Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine critically the essentials of leadership, with a particular focus on the things that make an individual emerge as an informal leader in the workplace. There are some tasks that are best managed by team members who are skilled and have a lot of expertise. The paper starts with an introduction that describes the traditional and modern approaches to leadership and the characteristics of the theories that investigate leadership. The introduction is followed by a description of the scenario of emergent leadership. The scenario explains the differences between assigned and emergent leaderships, and the advantages of the latter. The next section explains how emergent leaders are able to apply different styles to suit different situations, and describes the talents of leaders and how they utilize them to emerge as effective leaders. The section is followed by the application and analysis section that described the strengths of leaders and how they utilize them effectively. The article ends with a conclusion that explains how members of a team can honor the talents and strengths of others in order to enhance their leadership skills.
Introduction
Leadership is essential for leading an organization or a team towards achieving a common goal as well as individual goals. A good leader has the skills to motivate team members so that they may accomplish a task quickly and effectively. An effective leader is able to keep the team members aiming for achievement and the members remain future oriented, are more hard-working, and postpone gratifications (Felfe & Schyns, 2014). A pragmatic leader understands the strengths and talents of followers and how they interact and their differences. An effective leader develops a clear vision of what they aim at and communicates the vision with the people that they intend to lead. Such a leader bears in mind that a vision without a plan is simply a dream and a plan without a vision is drudgery. More specifically, this paper seeks to examine critically the essentials of leadership, with a particular focus on the things that make an individual emerge as an informal leader in the workplace.
The Essence of Leadership
Leadership is a holistic spectrum regarding the ability of a person to guide others in a team or an organization. It can be viewed as a social influence process in which the person enlists the help of others to achieve a goal or accomplish a particular task. According to Dries and Pepermans (2012), the spectrum is derived from superior mental energies, superior methods of task management, superior ability to control others, higher powers to motivate others, and superior wisdom and value levels (Dries & Pepermans, 2012). Each of these sources of leadership makes a leader within a certain scope. The theories that are applied to investigate leadership revolve around intelligence, traits, behavior, situational interaction, vision, function, and charisma. More importantly, a leader is said to be endowed with social powers that are admired by others so much that they emulate the leader (Luria & Berson, 2013). The leader is credited for the superiority of skills, fame, knowledge, or information that they possess in their area of expertise.
Scenario
In companies that rely heavily on innovation, namely, tech companies, leadership emerge from any team member with the ability to lead. Murphy and Johnson (2011) add that as the business grows, entrepreneurs feel the need for having leaders with unlimited freedom of moving the organization forward (Murphy & Johnson, 2011). The leaders usually arise from the team of employees and are known as emergent leaders. Unlike the assigned leaders, emergent leaders are hardly hired directly into leadership positions. Assigned leaders derive their authority from their positions in the company hierarchy. The titles they are given, carry weight with the employees they lead and they expect employees to show respect for their position (Emery, 2012). In essence, the company demands that the assigned leader should demonstrate the ability to motivate others, higher level of problem-solving and greater wisdom to justify the assignment.
An emerging leader possesses a significant number of appealing personality traits. To begin with, an emergent leader takes tasks voluntarily, encourages consensuses among workers, assists colleagues to complete their tasks, and thinks about the objectives of the company. In essence, this type of leadership comes long before the person is officially acknowledged as a leader. Further, Carson, Tesluk and Marrone (2010) assert that such a leader garners respect from colleagues and is viewed as a resourceful employee since they work hard (Carson, Tesluk & Marrone, 2010). Secondly, they tend to be empathetic and realistic when dealing with fellow employees since they are not under pressure to demonstrate their ability to lead. In contrast, it is common for employees to perceive that assigned leaders as intelligent, wise, and educated, even if they are not. Overall, emergent leaders are more effective when compared to assigned leaders.
When a company embraces emergent leadership, it encourages employees to work as a team; in this way, there is free interaction between seniors and juniors in a number of ways. According to Emery (2012), an organization employs a cross functional management that allows an open communication, so that all members of an organization may take place in achieving the objectives of the company (Emery, 2012). Under emergent leadership, the organization avoids bureaucratic and linear systems of leadership because they inhibit open-mindedness. Murphy et al. (2011) claim that free communication that is characteristic of emergent leadership in the cross-functional management, encourages all members to take part in achieving organizational objectives (Murphy & Johnson, 2011). More importantly, without open communication among colleagues, there could be a higher probability of misguidance and stunted development in a workplace.
When an organization adopts emergent leadership, it allows workers to set their own goals, so that they do not feel pressured when the company sets the goal for them. The use of emergent leaders enhances employees’ love for the organization, not just because of the remuneration and bonuses, but also because of the type of leadership (Côté et al., 2010). In contrast, the assigned managers in the organizations chip in as facilitators of empowerment in regard to workers. They are appointed to oversee the employees’ responsibilities. Further, they make corrections and offer suggestion as employees work on their tasks, using metrics that they set to evaluate their own performance. Supervisors are assigned to tackle the challenges that the employees encounter as they pursue their goals. Such a management relies on the principle that employees should be given freedom to act; in this way, they could become their own leaders, and innovate better ways of accomplishing goals (Murphy & Johnson, 2011). The emerging leaders among the employees assist colleagues to set and change metric and parameters of their tasks. With this in mind, the employees feel encouraged to share their creative ideas with colleagues, so that they may be evaluated and shaped in accordance with organizational needs.
Theoretical framework
Emergent leaders could lead people effectively if they embrace the difference between leadership and management. In essence, management is the aspect of doing things right while leadership is the aspect of doing right things. A leader and a manager play different roles, although people tend to use the two terms interchangeably. For instance, a manager facilitates the success of team members (Mumford, Watts & Partlow, 2015). Further, a manager ensures that members have whatever they require for success. More importantly, they facilitate the success of the team by providing what people need to be productive. They are usually well trained and have minimal hurdles in their line of duty. They are normally being groomed for the next level in the hierarchy of management (Côté et al., 2010). However, an emergent leader is anyone in the team who has a talent, is creative, has great ideas, and has great experience in an aspect of the business that can be useful to the team (Felfe & Schyns, 2014). Indeed, their activities are based on strengths, not on titles. The leader deals with changes, challenges, and hardly knows what comes next. An emergent leader does not have all the answers and cannot rule team members with an iron fist because the task being carried out could be a series of opportunities as well as obstacles that come at high speed, and the leader requires the participation of collective minds and hearts to get through.
The role emergent leadership plays in an organization highlights the reasons why top-down leadership is never effective in a fast-paced business environment. In essence, great leaders inspire team members to become leaders, rather than creating followers. They share their leadership; in this way, all members of the team take pride in their leadership style, and all look more nimble, smarter, and more capable of executing long running tasks with unforeseen and unknown challenges. Not only do the greatest teammates allow different leaders to consistently emerge based on their strengths, but they also realize that leadership can and should be situational, depending on the needs of the team (Harms, Roberts & Wood, 2010). In some instances, team members need a person to show them the way, new coaching style, or a visionary. For this reason, an emergent leader chooses their style of leadership like a golfer chooses the club to use, with a calculated analysis of the matter at hand, the target goal, and the best tool for the task. Such leaders are able to distill messages, however complex they are to something that is understandable to the people who do not share in their knowledge or background (Kellett, Humphrey & Sleeth, 2010). They communicate complicated phrases using a few sentences. In many instances, they communicate in fashions that appeal to the audience at any particular moment. More importantly, they are courageous to tell the truth, even when others are afraid of facing it.
Today, there is a drastic shift from vertical fashion of leadership to horizontal fashion of leadership. Horizontal model of leadership enhances the dynamism that facilitates the action of emergent leaders. According to Luria and Berson (2013), the move to a horizontal model represents significant organizational change. Beyond structure, systems, processes, and culture, the changes extend down to the basic molecular level of organizational life (Luria & Berson, 2013). Employees are usually asked to assume collective and individual responsibility for business results. Resultantly, horizontal approach of leadership encourages team members to become “mini board members†since they have a big say in the progress of the organization. It eliminates the traditional underground conflicts, and enhances a norm of transparency and discussion (Felfe & Schyns, 2014). All employees are geared towards moving the company forward and more towards “we†than “my functionâ€. The old top-down model, with its silo thinking, is swept away.
The nature of change in the leadership models begins with top management team. The top management is not seized by a sudden urge to shift to horizontal model. Usually, the organization contemplates a drastic strategic change or is faced with a major issue that interrupts the traditional rhythms of management. The top management feels that the traditional ways of leading are out of date and do not harness brainpower and energy of the entire organization (Kellett, Humphrey & Sleeth, 2010). Slowly, a vision appears of what the company could be and it propels the team to thinking about how to realize the vision. Ultimately, the journey towards change of the model from vertical horizontal requires aligning the top management team of the following key areas:
1. Strategy of the business
2. The deliverables of the business emanating from the strategy
3. Responsibilities and roles at departmental and individual levels
4. Decision-making protocols
5. Business interdependencies and relationships
When a team member feels that they can lead, they must align their actions with the above five factors. The team comprises the right players, so that they are committed to team victory over individual functional interests (Kellett, Humphrey & Sleeth, 2010). Every team member feels a sense of accountability or ownership of the results of the organization. The team that is led by the emergent leader periodically assesses its own progress as a group, focusing on how it functions as a cohesive entity (Kellett, Humphrey & Sleeth, 2010). Since the leader in such a setting tends to be sympathetic and has a heart for the team members, all members are comfortable tackling conflicts.
For past 50 years there has been a consensus on the kinds of places where business leaders are created: companies like P&G, General Electric and elite schools like Wharton and Harvard. However, Dries and Pepermans (2012) assert that today trends have changed since workforce and markets are becoming increasingly diverse and global (Dries & Pepermans, 2012). Indeed, change is so rapid that a single leader cannot manage to keep abreast all proceedings and are least responsible for the innovations that move the organization forward. The decision making function is now distributed across an organization and there is increased collaboration within and without. Most companies understand that in a global economy much of their future growth will be in emerging markets (Kellett, Humphrey & Sleeth, 2010). Since talent is not mobile like people thought in the past, it is evident that a leader could be successful in one area, but unsuccessful in another.
The trend has led to a realization of shared leadership in which people in an organization or a team lead each other. Team members engage in activities that influence performance of the team and individuals. It can be viewed as a serial emergence of leaders over the lifetime of an organization or team that stems from the interaction of the team members in which one of the colleagues influence others (Felfe & Schyns, 2014). The concept of sharing organizational leadership is generally the broad power and influence sharing among individuals rather than centralizing it in an individual’s hand who acts as a dominant superior. The concept of emergent leadership has been in existence for many years, but has become more experimentally explored and developed recently.
The implementation of emergent leadership has huge benefits for individuals, teams, organizations, and the society. It stresses the importance of teamwork. Teamwork is becoming increasingly important in the workplace literature as many organizations recognize the benefits that teamwork can bring (Emery, 2012). It is becoming more apparent that a single person cannot have all traits and skills to effectively lead in all processes of a team due to ambiguity and complexity of the modern business environment.
Application and analysis
In the corporate climate, an emergent leader applies a style that best suits the situation at hand. One of the styles of leadership that he or she can employ is pacesetter leadership. The emergent leader models, and expects self-direction and excellence from each of the team members. The leader employs this style when he knows well that all members of the team have skills and are well motivated. It bears results quickly, but can be overwhelming and can also squelch innovation (Côté et al., 2010). The leader can also employ the authoritative style of leadership, in which the leader motivates the team towards a common focus, leaving the means to the members. For an emergent leader, the style works best when the team needs a new vision because the circumstances have suddenly changed, or when there is no need for explicit guidance (Emery, 2012). Moreover, the leader ought to establish and inspire a vibrant enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit for the mission. In the traditional hierarchical leadership, the style appears futile when a leader has little or no expertise when compared to the followers.
The emergent leaders can apply the affiliative leadership, in which he establishes emotional bonds between the team and the organization. It operates on the principle of honoring team players first, so that they may feel their significance to the organization. It works best when the team needs to build trust or to heal from trauma (Mumford, Watts & Partlow, 2015). However, the style cannot be used exclusively since the praises that it condones can foster a lack of direction and mediocre performance. Another style of leadership that they can apply is the coaching style. The leader prepares the people to become experts and leaders in the future. It works best when the leader wants to help teammates build lasting personal strengths that make them more successful (Dries & Pepermans, 2012). However, it could it fails terribly when the leader fails to motivate the team members to appreciate the benefits of shifting from ignorance to competence. More importantly, it cannot be applied by a leader who lacks proficiency.
The emergent leader can apply the coercive and democratic styles of leadership when there is a need for immediate action. Luria and Berson (2013) assert that the style is best applied when team members have already appreciated the expertise and skills of the leader such that they look upon the leader during times of crisis or an event like a fire or a tornado (Luria & Berson, 2013). Another great style of leadership for an emergent leader is the democratic style. The leader tries to boost consensus through participation. The leader needs the members of the team to buy into ownership of the goals, decisions, or plan (Felfe & Schyns, 2014). Consequently, it fosters freshness of ideas for the qualified members are given the opportunity to supply vital input. However, it is not applicable in an emergency since it is time-consuming and team members may not have adequate information to assist the leader.
In an organization, a leader should have a clear understanding of the interaction between talents and strengths of individuals. Everyone is good at something, and further evaluation of people helps one identify themselves or others as leaders. Nearly all people have been given special abilities, also known as talents that are sources of potential strengths. A talent is a pattern of thoughts that occurs recurring and can be used productively. Strength is the combination of knowledge, skills, and the talent (Luria & Berson, 2013). Basically, there are five themes of strengths that an emergent leader could be endowed with namely analytical, individualization, significance, competition, and learner.
The paper has established that leadership is essential for the growth and development of a business. Effective leaders have special abilities and skills that motivate others; in this way, they may achieve their goals effectively and quickly. The leaders engage the entire team in focus such that the individuals may remain more hard-working; future oriented, and can postpone gratification. Further, the free communication that comes with emergent leadership in the cross-functional management encourages all members to take part in achieving organizational objectives. If one is not analytical in nature, they should strive to welcome different observations and opinions in order to establish the truth about a situation. A leader who does not have a talent in the theme of individualization, tries to interact with colleagues more, so that they may understand people’s limits and motivations. In essence, such leaders should be able to bend personal rules where necessary to avoid conflicts since they understand that people are different.
References
Carson, J. B., Tesluk, P. E., & Marrone, J. A. (2010). Shared leadership in teams: an investigation of antecedent conditions and performance. Academy Of Management Journal, 50(5), 1217-1234. doi: 10.2307/20159921
Côté, S., Lopes, P.N., Salovey, P., Miners, C.T.H. (2010). Emotional intelligence and leadership emergence in small groups. Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), 496–508.
Dries, N., & Pepermans, R. (2012). How to identify leadership potential: Development and testing of a consensus model. Human Resource Management, 51(3), 361-385. doi:10.1002/hrm.21473
Emery, C. (2012, October). Uncovering the role of emotional abilities in leadership emergence. A longitudinal analysis of leadership networks. Social Networks, 34(4), 429-437. Doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2012.02.001
Felfe,J., & Schyns, B. (2014). Romance of leadership and motivation to lead. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 29(7), 850 – 865 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JMP-03-2012-0076
Harms, P.D., Roberts, B.W., & Wood, D. (2010, June). Who shall lead? An integrative personality approach to the study of the antecedents of status in informal social organizations. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(3), 689 – 699. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2010.08.001
Kellett, J. B., Humphrey, R. H., & Sleeth, R. G. (2010). Empathy and the emergence of task and relations leaders. Leadership Quarterly, 17(2), 146-162. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.12.003
Luria, G., & Berson, Y. (2013, October). How do leadership motives affect informal and formal leadership emergence? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(7), 995 -1015. DOI: 10.1002/job.1836
Mumford, M. D., Watts, L. L., & Partlow, P. J. (2015). Leader cognition: Approaches and findings. Leadership Quarterly, 26(3), 301-306. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.03.005
Murphy, S.E., & Johnson, S.K. (2011, June). The benefits of a long-lens approach to leader development: Understanding the seeds of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(3), 459 – 470.