Leadership

Introduction

The process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done
and how it can be done effectively, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to
accomplish the shared objectives is known as leadership.

Definition

1. George R Terry:
‘Leadership is the activity of influencing people to strive willingly for group objective’.
2. Koontz and O’Donnell:
‘Influencing people to follow the achievement of a common goal. It is the ability to exert
interpersonal influence by means of communication towards the achievement of a goal’.
3. Wendell French:
‘’ leadership is the process of influencing the behaviour of other in the direction of a
goal or a set of goals or more broadly, toward a vision of future.’’

Characteristics of leadership

 Leadership implies the existence of followers:

We appraise the quality of a person’s leadership in practice by studying his followers. The
supervisor for a branch head, who works for a division manager, who works for the vice-president
of a department and so on. Thus, in formal organizations of several levels, a leader has to be
able to wear both hats gracefully, to be able to relate him both upward and downward.

 Leader involves a community of interest between the leader and his followers:

In other words, the objectives of both the leader and his men are one and the same. If the
leader strives for one purpose, it is no leadership. In the words of G.RTerry, “Leadership is the
activity of influencing people to strive willingly for mutual objectives”.

 Leadership involves an unequal distribution of authority among leaders and group

members:
Leaders can direct some of the activities of group members; that is the group
members are willing to obey most of the leader’s directions. The group members cannot
 similarly direct the activities, though they will obviously affect these activities in a number of
ways.
 Leadership implies that leaders can influence their followers or subordinates in
addition to being to give their followers or subordinates legitimates directions:
Leader’s lot only tells their subordinates what to do by way of command but also
influence by their behaviour and conduct. The use of command by leaders succeeds only in
bringing about a temporary behavioural change in the followers.

Functions of leadership

 PLANNING
Seeking all available information ,defining group tasks, purpose or goal, Making a workable
plan(in the right decision making framework)

 INITIATING
Briefing team on the aims and the plans. Explaining why aim or plan is necessary.
Allocating task to team members. Setting team standards.

 CONTROLLING
Maintaining group standards. Influence tempo. Ensuring all actions is taken towards
objectives. Keeping discussion relevant.

 SUPPORTING
Expressing acceptance of persons and their contribution. Encouraging team /individuals.
Discipline team /individuals. Creating team spirit. Relieving tension with humour.
Reconciling disagreements or getting others to explore them.

 INFORMING
Clarifying task and play. Giving new information to the group, keeping them in the picture.
Receiving information from the group.

 EVALUATING
Checking feasibility of an idea. Testing the consequences of proposed solution. Evaluating
team performances. Helping team or individual to evaluate their own performance
against standards.