MUMBAI, February 5: ``We need leadership, not just brains,'' says Roderick Wilkinson, fellow of the Institute of Personnel Management, UK. He goes on to give examples of what he means by this. ``For instance, it was a Briton, Alexander Fleming, who developed penicillin. But it was business leadership that developed it commercially in the US. It was a Scotsman named Baird who invented the television; but it was leadership in Italy, USA, and Japan that developed it beyond far greater bounds than Britain found possible. We need to realise that even the best brains need leaders who can harness their intellect and channel it toward the productive results that will benefit us all.''Are leaders born or are they made? There is overwhelming evidence that though a few people are born and need no instruction, the vast majority will greatly improve their performance if they receive down-to-earth training on what a leader needs to do in order to be effective and successful.
Leadership is what diesel is to a motor.It generates the energy that causes the forward movement. Our responsibility and goal lies in preparing tomorrow's leaders today.
Too often a man (or a woman) is made a manager because he is a good engineer, accountant, or a salesman, but he receives no formal training in management skills. Little wonder he sometimes fails, or manages without distinction. A manager must, of course, have the technical competence necessary to achieve the results required, but he must also have the requisite understanding and skill needed in his unique position of having to get work done by others, that is, to lead others.
More and more the manager has to stand or fall by his own performance as a leader. The responsibility for ensuring that each person gives of his best to work rests squarely with him. He is accountable and responsible for the work of his subordinates. He has to get work done through them, and his aim must be to make full use of their strengths, abilities and qualities, minimise the effects of theirdeficiencies and wherever possible, constantly try and improve their performance. That is the objective of effective leadership.
A working model for the leader
How then can a manager improve his performance as a leader? Basically his effectiveness as a leader depends on his ability to influence, and be influenced by the group and its members in the implementation of a common task? In practice this means:
Ensuring that the tasks are continually achieved.
Building and reinforcing the needs of his group for team-work and team-spirit.
Meeting the needs of each individual member of the group for self-actualisation.
The successful leader functions in all three areas listed above, often simultaneously. These three areas interact upon each other. A simple model , after John Adair, illustrates this:As one can see, the circles overlap. If the task circle is blacked out, so too are large segments of the group and individual circles. Thus, lack of attention to the task causesdisruption in the group and dissatisfaction to the individual. Conversely, achievement of objectives is essential if group and individual morale is to be high.
Black out the group needs circle from the model and the other two are affected. Unless the leader actively sees that the needs of the group, as a group, are satisfied, his chances of achieving the required results, in the long-term are jeopardised.
Ignore the needs of the individuals and the effectiveness of both task and team is reduced.
Achieving the task
The need to accomplish the tasks for which his group, department, or company exist is the primary and most obvious duty of the manager.
However, in his zeal to reach the objectives for which his group is responsible, a manager will to often yield to the temptation to ``do it himself''. He will probably do it faster and better, anyway. But this is not the job of the leader and if he finds himself doing these things more than occasionally he should stop and consider why.
Theleader's main contribution to achieving the required results lie in:
1. Being clear on what the task is.
2. Understanding how it fits into the overall short- and long-term objectives of the company.
3. Planning how he will accomplish it.
4. Delegating responsibilities and providing the resources needed, including the time and authority required.
5. Doing all in his power to ensure that the organisational structure allows the task to be completed effectively.
6. Controlling the progress toward achievement of the task.
7. Evaluating results and comparing them with the original plans and objectives.
Meeting individual needsWe must not forget that each member of the group needs to express himself, to find satisfaction in his work, and to win acceptance by those groups of which he is a member. In order to satisfy these needs he must exert himself-he must get involved.
Fortunately for the manager, there is a high coincidence between these needs and hisown obligation to achieve results through the best use of resources-in this case, human. To provide the right climate and opportunities for these needs to be met for each individual in the group is possibly the most difficult and certainly the most challenging and rewarding of the leader's tasks.
Team building and maintenance
Although we are employed by companies on the basis of individual contracts(terms), it is in groups or teams that the majority of our work is conducted. A group exists as an entity and, as with individuals, no two groups are alike. A group has power to set its own standards of behaviour and performance and to impose them even when contrary to the interest of the individual and the company.
The successful leader understands that a group has its own personality, its own power, its own attitudes, its own standards and its own needs. He achieves his success by taking these things into account. He has to constantly respond to the needs of the group. At times, this meanswithdrawing from his position ``way out front'' and concentrating on ``serving those who serve him''. On these occasions he is prepared to represent the group and speak with its voice. At the same time, he avoids ``over-identifying'' with the group.
The manager's ``style''
It would be wrong to conclude, however, that just anyone attempting to go through the actions and functions of the leader, as described here, would inevitably be an effective leader.
How he performs these necessary actions, his ``style of leadership'', is another factor and on this will depend his acceptance or rejection by the group and the individuals working (under him) in the group. He must be sufficiently sensitive to the needs of the situation to know when it would be right, for example, to take decisions and actions directly himself, when to consult the group before deciding, and when to delegate entirely. He also learns to be flexible and to suit his actions to the requirements of the often changing corporatesituation.
Factors affecting his style of leadership include:
1. The situation - is it a precedent? Will the company policy be affected?
2. The individuals and the group - are they capable of contributing usefully to a right decision? Is there an overall advantage to push more responsibility down to them?
The main ``style factor'', however, is the integrity of the leader himself.In simple terms, the job of the manager leader is:
1. To get the job done with the required results.
2. To manage his personal relationships in the company, and within his group, so that:
each group works as a team; and
each individual feels he is playing a vital role in the success of the group.
His skills in achieving the required results through the group are matched by his skills in ``managing'' the hostilities and anxieties of individuals and of the group. These are the functions of a leader. This is the ``work'' a manager has to perform to be a successful leader. They are notinborn traits. They are skills which can be recognised, practiced and developed.A manager becomes a better manager, and a better leader when he improves his skills in all these areas.Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
