Lesson 11 Leader

Lesson Outline:
Meaning and definition Qualities of a leader Roles of a leader Harmonizer Spokesman Executive Planner Manager Educator Supervisor Symbol of Group Ideals

Meaning and Definition

Any social group has some people who are respected by others and their opinions and advice are valued by the group members. Such people are called as leaders, who have a great influence on their followers and guide them properly. The role of leaders is quite significant in extension programmes as they are the people who are amongst the community and have thorough knowledge about different aspects of the village, and have similar feelings and perceptions as local people may have. Leaders are the one, in whom village people have tremendous faith and they represent their community before the extension workers. They can explain in detail the needs and problems of village people and specify the areas of development more convincingly in the peoples language to the extension officials and other higher authorities. Leaders help in maximizing the participation of rural people in different extension programmes for their development and getting solutions to their problems. It is the leaders only who, through their competent skills, are able to convince the people to accept a change in right direction for better development. Leaders are also known as: Power holders Men of power Power centres Power elite

Definition
Leader is a person who has been spontaneously considered, or chosen, as being influential in specific situation or situations. According to Sundarson, the leader is the servant of the group. The position of the leaders is an essential mechanism of effective group organisation. As mentioned by S.N. Singh, a leader is one who helps the members of the group, as an individual he accepts the responsibility for thinking through problems and working out solutions that need to be discovered. A leader is one, who in a social situation can stimulate positive reaction from other members of the group, as said by B.M. Stogdill.

Qualities of a Leader
Initiative Fairness Tact Enthusiasm Cooperative Control Positive attitude Helpful Intelligence Integrity Loyalty Good communication skills Knowledge of the work Poise Broad vision Democratic outlook Decisiveness Personal effectiveness Physical fitness Resourceful Language command Warm personality

Initiative: It simply means the capability of the leader to take responsibility, initiate the work and carry out the job till its completion. Leader as an initiator must be able to think and plan, able to grasp opportunities, have courage, self confidence and a certain degree of creativity. Fairness: A leader has to be very fair and impartial, even in very small and unimportant activities, to achieve a lasting success in influencing people. Tact: A leader needs to be quite tactful in his actions and dealings with the group members. Enthusiasm: A leader must be enthusiastic full of interest and intensely devoted to each and every course of action he/she performs. He/she must always have a desire for achievement which in turn generates further enthusiasm. Control: A capable leader must control his emotions and not carried away with them. This minimizes the likelihood of saying untactful issues and reducing the conduct of unfair acts.

Intelligence: It is the inherent activity of the individual to think clearly and rapidly. Good leadership exists when the leader is able to utilize the blend of qualities he is possessing, in an intelligent way. Moreover, he/she is to be intelligent in all his actions and decisions to be taken. Integrity: This refers to the moral facet of leadership, depicting the true character of the leader. It is the quality which makes a leader to avoid aspects of cheating, backbiting and misrepresentation. Loyalty: A leader must be loyal to his/her job and task undertaken, respect for the programme and have faith in the capabilities of the followers. Knowledge of the work: The leader must have a thorough and clear knowledge of the work he has to perform for the welfare of his followers. For greater effectiveness, he needs to be familiar with the teaching methods used in the extension programme being undertaken and able to present it. He/she must have a sound teaching ability to impart knowledge to his followers. Vision: A leader must have a broad vision, which means, an ability to look into the future and to anticipate events before they occur. This helps in predicting future situations with reasonable accuracy and to think of plans to meet these situations when they arise. Decisiveness: This refers to the leaders ability to make good and prompt decisions or judgment that are generally sound and based on the facts and opinions of people. Good judgment is often a result of intelligence, emotional control, flexibility and vision. Physical fitness: Physical fitness of a leader is must, as he/she is the one representing the whole group, to meet out their needs and problems. If the leader himself/herself is dull and sick, he/she hardly can satisfy the needs of the followers and would prove an inefficient leader. Resourceful: A leader must always be prepared for an emergency and hence utilize his/her quality of resourcefulness. A resourceful leader is able to arrange different alternative ways of solving a problem. Co-operative: A leader must always cooperate with his group members. He/she must help in carrying out the plans successfully and always give a joint decision making, involving his/her followers also. He/she should never work with go it alone attitude. Language command: Command over the language is one of the important skills needed by a leader. The leader must be using the language that is familiar to his group, so that he can express himself closely, forcefully, effectively and without hesitation. Good communication skills: An efficient leader must have a good skill in communicating his ideas, thoughts and opinions very clearly. He/she should have both good listening ability and speaking comfortably in public. Positive attitude: Leaders should have a positive attitude towards his group members. He/she must recognize their ability to learn and accept them as capable learners.

Personal effectiveness: An effective leader should be able to use his/her time effectively in learning and adjust with the level of the participants. Democratic outlook: A leader should give the group members opportunities to express their opinion and share experiences, which provides an enthusiastic environment for learning. Warm personality: Leaders should be cheerful and interested in development of others. Poise: An efficient leader must be comfortable with others, cope up with new situations as they arise and be confident enough to try out new things. Helpful: The leaders should always be helpful to their followers in learning new activities.

Roles of a Leader
The term leader has a Greek root which is associated with verbs archein meaning to begin, lead and pratein meaning to pass through, achieve and finish. In this context, leader is the beginner of any activity and work is finished by the followers. The different roles of a leader are identified as follows: Group harmonizer Group spokesman Group executive Group planner Group educator/teacher Symbol of group ideals Group supervisor Manager Group Harmonizer: Different social groups headed by leader, have both similarities and differences of opinion relating to interests and certain issues. It is important that all these social groups should have a harmony within them, which can be established by focusing upon the similarities among the members, rather than the differences of opinion among them. Thus, the leader functions as a group harmonizer within the group to promote harmony and resolve the differences peacefully to avoid the conflicting situations. Group spokesman: As the leader represents the group, hence, he has the responsibility of speaking for the groups interests and position accurately (Fig. 11.1). He/she is fully knowing the groups consensus of opinion and communicates them as and when required. He has the full freedom to act as a group spokesman and may consult his group incase of uncertainties, so that the desired opinion is expressed by him. Group Executive: As a group executive, a leader is responsible for attaining consensus of opinion on issues that arise and that the activities conducted are carried out according to democratic principles. Group leaders keep a continuous watch that the agreed upon policies of the group are put Fig. 11.1: Village Leader asmay into action, committees a Group Spokesman be set up to discuss the details and to monitor that the committees finish their

assignments on time. For any plan of action, formulated by the group, it is the leader who ascertains that the roles of individuals are performed as planned by them. Group Planner: Leader as a group planner is better able to visualize on the problems of the group and plan their possible solutions, in meeting the needs of people, than other members of the group. He/she is the one to act as initiator of activities with novel ideas, but the decision is taken collectively by the group. Group planning helps an organization to last longer than when the planning is solely done by a leader. Group Educator/Teacher: In many groups, the leader serves the role of an educator or a teacher, which means he/she has more knowledge, training and experience than most of his/her group members. He/she is responsible for teaching and educating his group members for certain new issues or techniques that are emerging, so as to enhance their level of understanding. While teaching, the leader shares his/her knowledge and experiences with the group people and also knows their level of understanding, which helps to ease the process of teaching. The teaching imparted by the leader results in slow learning by the group members as learning takes time and patience. Through group education, the group leader fulfills his/her duty of maximizing participation of the people and enhances their morale. The leader serves as a facilitator of human learning by being a keen listener, observer and a team player. He/she plays an active role in observing the process, directing the flow of activities stimulating for deep thinking as well as problem solving and sharing experiences. Symbol of Group Ideals: Persons accepted as leaders serve as a symbol of group ideal and they have to adopt these norms and follow them. The group expects its leader to embody ideals of the group. Group Discussion Chairman: As nowadays, the group discussions, panel discussion, a forum or group thinking are being widely used; the leaders should be trained on these aspects. Group Supervisor: The leaders also supervise and guide the activities of different social groups in a village such as youth clubs, co-operatives, mahila mandals and farmers associations. They also advise them on the matters involving changes. Manager: A leader is greatly involved in the managerial roles such as planning, organizing and allocating responsibilities to people (Fig. 11.2). They help to generate plans according to the needs of the people and resources available, co-ordinate a number of activities and keep liaison with various partners and organizations to run activities smoothly. No doubt, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of the programme conducted at village level, is also a significant role of the leader.
Fig. 11.2: Village Leader in a Managerial Role

REFERENCES Dahama, O.P. and Bhatnagar, O.P. (1987) Education and communication for Development, Oxford and IBH Publishing Co., New Delhi. Directorate of Extension (1961). Extension Education in Community Development, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Govt. of India. New Delhi. Kumar, B. and Hansra, B.S. (2000). Extension Education for Human Resource Development, Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi. Kumar, B. and Kashyap, S.K. Management of Training: A Guide for Trainers. NATP (TOE) Deptt. of Agricultural Communication, G.B. Pant Unviersity of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar. Reddy, A.A. (2006). Extension Education, Sree Lakshmi Press, Bapatla, A.P. 8th Edition. Objective Type Questions Q.1: Tick mark the correct answer. (i) Leaders are also known as. a) Power holders b) Men of power c) Power centers d) All of the above (ii) Following is not a quality of a leader. a) Initiative b) Negative attitude c) Enthusiasm d) Fairness (iii) The role of a leader for attaining consensus of opinion on issues, is a) Group harmonizer b) Group planner c) Group executive d) Group supervisor Key: Q.1: (i) d, (ii) b, (iii) c

Q.2. Match the following. A i) ii) iii) iv) v) Intelligence ------------Integrity ------------Poise ------------Group spokesman ------------Group educator ------------B a) Moral facet of leadership b) Speak for groups interests c) Teaches and educates group members d) Inherent activity e) Comfortable with others

Key:Q.2. (i) d (ii) a (iii) e (iv) b (v) c