Managing for Competitive Advantage (part 14)

Contemporary Perspectives on Leadership

 by

 Charles Lamson

  So far, you have learned of the major classic approaches to understanding leadership. Now we will discuss a number of more recent developments that are revolutionizing our understanding of this important aspect of management. These developments include charismatic leadership, transformational leadership, and post heroic-leadership.

Charismatic Leadership

What is charisma and how does anyone acquire it? Charisma packs an emotional wallop for followers above and beyond ordinary esteem, affection, admiration, and trust. The charismatic is an idolized hero, a messiah and a savior. Many people value charisma in their leaders. But some people do not like the term charisma; it can be associated with the negative charisma of evil leaders whom people follow blindly.

Charismatic leaders are dominant and exceptionally self-confident and have a strong conviction in the moral righteousness of their beliefs. They strive to create an aura of competence and success and communicate high expectations for and confidence in followers.

The charismatic leader articulates ideological goals and makes sacrifices in pursuit of those goals. The charismatic leader also arouses a sense of excitement and adventure. He or she is an eloquent speaker who exhibits superior verbal skills, which helps communicate the vision and motivate followers.

Leaders who possess these characteristics or do these things inspire in their followers trust, confidence, acceptance, obedience, emotional involvement, affection, admiration, and higher performance. Evidence for the positive effects of charismatic leadership has been found in a wide variety of groups, organizations, and management levels, and in countries including India, Singapore, the Netherlands, China, Japan, and Canada (House and Aditya, "The Social Scientific Study of Leadership.")

Charisma has been shown to improve corporate financial performance, particularly under conditions of uncertainty---that is, in risky circumstances when people have difficulty understanding what they should do when environments are changing. Uncertainty is stressful, and makes organizations more receptive to the ideas and actions of charismatic leaders (D.A. Waldman, G.G. Ramirez, R.J. House, and P. Purnam, (2001). Academy of Management Journal, 44, 134-143).

Transformational Leadership

Charisma contributes to transformational leadership. Transformational leaders get people to transcend their personal interests for the sake of the larger community. They generate excitement and revitalize organizations.

The transformational process moves beyond the more traditional transactional approach to leadership. Transactional leaders view management as a series of transactions in which they use their legitimate, reward, and coercive powers to give commands and exchange rewards for services rendered. Unlike transformational leadership, transactional leadership is dispassionate; it does not excite, transform, empower, or inspire people to focus on the interest of the group or organization. However, transactional approaches may be more effective for individualist than for collectivists.

Generating Excitement Transformational leaders generate excitement in three primary ways. First, they are charismatic, as described earlier. Second, they give their followers individualized attention. Transformational leaders delegate challenging work to deserving people, keep lines of communication open, and provide one-on-one mentoring to develop their people. They do not treat everyone alike, because not everyone is alike.

Third, transformational leaders are intellectually stimulating. They arouse their followers an awareness of problems and potential solutions. They articulate the organization's opportunity, threats, strengths, and weaknesses. They stir the imagination and generate insight.  therefore, problems are recognized and high-quality solutions are identified and implemented with the full commitment of followers.

Skills and Strategies At least four skills or strategies contribute to transformational leadership. First, transformational leaders have a vision---a goal, an agenda, or a  results-orientation that grabs people's attention. Second, they communicate their vision; through words, manner, or symbolism, they relate a compelling image of the ultimate goal. Third, transformational leaders build trust by being consistent, dependable, and persistent. They position themselves clearly by choosing a direction and staying with it, thus projecting integrity. Finally, they have a positive self-regard. They are not self-important or complacent; rather, they recognize their personal strengths, compensate for their weaknesses, nurture and continually develop their talents, and know how to learn from failure. They strive for success rather than merely trying to avoid failure.

Post Heroic Leadership

A common view of leaders is that they are heroes. Phenomenally talented, they step forward in difficult times and save the day. But in these complex times, it is foolhardy to assume that a great top executive can solve all problems by himself or herself.

Effective leadership must permeate the organization, not reside in one or two superstars at the top. The leaders job becomes one of spreading leadership ability throughout the firm. Make people responsible for their own performance. Create an environment in which each person can figure out what needs to be done and then do it well. Make the way and clear the path so that people can succeed. Give them the credit they deserve. Make heroes out of them.

Thus, what is now required of leaders is less the efficient management of resources, and more the effective unleashing of intellectual capital and human resources. In other words, you should capitalize on all the brains and talent in your organization.

Key roles personifying post heroic leadership in the 21st century include:

1. Using vision to motivate and inspire. It is important that people in an organization have something to be proud of. Employees like to see a purpose that goes beyond numbers. It is important that a company can be perceived as changing the world in a positive way.
2. Empowering employees at all levels. You best lead by serving the needs of your people. You don't do their job for them; you enable them to learn and progress on the job. Most people want to expand their own knowledge, feel involved in their organization, and contribute to its success.
3. Challenging the status quo and enabling creativity. The new competitive landscape is swarming with opportunities that are best addressed via innovation and creativity.

*SOURCE: MANAGEMENT: THE NEW COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE, 6TH ED., 2004, THOMAS S. BATEMAN & SCOTT A. SNELL, PGS. 282-286*

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