Leadership- an introduction by P.J.

Philip
October 30, 20102 comments Lecture on Leadership by P.J.PHILLIP Adapted by Navendu K. Sharma Click here to download the pdf version. Introduction to Leadership Very often, we ask ourselves What can one person do?, or As an individual, what can I do? But we do not take any initiatives because in the back of our minds, we always have a feeling that one person cannot make a difference. In this lecture, I want you to understand that one person in the position of leadership can actually make a big difference (in the lives of those whom you are leading, whether they are your sub-ordinates or your followers or big difference to the environment in which you are functioning). So as a leader, you can actually make a big difference or we can say that INDIVIDUALS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Some of the remembered leaders who have made a huge difference in the life of people: 1. 1. Mahatma Gandhi 2. 2. Fidel Castro- President of Cuba 3. 3. Hitler He invaded most part of the world Now you must be wondering how Hitler made a difference in the life of people or what was his contribution. Even though Hitler made negative contributions, he also made positive contributions too. At the end of the First World War, all the countries were brought together, conspired against Germany and crushed it. They all decided that this country should be never allowed to rise because it could be a danger for them. But it was Hitler who came up and said We have been created to rule the world. So let us rise and rule the world!! and he built Germany into a mighty power at the beginning of the Second World War. So the greatness of Hitler was that he lead a nation which was virtually destroyed. This was his positive contribution to Germany. Now the second part of his life is where he went wrong. At the beginning of the Second World War, he converted himself into an absolute dictator and then he said Now that we are mighty power, let rule and capture the world!! What is Leadership? Leadership is the process of persuading a group of people to work together towards achieving common goals. Now if we look at this definition, what is the big challenge of being a leader? The big challenge of a leader is persuading others to rise above their selfish interest and goals and work towards achieving common goals. Characteristics of Leadership

1. 1. Leadership is a process, not a single activity. Leadership is not just doing one thing. It is a series of interconnected activities which make up a process. For example: Your followers or your sub-ordinates can do something that you tell them to do and then forget it. But you as a leader cannot afford to do that because before you tell them to do something; you have to do a lot of thinking before and after. So we have to remember that leadership is 247. You are always thinking as to what I should do, what my group should do, what my group should achieve, etc. So leadership is a continuous process, it is not a single activity. 1. 2. Leadership involves mutuality of influence. Normally when you become a leader, you always have an impression that this is a one way street. Here, one way street means that you are the boss or the leader and that you will pass orders and your sub-ordinates would carry out your orders blindly, which means that it is one way. But what we are trying to say here is that could leadership have a mutuality of influence? Just like you are influencing your sub-ordinates or followers, they are also influencing you or they should also influence you. If you want to be an effective leader, you should keep this communication two-way and you should also be prepared to be influenced by your followers. So this is an important aspect of being a good leader. So leadership involves the mutuality of influence between the leader and his followers. 1. Leadership involves achieving common goals. How is the success of the leader measured? The success of a leader is not measured in terms of what he as an individual has achieved, but what the group has achieved. For example i) Gandhi was a great leader because India achieved independence under his leadership. ii) Hitler was a great leader because Germany became a powerful country under his leadership. But Hitler is not considered the greatest leader because Germany was defeated in the Second World War. So what the group has been able to achieve and what they have not been able to achieve would dictate your success of failure. So leadership involves achieving common goals. 1. 4. Leadership is situation specific. A particular person may be a great leader in a particular situation. But that doesnt mean that he can be a great leader in all situations.

For example, Ike was a great military leader but was considered among the weakest presidents of the United States. So a situation change may change the success of a man. 1. 5. Leadership is follower specific. You may be a great leader when you are leading a set of specific followers. But given a different set of followers, you need not be that efficient. For example, if Gandhi, one of the great leaders of freedom fighter s, asks us today Friends, lets lay down our lives for our country, many of us will not be ready to do that. So we have to realize that Gandhis success is not totally as an individual, but it is the success of his followers who were committed to fight for the freedom of their country. So leadership is follower specific. Categories: Organizational Behaviour

Qualities of a leader- P.J Philip

October 30, 20104 comments Qualities of a leader by P.J.PHILLIP Adapted by NavenduK.Sharma Click here to download pdf Qualities of a good leader 1. 1. Innate Qualities Innate means inborn. Researchers say that there could be some qualities which people are born with and may be essential for them to be a good leader. Physical features Most of our physical features are inborn because they are passed on from earlier generations to ours genes. Physical features are not essential in all areas, but there are areas where physical features are important. For example, if someone wants to get into the army, he should have a minimum height, no spectacles, a particular range of weight and etc. So we can keep our physical features in good condition, but there isnt much we can do to change our physical features because they are inborn. Mental Ability Intelligence Scientists say that we are born with basic intelligence. So there is nothing much we can do about it, but we can keep it fit just like physical features by exercising our intelligence on a

regular basis, so that we can sharpen our intelligence. But basically, we cannot change our intelligence. So all leaders require a certain level of intelligence. 1. 2. Acquired Qualities These are the qualities which are acquired through training. These qualities are not only required for good leaders but also for peoples life skills to be successful in life. Domain knowledge and skills You have to be good at the skills and knowledge in which you are functioning or operating. Only then, your sub-ordinates will respect you as a leader. For example, if you want to be a cricket captain, first and foremost you should be a good cricketer. If you want to be a project leader of a group of computer engineers, first and foremost you should be a good computer engineer. When your sub-ordinates come to you with problems, you should find solutions to them and they should feel that their leader is one step ahead of them. This is when your sub-ordinates respect you as a leader. Inter-personal Skills Leadership is about persuading people, which means your ability to understand other people, your ability to interact and influence other people. This is where your inter-personal skills become important and can be acquired through training. Communication Skills A leader will have to persuade his followers to do things and rise above their personal interest and work towards achieving common goals. So he has to be a good communicator to do that. He should be able to convey, persuade and influence his subordinates and followers. This could be done by written or oral communication. So, good leaders have to be good communicators. Motivational Skills This is a very important skill which a leader should have. He should be able to motivate his followers. For example, Gandhi was able to motivate his followers to rise above their selfish interest and die for their country to get independence. Emotional Skills Emotional skill is actually a life skill and is something which everybody of us should have, but a leader should have it more than an ordinary person. Emotional skill is to maintain emotional stability and not to be swayed by extremes. When a group or a team meets with failure, the leader should not be depressed and when it meets with success, not too much excitement should be there.The followers can afford to do

this but the leader is expected to maintain stability. When the group is down, the leader gets the group out of depression. How do we acquire emotional skills? Psychologists say that escapism should be avoided in life. Escapism means to run away from problems. Escapism is very natural to human beings and all of us practice this on a regular basis, but this should be avoided. For example, you have an assignment to submit on a particular date. You absent yourself in the class, thinking that the teacher will forget it the next day. But the teacher doesnt forget it and fails you in your internal. So by running away, you are not finding a solution to the problem. You just find a temporary solution to a permanent problem and this is very natural to human beings. So psychologists say that whenever you are face a problem of permanent nature, confront the problem and find a solution once and for all. So if we do this on a regular basis, we are acquiring emotional skills. 1. 3. X-Factor After all the research that has gone into finding out the qualities of a leader, researchers say that there is that something which is unknown in a great leader, which cannot be identified or explained but attracts people to it. The word that explains the x-factor is charisma. Charisma is that something in a person that attracts others to it, which is difficult to explain. Styles of leadership What are the styles of approached leadership that you can adopt when you are in a position of leadership? Authoritarian Style (being bossy and having full authority) This is the most common and the easiest thing to do. You sit in the chair and decide to be the boss.So this is where you exercise full authority. Democratic Style The leader decides to share his authority with his followers. He is willing to discuss things with them and is willing to make his sub-ordinates a part of the decision-making process. So here, we have a shared authority. Laissez-faire Style This expression means hands-off or free. This means that the leader keeps his hands off his sub-ordinates or his followers. He allows them to function the way they want. This does not mean that he is a weak leader. It means that he knows his followers; he knows they are

capable and competent; and therefore he lets them function their own way. So there is minimum authority exercise in the positive sense. Now you may feel that Democratic style is the best style of leadership. But scientist say that any one of the three styles may be the best style according to the person. So there are three factors which determine your style of leadership: 1) 2) Followers Situation

3) The personality of the leader- the personality should be flexible and adaptable for a good leader. Categories: Organizational Behaviour

Social groups P.J Philip

October 30, 2010Leave a comment Social Groups by PJ PHILLIP Adapted by Navendu K. Sharma CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD SOCIAL GROUP 1) Reciprocal (or mutual) relationship: The first characteristic of a good social group is a give and take relationship which is known as a reciprocal relationship.

2) We-feeling: Collectively, the group should have a feeling that I belong here or that We are one, that is that you are proud of being in a group. Example: If you look at India as a large social group, we are proud of saying that We are Indians. This is the kind of feeling that every individual should have in a good social group. Every country tries to develop this. For example, every country has a national flag which gives us a sense of belongingness. The flag gives us a We-feeling.

3) Empathy (and also differentiating it from Sympathy): The mutual relationship and the We-feeling should be rooted in Empathy. This is the third characteristics which good social groups have. As human beings, we sympathize for others. For example, we sympathize for a friend who is having family problems or has had an accident. But a social group should not limit itself to sympathy. So in other words, when you sympathize for somebody, you feel for others and when you empathize, you feel with others. By empathy, we mean that the person is able to put himself in the shoes of the person who is suffering which means we are able to put ourselves in that situation. We experience the same feeling that he/she has.

Example: If one person suffers in a family, the rest of the family will also suffer. So just like this, a social group should have empathy.

4) Common Norms (standard or custom): A good social group should have certain common norms (or certain standards of behavior) that would differentiate them from others. These are prescribed by the group that you are expected to behave this way. For example, if we go to an army, we recognize the way a soldier behaves because he has a certain standards of behavior. The moment he sees a senior, he has to stand up and wish him. So a good group should develop good standards of behavior. Another example is that people want to study in good institutions (like NITs and IITs) because good institutions have good standards of behavior or good norms.

5) Common Goals: Common goals for a social group are important because if a group does not have common goals, it will not stay together in the long run. Everyone works towards a common goal.

There are a number of ways in which a group can be classified. We will take a look at the criteria/basis of Sandersons classification. Based on how membership is acquired, Sanderson classified groups into three types.

i) Voluntary Groups: A person becomes a member of a group voluntarily. For example, the computer science group is a voluntary group as we made a choice to opt computer science.

ii) Involuntary Groups: This is where you dont have a choice, but you are made by somebody else the member of a group. For example, the groups of the sections CO1 and CO2 are involuntary. Our family is also involuntary as we didnt have a choice to choose our family.

iii) Delegated Groups: A delegated group is where you are either nominated or selected to be a member of group. For example, member of TECHNOBYTE, as you are chosen or elected to become a member.

Categories: Organizational Behaviour

Formal and Informal groups- P.J. Philip

October 30, 2010Leave a comment Lecture on Formal and Informal Groups by P.J.Phillp Adapted by Navendu K. Sharma Our discussion today is based on the social groups that we come across within an organization. These groups can be broadly be classified into two: Formal Groups and Informal Groups Formal Group: A formal group is the deliberate and systematic grouping of people in an organization so that organizational goals are better achieved. Now any organization would have a certain formula. They are very essential for the efficient functioning of the organization. What does an organization do? The total no. of people working in an organization is divided into smaller groups (teams or sections or departments) and each group is responsible for fulfilling a task which would ultimately contribute to fulfilling the organizations goal. This increases the efficiency of the organization. Ex: If we take NITK as an example, we all know that we have a larger goal of training students for the engineering profession. But within this larger goal, we want students to be trained for computer engg, electrical, mech, etc. So this larger goal is divided into departments (example computer department), which is a formal group in this larger organization. So, all the departments together achieve the goal of efficiently training the students for engineering purpose.

Informal Group: Informal groups are the natural and spontaneous grouping of people whenever they work together over a period of time. Whenever people interact and work together over a certain period of time, its very natural for them and it comes very spontaneously for them, that they form informal groups. For example, we are officially assigned to the computer engineering department. But in the hostel, we live with friends from other branches. So when all of us live together for a 4 year period, its very natural for us to interact and build up groups informally with our friends from other branches.

So like this, any organization would have informal groups