The model reviewed here has five major
functional areas.
Ø The first is leader
assessment. Leaders must be able to assess the dynamics
occurring in the organization, the external environment, and the constraints
that they face in carrying out routine functions and non-routine changes. How well do followers understand their roles,
do they have all the skills necessary, and are they motivated to work hard? Are
organizational processes supportive of productivity, teamwork, and morale? Is the organization creative and innovative
enough to stay abreast of contemporary organizational practice? Does the organization have an eye to the
opportunities and threats occurring outside its boundaries, and is it able to
adapt quickly and flexibly? In addition,
leaders must know their constraints: by law, by position, by resources, and by
their own leadership limitations. They
must also know how to push these bounds back (with the exception of the law in
the public sector), when necessary over time, in order to meet the challenges
leaders face. Finally, in conducting this ongoing assessment, leaders must be
able to set goals and priorities for themselves and for their
organizations.
Ø Leaders come to
various situations in varying stages of readiness.
Leader characteristics are a large part of that readiness. While no absolute set of characteristics is
necessary in all leadership situations, certain traits and skills tend to be
significantly more important than others.
Traits are those characteristics that are primarily inherent and become
a part of one’s personality, while skills are characteristics that are
primarily learned. This is not to say
that traits cannot be enhanced, especially through training and/or
indoctrination; nor is it to say that some people do not have a natural gift
for some skills. Leaders tend to be
perceived as self-confident and this tends to be an innate personality
characteristic; nonetheless, those with excellent technical training and
substantial experience become far more self-confident. On the other hand, while communication skills
take practice and study to master, some people clearly have native abilities in
oral or writing skills.
Ø Leaders also bring a
leadership “style” set to situations. A style can be thought of as
the dominant pattern of a leader behaving in a position. Rather than referring to all aspects of
leadership, style normally refers to decisional patterns of follower inclusion,
although it can also refer to the communication style, individual versus group
team patterns of leadership, and use of influence tactics. People have a preferred mode of
leadership. Good leaders generally have
alternate modes so that they are not dependent on a single style and can adjust
to a variety of situational needs. Like leader characteristics, styles are
antecedent to leadership in that they are prior aspects of the leader’s
repertoire and to some degree are an explicit method of accomplishing specific
goals. Yet styles, like leader
characteristics, are expressed through the concrete actions that leaders take
in doing their jobs.
Ø Leaders act. These
actions or behaviors can be thought of as occurring in three domains. First, leaders have tasks to accomplish. Their organization, division, or unit has
work that it must produce, no matter whether that is a concrete product or a
relatively nebulous service. Second,
leaders have followers and it is the followers who actually accomplish the
mission of the organization. Thus, good
leaders never lose sight of the fact that they accomplish their goals through
and, as importantly, with others.
Finally, leaders are expected to know more than how to design and
coordinate work processes, they are expected to know how the product of these efforts
will integrate and compare with other organizations and external entities. If production and people constitute the
mission of leadership, then organizational alignment and adaptability
constitute the vision of leadership. Today more than ever, good leaders must
not only be competent in their profession and skillful with people, they must
have well articulated visions that are compelling to a wide variety of
constituencies.
Ø Finally, leaders must
be able to evaluate how they have done. This is an ongoing and complex
activity. It requires balancing numerous competing interests. It also requires
adjusting plans and priorities as new operational problems occur, some problems
are resolved, and, less frequently but very critically, new opportunities and
threats materialize suddenly. It requires
examination of one’s own performance as well as the performance of the
organization.
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