Different Contexts of Leadership
As with any topic, it is necessary to define what the topic is prior to discussing it. This is the case with leadership as well. In the matter of fact, it is even more important with leadership as a topic of discussion since it is a very abstract topic. There are many misconceptions around leadership and the word itself is used in different ways in many different contexts. In essence, leadership is a universal concept that exists in many contexts. We are all leaders and are led by leaders in our lives, which is why leadership is universal. There are leaders in every aspect of life and leaders have excited in all parts of the world history. Therefore, before we start our discussion on leadership, we need to decide on the context in which we are discussing it. For example, parents are leaders to their children, but parents may not serve as leaders outside of parenting. Furthermore, teachers are leaders to their students, but may not act as leaders outside of the classroom. There are also leaders in the military, but these leadership roles may be very different from corporate leadership. Politicians are leaders as well, but not in the same sense than corporate leaders. All these leaders may share some similarities but there are also many differences between them. The differences are significant enough to confuse the discussion if the context is not clearly specified. In addition, there is also a concept known as self-leadership which is the responsibility of everyone even when they may not be leaders in any other contexts. It differs significantly from the traditional leadership of others.
Leadership can be discussed as a general concept that would cover all the different contexts, or it could be discussed in a very specific sense focusing on one context. However, when discussed in a general manner, the discussion can become quite abstract and lose its applicability to specific contexts. For example, a discussion of parents as leaders can easily become a discussion on developmental psychology, and discussion of political leaders can become a discussion on political science. The particular focus matters, because without it the discussion becomes unfocused and overly general for us to gain any clarity. Or, perhaps, the focus is not the intended focus, and the discussion can therefore become misinterpreted, and the intent of the discussion misunderstood. While all these different contextual situations where leadership occur are legitimate occurrences of leadership, the point here is that one must be clear about the context when discussion it.
For the sake of clarity and focus, this book focuses on leadership in business organizations, either for-profit or non-profit. It discusses leadership in a business management context. Obviously, there are nuances of psychology and philosophy that come to play even when leadership is discussed in this specific context. Leadership always involves people, and as such, issues of psychology and philosophy cannot be avoided. However, this book does not aim to discuss parenting of children or politics although leadership obviously occurs in these contexts. It is also not seeking to discuss military leadership in the sense of winning wars and battles. Wartime leaders may not be good peacetime leaders, and this book focuses on peacetime leadership in business organizations. Of course, some corporate leaders gained their leadership in the military and many military strategies of leadership are frequently utilized in the business world. However, the focus of this book is not on military leadership.
Origins of Leadership
Throughout the ages, people have debated whether leadership is a trait that one is born with or whether it is something that can be learned. This is an important consideration before starting a discussion on leadership. If leaders are born, there would be very little point of writing a book on leadership since there would be nothing one could learn to become a leader. If leadership would be determined by DNA, it could not be learned or improved. Therefore, it makes sense to assume that leadership is something that one can acquire and develop. While there may be some advantages that someone is born with, anyone can become a leader. It is something that can be learned and improved.
There are many different theories of what leadership is and how it can be developed. These theories look at leadership from different perspectives. Chapter two of this book will summarize these models and theories. This is not a matter of which theory is right and which one is wrong. Each of them has merit. These theories simply observe the same concept from a different theoretical viewpoint. Some focus on the leader himself or herself while others focus on the situation where leadership occurs or the qualities of the followers. Yet, some focus on the dynamics between the leaders and followers. Leadership, as a concept, legitimately contains all these different perspectives. These theories may even define leadership differently, and some of them may be more suitable for business leadership context than others.
Leadership Versus Management
It is significant, for the sake of the focus of this book, to address the difference between leadership and management. They are not the same function, but they overlap. Henri Fayol (2013) identified five functions of management, which he labeled planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. He felt that these functions are universal, and that every manager performs these functions in their daily work. While many have argued the merits of his original theory and added additional functions, it is generally agreed upon that leadership is one of the management functions. Commanding is seen as leadership in the most contexts, and it is understood that managers must also be leaders. One can be a leader without being a manager, but one cannot be a manager without also being a leader. At the same time, leadership behaviors and management behaviors are different. This can lead to some confusion. Leaders provide direction while managers maintain stability. Sometimes pursuing new strategies require change that impacts stability. Leaders encourage followers to move forward regardless of the dangers and motivate them to have courage to act. Managers, on the other hand, provide the stability, structure, and organization for people to be able to follow the direction set by the leader. These functions and roles balance and complement each other and are both mutually needed.
Leadership is generally seen as the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute to the organization’s success. Management, on the other hand, is the function responsible for controlling an organization, a group, or a set of entities to achieve a particular objective. Leaders are seen as the ones who create a vision while managers execute it. Leaders tend to be responsible for creating change while managers tend to react to change. Leaders should generally be people focused while managers should be structure focused. Ideally, leaders should seek feedback while managers minimize weaknesses. In simple terms, leaders lead people while managers manage work. It is also interesting to note that leaders tend to be more involved in answering the question of “what” while managers are more concerned about answering “how.” Sometimes leader and manager are the same person but often it makes more sense to have two different people serving in these roles to complement each other. It is hard for leaders to encourage vision and ensure stability at the same time. Doing so requires a lot of skill and balancing.
Leadership is Abstract
One of the challenges with defining leadership is that it is a very abstract term. It is used so broadly in so many different situations that it becomes confusing to understand what is meant with it. In fact, one can read and study all the leadership theories ever developed, and read all the leadership books ever written, and still feel somewhat confused and unclear about what leadership truly is. This is because nobody truly knows the right answers. What works for one does not for another. There are too many factors involved in any leadership situation for the same methods and techniques to work every time. Countless of philosophers, psychologists, management scholars, and other experts have studied leadership since the beginning of human history. There is no shortage of examples and case studies to learn from. History books share stories of emperors, kings, and other rulers who practiced leadership. There are also stories of political leaders and religious leaders. Transformational leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, and Martin Luther King Jr. are very well known. Similarly, almost everyone has heard of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Lee Iacocca, or Roberto Goizueta in the business leadership side. Not everyone agrees that all these individuals were good leaders, and some argue that their leadership styles would not work today. The conversation will continue endlessly with no definite conclusion because leadership, as a concept, is simply too broad and complex. There is no perfect recipe in how to be a great leader. There is no perfect leadership.
Leadership is not easy, and it should not be undertaken by people who are not prepared for it. Leadership development is a journey of self-discovery. It is a process of maturation. In this journey, one often faces challenges and obstacles. They are necessary for an individual to grow and evolve as a better leader. Leadership is often lonely, and it requires a significant amount of courage to take on the responsibilities of a leader. At the same time, leadership does not have to be a struggle. It can be a very enjoyable and satisfactory journey. However, leadership is a choice. One must decide to lead and find meaning in it. It cannot be a random act that one does accidentally, although sometimes leaders emerge somewhat accidentally. However, at some point they must make a choice to continue to lead and embrace this role. Good leadership must be meaningful and purposeful. It requires a lot, starting from an ability and willingness to assume the responsibility and accountability that comes with it. Leadership requires power and authority, as well as influence. These are all some of the ingredients of good leadership and they all must be used carefully and intentionally.
Too many times people seek to be leaders for the sake of perceived status and respect. They do it for their ego needs and not for the right reasons. Leadership is not something that should be sought for the sake of title of money either. Leaders have an enormous impact on their followers and this responsibility should be taken seriously. For leadership to be sustainable, it must be engaged in for the right reasons and with proper care. Not everyone should or can be a leader and promoting someone to a leadership position as a reward of good performance in another role may sometimes be a big mistake. For example, if someone is a good salesperson, rewarding them by appointing them into a sales manager position may not be a good idea. A good salesperson is focused on meeting their own personal sales goals and gets satisfaction from achieving those goals. A sales manager should be focused on the performance of others, and the formerly great salesperson may not receive the same sense of satisfaction in others meeting their sales goals. All of us receive our sense of meaning from different outcomes and activities. For some people, it does not originate from the performance of other people. Yet, for a leader, the focus must be on others. Therefore, leadership simply is not for everyone. Not everyone is able to undertake this demanding role as it requires a lot of hard work, high level of skill, years of practice, and even some personal sacrifice.
There is a difference between mere leadership and good leadership. Not all leaders are good leaders, but they are leaders regardless. Leadership requires empathy and compassion, and emotional intelligence. Leaders must have the desire to genuinely help others to be effective and successful. Self-serving leadership could not be called good leadership. There is an ethical requirement to be a good leader as good leadership must always be ethical leadership. In addition, leaders must be socially responsible to be effective in long term. While narcissistic individuals sometimes become leaders, they rarely succeed in long term.
Authentic Leadership
The authors of this book feel that authentic leadership is one of the most applicable leadership models in terms of the modern leadership demands. The term “authenticity” comes from the Greek authentikós, meaning “genuine” and from the late Latin authenticus, which means “vouched for” and “reliable”. The term “authenticity,” therefore, aims at genuineness in the sense of originality. Authentic people are seen as being “real” and having an ability for self-awareness and self-reflection. They are actively aware and conscious of their own strengths and weaknesses, and they act with awareness of their own values and principles. In doing so, their interactions with other people are perceived as being sincere and genuine. Authentic Leadership, in turn, refers to a leadership style in which the leader remains true to oneself. Authentic leaders perceive themselves as being active participants in their own life stories and actively evaluate their own leadership behaviors. They take responsibility for their own decisions and actions and seek to learn lessons from their experiences. They are true to themselves, proactive, and self-aware.
Bill George (2004) defined five dimensions that help to shape authentic leadership. These are Purpose, Values, Heart, Relationships, Self-Discipline. It is useful to review them in this context. Purpose refers to being aware of your own strengths and weaknesses to understand your personal needs and purpose. Values refer to being transparent about your own attitudes, believes, and principles. All your actions are predetermined by your values, and by being transparent about them you are being authentic. George uses the word heart to refer to the leader being empathic with yourself and those around you. With this, you can find the balance between yourself, your team members, and the entire organization. That is, you must understand what kind of relationship you have with yourself and those around you. With self-discipline, you can always practice what you preach, so to speak. It takes self-discipline to stay true to yourself and committed to learning about yourself. Learning authentic leadership requires staying on the sometimes-painful path of self-exploration. However, this is worth it because once you learn how to be authentic, many new opportunities are opened to you as a leader. Staying on the path requires self-discipline but the good news is that it gets easier with practice. Authentic leadership is sort of like a form of authentic self-expression. Practicing this type of mindfulness and awareness of self is very beneficial not only to become a better leader but to become a better and psychologically more conscious and evolved person.
Leadership Journey
As was already suggested earlier, one is not born to be a leader. One must grow to become a leader. Bill George (2007) shared many leadership journeys of famous leaders through his experience as a leader and from his interviews with other leaders. Wahlstrom (1997) had earlier suggested that leadership is a psychological journey that is known as the hero’s journey. Even prior to this, although not specifically referring to leaders, Joseph Campbell (1949) wrote about the hero’s journey in his famous book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This theme was further popularized in the Star Wars movies and the journey of Luke Skywalker, from an orphan boy to a Jedi knight. This makes sense considering the influence of Campbell on George Lucas, the originator of the original Star Wars movie (1977). These two men had a close friendship and collaboration, and George Lucas based the framework of the story for the original Star Wars around the theories of Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Of course, through the history, we have seen this hero’s journey repeatedly since the original hero myth of Percival, one of the knights of the round table. Because of the reoccurring nature of this theme in mythology, it is known as the monomyth and studied widely by mythologists and literature scholars. It is, therefore, not an unreasonable leap to consider this theme as the guiding light in understanding leadership development as well. Wahlstrom explains this in detail in Psychological Applications in Management: The Hero’s Journey. He explores the archetypes involved in the leadership development journey and how they manifest in the life of a leader.
Once you start on your journey of being authentic and learn self-discipline to stay on this learning path, you will expand your consciousness and increase your empathy for yourself and others in an ever-evolving cycle. The journey involves three stages that are known as the levels of ego, self, and soul. They are also seen as the stages of preparation, journey, and return. After all, like with all journeys, one needs to prepare for the journey, undertake the journey, and return from the journey. Eventually one may start another journey and learn at an ever-higher level. Our lives do not consist of just one single journey, as we travel through the entire lifecycle. We are always starting new journeys and returning from them to bring forth the rewards. We are always growing psychologically and evolving as individuals. We do this by strengthening our egos so that we can find our souls, and eventually to become our true selves. As authentic individuals and leaders, we are always in the process of becoming. We are always learning who we truly are and how to find our true norths. According to the field of analytical psychology, founded by Carl Jung, we are traveling our self-discovery journeys guided by archetypes. These archetypes are named in a way that we can relate to them like we can relate to the characters in movies, myths, and fairytales. Jung calls this process personification. After all, movies and myths are all just examples of stories consisting of hero’s journeys discussed earlier. Each stage of the leadership development journey consists of four archetypes according to Wahlstrom (1997). Below are the stages and the archetypes with the corresponding learning tasks brough by that archetype influencing the journey at that time.
Ego/Preparation
INNOCENT: Learn loyalty, optimism, face abandonment and possible insecurity; start trusting the management and feeling safe and accepted within the organization.
ORPHAN: Learn empathy, interdependence, and realism; learn to ask help when necessary. WARRIOR: Learn to protect boundaries of ego, defend oneself; learn to fight for what one wants and protect it when one has it.
CAREGIVER: Learn to sacrifice and love, be generous and compassionate; take care of routine tasks and promote “organizational citizenship.”
Soul/Journey
SEEKER: Search for better life or a better way, learn autonomy and ambition; seek better ways to manage and do business.
DESTROYER: Learn humility and acceptance, grow and experience metamorphosis; let mistakes go, turn things over, accept imperfection.
LOVER: Learn commitment, passion, ecstasy; feel enthusiastic, purposeful, and passionate about one’s work.
CREATOR: Learn creativity and identity; create better ways of doing one’s work, experience work as vocation.
Self/Return
RULER: Learn competency, responsibility, and sovereignty; organize and manage harmoniously and fairly.
MAGICIAN: Feel personal power; transform lesser into better work.
SAGE: Learn skepticism, wisdom, and nonattachment; be truthful and understanding.
FOOL: Learn joy, freedom, and liberation; feel work as enjoyable and pleasurable.
Archetypes are around us and impact our lives whether we are aware of them or not. Our lives follow these archetypal patterns. Therefore, they also influence our leadership development journeys as we become more authentic leaders. The process, called individuation, is faster when we are conscious of it and able to reflect on what we learn. As we stay on our path of self-exploration, we learn about ourselves and evolve as leaders. We also learn how to interact in the world around us in a balanced manner exercising empathy with ourselves and others. We follow our hearts and find our purposes. In the end, a true leader is one who has found his or her true north, or a sense of calling. This leader is competent, responsible, and sovereign when needed, organizing, and managing harmoniously and fairly. This true leader is also able to have a sense of personal power and to transform organizations and continuously improve them. Leaders must be problem solvers and fixers, and they are trusted to make a difference around them and to change organizations to better. An individuated leader can also think critically with healthy skepticism, wisdom, and nonattachment, while being truthful and understanding. This authentic leader is, in the end, also able to experience joy and freedom, and feel liberated. Work can be enjoyable and pleasurable for a leader like this. After all, one can only perform well when one enjoys what one is doing.
The hero’s journey model of the leadership archetypes is a beneficial framework for emerging and evolving leaders to understand their psychological maturation journeys. They are all traveling this hero’s journey to become more authentic leaders. To begin the journey and to prepare for it, one must first learn loyalty and optimism. One must face possible abandonment and insecurity and start trusting the management and feeling safe and accepted within the organization. One must also learn empathy, interdependence, and realism, as well as learn to ask help when necessary. In is also important for an emerging leader to learn to protect boundaries of ego, defend oneself, and to learn to fight for what one wants and protect it when one has it. In addition, a newfound leader must learn to sacrifice when needed, and to be generous and compassionate. A leader starting the leadership development journey must learn to take care of routine tasks and promote “organizational citizenship.” This is important as responsible leadership involves many daily tasks that are not necessarily enjoyable but must be completed never less.
During the journey itself, one learns many useful lessons such as how to have a sense of autonomy and ambition. One learns how to feel motivated to seek for a better way of life and to seek to improve as a leader and a manager. One must also learn to experience a sense of humility and acceptance, as nobody can control all situations and outcomes. Life is not always fair, and nobody knows how to do everything. Nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes occasionally. At the same time, one must learn to feel enthusiastic and experience passion for the work one is doing. One must be committed to it and feel purposeful about it. In addition, one must learn creativity and identity, and to find better ways of doing things as well as experience work as a vocation. These are all the gifts that archetypes can bring to a leader during the journey.
The benefits of the archetypal learning tasks are almost self-explanatory. It is almost intuitively obvious that these lessons are needed for a leader to learn before good leadership is possible. However, it is strangely difficult for these lessons to be learned and many individuals fail to learn them, and countless emerging leaders get “stuck” somewhere in the middle of the journey and never emerge as successful leaders. Some never even get the preparatory learning completed while others fail to return from their journeys and bring it all together.
Existentialism and Leadership
Authenticity and analytical psychology are closely related to existentialism. Existential philosophy and its applications in psychology can assist leaders in their personal growth and development. It can help them to become stronger persons psychologically as well. As such, they are more likely to achieve their true leadership potential. Existential way of life has become more appealing to many especially during the recent years as the pandemic has challenged the world and forced us to think about the meaning of it all. Many people have started to seek meaning in their lives as the world around them has started to appear increasingly absurd. Leaders are not exempt from these feelings. In the matter of fact, their lives may feel even more meaningless during these difficult times. Many of them have not been able to lead and interact with their followers normally as many organizations have moved to remote work mode. It is, therefore, understandable that many leaders have quit their leadership careers or may be considering quitting. Organizational leadership just does not feel the same anymore as the world around us has shifted. It does not feel as meaningful as it once did. The entire business world is going through a sort of an existential crisis.
As a philosophy, existentialism emphasizes individual existence, freedom, and choice. According to existentialism, humans define their own meaning and try to make decisions despite existing in an absurd universe. It focuses on human existence and knowing that there is no purpose or explanation at the core of our existence. It holds that the only way to find meaning in life is by embracing existence. Existentialists believe that individuals are entirely free and must take personal responsibility for themselves. Existentialism emphasizes action, freedom and decision making as fundamental, and poses that the only way to rise above the essentially absurd condition of humanity is by exercising our personal freedom and choice.
Existentialists feel that we are free to choose our own terms of engagement in our situations. This is important for a leader. Many times, leaders are not given a voice by organizations and various shareholders. People are only interested in their performance rather than who they are as individuals. Existential psychology can change that and empower leaders to have a voice. Existentialism encourages individuals to defy the restrictive norms that they are subjected to. Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg are recent examples of leaders who decided on their own terms of engagement. They decided to lead on their own authentic manner and the world supported them. They are existential heroes.
Existentialists also think that human beings are not predefined as essence but rather defined by their actions. Leaders are individuals like the rest of us. They define who they are by their own actions and are free to be who they are. According to existentialism, existence is a matter of continuous striving. Leaders are continuously thriving to be better and to improve their organizations. Business is all about continuously improving and reaching your highest potential. Existential philosophy and psychology can help you to be in the right mindset to do this. In addition, we must remember that we cannot expect the world to be meaningful from the outset without any effort. Rather, the world is full of ambiguity and contradictions, which can make existence arbitrary, and the world seem absurd. Existential philosophy is an attempt to embrace this ambiguity and look deeper into what it is like to live under this elementary condition. From time to time, we are bound to experience an uncanny feeling of estrangement, alienation or disintegration, or even deep existential anxiety. All this is perfectly normal and just part of being a human. Existentialism can help us to cope better with this anxiety.
Mental Toughness
Mental toughness is considered a desirable personality trait that tends to significantly determine how well leader perform when exposed to stressors, pressures, and challenges, irrespective of prevailing circumstances. It is an important trait especially in today’s high-pressure environment where leaders must worry about much more than what happens inside of their organizations. Top leaders must face pressures of publicity and even a level of celebrity. They are required to attend news conferences and maintain their image and brand. In addition, business is more competitive than ever. Loss is hard to accept and requires mental toughness. In some industries, a leader’s performance depends on many outside factors that are not directly under the leader’s control. Leading in these types of environments requires mental toughness.
Mental toughness is said to influence approximately 25% of individual’s performance. It helps leaders to work harder and to achieve more. This is a very significant margin of improvement. Mental toughness promotes positive behavior. It creates better engagement and more “can do” attitude. Leaders with mental toughness are also more likely to accept personal responsibility. In addition, mental toughness promotes wellbeing. Mentally tough individuals tend to experience more contentment and manage stress better. Mentally tough people have higher aspirations, and they are more ambitious. They tend to have higher standards and are generally more confident and prepared to manage more risks.
To become more resilient, or mentally tough, a leader needs a blend of control, commitment, challenge, and confidence. Control is defined as the feeling of one’s ability to manage whatever is happening within or around oneself. Commitment is the desire to keep on despite difficulties. Challenge involves understanding that stress is a normal part of life and an opportunity to learn and grow. Confidence means the belief that one can successfully do things. All these four qualities are needed to possess mental toughness and they must be developed through one’s life in a conscious manner.
There are techniques that can be utilized to develop better mental toughness. Performance thinking, for example, includes the development of the proper mindset and internal locus of control. Anxiety management techniques, on the other hand, consist of the development of specific strategies to manage anxiety and stress. Additionally, attentional control and mindfulness meditation can be used to calm and focus the mind better. Goal setting and coaching can help to articulate and align values as well as identify and use one’s strengths. For some people, visualization and imagery can also be helpful tools. For those who have access to it, biofeedback can assist in monitoring the development of these skills. These are just a few tools that can used to acquire more mental toughness. For true searchers, reading Stoic philosophy can add an extra flavor.
Mental toughness is mostly a mindset. The lack of it does not mean mental weakness. Low mental toughness equates to mental sensitivity, not mental weakness. It is also possible for people with high mental toughness to cause problems and to be perceived as harsh and insensitive. Therefore, it is important for individuals to maintain the right level of mental toughness for each situation. It takes time to develop and master it, and to get the balance right.
Stoicism in Leadership
Much has been written about the importance of emotional intelligence lately. This is as important in leadership as it is in the general business world or one’s family life. Emotional intelligence refers to our ability to be aware of our emotions; to control and express them. It helps us to handle our interpersonal relationships empathetically and judiciously. In many ways emotional intelligence is the key to success, including business.
Understanding the major themes in Stoicism can help with the development of emotional intelligence. Stoicism is a philosophy made famous my Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. It was originally founded by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC and was heavily influenced by Socrates. Stoicism is defined as the ability to endure pain or hardship without complaints or any display of feelings. However, upon deeper analysis, one can find some important themes in Stoicism that are directly related to emotional intelligence development of leaders.
The central theme in Stoicism is to recognize what is under one’s control. Stoics maintain that it is useless to react to things that we cannot control. In organizational leadership, there are many variables that are not controlled by the leaders. Letting go of these and focusing only on acting on events that one can control can be very helpful. Misplacing emotions on things that cannot be controlled is exhausting and unnecessary. Emotional energy such as anger is better used when directed to controllable action. Leaders can improve their performance by not wasting energy on trying to change things they cannot control.
Another one of the important principles of Stoicism is to understand one’s emotions. This is important to leaders because leadership can be emotional in many ways. Emotions are caused by many events and can shift quickly. Sometimes mastering one’s emotions is as easy as understanding them. Mastery of emotions does not mean living without any feelings. It means that feelings like anger and sadness will not be misplaced on things that we cannot control. It also means that we learn to replace our negative feelings with positive emotions such as calm and contentment. We are often frustrated when we try to control things but when we let go of this need for control, we can experience more joy. That is, by not trying to control what we can’t control, we learn to control what we can control.
The final principle of Stoicism focuses on conforming to reality. To make the best out of all situations, one must have a realistic outlook. Setting realistic goals and expectations is necessary and trying to make reality to conform to our desires is futile. It makes more sense to conform our expectations to reality. Ultimately, Stoics make the best out of every situation, even loss and tragedy. They always find the lessons to be learned, and meaningful action to be taken as a result. They find the new opportunities in everything.
Leading Through Conflict
Every business that employs people regardless of size and industry experiences interpersonal and organizational conflict. Leaders must face conflict and find a way to manage it well. Typically, multiple inter-related variables and circumstances are the causes of conflict. For example, some of these causes include constant changes in the competitive environment, increasing diversity among employees, and limited resources. As a result of these changing variables managing conflict is important in many ways. First, it is important because unmanaged conflict can have expensive legal consequences as people seek litigation to resolve disputes. Second, managing conflict is important because high level of negative conflict can cause employee dissatisfaction and expensive turnover as well as decreased productivity. Lastly, managing conflict is important because when done well it can become a catalyst for creativity and innovation as well as organizational learning. It can become a strategic advantage as a company becomes a learning organization capable of benefiting from different points of views. Employees of a learning organization feel open to express opinions and make suggestions that lead to improvements without the fear of conflict.
Conflict is usually a symptom of an underlying problem and not just a problem by itself. It can be a symptom of weak organizational design, ineffective communication, bad leadership, dysfunctional organizational culture, or poor selection of employees. When a leader is called upon to address organizational conflict, these underlying causes are often addressed rather than the conflict itself. Conflict mediation is only an immediate intervention for acute negative conflict that needs to be resolved before these underlying issues can be safely addressed. This is very similar to the work of a psychotherapist. An individual who sees a therapist for depression or anxiety is often not directly treated for these symptoms outside of some immediate medication stabilizing mood to give strength to deal with therapy. Rather, the issues of dysfunctional relationships, ineffective lifestyle choices, and lacking coping skills are address during therapy. Similarly, when a patient sees a physician for high cholesterol, the underlying lifestyle issues such as lack of exercise and bad diet are addressed. Cholesterol medication alone is not sufficient remedy if these underlying causes are not addressed. Conflict that is resolved through legal action at courts never works as the underlying causes are not addressed and parties are left with resentment. Only a systematic process of conflict management with some immediate conflict mediation can resolve the issues permanently and in a sustainable fashion.
Organizational leaders can address the causes of conflict proactively and thus negative conflicts can be managed, resolved, or even transformed into a positive force. Since people are often the main reason for interpersonal and organizational conflict, the way people interact and make decisions together must be addressed. Increased knowledge of differences between people in terms of cultural attitudes, conflict management styles, and psychological types is the first step. The second step is for people to learn skills and techniques to communicate more effectively and focus on issues rather than personalities. When these people skills and abilities are supported by matching organizational structure and culture, as well as effective leadership, increased productivity and profitability occurs. Expensive legal costs are minimized, and employee retention improved. Quality of the services and products is increased as people communicate better and make better decisions. This is why conflict is such an important issue in business organizations of all kinds, and should be managed, resolved, or transformed.
Conflict in the workplace is a fact of life, and the world of work is not immune to its effects. It is normal and unavoidable for people with different goals and needs to occasionally disagree and find themselves in a conflict. This is not necessarily a bad thing and if conflict is resolved effectively, it can lead to creativity and personal growth. It can become a source of innovation, continuous improvement, and competitive advantage. Effective conflict resolution skills can make a significant difference between positive and negative consequences of conflict. In addition, organizational culture and structure are important contributors to organizational conflict. By resolving conflict successfully, one can resolve many problems brought into the surface by conflict and reach many unexpected benefits. These include increased competitiveness, better understanding, and group cohesion, as well as improved self-knowledge. When conflict is resolved and managed well, it expands people’s awareness and gives them better insights into how they can reach their own goals without undermining those of other people. In addition, team members can develop stronger mutual respect, and a renewed ability to work together. Conflict forces people to question their goals and helps them to prioritize and focus better. This will enhance their effectiveness.
Conflict is typically caused by individual sources such as diversity, stress, role confusion, lack of work/life balance, and differences in attitude, personality, perception, and locus of control. Organizational sources of conflict include mechanistic organizational structure, strict hierarchy and line of command, poor communication, and bureaucracy. This can be further escalated by lack of resources, inflexibility to environment, and poor morale as well as overall negative organizational culture. The good news that there are many ways to overcome these challenges. Learning organizations are organizations that are skilled in managing conflict and learning from mistakes in a continuous fashion. Innovation is an important result of learning and occurs only when people are willing to experiment and be assertive, sharing their ideas and creativity. When conflict is approached in a proactive and positive manner, and managed well, it can become this source of learning and creativity. Learning builds culture, which impacts strategy, and creates structure. Everything is connected according to the system’s model of organization.
If conflict is not handled effectively, the results can be very damaging. Conflicting goals can quickly turn into personal dislikes and teamwork can break down. Talent can be wasted as people disengage from their work, and the organization can end up in a vicious downward spiral of negativity and blame. To keep a team or organization working effectively, one needs to stop this downward spiral as soon as possible. To do this, it helps to understand two of the theories that lie behind effective conflict resolution techniques. These include conflict styles by Thomas and Kilmann and the Interest-Based Relational Approach. In the 1970’s Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann identified five main styles of dealing with conflict that vary in their degrees of cooperativeness and assertiveness. They argued that people typically have a preferred conflict resolution style. However, they also noted that different styles were most useful in different situations. Interest-Based Relational Approach is a conflict resolution strategy that respects individual differences while helping people avoid becoming too entrenched in a fixed position. These two models are a good start in the journey of positive conflict management.
Self-Leadership
When we think about leadership, we often think about leading others. However, true leadership starts from within. One cannot lead others without first learning to lead oneself. This starts with physical and psychological wellbeing.
John F. Kennedy once said that “physical fitness is the basis for all other forms of excellence.” It is interesting to observe the fitness habits of some of the well-known CEOs. For example, Richard Branson of the Virgin Group likes to play tennis as often as twice a day and do some weightlifting. Tim Cook of Apple uses exercise to manage his stress and goes to the gym for an hour every morning. Oprah Winfrey reportedly spends an hour in her home gym every morning as well followed by twenty minutes of meditation. These are just a few illustrative examples as there are many more. Many effective leaders understand that fitness is important for their ability to maintain high energy levels and cope with stress and burnout. After all, leadership is stressful and demanding.
Proper amount of sleep is also very important for overall wellbeing and concentration. Effective leaders sleep enough of time to recharge themselves. Sleep deprivation can lead to aggravation and poor concentration, both of which do not constitute good leadership attributes. Leadership requires high stakes decision making and a clear mind. It also requires emotional intelligence. Lack of sleep, especially REM sleep, can cause moodiness and impaired decision making. Exercise and sleep alone are not sufficient. Diet is also an important factor in total well-being. While it is not necessary to be a vegan or vegetarian to be healthy, it is interesting to note how many leaders are. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, for example, is a vegan. So is Bill Clinton. Def Jam Record founder Russell Simmons is another vegan. Senator Cory Booker has been a vegetarian for 20 years. He tried to be a vegan but could not give up ice cream. Clearly many leaders feel that diet plays an important part in their ability to be at their best. Vegan or vegetarian diets release more blood to our brains which helps with mental energy.
Aristotle stated that “happiness depends upon ourselves.” This is very much true. In the end, true self-leadership depends on having a healthy mind. Leaders must have psychological strength and stamina. While it is not possible for all leaders to undergo many years of psychoanalysis, there are many behavioral, cognitive, and emotional strategies that can help. Positive emotions and self-efficacy lead to better stress coping. This is important because stress is costing workplace in the United States approximately $300 billion every year. Prolonged stress can lead to depression affecting more than 264 million people worldwide. Leaders can avoid depression by managing stress and taking care of their psychological health.
In conclusion, self-leadership is important to all of us. We are all leaders of ourselves even if we are not leaders of others. Self-leadership is a pre-requisite of good leadership of others. It is where it all starts. In the end, we cannot be good to anyone else if we are not good to ourselves.
Strategic Leadership
Strategic management is always difficult and requires skilled leadership. Even in the most stable environments and industries, formulating, implementing, and evaluating strategies is challenging. In the current environment, the business world is very unstable and unpredictable. Planning is almost impossible because it is very hard to predict the future. Nobody knows when, if ever, an organization is faced with an unexpected change event. The pandemic and many other related and even unrelated changes have impacted the business world in a possibly permanent manner. The pandemic was the black swan event for business that will have long term consequences in ways that we are not yet capable of understanding.
The real irony is that planning is always relatively easy. However, there is a significant difference between strategic planning and strategic management. Planning is a task that the leader and the executive team is responsible for. However, strategic management is everyone’s responsibility. Every level of the organization should be involved in strategic management for it to work. This is because plans mean nothing unless they are implemented. Strategy implementation is the hardest part of the strategic management process and the part that requires leadership. Employees are not likely to support a plan that they were not involved in developing. Without the employee buy in and engagement, implementation is almost impossible. All successful strategies require strategy supportive organizational cultures. Strategic management requires strategic leadership, project management, and budgeting. Priorities must be identified, and the overall strategy must be broken down into short term tactics and actions. These actions must be delegated to proper teams and individuals. These teams must be empowered, supported, and trained. Budgets must be allocated properly so that each action can be completed effectively and efficiently. Sometimes strategies require new staffing so the organization’s human resources department must be able to recruit and hire in a timely manner. In addition, many strategies require new technologies that must be rolled out and users trained in a systematic manner. All these activities must be completed in a synchronized and coordinated manner for strategy implementation to be successful. These are all tasks for a leader to lead.
The best strategic leaders are not just planners. They are people leaders and organizational developers. They command, coordinate, and organize. They also understand that every strategy must be evaluated and controlled. Without the evaluation step, the success cannot be measured and without control mechanisms it cannot be duplicated. What has not been formulated cannot be implemented, and what has not been implemented cannot be evaluated and controlled. This is a sequential process. Implementation is the action stage. It is where “rubber hits the road” and where an abstract idea or plan is tested out in practice. Without implementation, the plan is just a plan. It is a formulated but untested strategy. It means very little in the end.
If planning is challenging in the business world during these turbulent times, implementation is doing it even more. Employees are stressed out and anxious these days. They may be working from home and are therefore potentially less engaged to begin with. Many organizations are thinly staffed and have suffered from layoffs. Employee morale is possibly low. Developing a strategy supportive culture takes even more leadership and management skill now than at other times. On the other hand, people are now more acutely aware that changes are needed and tend to have a greater sense of urgency. It is easier for leaders to justify changes and explain why action is needed. If employees are properly engaged in the planning process and the strategy formulation is done in a transparent manner, the foundation is there for the needed buy in. All it takes is good leadership and proper project management as well as suitable resource allocation to make it all work. This may be easier said than done, but it is what it takes.
Leadership Communication
It is common for people in organizations to claim that bad communication is a cause of their problems. However, this is often not the case at all. Bad communication is not a cause. It is a symptom. It signals problems that are deeper and only manifesting themselves by preventing good communication from occurring. Let’s explore what some of those underlying issues are.
Organizational structure and culture go hand in hand. When an organization is poorly structured, organizational culture suffers. When organizational culture goes bad, so does communication. Bad organizational structures are likely to be poorly integrated and coordinated. People often work in silos without proper collaboration and teamwork. Workflows are poorly defined and job descriptions are often too rigid. People tend to be territorial and negatively competitive with each other. This creates bad communication. Since people are not aware of the overall value chain and only focus on their own jobs, they do not see it as necessary to communicate with others to perform their daily tasks. Bad organizational structures are typically top heavy and overly centralized. They are hierarchical and communication flow is often top-down if it occurs at all. It is one way rather than two ways.
Leadership is another factor impacting organizational communication. Overly directive and task-oriented leaders tend to not focus on the importance of good communication. They tend to only focus on goals and objectives. The problem with their management by objectives approach is that they fail to focus on the processes. For the processes to work, there must be some teamwork and collaboration. These require good communication. However, if it is not fostered and modeled by the leader, it is not likely to occur. Task oriented leaders do not focus on people. They tend to have a need for control, and this control often includes attempts to control all communication as well. People tend to feel ignored, and they do not see themselves as being valued and appreciated. They tend to be poorly motivated and passive. Their lack of engagement limits their desire to communicate positively. The irony of these task-oriented leaders is that they do not communicate their expectations clearly. Since their focus is not on people, they also do not pay attention to whether they are being understood. When their communication is top-down and one sided, there is no feedback loop. It is incorrectly assumed by the leader that all communications sent or attempted are received and understood.
Sometimes communication is interrupted by noise. This can be either literal noise or “noise” caused by some indirect environmental factors such as stress, overwork, perceived chaos, and turnover. Sometimes there is technical noise in the form of poor Internet or mobile phone connection. When there is too much noise, intended communication does not go through and the message sent by the sender is not received by the receiver. Dysfunctional organizations have a lot of noise that makes communication nearly impossible. Regardless of all the different communication channels, some better than others, good communication does not occur. Sometimes it is the number and nature of these different channels that make it impossible. Wrong channels are used for communication attempts. For example, email is used when face to face discussion would be better. Sometimes messaging applications and video conferencing platforms make communication worse rather than better.
Communication is in the heart of all human interactions. It is the key to all organizational interactions. People need to communicate to work together. Without it, optimal performance is impossible. Poor communication is not fixed by addressing the communication itself. It is fixed by correcting the underlying issues of organizational structure, culture, and leadership.
Change Leadership
We have seen so much change that it is almost impossible to keep up during the past few years. However, the truth is that change has been happening for a long time before the recent times. This is true in every industry and everywhere in the world. In many ways, we have been like boiling frogs and not seen a lot of it but that does not mean that it has not happened. Change happens whether we like it or not and no matter how much we resist it. Change is truly inevitable and an essential part of all leadership. Every leader must be a change leader.
To lead well through change, leaders must learn to be sensitive to changes and communicate them consistently and constantly. Communication really is the main key to managing change. It requires an understanding of the way change impacts people. People react emotionally and when they do, they often go on a survival mode. That is, they tend to become stressed out and shift their focus on the lower-level needs. Leaders need to have sufficient emotional intelligence and psychological mindedness to recognize this. Communication must reflect this understanding and sensitivity.
The global pandemic forced people to focus on their survival and to consider their safety. This caused productivity losses and performance deficiencies. It is very difficult for employees to focus on their work tasks when they are concerned about the health of their loved ones and their own. With this stress and anxiety, changes around them become even more difficult to deal with than in less difficult circumstances. When people feel this way, they tend to become protective of their own jobs and engage in “turf wars.” They tend to become defensive and try to deflect blame. The lack of social interaction caused by social distancing measures did not make this any easier. In addition, the lack of nonverbal cues caused by mask wearing caused communication failures. So, if communication is the key to change management, it became even more so in the middle of the pandemic environment. Emails and Zoom meetings were not enough to fill the void left by the lack of face-to-face human interaction.
When the world is changing around us, we need organization and structure. leaders can help employees by providing a sense of stability by maintaining order. During the times of crisis, leaders must maintain “cool head and warm heart.” That is, enforce the organizational policies in a composed manner, while allowing certain flexibility to demonstrate care for people. It is a delicate balance to be stern and supportive at the same time. Yet, this is what successful change managers and leaders do. They have vision and inspire and stabilize and normalize at the same time. Change management requires a steady hand. It also requires an ability to use personal power forms of referent and expert power. Relying on coercive and positional power alone does not work in the times of change. A good command of influence tactics is also a plus when managing change. After all, change management is a process of influencing and persuading people to trust that they can get through the change. It requires trust and optimism, and a manager who can cultivate the required organizational culture. Since change is constant, all management is, therefore, change management.
Leading Remote Workers
A lot has changed in the world in just a matter of a few years. As more employees are working from home, leaders struggle to motivate and engage their teams. Without the ability to conduct face-to-face meetings, leaders must now communicate via Zoom sessions, emails, and phone calls. Some leaders can cope with this better as in many ways this situation is an introvert’s paradise and extrovert’s hell. People leaders may feel the need for human-to-human interaction while task leaders may find that they now have fewer interruptions and more time for reading and writing reports. Employees are obviously experiencing this in the same way. Some of them like working from home while some may see remote work as a true challenge. We are all doing the best we can under the circumstances.
It is possible to lead remote workers effectively. This pandemic does not have to be a cause for productivity losses. However, leading distantly under the pressures and anxieties of the volatile work of business takes special skills. It is possible to build and maintain high performing teams while working from home. It takes time and focus and rethinking of work as whole. It takes a paradigm shift of a kind. One cannot look at time and location in the same way, as one cannot control those dimensions anymore. Everything must be more performance based when leading remotely. Remote workers need specific goals and projects to be assigned to them, and an ability to work on them independently. Leaders must be able to work with these employees to carefully calibrate their performance goals and empower them to work towards them without the need for direct supervision. Employees must also understand their goals and have all the resources and tools needed to reach them. A leader, in this scenario, is a support system rather than a control mechanism. Daily communications should consist of encouraging and empowering employees, and not just briefings on task delivery alone.
Leading remote employees requires trust. Leaders who have not cultivated trust previously may find the current situation unbearable. Trust is a complex and multidimensional concept. Employees must be able to not only to trust their leaders, but also trust themselves. Similarly, leaders must be able to trust their employees as well as their own abilities to lead under these circumstances. They must be able to be authentic and empathic as some employees need holding during these difficult times. That is, they need their leaders to care about them and their well-being. They must be able to feel that they are able to talk about their anxieties and frustrations with their leaders. After all, we all have fears caused by the ever changing and turbulent world. The external events influence all of us and we need to express these feelings to release them. Leaders must become sort of like counselors in the middle of all this. Leading must become more transformational than transactional. We all must be a bit more vulnerable and trusting.
Remote work may be here to stay even when the pandemic is over. Therefore, leaders should adjust fast and learn how to lead remote employees. When done properly, it can be a cost saver and a productivity booster.
Servant Leadership
According to servant leadership model, the goal of leadership is to serve. Together with authentic leadership ideals, servant leadership is a particularly applicable approach to leadership during these modern times. Servant leadership differs from the traditional leadership in which the goal of the leadership is to mainly focus on thriving of the organization. As stated by its founder, Robert K. Greenleaf (2002), a servant leader should be focused on several important questions such as, “Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?” A servant leader shares power and puts the needs of the employees first. A servant leader helps people to develop and perform as well as possible. The leader exists to serve the people, instead of the people working to serve the leader. The benefit of servant leadership is that both the leader and the followers benefit from personal growth and development. In addition, organizations grow and prosper because of improved organizational commitment and engagement. Due to these benefits, servant leadership is being practiced in many top ranked companies. In these companies, the leaders go above and beyond the call of duty, and experience higher sense of satisfaction about their leadership roles.
Greenleaf founded servant leadership after reading Hermann Hesse’s 1932 book, Journey to the East. This book served as the personal source of inspiration for him to invent the term servant leader in his 1970 essay, The Servant as Leader. The story in Hesse’s book goes like this:
“In Journey to the East, the main character, named Leo, is a servant just like all the others. All the servants work well together, until one day when Leo disappears. When the servants realize that things aren’t the same without Leo, they came to the realization that Leo was far more than a servant – he was actually their leader.”
Greenleaf realized that a leader should be someone that servants or workers can relate to. Leo was first seen as just a servant. However, he became a lot more than just a servant to the other servants when they realized that they could not succeed without him. According to Greenleaf, a servant leader should be like this. He witnessed this in his own work. When Greenleaf was working as an executive at AT&T, he practiced servant leadership and experienced great success.
Greenleaf believed in the improvement of others as the true intention of a servant leader. He taught the “I serve” approach instead of the traditional “I lead” mindset. The below are the two premises from the “I serve” mentality:
- I serve because I am the leader, and
- I am the leader because I serve.
The first of these two premises signifies the act of altruism, which is defined as the practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others. Greenleaf felt that servant leadership starts with the natural feeling of wanting to serve first. The act of leadership is in the context of serving others and only through the act of serving others can the leader lead others to reach their full capabilities. The second premise of servant leadership starts with a deep ambition to be a leader. It can also be rooted in the personal ambitions of a leader. This is often the case with mission driven leaders who truly believe in the cause of their organizations.
Servant leadership is more applicable with some industries than others. It is particularly effective in education and government sectors. Some manufacturing environments may not be as good candidates for servant leaderships although it is hard to argue against the general merits of the servant leader mindset.
Studying Leadership
Studying leadership is challenging for several reasons. One of these reasons is that it is nearly impossible to control and understand all the variables impacting it. One cannot take leaders into a laboratory to study them. It is difficult to study leadership empirically and quantitatively. Instead, leadership is better studied with qualitative case study or phenomenological research methodologies. Studying leadership often requires a longitudinal approach since leadership takes time to develop. Also, as previously mentioned, leadership can be observed from many different perspectives. For example, leadership can be seen to be about the characteristics of the leader or alternatively depending on the various characteristics of the followers. Also, it can be influenced by the situation itself. The same leader with the same leadership style may have different levels of success depending on the situation. In addition, the relationships and dynamics between the leaders and followers can be influencing the nature and effectiveness of leadership. Therefore, one must take all these factors into consideration. One cannot only study the leader alone. One must study leadership wholistically including the followers and the situation, or the dynamics between the leader and the followers. Many leadership theories have been developed though the history to attempt to explain leadership and all of them perceive and study leadership from their own perspectives. These theories will be reviewed in chapter two.
References:
Campbell, Joseph (1949). The hero with a thousand faces. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Fayol, H. (2013). Administration industrielle et générale (General and industrial management). Martino Fine Books, Eastford, CT.
Greenleaf, R. (2002). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. Paulist Press, Mahwah, NJ.
George, B. (2004). Authentic leadership: Rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting value. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, California.
George, B. (2007). True north: Discover your authentic leadership. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, California.
Wahlstrom, T. (1997) Psychological applications in management: The hero’s journey. Doctoral dissertation, Colorado Technical University.
