Introduction To Leadership 101

By: RG Valerio
Senior Faculty, Graduate Programs
School of Management & Accountancy (SMA)
Ateneo de Zamboanga University
A. Backgrounder
The world of Leadership is undergoing a “revolution”. The era of learning
organizations has begun, and demands on leaders go well beyond the ideas
traditionally taught in courses on management and human behavior. In the
past, nobody, and even formal education, does not “teach” leadership. The
nearest thing that one can learn about “leadership” is when one takes a
Management Course or when one attends a Training on Leadership! And
even in the various Management Degree Programs of many, many colleges
and universities, here and abroad, there is no specific subject course that
deals mainly on the study of Leaders and Leadership. This is rightly so
because traditionally Leadership is considered as one of the functional
elements of Management --- Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling!
But after several decades of research, studies, and trying to analyze and
understand “what makes a leader tick”, many management authors, gurus
and practitioners concluded that Leadership is distinct and separate from
Management. Management is not the same as Leadership although they are
synonymous they differ in many of their ways and practices among others in
their ways of relating to followers, in creating change, in their setting of
directions, etc.
Notwithstanding the acceptance that Management and Leadership
are two distinct areas of studies and practices, many educational
institutions are still sticking to the traditional offerings and are
leaving students --- both at the Tertiary and Graduate levels ----- to
study Leadership on their own through readings, trainings, seminars
and/or workshops! There are very few Post-Graduate Programs that
include the topic of Leadership as one of the core or basic subjects to
be taken.
The organization of this subject course has been largely influenced by
the approach to Leadership as prescribed by Professor John Kotter of
Harvard University in his books – 1) The Leadership Factor; A Force
for Change: How Leadership Differ from Management, and 2)
Leading Change. Consider yourselves lucky then to have been one of
the very few to undergo this subject course that integrates timely
concepts and models from Leadership Theory with practical
application in the real world to provide an up-to-date valuable
resource on Leadership.
B. Objective(s) of the Course
One of the purposes of the course then is to create
awareness and thus appreciation on the part of the students
about the Principles and Dynamics of Leadership and
Development. In addition, GOVERNANCE, in general, is very
much aligned with Leadership. Especially in the Public Sector,
many, many of our Political Leaders, are really CONFUSED (to
say the least) about these matters – are they “Managing” or
are they “Leading”? Worse, many of them do not care if they
do “Lead” or “Manage”!
The terminal objective of the course is to develop the student
into a way of thinking about LEADERSHIP, especially in the
Public Sector. That it is distinct yet interchangeably used and
goes hand in hand with Management. But their processes are
definitely different!
C. Coverage
Because the subject course is offered for the second time in
the Special MA-GaD Program, we will follow a seven (7) steps
or parts in discussing PDLD. However, a direction is set so that
at the end of the course work, an evaluation can be made.
Thus, the following are prescribed in their order:
1. Introduction To Leadership/Diagnostic Review
2. Research Perspective on Individual Leadership
3. Leader as a Visionary (Setting Decisions)
4. Leader as a Social Architect (Aligning Culture,
People, and Structure)
5. Leader As a Relationship Builder
6. The Personal Side of Leadership
7. Leading Change and Transformation
D. Nature of Leadership
Before we can examine what makes an effective leader, we need to
know what leadership means.
Leadership has been a topic of much interest to historians and
philosophers since ancient times, but it was only around the turn of
the 19th century that scientific studies and researches began. Since that
time, writers and scholars, and other practitioners have offered no less
than 350 definitions of the term “Leadership”, one prominent author,
Sociologist Max Weber has concluded that “Leadership is one of the
most studied, observed, and discussed but least understood
phenomena on earth.” Defining leadership has been a complex and
elusive problem largely because the nature of leadership itself is
complex. Some have even opined that leadership is nothing more than
a “romantic myth”, perhaps based in the false hope that someone will
come along and solve the problem by force. In recent years though,
much progress has been made in understanding the essential nature of
leadership as a real and powerful influence on organizations and
societies.
If we stop equating leadership with “greatness” and “high and mighty” or
even “moneyed or wealthy” including public visibility, it becomes easier
to see our own opportunities for leadership and recognize the
“leadership” of ordinary people we interact and relate with every day in
our lives!
Consider the following:
a. In the early 1990s, a small but determined group of “political
outsiders” met in Washington, D.C. and began a campaign to BAN LAND
MINES. The group, spurred by Robert Muller, a Marine veteran who lost
the use of his legs during the Vietnam War, seemed to have little chance
of influencing anyone at all. Yet six (6) years later, 100 governments signed
a treaty that outlaws land mines and requires countries to clean up those
already sown. In 1997, the Novel Peace Prize was awarded to the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a coalition of organizations
from about 60 countries. Today, the UN is leading the campaign and more
than 200 countries have already signed up and the coalition increased in
number and resources. Unfortunately, Robert Muller did not leave to see
his effort blossomed into a worldwide campaign!
 b. Several years ago, hundreds of unarmed
residents of a farming municipality somewhere in
North Luzon stormed the local police station after
officials had refused to search for a missing child
who was later on found by villagers, raped and
strangled, and left in a secluded ravine. The siege
ended only when the Provincial Governor agreed to
replace the entire police force, with the villagers
agreeing that the Provincial Governor choose the
next Police Chief. Obviously these events could not
have happened without leadership, and yet no one
stepped forward to claim the title of “Leader”. And
no one was able to specifically state who had
provided the leadership for this initiative!
 C. When Jeffrey Davis moved to Tennessee and offered
to volunteer at the local Nashville Animal Humane Care
Association, no one ever called him for help --- the
organization was understaffed and overwhelmed that it
didn’t know how to take advantage of the many people
wanting to donate their time. Davis took it upon himself to
organize a truly useful volunteer program. He created a
database of people willing to volunteer, redesigned forms,
computerized the mailing list, developed volunteer training,
and even designed a Web page. The Association now
regularly uses volunteers to do everything from cleaning
smelly cages of pets to taking puppies into nursing home for
pet therapy, etc!
Obviously, at the time that a “Leader” was needed, a Leader
emerged and got the “job” done. And then, that somebody
merged into the background again and was lost in anonymity.
 D. A young graduate student living on a busy street in
Antipolo City, was awakened one Sunday morning by the
sound of a car crash. People had complained for years
about cars passing by at great speed because of a long
tempting hill with no traffic lights or stops signs to slow
their progress, but no effort had ever been made to change
things. The record of traffic accidents and vehicular
mishaps was one of the highest in Metro Manila. Despite
her heavy class load and a part-time job, the student
spearheaded a mass campaign in her neighborhood that
ultimately resulted in the City Government putting a stop
sign and traffic lights in the area that significantly reduced
speeding and traffic accidents!
Obviously, the student provided the “leadership” in the
campaign for such changes in her neighborhood!
There are opportunities all around that involve
influence and change toward a shared future.
Without leadership, families, communities, and
organizations, will fall apart. The leaders of
tomorrow’s organizations will come from
anywhere and everywhere, just as they always
have.
Leadership is an everyday way of acting and
thinking that has little to do with a title or
formal position in an organization.
This is the nature of leadership, this is in essence
what leadership is!!
E. Definition of Leadership
Leadership studies are an emerging discipline
and the concept of leadership will continue to
evolve. For purposes of this class, we will try to
focus on the definition that delineates the
essential elements of leadership process.
LEADERSHIP is an INFLUENCE RELATIONSHIP
among LEADERS and FOLLOWERS who intend
REAL CHANGES that reflect their SHARED
PURPOSES.
The key elements in this definition are
summarized as follows:
Leadership Involves:

Influence Intention

Personal
Followers Responsi-
LEADER bility

Shared
Purposes CHANGE
Influence - means that the relationship among people is not
passive, however, also inherent in the definition is the
concept that influence is multidirectional and non-coercive. It
is something a leader does to a follower. It is reciprocal.
In most organizations, superiors influence subordinates, but
subordinates also influence superiors! The people involved in
the relationship want substantive changes – leadership
involves creating change, not maintaining the status quo.
The changes sought are not “dictated” by leaders but reflect
purposes shared by leaders and followers. Almost always, the
changes is toward an outcome that leader and majority of
the followers both want, a desired future or shared purpose
that motivates them toward this more preferred outcome.
THUS, LEADERSHIP INVOLVES THE INFLUENCE OF PEOPLE TO
BRING ABOUT CHANGE TOWARD A DESIRABLE FUTURE!
Leadership is a people activity and is distinct from
administrative paperwork or planning activities or other
managerial functions. It occurs among people, it is not
something done to people. Since it involves people, there
must be followers! An individual performer who achieves
excellence as a scientist, as a musician, as a basketball player
or whosoever may be a “top guy” in their field of expertise,
but is not a LEADER as defined for purposes of this class
unless there are followers! Followers are important part of
the leadership process, and LEADERS ARE SOMETIMES
FOLLOWERS, TOO! Good leaders know how to follow, and
they set an example for others.
The issue of intention or will means the people --- leader and
followers --- are actively involved in the pursuit of change
toward a desired future. Each person takes Personal
Responsibility to achieve the desired future.
One stereotype thinking is that leaders are somehow
different, that they are above others, however, in reality,
the qualities needed for effective leadership are the same
as those needed to be an effective follower.
Effective followers think for themselves and carry out
assignments with energy and enthusiasm. They are
committed to something outside their own self-interest,
and they have the courage to stand up for what they
believe. Good followers are not “yes people” who blindly
follow a leader. Effective leaders and effective followers
may sometimes be the same people, playing different
roles at different times. At its best, leadership is shared
among leaders and followers, with everyone fully
engaged and accepting higher levels of responsibility.
The New Reality for Today’s Organizations
The world today is undergoing a change more profound and
far reaching than anyone experienced since the dawn of the
modern age and the scientific revolution. Just as society
was altered irrevocably in the transition from the agrarian
to the industrial age, emerging events are changing the
ways we interact with one another in our personal and
professional lives. Rapid environmental changes are causing
fundamental transformations that have a dramatic impact
on organizations and present new challenges for leadership.
These transformations represents a shift from traditional to
a new paradigm. A PARADIGM is a shared mind-set that
represents a fundamental way of thinking about, perceiving
and understanding our world.
Some New “Realities” For Leadership:

Old Paradigm New Paradigm

Industrial Age Information Age
Stability Change
Control Empowerment
Competition Collaboration
Things People & Relationships
Uniformity Diversity
1. Cherishing Stability vs. Valuing Change
It is human nature to desire stability in our lives. The idea of
order was conceptualized as a
“chain of being”, a natural ladder that linked all divine and
earthly elements; people knew where they fit in the scheme
of things. This idea of “a place for everything, and everything
is in its place” is a powerful and comforting one, but it no
longer fits today’s reality.
The world today is in constant motion. It is characterized by
disorder than by order, and organizations suffer when their
leaders cherish stability.
In the past, many leaders assumed that if they could just keep
things running on a steady, even keel, the organization would
be successful. Maintaining stability was considered a cost-
saving and energy-efficient way of doing things, and change
was perceived to disrupt operations and exhaust resources.
However, all one has to do is look around to know that change is
really inevitable. It actually takes tremendous energy and
resources to try to keep things stable! We live in a complex
world characterized by randomness and uncertainty and often
times small events have massive and far-reaching consequences.
The system of life – and for that matter, of organizations --- is
fluid, dynamic, and potentially self-renewing.
Today’s leaders should learn to “go with the flow”, to accept the
inevitability of constant change and recognize change itself as a
potential source of energy. They should see change as an
opportunity for something better, and they should cherish not
stability but on-going development of individual workers and of
the organization itself. Beyond accepting change , they should
embrace and create it, realizing that the benefits associated
with stability are a myth, that when things do not change, they
die!
2. From Control to Empowerment
Leaders in powerful positions once thought that workers should be told what
to do, how to do it, when and where to do it, and who to do it with. They
believed that strict control is needed for the organization to function
efficiently and effectively. Rigid organizational hierarchies, structured job and
work processes, and detailed, inviolate procedures, let everyone know that
those at the top had power and those at the bottom had none. But in today’s
situation, this is becoming more and more invalid.
Empowerment has become a worldwide phenomenon. One can hear these in
radios and news, view these in TVs and interviews, and recognizes that
power is being diffused both within and among countries more than ever.
People are demanding empowerment and participation in their lives,
including their work, and the emphasis on control and rigidity serves to
squelch motivation and morale rather than produced desired results.
Today’s leaders should share power rather than hoard it and find ways to
increase an organization’s brain power by getting everyone in the
organization involved and committed. One reason for this is that knowledge
and information, not buildings and machines, have become the primary form
of capital.
No longer can organizations afford to have workers’ “check
their minds off” at the door or gates of their workplaces.
Success depends on the intellectual capacity of all
employees, and leaders have to face the fact --- that
buildings and machines can be owned, people cannot! In the
new paradigm, leaders should recognize that empowerment
is a moral imperative. By the way, empowerment does not
mean that those from the high above are graciously handing
down power, but that power rightfully belongs to everybody
in the organization. In fact, one of the most challenging jobs
is to guide workers in using their own power effectively and
responsibly in creating and developing a climate of respect
and development for all employees, POWER LIES MORE IN
THE STRENGTH AND QUALITY OF RELATIONSHIPS RATHER
THAN IN TITLES, POLICIES, AND PROCEDURES.
3. From Competition to Collaboration
The move to empowerment also ties directly into new ways of working
that emphasize collaboration over competition and conflict. Competition
can be healthy for an organization, but ideas about the nature of
competition are changing. Rather than a struggle to win while someone
else loses, organizations and individuals direct their competitive energy
toward being the best they can be. Compromise becomes a sign of
strength, not weakness. Within organizations, self-directed teams and
other forms of horizontal collaboration are eliminating the boundaries
between departments and helping to spread knowledge throughout the
organization.
In addition, there is a growing trend toward reducing boundaries and
increasing collaboration with other organizations, so that companies think
of themselves as teams that create value jointly rather than as
autonomous entities in competition with all others.
The move to collaboration presents greater challenges to leaders, not only
in the business world but as well as in the public sector, than did the old
concept of competition.
Within the organizations, leaders will need to create an
environment of teamwork and community spirit that fosters
collaboration and mutual respect. The call for empowerment
combined with an understanding of organizations as part of a fluid,
dynamic, interacting system, makes the use of intimidation and
manipulation obsolete as a means of driving the competitive spirit.

4. From Things To Relationship

The increase in collaboration both within and among organizations
reflects another fundamental transformation – a shift from an
emphasis on things to an emphasis on relationships.
Most of the existing ideas about organizations and leadership are
based on the traditional paradigm that treats the world as a
“machine” that can be taken apart and examined piece by piece –
every object can be identified, described, and measured. Broken
parts can be fixed or replaced and everything keeps running
smoothly.
This paradigm has translated into a view of organizations as a
conglomeration of “things”.
The new paradigm, however, takes its cue from quantum
physics and ecology, which tell us that the same phenomena
can be understood only in relation to other phenomena, and
that everything is connected to everything else! The world is
perceived as a complex, dynamic system where reality lies
not on discrete parts, but in the relationships among them.
Thus, leaders will have to look at their “reality” in a whole
new light. Rather than operating on a “yes-or-no”, black and
white basis, they will learn to deal with the gray areas – the
nuances, subtleties, and possibilities inherent in relationships.
Rather than focusing on segments, they will focus on the
whole. The dominant image of the organization will not be as
a “machine” but as a living system or a web of interaction.
When we think about our personal lives, we have
little difficulty understanding that we act and feel
differently depending on the situation – who we are
with, what we are doing, etc. Yet transferring this
understanding to the organization may be one of the
greatest challenges for leaders of tomorrow. Whereas
objects are concrete and unchanging, relationships
are intangible and ever-shifting. It is somehow
comfortable to conceptualize the organization as a
“machine” where leaders only have to keep it oiled
for it to continue on running smoothly. The reality for
today and the decades to come is much more
challenging and much more interesting!
5. From Uniformity To Diversity
Many of today’s organizations were built on assumptions of uniformity,
separation, and specialization. People think alike, act alike, and have
similar job skills are grouped into a department, such as Accounting or
Production, separate from the others in the organization. Homogenous
groups find it easy to get along, communicate, and understand one
another. The uniform thinking, however, can be a disadvantage in a
world becoming more multi-cultural and diverse.
The world is rapidly moving toward diversity at the national and
international levels. In most first world countries, roughly 45 percent of
all net additions to the labor force for the next few years will be non-
white --- half of these are going to be first generation immigrants, mostly
from Asian and Latin countries. Almost 60 percent will be female. This is
the projections. Many businesses and industries are finding they can
succeed only by marketing and selling on a global scale. Hence, they
need multi-national business operations. Bringing diversity into the
organization is the way to attract the best human talent and to develop
an organizational mind-set broad enough to thrive in a multi-national
world.
Leadership Is Not Automatic
As the world changes, organizations are beginning to
change in response. Many leaders are caught between
the practices and principles of the industrial era and
the emerging principles of the post-modern world.
Attempt to achieve teamwork, empowerment, and
diversity in organization may fail because leaders as
well as workers beliefs and thought processes are still
stuck in the old paradigm that values control, stability,
and homogeneity. Many leaders and managers too
often want to treat people the way they treat
“machines” or the bottom line! But the new paradigm
asks for a more enlightened approach.
Top Seven (7) Reasons For Executive Derailment:
1. Insensitive, abrasive, intimidating, bullying
style
2. Cold, Aloof, Arrogant
3. Betrayal of Personal Trust
4. Overly Ambitious, self-centered, thinking
of next job, playing “politics”
5. Specific Performance Problems with the
Business
6. Over-managing, unable to delegate or
build a team
7. Unable to select good subordinates
The Leader Within

Teamwork, cooperation, empowerment, employee initiative, and

commitment to quality and service cannot be decreed, they are
released from within the hearts and minds of workers throughout
the organization. To prosper today, organizations need leaders who
can find within themselves the capacity to run an organization. In a
complex, rapidly changing environment, it is frequently the
absence of a sense of purpose that causes organization to flounder
and employees to lack commitment and enthusiasm. One of the
primary jobs of the leader is to find the capacity to help create a
vision of what the organization can be and what it stands for.
Rather than keeping things as they are, leadership requires
imagining, and then creating, what is not. It requires the ability to
think creatively, to listen creatively, to change cultures, and to build
commitment to the vision. It requires the courage to take risks,
accept responsibility, and to let go and trust others.
Today’s Management-Leadership Mix
Leadership
M Weak Strong
a
n
a STRONG Too Many Almost None
g
e
m
e WEAK Too Many Too Few
n
t
Leadership can be learned. Most people are not
born with natural leadership skills, but
leadership can be learned by first becoming
conscious of leadership qualities and then
building personal competence through practical
experience.
This is all for now……

Thank you for listening……..

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat…