Leadership Without Authority

Leadership Without Authority

 

Much of today’s leadership thought revolves around the aspect of using the position provided by the organization to exercise authority over the team members or on followers to persuade them into doing what’s best for the organization. While that may prove helpful in some cases where the environment is too casual in the organization but it’s not quite promising to expect best results from Authoritarian leadership style. It’s not authority that drives and motivates people  to achieve a desired task but the influence that the leader creates in the long run. Influence is a key element in any successful leadership strategy when executed in the right way. And influence is not generally manifested until & unless a leader stands their ground on the following three criteria:

1.       Authenticity:

A leader needs to be precise in what they want from the followers. They need to have a clear purpose & a vision. They etymology of the word ‘authentic; can be traced back to the Greek word ‘authento’ which means to ‘have full power’. This reflects that when the word ‘authentic’ is attached with a leader, he or she is a master in his or her own domain and areas of competence. And it is this mastery in their domain which produces influence. To put this into perspective, we can consider an early reference to authentic functioning in Socrates view of self-enquiry as he argued that an ‘unexamined life’ is not worth living. So a leader constantly needs to pursue knowing themselves and refining their skills to become a master of their domain or areas of competence.

2.       Integrity:

Integrity is arguably the most important component in your leadership journey if you want to make an impact on people despite your position or authority. To be an Integrated leader means to be completely aligned with your beliefs, values and convictions. It means that you won’t compromise on your moral values & ethical considerations despite of what circumstances you are facing at any moment of your personal or professional life.

The ethical part of leadership has been sharply questioned particularly by leaders who failed to live by some intact principles & standards. So, is it worth for a leader to remain ethical? Or can they just preach and not practice it? The answer is an absolute YES! Because leadership is an act which involves the trust of the followers. And in any given scenario, if you violate that basic entity which is the very foundation of a stable relationship between a leader & a follower, you have just uprooted yourself from being an Influential leader to merely an authoritative leader.

Great leaders of the history like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and many others showed an exemplary character which formed the foundation of their leadership abilities. They had this unique quality of leading the masses with their influence produced by their integrity to their convictions which separated them by a distance from leaders who had authority but no influence because of the fact that they failed to live by some intact moral principles & ethical boundaries. And to prevent that from happening, you must share your values with your team members so that it gets deeply ingrained in their mind and become a culture of the organization.

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4.       Share your values: This is generally one of the best practices that a leader must inculcate in order to stay ethically sound. Although this part comes in the transformational leadership also, but mainly it is based on the idea of creating an environment or culture within the organization where the followers, managers & the leaders have same belief patters & value system.

The core values are an integral part of sustaining and thriving an organization. And that’s the reason why core values must be assimilated by the leaders beginning from day one. And then shared with the followers. As the Roman philosophy goes, “if you can make a large group of people believe in something, you are actually creating a culture’. And if the culture in your organization is based on its core values, there is no better alternative than that. The inputs that you feed into your people, they return it in the form of their performance and help in thriving the organization and sustaining it in times of crisis because of the trust that has been established.

    Put People First:

This is the point where Servant leadership comes into play. A Servant leader is one whose motivation is to meet the needs of his/her team members so that they could work without considering any ramifications, worries or poignancies of their professional or personal life

Authoritarian leadership does not necessarily guarantee the successful implementation of the ideas or the strategy of the leader. It is only when the leader leads with his own example that the team or the staff members can act on leaders mandate. When a leader leads by example, it can bring about both organizational change and also employee engagement. And since Employee engagement is directly linked with the organizational change, therefore, it is necessary for a leader to focus more on themselves and how they want to present themselves in front of people they lead. They need to carefully analyze themselves and regularly ask questions such as: What kind of qualities do I need my people to incorporate in themselves and do I have those qualities in me?  Or What kind of a leader would I like to follow and then improve yourself to become that Ideal leader whom you would like to follow.

If the leader can release the abilities of the employees by having a healthy relationship with them and providing them more & more opportunities for growth, then the employees are automatically going to lead the organizational change even in the absence of authority and work collaboratively to thrive the organization.

A Servant leader completely transforms an organization which results in the establishment of trust within team members and effective management & allocation of resources in favor of the organization.

 

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Qualities to Look for In a Leader

 

Qualities to Look for In a Leader

What are the qualities that you must look deep into a leader that separates him/her from the followers? What are the remarkable qualities an individual inculcate in themselves to take their organization to completely new heights? The following are six of the most important qualities that an irrepressible leader has who brings meaning to life and help their people become more effective and better performers in their areas of competence:

1.       A Leader is a Problem Solver:

Most of us generally remember the people who either cause problems or solve them without a sweat. Every organization has to deal with many new problems every single day and the job of a leader is to address and uproot those problems which are a pest to the organization’s growth. And great leaders always love the challenges because it gives them an opportunity to harness and showcase their abilities. If a leader is not solving problems, then what is he getting paid for?

A leader must also be open-minded in order to bring quality to solution of the challenges that the organization faces. Most of the times, it happens that the things are not the way they first appear. Therefore, its necessary for the leader to think outside the box to look at the problem from a different perspective.

2.       A Leader is always Authentic:

The word “Authentic” means to be genuine, real veritable, in sharing the sense fo actuality & lack of falsehood or misrepresentation. Many leaders fall into the temptation of copying others leadership styles and behaving the way other great leaders behave in a particular situation and eventually there comes a point where they lose their true identity. Its important for a leader to always learn form others but be themselves. Because Authenticity always breeds courage. If you are an authentic leader and always true to yourself, you will always be confident because you are not giving any other person the privilege to question your integrity.

3.       A Leader is a Servant ( really!):

Robert Greenleaf is credited with coining the term “servant leadership” in modern times. Servant leadership focuses more than just the aspect of solving complex problems & coming forward with a solution. It demands from a leader to serve rather than to manage people whether serving customers, employees, investors or stakeholders. The emphasis of a ‘Servant Leader’ must be to empower those whom he lead. A servant leader completely transforms an organization which results in the establishment of trust within the team members which leads to an effective management and allocation of resources. While the leader takes complete responsibility and management of the task, they provide their people to make decisions on their behalf which empowers them to achieve the goals with a greater level of motivation.

4.       A Leader takes over in times of Crisis:

The team is as good as the leader that leads it. People always look at how the leaders react to a particular situation and therefore leaders must commit to standards to ensure he sets the right example for his team. A leader must always Motivate people to get through not from organizational crisis but also personal crisis so that they maintain a commitment to company’s success. A leader must be willing to share and delegate responsibilities while maintaining understanding & analyzing the efforts of other team members. Great leaders always look at the hard and turbulent times in a unique way. They do not perceive crisis as a blockage to their leadership vision but seek it as an opportunity to strengthen themselves and the organization through the weaknesses that the crisis reveals to them.

5.       A Leader is an Influencer:

 

Leadership is an act of influence. The very moment somebody’s thoughts, ideas or actions starts to influence our life in some way or the other, they are leading us. And thereof, we are always lead by somebody whether we are aware of it or not. You don’t necessarily have to be in a high-profile position to become a leader with influence. In fact, you can have influence on the people right where you are. Everything you do in your personal and professional life impacts and influences others. Influence is the key to unlocking closed doors and sign of a successful leader.

6.       A Leader asks Good questions:

One of the most important quality of a good leader is to ask good questions. In his book, “Good leaders ask great questions” John C. Maxwell explains the importance of good questioning for a leader whether they are newly emerging or quite experienced in their field. Good questions gives new perception to the old ideologies. Great leaders are life-long learners. They never stop learning. And therefore, they first focus on themselves rather than to try to change others. IBM founder Thomas J. Watson said, “ The ability to ask the right question is more than half the battle of finding the answer.” But that’s only true if you are willing to ask the question. So, a leader always asks the right question.

 

 

 

 

 

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Developing Your Own Leadership Style

 

Developing Your Leadership Style

Since organizational change has been topical in recent history, there is much researching surrounding the factors necessary to successfully execute organizational change. One of the primary focal areas in research within the content theme is the importance of a suitable leadership style as a key driver for successful organizational change. And this is one of the most important areas where a leader needs to focus to create and design the organizational change and the culture of the organization.

There are various styles of leading an organization and a common thread that can be observed across all styles is that whilst each has a domain to which it is well suited, none of them are suited to leading the organizational change. This is because organizational change requires leadership which can take the organization from a certain status quo to a new, different status quo – the very nature of this process is to put down, with leadership making employees believe in the long- term vision and tolerate the temporary discomfort. The position is further justified when taking into consideration that there is no theory which juxtaposes these styles of leadership with organizational change.

The major leadership styles which most leaders practice are as follows:

·        Authoritarian leadership

·        Laissez faire leadership

·        Servant leadership

·        Democratic leadership

The above mentioned leadership styles cannot necessarily fit in with every leader because:

·        In authoritarian leadership, we find that employees are disengaged & disempowered under normal circumstances or situations demanding less attention.

·        In Laissez faire leadership, the hands – off approach would likely mean that the change in the organization would come as a surprise to the group making them suspicious of the move & more likely to reject the proposed changes.

·        In Servant leadership, the leaders would be averse to change given the negative impact that it has on employee engagement.

·        In case of Democratic leadership, the inability to make decisions quickly renders this leadership style inadequate for situations requiring change.

DEVELOP YOUR OWN LEADERSHIP STYLE

Leadership is about answering the question why as well as what. A manager may tell you what to do in a specific way, but a leader will explain or convey to you why as a first and important step on the road to your free & willing cooperation which is the hallmark of all true leadership. You can develop your own unique leadership style as follows:

·        Planning: Planning means building a mental bridge from where you are now to where you want to be when you have achieved the objective or task. From the leadership perspective, the key issue is how far you should share the planning function with your team. You should know what you are doing and how you are going to do it before starting the actual execution.

Power of Planning

·        Know your strengths & weaknesses: It’s important for you as a leader, to do a litmus test of your strengths and also the weaknesses. What are the areas that you are good at? What are the things that you can do better than anybody else in the world? And look for opportunities to where you can make use of your strengths to get to your desired results.

Also, don’t shy away from monitoring your weaknesses to yourself. Look for the potential weaknesses in your personal and professional life and fill the holes to become a better version of yourself.

·        Identify your Inspiration: When it comes to the dynamics of leadership like communication skills and the ability to exert influence over people, it is best to identify an inspiration for yourself. That inspiration might come from a prominent personality, your family, your associates or even from your friends. Look for different patterns in the behavior and communication of the people around you and try to learn from each of them. Sometimes, a leader does not identify their leadership style because they never go look out for someone whom they admire the most. So, look out for people who influence or inspire you and take hint from their leadership styles.

·        Know Thyself: This is probably the most important aspect of discovering your leadership style. ‘Know Thyself” is a Greek concept of knowing yourself first before trying to know other things. Socrates in Plato’s ‘Philebus’ dialogue argues the point that people look absurd when they try to know obscure things before knowing themselves. If you really want to develop a unique and original leadership style, you must first be able to get along with yourself. Most leaders keep themselves so much busy that they do not even have the time to just sit with themselves alone. To balance powerful & attractive styles of leadership, you must desire to know yourself. Look inside yourself, spend some time with yourself on a daily basis, understand what you want from your people and the organization, understand your objectives and what you want to accomplish.

CONCLUSION

From the above discussion, we conclude that there are four major leadership styles which are powerful and impact followers which are namely: Authoritarian leadership, Laissez faire leadership, Servant leadership, Democratic leadership.

To develop your own unique leadership style, you must:

·        Plan — so that you can understand your objectives and bridge the gaps between your starting point and your current position.

·        Know your strengths and weaknesses — so that you can know the areas which needs improvement.

·        Identify your Inspiration —to learn from them to lead more effectively.

·        Know Thyself — so that you don’t fall in any kind of dilemmas whilst your leadership journey.

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Powerful Leadership Styles

 

Powerful Leadership Styles

While there have been plethora of theories over the past decades concerning the leadership styles and the patterns that impact and influences the followers and the organizations, still many leaders find it difficult to hone their leadership skills. This is due to many contradictions that arise between the leaders having different leadership styles. And some are even perplexed to decide which road to take.

However, a leader must always bear in mind that even though styles of leading an organization and manifesting the desired change might be different but the end is the same. And that is to reach to your objective, purpose or goals. A leadership style which is unique acts as a catalyst to your influence on the followers.

A leadership style can bring about two kinds of changes namely:

·        Organizational Change

·        Employee Engagement

Since Employee Engagement is directly linked with the organizational change, therefore, it is necessary for a leader to focus on people more than on the organization. If the leader can release the abilities of the employees by having a healthy relationship with them and providing them more & more opportunities for growth. Then the employees are automatically going to lead the organizational change. And therefore, employee engagement with its consequent impact on employee productivity is one of the key drivers of organizational performance; and organizational change often in turn have a significant impact on employee engagement.

The following are the different styles of leadership that a leader is given or sometimes inculcated by themselves. But before that, it should be kept in mind that no one style of leadership is universally applicable. Each of them has its own positives and drawbacks. A leader must choose his/her own leadership style depending upon the time of execution of a particular task.

1.     Authoritarian Leadership: This type of leadership style is also referred to as the autocratic form of leadership. In this style of leadership, the leader is the head of the organization and takes control of all the decisions and dictates processes & tasks to the organization. Leaders with authority make decisions on the basis of their own judgment and ideas. They rarely accept the advice of their subordinates.

Powerful Leadership Styles

It’s a style In which a leader seeks complete control over a group or a task in hand. The following are the traits that can be observed in authoritarian leadership:

·        Little input is taken from subordinates.

·        Followers do not have a  sense of significance with such leaders because of their rare engagement in the decision making process.

·        Leaders with this style have an aim to just get the job done and hence, there is no growth environment or empowerment enablers in that organization.

·        Relying on Authoritarian leadership over the long-term is generally not beneficial for the organization.

 

2.     Laissez Faire Leadership: This type of leadership style is completely opposite to the authoritarian leadership. Unlike an authoritarian leader, a Laissez faire leader provides complete freedom for the people to work and to make their own decisions such a leader provides little to no input to the people.

While the leader takes complete responsibility and management of the task, they provide their people to make decisions on their behalf which empowers them to achieve the goals with a greater level of motivation.

Leaders with this style simply acts as an incubator for the growth of their employees which ends up in the growth of the organization. Therefore, success of the company is solely dependent on the performance of the employees which is dependent on freedom that the leader offers.

The only disadvantage of Laissez Faire leadership is that leaving the employee with very little guidance makes them much more vulnerable to mistakes and there is also an uncertainty regarding the completion of the task.

 

3.     Servant Leadership: A servant leader is the one whose motivation is to meet the needs of his/her team members so that they could work without any ramifications or worries about their finances or other day to day activities.

A servant leader completely transforms an organizations which results in the establishment of trust within the team members which leads to an effective management and allocation of resources.

4.     Democratic Leadership: As the name suggests, it is a type of leadership where the process of decision making, sharing of views and opinions is valued. The benefit of this style is that it facilitates open discussion and the sharing of views and opinions thereby increasing the potential of the innovators and the organization.

This style of leadership is beneficial for many leaders as it provides a balance which is required for successful implementation. The decision making may not be so quick in this style, but the decision made in the end are much rational and produce more growth.

 

CONCLUSION

From the above discussion, we came to know about the various leadership styles that a leladers can exercise in their organization to accomplish the desired goals.

·        Authoritative leadership: This leadership style is totally based on the position aspect and does not promote employee engagement & growth.

·        Laissez Faire Leadership: A leader with this style provides little input& encourage employee freedom.

·        Servant Leadership: A servant leader is concerned about the needs of the people to create a healthy working environment

·        Democratic Leadership: Decisions are made keeping the opinions and views of the members equally important as that of the leader.

 

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The Art of Delegation

 

The Art of Delegation

As a leader, we sometimes find that our days are long and hectic and that we often risk being derailed by unexpected developments that demand our attention. And in these kinds of scenarios, delegation is the best time-saving method in the long run. The ability to delegate is an essential skill for leaders that enhances their leadership skills and develops teamwork that lets individuals with different set of talents, roles & responsibilities to come together. If executed properly, delegation empowers the team to work collaboratively and create trust but if done poorly, creates distrust among the people. So, nearly all leaders agree that delegation is useful for them.

The question that tickles in a layman’s mind is that if delegation is useful, why don’t some leaders practice it? One reason for lack of delegation is the leaders hesitancy to give up control while being held accountable for the outcome. The leader may fear that the staff member lacks the knowledge and experience to complete a delegated task and consequently, it will not be done well. Or a leader may feel that doing a job differently means it is not done well.

And some leaders even hesitate to delegate because it threatens their power structure. Insecure leaders may believe that they will be perceived as less important or less capable than their subordinates who may prove more capable than them. Many leaders also do not realize what should be delegated and what not. And the unfamiliarity with the task in hand may leave the leader in a position where he will be too cautious about the delegation of that particular task. However, apart the restriction or things that refrain leaders from delegation, it is equally important for them to understand the importance and the need of delegation to produce more effective results.

 

·        Effective delegation benefits the leader, the staff and the organization. Effective delegation demands feedback from the employee, and when there is more feedback, it will strengthen the decision-making ability of the leader. A key benefit of delegation is that the quantity & quality of work is improved even In the absence of leader.

·        Delegation can act as a powerful motivator for team members. It can develop their decision making abilities which will contribute to more creative problem solving in the organization. It also results in improved self-esteem & morale of the staff and the team members have a more positive attitude and commitment to the organization.

·        Delegation decreases the gap between the administration and staff members. Because delegation brings down the important decision closer to the frontline and the team members participate in it more and more which helps in creating a healthier work environment & positive image of the organization.

 

How to Delegate Effectively?

 

1.     Set Objectives: To be effective in an organization, a leader needs to now their particular objectives- so that they know where they are heading. An effective objective is SMART. It stands for:

 

·        Specific— stating exactly what needs to be achieved.

·        Measurable— so that you can tell when the task has been done properly.

·        Achievable—the objective has to be realistic within a certain time frame with the availability of the required resources.

·        Relevant—which must be fitting in line with those who has the role to achieve the objective and also to the wider objectives of the organization.

·        Time-bound—it is important to give some guidance about deadlines and time frames to achieve the objectives.

 

2.     Monitoring the delegated task: By monitoring the delegated task, you will be able to see the potential problems at an early stage and you can guide your team members to make the necessary changes. It’s important also not to over-delegate the task on team members . Bear in mind how the team members are likely to respond to it if you show some confidence in their abilities and keep intervening in the job.

You can have informal discussion with the staff to get much better insights in the delegated task. If you uncover a potential problem while monitoring the delegated task, be tactful in pointing it out to the team member. Bear in mind that you do not have to criticize them in case they make some mistakes, your motive is to support them and help them become better.

3.     Review the delegated task: Although you may review progress when the task is underway, it is also important to review it when its completed. It is an important time after the completion of task to consider its success with your team members so as to learn from the experience and to plan improvements for the future.

When reviewing a delegated task, it is best to let your team members get the praise for work successfully done, but to accept the blame yourself when things have gone wrong. As Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam once said, “ When failure comes, a great leader absorbs the failure, but when success comes, he gives it to his team members.”

CONCLUSION

Delegation is both an art and a science. The basic principles behind delegation as mentioned in the above discussion are as follows:

·        Set Objectives; Define your objectives in accordance with the SMART. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound goals or objectives which a leader needs to decide while delegating a task to the staff or team members.

·        Monitor the delegated task: Check the progress of the team by regular visitation or informal conversation.

·        Review the delegated task: Check for areas of improvement and potential threats.

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