The Role of Communication in the Leadership Process
SPCH 3309--Chapter 5
Leadership is a process--on going event--where influence is the goal.
Just possessing a formal title is not enough.
Management vs. Leadership--semantic differences.
Effective communication is key to successful leadership. Those who demonstrate it are repeatedly rated higher by their subordinates
Who are leaders in any profession who come to mind? What makes them successful in your opinion?
Is Leadership really that important?
Yes--leaders are paid more in almost all professions. Effective leadership is often vital to the long-term success of the company. Bad leaders can destroy an organization if left unchecked and if they repeatedly make poor decisions.
Leadership Theories: A Historical Review.
(1)Trait Leadership approach--assumes leaders come from their psychological, social, and physical variable. This approach believes that leadership is inborn.
A "Great Man Theory" was noted in early research in this area. Idea was that great leaders possess key traits that set them apart from other people.
Stogdill researched this and concluded there was no simple pattern of traits to explain or support this.
Intelligence has a moderate effect on leadership. Moderate amount seems to be the best mix. Ability to communicate well seems to be the key in moderate intelligence.
Other traits that had some effect on leadership--task persistence, self-confidence, dominance, and ability to influence others.
In sum: trait leadership approach fell short in living up to its initial proclamations. Some traits are correlated toward leadership, but it is small and inconsistent.
Theorists turned away from this theory and more toward a behavioral approach to leadership.
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(2)The Behavioral Approach--goal was to identify leadership behaviors and then train people to possess them.
(a)Autocratic v. Participative Styles
autocratic--participative--laissez-faire.
Study results: Democratically led group produced more member satisfaction and less aggression. Higher aggression in autocratic groups. Quality of output was highest in democratically led groups, even though quantity was greater in autocratic groups.
(b)University of Michigan Studies
Behaviors are either production or employee-oriented.
Production leader--gives advice, task focused.
Employee leader--supports workers; involves workers.
Results: favor toward employee-oriented leaders. Higher group productivity and higher job satisfaction.
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(c)Ohio State University Studies
Focus was on those leaders who:
- initiated structure (like a production oriented leader)--sets roles for self and others.
- initiated consideration (like an employee-oriented leader). Refers to the degree to which a leader empathizes sub's needs through 2-way comm. Respect is shown and leaders may be high or low in either structure.
Study concluded: leaders who were highly considerate could structure work without causing grievances. If people are nice to us, we give them greater latitude to make decisions that affect us. Low consideration people are in big trouble. You won't be liked by letting up on production or structure.
Combination of high consideration and high structure constituted the most effective leadership style. Not every study supports this OSU outcome.
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(d)The Managerial Grid
Blake & Mouton. Focused on concern for production and concern for people. Page 125.1, 1--low in both; 9, 9--high in both; predicted to be most successful in outcomes such as increased performance and job satisfaction.
But do employees always need maximum in concern forpeople?
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Summary of Behavioral Theories: Theorists realized that it wasn't just behaviors but the situation the leaders found themselves to also be critical. Leadership became more complicated—both the person and their styles but also the situation they found themselves in factored into the success of failure of their leadership performance.
(3)Contingency Theories--the most useful leadership strategy will probably change from one situation to the next. Leadership does not take place in a vacuum.
A leader's contribution to the group depends on both the leader's style and the characteristics of the situation.
Fred Fiedler is key figure here. He charged that effectiveness depends on the match between the leader's style and the situation.
Fiedler's keys are (A) leader-member relations; (B) task structure; and (C) Position power on p. 128. In short, you have a favorable situation when there's good leader-member relations/trust; when the task is clearly noted; and the official organizational power held by the leader.
Fiedler says leaders can improve by either changing the situation to fit the leader or replace the leader with someone whose style is more appropriate to the situation.
Without effective communication, any of these theories will fail.
(4)Recent Approaches to Leadership--
- Vertical Dyad Linkage theory: focuses on how leaders treat members of group...same or different? The VDL claims that individual relationships between a leader and subordinates will be a primary determination of leadership.
VDL says leaders are likely to treat workers in the "in-group" better than those in the "out group." In-group members tend to be those of better work performance and who share similar characteristics with the leader.
If you are part of the "in group" you see this as the boss rewarding the "best workers." If you are in the "out group" you are more likely to see this as unfair actions, dirty politics, etc.
Workers in the "in group" usually receive higher performance ratings, have higher job satisfaction, and leave the company less frequently than employees in the "out group."
Key for "in groups"--higher levels of satisfaction and performance ratings.
What can be done to help correct this imbalance?
Special training for the leader that is designed to help them develop the skills needed to establish positive (in-group) relations with their subordinates.
- Attribution Theory--we attempt to determine the causes behind the behavior we observe. We want to know why people act the way they do. This theory provides an understanding how we come to conclusions about the causes of another person's behavior.
Internal factors—those that are under our control.
External factors—those that are beyond our control.
When factors are viewed as beyond our control, affects others like us and occurs a lot we are more lenient.
The Accounter's Dilemma: We would like to argue that we are not responsible for questionable actions but in doing so we admit to having little control over our surroundings. To great of reliance on excuses tarnishes our image. Makes us look less competent. Not in control of our lives.
Leaders should want to know the cause of misbehavior by their subordinates. Whether internal or external cause is key to know how to respond to the poor performance. If we think the cause is external, we likely try to change the environment to help the worker. If we think the cause is internal, we likely try to change the employee to improve.
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Leadership Innovations
A book called “The Seeds of Innovations” by Elaine Dundon.
Some of the key ideas:
- Different people are creative in different ways and that everyone faces everyday situations that call for creative thinking.
- Innovation is not just a province of the right-brained visionaries.
- All people have the capacity for it and they must cultivate it and apply it to their work, business, and personal affairs.
- Managers must provide a working environment in which innovation is encouraged and put to profitable use.
- The “right environment” has to do with creating a supportive and open culture; designing streamlined networks to process information; allocating resources to develop and implement new ideas, providing targeted training and to enable employees (team members) to build their innovative thinking skills, and rewarding them for their efforts.
- Leaders need to realize that every employee in every area of the organization could be a source for innovative ideas.
Teaching Your Team to Fish
Key points summarized from a new book by Laurie Beth Jones
- By informing their team members of possibly difficulties ahead, leaders or managers prepare them to call on their reserves of faith and courage to meet unanticipated challenges.
- Numerous studies confirm that people function better in their specific tasks when they know the big picture of which they are a part. One of the main reasons people under-perform in their jobs is that they don’t know “why” they are doing them in the first place.
- Good managers/leaders understand the importance of cross-industry training. For example, Daimler-Chrysler sends leadership teams on wilderness survival trips to teach them cross-functional thinking; and that Bank of America, Georgia-Pacific, and Lucent Technologies require their managers to attend seminars taught by a symphony conductor to learn how to work with their teams better.
- Jones argues that companies need to have missions that transcend profits and self-aggrandizement. Quite a contrast to those companies who have followed the Enron style of rewarding managers.
What Leaders Do—Jack Welch from his book “Winning”
- Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence. You have to evaluate; making sure the right people are in the right jobs. Supporting and advancing those who are and removing those who are not. You have to coach, guiding, critiquing, and helping people to improve their performance in every way. And you have to build self-confidence, pouring out encouragement, caring and recognition.
- Leaders have to make sure people not only see the vision, they must live and breathe it. One common organizational problem is that leaders communicate a vision to their closest colleagues and its implications never filter down to the people in frontline positions. No vision is worth the paper its printed on unless it’s communicated constantly and reinforced with rewards.
- Leaders get into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism. A leader’s mood is, for lack of a better word, catching! A leader must fight the gravitational pull of the negative. That doesn’t mean you sugarcoat information or be less than forthcoming or honest. It does mean you display an energizing can-do attitude. . You don’t have to be the cheerleader type, but you have to show your commitment and determination not to fail.
- Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit. Trust happens when leaders keep their word. It’s that simple. Leaders also establish trust by giving credit when credit is due. They never score off their own people by stealing an idea and claiming it as their own.
- Leaders have the courage to make the unpopular decisions and gut calls. Your job is not to win a popularity contest. Listen to your gut; it’s telling you something.
- Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action. When you are a leader, your job is to have all the questions. Every conversation you have need to be filled with you saying, “what if?” , “why not?” and “how come?” Questioning, however, is not enough. You have to make sure your questions unleash debate and raise issues that get action. You want bigger and better solutions. Questions, healthy debate, and action will get everyone there.
- Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example. Consider risk taking. You can create a culture that welcomes risk taking by freely admitting your mistakes and talking about what you’ve learned from them. A good leader shows subordinates that it’s okay to swing and miss as long as you learn from the mistakes.
- Leaders celebrate. Work is too much a part of life not to recognize moments of achievement. Grab as many as you can. Make a big deal out of them. Celebrating makes people feel like winners and creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy.