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Leadership: What Is It? - SAGE Publications Inc

11 John P. Kotter is the retired KonosukeMatsushitaProfessorof Leadershipat :WhatIsIt? Leadership: WhatIsIt? leadership is, most fundamentally,ab out cha nges. what leadersdo is createthesystemsand organizations that managers need,and, event ually, elevateth em upto a wh ole new lev el or ..chan ge in so me bas ic ways to take advantageof newoppo rt un itie s. John P. Kotte r1 Gary Yukl (2006) definesleadershipas t he processof inf lue ncing ot hers toun derst andand agre e about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the processof facili ta t-ing individualand coll ective efforts to accomplish sh ared ob jecti ves (p. 8). Pete rNorthouse(2010) definesleadershipas a process wherebyan ind ivi dual inf lue nce sagroupof in dividu als to achie ve a commongoal (p.)

Great Leadership Is Good Leadership Look into the soul of any great leader and you will find a good leader. But if only that were the case! Some leaders, those who crave and bathe in the spotlight, are in fact not so great. Others, who are highly effective (and modest) and possess the five key characteristics this

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Transcription of Leadership: What Is It? - SAGE Publications Inc

1 11 John P. Kotter is the retired KonosukeMatsushitaProfessorof Leadershipat :WhatIsIt? Leadership: WhatIsIt? leadership is, most fundamentally,ab out cha nges. what leadersdo is createthesystemsand organizations that managers need,and, event ually, elevateth em upto a wh ole new lev el or ..chan ge in so me bas ic ways to take advantageof newoppo rt un itie s. John P. Kotte r1 Gary Yukl (2006) definesleadershipas t he processof inf lue ncing ot hers toun derst andand agre e about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the processof facili ta t-ing individualand coll ective efforts to accomplish sh ared ob jecti ves (p. 8). Pete rNorthouse(2010) definesleadershipas a process wherebyan ind ivi dual inf lue nce sagroupof in dividu als to achie ve a commongoal (p.)

2 3). These defi nitionssuggestsev eral com po -nen ts centra lto the ph enomenonof lead ershi p. Some of them are as follows:(a )Le ade rshipis a proc ess, (b) leadershipinvolvesinfl ue ncing ot hers, (c) le adershiphappe ns within thecon text of a gr oup, (d) le ade rship involvesgoal attainment, and (e ) these goals are sharedby leadersand their fol lowe rs. The ver y act of def ining leadershipas a processsuggeststhatleadershipis not a characteristic or tr ait wi th which only a few ce rta in people are endo wedat birth. Defininglead er sh ip as apr ocess me an sthat leadershipis atransactionalevent tha thappensbetweenleadersand their foll ow in glead ers hip asaproce ss mea ns that leade rs affect and are affec ted by their fol low -ers either positively or ne stre sses that lead ership is a two-way,int erac tive even tbe tween leaders and follo wers rather than a linear, one-wayevent in which the leader affe ctsthe foll owe rs but no t vi ce versa.

3 De fining lead ership as a pro cess makes it availableto every -one notjust a select few whoare born with important,it means that leadership isnot restr icted to just the one person in a group who has formal pos it ion power ( , the for -mally appo inted leader).C H A P T E R5 CHAPTER1 Leadershipis ab out in fluenc e th eability to influenceyour subordinates,your peers,an d you r boss es in a work or organizationalcon text. Witho ut influence,it is imposs ibleto be a leader. Of cour se, hav ing in fluenc e means that there is a grea ter need on the partof leadersto exe rcis e their influenceet hic ope rate s in gro ups. This meansthat le adershipis abo ut influe nci ng agrou p of pe opl e who are en gage d in a com mon goal or purpos e.

4 This can be a smal l cen -ter for management development in a business schoo l with a sta ff of 4, a naval sh ip witha ship s companyof 300 (a destro yer) or 6,000 (an ai rcraft ca rrier), or a multinationalente rprise such as Starb ucks with mo re tha n 10,5 00 stores wor ldwideand in excess of100,000partne rs (emplo yees) . This defin ition of leade rs hi p pr ecludesthe inc lusion oflead ersh ip tr aining programsth at teach peopleto lead them selves .Le ader ship inc lude s the achi evementof goa ls. Therefore,leader ship is about directi ng agroup ofpeople towa rd the ac complishmentofata sk or the reachi ng of an endpointthroughva rious ethical ly based means.

5 Lead ers direc t th ei r en ergi es and the energiesof their fol low-er s to the achievement of somethingtogether for exampl e, hockeycoache s worki ng withth eir players to win a championship,to wi n thei r con ference ,to have a winni ng (better ) seaso n, or to have a better won lost perc entage th an last , lea dersh ipoccurs in, as well as affects, contextswhere people are movingin the direct ion of a go aders and follo we rs share objecti ves. Le ade rship me ans that le ad ers work with theirfollowersto achieve ob jectivesth at they all share. Establishing share dobject ives that leadersan d followerscan coalesce ar oun d is di fficult but wort h the effort.

6 Le ade rs who are willingto exp end tim e and effort in dete rminingappropriate goals wi ll find these goal s ach iev edmore ef fectivelyand ea sil yif fol low ers and le ader swork togethe r. Lead er-imposedgoa ls aregen erally ha rder and less effecti vel y ach ieve d than goals devel op ed this casebo ok, those who exerciseleadershipwill be re fer redto as leaders,while thosetow ard whom lea dershi p is exercisedwil l be refe rred to as fol low ers. Both are re quired forthere to be alea hin this process,both le aders and fol low ers have aneth -ica l responsibilityto atte nd to the needs and concernsof each oth er; however,be cause thiscasebookis about le ade rship, we wi ll focus more on the ethical responsibility of lea derstow ard their al ly, it needs to be said that leade rs are not bett er tha n follo we rs,no rare they abo ve foll owers.

7 On the con trary ,leade rs and followersare inte rtwinedin awaythat requiresthem to beunderstoodin their re lat ion ship wit heach othe rand as acollect ivebody of two or mor e people (Burn s, 197 8; Du brin, 2007; Hollan der, 1992) .In the previouspar agraphs, leadership has bee n defi ne d and the def initio na l aspe ct sof leader ship have been th e next few para graphs ,severalother issues relatedto the nat ure of leadership wil l be discussed:how trai t leadership is di fferent from lead -ership as a proces s, how eme rge nt and appoi nted leadershipare di fferent,and how co er -cion , pow er, and managementare differentfrom lea Ver sus Proces sStatementssuch as She is a bor n leader and He was born to lead imply a perspec tivetow ard le adershipthat is trai t based.

8 Yukl (2006) state s that the tr ai t app roach emphasizesleaders attributessuch as personal ity, mot ives, val ues, and skil ls. Underlyingthi s ap pro achwas the assu mptionthat some people ar e naturalleade rs, endo wed wi th certaintraits notposs essed by other peopl e (p. 13) . This is very dif ferent from describ ing lead ers hip as aproc ess. In essence,th e trai t vi ewpoi nt sugge sts that le adershipis inhe re nt in a few select2 CASESINLEADERSHIPC hapter1: leadership what Is It?3peopleand that leade rshi p is restrictedto only those few who have speci al talentswit hwhich they ar e bo rn (Yuk l, 2006). Some exampl es of traits are th e abili ty to speak well, anex troverted personality, or uniquephysical ch aracte ristics su ch as he ig ht (Bryman,1992).

9 Vi ew in g leadershipas a processimplies that le adershipis a ph enomenonthat is contextualan d sugge sts tha t eve ryone is capa ble of ex ercisin g le aders hip. This sugge st s th at leadershipcan be le arned and th at leadershipis obse rvable throughwh at leadersdo or ho w theybeh ave (Daft, 2005; Jago ,1982; Northouse, 2010).Assig ned VersusEmergentAs signed le ade rship is the appoin tmen t of people to forma l pos iti ons of authoritywith inan org ani ent leadership is th e exerci se of lea de rs hi p by one group memberbecauseof the ma nne r in which other gr oup me mb ers rea ct to him or her. Exa mples ofassignedlea ders hip are general mana gers of spor ts te ams , vic e presidentsof univ ersiti es,pl ant managers, the CEOs of hospitals,and th e executi ve directorsof nonprofit organiza-tion s.

10 In som e se ttings, it is possi ble that the personassi gn ed to a forma l lead ers hip posi -tion may not be the perso n to who m othe rs in the group look for leade rsh der ship is exhibit ed when othe rs perceivea pe rs on to be the most infl u-ential memberof their gro up or organization, reg ardlessof the person s assi gned form alpo sition. Eme rgent leadershipis exercisedwhe nother pe ople in the org anizat ion support,acce pt , and encour age that perso n s behavi or. This wa y of leadi ng does not oc cur when ape rs on is ap point ed to a formalpositionbu t emerg es over ti me throughpo sitiv e com -munic ati on be r (1974) sugg ested that some communicati on behavi or s th atexplai n eme rgent leade rship are verbal invo lvem ent, keepin g we ll informed,as kin g othergroup members for the ir opinions,be in gfirm but not rigi d, and the initi ati on of new andcompelling idea s (Fis her, 1974; Nort ho use, 201 0).


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