Leadership

Definition

“Leadership is the process of interactive influence that occurs when, in a given context, some people accept someone as their leader to achieve common goals.” (Silva, 2016)

“A process in which one or more group members are permitted to influence and motivate others to help attain group goals.” (Smith et al., 2015: 425)

Framework

• leader
• leadership behavior
• led employees
• leadership success

Measurement

• how to measure if you are a good leader?
• given a team of sufficient skills, how fast can you reach a goal
• and
• how many people follow you to which degree

Styles

task oriented

• is a task done?
• is the group coordinated?
• does the group have all the information they need?

relationship oriented

• wait for decision of group
• make sure people work well together
• promote communication over content

others

• transactional
  • set clear short-term goals with clear benefits/rewards
  • make things run smoothly
• transformational
  • focus on common, long-term goals
  • think outside the box
• not mutually exclusive
• not dependent on personal traits

universal traits

• team-orientation
• charisma

effectiveness

• depending if the style is fitting the situation
  • control, context, etc
  • low (assembly line) and high (creative work) control over work situations task-oriented style is best
  • medium control over work situation is relationship-oriented style best

Components

Stereotypes

• talkativeness
  • information is not important, just frequency
• dominance & assertiveness
  • nonverbal signs included
• embodiment of group stereotypes

Theories

Good Person Theory

• leaders are born, not made
• it is wrong*
  • not quite wrong, but the correlation is only 0.3, so rather weak
  • IQ is also only 0.27 correlated #wontfix what is the correct/currently correct theory

Destructive Leadership

• effects of bad/destructive leadership
  • members withdraw from the group
  • stronger intention to quit
  • lower job satisfaction, commitment, motivation, performance
  • counterproductive behavior (resistance, aggression)
  • high cost (loss of productivity, sickness, absenteeism)
  • increased stress, negative health impact
• in military: life and death decisions mishandled resulting in more deaths than necessary

Culture vs Leadership

Introduce a new and diverse Leader

• start with communication, not with content
• hype the new hire, regardless of age, origin, etc
  • negative traits will be attributed anyways, add just positives
• express support from everyone else for the new hire
• explain the reasons why the new hire was picked
  • worst: we picked her just because she is a woman
    • problem is not the statement, but the selection process
• first introduce the new leader to present hierarchies and modes of operation
  • worst is new leader has to ask for how things work