LEADERSHIP ESSENTIALS: What You Must Know About Leadership (Concentration: Leadership Skills)

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"There are no dead-end jobs. There are only dead-end people." -- Thomas Sowell, writer

Just as a house cannot stand without a strong foundation, so it is with leadership. To lead, one must study leadership. 

A common failing of the business schools is to clearly distinguish between the role of manager and leader. Typically, professors teach that leadership is a small subset of management, all you have to do is "mange" people. Ya, sure. .

It implies that all managers need to do is act like an orchestra director, wave the wand, and beautiful music will come forth. And of course, they assume that people want to be "managed."

The truth is, people want someone who will lead them, someone they can follow. Instead, they suffer under managers who boss them around and manage them the same way they manage the work.

Module 1: The Nature of Being a Manager and a Leader

One of the sources of confusion even in the minds of the business professors, is the difference between functioning as a manager and acting like a leader. Both are critically important roles for those going into business and government. So while there are no lack of educational programs to teach management, there are fewer that focus on leadership.

Module 2: Choosing the Right Leadership Style

Image by Majorly

A style differs from a trait in a very fundamental way. For while traits are difficult (some say impossible) in the short run to change, the choice of a style should be based on the situation (context). Of course, many leaders lack behavioral flexibility, they cannot change their style based on the situation. For example, autocratic leaders are typically stuck, it is the only style they know so they keep using it even when it doesn't make sense. The style one choose in a crisis is different than the one exercises in times of less stress. Knowing what style to choose and when to choose it is an extremely important aspect of leadership.

Module 3: The Best Leadership Traits

Edmund Leighton (1853–1922): Duty

The focus here is on the focus on Expectancy Theory: how what the leader expects and what the followers expect become dominant factors. The focus in on both the expectations and the nature of the situation. Some aspects of this include: defining goals, clarifying the path, removing obstacles and providing support.

Module 4: Leadership Skills — What to Develop and How to Development Them

Image by Cruz

The accounting profession has it work, people are not expenses on the income statement, they are really assets on the balance sheet. And assets appreciate or depreciate. If you want an human assets to appreciate, it's all about growing knowledge and skills. This session looks at the skills and knowledge leaders must build.

Module 5: What Leaders Must Know About Power and Influence

Image by: Mgiganteus

For leaders to be effective, they must exert power, they must know how to influence. There are many different types of influence, and it is a smart leader who knows what type of influence to use in what situation. Learn about personal and positional power, selfish and social influence and nine different types of influence that you can cultivate and develop.

Module 6: Why Followers Follow

Image: Ali Mansuri

Leaders don't operate in a vacuum, to understand leaders, you have to focus on followers. They have certain needs that leaders should be aware of, they can even cause a leader to do stupid things. Some followers choose leaders with virtues, others choose those with pathologies. It's important to understand why one is attracted to a certain type of leader since it tells you a great deal about yourself—both your good points and your bad ones. 

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