IFSM 380 DISC 7&8

Leadership

It is important to set a corporate strategy to identify the organization's priority

objectives—where is the organization going and how does it get there? Having a

strategic plan in place, however, means that your work has just begun. The

success of executing a business strategy depends on the quality of the

organization's leadership—those who will guide the organization in the right

direction.

Leadership is a much-studied and written about topic; below are several

descriptions of leadership.

Perspectives on Leadership

Quote Speaker Source

"Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a

vision that is well communicated, building trust among

colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your

own leadership potential."

Warren

Bennis

Saladis

(2006)

"The aim of leadership should be to improve the

performance of man and machine, to improve quality, to

increase output and simultaneously to bring pride of

workmanship to people. Put in a negative way, the aim of

leadership is not merely to find and record failures of

men, but to remove the causes of failure to help people

to do a better job with less effort."

W. Edwards

Deming

Out of the

Crisis

(1982, p.

248)

"My definition of a leader…is a man who can persuade

people to do what they don't want to do, or do what

they're too lazy to do, and like it."

Harry S.

Truman, 33rd

president of

the United

States

Legacee

(2011)

Source: Leadership Quotes, n.d.

Learning Resource

Quote Speaker Source

"Leadership is the art of influencing and directing people

in a way that will win their obedience, confidence,

respect, and loyal cooperation in achieving a common

objective."

US Air Force The Cadet

NCO

Guide

(n.d., p. 25)

"The task of a great leader is to get his people from

where they are to where they have not been….Leaders

must invoke an alchemy of great vision."

Henry

Kissinger

Clawson

(2003)

"Through years of study, teaching and working with

people all over the world, from all walks of life, I have

determined that leadership is: Communicating to people

their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see

it in themselves. It is the influence we have with others to

help them discover their own voice, to find their own

purpose, to make their unique contribution, and to

release their potential, that truly defines leadership."

Stephen R.

Covey

Khan

(2005)

Source: Leadership Quotes, n.d.

One thing you might have noticed in the six leadership quotes presented above

is that position or hierarchy was not mentioned. This was not an inadvertent

omission; it indicates that individuals at any level in an organization can influence

and exhibit leadership characteristics. Think about your own life experiences, and

you can most likely identify some influential leaders who lacked positional power,

yet others willingly followed their lead. "Leading strategic change can occur on at

least three levels: organizational, work group, and individual" (Clawson, 2003, p.

39). Although leadership is traditionally thought of as being at the executive and

most senior levels of an organization, leadership can, and should, be carried out

throughout the organization. Sometimes the strongest influencers in an

organization are not sitting in the executive office suite, but are running

machinery, working in the production areas, or sitting in a lower-level supervisory

position.

Although many factors can contribute to an organization's success or failure,

leadership is certainly a critical success factor. The Malcolm Baldrige National

Quality Award (MBNQA) provides seven criteria that organizations can use to

assess their organizational effectiveness. It is no surprise that leadership is a key

category; in fact, it is among the highest-weighted criterion for the MBNQA.

To reinforce these qualities, the graphic below shows the Baldrige Criteria

Framework (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2017) from a systems

perspective. This framework demonstrates the importance of leadership to

achieving results, and the effectiveness of leadership determines an

organization's level of success.

Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence

Framework: A Systems Perspective

Seven criteria used to assess organizational effectiveness

What’s the Difference Between Management and Leadership?

This is a common question and potential source of confusion, although managers

may be leaders, the terms are not synonymous. The role of a manager, while it

may vary from organization to organization, focuses on directing activities and

employees from an operational perspective—what work needs to be done in this

department for this particular time period of the project. In contrast, leaders not

only are more forward looking but also set the vision for the direction and lead

by example, building relationships and encouraging followers, evaluating

opportunities and potentially taking risks to propel the organization to new

levels.

Vision, Commitment, Managing Model

Just as there are many definitions of leadership, many different leadership

models, sets of characteristics, and clever acronyms have appeared over the

years. One simple model that supports the leadership qualities we want to

emphasize comes from James Clawson (2003), author of Level Three Leadership:

Getting Below the Surface. Clawson calls it the VCM model and uses it to

illustrate three areas in which leaders demonstrate their ability to influence, as

shown below.

Source: Adapted from Clawson (2003, p. 37)

Vision is a critical component of leadership. Visioning is describing where the

organization will be at some future time, which sets the direction in which the

organization should move to reach the stated goal. Strategic planning is part of

the process because it defines the route to achieving the vision. Critical

leadership skills are required to help establish and convey that vision to the rest

of the organization. The leadership skills required to be successful in this area

include:

• identifying trends,

• scanning the environment,

• knowing what has happened in the past, and

• understanding where the organization is in the present.

Commitment involves garnering the dedication of others. This includes sharing

the vision to get others involved with the direction and strategic objectives.

Communication skills are critical and include the leader's ability to convey his or

her message to others. But equally important is the leader's ability to listen to

others. Part of gaining commitment is alignment—getting individuals to

understand how they fit into the vision and how they contribute to meeting the

organization's strategic objectives. Aligning individual goals with department

goals that support the corporate goals is important to organizational success.

Management includes monitoring, measuring, directing, and controlling the

organization. Skills required here include the ability to assess how well the

organization is moving toward its vision and how well the strategy is being

executed. Having effective measures in place enables leadership to course-

correct as needed if the organization begins to stray. Recognition is also

important here—rewarding and praising those who are helping to guide the

organization and achieve the intended results (Clawson, 2003).

References

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. (2017). 2017-2018 Baldrige

Excellence Framework: A systems approach to improving your organization’s

performance. Baldrige National Quality Program. Retrieved October 3, 2018

from https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/publications/baldrige-excellence-

framework/businessnonprofit

Clawson, J. (2003). Level three leadership: Getting below the surface. Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Leadership Quotes. (n.d.). The Teal Trust. Retrieved April 13, 2007 from

http://www.teal.org.uk/leadership/quotes.htm

Licenses and Attributions

Framework Overview

(https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/styles/960_x_960_limit/public/images/2016/09/06/2015_2016_Bus_NP_Overview.jpg?

itok=4PqRGvg7) from How Baldrige Works comprises public domain material

from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of

Commerce. UMUC has modified this work.

© 2019 University of Maryland University College

All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMUC is not responsible for the validity or

integrity of information located at external sites.