leaders themselves and group members believe that being honest and sustaining trust, are important.
Today’s cliché is that leaders walk the talk.
Trust is a person’s confidence in another individual’s intentions and motives, and in the sincerity of that
individual’s words. Actions should not contradict words.
It takes a leader a long time to build trust, yet one brief incident of untrustworthy behaviour can destroy it.

3. Strong Work Motivation and High Energy

Leadership positions are mentally and physically demanding. Strong motivation is also needed to accept the
heavy responsibility that being a supervisor entails.

4. Cognitive Skills and Openness to Experience

Leaders need to be mentally sharp. Problem-solving and intellectual skills are referred to collectively as
cognitive skills. A cognitive skill of major importance is knowledge of the business, or technical competence.
Closely related to cognitive skills is the personality characteristic of openness to experience, a positive
orientation toward learning.

5. Assertiveness

Assertiveness is a widely recognized leadership trait. If you are self-confident, it is easier to be assertive with
people. Assertiveness helps leaders perform many tasks and achieve goals.

6. Charisma

An important quality for leaders at all levels is charisma, a type of charm and magnetism that inspires
others.
An effective leader usually needs some degree of this quality, although some effective leaders are not
charismatic. Here we focus on three of the many characteristics of charismatic leaders.

a. Vision. Effective leaders create a visual image of where the organization, or unit, is headed. Effective
leaders project ideas and images that excite people, and therefore inspire employees to do their best.

b. Passion, Enthusiasm, and Excitement. Because of their contagious excitement, charismatic

leaders stimulate group members. Enthusiasm helps build good relationships with team members, and

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excitement is contagious. The leader can express enthusiasm verbally and nonverbally through gestures,
nonsexual touching, and so forth.

c. Sense of Humor.

Humor is a component of charisma, and a contributor to leadership effectiveness. Humor helps leaders
influence people by reducing tension, relieving boredom, and defusing anger. The most effective form of
humor is tied to the situation rather than telling rehearsed jokes.

7. The Entrepreneurial Spirit

A leader should have the ability to take initiatives and calculated risks. Corporate leaders as well as the self-
employed can display an entrepreneurial spirit. For example, a team leader with an entrepreneurial spirit will
search for new activities for the group.

References
Davis, K. (1967). Human Relations at Work: The dynamics of Organizational behaviour. Third edition.
McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Dubrin, A.J. (2005). Human Relations: Career and Personal Success. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey,
07458.

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