Preston J. Leavitt, Ph.D., J.D., C.P.M.
Preston J. Leavitt, Ph.D., J.D., C.P.M., 8533 West Rice Avenue, Littleton, CO 80123-1131, 303/973-2625
Abstract. Leadership means leaving a mark. It is initiating and guiding and the result is change. By ideas and action, leaders show the way and influence the behavior of others. If you're an effective leader, then you have more people and power behind you to make things happen.
Definition. Leadership involves influencing others to act toward the attainment of a goal. It's the act of motivating people to perform certain tasks intended to achieve specific objectives. Leadership is the act of making things happen.
Leadership vs. Management. Leadership focuses on interpersonal processes, not administrative activities. There is a profound difference between leaders and managers. A manager does things right. A leader does the right things. Doing the right things implies a goal, a direction, an objective, a vision, a dream, a path.
Managing is about efficiency. Leading is about effectiveness. Managing is about how. Leading is about what and why. Management is about systems, controls, policies, procedures, and structure. Leadership is about trust. Leadership is about innovating and initiating. Management is about copying. Leadership is creative, adaptive, and agile. Leadership looks at the horizon, not just the bottom line.
Core Competencies. The basics of leadership include five core leader competencies. These are empowerment, intuition, self-understanding, vision, and value congruence. Empowerment occurs when a leader shares influence and control with followers. In doing so, the leader involves employees in deciding how to achieve the organization's goals, thus giving them a sense of commitment and self-control. Empowerment helps to satisfy the basic human needs for achievement, a sense of belonging, and self-esteem. When employees have positive feelings about their work, the work itself becomes stimulating and interesting, and the leader has done a good job.
Intuition includes the abilities to scan a situation, anticipate changes, take risks, and build trust. Competent leaders have an intuitive feel for changes that will occur around them. They move quickly to serve new customers, find new competitive advantages, and exploit organizational strengths.
Self-understanding is the ability to recognize a person's own strengths and weaknesses. And then stretch and develop these through challenging opportunities.
Vision is the ability to imagine different and better conditions and ways to achieve them. Having vision doesn't always mean coming up with a striking, original goal or method. Vision may involve a simple, realistic corporate strategy that serves the interests of customers, employees, and shareholders.
Value congruence is the ability to understand the organization's guiding principles and employee's values, and reconcile the two.
Principles of Action. In order to be effective, leaders rely on five principles of action:
The Importance of Power. The ability to influence the direction and strength of other people's motivation is an important quality of leadership. One may influence others in many ways, but all forms of influence are based on some type of power - the ability to control others by successfully influencing the strength and direction of their motivation. By exerting power the leader influences motivation.
There are five key sources of power: legitimate, reward, coercion, expertise, and reference. The first three are a consequence of the leader's position, and the last two result from personal characteristics.
Leader Characteristics. Warren Bennis, management guru and leadership expert has identified four characteristics successful leaders possess. These traits include:
Summary. Leaders base their vision, their appeal to others, and their integrity on reality, on the facts, on a careful estimate of the forces at play, and on trends and contradictions. They develop the means for changing the original balance of forces so that their vision can be realized.
A leader is someone who has the capacity to create a compelling vision that takes people to a new place, and to translate that vision into action. Leaders draw other people to them by enrolling them in their vision, What leaders do is inspire people. Leadership can be learned. Becoming a leader is not easy, but learning to lead is a lot easier than most of us think it is, because each of us possesses the capacity for leadership.
Whatever your leadership has been, it is a good place to start. In fact, the process of becoming a leader is much the same as the process of becoming an integrated human being. For the leader, as for any integrated person, life itself is the career. Leadership is a metaphor for centeredness, congruity, and balance in one's life. Discussing the process in terms of "leaders" is merely one way of making it concrete.