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Developing Stronger Leaders

Guest post by: Jesse Hopps

Article Overview: From an organizational perspective, leadership can be defined as: the ability to influence, motivate, and enable people to attain goals and contribute toward improving the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization. Use our Management & Leadership Maturity Assessment to evaluate your organization’s Management & Leadership Program Maturity.

Developing Stronger Leaders

Developing Stronger Leaders From an organizational perspective, leadership can be defined as: the ability to influence, motivate, and enable people to attain goals and contribute toward improving the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization. Use our Management & Leadership Maturity Assessment to evaluate your organization's Management & Leadership Program Maturity.

Why is developing strong leaders such a top priority?

Leaders initiate and sustain the cycles of organizational change. Without encouraging and inspirational leaders, organizations are fragmented, unaligned, and demoralized. Top companies recognize that they are only as successful as their next great leaders, and work to constantly groom and develop key staff.

In 1977, Abraham Zaleznik documented some of the key differences between leadership and management. He viewed leaders as inspiring visionaries who are interested in prospects; while managers he viewed as planners who are concerned more with processes.

Following in his path, Warren Bennis (1989) documented the leader/manager dichotomy to help organizations evaluate their key players.

Essential Leadership Qualities

Leaders	Managers
Power by Influence	Power by Position
Inspire Innovation	Manage Administration
Ask What and Why	Ask How and When
Focus on People	Focus on Systems/Processes
Do the Right Things	Do Things Right
Inspire Trust	Rely on Control
Long-term Perspective	Short-term Perspective
Develop	Maintain
Challenge the Status-Quo	Accept the Status-Quo
Eye on the Horizon	Eye on the Bottom-line
Originate	Imitate
Free Thinking	Rigid Thinking

Many studies have shown that there are common traits or qualities that most leaders share. Review the following list of qualities and evaluate yourself to identify your areas of strength and opportunities for self-improvement.

• Vision- the ability to articulate a vision and outline the gaps between the current state and future state.
• Confidence- outstanding leaders are confident, determined, and persistent with reaching their goals.
• Role Model- leading by example and setting the standard by demonstrating that goals are attainable.
• Flexibility- being able to quickly adapt and positively respond to changing conditions.
• Optimistic- leaders must have a positive attitude.
• Talent/Technical Skill- many leaders are selected because of their natural aptitude or ability to complete a specific task.
• Initiative & Drive- having enthusiasm to do the job and displaying entrepreneurial tendencies are vital qualities of effective leaders.
• Charisma- being attractive to others and leveraging this esteem to inspire and motivate others.
• Dedication and Commitment- being a top leader requires a firm commitment and can sometimes even consume much of the leader's life.
• Results-Oriented- actions are prioritized and directed at achieving personal and team goals & objectives.
• Able to Delegate- encouraging others to grow by sharing responsibilities and credit for a job well done.
• Self-Aware- accurate understanding of abilities.

Leadership Styles

This section will differentiate 6 key leadership styles and discuss when each style is appropriate.

• Visionary- this style builds positive momentum by motivating people to accomplish shared dreams. Visionary leadership is the most positive style, and is best used when organizational changes require a new vision or strategic direction.
• Coaching- is the process of aligning personal and corporate interests, such as earning commission by making sales. Coaching is a very positive method, appropriate when developing capabilities and skills.
• Affiliate- connecting people to each other can have a positive impact on culture, such as arranging a company volleyball team.
• Democratic- a democratic style, by nature, develops commitment by leveraging the ideas of the constituents and is useful for driving consensus, or gathering feedback from staff.
• Pacesetting- this works most effectively with a motivated and competent team. Leaders communicate challenging goals and build an environment of excitement. Often, this style has a negative impact on culture, especially when the leader is unable to implement this strategy properly. Set the pace when the engine is already running very smoothly.
• Commanding- this style can be effective when clear direction needs to be given to deal with an crisis or when a massive organizational change needs to be made.

The best leaders are able to seamlessly transition between styles as circumstances change. Work to understand each style and determine the appropriate time to pull it out of your leadership toolkit. Use our Management & Leadership Maturity Assessment to evaluate your organization's Management & Leadership Program Maturity.

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Article Tags: effectiveness and efficiency, management leadership program, maturity, organizational perspective



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