Steve Lunsford

Introduction:

Leadership is a complicated concept to explain, but my concept of it involves three main components: the context in which one leads, the vision that a leader must have, and the organizational philosophies that they use. Another important element is how the manager differs from the leader, and this is an important distinction to make. All of these elements of leadership will be addressed to help define my personal view on leadership.

The other two parts that will be addressed will be competitive intelligence and knowledge management, which play key roles in the evolving role of the leader in our changing world. Competitive intelligence is simply the use of information that is gathered about what you rivals may be doing on virtually any scale, ranging from a local to global level. This is an important consideration when it comes to the way that information is gathered. Knowledge management is how that information is utilized and put to work for the good of the organization which is being lead.

Leadership: The Contextual Element

In this essay, Wren and Swatez state that “an understanding of leadership requires careful attention to the contextual aspects of the process.” Throughout the writing, they refer to three major areas of context that determine the variables that may impact the leadership dynamics of any particular situation. These three contexts surround both the leader and the followers to define the dynamics of any situation that makes use of leadership.

The first of these areas is the historical context of leadership. The historical context deals primarily with the long-term ramifications of the situation that a leader may be presented with and fall into the categories of social, economic and political forces. These forces relate not to the future, but to past happenings that may place limitations on the options that a leader may have on any given situation. Wren and Swatez use the example of the concept of universal health insurance. Since the 1930’s, this issue had been perceived negatively by the powerful American middle-class and thus is still today heavily fought against based on this understanding of the matter. (Wren, 1995, pp. 247-249)

The second area is of contemporary context of leadership. This deals mainly with the social and cultural values that may influence the way that a leader would respond to the demands that are placed upon him. A leader is bound by the norms that the people of a society are accustomed to. The way that a leader may deal with the social and cultural aspects of his post in the United States would not be well received in many other parts of the world; ignoring the role that context plays in the way that his guidance as a leader is accepted can be detrimental. (Wren, 1995, pp. 249-250)

Leadership: Having a Vision

Marshall Sashkin wrote an essay titled, “Visionary Leadership” that, in my opinion does a outstanding job of outlining one of the major traits of a leader. A leader has one particular trait that seems to almost always make him stand out in that role in my perspective. Vision is that trait and in order for a leader to succeed he or she really needs to have a good thought towards where the group is being lead. (Sashkin, 1989, pp. 402-403)

One of Sashkin’s major ideas is “Visioning,” involves a constant consideration the long term strategy of any initiative of which they are in charge of. For the visionary leader, there are four primary skills: expressing, explaining, extending, and expanding the vision in order to generate the results for the long term goal. The second component is the “Implementing the Vision Organizationally:” leaders guiding and tailoring the culture of the group to accomplish the task that they seek. This can be accomplished through a number of tactics, but must reiterate the vision that the leader has for the organization and provide reason behind goals and policies that might be implemented along the way to the vision. (Sashkin, 1989, p.406)

The Importance of Culture: Organizational Leadership

Results Based Leadership by Dave Ulrich, examines the role of the leader in shaping the organizational culture of an organization. The culture of an organization plays a crucial role in the success of an organization, and it is essential that the leadership takes measures to address this important portion. One of the key points that stand out in the chapter, “Organizational Leadership” is the idea that the ultimate gauge of success of a leader is fostering a culture that allows the individuals to perform as a group to produce results that exceed the sum of their parts. Ulrich examines four major capabilities that are important to organizational culture in an organization: Learning, Speed, Boundarylessness, and Accountability. (Ulrich, 1999, p. 82)

These major capabilities that foster healthy organizational culture are all 4 important, but the ones that most stand out are the Boundarylessness and Accountability portions. Boundarylessness means that people are not simply bound to the areas for which they were originally hired or for the role they were assigned to. This concept means that these individuals are able to have impact and use the skills that they might have to be useful in other areas. This not only allows the organizational culture to thrive through the full use of people’s skill sets, but allows the company to grow in both culture and productivity. This occurs when people are given the capacity to do what they are talented in. Accountability stands out because it extends beyond the reach of just the normal hierarchy, but people regardless of their rank, offer support through accountability in order to help everyone be more productive.

My Personal View of Leadership

In my view, leadership first involves the differentiation between the ideas of management and leadership. At first glance, these two may appear to be the same, but in all actuality are quite different. In the table pictured below, several of the differences as I view them are outlined for the sake of comparison.

Leadership Management
Vision-Driven Task Driven
Followers inspired by vision Followers inspired by Obligation
Focused on Long Term Focused on Short Term
Leads People Accomplishes Tasks

Moving on from the concept of what differentiates the leader from the manager; next let’s take a look at a model that examines how the two apply to each other, situations and the people who might fill one or both of these roles. Refer to the following figure that illustrates how a person’s personal set of skills might vary or overlap based on a situation.

Each circle can vary in size and location based on the situation which each might be used. The circles might also be larger or smaller based on the individual that the graph might represent. In most situations, the circles are not the same size as the capabilities and personality traits of a leader are not very similar to those of a manager. In some situations and individuals, the circles will overlap where both the different skills are used together to both guide a situation and accomplish a task; one may overshadow the other depending upon the person or circumstances. In situations or people where the circles do not overlap or one of the circles may hardly exist, progress may become stunted should the role of either manager or leader be complemented by a person with the opposite set of skills.

Knowledge Management: Leadership in the Information Age

The essay “Information is Knowledge in Motion”: Practical Framework for Understanding Knowledge Management by Jay Gillette deals with the topic of knowledge management. This essay deals with the use of knowledge and how it is transferred and utilized. (Gillette, 1999)

Gillette goes into detail on the topic of Knowledge Management, addressing the topic thoroughly, but the most useful part of this essay, in the context of culture, and leadership, is the model, “Information in a Scale of Knowledge” found in Table 2. This model describes a hierarchy of the stages of knowledge, how it comes to be starting from phenomena, and evolving through various stages on its way to wisdom. (Gillette, 1999, p. Table 2)

Gillette begins with phenomena, which is a representation of something that we see or “perceive”: essentially an observation of something that we may not have previously been aware of. Moving to the next level, facts, we take these phenomena and bring them to actual information in the form of an actual statement of the fact which we have observed. Facts are translated into data which essentially are the collecting and recording of the factual information related to the phenomena. Information is, in turn, the data transformed and understood, to form a useful idea. That information is then translated into understanding which basically means that one understands the information and is thereby able to apply this to a situation. Finally, the understanding can be transformed to wisdom; Gillette states, “Wisdom guides understanding. Understanding informs wisdom.” (Gillette, 1999, pp. 6-8)

What this means to the leader is that age in which they lead is key to their success in their role. To not
consider the value of knowledge, in our era, in the information age, is to fail as a leader.

Conclusion

Over the course of these writings a number of different ideas of leadership are examined from early times through the present and the impact that this as we move into present day leadership. Times are changing and so are the ways that leadership must be implemented. Sound leadership depends on many different factors ranging from the context of the leadership, to the organizational philosophies, to the embracing of changes valuing knowledge, leadership will always be difficult to define based on an evolving culture.

Works Cited
Gillette, J. (1999). Information is Knowlege in Motion: A Practical Framework for Understanding Knowlege Management. Muncie, IN.
Sashkin, M. (1989). Visionary Leadership. The Perspective from Education . New York, New York: The Westview Press.
Ulrich, D. (1999). Organization Results. In D. Ulrich, Results Based Leadership (pp. 83-105). Boston : Harvard Business School Press.
Wray, J. Thomas, Swatez, Marc (1995). The Historical and Contemorary Contexts of Leadership: A Contextual Model. The Leader's Companion . New York, New York: The Free Press.