Managerial Work and Traits / Skills for Managerial Leadership

1. Managerial WorkandTraits / Skills for Managerial Leadership Session 10 10 December 2011 Civil Service College Dhaka Presentation by Dr. Muhammad G. Sarwar Email: sarwar_mg@yahoo.com Cell: 01821443741

2. Leadership: Course Outline

3. Contents of 9th Session:leadership theories • Leadership: definitions • Leadership vs. Management • Leadership Effectiveness: indicators • Approaches to Understand Leadership • Leadership Theories: level of conceptualization • Course Outline • References

4. Leadership Theories: level of conceptualization

5. Contents of 10th Session • Management Processes • Activity Patterns and Role of Managers • Nature of Leadership Traits and Skills • Leadership Traits and Skills: research findings • Leadership Traits and Effectiveness • Leadership Skills and Effectiveness • Leadership Competencies • Situational Relevance of Leadership Skills • Theories of Traits and Skills: implications for Managers

6. 4 Primary Process in Managing

7. Typical Activity Patterns in Management • Pace of work is hectic and unrelenting • Contents of work is varied and fragmented • Many activities are reactive • Decision processes are often political • Most informal and adaptive

8. MPDQ’s Managerial Duties • Supervising • Planning and organizing • Decision making • Monitoring indicators • Controlling • Representing • Coordinating • Consulting • Administering

9. Mintzgerg’s Managerial Role • Decision Making Roles • Entrepreneur • Disturbance handler • Resource allocation • Negotiator • Information Processing roles • Liaison • Monitor • Spokesperson • Interpersonal Roles • Liaison • Figurehead • Leader

10. Situational Determinants of Managerial Roles • Level of management • Size of organizational unit • Lateral interdependence • Crisis situations • Stage in the organizational life cycle

11. Guidelines for Performing Managerial Work • Understand expectations and constraints • Expand the range of choices • Determine what you want to accomplish • Analyze how you use your time • Plan daily and weakly activities • Avoid unnecessary activities • Make time for reflective planning • Identify important problems that can be solved • Look for connections among problems • Experiment with innovative solutions • Take decisive action to deal with crises

12. Nature of Leadership Traits • Trait refers to individual attributes like personality, motives/needs, values, etc. • Traits are jointly determined by learning and by inherited capacity. Some traits like values, social needs are more influenced by learning than others like temperament, physiological needs. • Personality traits shape behavior. They include self-confidence, extroversion, emotional maturity, energy level, etc. • Motive/need is a desire for particular type of stimuli / experiences. • Values are internalized attitudes about what is right or wrong, ethical or unethical, moral or immoral.

13. Nature of Leadership Skills • Skill refers to the ability to do something in an effective manner. Like traits, skills are also determined jointly by learning and heredity. • Broad taxonomy of skill are: • Technical skill: knowledge about methods, process, procedures, and techniques to perform specialized activities. • Interpersonal skill: knowledge about human behavior and interpersonal process. • Conceptual skill: general analytical ability, logical thinking, proficiency in concept formation, conceptualization of complex and ambiguous relationships.

14. Taxonomy of Leadership Skill

15. Stogdill’s review on Leader Traits and Skills

16. CCL Research on Managerial Leaders who failed • Lower level of emotional stability • Defensive about failure • Lower integrity • Weaker in interpersonal skill • Over confidence / arrogance

17. Leadership Traits and Effectiveness Specific traits related to leadership effectiveness are: • High energy level and stress tolerance • Self-confidence • Emotional maturity • Personal integrity • Socialized power motivation • Moderately high achievement orientation • Low need for affiliation • Internal locus of control orientation.

18. Specific Traits with Big Five Personality Traits • Surgency: extroversion/outgoing, energy/activity level, need for power/assertive • Conscientiousness: dependability, personal integrity, need for achievement • Agreeableness: Cheerful and optimistic, nurturance/sympathetic/helpful, need for affliation • Adjustment: emotional stability, self-esteem, self-control • Intellectance: curious and inquisitive, open-minded, learning oriented.

19. Leadership Skills and Effectiveness Broad three skill categories are: • Technical Skills: Technical knowledge/skills about process and products/services are necessary for managers to plan and organize work operations, to direct and train subordinates with specialized activities and to monitor and evaluate their performance. • Interpersonal Skills: Interpersonal skills like empathy, social insight, charm, tact, persuasiveness and oral communication are essential for managers to influence subordinates, peers and outsiders. • Conceptual Skills: Conceptual skills are essential for managers for effective planning, organizing and problem solving. A manager with high cognitive complexity is able to develop a better mental model of inter-departmental relations in the organization.

20. Leadership Competencies • Emotional intelligence: Emotions are strong feelings and emotional intelligence is primarily conceptualized as a skill related to personality traits such as emotional stability and maturity. • Social intelligence: Social intelligence is defined as the ability to determine the requirement for leadership in a particular situation and select an appropriate response. Two primary components of social intelligence are: social perceptiveness and behavioral flexibility. • Systems thinking: System thinking as a cognitive skill is required to understand the complex interdependencies among organizational process and their implications • Ability to learn: Most important competencies for successful leadership in changing situations is the ability to learn from experience and adapt to change.

21. Situational Relevance of Leadership Skills Managers need many types of skills to fulfill their requirements, but the relative importance of the various skills depends on the leadership situations such as: • Managerial level (skill requirement at different level) • Nature of the external environment (requisite skill in changing environment) • Type of organization ( centralized vs. decentralized organizational structure, and transferability of skills across organizations).

22. Skills needed at different levels High CS IS • slr TS Low ml Top

23. Theories of Traits and Skills: implications for Managers • Maintain self-awareness: Self-awareness about emotions can help to solve complex problems, make better decisions, and manage crises. • Develop relevant skill: Effective managers are more oriented toward continuous learning and self-development. • Compensate for weakness : One way to compensate weakness is to select subordinates who have complementary strengths and allow them to assume responsibility for aspect of work they are more qualified to perform. • A strength can be become weakness: A trait or skill that is a strength in one situation can later become a weakness when the situation changes.

24. References • Gary Yukl, 2011, Leadership in Organizations, 7th edition, Pearson, chapter 2 and 3 • Peter G. Northhouse, 2010, Leadership: Theory and Practice, 5th edition, Sage publication • Robert N. Lussier and Christopher F. Achua, 2007, Effective Leadership, 3rd edition, Cengage Learning.

25. Thanks