Unit 2: Leadership styles and development
Leadership and Team Dynamics notes · PTU syllabus (MBA 935-18)
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Unit summary
Modern organisations need leaders who inspire change, build teams and develop future leaders. This unit covers charismatic and transformational leadership, team and organisational leadership, strategic leadership, leadership for a high-performance culture, leadership development through self-awareness, education, experience and mentoring, and succession and evaluation of leadership development.
After this unit you can
- Explain charismatic and transformational leadership
- Explain team, organisational and strategic leadership
- Explain leadership for a high-performance culture
- Design leadership development, succession and evaluation
PTU syllabus topics
- Charismatic and transformational leadership
- team and organizational leadership
- strategic leadership
- leadership for high-performance culture
- development through self-awareness
- education
- experience and mentoring
- succession and evaluation of leadership development
Self-awareness
Feedback, psychometrics
Education
Programmes, reading
Experience
Stretch assignments
Mentoring and coaching
Succession planning
Topic 1
Charismatic leadership
- Charismatic leaders (Max Weber; House; Conger and Kanungo) inspire followers through vision, personal risk-taking, sensitivity to followers' needs and unconventional behaviour.
- Process: articulate an appealing vision, communicate high performance expectations and confidence, model values, make self-sacrifices.
- Dark side: narcissism, dependence of followers, risky decisions and weak succession.
Example
Dhirubhai Ambani and Steve Jobs are often cited as charismatic leaders whose vision mobilised employees and investors.
Topic 2
Transformational leadership
Idealised influence
Role model who earns trust and respect
Inspirational motivation
Compelling vision and high expectations
Intellectual stimulation
Encourages new ideas and questioning
Individualised consideration
Coaching and attention to each follower
- Transformational vs transactional: transactional leaders exchange rewards for performance; transformational leaders raise followers' motivation and morality beyond self-interest. The best leaders use both (full-range leadership model).
Topic 3
Team and organisational leadership
- Team leadership: set direction, build commitment, manage boundaries, coach, create a climate of trust; leaders shift from controlling to facilitating as teams mature.
- Self-managed teams share leadership; the formal leader becomes a coach and boundary spanner.
- Organisational leadership: shaping structure, systems and culture so the whole organisation performs.
Topic 4
Strategic leadership
- Strategic leadership: a person's ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, think strategically and work with others to initiate changes that create a viable future (Ireland and Hitt).
- Activities: setting strategic direction, exploiting core competencies, developing human capital, sustaining culture, emphasising ethics, establishing balanced controls.
Topic 5
Leadership for a high-performance culture
- High-performance culture: clear goals, accountability, empowerment, continuous learning, recognition of results, openness to change.
- Leader actions: communicate vision and values, set stretch goals, measure and give feedback, reward performance, remove poor performers fairly, celebrate success, model behaviours.
Topic 6
Leadership development
Self-awareness
360-degree feedback, personality and EI assessments, reflection
Education
Executive programmes, leadership courses, MBA
Experience
Stretch assignments, job rotation, international postings, action learning
Mentoring and coaching
Senior mentors, executive coaches, peer learning
- 70-20-10 model: about 70% of development from challenging experiences, 20% from relationships (mentoring, coaching) and 10% from formal training.
Topic 7
Succession and evaluation of leadership development
- Succession planning: identify key positions, assess potential successors (nine-box grid), develop them, maintain a ready pipeline; reduces risk at leadership transitions.
- Evaluating development (Kirkpatrick's four levels): reaction, learning, behaviour change, results; plus 360-degree feedback trends and promotion readiness.
Example
Tata Group's TAS (Tata Administrative Service) has developed general managers for group companies for decades through rotation and mentoring.
Key terms
- Charismatic leadership
- Leadership based on followers' perception of extraordinary qualities
- Individualised consideration
- Attention to each follower's needs
- Strategic leadership
- Leading the organisation towards a viable future
- 70-20-10 model
- Experience, relationships and training in development
- Succession planning
- Preparing successors for key positions
Quick revision
- Charismatic leadership: vision, risk, dark side.
- Transformational (four Is) vs transactional; full-range model.
- Team, organisational and strategic leadership.
- High-performance culture; leader actions.
- Development sources; 70-20-10; succession; Kirkpatrick.
Important exam questions
Practice questions written to the PTU exam pattern for this unit's syllabus: short answers (Section A style) and long answers (Sections B and C style).
Short-answer questions
- Q1.What are the four Is of transformational leadership?
- Q2.Distinguish transformational and transactional leadership.
- Q3.What is strategic leadership?
- Q4.State three features of a high-performance culture.
- Q5.Explain the 70-20-10 model.
- Q6.Name Kirkpatrick's four levels of evaluation.
Long-answer questions
- Q1.Explain charismatic and transformational leadership.
- Q2.Discuss team, organisational and strategic leadership.
- Q3.Explain how leaders build a high-performance culture.
- Q4.Discuss leadership development, succession and evaluation.
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