Leadership Qualifications

Maxwell in his bestseller, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, is “leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less”. The significant component to the above is that of the person’s ability to influence people to follow them. This “control “of these followers does not necessarily mean only for the positive because, if not used correctly, this level of influence can be used negatively. Examples of this are the numerous stories of life gurus influencing mass suicides or Adolf Hitler using his influence to carry out the atrocities of World War 2.

On the contrary there are also those leaders that are seen to be great leaders of their time like Nelson Mandela or Ghandi. In both aforementioned cases these leaders knew what they were doing with their intentions or final outcomes envisioned as they wanted them to be. It is this ability that leaders have and their approach to how they are going to lead being determined by their own vision and creativity that will be discussed in this paper. In the business world there are many leaders at differing levels. Leaders in marketing, production, logistics, implementation etc. ut the problem seems to be in finding the next CEO from within the levels of middle management – The Quintessential Leader! What model does one look at in order to find the right fit amongst the group? This paper will consider the issues discussed through the works of leadership theorist Daniel Goleman and others so as to develop an academic foundation of leadership. The theories researched will be put forward along with suggestions as to how the potential leader can achieve the required leadership levels. The paper will then investigate the characteristics that make up the Post Modern Quintessential leader.

Finally a leadership model suitable to the research will be put forward to be put into practice by the LeBLANC Group. 1. LeBLANC Group profile The LeBLANC Group of Companies specializes in providing solutions, services and products for the telecommunication infrastructure industry. These services and products can be very diverse in nature requiring the skills of many skillful engineers, project managers and implementation staff, logistical staff and financial experts in order to satisfy their market demands.

The LeBLANC market is also just as diversified in that it is multiregional encompassing the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and Australasia therefore covering many different cultural aspects. The current organization chart (see appendix 1) shows the structure of the LeBLANC Group and it is from within the middle management that LeBLANC needs to find a successor for the group as well as a replacement of that person. This successor could come from within any of the 11 middle managers highlighted in the chart. 2. The Problem

The LeBLANC Group need to find a suitable leadership identifying model so as to develop their succession plan for the future! They have gone through many models and listened to many consultants but keep on being presented with theories and models highlighting traits needed for the potential future leader but nothing that is all-encompassing. Their next leader needs to be able to manage and provide support for all of the various professional aspects of the business whilst being aware of and able to conduct themselves within the different cultural climates the company finds itself in.

At the same time the person will need to continuously keep the company in the eyes of the many prospective clients all the while being able to keep up with the ever changing technologies in the industry. Through time the concept and interpretation of leadership has gone through many changes as will be seen in this paper. These changes have been ever-improving on the last one but also changing in the requirements of the leader and of the situation of the day.

The problem today is that companies are finding it difficult to look for a single source of advice when it comes to the guidance and education for their middle managers in order to try and pinpoint the potential top leader amongst them. This is the nature of leadership however, but through research and a collection of aspects one can start to narrow that search so as to find the qualities that are needed in leadership in our modern society. They may be varied and numerous but they are nonetheless collectible into one all-encompassing leadership model. . Purpose of this Paper The purpose of this paper is to review various academic means to discuss the theories of leadership as investigated by Daniel Goleman and others and to link these up with additional resources to find a model for LeBLANC Group senior management to use in the identifying of suitable candidates for CEO from their middle managers. Through this research, the paper will identify key factors needed along with guidelines to achieving them to produce the required leadership model. 4. Developing the Academic Foundations of Leadership

In order to develop the academic foundation for this research paper we have based the research on 3 of the works of world renowned leadership theorist, Daniel Goleman. 1. Leadership and Emotional Intelligence “Much evidence testifies that people who are emotionally adept – who know and manage their feelings well, and who read and deal effectively with other people’s feelings – are at an advantage in any domain of life, whether romance and intimate relationships or picking up the unspoken rules that govern success in organizational politics” – Daniel Goleman. Dictionary. om defines Emotional Intelligence (EI) as an “awareness of one’s own emotions and moods and those of others, esp. in managing people”. Emotional Intelligence was first coined by Yale psychologist Peter Salovey and the University of New Hampshire’s John Mayer in 1990. Their original definition of emotional intelligence was ‘the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action (Knowledge@Wharton, 2005). They identified the components of emotional intelligence as: • Appraising emotion in self and others Regulating emotions in self and others • Using emotions adaptively Daniel Goleman took the concept further by describing EI as a ground breaking facet even down to the interview process of looking at middle managers and determining their capabilities to go higher within an organization. In the past IQ was regarded as the basis for job opportunities and/or growth in organizations but this is being replaced by the ability of the employee to show EI. Research tells us that emotional intelligence contributes more to life success than intellectual or technical competence (Knowledge@Wharton, 2005).

According to Goleman the five components of emotional intelligence at work are as below: • Self-Awareness – the ability to recognize your moods, emotions and drivers, as well as their effect on others. • Self-Regulation – the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods • Motivation – a passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status • Empathy – the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people • Social Skill- proficiency in managing relationships and building networks It is with these skills that leaders of today are developed.

They have to have an understanding of themselves before they can put forward their ideas to the organization that they are going to be running. If this self-understanding is not present then they will not know what sort of front they are portraying to their staff and more importantly will not know how to manage any given situation with the skill needed at the time of the incident. Research shows that 70% of employee’s perceptions of organizational climate result directly from a manager’s morale and behavior, which stimulates employees ’morale, emotions, and behaviors (Momeni, 2009).

In the case of the LeBLANC Group a leader with the required levels of emotional intelligence is highly required so as to be able to cope with the diverse conditions of which that person is to face in the years to come. This diversity as discussed before surrounding the vastness of the geographic region, the assortment of cultures and the multiple knowledge needed to manage the various experts employed by the organization. Successful leaders must possess emotional intelligence and sensitivity to multi-cultural and multi-generational issues (Duckworth 2006).

Duckworth continues to say that the “…awareness of social concerns keeps executives in tune with customers and open to new possibilities”. Being a varied group it is also very pertinent for LeBLANC to learn that their new leader must not only show emotional intelligence to the individuals around them but also to the groups within the group. From an early age we are all taught the concept of teamwork and the importance of doing things as a team. In team sports you are told that there are no individuals but only team mates and the same must be said for teams (groups) within any organization.

In most companies it goes further in that each team (group) has to eventually interact with another team (group) in the company and so on until the whole group is closely working together. Three conditions are essential to a group’s effectiveness: trust amongst members, a sense of group identity, and a sense of group efficacy (Urch Druskat ; Wolff 2001). It is the requirement of the new leader of LeBLANC to show this. Lastly on this subject it is all very good to know and understand that emotional intelligence is an important factor in leaders today but how do we hire these types of people.

What tactics must we look for in the interview process in order to ensure that the candidate not only looks the part but has the necessary attributes to be the part? Of all of the aspects that have been discussed research shows us that there are three main aspects to be aware of during the interview process (Bielaska-DuVernay 2008). These are: • Self-awareness and self-regulation – the candidate understands the needs and wishes that drive them and how they affect their behavior. In addition to understanding her emotions an emotionally intelligent person is able to regulate them and control her behavior (Bielaska-DuVernay 2008). Reading others and recognizing the impact of their behavior on them – the candidate has a well-developed emotional and social “radar” and can sense how their words and actions impact on others. Misreading a customer can be fatal to the relationship (Bielaska-DuVernay 2008). • The ability to learn from mistakes – The candidate can acknowledge their mistakes, reflect critically upon them and learn from them. Missteps and outright failure offer opportunities for growth, and high EQ individuals are able to learn from them (Bielaska-DuVernay 2008). 2. Leadership that gets Results New research suggests that the most effective executives use a collection of distinctive leadership styles-each in the right measure, at just the right time. Such flexibility is tough to put into action, but it pays off in performance. And better yet, it can be learned”- Daniel Goleman In his Harvard Business Review article, Leadership That Gets Results, Goleman combines emotional intelligence with that of the research on leadership styles by consulting firm, Hay/Mcber and comes up with six distinctive styles of leadership that any leader worth his position will be able to use at the appropriate time or circumstance.

These six styles are: • Coercive Style – compliance focused “Do as I tell you. ” type leaders. (Kloeber 2010) • Authoritative Style – leaders who have a clear vision for the organization and can rally people by saying “Come with me”. (Kloeber 2010) • Affilitative Style – a style in which the leader focuses on building harmony and strong working relationships, summarized as “People come first. ”(Fleming 2009) • Democratic Style – The type of leader that is always looking for buy in to his ideas from his staff and tries to build agreement. Pacesetting Style – the leader sets and adheres to high standards for performance for him – or herself and the team, summarized as “Do as I do, now! ” (Fleming 2009) • Coaching Style – in which the leader focuses on developing team members’ performance, summarized as “Try this”. (Fleming 2009) It is the ability of the quintessential leader to be able to use these styles where appropriate as, if used incorrectly the Coercive and Pacesetting styles can have a negative effect on the environment within the organization.

It is accepted that the Authoritative, Affilitative, Democratic and Coaching style all have positive effects on the organization environment but only if used as a combination of styles. The best leaders will sense from their emotional intelligence when to use each of these styles (Kloeber 2010). How does the potential leader manage to understand their current status with regards these styles and how can they obtain those that are missing? As discussed by Goleman there are a few ways in which to obtain all of these styles within the leaders’ armory.

One method would be to ascertain which styles the leader is weak and to bring in a team member who is strong in those missing styles. Another and probably better way would be for the leader to recognize which of the six styles they are missing and work towards attaining them. This could be through formal education or even just self-monitoring any given situation and thinking of the appropriate response through the six styles available. 3. Primal leadership “We’ve known for years that emotional intelligence improves results – often by an order of magnitude.

Now, new research shows that a leader’s mood plays a key role in that dynamic – a discovery that should redefine what leaders do first and best. ” – Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee – Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance. The final chapter in this process is the ability of the potential leader to create resonance or, Primal Leadership. The positive channeling of emotions that empowers people to be top performers is called resonance (Azurin 2001). If the potential candidate cannot do this then they will not succeed in becoming the next CEO of LeBLANC Group.

The person may have all of the talent and knowledge within the industry, be in touch with themselves emotionally, have a tremendous ability to connect with your client base and a desire to go further in their careers but if they cannot resonate that to those around him then they will not succeed in the long term. In fact leaders without this attribute can causes the opposite effect and that is dissonance which can spread around the organization and cause damage. Quite simply put, the leaders’ emotions are contagious (Crossey 2008).

How many times have you come into the office and the first thing that is said is “the boss is not in a good mood! ” What does that do to the organization for the day? It is not all about showing a happy face however. It is good to show positivity and resonate within the organization but it is also about the mood of the leader being in tune with those around them or, dynamic resonance. The most effective executives display moods and behaviors that match the situation at hand, with a healthy dose of optimism mixed in (Goleman 2001).

Therefore, it can be said that if it is the function of the leader to drive the success of the organization, and this is carried out with Emotional Intelligence, which is controlled by the leaders’ mood and accompanying behavior then it is this consistent behavior that becomes the Primal Task. How does a leader get there? In 1989, co-author, Richard Boyatzis began drawing up a design and finalized on a 5 step process: • Step1 – “Who do I want to be? ” The potential leader must be able to imagine where they would like to be in the future.

Thorough this foresight the leader can compare the future to today and work on filling in the missing pieces. • Step 2 – “Who am I now? ” A difficult step as it requires feedback as to your leadership style today and this feedback can hurt. This can be softened by obtaining both negative and positive feedback. By working the positive over the negative will allow the leader to know their real self and to make any necessary changes. • Step 3 – “How do I get from here to there? ” By this stage the potential leader knows who they want to be and compared this to how people currently see them.

Now is the time to put the action plan together to marry the first 2 steps. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University have shown that when we prepare mentally for a task we activate the prefrontal cortex and the better we prepare the better we do at the task. Therefore to prepare well is to succeed! • Step 4 – “How do I make change stick? ” The simple rule here is to practice and practice until it becomes a habit or automatic. Only then will the new wiring replace the old (Boyatzis 2001). • Site 5 – “Who can help me? The best answer here is to create a community of supporters. Talk about what you want to achieve both personally and professionally with your peers or those in a similar situation to you. 5. Quintessential leadership The Quintessential leader has many characteristics depending on which theory we look at and in what period of time. As we look at the history of leadership models we will see that they have gone through many steps to get to where we are today. In his paper, Dr. Dennis Childers highlights from the very beginning of known leadership models starting with the Pre-Classical Era.

In China, General Sun Tzu (ca 600 B. C) organized his army into sections and ranks backed by sound planning whilst in the Middle East King Hammurabi (ca 2123-2071 B. C) originated a code of 282 laws which presided over business transactions, personal behaviors, interpersonal relations, penalties, and other social issues (Childers 2010). The Classical Era brought us the theories from a more scientific management approach through people like Charles Babbage (1792-1871) who was influential in pointing out the workers role in an organization (Childers 2010).

Babbage suggested wages paid through profit sharing and the concept that if the company was successful a better quality of worker could be hired. It was during this period that the human side of management really started to form and a major contributor to these theories was Lillian Gilbreth (1878-1972). She pointed out that successful management relies on the person and not the work (Childers 2010). The Modern Era brought the processes of planning, organizing, controlling and later added staffing and directing.

The role of the worker and the influence of the leader was starting to be seen as a vital cog in the machinery of the organization but this role had to be defined and managed correctly so as to get “the function of getting things done through others” (Harold Koontz ; Cyril O’Donnell). Behavioral science became a great influencer in management models. This leads us into the Post-Modern Era where the role of the quality of the leader is being studied so as to be able to provide the necessary influence over those that they lead.

This has led to the research into what the quintessential leader must possess in order to succeed. The 3 main areas that a leader must be fully capable to rule over are: • The leader themselves Leadership characteristics required to succeed (as discussed by Goleman) are self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy and social skill. • Being people orientated Leadership characteristics required to succeed are the ability to set a direction, align people’s efforts, bring out the best in people, manage uncertainty and crisis, treat subordinates as individuals and formulate a team. Be task orientated Leadership characteristics required to succeed are the ability to identify tasks, prioritize and schedule, understand the plan, vision the result, maintain standards History has shown us that leadership models have gone from being structural to analyzing and accepting the workers role in the organization to providing a structure to making sure the workers are managed in their roles until finally it has been recognized that it is the leader themselves that is the catalyst to the whole process.

The quality of the person and the ability of the person is what make the great leader. But how does one find that person that has the ability to look from within in order to produce the results. Recognizing the need to be able to lead yourself and then developing it are the starting points. In the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (1974), psychologist Mark Snyder introduced the concept of Self-Monitoring whereby a person either has the ability to control their behavior in accordance with observed appropriate behaviors (high self-monitors) or not (low self-monitors).

In other words, there are individuals that can adapt to any given situation and exhibit the right kind of behavior pertaining to the particular situation so as to satisfy the requirements of the environment around them and for the circumstances to be controlled in a manner suiting the results required by the leader. This is the mark of a good leader! 6. Theoretical Leadership Model – The Middle Manager The question of whether leaders are born or made is often asked and it is common consensus that the answer is dependent on too many issues regarding social background, education, exposure to situational leadership etc.

It is on this basis however that we can build a model that highlights where managers are at the point of evaluation and then guide them depending on their position in the model to the position they need to be for the job function or in this case the next CEO of LeBLANC Group. The model can be used as a final reference point for the executives to assess the levels at which the middle managers are, highlighting their potential strengths and weaknesses.

In the past the measurement for a good leader was one of being people orientated and task orientated. As we have discovered in the research presented there is also a third element – that of the self-monitoring ability of the individual themselves. The model is presented on a graph with a sliding scale for the 3 elements discussed so that each middle manager according to their leadership style can be placed at their pertinent point on the scale. There are 4 main areas on the graph relevant to the characteristic of the leader as shown in figure 1.

Whilst we recognize that people with the ability to achieve high self-monitoring tend to see themselves how others see them there are those that perhaps tend to let how others see them be a priority and therefore lean towards this aspect more. This is clear in Positions A ; C which lean towards a manager that is more people orientated ‘with having less ability to be a high self-monitor whilst positions B ; D lean towards the individual being potentially more self-monitoring than people orientated. It is all about managing the focus.

Task orientation is split as task orientation is relevant in managers who relate to their people and / or managers who have the ability to self-monitor. Figure 1. [pic] As it has be ascertained that leaders display six distinctive styles as per Daniel Goleman we have used these styles and placed them in the 4 areas on the graph to highlight where they are on the model and to indicate where they need to grow and develop in order to get to the levels expected. Position A shows individuals that are more people orientated with the need to understand themselves more clearly through the practices of self-monitoring.

In Goleman’s styles this would lean towards the Affilitative and Coaching. The Affilitative style tends to try and build towards harmony and teamwork with a clear vision but is that vision the correct one to tackle the task and Coaching tends to develop people through coaching. Both are very high with regards people orientation but can tend to lose focus with regards task orientation or getting the job done. Position B shows individuals that try to be seen as people orientated by asking “What do you think? but do not realize the frustration that this approach can be. The style here is described by Goleman as the Democratic style and can leave subordinates unsure of the direction they are going – low people orientation along with the leader being unsure themselves – low self-monitoring. The tasks may be in place but not able to be delivered. Position C shows individuals that are aware of the impact of self-monitoring but unaware that this can get in the way of reality with regards the way people see them.

This is the Pacesetting style where the leader fully understands the task and how they want to get there and will show the people how this is done but with little regard to the input, growth ; development of the staff. Position D indicates a leader that does not take their staff into account at all and is totally unaware that they are doing this i. e. low People orientation and low self-monitoring regardless of the orientation of the task at hand. The positioning of the Coercive style and the Authoritative style both hang in the middle of the task orientation line.

This is because in the case of the Coercive style the leader has a very high task orientation but is completely unaware of the impact that their “Do what I tell you” approach is having on the staff. This unawareness indicates a complete lack of self-monitoring. On the opposite side is the Authoritative style that is also placed in the middle of the task orientation line indicating a high task orientated person but at the same time having a very high awareness off themselves and the situation that they are in as well as being very people orientated. . Conclusion In an effort to answer the problem regarding the need for the LeBLANC group to find an acceptable model to use in their quest to qualify their middle managers into the next CEO role, we have started by defining the academic foundation for leadership based on the leadership theories of Daniel Goleman and others. This process started with identifying the ability of the individual to be able to recognize and manage their emotional outlook and the effects that this has on the organization.

Going further on this we now know that there are 6 different leadership styles which our emotionally intelligent leader must use in an adaptive way according to the situation in the organization at the time. In addition we are now aware that research has shown that without the potential leader having resonance about them then the task is almost impossible. We can also conclude that all of the above is not possible unless the true leader develops the ability to self-monitor themselves in order to make sure that they are connected to the situations and people around them and is able to lead and manage this connection.

This ability to self-monitor oneself allows for the flexibility need to manage in many different cultures, technologies and geographic regions. Finding the characteristics necessary to define the quintessential leader is dependent on the developed leadership theories over time and the situation of the present. We have seen that leadership has developed from General Sun Tzu’s organization of sections and ranks to Charles Babbage recognizing the influence of the workers in the organization to where we are today in the Post-Modern era and the importance of the role of the characteristics of the leader.