The skills approach to leadership suggests that certain skills are important for effective leadership. Skills are what leaders can learn and develop, whereas traits are innate characteristics. The main skills needed for leadership, according to one such theory, are technical, human, and conceptual.
Another approach in the Leadership studies is the “Leadership Skills Approach”. In the previous articles we focused on the “Traits Approach to Leadership” which was based on the personality of the leader, this approach focuses on knowledge and abilities that the leader has. This theory assumes that a leader can learn and develop certain skills that can transform one into a successful leader. Like the earlier Trait Approach this approach also has leader centered perspective.
Skills suggest what leaders can achieve, learn and develop whereas traits suggest who they are based on their intrinsic characteristics which they gain by the virtue of birth. The skills approach suggests that the skills, knowledge, and abilities that are required for a leader to be successful can be acquired thorough training and development.
A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both. In other words the abilities that one possesses. The dictionary defines skills as “An ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to smoothly and adaptively carryout complex activities or job functions involving ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and/or people (interpersonal skills).”
Competence (or competency) is the ability of an individual to do a job properly. A competency is a set of defined behaviors that provide a structured guide enabling the identification, evaluation and development of the behaviors in individual employees. Competence indicates sufficiency of knowledge and skills that enable someone to act in a wide variety of situations. Because each level of responsibility has its own requirements, competence can occur in any period of a person's life or at any stage of his or her career.
By leadership skills we refer to the essential skills needed for successful leadership. Skills are graded sequences of actions directed to a purpose. At the center of the development of all skills are acts that are absolutely necessary for the effective practice of that skill. Research over many years has shown that there are several key activities that are essential to effective interactions between managers, their staff and their organizations and these activities are generally referred to as Leadership Skills.
Researchers have studied leadership skills and abilities for a number of years and proposed various theories to understand the process of leadership. However, two models that standout in the skills approach to leadership is:
1. Model proposed by Robert Katz in 1955
2. Model proposed by Michael Mumford and colleagues in the year 2000
These models can be seen as complimentary to each other, since they offer different views on leadership from the skills point of view. We will explore these models in the next articles in this series.
The practical and theoretical implications of regarding leadership as something that is constituted of some human skills that can be learned and developed are considerable. All skills have at their core components that are essential for their performance, and once a manager acquires required competencies in these areas they will become effective leaders too.
The biggest advantage of this approach is the assumption that leadership is not just by birth, that some people born with specific traits can only be effective leaders. This approach implies that many people have leadership potential, and if they get the requisite training, can focus on development of certain skills and can learn from their experiences, they can become more effective leaders.
This means that trainings can be designed involving activities and/or exposure to leadership circumstances and events that can lead to increase in skills, knowledge, and abilities.
Personality certainly plays an important role in leadership; this approach identifies and defines certain knowledge areas and abilities that are essential for effective leadership. Use of this approach has resulted in a comprehensive skill-based model of leadership that is used widely by organizations all over the world for advancement of leadership skills of their employees.
This approach resulted in the concept of “Skills Management” which is the practice of understanding, developing and deploying people and their skills. Well-implemented skills management identifies the skills that job roles require, the skills of individual employees, and any gap between the two. Firstly the skills involved are defined in terms of a skills framework, also known as a competency framework or skills matrix. This consists of a list of skills, and a grading system, with a definition of what it means to be at particular level for a given skill. Then individuals assess and update their recorded skill sets regularly which provides a structured approach to developing individual and collective skills, and gives a common vocabulary for discussing skills.
In emergent leadership, the leader is not appointed or elected to the leadership role but emerges as the leader as he is perceived by others over time as a result of the group's interaction. A person steps up as the leader over time by taking on tasks voluntarily, helping others complete their tasks better, and building consensus among groups.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (SFP) Leader Theory
Pygmalion theory of Leadership is a model of SFP at work involving supervisory expectancy based on the pygmalion effect. This effect is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) in which raising leader's expectations regarding subordinate performance boosts the group's performance. Managers who are led to demand more from their team, lead the team to better performance. There is some evidence that the SFP effect does exists.
Transactional Analysis also is known as the theory of human personality was proposed by Eric Berne in the 1950s. This theory of transactional leadership defines three different ego states in a person who engages in transactions with another person's ego states. These three ego states refer to major parts of an individual's personality and reflect an entire system of thought, feeling, and behavior.
The four theory of leadership was formulated after studying hundreds of leaders and the model includes four basic dimensions of effective leadership - support; interaction; facilitation; goal emphasis, and work facilitation. This model was tested as a predictor of an organization's effectiveness.
Burns Transformational Leadership Theory
Transformational leadership theory has been defined by James MacGregor Burns as a process where both leaders and followers mutually raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation. The concept of transforming leader works with teams to garner trust, respect, and admiration while reaching to higher moral positions. The transformational theory of leadership was developed while studying political leaders and how they use charismatic methods to attract people to the values.
The Psychodynamic Approach to leadership focuses on leaders building an understanding of their personality characteristics to know why they act or react in certain ways. Psychodynamics theory aims to explain the dynamics of human behavior in which lies the essence of leadership, by analyzing various motives that govern a person's behavior. This information can be used to develop leaders and followers by understanding their responses based on their personalities.
The Vroom-Yetton model is designed to optimize for the current situation the leadership style for best decision-making. Its a decision model formulated with contribution from Arthur Jago on how to make group decisions. The leader must gather information from the team prior to making the decision and involves more people in the decision process.
Generating Ideas using Brainstorming
The brainstorming technique was developed by Alex F. Osborn in 1957 and brainstorming means where a team of members generates a large amount of alternative fruitful ideas on a specific problem without any criticism and then evaluates each idea in terms of their pros and cons. Brainstorming techniques fall into four broad categories: visioning, exploring, modifying, and experimenting.
The open systems model of leadership acknowledges the influence of the environment on organizations. An open system regularly exchanges feedback with its external environment. The environment also provides key resources that are necessary to sustain and lead to change and survival. Leadership in an open system should focus on influence, open communication, and patterns to control expanding the number of variables created by external dynamics.
The Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX), also called the Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory is a relationship-based approach that focuses on the two-way (dyadic) relationship to get the best from all team members. How leaders maintain their position in groups and develop an exchange with each of their subordinates. How leaders and members develop relationships that can contribute to growth or hinder development.
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