Care more than others think is wise.
Risk more than others think is safe.
Dream more than others think is practical.
Expect more than others think is possible.
Strive more than others think is worthwhile
Do more than others think is necessary
Be more than others think is sufficient

Spending a lot of time on deciding what to write as my final post and also asking Dr. Bruce Spear for advice, I decided to sum up my ideas about leadership, after searching, reading a bunch of information, writing and reading blog posts about this topic.

Who is a leader? A leader knows what to do, how to do and makes people follow him. You dont need to be a giant to become a leader, leadership belongs to everyone. However, some of us like to be pioneers and choose fading in, while others just keep quiet and follow. I strongly disagree with people who argue that nature takes precedence over nurture. Genes are like a map for a person’s life, however the environment mutates this map and changes the way people are going to act. Unfortunately, when it comes to decide for the best leadership style, its really hard to conclude one of them is best. In a more demanding world, where risk is high to meet expectations and change is inevitable, a mix of leadership styles is needed. Its totally dynamic concept relying on building relationships based on different situations which can be also described as leading change towards an attractive and ideal future. So, its not surprising that number of female leaders are increasing due to need to caring people, but the soft perception of caring continues and female leaders’ numbers are still limited, which necessitates revision of gender stereotypes.

Leader is the soul of the organization, which inspires subordinates with his passion, vision, motivation and creativity, and initiates change. Leaders show the way and dont command excellence, they build excellence.  

References:

http://www.personal-development.com/chuck/excellence.htm

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The 2010 Global IBM CEO Study was recently published. 1 541 CEOs, general managers and senior public sector leaders from 60 countries and across 33 industries are surveyed by one-on-one interviews. The four primary findings of survey are as follows:

• Today’s complexity is only expected to rise and more than half of CEOs doubt their ability to manage it.
• Creativity is the most important leadership quality, according to CEOs.
• The most successful organisations co-create products and services with customers, and integrate customers into core processes.
• Better performers manage complexity on behalf of their organisations, customers and partners. 

Globalization and technology are major factors contributing to growing complexity. Leaders world-wide are experiencing high levels of complexity and uncertainty, which creates an urgent need for leadership. Given this, the survey explored what CEOs consider to be the most important leadership qualities that would be required over the next five years, the results are illustrated below.

References:
http://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2010/05/the-2010-ibm-global-ceo-study.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/1648943/creativity-the-most-important-leadership-quality-for-ceos-study

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2010/id20100517_190221.htm

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Mike Myatt argues in his post that great leaders are great listeners. Wisdom is gained not by talking, but by listening, so a leader should talk less and listen more. However, people are in a rush to speak out their thoughts and dont realize the value of meeting new minds. Mike Myatt also says that the smartest person in a meeting is the one who does all the listening ans asks questions to get more information, not talking whole the time. 

Effective leaders listen what others have to say, empathize with their points of view and recognize people have a need to be listened. A Turkish proverb summarizes my post excellent: "If speaking is silver, then listening is gold."

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Emotional intelligence refers to the abilities to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and in others. According to Daniel Goleman there are four domains of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

Daniel Goleman developed the argument that non-cognitive skills can matter as much as IQ for workplace success. Several decades of research in EI has demonstrated that EI differentiates outstanding performers from average performers. When you click at this link, you will find an interesting article about leadership and EI. http://www.ideashape.com/documents/what-makes-a-successful-leader-report.pdf In the article its mentioned that after conducting an explora tory research in which 265 leaders were asked to choose the five most and least important leadership attributes from a list of twenty, , the results yielded that vision, strategic thinking, relationship building, execution and people development are the five most important leadership attributes. Vision, relationship building and people development are part of relationship management (one of EI’s domain), so people attach importance to EI. 

In my opinion, a leader’s EI creates a certain culture or work environment and the leader must create a positiveemotional environment that frees the best in people. Furthermore, I think  that interpersonal leadership is a result of emphasis on the EI.  

  



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Responses to women and men in leadership roles are conditioned by a social structure traditionally dominated by men. However recent studies have shown that the types of leaders in this new global economy must possess a specific set of qualities. In fact, the changing business environment favors women because many of the characteristics and behaviors needed for leadership today are those that come more naturally to women (Noble 2006).

The characteristics such as self-confidence, the need for achievement, the drive to carry out an action, and self-monitoring are associated with masculine traits, while women’s inherent qualities were classified as caring and nurturing. According to our textbook Daft, interactive leadership has been found to be common among female leaders. Interactive leadership is characterized by values such as inclusion, collaboration, relationship building and caring rather than position power and formal authority. Actually by many people, this nurturing is viewed as “weak” and “soft”. On the other hand, I argue that leadership is not only about creating a great vision. It is about creating conditions under which all followers can perform independently and effectively toward a common objective. In other words, leadership is an interac tive, dynamic and mutually interrelated process.

The significant changes in women’s access to leadership roles over the past few decades are remarkable, but still insufficient. Prelude to a society in which women and men can claim a fair share of the challenges and opportunities is needed. To transform society, all humans must revise the gender stereotypes and their way of thinking and perceiving the world, business and leadership.

References:

Daft, R. L.(2008).New Era of Management (2nd ed.). China: Thomson South-Western

http://www.leadershipforwomen.com.au/questionnaire/12insights.pdf

http://www.womensmedia.com/lead/88-women-and-leadership-delicate-balancing-act.html

http://pdfcast.org/pdf/gender-and-leadership-style-transformationaland-transactional-leadership-in-the-roman-catholic-churc

http://itprojectmanagement1.com/women-and-leadership/

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As you have already noticed in my previous posts, I’m a participative leader according to leadership styles quiz. Lewin’s study found that the most effective leadership style is participative one also known as democratic leadership. Besides it is the most common form of leadership practiced in the corporate world and political scene.

They say that being participative might make leaders seem weak or indecisive. I totally disagree with this statement. Today many people have an advanced education, so employees are intelligent and highly skilled professionals. In participative leadership, the leader becomes a facilitator and encourages the team to produce solutions. So employees are involved in the decision making from the start and contribute their ideas and suggestions. Michael Watkins explained it as consult-and-decide method, in which the leader consults his subordinates and seeks their opinion and has the final say.

In addition, much of today’s work has a high knowledge component that requires people to think and solve problems. Management has often been described as getting work done through others. In this way, employees feel valued, and knowledge, creativity and experience are maximized for sake of the entire organization.

References:

http://davidferrers.com/participative-leadership/

http://businessmanagement.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_participative_leadership

http://www.leadership-lessons.com/?p=179

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When people  think of a leader in business, they think of the boss, but being a leader doesn’t require a fancy title, official recognition. Leading people is a privilege and being a leader makes you special, but you aren’t special because you are a leader. A leader is just a part of a team which works towards a goal. It is not about you, your status, recognition, or the fancy title. It’s about making things happen. But, if you make things happen, then your status will rise, you will gain recognition. In reality, leadership simple requires one individual to stand up, assert authority, and enable the team to achieve a goal. 

The quote of H. Gordon Selfridge explains the difference between boss and leader very nice:

 "The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says "I"; The leader says "WE". The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says, "GO"; the leader says lets, "GO!"

People follow their boss because they have to and want to keep their jobs. People follow leaders because of who they are. To sum up, just having a title doesn’t make you a leader, leadership is about influence.

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Do you want to discover your leadership style? Then I suggest you to take this18 question quiz. http://psychology.about.com/library/quiz/bl-leadershipquiz.htm According to psychologist Kurt Lewin there are 3 major leadership styles as I have already mentioned in my previous post.

Authoritarian Leadership (Autocratic)                

Authoritarian leaders provide clear expectations for what needs to be done, when and how it should be done. There is also a clear division between the leader and the followers. Authoritarian leaders make decisions independently with little or no input from the rest of the group

Participative Leadership (Democratic)

Participative leaders encourage group members to participate, but retain the final say over the decision-making process. Group members feel engaged in the process and are more motivated and creative. Lewin’s study found that participative (democratic) leadership is generally the most effective leadership style.

Delegative (Laissez-Faire)

Delegative leaders offer little or no guidance to group members and leave decision-making up to group members. While this style can be effective in situations where group members are highly qualified in an area of expertise, it often leads to poorly defined roles and a lack of motivation

Eventually, great leaders need to adapt and change based upon the objectives, needs of group members, and situational factors

• Use an authoritative style if a group member lacks knowledge about a certain procedure.
• Use a participative style with group members who understand the objectives and their role in the task.
• Use a delegative style if the group member knows more than you do about the task.

Are you curious about my result for quiz? My results indicate that my leadership style is predominately: Participative

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A leader is a person who has vision, integrity and commitment. And leadership is about capacity: the capacity of observing, governing and motivating people.  According to an american businessman and author Jack Welch,  "Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others."

“ What qualities distinguish an individual as a leader? ” has been a significant question for years. Leadership style refers to a leader’s behaviour. It is the result of the philosophy, personality and experience of the leader. Kurt Lewin identified three different styles of leadership authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-fair. Due to globalization and increasing competition, nowadays it is difficult to differentiate between these styles.

During my research, the article named ‘ Why leaders fail? ‘ was quite interesting for me. Other than describing charecteristics of a leader, six warning signs impending failure was discussed. These are  shift on focus, poor communication, risk aversion, ethics slip, poor self management and lost love. Finally, everyone can not become a leader, but every one can engage in a lot more leadership!

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