LEADERSHIP PROCESS, ASPECT AND SOURCES OF POWER

 This article is concerned with the leadership process. It explains how true leaders emerge. In other words, we shall provide a comprehensive explanation of how true leaders emerge.

 Roadmap to Leadership

The road to great leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 1987) that is common to successful leaders:

(1)   Challenge the process - first, find a process that you believe needs to be improved the most.

(2)   Inspire a shared vision - Next, share your vision in words that can be understood by your followers.

(3)      Enable others to act - Give them the tools and methods to solve the problem.

(4)   Model the way - When the process gets tough, get your hands dirty. A boss tells others what to do; a leader shows that it can be done.

(5)   Encourage the hearts - Share the glory with your followers' hearts, while keeping the pains within your own.

Leadership Aspect

Leadership has been defined as the ability to inspire other people to accomplish a preset objective. A leader has the ability to make people feel good about what they are doing and helps people feel like the work they are accomplishing is working towards the larger goal of the corporation. According to Kouzes J.M (2002), the following are the three leadership aspects identified:

(1)   Challenge the process - A leader looks for easier, more efficient ways to accomplish goals, rather than settling for the age-old way of doing something. Leaders are innovative and experimental to find new ways of doing things.

(2)   Inspiring - Leaders effectively communicate organizational goals to employees so people know what is expected of them. They give people a good reason to do their jobs by expressing how important their work is and how it helps the organization as a whole. They motivate and energize workers and give them the confidence to do their job.

(3)   Modelling - An effective leader teaches by example. Leaders work with the highest standards and expect others to work to those standards as well. They put forth a high-quality effort and expect a high-quality effort from those around them.

Leadership Power and Sources

Power generally refers to the ability to command people’s obedience. Many attempts have been made to identify the courses of power through which one individual may influence another. One of the most useful frameworks for understanding these bases of influences has been developed by French and Raven (1990). These authors have distinguished five sources of power, which include:

(1)   Legitimate power: This is based on one’s hierarchical position the corporation president has greater legitimate power than the vice-president of manufacturing to speak on issues of corporate policy; by the same token, the vice-president of manufacturing has more legitimate power than the first line supervisor to decide on issues of capital expenditures, workflow, inventory levels etc.

(2)   Reward power: This stems from the control of rewards valued by subordinates. Subordinates who act as their supervisors tell them to do so in past because they believe that their behaviour will be rewarded.

(3)   Coercive power: This is based on fear. If subordinates alter their behaviour because they believe that a failure in the company with orders from a superior will lead to punishment, they are responding to coercion.

(4)   Reference power: This is based on the followers’ identification with the leader. This identification may be based on personal admiration and usually includes a desire by the followers to be like the leader.

(5)   Expert power: This stems from the perceived and demonstrated competencies of leaders to implement, analyse, evaluate and control the tasks assigned to their group.