New Year Resolutions of a Manager - National HRD Network

Outstanding Leaders:
The Need of the Hour
Your life shouldn't end up with being a leader;
it should begin with it."
Executive Summary:
Emphasis on management has created an
impression that leadership has perhaps no
role to play in industry. Traditional mind
associates leadership with the military and
political models and finds it irrelevant to the
industrial or business world. Nothing can be
far from reality than this notion.
Management, with all its refinements still
remains only a tool and never can be a
substitute for leadership. People, the most
valuable resource of any organization, can
only be "led" in to giving of their best. They
cannot be managed into such performances.
On the other side of the coin, today the
organization needs what they preach.
Whatever the leaders and best ones in
society do, the commoners follow. This is
the kind of leadership advocated throughout
in the scriptures. The visionary leader must
also be a missionary, extremely practical,
intensively dynamic and capable of
translating dreams of the organization into
reality. This article is the quintessence of
leadership and provides an opportunity to
chew the euphoria of becoming an effective
leader and unravel one's innate qualities.
Elucidation:
In every human activity a leader is needed
to guide. A head of a family is the most
common leader. On the quality of the leader,
depends the progress, happiness and
fortunes of the family.
In all walks of life, be it in the schools,
colleges, factories, in public life, a leader is
a must. If these leaders are good, then they
promote unity, harmony, strength, prosperity
and happiness in society.
* Eminent Contributions:
Several definitions have been put forward
for leadership. In essence, however, these
all agree that leadership is the activity of
influencing people to strive willingly for group
objectives. There is one more general
agreement that Leaders are not necessarily
born, they can be trained.
Several studies have contributed to the
contemporary knowledge on the
dynamics of leadership. More
noteworthy among these have been:
a) Hawthorn studies which concluded that
productivity was more a function of
attitude of workers towards each other
and the attention they received from the
management rather than any facilities
that the management may provide to
improve their working conditions per se.
b) Michigan Studies which identified
leadership styles on the basis of leader
orientation i.e. Employee Oriented and
Production Oriented emphasizing the
need for balancing the two to obtain
optimum results.
Each of these studies has made useful
contribution to the understanding of the
phenomenon of Leadership. It is however
no exaggeration to suggest that the
phenomenon remains less than fully
understood even till date.
And right now, we hope readers would agree
with us that the success or failure of any
organization, company or institution, interalia,
depends on the kind of a leader it has.
* Emergence of Authority:
The authority base of a Leader varies
both on account of personal and
organizational factors. Basically there
are three different sources of authority:
(a) Traditional Authority i.e. the authority
born out of one's position in the
organization. It is also known as
legitimate power.
(b) Authority born out of functional or
technical expertise such as that of a
specialist or an authority on the subject.
It is also called expert power.
(c) Authority derived out of skill in managing
people including those professionally
more qualified than oneself. This is the
true Leadership Authority.
* Effigy of a Leader:
Having accepted that leadership qualities
and abilities can be developed through
diligence, it is necessary to provide a
practical guide to leadership development
processes. Before this, it is necessary for
the potential leader to identify his source of
authority and then deliberately proceed to
acquire the skills and develop the attributes,
which will fit him for the leadership role,
which he or she aspires. Those who draw
L.K.Jena is faculty at HAL Management Academy, Bangalore. e-mail : lkjena@incindia.org;lalatendu_j@rediffmail.com
L.K.Jena
their authority from professional expertise
in their sphere of activity, if they persist with
the preoccupation of technical excellence
and are not prepared to delegate can at best
and up as highly proficient managers.
Leadership skills come out of his functional
mobility and the ability to hire and utilize man
more able than oneself in order to create
and channelise energy, which after all is the
purpose of all leadership.
It is necessary for potential leaders to
develop characteristics of behaviour which
are valued most by subordinates. These
include ability to listen, show consideration,
display trustworthiness and constancy as
well as predictability of behaviour, tolerance
and inter-personal skills including ability to
communicate effectively.
Leadership bestows authority and brings in
its wake responsibility. A good leader
ensures success by fulfilling his
responsibility fully. "Captain's Innings" is not
unfamiliar to the cricket loving Indian people.
In the business and Industrial environment,
a leader must ensure that:
l Objectives exist and are clear
l Organizational structure is sound and
well understood
l Executive responsibility is backed by
authority
l Conformity is discouraged
l Innovation is promoted
l Information flows freely in the
organization
l Happiness is promoted
l Restrictions minimized
l Praise dispensed where deserved
* Enlighten others….Must be an
unending Journey:
Managers in business both big and small
spend between 60 to 90% of their time
dealing with people. Management of people
must therefore be their primary concern if
they wish to use this most valuable and
productive resource placed at their disposal,
to its full potential. Leaders must identify their
own behaviour patterns, value judgments and
utilize their identified strengths to weld their
work force into winning teams. They must
create energy through motivation and then
direct it through leadership to produce
excellence in all their endeavors. u H
| HRD News Letter | January 2007, Vol.22, Issue:10 27|