There is a common misconception among many people that a leader is a boss and vice versa. This notion, however, is not true. A leader is defined as a person whom people follow and from whom they seek guidance and direction. A boss, on the other hand, can be anyone who has some sort of power over other people, especially colleagues at the work place.
Leadership can, therefore, be defined as the process of utilising ones social influence to rally for assistance from ones followers in order to achieve a common goal. The demand for quality leadership is at all times high as citizens require leaders who can deliver consistent and sustainable development, with little, and diminishing resources at their disposal.
This is especially true in a political scenario. The days when voting for a leader was simply a matter of political affiliation are dead and buried. People want actions, and demand results. So, what are the fundamental characteristics of a political leader? Well, these may vary from one person to the other because a person’s likeable attributes are a matter of preference. The following traits, however, stand out.
Accountability is a fundamental ingredient and essentially the building blocks of a good leader. Personal accountability entails being answerable for your actions and of those that you supervise.
A good leader should be ready to bear the burden of his subordinates’ shortcomings and deal with underperforming colleagues accordingly. Failure to do so will lead to a situation of blame-shifting and finger pointing which never bears any positive outcome. Personal accountability builds trust and shows an ability and dedication to achieving success and positive results.
This is one trait that was portrayed by Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, when the president, Mikheil Saakashvili, denounced the new cabinet at the parliamentary assembly of the council of Europe (System Innovation for Sustainability 2012), and claimed that Russia would use blackmailing and provocation, similar to what was done during the Azerbaijan elections in Georgia.
Prime Minister Bidzina issued a public statement, in which he apologised to Georgia’s allies for the president’s actions. This clearly shows that Bidzina is accountable for the actions of the government, under which, he serves.
Honesty is another virtue that characterises a good leader, but sadly, it is a trait that many leaders lack. Honesty is like a coin with two faces. On one side, honesty builds credibility and trust, the two ingredients that are essential for gaining trust, belief and confidence from those around us.
Prime Minister Bidzina displayed a impressive show of honesty when he unexpectedly entered into politics, specifically to challenge President Mikheil, and his leadership. “I’m 56 years old. I decided to go into politics because of our Soviet-style government,” said Bidzina, accusing the president of dictatorship, and buying off of Georgia’s old parliamentary opposition.
The results of the prime minister’s actions are what many individuals and leaders dread, and which also happens to be the second face of the honesty coin. Being honest reveals the true nature of an individual or an organisation. It discloses past mistakes, failures, and shortcomings of individuals, leaving them vulnerable to prejudice and rejection.
Compassion is the ability to identify a people’s suffering, and implement strategies that will alleviate their anguish, without any intentions to make any personal gains. This is a crucial trait for any political leader since it is their duty to look after the needs of the people whom they represent.
Bidzina displayed compassion by challenging the president’s actions, which as he puts it, were turning the nation from a democracy and into a dictatorship. This showed that he valued the people’s rights and would sit down a watch them be eroded by selfish, self-centered individuals.
Integrity; this is the ability to stick onto ones beliefs and principles, even in the presence of external pressure to change. This is an essential requirement for leaders, especially politicians as it shows moral uprightness, which earns the confidence from the people, who can trust their leaders to do the right thing, at the right time, even if it may be to their own (the leaders) disadvantage.
This shows that leader values the welfare of the community, more than he does those of an individual. Bidzina claims that he had been forced to find other people to work with since the president, Mikheil, has bought off Georgia’s old parliamentary opposition. This shows that he, Bidzina, is a man of integrity because, as they say, “show me your friends, and I’ll tell you your character.”
It is clearly evident that Bidzina has all the makings of a good political leader. He calls it the way he sees it and is not afraid to brush shoulders with any leader who does not fulfill their duty, or uses his political influence to make personal gains at the people’s expense.
He is a person who will not be swayed away from his principles and his promises to his people. All leaders, politicians or otherwise, should strive to be like him (Russ’s Web 2003).
The foregoing are just a few of the qualities and traits that are expected of any person, leader or not, and not just politicians. They are characteristics that one is usually born with, but they can be learned where they lack. They should, however, be instinctive, and not something one has to ponder over. When in doubt, one can simply apply the golden rule; “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
We have seen what is expected in political leadership, but what about management leadership. Well, most of what is expected from a political leader is also expected from a manager or a supervisor, but there are some slight variations depending on the organisational environment. These variations are brought about by such factors as job group division, division of labor, and hierarchy.
Organisational complexity requires the adoption of adaptive leadership practices. This is particularly challenging for bureaucracies that seek to control variations through command and control approaches. So, rather than focusing on activities engaged in eliminating potential errors and discrepancies, adaptive practices seek to use these variations as opportunities for learning.
This learning is not focused solely on the prevention of reoccurrence, but also on the organisational structure, communication systems and self-organising elements within the organisation (Espinosa, Harnden and Walker 637). In order to be effective therefore, a manager needs to be more accommodative of his juniors at the work place.
For a leader to be effective, he will need to be able to adopt a different leadership style depending on the situation at hand. The leader should, however, be careful in deciding the leadership style he would like to adopt lest he makes a fool of himself, which will bring about disrespect from his junior colleagues.
There are about six established leadership styles that have been identified and which are commonly implemented in management leadership. An in dept analysis of these six leadership styles will give an insight into effective management leadership.
The ‘pace-setting leader’- this is a leadership technique where the leader motivates his subordinates to better their performance by setting high standards in job execution. The leader then expects his subordinates to ape him.
However, this leadership style is only appropriate when the colleagues are already motivated, and self-driven to achieve and excel. This style should be used with a lot of caution, especially when the leader is a high achiever because extensive use of this style may lead to overwhelming of the junior employees.
Authoritative leadership another commonly used leadership style. This is where the manager gives an objective that he wishes to be accomplished, and then leaves the subordinates to their own devices as far goal achievement is concerned. This style of leadership is commonly used when a change in objectives especially due to changing circumstances, or where explicit guidance is not necessary.
This inspires an entrepreneurial and problem solving nature in the junior staff and helps in self-growth. It is, however not recommended in situations where the junior employees are more qualified in the concerned field than the manager is.
The affiliative leadership style is where the leader nurtures a feeling of bonding and belonging among his staff members. The leader makes his staff feel that they are beneficial and are being appreciated in the organisation. It is most effective when the manager wants to rebuild trust among his staff, or when he wishes to relieve stress from his juniors.
This leadership style should not be used exclusively because an extensive application of this style will promote under-performance, mediocre results, and a lack of direction within the junior staff members of the organisation.
The coaching approach to leadership is one that seeks to develop a lasting positive trait within the staff members. Here, the leader identifies a particular strength within an employee, which the employee has not realised. The leader then advises them to capitalise on these strengths.
This is aimed at helping the staff to develop lasting personal strengths that will help in their overall success. It is, however, not an effective strategy in situations that involve defiant employees who are resistant to change.
Coercive leadership is where the leader expects his/her instructions to be followed to the latter. It is more like issuing commands to the junior staff, and expecting immediate compliance. It should, however be avoided in any other situation because an extensive use of this technique will lead to alienation and hinder innovation from the employees.
Democratic leadership. This leadership style promotes a participatory nature within the organisation. The leader, rather than give direct instructions to the employees, opts to seek their input in developing problem solving strategies. It is most effective when the leader seeks to sell an idea or decision to his staff.
This makes them more receptive to change as they end up owning the idea/ decision (the employees end up feeling like they came up with the idea and not as though the idea was shoved down their throats.). It also serves well where the manager seeks fresh ideas from qualified staff members.
It is not an effective method when an in an emergency situation, or where time is of the essence. The leader should also avoid seeking ideas from his juniors when they are not savvy enough to offer him advice.
The foregoing leadership styles have been coined from leaders’ character traits, i.e. a leader who favors the authoritative leadership strategy is said to be an authoritative leader. As they say, human is to error, and this, therefore, means that no single leadership style is perfect (seeing as they have been coined from the traits of the leaders who apply them).
It should follow then that a leader should consider all relevant factors of the situation at hand, and come up with a combination of two or more leadership styles to try and balance the unhealthy or unwanted outcomes with the good ones.
As earlier seen Bidzina has adopted a number of leadership styles both during his campaigns and offer assuming office. This has enabled him to stay relevant to most people as it is easy to overlook the unpleasant traits where they have out-weighed by the good traits.
It is, therefore prudent for political leaders and managers to balance their leadership style in order to appeal to the masses. Failure to do so may bring about a state of rejection and even hate in extreme, from the governed since everyone has his/ her own preferences, which are different from those of the next person.
Works Cited
Espinosa, Angela, R. Harnden, L. Walker. “A complexity approach to sustainability – Stafford Beer revisited.” European Journal of Operational Research. 187. 2,1 (2008): 636–651.
System Innovation for Sustainability. “System Innovation for Sustainability: Using Systems Thinking and Design Thinking”. 2012. Web.
Russ’s Web. “Wisdom”. 2003. Web. <home.earthlink.net/~bmgei/educate/docs/aperson/wisdom/wisdom.htm>.