On Leadership

The last session in OB was on leadership and we learned about transactional and transformational leadership. What needs to be understood here is the context and level at which this is being exercised, a person purely associated with deliveries would naturally be a transactional leader and as we move up the hierarchy leadership style is expected to change from transactional to transformational. This does not though rule out the application of transformational leadership at the floor level, because transformations at the top are meant to be percolated to the floor but again it’s a fact that there are constraints of job responsibilities and power sharing. The same applies to the discussion of Leadership vs Management- we can’t put one ahead of the other but proper amalgamation of the two is required. For somebody who is in-charge of transactional activities, leadership can come in the form of motivating somebody who has been termed as a lost cause or it can way of spotting opportunities for increased engagement.

Can leaders be developed?
Of course they can be but it becomes all the more easier if they are born with it. As in other things we have seen that leading activities is done at different levels and hence we do have the opportunity of developing leaders who can manage things in a set framework. Mind my word, ‘manage’, but if you are purely looking as a leader-leader kind of personality then training might not be sufficient or rather would not give the desired results. The reason for this is right there, the prototypical traits mentioned are sensitivity/compassion, dedications and dynamism/energy and all these traits are the ones which are more hardwired in the mind and soul and actually have very little do with intelligence.
And so if we are to develop leaders it’s difficult to get it done through classroom training, it requires a far more holistic approach to which modern society has to wake up to.

Leaders are not necessarily better than followers
When we say this basically what is implied is that they may not necessarily be better than us as human beings (read: in conforming established social norms) and they may not as technically adept at things as their reportees but they are definitely better than others in what they are supposed to do and that is leading. We’ve already discussed this in the transactional and transformational theory, management is more about handling contingencies and transactions while leadership is all about vision.