Leadership Paradigm Shift: Traits, Theories, and Models

1. What is leadership? How has it shifted from the old to new paradigm. 

An influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes and outcomes that reflect their shared purpose. The changes are from stabilizer to change manager. From Controller to facilitator. The shift is that effective leaders share power instead of hoarding it. The focus moves toward employees and more empathy. 

2. How does the trait approach to leadership differ from the behavior approach? Give an example of each.

The Trait approach bases its approach on characteristics such as intelligence. The idea is that people are already born with these traits or not. The behavior approach focuses less on traits and more on behaviors that leaders engage in and are these behaviors successful. 

Trait example: A trait approach says that if a leader has intelligence, integrity, and honesty he/she will be a great leader. Behavior example: Autocratic versus democratic leadership. Autocratic is a more centralized behavior and democratic focuses more on listening to different perspectives. 

3. Describe the theory behind Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory and Blake and Mouton’s leadership grid. Include diagrams(see book)

Hersey and Blanchard’s theory of leadership suggests that no single leadership style is best. Instead, it all depends on the situation at hand and which type of leadership and strategies are best-suited to the task. In other words it focuses on where are the employees at as far as being ready/able to complete the task. Blake and Mouton’s model focuses on the readiness and abilities of the manager. Is he/she a country club manager? Or team Manager?

4. What are the theoretical components of emotional intelligence? Why are these important to understand in the context of leadership. 

Self awareness, Social Awareness, Self-Management and Relationship Management. Each of these awarenesses are important. They help explore every aspect that a leader will face. For instance, a leader must have self awareness, He will be able to exhibit courage and confidence if he has mastered self awareness. 

5. Describe the Servant Leader model. Can a transformational or charismatic leader be a servant leader? How does theory support your answer?

Servant leader model shares power, puts the needs of the employees first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. Service before self, Listen first, Inspire trust and Nourish others. Transformational can be servant leaders. It focuses on a deeper meaning of leadership. For example, transformational is a relational theory and requires leaders to meaningfully engage with participants. Charismatic can kind of be examined that way because it involves vision and shaping the future, however, it is up to the leader as to what that looks like. 

6. Compare and contrast three models of motivation. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each based on theory, and what are its implications for leadership?

   1. Hierarchy of needs theory:  Suggests that every individual has levels of need, requiring lower, more fundamental, needs to be met before higher needs. 

      1. Strength: Easy to follow Weakness: As a leader, you can only do so much to help achieve self actualization

   2. Two-Factor Theory: Is closely related with Maslow’s theory, suggests that two motivating factors govern behavior: those that increase an individual’s overall satisfaction, and hygiene factors that provide no satisfaction, but create severe dissatisfaction if absent. 

      1. Strength: Simply placing motivators into the workplace can greatly increase satisfaction. Weakness: Leaders have to go beyond to increase satisfaction fully

   3. Acquired Needs Theory:

      1. Strength: If you have people with high need for achievement then this theory is model. Weakness: The problem is that if you have lazy people the model is tough to follow. 

7. Discuss Bass’s transformational and transactional leadership model. What type of leader are you? How can you become transformational?

-    Transformational Leadership: where the leader taps into his followers' higher needs and values, inspires them with new possibilities that have strong appeal and raises their level of confidence, conviction and desire to achieve a common, moral purpose. 

-Transactional Leadership: where the leader causes a follower to act in a certain way in return for something the follower wants. For example, by offering higher pay in return for increased productivity.

My type of leadership is Transformational, because I am a leader that trust, inspire and create a relationship with my followers. In addition, to become Transactional the leader needs to build a relationship with their followers like a mentioned before.

8. What are the five bases of power and how do they interact with leadership?

- Coercive: Here power comes from one's ability to punish someone else for noncompliance. Interacts with leadership, for example: through fear of losing their job or their annual bonus.

- Reward: Here power comes from one's ability to issue rewards, interacts with leadership, for example: through a bonus or allowing time off in lieu.

- Legitimate: Here power comes from a person's formal right to issue directives or commands because of their position in the organization. Interact with leadership, for example: the CEO has the right to dictate the strategy.

- Expert: Here power comes from one's experience or knowledge. Interact with leadership, for example: a senior surgeon displays the expert knowledge for subordinates to trust them.

- Referent: Here power comes from being trusted or respected. Interact with leadership, for example: the boss who treats everyone fairly and with respect.

9. Describe Maturity Continuum

•  It was developed for a group of aspiring leaders eager to achieve success in their careers, and who wanted to know how to develop the habits to make that happen. Developing highly effective habits, they could move from Dependence to Independence to Interdependence.

Dependence: At some point in our lives, all of us have been totally dependent on someone else.

Independence: Moving from dependence to independence requires us to take responsibility for our own actions, along with understanding the consequences of our actions.

Interdependence: It means taking the initiative to seek first to understand instead of insisting on being understood first.  

10. What are the underlying Principles of Effectiveness?

• Covey presents an approach to being effective in attaining goals by aligning oneself to what he calls 'true north' principles based on a character ethic that he presents as universal and timeless. Covey defines effectiveness as the balance of obtaining desirable results with caring for that which produces those results. He further claims that effectiveness can be expressed in terms of the P/PC ratio, where P refers to getting desired results and PC is caring for that which produces the results.