BASICS OF LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND QUALITIES, BUSINESS AND EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP EXAMPLES

(Based on author’s site www.geocities.com/ldrsp)

Leadership qualities matter in business, in education. Yet the doctoral student can’t find information on leadership skills. If the discipline isn’t leadership she has to cry for help: What’re leadership qualities?! Others would like to know too what are the personal qualities of leadership! Business leadership is important. Educational leadership is in demand. But, what are leadership skills, qualities?

Reason for Leadership

Interest they have in business or educational leadership. Perhaps also leadership qualities. Knowledge of what is leadership, not. If they see a worker a few times resting who routinely unloads, sorts, stacks, rests, repeats, he is lazy. That’s not good leadership! If leadership qualities or skills are lacking it causes annoyance, loss of production.

Need for Leadership

Leadership in education or business are acquirable skills.

In Britain there is confusion on what is leadership. The Department of Employment has publications on how to train, e.g., supervisors. Yet even supervision are known to have been deemed by the Training & Enterprise Councils to be an inherent quality, by the Employment Tribunals with members from the Trades Union Congress and the Confederation of British Industry not an acquirable skill. In the USA the position is not dissimilar.

Leadership qualities aren’t the same as leadership skills.

There are exceptional ‘born leaders’, extraordinary circumstances calling for inherent leadership qualities for exceptional motivation with no apparent incentives. But routine administration, business leadership or educational leadership demand only professional acquirable skills.

Leadership qualities are different than leadership skills.

Popularity in Leadership

Approaches to administrative leadership differ. Business leadership strategies vary. Educational leadership policies change. So do leadership skills. The value of leadership qualities never change.

Leadership is about people. Good leadership is popularity based. A French emperor called his soldiers his children, after a defeat again raised volunteer armies. A popular Scottish preacher got nominated for the US senate.

Leadership qualities are inherent. But leadership skills often suffice. Both involve popularly interesting people.

Popularity aids leadership qualities. It helps leadership skills. So in business or educational leadership.

What is Leadership?

Charisma alone it isn’t. Nor is it love, care, perseverance that enables popularity in successful leadership. It is also an interest in understanding the human nature, knowing what motivates. That is the basis of leadership.

A car plant boss praises the night shift’s work, the day shift competes for equal pride, production increases.

A congressional medal, the offer to be Education Secretary, a biographical movie for a Chicago school teacher who enabled exam. success for eleven pupils was because she could get from them what an education authorities’ educational leadership skills couldn’t.

Personal Qualities of Leadership

Depending on approaches, business and educational leadership classifications vary. Basically all leadership are of two kinds: leadership and exceptional leadership.

The former is leaderships skills; acquired, ordinarily, routinely at work: e.g., leadership in education, business.

The latter is based on inherent leadership qualities. It enables exceptional motivation with incentives hardly perceptible in extreme inappetence. It is the most rare extraordinary leadership, enhanced by the most exceptional leader’s charisma, communication ability, wit, trustworthiness, with much philosophical, sociological, psychological insight, high logical reasoning ability, the vision, heroic courage, love, care, dedication, passion of rational sensible idealism, sacrifice in time, effort. This ‘moves mountains’; be it leadership in education, culture, religion, politics, business, it reforms: socially and historically visibly, lastingly, memorably changes established culture, life styles, society.

Exceptional leadership, business or educational or other -in one field or more, of historical noteworthiness demands personal qualities, for it begins with popularity that is not coerced but is by virtue of, irrespective of wealth or position, at personal level earned and deserved trust and faith in the genuineness, sincerity of one’s intentions -honesty in intention.

Professional Leadership

What is routinely at work is skills based leadership. Mostly it is leadership in education or in business, of the kind that acquirable skills are adequate for. It does not demand any exceptional leadership qualities. Acquirable are interested behaviour and competence. Proportionately to one’s degree of interest, basic leadership skills often suffice to function as a professional leader, to lead in one’s field.

On professional leadership many have written. There are commonly agreed basic modern leadership principles generally adequate in any field of average competence.

Effective Leadership

Leaders with leadership qualities or skills know this: The average employee does like to be so directed as presumes that he generally wishes to avoid responsibility with relatively little or no ambition and dislikes work except to the extent essential for survival with basic security. People have an inherent need in an adult way to exercise their understanding, capacities, skills motivated by incentives also non-economic and culturally varying. This appreciation is a must for effective leadership.

Leadership Values

Trustworthiness is one of the personal qualities of leadership that can never be imitated in professional leadership for truly great achievement. But the skilful appearance of trustworthiness succeeds. Usually the only task of professional leadership is obtaining the co-operation of colleagues and employees.

This is best done, by making the organisation’s objects or visions pursued or desired of personal significance to people. That must be based on their values and expectations to generate their energy and enthusiasm. Good leadership on that basis can prepare people for the various controllable and uncontrollable changes, appreciating that leadership attitudes matter above all and must be ‘trust’ based… In the 1990s’ England an industrial strike over pay continued after Railtrak agreed: the workers had discovered that the government had secretly sought to influence the negotiations.

Leadership Strategies

Trust is the most useful of leadership values. Good leaders’ people feel valued. Job satisfaction enhances performance and productivity and job satisfaction includes feeling valued. This leadership strategy avoids dissatisfaction, increases job satisfaction. Co-operation is based on others feeling valued enough to be trusted.

Information works at two levels: it shows trust and contributes to the leader’s objective others’ valid views.

The value of other’s valid views which free flow of information (or the successful [but risky] appearance of it) enables is not overlooked in good leadership. In, e.g., educational leadership staff’s familiarity with consumer culture, in business leadership workers’ consumer choices reduce the risk of missing the wood for the trees.

In leadership strategies learning from experience by trial & error is unaffordable in the short term. The complexities of long term results necessitate cultured thought.

Leadership Policies

If one looks at some educational leadership policies and business leadership examples one sees these:-

In the 1980s’ UK’s teacher surplus was followed by teacher shortage; in c. 2000 allegations of easy examination questions came to be replaced, with accusations of unanswerable examination questions being set, by allegations of school pupils being deliberately failed.

The British farmers union’s lateness in taking into account the effects of the European Union agreements enabling workers general employment rights in member states as opposed to previous restrictions on the types of employment, in 2007 resulted in loss of profits to many farmers because tons of strawberies could not be picked with less students and holiday workers from member states available for that particular type of employment.

In the 1980s’ USA, People’s Express Airlines folded – cheaper seats but they couldn’t see seat booking preferences. In the 2000s’ UK, Aria Technology Limited, its owner telling of having sold goods at 500% profit, in a matter of refunding about £100 for re-saleable goods estimated only the faxes it received to have cost it about £500. The USA’s regarding failure as experience for businesses meant an average pre-bankruptcy life of 11 years; and by the time it saw and began to adopt the European thought of motivating for pride in the job, Japan and Germany had captured 38% of the car market.

In thought based leadership ~in verse by Orhan Seyfi Ari -translated:

To overtake and win, like horses that race

Compete ideas in a head keen, to make the best choice

Leadership Qualities

In leadership it is generally agreed that personal leadership qualities mater. Success in leadership depends also on the degree of the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the needs and the expectations of those who are to be led, and of how the group is structured -especially as to the relevant situation immediately confronting them in their environment.

What exactly are the personal qualities of exceptional leaders, in leadership of historical noteworthiness, have not been able the psychologists to ascertain in terms of specific character or personality traits. But professional leadership also is people based and it often suffices to ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’

Leadership Skills

Personal qualities of leadership enhance professional skills. But in no field are called for exceptional personal leadership qualities or even professional skills routinely. In ordinary, e.g., business or educational leadership to envision and enable, to empower and energise routinely basic leadership skills suffice. These comprise simply of the knowledge of, and an honest intention to also cater for, the expectations of those to be lead, any problems faced in terms of their means, abilities, social influences.

In ordinary routine leadership, subject to average competence in one’s field, nothing is basically essential other than this leadership appreciation and reasonable honesty -i.e., simply treating people as people.

May interest -he ‘moved mountains’ Teacher’s Leadership



About the Author:

Leadership is vital for any organization’s sustained success. A great leader at top makes a big difference to his or her organization. Everyone will concur with these statements. Experts in human resources field mention the importance of leaders at all levels, and not just that of the leadership at the top. It is not without reason that companies like 3M, Proctor & Gamble, GE, Coca Cola; HSBC etc. have known to put in place processes for developing leaders continuously.

Mention this subject, however, to a line manager, or to a sales manager, or any executive in most organizations and you will probably deal with diffident responses.

Leadership development -a strategic need?

The subject of leadership is dealt with in a general way by many organizations. Leadership is usually understood in terms of personal attributes such as charisma, communication, inspiration, dynamism, toughness, instinct, etc., and not in terms what good leaders can do for their organizations.  Developing leaders falls in HR domain. Budgets are framed and outlays are used with indicators like training hours per employee per year. Whether the good intentions behind the training budgets get translated into actions or not, is not monitored.

Such leadership development outlays that are based on only good intentions and general ideas about leadership get axed in bad times and get extravagant during good times. If having great or good leaders at all levels is a strategic need, as the above top companies demonstrate and as many leading management experts assert, why do we see such a stop and go approach?

Why is there skepticism about leadership development programs?

The first reason is that expectations from good (or great) leaders are not defined in operative terms and in ways in which the outcomes can be verified. Leaders are expected to achieve’ many things. They are expected to turn laggards into high performers, turn around companies, charm customers, and dazzle media. They are expected to perform miracles. These expectations remain just wishful thinking. These desired outcomes can not be used to provide any clues about gaps in leadership skills and development needs.

Absence of a comprehensive and generic (valid in diverse industries and conditions) framework for defining leadership means that leadership development effort are scattered and inconsistent in nature. Inconsistency gives bad name to leadership development programs. This breeds cynicism (these fads come and go….) and resistance to every new initiative. This is the second reason why the objectives of leadership development are often not met.

The third reason is in the methods used for leadership development. Leadership development programs rely upon a combination of lectures (e.g. on subjects like team building, communications), case studies, and group exercises (problem solving), and some inspirational talks by top business leaders or management gurus.

Sometimes the programs consist of outdoor or adventure activities for helping people bond better with each other and build better teams. These programs generate ‘feel good’ effect and in some cases participants ‘return’ with their personal action plans. But in majority of cases they fail to capitalize on the efforts that have gone in. I must mention leadership coaching in the passing. In the hands of an expert coach a willing executive can improve his leadership skills dramatically. But leadership coaching is too expensive and inaccessible for most executives and their organizations.

Leadership -a competitive advantage

During my work as a business leader and later as a leadership coach, I found that it is useful to define leadership in operative terms. When leadership is defined in terms of what it does and in terms of capabilities of a person, it is easier to assess and develop it.

When leadership skills defined in the above manner are present at all levels, they impart a distinct capability to an organization. This capability gives a competitive advantage to the organization. Organizations with a pipeline of good leaders have competitive advantages over other organizations, even those with great leaders only at the top. The competitive advantages are:

1. They (the organizations) are able to solve problems quickly and can recover from mistakes fast.

2. They have excellent horizontal communications. Things (processes) move faster.

3. They tend to be less busy with themselves. Therefore they have ‘time’ for outside people. (Over 70% of internal communications are about reminders, error corrections etc . They are wasteful)

4. Their staff (indirect) productivity is high. This is one of the toughest management challenges.

5. They are good at heeding to signals related to quality, customer complaints, shifts in market conditions and customer preferences. This leads to good and useful bottom-up communication. Top leaders tend to have less number of blind spots in such organizations.

6. It is easier to roll out programs for strategic shift and also for improving business processes (using Six Sigma, TQM, etc.). Good bottom-up communications improve top-down communications too.

7. They require less ’supervision’, since they are strongly rooted in values.

8. They are better at preventing catastrophic failures.

Expectations from good and effective leaders should be set out clearly. The leadership development programs should be selected to develop leadership skills that can be verified in operative terms. Since leadership development is a strategic need, there is a need for clarity about the above aspects.

Hemant Karandikar advises companies on business & brand strategy, on business transformation, and for achieving breakthroughs in business processes. He leverages this expertise in product creation projects for companies along with his design associates. He coaches business leaders and executives for developing leadership skills. Hemant founded Exponient Consulting and Learning Leadership.

Previously, Hemant was Managing Director, GWT Global Weighing (now Sartorius Mechatronics) and held position of General Manager at Philips India. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India.

For Onsite and online coaching for leadership development, please visit http://www.learning-leadership.com/



About the Author: