Balance between leadership and management
Behavioural traits of successful leaders
| Behavioural traits of successful leaders | Physique Technical knowledge Intelligence Perception and caring Courage and risk-taking Persistence Innovation and creativity Position in the organization Subjective assessment by subordinates; Peer assessment Length in an organization |
Authority, Delegation, Responsibility & Accountability
Delegation of authority: delegation refers to the process of assigning work from the top to the lower level of an organization (from superior to the subordinate). The person who has been delegated has authority to accomplish the assigned task. The process of delegation involves:
- Allocation of duties
- Delegation of authority
- Assignment of responsibility
- Creation of accountability
Authority: This is the right to take a final decision. It moves in a down ward direction that is from a supervisor to a junior.
Responsibility: This is the obligation to perform the duty.Responsibility cannot be delegated.
Accountability: The person that has been delegated (the subordinate) must be held answerable to the duties that they have carried out.
Stakeholder mapping & stakeholders influence
Stakeholders: The stake holders of an organization are all those individuals or organizations that have an interest in an organization. They include the following:
- Shareholders
- Employees
- Consumers
- Competitors
- Financial Institutions
- Local community
- The press
- Government
- NGOs
- Influence: the apparent ability to use power. Influence is importance because it helps leaders and managers to obtain compliance, obedience, conformity, and commitment from their people (Stannack, 2003).
- Stakeholder mapping: Every organization needs to know their stakeholders well. Stakeholders’ power or influence and level of interest each stakeholder has to be understood in order to manage organisation to manage relations with them.
Sources of power of stakeholders:
- Internal stakeholders (within the organization): The chain of command – hierarchy which is formal power; control of strategic resources, possession of knowledge and skills.
- External stakeholders: They have control of strategic resources of key raw materials, or money (like a bank); or possession of knowledge and skills.
POWER AND AUTHORITY
There are seven different sources of power; five were originally by French and Raven (1959):
- Legitimate power (position power): power which comes with the position that one holds with
in a group or organization. The subordinates will accept instructions or even orders from their
managers. This is often referred to as position power. - Reward power: the extent to which the manager uses the intrinsic and extrinsic reward to control
other people in the organization. - Coercive power: power based on the subordinates’ fear of the supervisor’s punishments and
threats. - Expertise power: the ability to influence another’s behaviour because you possess skill,
knowledge or competence, expertise and/or experience or judgment that the other person needs
but does not have correctly. - Referent power: influence that a person exercises over others because they believe in him/her or
his/her ideas. Some people will want to be associated with the leader who has a long term vision. - Personal power: power that a person derives from the trust and support of colleagues.
- Connection power: based on personal and professional access to people and information. It is often based on a person’s networking ability.
Leading & influencing people
- Managing upwards (or managing the boss): First and middle level managers need to
understand how to communicate with their senior managers in order to get things done. They need to understand what motivates, or frustrate their managers. They also need a through understanding of their working style. When is it right to approach? In all cases, supervisees need to communicate with their managers. Do let your manager understand the challenges you are facing and the needed support to achieve the work targets - Managing the team: A manager has to influence his/her team members to improve on
their attitudes, behaviors and performance in order to achieve improvements in readiness. Managers have to provide the focus for the work, and through teamwork, drive the work forward. - Managing stakeholders: Managers have to create a sense of ownership in your stakeholders. When stakeholders are handled well – with effective communications – they can promote the name or brand of the organization. Revisit stakeholder mapping.
