Great Man Theory

Leaders are born, not made.

This approach emphasized that a person is born with or without the
necessary traits of leaderships.
Early explanations of leadership studied the traits of great leaders
Great man theories (Gandhi, Lincoln, Napoleon)
Belief that people were born with these traits and only the great
people possessed them
Great Man approach actually emphasis charismatic leadership.
charisma being the Greek word for gift.
No matter what group such a natural leader finds himself in, he will
always be recognized for what he is.
According to the great man theory of leadership, leadership calls for
certain qualities like commanding personality, charm, courage,
intelligence, persuasiveness and aggressiveness.

Trait theory

Leadership Traits:
Ambition and energy
The desire to lead
Honesty and integrity
Self-confidence
Intelligence
Job-relevant knowledge
The trait theory is based on the great man theory, but it is more
systematic in its analysis of leaders. Like the great man theory, this
theory assumes that the leaders personal traits are the key to
leadership success.
Traits of Leaders
Intelligence
Physical Features
Inner Motivation
Maturity
Vision & Foresight
Acceptance of Responsibility
Open-Minded and adaptability
Self-confidence
Human Relations Attitude
Fairness and Objectivity
Limitations:
No universal traits that predict leadership in all situations.
Traits predict behavior better in weak than strong situations.
Unclear evidence of the cause and effect of relationship of
leadership and traits.
Better predictor of the appearance of leadership than
distinguishing effective and ineffective leaders.

Behavioral Theory
In contrast with trait theory, behavioural theory attempts to
describe leadership in terms of what leaders do, while trait theory
seeks to explain leadership on the basis of what leaders are.
Leadership according to this approach is the result of effective role
behaviour. Leadership is shown by a persons acts more than by his
traits. This is an appropriate new research strategy adopted by
Michigan Researchers in the sense that the emphasis on the traits is
replaced by the emphasis on leader behaviour (which could be
measured).
Theories proposing that specific behaviors differentiate leaders from
non leaders.
Pattern of actions used by different individuals determines
leadership potential
Examples
Autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire
Michigan Studies: Employee centered versus
task centered
Theories that attempt to isolate behaviors that
differentiate effective leaders from ineffective
leaders
Behavioral studies focus on identifying critical
behavioral determinants of leadership that, in
turn, could be used to train people to become
leaders
Ohio State Studies



University of Michigan Studies



Contingency Theories
While trait and behavior theories do help us understand leadership,
an important component is missing: the environment in which the
leader exists.
Contingency Theory deals with this additional aspect of leadership
effectiveness studies.

1. Identifying Leadership Style
Fiedler believes a key factor in leadership success is the
individuals basic leadership style
So he created the Least Prefer Co-worker (LPC)
Questionnaire
LPC:-An instrument that tells to measure whether a
person is task or relationship oriented
If the low LPC score then the person is task oriented
If the high LPC score then the person is relationship
oriented
If the low LPC score then the person is task oriented
2) Defining the Situation
Fiedler identified three contingency dimensions that define the key
situational factors
1. Leader-member relations:
The degree of confidence, trust, and respect, members have in the
leader
2. Task structure:
The degree to which the job assignments are procedurized
3. Position Power:
The degree of influence a leader has over power variables such as
hiring, firing, promotion etc.
3) Matching leaders and Situations
After knowing the leadership style through LPC and defining all the
situations, we will chose the leader who will fit for the situation.
Two ways in which to improve leader effectiveness
1)Change the leader to fit the situation
2)Change the situation to fit the leader

Cognitive Resource Theory
A theory of leadership that states that stress unfavorably effects
the situation, and intelligence, and experience can lessen the
influence of stress on the leader.
A refinement of Fielders original model:
Focuses on stress as the enemy of rationality and creator of
unfavorable conditions
A leaders intelligence and experience influence his or her reaction
to that stress
Stress Levels:
Low Stress: Intellectual abilities are effective
High Stress: Leader experiences are effective
Research is supporting the theory
Hersey & Blanchards Situational Leadership (SLT)
A model that focuses on follower readiness
Followers can accept or reject the leader
Effectiveness depends on the followers response to the leaders
actions
Readiness is the extent to which people have the ability and
willingness to accomplish a specific task
A paternal model:
As the child matures, the adult releases more and more control over
the situation
As the workers become more ready, the leader becomes more
laissez-faire
Hersey and Blencherd identify four specific leader behaviors
The most effective behavior depends on the followers ability and
motivation
1. If followers are unable and unwilling to do a task,
the leader needs to give specific and clear directions.
2. If followers are unable and willing,
The leader need to display a high task orientation.
3. If the followers are able and unwilling,
The leader needs to use a supportive and participative
style.
4. If followers are both able and willing,
The leader doesn't need to do much.
Leader Member Exchange Theory
Leaders create in-groups and out-groups, and subordinates with in
group status will have higher performances ratings, less turnover,
and greater satisfaction with their superior.
LMX Premise:
Because of time pressures, leaders form a special relationship with a
small group of followers: the in-group
This in-group is trusted and gets more time and attention from the
leader (more exchanges)
All other followers are in the out-group and get less of the leaders
attention and tend to have formal relationships with the leader
(fewer exchanges)
Leaders pick group members early in the relationship
House path goal theory
The theory that a leaders behavior is acceptable to subordinates
insofar as they view it as a source of either immediate or
future satisfaction.
The Theory:
Leaders provide followers with information, support, and resources
to help them achieve their goals
Leaders help clarify the path to the workers goals
Leaders can display multiple leadership types

Four types of leaders:
Directive: focuses on the work to be done
Supportive: focuses on the well-being of the worker
Participative: consults with employees in decision-making
Achievement-Oriented: sets challenging goals
Yroom & Yettons Leader-Participation Model
A leadership theory that provides a set of rules to determine the
form and amount of participative decision making in different
situations.
How a leader makes decisions is as important as what is decided
Premise:
Leader behaviors must adjust to reflect task structure
Normative model: tells leaders how participative to be in their
decision-making of a decision tree.

Case Study No. 4
Problem:
Employers face major challenges when they consider the
increasing difficulty of finding skilled people, a younger workforce
with different attitudes about work, and a growing population of
older workers heading toward retirement. HR executives state the
single greatest challenge they have in managing the workforce is their
organization's inability to recruit and retain good employees and
managers.
The organization experiencing a high turnover in their
employees. His Human Resources staff was spending more and more
time recruiting, hiring, and training replacements. As soon as they got
them trained, they would be gone in six months. Customers were
upset and complaints were increasing.
Solution:
The CEO decided to explore the main reasons people were
quitting. He identified new strategies and tactics such as creating an
emerging leaders program, providing training for managers, and
improving their employee recognition program. As a result, they are
now attracting better talent and more importantly, have retained their
best people. The Human Resource Department is happier because
they are not spending all their time conducting training. The CEO can
improve their ability to attract, retain and improve productivity by
applying the following five-step PRIDE process:
P - Provide a Positive Working Environment
R - Recognize, Reward and Reinforce the Right
Behavior
I - Involve and Engage
D - Develop Skills and Potential
E - Evaluate and Measure
One of the main reasons employees quit is the relationship
with their first-line supervisor. The fact is many supervisors and
managers are unaware how their actions and decisions affect
employee turnover. A critical aspect of an effective retention strategy
is manager training. Properly trained managers play a major role in
an effective recruitment and retention strategy. Managers need the
skills, tools, and knowledge to help them understand their employees'
retention needs and be able to implement a retention plan designed to
increase employee engagement in the organization. Money and
benefits may attract people to the front door, but something else has
to keep them from going out the back. People have a basic human
need to feel appreciated and proud of their work. Recognition and
incentive programs help meet that need. People may show up for
work, but are they engaged and productive? People are more
committed and engaged when they can contribute their ideas and
suggestions. This gives them a sense of ownership. For most people,
career opportunities are just as important as the money they make. In
a study by Linkage, Inc. more than 40 percent of the respondents said
they would consider leaving their present employer for another job
with the same benefits if that job provided better career development
and greater challenges. Continuous evaluation and never-ending
improvement is the final step of the PRIDE system. The primary
purpose of evaluation is to measure progress and determine what
satisfies and de-satisfies your workforce. The evaluation process
includes the measurement of attitudes, morale, turnover, and the
engagement level of the workforce. Here is a checklist of items that
should be included in your evaluation and measurement process.
Motivation is the driving force that causes the flux
from desire to will in life. For example, hunger is a motivation
that elicits a desire to eat.
Motivation has been shown to have roots in physiological,
behavioral, cognitive, and social areas. Motivation may be rooted in a
basic impulse to optimize well-being, minimize physical pain and
maximize pleasure. It can also originate from specific physical needs
such as eating, sleeping or resting, and sex.
Motivation is an inner drive to behave or act in a certain manner.
These inner conditions such as wishes, desires and goals, activate to
move in a particular direction in behavior.
FUN
Some workers really want to enjoy the work they do. Many who enjoy the
activities they participate in at work look forward to the day each morning.
The opposite also can be true when workers dont enjoy the tasks they
perform at work, but they may like their social activities after work (golf,
softball leagues, shows, movies, going out with friends, community events).
These are the individuals that get excited at the end of the day knowing
that the fun can now begin. Leaders should take notice of these signs. If your
workers are more excited at the end of the day (to leave) than they are at the
beginning of the day (to arrive), then there is probably a lack of motivation
taking place in the area of intrinsic process or FUN.
Here are 20 things leaders can do to make the workplace and the experience of
working more enjoyable for workers:
1. Find out which tasks are each of your employees favorites.
2. Find ways to assign more of the tasks they enjoy and fewer of the
ones they dont like to do.
3. If you are a good joke teller, tell lots of them.
4. If you arent much of a joke teller, buy a joke book and learn one
joke a day to tell to your workers (keep them appropriate for your
work setting).
5. Many people love to laugh on the job a happy worker is a good
worker so let there be laughter in the workplace.
6. If you know of a worker with a great sense of humor, ask them
every day if theyve heard any good jokes lately.
7. Do something interesting with the lunchroom or breakroom to give
it more personality.
8. Create a quote of the week board for people who have said the
funniest things on the job.
9. Create a social calendar or events board so employees can link up
for activities after work.
10. Make laughter a priority when interacting with your employees.
11. Plan social events for your employees.
12. Organize a company ball (softball, baseball, basketball, volleyball,
football) game.
13. Sponsor a company barbecue.
14. Take your employees out to dinner or invite them to your house for
dinner.
15. Organize a company golf outing.
16. Schedule important meetings off-site at out-of-the-ordinary
locations.
17. Always start a meeting with something social or fun before you get
down to business.
18. Make sure that every meeting has some scheduled fun time.
19. Have company-wide events that are intended to let everyone have
fun.
20. Take your employees to a state tournament game in the
community.
REWARDS
Many workers need to know their work will be rewarded to be motivated to
perform. Many leaders read this statement and will say, Hey, Im paying this
person X per hour to do this job, so that should be enough. This may be
somewhat true, you may be paying this person X amount of money to perform
the job. But for a person motivated in this way, this is expected. This is the
bare minimum. No frills. Per hour pay is what keeps people coming to work,
but this isnt what will motivate them to excel in their work. People motivated
by rewards will look beyond whether they are getting something tangible for
their work. They will also consider what others are getting for their work and
often will compare their output with others. For example, if a worker notices
that he or she consistently outperforms coworkers, but knows that that
coworkers earn a higher salary, this will not sit well with a person motivated
by rewards. In fact, it will make a worker want to work less hard if colleagues
earn more without being more productive. The opposite also works against
motivating an instrumentally motivated worker. If a worker earns more than a
colleague, but is less productive than the other worker, this wont cause this
person to work harder. It will not cause this person to change their effort level
at all. The reason for this is that if a worker motivated by REWARDS doesnt
think that his or her pay really depends on how well they perform, then they
wont be motivated to work harder. Extra effort and hard work will come from
these individuals only when it is clearly rewarded and when it will affect their
REWARDS. Here are 20 ways to motivate people motivated by REWARDS.
1. Create incentive-laden pay scales (less output = less pay, more
output = more pay).
2. Create a sales contest (if applicable) with several prizes to go to the
top performers.
3. Create clear work objectives and goals for workers to pursue in
order to earn salary increments (no performance = no raise).
4. If workers know they must perform to achieve good salary
increases, they will be motivated to work hard.
5. Remind workers of what they will get for their efforts.
6. Avoid across-the-board raises (this sends the message that it
doesnt matter whether you work hard or not).
7. Create incentives attached to predetermined objectives and tasks.
8. Offer to pay part or all of country or health club membership dues
for the outstanding performer of the year.
9. Create a generous bonus structure with a benchmark that may seem
unreachable, then watch them reach it.
10. Give special rewards to top performers on a regular basis.
11. Remind workers that performance evaluations are just around the
corner (if they are) and that what you are asking them to do will
affect their review.
12. Make clear expectations of what you expect from your workers
and hold them to it when it comes time to putting your money
where your mouth is.
13. If workers dont perform to expectations, hold them accountable
by giving them no raise, no bonus, or no promotion.
14. Offer extra holiday time for outstanding performers (make sure
that workers know about the incentive well in advance).
15. Develop perks or prizes for individuals who can perform the best
in a functional area for a given week (make sure you give the prize
to the worker who performed best).
16. Dont pass out rewards evenly to all employees in an effort to
include everyone. This demotivates the instrumentally motivated
person.
17. Be fair! These workers will watch closely to see what the
consequences are of everyones actions.
18. Follow through on all of your promises.
19. Make sure that workers do not receive perks if they havent earned
them.
20. Remind workers which tasks will be most important for their
performance evaluations.
REPUTATION
People motivated by reputation have a strong need to enhance their image or
esteem with others. There are a lot of people out there who want others to
think highly of them. Many people are just plain hungry, starving in fact, for
some attention and accolades. Individuals striving for popularity or fame
characterize the self-concept external motivation. Many workers will not
work hard unless they believe their efforts will be noticed and recognized.
Workers often say things like, My boss doesnt really care what I do or how I
do it. Other workers will work hard for a short while until they realize that
their boss doesnt verbalize any appreciation for their efforts. When this
happens, motivation disappears. People motivated by this source will go to
great lengths to save face in the public eye. These are the individuals who take
great pride in their appearance, in the clothes they wear, the cars they drive,
the neighborhood they live, and other outward things. These people are
seeking approval from others. Here are 18 ways to motivate persons who are
motivated by their REPUTATION.
1. Give workers lots of feedback about the way they are performing.
2. Give praise in front of other people (the more people that know
they did well the better!).
3. Criticize these individuals only in private (never in front of others).
4. Give unsolicited compliments and positive reinforcement to
workers for jobs with which you are satisfied.
5. Tell your workers that you appreciate the work they do.
6. Start a suggestion box and publish the best suggestion made each
week on the company bulletin board (make sure everyone knows
that the best suggestions will be published).
7. Tell people they are important both to the business and to you.
8. Ask workers if anything interesting happened to them this
weekend (they love to share their stories).
9. Make sure that you give credit to everyone that contributes (never
leave people out when they make an impact).
10. Give out certificates of appreciation to anyone who does
extraordinarily well for the company.
11. Recognize the outstanding performers in the group at every staff
meeting.
12. Consider starting an employee recognition system (employee of
the month, department employee of the month).
13. Create plaques and awards for top sales people, staff, producers,
etc.
14. Put up an achievement board in the lunchroom to highlight some
of the great things that have happened in the company and who
was responsible!
15. Put up pictures and biographies of all your employees in a central
place.
16. Sponsor an awards ceremony to recognize all of the award
winners.
17. Include unique pieces of information about each employee and
change these items from week to week (example: favorite ice
cream flavor, worst day ever, thing that Im most proud of, etc.).
18. At company-wide meetings, create and announce serious and fun
superlatives (example: hardest worker, cleanest car, spiffiest
dressed, most versatile, cleanest shoes, most athletic, most
reliable).
CHALLENGE
Research shows that most leaders in this state and in the nation seem to have
extraordinary levels of self-concept internal. This means that leaders tend
to be motivated from within and like to challenge themselves with new skills
and developmental opportunities. Some leaders think that this is the only way
that people are motivated. Many leaders believe if people arent motivated in
this way, then they are simply unmotivated. This is a classic example that
highlights the fact that motivation is not one-size-fits-all. Leaders must be
aware that not all people are motivated in the same way or by the same things.
In Nebraska, this source of motivation is the predominant but not the
exclusive way to motivate. This does not mean that leaders can ignore the
other four sources of motivation. University of NebraskaLincoln researchers
have yet to find a single individual in the state or country that is motivated
solely by any ONE source of motivation. Even though self-concept internal
is highest (on average) in Nebraska, the other four sources of motivation are
just as important to learn and to develop ways to tap.
Here are 10 ways to motivate people motivated by CHALLENGE.
1. Stay out of their way and let them do the work if they know how to
do it.
2. Assign tasks that require their skills and talents.
3. Find out what they think is their best skill and encourage them to
use this with the tasks you assign.
4. Find out what area this person wants to most improve in and find
ways for them to work on this skill.
5. Find ways to help them to continually develop their abilities.
6. Avoid assigning mundane tasks to these workers.
7. Play devils advocate and challenge them by saying, Im not sure
if you are up to this challenge, but...
8. Give them a challenge, then get out of their way.
9. Give them autonomy to structure and perform their job as they see
best.
10. Dont insult them by asking them to do something that just about
anybody could do (they need to know that they are uniquely
qualified to do it).
PURPOSE
Individuals who are motivated by purpose look beyond themselves. They
really arent concerned with their own self-interests or with who may notice
what theyve done or whether they are being pushed and challenged. What
matters to a person motivated by a strong sense of purpose is that they must
believe in what the organization is doing. If they agree with what the company
stands for and what the company is trying to do, then they will join in and
give their fullest efforts to achieve the organization goals. However, if these
individuals dont feel called by the vision or PURPOSE, they will seem rather
lethargic or uninterested in whats going on. Instead their best efforts will be
reserved for other causes in their lives more deserving (to them) of their heart
and soul effort. These are the individuals who commonly will work very hard
on community-based problems or charity drives. These individuals often
volunteer for Red Cross or the United Way, trying to make a positive impact
for society as a whole. If youre a boss and notice that some of your average
or below-average workers are exceptional at charity drives or much more
enthusiastic about their volunteer and service projects than their day job, this
may indicate that the person is motivated by goal internalization (purpose).
Nine ways to motivate people high in PURPOSE or goal internalization are
listed below.
1. Communicate the purpose of tasks being assigned.
2. Make sure the company has a vision and mission that it is
pursuing.
3. Communicate the organizations vision and purpose on a daily
basis.
4. Refer to the purpose of the organization and why we exist when
outlining strategies and goals.
5. Remind employees of who depends on this organization to succeed
(families, communities, industry, producers).
6. Discuss why (in terms of contributing to the mission) things need
to occur.
7. Remind workers how their efforts make a difference for the
company in its pursuit of it vision.
8. Make links between their work and the company vision so they can
see how they fit into the bigger picture.
9. Include workers in the visioning and strategic planning process so
that they feel they have a stake in the organizational outcomes.
If you can find ways to tap all five sources of motivation described in this
publication, you will tap into everyones motivation and you also will have
the most productive, energetic, and upbeat organization that you could ever
imagine. Research has shown that leaders capable of tapping the five motives
experience less turnover, less absenteeism, higher productivity, and higher
profits in their organizations. In todays society, its not just the decisions and
strategies of leaders that matter, its also their ability to motivate their
employees. Find a great motivator and youve found a great leader.