Three Important Leadership and Management Concepts
Important concepts on leadership and management are endless. Never will there be one
solution that is all encompassing. Several concepts are important for leaders but a few that have
a higher priority. Common themes across scholarly research on leadership explains that a leader
that can give trust, autonomy, and emotional intelligence is set for a course of success. Colin
Powell once responded on the spot to a reporter that asked the question, “What is the most
important trait for a leader?” He responded instantaneously with the word “Trust” (Jjbpaca,
2011). This discussion will explain that trust is the ‘why’ and giving autonomy and having
emotional intelligence is the ‘how’.
Trust
Leaders that are trusted never completely fail. Setbacks might occur but overall a leader
who can be trusted will succeed. Trust is a contagious effect, particularly when teams are
involved. Even though the team might not agree completely with the decisions that are made,
the team members trust the leader and follow. Chiu and Chiang found that “trust in subordinate
cascades down through management levels and ultimately affects team cooperation” (Chiu, H.,
& Chiang, P, 2019). Captain Dallin Gray describes how this applies in his experience of being a
pilot for the USAF on a C-5M cargo plane. His airplane lost pressurization in the middle of the
Indian ocean. All crew members can voice their opinion of where to land but he is the final
authority on where to land as an emergency aircraft. As a leader it is impossible to get everyone
to come to an honest 100% conclusion when a there is a time restraint. Though each option is
safe, the crew trusts Captain Gray with their lives to land safely somewhere. Trust has to be
mutual with subordinates and leaders. When on the ground Captain Gray has to trust that the
engineers verified that the airplane is worthy to safely fly by trusting that their pre inspections
were done correctly. According to Satterlee, “Integrity requires honesty and trustworthiness. Of
the five concepts, this is most critical” (Satterlee, 2018).
Obtaining Trust through Autonomy
It is easy to understand that trust is the most import character in a leader, but the difficult
and challenging part is how to obtain trust. Giving autonomy and having emotional intelligence
is the how to achieve the why, which is trust. Employees with job autonomy improves
commitment to the leader and organization (Jain, 2018). At the beginning of every mission
Captain Gray briefs the aircrew on the overall goal of the mission, keeping it simple and to the
point. As long as each crew member does their job within the rules and regulations the pilot in
command should not care how the job gets done. Primary Loadmaster is in charge of loading the
cargo on to the plane. Although Capt Gray is an officer and the loadmaster is enlisted, he
practices that trust and enables autonomy for the expert of loading the airplane. He notices on
missions when the Aircraft Commanders do not give this autonomy to their crew the mission is
negatively affected with delays and the overall decrease morale of the crew. As Douglas
McGregor stated for his Theory Y “Employees experience greater autonomy…resulting in
greater job satisfaction” (Satterlee, 2018).
Obtaining Trust through Emotional Intelligence
Lastly a leader with emotional intelligence can swiftly build trust. The Satterlee
describes emotional intelligence that it is all about the leader and how he perceives himself
(Satterlee, 2018). In the aviation world the term situational awareness is a grading item when
getting evaluated. Can the pilot have the awareness of his surroundings as well as the events that
will happen in the near future? Military pilots have to know where other airplanes are situated,
what the state of their own airplane is (speed, altitude, distance and time), along with the state of
the ground troops. Lastly pilots need to be able to flex for unforeseen circumstances. Leaders
have to have the same mindset. Emotional intelligence is this exact tool that empowers leaders
to do their jobs along with leading. Although the leader might be having a great day some of the
subordinates might not. The leader needs to be able to recognize the cues of others, him or
herself and their current and future environments. DoiniBa concluded that there is a significant
need for emotional intelligence in a leader and that the challenge is to create tools to obtain this
trait (Ciocîrlan,2018).
Biblical Integration
Psalms 36:7 “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.” Trust in the lord even during daunting and
difficult times. The culture we live in has continued to degrade the importance of trust. Always
be a Christ like example of trust and it will carry any person through this life and the next.
Jjbpaca. (2011, February 10). The Essence of Leadership. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocSw1m30UBI
Jain, P., & Duggal, T. (2018). Transformational leadership, organizational commitment,
emotional intelligence and job autonomy: Empirical analysis on the moderating and
mediating variables. Management Research Review, 41(9), 1033-
1046. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-01-2018-0029
Chiu, H., & Chiang, P. (2019). A trickle-down effect of subordinates’ felt trust.Personnel
Review, 48(4), 957-976. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-01-2018-0036
Ciocîrlan, D. (2018). Authentic management and emotionally intelligent leaders versus
conjectural management and conjectural leaders. Management and Economics
Review, 3(1), 27-38. https://doi.org/10.24818/mer/2018.06-03
