As the number of strategic dimensions and corresponding initiatives increases, so does the pressure on leadership. In periods of rapid change, organizations require bold strategies and strong leadership at all levels if it is to succeed. The concepts of 'what is a leader' and 'how leaders are created' have been evolving over time.

1. Unit 4: Business Strategy & Leadership
Lesson 10: Strategic Leadership

2. Leadership, defined
 “Process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid
and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.” –
Wikipedia (The Free Encyclopedia)
 “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.” -
Peter Ducker (Writer, Management Consultant, Self described
„social ecologist‟)
 “Leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less.” - John C
Maxwell (Internationally respected leadership expert, speaker, coach
and author)
 “Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is
well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking
effective action to realize your own leadership potential.” – Warren
2 Bennis (American scholar, organizational consultant and author)
TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

3. Strategic Leadership Models
Contingency &
Great Man
Trait Theory Situational
Theory
Theory
Behavioral Transactional Transformational
Theory Theory & Laissez Faire
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4. Strategic Leadership Models
Great Man Theories
 "Great leaders are born, not made"? This quote sums up the basic tenant of
the great man theory of leadership, which suggests that the capacity for
leadership is inborn. According to this theory, you're either a natural born
leader or you're not.
 The term "Great Man" was used because, at the time, leadership was
thought of primarily as a male quality, especially in terms of military
leadership.
 The mythology behind some of the world's most famous leaders such as
Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar, Mahatma Gandhi, and Alexander the Great
helped contribute to the notion that great leaders are born and not made.
 In many examples, it seems as if the right man for the job seems to emerge
almost magically to take control of a situation and lead a group of people into
4 safety or success.
TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

5. Strategic Leadership Models
Trait Theories
 The trait model of leadership is based on the characteristics of many leaders
- both successful and unsuccessful - and is used to predict leadership
effectiveness.
 The resulting lists of traits are then compared to those of potential leaders to
assess their likelihood of success or failure
 Core traits identified are:
 Achievement drive: High level of effort, high levels of ambition, energy and
initiative | Leadership motivation: an intense desire to lead others to reach shared
goals | Honesty and integrity: trustworthy, reliable, and open | Self-confidence:
Belief in one’s self, ideas, and ability | Cognitive ability: Capable of exercising
good judgment, strong analytical abilities, and conceptually skilled | Knowledge of
business: Knowledge of industry and other technical matters | Emotional
Maturity: well adjusted, does not suffer from severe psychological disorders |
Others: charisma, creativity and flexibility
 These traits are not responsible solely to identify whether a person will be a
successful leader or not, but they are essentially seen as preconditions that
5 endow people with leadership potential
TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

6. Strategic Leadership Models
Behavioral Theories
 Behavioral theories of leadership do not seek inborn traits or
capabilities. Rather, they look at what leaders actually do.
 If success can be defined in terms of describable actions, then it
should be relatively easy for other people to act in the same way.
 Assumption, leaders can be made, rather than are born.
Successful leadership is based in definable, learnable behavior.
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7. Strategic Leadership Models
Situational & Contingency Theories
 Leadership is a process whereby, the situation can influence
which type of leadership behavior to take.
 Leaders are most effective when they make their behavior
contingent with the situation, this is also know as the contingency
approach to leadership. Both internal and external environments
can have a significant impact on leader effectiveness.
 The overall situational leadership approach suggests that the
leader must act in a flexible manner. The leader should be able to
diagnose the leadership style appropriate to the situation, and be
able to apply the appropriate style.
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TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

8. Strategic Leadership Models
Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership
Theory
 The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory was
created by Dr Paul Hersey, a professor and author of "The
Situational Leader," and Ken Blanchard, author of the best selling
"The One-Minute Manager," among others.
 The theory states that instead of using just one style, successful
leaders should change their leadership styles based on the
maturity of the people they're leading and the details of the task.
 Using this theory, leaders should be able to place more or less
emphasis on the task, and more or less emphasis on the
relationships with the people they're leading, depending on
what's needed to get the job done successfully.
8
TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

9. Strategic Leadership Models
Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership
Theory
 The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory was
created by Dr Paul Hersey, a professor and author of "The
Situational Leader," and Ken Blanchard, author of the best selling
"The One-Minute Manager," among others.
 The theory states that instead of using just one style, successful
leaders should change their leadership styles based on the
maturity of the people they're leading and the details of the task.
 Using this theory, leaders should be able to place more or less
emphasis on the task, and more or less emphasis on the
relationships with the people they're leading, depending on
what's needed to get the job done successfully.
9
TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

10. Strategic Leadership Models
Transactional Theory
 This style of leadership starts with the idea that team members
agree to obey their leader totally when they accept a job.
 The "transaction" is usually the organization paying the team
members in return for their effort and compliance. The leader has a
right to "punish" team members if their work doesn't meet the pre-
determined standard.
 Team members can do little to improve their job satisfaction under
transactional leadership.
 Transactional leadership is really a type of management, not a true
leadership style, because the focus is on short-term tasks. It has
serious limitations for knowledge-based or creative work, however it
can be effective in other situations.
10
TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

11. Strategic Leadership Models
Transformational & Laissez Faire Theory
 Transformational Leadership: People with this leadership style
are true leaders who inspire their teams constantly with a shared
vision of the future.
 Laissez-Faire: This French phrase means "leave it be," and it's
used to describe leaders who leave their team members to work
on their own. It can be effective if the leader monitors what's
being achieved and communicates this back to the team
regularly. Most often, laissez-faire leadership is effective when
individual team members are very experienced and skilled self-
starters.
11
TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

12. Leadership Styles
 Autocratic Leadership
 This is an extreme form of transactional leadership (this approach
assumes that work is done only because it is rewarded), where
leaders have absolute power over their workers or team.
 Staff and team members have little opportunity to make suggest ions,
even if these would be in the team‟s or the organization‟s best
interests.
 Autocratic leaders make decisions without consulting their teams.
This is considered appropriate when decisions genuinely need to be
taken quickly, when there is no need for inputs from the team, and
when team agreement isn‟t necessary fro a successful outcome.
 Most people tend to resent being treated like this therefore, autocratic
leadership often leads to high levels of absenteeism and staff
12 turnover.
TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

13. Leadership Styles
 Bureaucratic Leadership
 Bureaucratic leaders work “by the book”. They follow rules rigorously,
and they ensure their staff follows procedures precisely.
 This is a very appropriate style for work involving serious security
risks (such as working with machinery, with toxic substances, or at
dangerous heights) or where large sums of money are involved (such
as handling cash).
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TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

14. Leadership Styles
 Charismatic Leadership
 A charismatic leadership style can seem similar to transformational
leadership (leads to positive changes in those who follow such
leaders), because these leaders inspire lots of enthusiasm in their
teams and are very energetic in driving others forward.
 However, charismatic leaders tend to believe more in themselves
than in their teams, and this creates a risk that a project, or even an
entire organization, might collapse if the leader leaves.
 In the eyes of the followers, success is directly connected to the
presence of the charismatic leader.
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15. Leadership Styles
 Democratic Leadership or Participative Leadership
 Although democratic leaders make the final decisions, they invite
other members of the team to contribute to the decision-making
process.
 This not only increases job satisfaction by involving team members,
but it also helps to develop people‟s skills.
 Team members feel in control of their own destiny, so they are
motivated to work hard by more than just a financial reward
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TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

16. Leadership Styles
 Laissez-faire Leadership
 This French phrase means “leave it be”, and it‟s used to describe
leaders who leave their team members to work on their own.
 It can be effective if the leader monitors what‟s being achieved and
communicates this back to the team regularly.
 Most often laissez-faire leadership is effective when individual team
members are very experienced and skilled self-starters.
 Unfortunately, this type of leadership also occurs when managers
don‟t apply sufficient control.
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TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

17. Leadership Styles
 People-oriented Leadership or Relations-oriented Leadership
 This is the opposite of task-oriented leadership. With people-oriented
leadership, leaders are totally focused on organizing, supporting and
developing the people in their teams.
 It‟s a participative style and it tends to encourage good teamwork and
creative collaboration.
 Servant Leadership
 In many ways, servant leadership is a form of democratic leadership,
because the whole team tends to be involved in decision-making.
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TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

18. Leadership Styles
 Task-oriented Leadership
 Highly task oriented leaders focus only on getting the job done, and
they can be quite autocratic.
 They actively define the work and the roles required, put structures in
place, plan, organize and monitor.
 However, because task-oriented leaders don‟t tend to think much
about the well-being of their teams, this approach can suffer many of
the flaws of autocratic leadership, with difficulties in motivating and
retaining staff.
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TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

19. Leadership Styles
 Transactional Leadership
 This style of leadership starts with the idea that the team members
agree to obey their leader totally when they accept a job. The
“transaction” is usually the organization paying the team members in
return of their effort and compliance.
 The leader has a right to “punish” team members if their work doesn‟t
meet the pre-determined standard. Team members can do little to
improve their job satisfaction under transactional leadership.
 This is really a type of management, not a true leadership style
because the focus is on short-term tasks.
 It has serious limitations for knowledge-based or creative work,
however it can be effective in other situations.
19
TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

20. Leadership Styles
 Transformational Leadership
 People with this style are true leaders who inspire their teams
constantly with a shared vision of the future.
 While this leader‟s enthusiasm is often passed on to the team, he/she
need to be supported by “detail people”. That‟s why, in many
organizations, both transactional and transformational leadership are
needed.
 The transactional leaders (or managers) ensure that routine work is
done reliably, while the transformational leaders look after initiatives
that add new value.
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TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander May 7, 2012

21. Hardy Alexander
Founder & Director | Triune Global
Bangalore – 560077
Contact: +91 96864 48698
Email: halexander@triuneglobal.com
My Blog: dayscore.wordpress.com
Thank you
TRIUNE GLOBAL | Hardy Alexander 21 May 7, 2012