Leadership Theories and Approaches (Week 1)

Trait Approach

The trait theory of leadership focuses on identifying different personality traits and
characteristics that are linked to successful leadership across a variety of situations.

According to Carlyle, history is shaped by extraordinary leaders. This ability to lead is

something that people are simply born with, Carlyle believed, and not something that could be
developed. Carlyle's ideas inspired early research on leadership, which almost entirely focused
on inheritable traits. Some of the implications of the trait theory of leadership are that:

Certain traits produce certain patterns of behavior

These patterns are consistent across different situations
People are born with these leadership traits

Some of the traits most commonly associated with great leadership include the following.

Intelligence and Action-Oriented Judgment: Great leaders and smart and make choices that
move the group forward.
Eagerness to Accept Responsibility: Strong leaders take on responsibility and don't pass the
blame on to others. They stand by their success and take ownership of their mistakes.
Task Competence: A great leader is skilled and capable. Members of the group are able to look
to the leader for an example of how things should be done.
Understanding Followers and Their Needs: Effective leaders pay attention to group members
and genuinely care about helping them succeed. They want each person in the group to succeed
and play a role in moving the entire group forward.
People Skills: Excellent interpersonal skills are essential for leading effectively. Great leaders
know how to interact well with other leaders as well as with team members.
Need for Achievement: Strong leaders have a need to succeed and help the group achieve their
goals. They genuinely care about the success of the group and are committed to helping the
group reach these milestones.
Capacity to Motivate People: A great leader knows how to inspire others and motivate them to
do their best.
Courage and Resolution: The best leaders are brave and committed to the goals of the group.
They do not hide from challenges.
Perseverance: Strong leaders stick with it, even when things get difficult or the group faces
significant obstacles.
Trustworthiness: Group members need to be able to depend upon and trust the person leading
them.
Decisiveness: A great leader is capable of making a decision and is confident in his or her
choices.
Self-Confidence: Many of the best leaders are extremely self-assured. Because they are
confident in themselves, followers often begin to share this self-belief.
Assertiveness: A great leader is able to be direct and assertive without coming off as overly
pushy or aggressive.
Adaptability and Flexibility: Effective leaders don't get stuck in a rut. They are able to think
outside of the box and adapt quickly to changing situations.
Emotional Stability: In addition to being dependable overall, strong leaders are able to control
their emotions and avoid overreactions.
Creativity: Perhaps most importantly, great leaders not only possess their own creativity, they
are also able to foster creativity among members of the group.

Behavioural Approach

Behavioral theories of leadership are classified as such because they focus on the study of
specific behaviors of a leader. For behavioral theorists, a leader behavior is the best predictor
of his leadership influences and as a result, is the best determinant of his or her leadership
success.
Ohio State University (1940s)

Task oriented leaders (Initiating Structure)

The task concerned leaders are focusing their behaviors on the organizational structure, the
operating procedures (S.O.P.) and they like to keep control. Task-oriented leaders are still
concern with their staff motivation; however it's not their main concern. They will favor
behaviors that are in line with:

 Initiating
 Organizing
 Clarifying
 Information Gathering

People oriented leaders (Consideration)

The people oriented leaders are focusing their behaviors on ensuring that the inner needs of the
people are satisfied. Thus they will seek to motivate their staff through emphasizing the human
relation. People oriented leaders still focus on the task and the results; they just achieve them
through different means. Leaders with a people focus will have behaviors that are in line with:

 Encouraging
 Observing
 Listening
 Coaching and Mentoring

University of Michigan (1950s)

Ohio State University + Participative Leadership

Participative leadership

If a group or team is lead by an effective and good leader, it is more or likely that the team will
be able to fulfill their as well as the organizations goal and objectives successfully. However,
if the leader just commands or orders the team for specific tasks, then it is probable that the
team is demotivated and they will perform less than others with a better leader.
Participative leadership also known as Democratic Leadership Style is a method of leadership
that involves all team members in terms of identifying important goals as well as developing
strategies and procedures to achieve the goals. From this point of view, participative style of
leadership can be perceived as a leadership style that rely primarily on functioning as facilitator
that the one who simply issues commands or orders or making assignment for each member of
the team. This kind of leadership style could be utilized in volunteer setting, business setting
and even in home.

Leadership Styles (Goleman, 2000)

The research didn’t just try to define the styles, it also correlated each one of them with the
effect they have on the company climate, which then has a direct correlation on results.

Visionary — mobilize people toward a vision.

Works best when a clear direction or change is needed.
Most positive climate.
Coaching — develop people for the future.
Works best when helping people and building long-term strength.
Positive climate.
Affiliative — create emotional bonds and harmony.
Works best to heal rifts in teams or motivate people in stressful times.
Positive climate.
Democratic — build consensus through participation.
Works best to create consensus or get input.
Positive climate.
Pacesetting — expect excellence and self-direction.
Works best to get quick results from a highly competent team.
Negative climate.
Commanding — demand immediate compliance.
Works best in crisis or with problematic people.
Negative climate.
The most important aspect of this breakdown is that since each style fits a different situation,
a good leader needs to be able to switch them when the context requires that. A leadership style
is thus a tool, not personality trait.

Leaders who have mastered four or more—especially the authoritative, democratic, affiliative,
and coaching styles—have the very best climate and business performance.

Note also that the four suggested ones exclude both commanding and pacesetting, exactly for
their negative effect on the company climate.

On top of that, it’s important to note that all these styles relate in one for or another to emotional
intelligence. And specifically it has been correlated to performance in the same study:

Executives who lacked emotional intelligence were rarely rated as outstanding in their annual
performance reviews, and their divisions underperformed by an average of almost 20%.
Contingency Theory
 Favourability of leadership situation (Fielder)
 Situational Leadership ( Hersey and Blanchard)

Favourability of Leadership situation (Fred Fiedler, 1958)

Fiedler's contingency theory is one of the contingency theories that states that effective
leadership depends not only on the style of leading but on the control over a situation. There
needs to be good leader-member relations, task with clear goals and procedures, and the ability
for the leader to mete out rewards and punishments. Lacking these three in the right
combination and context will result in leadership failure. Fiedler created the least preferred co-
worker (LPC) scale, where a leader is asked what traits can be ascribed to the co-worker that
the leader likes the least

Pro's
The theory is extremely well researched, given the stated parameters.
For a "thumb-in-the-wind" approach to identifying leaders, Fiedler's contingency theory can
assist enormously:
Leaders with good personal relations are matched to a poorly structured task environment.
For leaders who are impersonal, they are placed in well task structured environment.
Because this is a contingency theory, it is inherently more flexible than a "one takes all"
theory.
Con's

 LPC scale is subjective, and characteristics are relative in contexts.

 Even according to Fiedler, the LPC score is valid only for groups that are closely
supervised and does not apply to "open ones" such as teams.
 It is questionable whether Fiedler's contingency theory is valid in all situations, such as
when neither the task is well defined and no choice of leaders is to be had, except ones
with bad personalities.

Situational Leadership (Hersey & Blanchard 1993)

Hersey and Blanchard suggested that there are four primary leadership styles:

Telling (S1): In this leadership style, the leader tells people what to do and how to do it.

Selling (S2): This style involves more back-and-forth between leaders and followers. Leaders
"sell" their ideas and message to get group members to buy into the process.

Participating (S3): In this approach, the leader offers less direction and allows members of the
group to take a more active role in coming up with ideas and making decisions.

Delegating (S4): This style is characterized by a less involved, hands-off approach to

leadership. Group members tend to make most of the decisions and take most of the
responsibility for what happens.

*To be continued (SEE PDF)

Transformational Leadership

*See PDF & PPT

It’s a Leadership Style. It is a style of leadership — one of many different leadership

styles. This means it is best used in certain contexts.
It Involves Change. Transformational leadership and those who follow it are change
oriented. They are not creatures of the status quote. Transformational leaders are
men and women of action who understand that “good enough” never is. And what
works, could always be made better. That progress is not a dirty word to be resisted
in the name of tradition, of order, of the routine. Sometimes they live within the status
quo but their minds see what could be changed.
It Requires Vision. One would think that foresight would be common, but it’s not. The
ability to understand the predictable trends and then be able to map a path through the swamp
of change is not that easy.

It includes Charisma. Not all of these types of leaders are. But if you want to inspire people,
it helps, it really, really helps.

Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership is a style of leadership that focuses on supervision, organization, and

performance; transactional leadership is a style of leadership in which leaders promote
compliance by followers through both rewards and punishments.

*See Book (Page 162)

Pseudotranformational Leadership

*See Book (page 163)

Charismatic Leadership

*See Book (page 164)

Authentic Leadership

*See Book (Page 196)