LEADERSHIP IS AN INFLUENCE RELATIONSHIP

 The managing style of leaders is essential to the team’s success.  The leaders need to provide compelling directions for team members to achieve objectives.  It is said that leadership style may affect the team’s effectiveness.

Organisation today need effective leaders who understand the complexities and challenges of the rapidly changing global environment.  It’s considered important because leadership styles can affect the quality of work life.

It’s important to know that leadership is not a person nor is it a management.  Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers.

Professor Joseph Rost (1991) said leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purpose.  It no doubt is true that leadership includes the discipline of top-down management, but it actually extends far beyond that.

Everyone in every organisation is in a leadership role.  Leadership is gifted, not claimed.  Followers determine leaders, leaders do not determine followers.  Ultimately, leadership is a social process that depends on contingent needs of followers and the capacity of the individual to realise their leadership potential.

Dr. John C Maxwell writes about the Law of Influence in his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.  He said that the accurate measure of leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.  He measured influence in 7 areas I.e. character, relationships,knowledge,intuitions,experience, past successes, and ability.  Dr. Maxwell outlined 5 myths about leadership:

1. The management myth where management and leadership are 2 equal terms.

2. The entrepreneur myth where the assumption is all entrepreneurs are leaders.

3. The knowledge myth with the assumption is knowledgable people will be a good leader.

4. The pioneer myth 

5. The position myth 

The 21 Laws of John Maxwell 

1. The Law of the Lid - there’s a limit to our potential.

2. The Law of Influence - refers to the power or capacity to produce desired results 

3. The Law of Process - leaders are learners have the capacity to develop and improve skills 

4. The Law of Navigation - charts the course, carefully seeing where they want to go 

5. The Law of Addition - focuses on advancing others

6. The Law of Solid Ground - a solid character, with integrity, authenticity and discipline 

7. The Law of Respect - must be strong and worthy of respect 

8. The Law of Intuition - the power to discern the true nature of a person or situation 

9. The Law of Magnetism - constantly attracting followers and new leaders 

10. The Law of Connection - bring or join one thing to another 

11. The Law of Inner Circle - those closest to us will determine our potential 

12. The Law of Empowerment - give the means, power or opportunity to do 

13. The Law of the Picture - lead by example 

14. The Law of Buy-In - getting support for ideas, visions, and strategies 

15. The Law of Victory - find a way for the team to win 

16. The Law of Big Mo - Mo (momentum) is a close friend of effective leaders 

17. The Law of Priorities - focussing on what is most important is so much more effective than being busy 

18. The Law of Sacrifice - the need to be willing to give up 

19. The Law of Timing - must know when to seize the moment, when to move forward, and when to back off, what to improve and how radical those improvements should be 

20. The Law of Explosive Growth - recognises developing leaders around them 

21. The Law of Legacy - make an impact on the world; leave a legacy of succession, create leadership culture, assure lasting success, value team leadership above individual leadership, choose a life of sacrifice not a life of success.

Some may say that leadership is transient and discontinuous.  Windows of leadership will come and go.  Remember, leaders lasting values can only be judged based on how well the organisation did after the leader is gone.

Reference 

https://trainingindustry.com

https://daveshoenbeck.com

https://trinitasadvisors.com

linkendin.com

Articles 

Leadership Styles and Job Performance: A Literature Review (Mohammad Al-Maliki, Wang Juan, School of Economics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan China)

Leadership Styles (Nanjundeswarasamy T.S., Swany D.R., Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, JSS Academy of Technical Education, Bangalore, India)

Leadership Definitions Application for Lecturers’s Leadership Development (Reni Rosari, Faculty of Economies and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia)