What is Leadership?

There are many ways of looking at leadership and interpretations about what it means.
Leadership means different things to different people.  It is often taken to represent:

• Getting others to follow 

• The use of authority in decision-making 
• A personal characteristic 
• An ability to achieve effective performance in others

A general interpretation of leadership (source: Mullins) would be:

A relationship through which one person influences the behaviour or actions of

other people

The above definition is important, because it shows that any consideration of what
makes for effective leadership cannot be done in isolation from concepts such as
teamwork, organisational structure and motivation.

The traditional view sees leadership as about:

• Command & Control 

• Decision-making

However, a more modern view has leadership having a wider role, including

• Inspiration 
• Creating a vision 
• Building effective teams

Leadership has become particularly important in modern business as a result of:

Changing organisational structures: 

- Flatter + greater delegation 
- Greater use of teamwork + focus on quality assurance 
- Coaching, support & empowerment

Rapid environmental change: 

- Change as a constant feature of business life 
- Soft skills of leadership & management increasingly important

In your studies you are mainly concerned with leadership from the top of a business
organisation.  However, it is important to remember that leadership can be exercised by
people at different levels of the organisational hierarchy.

What do Leaders Do?

The key tasks of top leadership in a business include:

• Being clear about what change is required 
• Turning ideas into action points and motivate others to act on them 
• Winning commitment based on honest, realistic, two-way discussion 
• Creating a climate of learning, so people know it is safe to make mistakes 
• Keeping going – persistence is vital 
• Learning from experiences and mistakes

A key leadership role in any business is that of the MD (Managing Director) or CEO
(Chief Executive Officer).  In addition to the above, the leadership tasks of the MD/CEO
include:

• Creating the vision, based on an understanding of SWOT 

• Forming the team and a structure that will help achieve business goals 
• Deciding key business and personnel policies 
• Managing rewards and discipline

What is the continuum of leadership?

Tannenbaum and Schmidt suggested that there is a “continuum” of leadership

behaviour.

The continuum represents a range of action related to the:

• Degree of authority used by the manager 

• Area of freedom available to non-managers

Tannenbaum and Schmidt links with McGregor’s Theory X (boss-centred leadership) &
Theory Y (subordinated-centred leadership):

The continuum identified four main styles of leadership:

Tells Manager identifies problems, makes decision and announces to subordinates;

expects implementation 
Sells Manager still makes decision, but attempts to overcome resistance through
discussion & persuasion 
Consults Manager identifies problem and presents it to the group.  Listens to advice and
suggestions before making a decision 
Joins Manager defines the problem and passes on the solving & decision-making to the
group (which manager is part of)