What Makes an Effective Leader?

This is one of the most often asked questions regarding leadership. There is no one answer to this question. A person who can motivate others to follow his lead, of course, should have certain distinct characteristics which are respected by his followers. Leadership is both situational and temporal. But, anyone who thinks that he is born to lead assumes basically dictatorial characteristics, and no dictator has lasted long.

It is essential that you don't fall into the trap of assuming autocratic or democratic leadership all the time with all the members of your group. It is the surest way of building resentment from your ) subordinates and you will not get their optimum performance. It is here your skill at leadership becomes distinctly synergistic when you distinguish the personality types in your group and recognize the most effective leadership approach to which the person is most responsive.

Many situational factors affect the supervisor's lead­ership style.

Some of the major situational factors are described below.   

1. Number of people in the "work group. Managers can give more individualized attention in smaller work groups. As group size increases, management by exception must tend to be used

       2.Kinds of tasks. Jobs involving simple repetition may permit the manager to be more autocratic. Workers with creative or complex jobs require more freedom.

3. Situational stress. Managers often shift to a more autocratic style when the going gets tough. The firm may be in financial difficulties, and the manager may be expe­riencing unusual pressure to increase output. How­ever, the supervisor should be careful in changing leader­ship styles and should not do so purely as a reflex action.

4. Objectives of the unit. The specific objectives the manager is expected to accomplish affect leadership style. If the only objective is to get the job done immediately, the use of strong authority may be justified, even though it may make workers unhappy. When there is an impor­tant rush project, subordinates are more likely to accept simply being told what to do.

5. Whether or not the company has a union. Union workers often do not want to participate in manage­ment. They may believe that supervisors should super­vise and workers should work. Managers in nonunion firms are able to adopt a wider range of leadership styles. Being able to maintain nonunion status has been a major strength of IBM management.

6. Leadership style of the manager's boss. Managers tend to lead as they are led. If the boss is autocratic, managers may lean toward this leadership style. The example set by Thomas Watson, still guides manag­ers throughout the large organization.

7. Relationship of the manager with subordinates. If the relationship is one of actual respect, the manager will usually let workers take part in managing them­selves. Workers, too, are likely to contribute more when they are respected by their supervisor. Because of a careful selection process at IBM employees tend to be "a cut above average" and thus can be given extra responsibility.

Can one person be both a manager and a leader? The American researchers don't say that it is impossible. But they think that because leaders and managers are basi­cally different types of people, the conditions favorable to the growth of one may be inimical to the other. The authors of many scientific articles emphasize that man­agers and leaders have different attitudes toward their goals, careers, and relations with others.

Managers tend to adopt impersonal, it not passive, attitudes toward goals. Managerial goals arise out of ne­cessities rather than desires, and, therefore, are deeply embedded in the history and culture of the organiza­tion.

"...To meet the challenge of the marketplace, we must recognize changes in customer needs and de­sires far enough ahead to have the right products in the right places at the right time and in the right quantity.

We must balance trends in preference against the many compromises that are necessary to make a final product that is both reliable and good looking, that performs well and that sells at a competitive price in the necessary volume. We must design, not just the cars we would like to build, but more importantly, the cars that our customers want to buy"

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