Identifying and Using Your Personal Leadership Strengths The Leaders Within Us Identifying and Using Your Personal Leadership Strengths

Leadership . . . Is a process Involves influence Occurs in groups Includes attention to goals

Leadership as a Process Traits – set of properties Skills or style – contextual & learned

Major Leadership Traits Intelligence Self-confidence Determination Integrity Sociability

Leadership Traits Exercise & Inventory Now it’s your turn! Leadership Traits Exercise & Inventory

How does the trait approach work at work? Designated leadership profiles “Fit” Selecting “right” people will increase organizational effectiveness Personal awareness and development

Strengths & Weaknesses of Trait Approach Intuitively appealing – leader image 100 years of research & data Focus on leaders Provides benchmarks No definitive set of traits Doesn’t take situation into account Doesn’t focus on outcomes (e.g. Do leaders with x traits have better results?) Not helpful for training & development

What About Skills? Skills approach – similar to traits Leader-centered Long history Distinctive from Trait approach Focuses on what can be learned Focuses on knowledge & abilities vs. solely on personality

Research on Effective Leaders Leaders solve organizational problems Leaders utilize skills in problem-solving Leaders can learn these skills Classic research study (Katz, 1955) Technical Skill Human Skill Conceptual Skill

Technical Skill Proficiency in specific type of work or activity Competencies & analytical abilities Often “hands on” & involved in production

Human Skill Knowledge & ability to work with people Work with peers, supervisees, & supervisors to achieve organization’s goals Awareness of own & others’ perspectives & needs Creates atmosphere of trust

Conceptual Skill Ability to work with ideas & concepts Put organizational goals into words Works with abstract ideas or hypothetical situations to shape policy Central to vision & planning for organization

Leadership Skills inventory Again, it is YOUR turn! Leadership Skills inventory

Strengths & Weaknesses of Skills Approach Leader-centered & process oriented Intuitively appealing – democratic Expansive & far reaching Consistent with leadership education criteria Too broad – moves beyond leadership Weak in predictive value Research was based on military personnel – can this be generalized to all leaders?

How About Style? Trait = personality Skills = capabilities Style = actions Task behaviors Relationship behaviors

Task & Relationship Behaviors Setting goals Accomplishing goals Helping team meet objectives Help team feel comfortable Facilitate atmosphere of respect Facilitate atmosphere of trust

Which style is best? High relationship High task Important to look at how the two are integrated

Leadership Grid Blake & Moulton (1985); Blake & McCanse (1991) Country Club Team Management Management (1,9) (9,9) Middle-of-the-Road Management (5,5) Impoverished Authority-Compliance (1,1) (9,1)

Style Approach Inventory Again, it is YOUR turn! Style Approach Inventory

Strengths & Weaknesses of the Style Approach Shift focus on leaders’ behaviors Significance of task & relationship components Allows assessment of leadership dimensions Does not link behaviors to performance outcomes Implies that high task, high relationship is best, but this is not always the case

Other theories: Situational Contingency Path-Goal Leader-Member Exchange Transformational Team Psychodynamic Ethical Servant …and many more

One last example: Contingency Theory Good LM Relations Poor LM Relations High Task Structure Low Task Structure Strong Power Weak Power 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Middle to High Task High Relationship High Relation-ship High Task

What does this mean for YOUR leadership? So What ???

Questions / Comments?