Leadership: A relationship through which one person influences the behaviour and actions of other people.
Leadership Skills
- Confidence (Laissez-faire)
- Perserverance
- Decisive
- Caring (Paternalistic)
- Discipline (Authoirtarian)
- Intelligence (EQ/IQ)
- And many others
Different kinds of leader (leadership styles) will show different leadership skills to complement their style.
The traditional view of good leadership (Victorian) is that you will take Command and Control and be good at Decision-making. However, the more modern view is that a leader will:
- inspire employees
- create a vision
- shape core values and culture
- build effective teams
Tannenbaum and Schmidt
A “continuum of leadership” that goes from complete authoritarianism to laissez-faire.
As you move along the continuum, it moves from the manager telling staff what to do to, them selling the idea and then the next section is consulting. When a manager asks employees about a decision for advice. The final stage is join - where the group makes a decision.
The extremes of the spectrum are Manager-centered leadership and subordinate centered leadership.
Tell, sell, consult, joins
Tells: Leader identifies problems, makes decisions and announces to subordinates.
Sells: Leader still makes decision, but attempts to overcome resistance through discussion and persuasion.
Consults: Leader identifies problems and presents them to the group and listens to advice before making a final decision.
Joins: Leader defines problems and leaves the staff to decide on a solution.
To compare, see Leadership or Management