About Leadership

Defining Leadership

Leadership is the process by which the leader influences others in an organization or group to accomplish the mission. It requires using finite resources and organizing and directing those resources toward finite goals. The most precious and hardest to manage of those resources is people. Thus, leadership is the art of running things – of inspiring and enabling people to accomplish tasks.

The four major factors of leadership are: the leader, the group, the situation, and communication.

Leadership develops through experience and formal education. It is more often than not a learned behavior. Although there are some “born” leaders, most develop over time with education and experience.

Leadership is an art, not a science.

Leadership is much different than management. Good leadership also requires a mastery of the principles of management. However, good managers do not always make good leaders.

True leadership in the public sector only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to.

Leaders are inevitably problem-solvers who are self-motivated and driven to produce results.

People who become leaders in any field tend to first stand out by virtue of their technical proficiency. Leaders emerge or are selected for leadership roles on the basis of their competence or proficiency in their primary role requirements.

Eleven Leadership Principles:

Be technically proficient
Know yourself and seek self-improvement
Know your employees and look out for their welfare
Keep your employees informed
Set the example
Ensure the task is understood, supervised and accomplished
Train your employees as a team
Make sound and timely decisions
Develop a sense of responsibility in your subordinates
Employ your organization in accordance with its capabilities
Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions

Primary Responsibilities of a Leader:

Accomplish the mission
Ensure the welfare of your people

Leaders can influence employees’ motivational levels by:

Clearly articulating expected outcomes
Clarifying the links between efforts and rewards
Providing training, coaching, and feedback to employees as they go about accomplishing tasks

The Difference Between Managers and Leaders

Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right. Both roles are crucial to success, but they differ profoundly
Managers administer; leaders innovate
Managers maintain; leaders develop
Managers control; leaders inspire
Managers have short-term view; leaders, a long-term view
Managers ask how and when; leaders ask what and why
Managers imitate; leaders originate
Managers accept the status quo; leaders challenge it

Basic management principles:

Organizing
Directing
Scheduling
Coordinating
Supervising
Staffing
Controlling

Note – None of these functions captures the essence of leadership – that is the inspiring of others to get the job done.

Leaders are known by their standards. Leaders set the standards for their subordinates and enforce those standards on a daily basis. Naturally, those standards should be high and reflected in the expectations set forth by the leader early on in their tenure. When we speak of leadership by example, it is the standard being lived by the leader and it is on display for all to see. Standards are reflected in many aspects of our work like attention to detail, promptness, professional dress and demeanor, mutual respect, good communication, ethics, duty, and dedication.

When a leader does not correct inappropriate behavior or hold subordinates accountable for below average performance, then the leader has just allowed a new, lower standard to be set. The following is a list of expectations subordinates should have for their leaders, and as well a list of expectations a supervisor should have for their higher supervisors.

What You Have a Right to Expect from Your Leaders:

Honest, just and fair treatment
Consideration due to them as mature, professional employees
Personal interest taken in them as individuals
Loyalty
Shielding from certain tasks from "higher up"
The best in leadership
That their needs be anticipated and provided for
Dignity and respect
To be kept oriented and told the "reason why"
A well-thought-out program of training, work, and recreation
Clear-cut, positive decisions and orders which are not constantly changing
Demands on them commensurate with their capabilities - not too small, not too great
That their good work be recognized, and publicized when appropriate

What Supervisors Have a Right to Expect from Higher Supervisors:

That their honest errors be pointed out, but be underwritten at last once in the interests of developing initiative and leadership
To be responsible for and be allowed to develop their offices or institutions with only the essential guidance from above
A helpful attitude toward their problems
Loyalty
That they not be subject to the needling of unproductive "statistics" competitions between like offices or facilities
The best in leadership
That the needs of their facility be anticipated and provided for
To be kept oriented as to the missions and situation in the unit above
A well-thought-out program of training, work, and recreation
To receive timely, clear-cut orders and decisions which are not constantly changing
Dignity and respect
That their success be measured by the overall ability of an office or institution to perform its whole mission and not by the performance of one or two factors
That good works by their units be recognized and rewarded in such a way as to motivate the greatest number to do well and to seek further improvement