Bhaskar Kumar Tetarbe
Leadership Discovery – Discovery – Self Reflection
PGP30252
Leadership is both an art and a science, and it is a continuous process of transformation which has no set template. Leadership Discovery tries to map out the different varieties of leadership as studied by great scholars before. I did not find any set of characteristics or traits, neither did I find any one situation or life that created a leader, but I found myself fascinated by the multitude of possibilities that can lead an individual towards his own leadership discovery. I have studied Leadership Clinic and Leadership through Literature before to understand more about leadership being someone who aspires to be a future leader. I have read through the more abstract and deep thoughts around leadership but I have always felt a lack of structure in the way things were always presented in those courses. That was something that this course remedied. We began the very first class in endeavouring to arrive at a definition of leadership. Interestingly, all of us c ame up with our own versions of leadership, which have all been covered in different theories of leadership. That was when I first realized that were multiple angles of looking at a leader.
My Initial Thoughts about Leadership Initially, before joining this course I had already formed a lot of opinions about leadership from my previous courses on them. I had read about the plumber and poets definition of leadership. I had read about leadership from the angle of literature, in various spheres of life. A leader for me inspires people to mobilise for a shared aspiration and work hard towards that aspiration. There are various kinds of people in the history who have been able to mobilize people for a shared aspiration. In the current professional context, the management of employees is very important. But, as the managers grow into top management roles, they need to be leaders much more than managers. m anagers. They need to be the motivation more than the doers.
Recognising the difference between a Manager and a Leader One of the crucial lessons have been a better understanding of how a ma nager can have leadership abilities but not every manager has good leadership abilities. A manager is analytical, controlled, deliberate and orderly while a leader is experimental, visionary, flexible and creative. A manager manages change and tries to find stability while a leader embraces change and deconstructs system to make it better in the long term. MBA has taught me to be a good manager but I can only be a good leader by experiencing professional life. Al ong the way, the learnings from my understanding of my leadership strengths and weaknesses would certainly help me.
Learnings from Class Case Studies Andy’s Recipe case study helped me understand the importance importance of simplicity and a long-term long-term vision for the organization. Understanding your followers is very important the way he was able to motivate his three followers. Being flexible is one of his hi s asset skills. He proves that you don’t need to be good at all the three leadership skills to succeed. The case study of Mark who started as a drill sergeant in his new organisation helped me understand how leadership style should be changed according to the evolution of an organization. When he was reorganising the organisation, he acted like a drill sergeant who enforced his authority. Later when he formed good relationships with his team members, and acted in a more supportive manner later. The case of Bruce Cannon’s conundrum on deciding his leadership style with three different kind of followers showed three different approaches. This shows that a top management person would prefer to deal with S3-D3 and S4-D4 kinds of styles of people.
Bhaskar Kumar Tetarbe
Leadership Discovery – Self Reflection
PGP30252
In Contingency Theory, there was a case of finding the best leader match. Their decision to find who should be the person to handle the reorganization of Universal Drugs. The new position needs to be defined according to contingency theory. The Path-Goal Theory case on Three Shifts, Three Supervisors was a great example on why certain people are less effective than Carol. The leadership of the three supervisors affect the motivation of their respective subordinates. The case study on Re-examining a Proposal, questions the importance of ethics in deciding on writing such a proposal. It questions the deontological as well as the teleological perspective on ethics.
Learnings from Case Study Submissions Our first case study was on Performance Coaching by Darcy Gallagher. W e evaluated the leadership skills based on which we arrived at technical skills as the focus skill. Performance Coaching is a process where one person facilitates the development and action planning of another, in order that the individual can bring about changes in their lives. The second case on CDO discusses about the essential requirements that a leader needs to possess. It talks about the protagonist Rohit Sharma’s dilemma. It shows that giving ample time to the employees to adopt the changing practices in the organization helps in identifying reasons for government lack of interest in organization. It also shows that performance based pay salary keep the employees motivated and result oriented. The Transkin Income Fund case is an application of the Contigency Theory of Leadership According to the theory, such a situation requires the leader to have a low LPC. A low LPC leader would be able to successfully complete the task in such a situation. A low LPC means that he should be task oriented. Thus, in this case, Lind should adopt a strict approach and tell the GMs that it is his decision to roll back the salaries that is based on all considerations. The case on the CEOs of GE gives the transition of GE from the leadership of Jack Welsh to Jeffrey Immelt and contrasts the different approaches to the Path Goal theory of leadership followed by the both of them. Path goal theory is based on the premise that the leader should use the type of leadership style that is appropriate for their subordinated motivational needs. In Douglas Fine Foods case study, certain factors need to be deduced in terms of Transformational Leadership Theory. According to the Transformational Leadership Factors theory, there are 4 factors in transformational leadership. At the end of the course, we arrived at collaborative leadership as our model for our project. Leadership is defined, as the action of leading an organization or a group of people or the sheer ability to lead. Collaborative leadership is therefore extending this ability into intentional and skilful management of interpersonal relationships that helps or enables others to succeed individually while accomplishing a collective outcome. In a business situation it is about bringing together people from different backgrounds, disciplines, cultures, and aspirations and leveraging all they have to offer, to achieve business goals as well as their personal goals. The traditional leadership style of top down management that primarily focused only in organizational goals is slowly evolving into a more collaborative approach that empowers employees and blurs the l ines between the boss and the worker.
Bhaskar Kumar Tetarbe
Leadership Discovery – Self Reflection
PGP30252
Discovering my Leadership Style For me, Leadership Discovery is all about finding out my leadership style strengths and w eaknesses and adapt myself to lead or follow based on those findings. One of the first leadership style tests that I did was change leadership indicator, which showed me to be moderate in scores. I have realized that I am unable to reinforce the change which causes the team members to fall back to their old ways. I did not have to do the Big Five test because we have already done that before in BIO classes of first term. I am strong on conscientiousness and openness while I am weak o n extraversion and agreeableness. I am weak on one of the strongest traits of leadership – extraversion. I need to work on my sociability and energy. EQ is often considered as the more important parameter to measure a person’s career potential over IQ. While an average manager spends a lot of time on problem solving, a successful and effective manager spends time more on the softer side of things like communication and networking. I feel that I have all the traits of becoming a good top level manager who needs conceptual skills the most, but along the way I lack human skills, especially on inter-personal level. My Skill Inventory questionnaire test proved that I am strong on technical and conceptual skills but lack human skills. (Technical Skill – 26, Human Skill – 17, Conceptual Skill – 25) I have always been sure that I am a task oriented leader and thus I have been working on increasing my relationship orientation. Interestingly enough, my scores in the Style Questionnaire showed that I am a middle-of-the-road manager who is balanced on both these parameters. I make compromises try achieve an equilibrium by avoiding conflict while encouraging with moderate targets. (Task – 36, Relationship – 33) Different situations demand different types of leadership. To be an effective leader, I need to recognize the conditions where I would be a more effective leader. There are two dimensions to each situation in leadership: directive and supportive. I should vary these two dimensions depending on the followers’ motivation and skills. Based on the questionnaire on Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD) by Hersey and Blanchard, I have a Supportive Leadership style (S3), which means that I prefer that my team members should have moderate levels of development and would probably have low commitment levels. I am good at commanding reluctant contributors. (Quadrant Scores: S1 – 4, S2 – 0, S3 – 7, S4 – 1 and Grand Total – 3) Effective leadership is contingent to the style of leader and the situation that he is in. Three things determine the contingent leadership style: leader-member relations, task structure and position power. I have a medium LPC score which means that I am independent. On the contingency model, I fall into the category of good leader-member relations, high task structure and low position power which comes with a medium LPC score at category – 2. (LPC Score – 61) On top of the previous points of leadership, the motivation of the followers is critical for leaders to understand. The challenge is to use a leadership style that best meets subordinates’ motivational needs. Based on the Path-Goal Leadership Questionnaire, I have a high Achievement Oriented style of path-goal leadership. I like to provide challenges to the people of my team. I have high expectations of my followers, and prefer having followers who want to excel in their work. They are good with ambiguous, challenging and complicated tasks. (Directive style – 26, Supportive style – 27, Participative style – 23, Achievement-oriented style – 26)
Bhaskar Kumar Tetarbe
Leadership Discovery – Self Reflection
PGP30252
The interactions between the leader and the follower defines the focal point of their leadership style. They often create in and out-groups within the team. Leadership development is a prescriptive approach to leadership emphasizing that a leader should try for high-quality exchanges with the members of the group. The LMX 7 Questionnaire puts me in the moderate category of a LMX leadership style. It implies that I have more neutral exchanges with my group members without creating in-groups and out-groups. (LM 7 Score – 23) In the emergent professional scenario, ethics have become a critical component of any leader. JRD Tata exemplified how well a professional can grow in his career with proper ethics. Ethical leaders are transparent in their dealing and hold their followers accountable for their work. Perceived Leader Integrity Scale (PLIS) is a disguised third-person based questionnaire to test the respondent’s integrity in an organizational setting. I am moderately ethical based on this test which pegs me as a person who might engage in some unethical behaviours under certain conditions. (PLIS Score – 42) In the Indian scenario, leadership changes slightly due to the cultural influences of India. Indian leaders’ source of competitive advantage lies in their people much more than themselves. Compared to western leaders who are much more charismatic, Indian leaders are much more focused on their team. These organizations take a more long-term internal-view. There is a strong commitment to social goals.
Learnings Acquired as a Future Leader In this journey of Leadership Discovery, I have come to realize interesting things about m yself in terms of leadership.
STRENGTHS I am strong in changing the structure of an organization. I have strong conscientiousness and high openness, which make me more structured and direct in dealings. I have high technical and conceptual skills which make me good at what I do. I can plan for the long term by keeping the vision of the organisation in context of the plans of the team. I am a task-relationship balanced leader who can avoid conflicts in a group well. I have a Supportive Leadership style (S3), which means that I prefer that my team members should have moderate levels of development and would probably have low commitment levels. I am good at commanding reluctant contributors. I am an independent person, and have good leader-member relations, high task structure and low position power. I have an achievement oriented style of leadership which makes me challenge my followers to strive for targets that are always higher and higher. I prefer to have my followers to be good with ambiguous, challenging and complicated tasks. I like to keep my exchanges with my followers to be as neutral as possible.
WEAKNESSES I am unable to enforce the change in the structure of the organization for the future. I am low on extraversion, a vital part of leadership which shows that I am weak at networking with people. I am weak at human skills which make it difficult for me to have good team-work with people. I make too many compromises as a leader. I am not good with followers who are either unskilled or unmotivated. I need to have followers who are more interested in the task of the organisation. I can often make unrealistic targets for my followers. I am not able to form strong bonds with my followers. In the future, I need to work on my social skills and make sure that I network with people. I need to work in areas where I am able to command the team faster and with people who are skilled at what they do. I can inspire such people to contribute to the team.
