Chapter 1: What is leadership
Chapter 2: Trait Approach. Leadership theory and practice (7th ed.).
Northhouse, P.G (2016). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Page 19-40
💡 Chapter 3: Skills Approach. Leadership theory and practice (7th ed.).
Northhouse, P.G (2016). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Page 43-69
Self test: Leadership Traits Questionaire. Introduction to Leadership –
concepts and practice (4th ed.) Northhouse, P.G (2018). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage. Page 89-91
Who is a leader?
Leader is a person who “knows the way (vision) - goes the way (have enough power to do), - shows the way
What is leadership
If leader is a person, then Leadership is the process (start with the big picture and then try to persuade people
believe in the goals
the effort to influence others to behave with enthusiasm and diligence to contribute voluntarily to the
achievement of group tasks in a given situation.
process of influencing people and providing an environment for them to achieve team or organizational
objectives.
is a process (process implies that a leader affects and is affected by followers)
💡 involves influence
occurs within a group context (involve >2 people)
involves goal attainment (or attention to common goals)
Trait Process Leadership
Personal characteristics Journey, require accumulation of things (learning,
naturally born with confidence, intelligence (height, knowledge,…)
intelligence, extraversion, fluency, ..)
Assigned Emergent
Not the energy or ambition as the volunteer one. individual naturally gains influence within a group based
→ based on formal title/ position in org on skills, competence, personality, gender-biased
perception
Leadership Power
leader use power for organizational common goal if you got influence you got power → power is
influenced → everyone all got power → how people use
power for personal use
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position power: individuals derives from having a
title (legitimate, reward)
personal power: comes from followers and include
referent + expert power
Leadership Coercion
using influence towards a common goal use force to effect change → do sth against will, may
include manipulating penalties and rewards
interested in own goals, seldom interested in the
wants and needs of followers
Leadership Management
sometimes got title, sometimes not always the the title
leader creates vision + strategies managers create plans + budget
visions: a sensible and appealing picture of the plan: specific step and timetables to implement the
future strategies
strategies: a logic for how the vision can be budgets: plans converted into financial projections
achieved and goals
leader + management similar in many ways: involves influence, entails working with people, gaol accomplishment
💡
first line manager: work directly with the staff can be team leader
middle manager: head of dept/ facl in charge of communicating btw first line - top manager
top manager: C-level: in charge of strategy of the organization
💡
LEADER BORN OR MADE?
⇒ Better both: If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader + Good leaders
develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience.
5 levels of leadership
1. Position - the level of RIGHTS
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follow bcs they Have to | you have positional leadership, you are the boss | they don’t have a choice, have have to
follow, whether they want your leadership or not ⇒ your influence will not extend beyond the line your JD
2. Permission - the level of relationships
People follow bcs they want to follow you. they believe in you. they trust you. they don’t have to, but they want to
follow you.
People will follow you beyond your stated authority. this levels allow work to be fun
3. Production - the level of results
follow bcs what you have done for the organization
believe with your leading will lead the org to success
make them believe they will succeed
This is where success is sensed by most people. They like you and what you are doing. Problems are fixed with
very little effort bcs of momentum
4. People development - the level of reproduction
people follow bcs of what you have done for them, what’s in it for them | people appreciate what they learn
This is where long-range growth occurs, your commitment is developing leaders will ensure ongoing growth to the
org and to people. Do whatever you can to achieve and stay on this level.
5. Personhood - the level of respect
people follow because of who you are and what you represent → Your VALUES
this step is reserved for leaders who have spent years growing people and org
Trait approach
Leadership traits and characteristics - Traditional studies
Major leadership traits
1. Emotional intelligence: perceiving, assimilating, understanding and regulating emotions
2. Integrity: Truthfulness + take responsibility for their actions + adhere to a set of principles
3. Leadership motivation (have strong desire to become a leader): high need for socialized power to accomplish
team’s or firms’s goals
4. Self-confidence: Certainty about one’s own competencies and skills. High self-efficacy regarding ability to lead
others
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5. Intelligence (intellectual ability): Above average cognitive ability + Can analyze problems/ opportunities
6. Determination: Desire to get the job done + includes Initiative, persistence, dominance and
drive
8. Knowledge of the Business: familiar with business environment + aids in intuitive decision making
9. Sociability: friendly, outgoing, courteous, tactful and diplomatic + good interpersonal skills and cooperative
relationship (show concern for follower’s wellbeing)
Strengths
intuitively appealing: focus exclusively on the followers/ or the situation
Provide some benchmark for what we need to look for if we want to be a leader
Criticism
fails to establish the definitive lost of leadership
may result in highly subjective determinations of the most important leadership traits
fail to look at a trait in relationship to leadership outcomes
some traits are innate and cannot be trained or developed
Skills approach
The skills approach takes a leader-centered perspective on leadership
Shift from personality characteristics (innate and relatively fixed) to an emphasis on skills and abilities that can be
learned and developed
Three - skill approach
Leadership skills are defined as the ability to use one’s knowledge and competencies to accomplish a set of goals
Skills are what a leader can accomplish, whereas traits are who leaders are innate characteristics
(According to Katz), effective administration depends on 3 basic personal skills
1. Technical skill
Technical skill is having knowledge about and being proficient in a specific type of work or activity.
Technical skills requires competencies in a specialized area, ability, and the ability to use appropriate tools
and techniques
eg: in a computer software company, technical skill includes knowing software language and programming, the
comp’s software products, how to make these products functions for clients
⇒ deal with things
2. Human skill
Is having knowledge about and being able to work with people
Are the abilities that help a leader to work effectively with subordinates, peers, and superiors to successfully
accomplish the organization’s goals
Characteristic behaviors
sensitivity to other’s ideas, needs, and motivations
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adaptability of one’s own ideas
creation of an atmosphere of trust
⇒ deal with people: being sensitive to the needs and motivations of others and taking into account others’ needs
in one’s decision making.
3. Conceptual skill
Conceptual skills are abilities to work with ideas and concepts.
Deal with ideas.
Conceptual skills are central to creating a vision and strategic plan for an organization.
CEO articulates a vision for a line of new products that would steer the comp into profitability
(e.g: use the most influential person to motivate people)
Models of leadership skills
Administrative skills
Administrative skills refer to those competencies a leader needs to run an organization in order to carry out the
organization’s purposes and goals. These involve planning, organizing work, assigning the right tasks to the right
people, and coordinating work activities (Mann, 1965)
Administrative skills are divided into three specific sets of skills: (1) managing people, (2) managing resources, and (3)
showing technical competence.
Interpersonal skills
Interpersonal skills are people skills—those abilities that help a leader to work effectively with followers, peers,
and superiors to accomplish the organization’s goals.
Interpersonal skills are divided into three parts: (1) being socially perceptive, (2) showing emotional intelligence,
and (3) managing interpersonal conflicts.
socially perceptive: understand other ideas
emotional intelligence include: motivation, empathy, self awareness, social skills
Conceptual skills
Whereas administrative skills are about organizing work, and interpersonal skills are about dealing effectively with
people, conceptual skills are about working with concepts and ideas.
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Conceptual skills involve the thinking or cognitive aspects of leadership and are critical to such things as creating
a vision or strategic plan for an organization.
A leader with conceptual skills is able to conceive and communicate the ideas that shape an organization from its
goals and mission to how to best solve problems.
Conceptual skills for leaders can be divided into three parts: (1) problem solving, (2) strategic planning, and (3)
creating vision.
⇒ Most important for top managers
The model is characterized as a capability model bcs it examines the relationship btw a leaders’s knowledge and skills - leader’s perf
Skills model
(problem-solving, social judgment, knowledge are at the heart of skills models)
💡
* individual attributes: attributes coming from the individual. They are attributes to their competencies.
competencies thanks to their general cognitive ability, crystallized cognitive (accumulated over time);
motivation: determine the level of your competency; personality: determine your competencies
* competencies: involve subtypes: problem -solving (), social judgement (), knowledge (
* leadership outcomes : employee perf, problem solving
Genius factor:
Individual attributes
1. General cognitive ability: person’s intelligence + linked to biology not experience
described as fluid intelligence - expands through adulthood, declines with age
2. Crystalized cognitive ability: intellectual ability learned + acquired over time → stay stable over time
3. Motivation: willing to tackle problems + dominance to exert their influence + social good of the org
4. Personality: has impact on development of leadership skills
Competencies
1. Problem solving: creative ability to solve new unusual, ill defined org problems
2. Social judgement: how you see other people ideas and how you adapt to other people’s ideas
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3. Knowledge: accumulation of infor and the mental structure used to organize that info
Leadership outcomes
1. Effective problem solving: determined by the originality + quality of expressed solutions to problems
2. Performance: reflects how well leader has done job
Career experience
influence their knowledge + skills to solve complex problems
Environmental influences
internal: factors within the org (tech, facilities, expertise of subordinates, communication)
external: economic, political, social issues, natural disasters
skills approach can be identifies but can not developed: describes leadership from a skills perspective:
💡 Rather than providing prescriptions for success in leader- ship, the skills approach provides a structure for
understanding the nature of effective leadership.
Chapter 1: What is leadership 7