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MODULE -II
LEADERSHIP AND EMPOWERMENT
STRUCTURE
- Introduction
- Nature of leadership
- Management and leadership
- Traits of effective leaders
- leadership behaviours
- situational aspects
- follower ship
- behavioural approach to leadership style
- Feeler’s contingency model
- Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model
- Path – goal model of leadership
- Vrooms decision making model
- Emerging approaches to leadership – substitutes and enhancers for leadership
- self – leadership and super leadership
- coaching and the other approaches
- The nature of empowerment and participation – What is empowerment, what is participation
- Why is Participation popular
- Benefits of participation
- How participation works
- programs for participation
- important consideration in participation
- Summary
- Suggested Questions
INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the ability to build up confidence and zeal among people to create an urge them to be led. To be a successful leader, a manager must possess the qualities of foresight, drive, initiative, self- confidence and personal integrity. Different situations may demand different types of leadership. Leadership has been defined in various ways. Stogdill has rightly remarked that there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it.
NATURE OF LEADERSHIP
Leadership derives from the power and is similar to, yet distinct from, management. In fact, “leadership” and “management” are different. There can be leaders of completely unorganized groups, but there can be managers only of organized groups. Thus, it can be said that a manager is necessarily a leader, but a leader may not be a manager. Leadership is essential for managing. The ability to lead effectively is one of the keys to be an effective manager because she/he has to combine resources and lead a group to achieve objectives. Leadership and motivation are closely interconnected. By understanding motivation, one can appreciate better what people want and why they act as they do. A leader can encourage or dampen workers’ motivation by creating a favourable or unfavourable working environment in the organization.
The essence of leadership is followership. In other words, it is the willingness of people to follow a person that makes that person a leader. Moreover, people tend to follow those whom they see as providing a means of achieving their desires, needs and wants. Leadership involves an unequal distribution of power between leaders and group members. Group members are not powerless; they can shape group activities in some ways. Still, the leader will usually have more power than the group members. Leaders can influence the followers’ behaviour in some ways. Leaders can influence workers either to do ill or well for the company. The leader must be able to empower and motivate the followers to the cause. The leader must co-exist with the subordinates or followers and must have a clear idea about their demands and ambitions. This creates loyalty and trust in subordinates for their leader. Leadership is to be concerned about values. Followers learn ethics and values from their leaders. Leaders are the real teachers of ethics, and they can reinforce ideas. Leaders need to make positive statements of ethics if they are not hypocritical. Leading is a very demanding job both physically and psychologically. The leader must have the strength, power, and ability to meet the bodily requirements; zeal, energy, and patience to meet the mental requirements for leading.
MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
People often mistake leadership and management as the same thing but in essence, they are very different. The main difference between the two is that leaders have people that follow them, while managers have people who simply work for them. Particularly in small businesses, for a small business owner to be successful they need to be both a strong leader and manager to get their team on board with working towards their vision of success. Leadership is about getting people to comprehend and believe in the vision you set for the company and to work with you on achieving your goals, while management is more about administering and making sure the day-to-day activities are happening as they should.
Leadership and management must go hand in hand. They are not the same thing, but they are necessarily linked and complementary to one another. Any effort to separate the two within an organisation is likely to cause more problems than it solves. For any company to be successful, it needs management that can plan, organise and coordinate its staff, while also inspiring and motivating them to perform to the best of their ability.
Leaders have a tendency to praise success and drive people, whereas managers work to find faults. They paint a picture of what they see as possible for the company and work to inspire and engage their people in turning that vision into reality. Rather than seeing individuals as just a particular set of skills, they think beyond what they do and activate them to be part of something much bigger. They’re well aware of how high-functioning teams can accomplish a lot more when working together than individuals working autonomously are ever able to achieve.
For both sides to understand what they have to do, and to achieve excellence in doing it, they need to comprehend the essence of the difference between them. This is a matter of definition – understanding how the roles are different and how they might overlap. Managers, on the other hand, will focus on setting, measuring and achieving goals by controlling situations to reach or exceed their objectives.
9. Courage: It can be hard to speak up at work, whether you want to voice a new idea, provide feedback to a direct report, or flag a concern for someone above you. That’s part of the reason courage is a key skill for good leaders. Rather than avoiding problems or allowing conflicts to fester, courage enables leaders to step up and move things in the right direction. 10. Respect: Treating people with respect on a daily basis is one of the most important things a leader can do. It will ease tensions and conflict, create trust, and improve effectiveness. Respect is more than the absence of disrespect, and it can be shown in many different ways.
LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR
Great leaders may not be born that way, but the behaviours that mark the best and lead to success can be developed and refined over time. Seven of the most important:
1. Being grounded in ethics and integrity. Both are hallmarks of the most successful leaders – those who are deeply committed to doing the right things for the right reasons, even when it is difficult or unpopular to stay the course. This underscores the importance of adhering to high principles and professional standards and doing so with consistency. 2. Building trust. This isn’t something that just comes automatically to a leader. It’s something the most successful know they must earn. To that end, they take actions that gain them respect. They involve others in decisions that affect them rather than making unilateral calls. They are transparent and consistent, so subordinates know what to expect (and can count on it). Successful leaders act in a way that makes others proud to be associated with them. 3. Bringing others along. It’s important to help others grow and achieve, and the best leaders serve as both coaches and teachers in pursuit of that goal. It takes looking at individuals and treating them as such in understanding their distinct needs, abilities and goals. At the same time, it takes working with people to help them uncover what they do best and ways to strengthen their assets. 4. Inspiring those around you. The most successful leaders have a vision that motivates people to follow. But it’s not just the vision – for whatever future or goal or purpose – that inspires. It’s expressing it with passion and energy and backing it with strong beliefs and values that count. It’s a matter of exciting people to be equally engaged and uplifted at being a part of something bigger and better. 5. Making decisions. Anybody can make a decision. But it takes a great leader to take on the hard decisions with authority and confidence. Success here comes from balancing emotion with reason, enlisting input from others to ensure the move forward is well-informed, yet acting with authority. Even when decisions may be unpopular, a leader who honestly communicates the rationale behind them is in a better position for long-term success. 6. Encouraging innovation. Innovative organizations give their people the space to stretch their creative wings. The culture to make this happen is set by leaders who encourage the art of “possibility” thinking and looking at issues from different perspectives – and who share how such practices have worked for them. The most successful leaders also understand the importance of training people in being more innovative through questioning, observing, experimenting and networking, and to that end ensure that employees get work time each week to do outside-the-job creative endeavours. 7. Reward achievement. No one likes to see their hard work and accomplishments go unrecognized. The best leaders make a habit of calling out people who make contributions to the organization, and they do it in in both a timely and appropriate manner. This may be expressed through a tangible reward or a public acknowledgement. Either way, it is a function of a leader who not only sets and shares specific expectations but shows what happens when individuals meet them. Most importantly, the best leaders deliver what they promise when that happens.
SITUATIONAL ASPECTS
Situational Leadership is an adaptive leadership style. This strategy encourages leaders to take stock of their team members, weigh the many variables in their workplace and choose the leadership style that best fits their goals and circumstances. In the words of leadership theorist Ken Blanchard, “In the past a leader was a boss. Today’s leaders can no longer lead solely based on positional power.” Situational Leadership is the model of choice for organizations around the world that want to do the following: Develop people and workgroups Establish rapport and to bring out the best in their people Use a common leadership style across all units in an organization, be it local, national, or international Situational Leadership is flexible. It adapts to the existing work environment and the needs of the organization. Situational Leadership is not based on a specific skill of the leader; instead, he or she modifies the style of management to suit the requirements of the organization. One of the keys to Situational Leadership is adaptability. Leaders must be able to move from one leadership style to another to meet the changing needs of an organization and its employees. These leaders must have the insight to understand when to change their management style and what leadership strategy fits each new paradigm.
FOLLOWERSHIP
Effective leadership in an organization is essential, but if teams are unable to carry out the vision, even the best leaders will not be able to meet their goals. This is why followership is a critical role that is often overlooked in an organization. There are many resources dedicated to identifying potential leaders and grooming them to ascend in the organization, but what about followers?
Whether an organization or project will succeed or fail depends in part on the actions and behaviors of followers. Just as an individual in a position of leadership is not necessarily a good leader, not all employees have the skills to be effective followers. Understanding the traits of a good follower will help all individuals play that role when necessary, and also help leaders cultivate good followership. The role of a follower is not a simple one. It doesn’t just mean following directions or blindly accepting everything a leader says. Good followership is characterized by active participation in the pursuit of organizational goals. In many cases, this means working independently, being accountable for your actions, and taking ownership of necessary tasks.
The catch is that it’s common for followers to not be recognized for their accomplishments in these areas, even though they are essential to the success of the organization. Although it can feel like a thankless role, many followers take great satisfaction in the work they do and embrace followership.
An individual might relish being a follower because they: Enjoy participating in a team Want to deeply understand the leadership role that they someday might step into Prefer to step back from leadership in some contexts Understand the value of their contributions to the overall success of the organization Regardless of the motivation, a good follower sees that their role is indeed essential, and good leaders should gain a clear understanding of the role of followers as well.
The behavioural approach differs from the traits approach in that: i. The traits approach emphasizes some particular trait to be possessed by leader whereas this theory emphasized on particular behaviour by him. ii. The purpose of trait theory was to separate leaders from non-leaders on the basis of traits, whereas the purpose of behavioural theory is to determine how various kinds of specific behaviour affect the performance and satisfaction of subordinates.
Two important behavioural theories are: i. Michigan Studies and ii. Ohio State University Leadership Studies: Michigan Studies: These empirical studies were conducted slightly after World War II by the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan. The purpose of these studies was to identify styles of leadership behaviour that results in higher performance and satisfaction of a group.
These studies distinguished between two distinct styles of leadership:
- Production Cantered Leadership: This leadership is also known as task-oriented leadership. The production-oriented leadership stressed on certain points: i. Rigid work standards, procedure and rules ii. Close supervision of the subordinates iii. Technical aspect of the job iv. Employees were not to be considered as human beings but as tools to accomplish the goals of the organisations.
- Employee Cantered Leadership: This style is also known as relation-oriented leadership because it emphasizes on human relations. The main parts which are concentrated upon in this approach are: i.To treat subordinates as human beings. ii. To show concern for the employee’s needs, welfare, advancement etc. iii. To encourage employee participation in goal setting and in other work-related decisions. iv.To help ensure high performance by inspiring respect and trust.
The findings of Michigan studies were as follows: i. These studies found that both the styles of leadership led to increase in production, but it was slightly more in case of production-oriented style. ii. On the other hand, production-oriented style led to decreased satisfaction and increased turnover and absenteeism. iii. The employee centred approach led to improved work flow procedures and more cohesions in interactions resulting in increased satisfaction and decreased turnover and absenteeism. Thus, the employees’-oriented style was considered more superior. The concepts of Michigan studies were elaborated by Tannenbaum and Schmidt who identified the range of possible leadership behaviour available to a manager. They identified two more styles of leadership on the basis of authority used by the boss and the degree of freedom available to the subordinates.
These styles were: i. Boss Centred Leadership: A manager, who exercises a high degree of control, is said to exercise a Boss Centred Leadership. ii. Employee Centred Leadership:
A manager who allows a high degree of freedom to the subordinates is known as the Employees Centred Leadership. However, these two extreme types of leadership are rarely found in practice. Every manager has both the orientations in varying degrees as is evident from the type of leadership behaviour shown in the following figure. This pattern was later on revised by Tannenbaum and Schmidt. They felt that because of changes in social system and organization environment. There would be many factors in situational variables attaching the leadership pattern. Thus, the new continuum or range of leadership pattern is more complex. A successful leader is one who is keenly aware of those forces which are more relevant to his behaviour at any given time.
Ohio State University Leadership Studies: The Bureau of Research at Ohio State University conducted these studies. The main objective of the studies was to identify the major dimensions of leadership and to investigate the effect of leader’s behaviour on employee behaviour and satisfaction.
Ultimately, these studies narrowed the description of leader behaviour to two dimensions: i. Initiating Structure ii. Consideration Initiating Structure: It refers to the leader’s behaviour in defining and organizing the relationship between himself and members of the group.
The purpose of initiating structure is to: Establish well defined patterns of organisation. Develop channels of communications and methods or procedures. To supervise the activities of employees. Consideration:
Consideration refers to the behaviour which can be characterised by: Friendliness Mutual trust Respect Supportiveness Openness Concern for the welfare of employees
FIELDER’S CONTINGENCY MODEL
Leadership models may be defined as guides that suggest specific leadership behaviors to use in a specific environment or situation. In addition, they often use a graphic representation to show the required leadership behaviour.
Fred Fiedler was the first amongst all the leadership theorists to talk about the situational variables. According to him, the effectiveness of the leadership style depends on the situation. Thus, he along with his associates identified the situational variables and studied about their relationship with the appropriateness of leadership styles.
Fiedler’s contingency model is comprised of three elements, Viz, Leadership styles, situational variables and the relationship between styles and situation. Let’s study these in detail:
Telling (S1): In this leadership style, the leader tells people what to do and how to do it. Selling (S2): This style involves more back-and-forth between leaders and followers. Leaders "sell" their ideas and message to get group members to buy into the process. Participating (S3): In this approach, the leader offers less direction and allows members of the group to take a more active role in coming up with ideas and making decisions. Delegating (S4): This style is characterized by a less involved, hands-off approach to leadership. Group members tend to make most of the decisions and take most of the responsibility for what happens.
Maturity Levels The right style of leadership depends greatly on the maturity level (i.e., the level of knowledge and competence) of the individuals or group. Hersey and Blanchard's theory identifies four different levels of maturity, including: M1: Group members lack the knowledge, skills, and willingness to complete the task. M2: Group members are willing and enthusiastic but lack the ability. M3: Group members have the skills and capability to complete the task but are unwilling to take responsibility. M4: Group members are highly skilled and willing to complete the task.
Matching Leadership Styles with Maturity Levels The Hersey-Blanchard model suggests that the following leadership styles are the most appropriate for these maturity levels: Low Maturity (M1)—Telling (S1) Medium Maturity (M2)—Selling (S2) Medium Maturity (M3)—Participating (S3) High Maturity (M4)—Delegating (S4) A Flexible Leadership Model A more "telling" style may be necessary at the beginning of a project when followers lack the responsibility or knowledge to work on their own. As subordinates become more experienced and knowledgeable, however, the leader may want to shift into a more delegating approach. This situational model of leadership focuses on flexibility so that leaders are able to adapt according to the needs of their followers and the demands of the situation.
The situational approach to leadership also avoids the pitfalls of the single-style approach by recognizing that there are many different ways of dealing with a problem and that leaders need to be able to assess a situation and the maturity levels of subordinates in order to determine what approach will be the most effective at any given moment. Situational theories, therefore, give greater consideration to the complexity of dynamic social situations and the many individuals acting in different roles who will ultimately contribute to the outcome.
The SLII Model: The Situational Leadership II (or SLII model) was developed by Kenneth Blanchard and builds on Blanchard and Hersey's original theory. According to the revised version of the theory, effective leaders must base their behaviour on the developmental level of group members for specific tasks. The developmental level is determined by each individual's level of competence and commitment. These levels include: Enthusiastic Beginner (D1): High commitment, low competence. Disillusioned Learner (D2): Some competence, but setbacks have led to low commitment.
Capable But Cautious Performer (D3): Competence is growing, but the level of commitment varies. Self-Reliant Achiever (D4): High competence and commitment. SLII Leadership Styles: SLII also suggests that effective leadership is dependent on two key behaviours: supporting and directing. Directing behaviours include giving specific directions and instructions and attempting to control the behaviour of group members. Supporting behaviours include actions such as encouraging subordinates, listening, and offering recognition and feedback.
The theory identifies four basic leadership styles, including: Directing (S1): High on directing behaviours, low on supporting behaviours. Coaching (S2): High on both directing and supporting behaviours. Supporting (S3): Low on directing behaviour and high on supporting behaviours. Delegating (S4): Low on both directing and supporting behaviours.
PATH-GOAL MODEL OF LEADERSHIP
The Path-Goal theory, inspired by the work of Martin G. Evans (1970), can best be thought of as a process by which leaders select specific behaviours that are best suited to their employees’ needs and their working environment, so that leaders may best guide their employees through their path in the obtainment of their daily work activities ( goals ) (Northouse, 2013).
The theory argues that leaders will have to engage in different types of leadership behavior depending on the nature and the demands of a particular situation. It is the leader’s role to assist employees in attaining goals and to provide the direction and support needed to ensure that their individual goals are in concert or compatible with the organization’s goals.
Path-Goal’s Four Styles The Path-Goal model is a theory based on specifying a leader’s style or behavior that best fits the employee and work environment in order to achieve a goal. The goal is to increase an employee’s motivation, empowerment, and satisfaction so they become a productive member of the organization. Employee satisfaction is contingent upon the leader’s performance as both a facilitator and coach and rewards their employees for effective performance. The original Path-Goal theory identifies achievement-oriented, directive, participative, and supportive leader behaviors rooted in four (4 styles).
The Four Styles:
- The directive path-goal clarifying leader behaviour refers to situations where the leader lets employees know what is expected of them and tells them how to perform their tasks. The theory argues that this behaviour has the most positive effect when the employees’ role and task demands are ambiguous and intrinsically satisfying.
- The achievement-oriented leader behaviour refers to situations where the leader sets challenging goals for employees, expects them to perform at their highest level, and shows confidence in their ability to meet this expectation. Occupations in which the achievement motives were most predominant were technical jobs, sales persons, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
- The participative leader behaviour involves leaders consulting with employees and asking for their suggestions before making a decision. This behaviour is predominant when employees are highly personally involved in their work.
therefore demands proper thought before answering the series of questions. By considering the three specific factors, better insight is formed about the decision to be made. The following three factors are important in each decision situation:
The Quality of the Decision The quality of the decision to be taken is about how much impact the decision will have and how important it is to find the right solution. The higher the decision’s quality, the more people must be involved in the decision process.
Involvement and Collaboration Involvement and collaboration concerns the question of how important it is that everyone agrees to the decision in a team. Depending on how important this is, the degree of participation must be raised or lowered.
Time Constraints How much time is there to take decision? If there’s little time, a fast-autocratic approach might be more desirable, as there’s no time to lose in certain situations. If there’s a lot of time, there are more options to involve more team players in the decision process. The way in which these factors influence the situation helps the user to determine what the best leadership style and decision method are.
Five Decision-making Styles The Vroom Yetton Jago Decision Model distinguishes between three leadership styles and five different decision processes:
6. Autocratic I (A1): In this decision process, the leader uses the available information to make a decision independently. The opinion of team members or external parties is not consulted in this case. Although the decision itself is not dependent upon the team members, and their opinion doesn’t matter, it is important that the made decision is communicated openly and clearly towards the team. 7. Autocratic II (A2): Here too, the leader independently makes the decision, but the difference with autocratic style 1 is that the leader has a bit more time and gathers information from team members or external parties. The team members don’t know why information is requested from them and don’t think about the situation, alternative or eventual choice. 8. Consultative I (C1): The leader adopts a consulting role and actively takes the lead to have team members individually give their opinion about the situation, the problem and the decision to be made. Here, the team’s involvement is higher than in the autocratic decision-making style. However, the decision is still made by the leader; he can choose to disregard the team’s opinion and input when these haven’t changed his outlook on the situation. 9. Consultative II (C2): Where the leader requests the individual opinions from the team members in the first consulting style, he brings the team together in a group meeting for a discussion in the second. Ideas and suggestions are asked for in this meeting. Here, the leader shares the problem and the situation with the group, but eventually, the leader is still the one to individually make the decision. 10. Group II (G2): The group as a whole makes the decision. The leader presents the situation and the problem to the group, identifies alternatives and makes a consensus decision. The leader purely plays the role of facilitator and accepts the decision of the group without considering his own opinion or vision.
EMERGING APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP – SUBSTITUTES AND ENHANCERS FOR
LEADERSHIP
Leadership is a term that conjures up different images in different people while to some it means charisma, to other, it means power and authority. Leadership skills emerge out of spontaneity and contagion needs, spontaneity refers to the need for initiating a wide range of activities or creating opportunities for other with a view to influence people. In contracts, people with contagion needs are influenced by others and will develop leadership skills. In fact, effective leadership is the mixture of both needs.
Leadership plays a crucial role in organizational dynamics. It fills many of the voids left in conventional organization design, allows for greater organizational flexibilities and responsiveness to environmental changes, provides a way to coordinate the effort of diverse groups within the organization, and facilitates organizational membership and personal needs satisfaction. It is the quality of managerial leadership that often differentiates effective from ineffective organizations. Therefore, rational leader should know different emerging approach of the leadership and also, they should be aware of current issue in leadership.
There are different approaches emerging in the field of leadership. Some of them are:
1. Attribution theory of leadership: It deals with people trying to make sense out of cause-effect relationships. When something happens, they want to attribute it to something. This theory tells that leadership is merely an attribution that people make about other individuals. Effective leaders are generally considered consistent or unwavering in their decisions. 2. Charismatic leadership theory: Followers make attributions of heroic or extraordinary abilities when they observe certain behaviors. Some examples of charismatic leaders are John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. Walt Disney, Ted Turner, Barack Obama etc. They are found to have extremely high confidence, dominance and strong convictions in his or her beliefs. 3. Transactional or transformational leadership: Transactional leaders guide or motive their followers in the direction of established goals and clarifying role and task requirements. Transactional leader, on the other hand, inspired followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organization, and they are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on his or her followers. Transformational leadership is about leading, changing the organizations strategies and culture so that they have a better bit with the surrounding environment. They are change agents who energies employees and direct them to a new set of corporate values and behaviours. 4. Visionary leadership: The ability to create and articulate a realistic, credible, attractive vision of the future for an organization unit that grows out of and improves upon the present. This vision, if properly selected and implemented, is so energizing that leads to great success of the organization. A vision has clear and compelling imagery that offer an innovative way to improve, which recognizes and draws on traditions, and connects to action that people can take to realize change. Vision taps people’s emotions and energy, properly articulated a vision creates the enthusiasm that people have for sporting events and other leisure time activities, binging the energy and commitment to the workplace.
Substitutes for leadership: The 'substitutes for leadership' theory (Kerr & Jermier, 1978) proposes that, under some circumstances, situational factors may substitute for leadership. In addition, there are situational
Ensuring long-term success Great leaders have a long-term perspective for life and success. They are not here for the short-term but for the long haul. Only leaders who practise consistent self-leadership can ensure long-term success. The temptation to push for quarterly profits at all costs can derail the leader. Unless leaders have a keen sense of self-leadership, they cannot stay focused on what’s important.
Leaving a legacy All leaders leave legacies, whether good or bad. They leave their imprint on the organization through their beliefs, values and attitudes. Hence, effective self-leadership is essentially about leaving a great legacy for the people we are leading.
Let me conclude by making two pertinent observations in self- leadership. First, self-leadership is an ongoing process of self-reflection. As Lowney writes, “Self-awareness is no one-time project. No less essential than the initial assessment of one’s strengths, weaknesses, values, and world view is the ongoing, everyday habit of self-reflection, the examen. It’s an opportunity to measure life a little bit at a time against principles and goals.”
Second, continual self-leadership is a mark of leadership maturation. Personal leadership is a never- ending work in progress that draws on continually maturing self-understanding. Some people never mature as leaders they remain insecure, self-defeating, juvenile or worse still, delinquent in their leadership development. Hence, self-leadership is imperative if we want to be great leaders.
Super leadership Super leadership is a style of leadership conceived by Charles Manz and Henry Sims and based on individual self-leadership. It is broadly similar to situational leadership theory, rebranding concepts of employee development under a marketable banner. It is often described as "Leading others to lead themselves".
Super leadership focuses on the growth and development of the self-leadership abilities in others. This is done by providing praise along with constructive criticism and feedback. Super leaders are expected to exemplify both strong self-leadership and high moral standards. The four main goals of super leadership are as follows: developing environments that promote positive attitudes enabling employees to set personal goals encouraging observation and comment amongst subordinates encouraging members of a group to support and motivate one another
Manz and Sims state that the best way to begin understanding Super leadership is to understand the way each of us influences ourselves to enhance our own satisfaction and performance. They also suggest that widespread self-leadership needs to be filtered down from the top of organizations in order to be properly engrained within their culture.
As a universal theory, super leadership recommends the use of a single style of leadership within organisations; however, this is only truly applicable in long-term scenarios. Certain prerequisites are also present in the theory, such as the assumption that employees' activities are self-directed.
The Coaching Leadership Style is a relatively new and guiding leadership style. Instead of making all decisions and delegating tasks yourself, as is the case in the autocratic leadership style, the coaching leader takes the lead to get the best out of his employees or team. A coaching leader must not be confused with a coach but does have coaching skills. The leader has these skills when he is able to develop and improve the performance and competences of his employees.
The basis of the Coaching Leadership Style is the dynamic interaction between the leader and the employee. This gives rise to valuable insights and the achieved results are discussed and analysed. This is done by means of providing and receiving feedback, asking questions and conducting motivating conversations. A good coach encourages the learning process of the coached person and promotes the responsibility and independence of the employees.
A coaching attitude of the leader ensures that the employees continue to work autonomously and independently without removing the initiative from them. A good coaching leader has his employees perform their work independently, but still makes them feel supported and involved in their work. The independent aspect in coaching makes this style excellently suitable for independent teams.
As stated above, the goal of coaching is to develop qualities and competences. In combination with leadership, the goal is to encourage the employee’s task maturity. A task-mature employee is sufficiently self-reliant, willing and able to perform tasks independently.
COACHING AND OTHER APPROACHES
Like counsellors, coaches are made up of a range of backgrounds, such as psychology, management, education, sports, and health (Martin, 2001). And of course, how coaches work with clients is related to this background, as well as to the coach’s personality, experiences, and history. Coaching-related research is similar to classic parenting style literature. Namely, in her oft-cited studies, Baumrind (1991) identified several specific parenting styles, which include authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive.
The manner in which life coaches interact with clients is similar to the distinctions noted by Baumrind. For example, coaches may vary in terms of the degree to which they control the sessions versus allowing the client to have input in terms of the coaching process (e.g., authoritarian/autocratic versus more democratic/ authoritative coaching).
Coaches also may differ in terms of whether they take a more specific focus or consider multiple connected facets of the client’s experiences (e.g., holistic coaching). Additional approaches include laissez-faire, developmental, mindfulness, and intuitive coaching—among others. There are multiple ways to coach, some are:
1. Democratic Coaching Style: A democratic (i.e., participative) coaching style follows the same general principles of democracy itself, as it takes into account the interests, concerns, and choices of the people involved. With democratic coaching, the client takes an active role in determining coaching goals and the methods used to achieve them. While client input is an essential element of democratic coaching, coaches have the last word when it comes to decision-making (Amanchukwu, Stanley, & Nwachukwu, 2015). This coaching style encourages the following client skills and qualities: Motivation collaborative competency self-efficacy
just do it on the field. You need to be a father to him, be a mother to him; you need to be an educator to him, be a teacher to him all those things” (Whitley et al., 2017, P. 9). Whether discussing sports or life coaching, the concept is the same: To impact a client’s life, the coach must recognize and address the whole client during the coaching process. This coaching style encourages the following client benefits and qualities: feeling understood trust in the coach-client relationship uncovering of deeply held feelings and drives identification of solutions enhanced wellbeing/functioning across the whole person (e.g., mind, body, feelings and spirit) Enhanced wellbeing/functioning across multiple domains (e.g., family, work, home, health, etc.)
NATURE OF EMPOWERMENT AND PARTICIPATION – WHAT IS EMPOWERMENT, WHAT IS PARTICIPATION
Employee participation and empowerment can be achieved in a small business context. To empower employees, management must transfer some decision-making authority — this shows employees that management has faith in them. Participation may be encouraged through a variety of means; the result is greater employee involvement in certain aspects of your business and greater organizational efficiency.
What is Empowerment? Bowen and Lawler define employee empowerment as referring to “the management strategies for sharing decision-making power”. According to Richard Kath nelson, empowerment is the process of employees coming to feel and behave as if they are in a position of power, as if they own their organisation.
Hammer and Champy suggest that the empowerment of front-line workers is crucial if organisations want to understand core business processes, because front-line workers are closest to these processes and are the only ones who truly understand how they work.
Employee empowerment creates a working environment in which the employee assumes or shares ownership of specific tasks and projects.
From the organisation’s perspective, employee empowerment is a management strategy that aims to give employees the tools and resources necessary to make confident decisions in the workplace without supervision. Empowerment is a long-term, resource-intensive strategy that involves significant backing in terms of time and financial investment from the organisation’s leaders. Also, employee empowerment can also be seen as delegation of responsibilities. By delegating certain responsibilities to employees could mean supervisors can take out more time in focusing on other areas of the business.
Similarly, from the employee’s perspective, employee empowerment is employees getting a certain degree of autonomy and responsibility for decision-making regarding their specific organisational tasks. It allows the employees to make decisions at their level, where they have a unique view of the issues and problems facing the organisation.
Employee empowerment also entails employees having a say in process improvement and helping to create and manage new systems and tactics. Employees get to run activities with less oversight from
higher-level management. Employees get to set their own objectives and make decisions about tasks, priorities and deadlines.
Employee empowerment is, for all intents and purposes, the opposite of micro-management. However, organisations must keep in mind that if employee empowerment is not implemented with the appropriate approach, it could have serious repercussions.
Employee empowerment doesn’t mean that management relinquishes all authority, delegates all decision-making, and allows operations to run without accountability. Employees could start taking advantage and influencing policy for selfish reasons, or they could become lax in their duties and responsibilities. Organisations must prepare their employees for the responsibilities that would fall upon them in the organisation’s quest to achieve employee empowerment. For employees to feel like their decisions matter, they need to feel accountable for the decisions they make on an on-going basis. Employee empowerment, if executed well, and with the right employees, can have more than a few advantages.
When organisations stay on top of their employee’s responsibilities and allow them to make decisions in line with their situation – decisions that can create a sense of employee empowerment, the organisations make gains by the creation of a happy workplace with content employees.
What is participation? Employee participation involves management actively encouraging staff to assist in running and improving business processes and operations. Also known as employee involvement, employee participation includes management recognizing individual employees' opinions and input, so that employees understand that management views them as unique and individually valuable to running the business.
Employee participation may be solicited in a variety of ways. For example, ask employees to drop suggestions regarding solutions to obstacles in a suggestion box. Suggestions should be reviewed and addressed at monthly meetings. Management should provide a reward to the employees whose suggestions are implemented. Employees should also be encouraged to speak freely about problems and provide ideas about how to solve them at meetings or when placed on problem- solving teams.
WHY IS PARTICIPATION POPULAR?
- Opinion is important: Community engagement is a vital part of many projects and the benefits are well documented, such as better outcomes for all stakeholders, community ownership and lower project costs but more importantly, decision makers genuinely want to hear ideas and feedback. Most community engagement these days is no longer about spreading information and telling people what is being done, but is a two-way street between decision makers and stakeholders. Regardless of your qualifications, everyone knows what they like or dislike and has an opinion about what needs to be done and where priorities should lay.
- More perspectives: Community engagement is often heavily one-sided, and engagement projects can be inundated with input from only those community members who have a strong opinion. Without other perspectives being aired, decision makers might not make the best decision for the community as a whole simply because of a minority of loud voice.
