Leadership - Activity

When putting the term 'leadership' into a Google search, over 51 million results come back. This serves to highlight the importance placed on this concept. As businesses seek to gain competitive advantage, every possible avenue is being explored.

What makes one business more successful than another? Why is it that businesses that appear to have been well planned and well organised fail, despite having seemingly good products or services, whilst others seem to thrive? Why have the likes of Tesco been so incredibly successful in recent years while Sainsbury's has dropped back alarmingly?

The one difference between all these businesses might be the leadership that they have - not just at the top of the business but right the way through. Leadership is, unfortunately, the one area where analysis defies logic. Many have attempted to explain leadership; few have really succeeded. If leadership could be packaged into a neat series of steps, everyone would be doing it. Although attempts have been made to do just that, it cannot be reproduced.

The accompanying Presentation [171 KB] goes through the various theories of leadership. These theories have been much debated and there are countless books explaining how to become a successful leader and manager and whilst most may capture some of the elements of successful leadership, few have delivered the Holy Grail so many have been searching for.

Image: Leaders come in all shapes and sizes; sometimes, leadership qualities are not always used for good. Adolf Hitler led a nation of intelligent, cultured people down a road which culminated in the destruction of the country and millions of people along with it.
Title: Adolf Hitler. Copyright: Getty Images, available from Education Image Gallery

The Task

You are going to be given various situations which require some form of leadership competence. Work in groups to consider the role of a leader in the situations you are given and how the leadership should address the situation. Once you have completed your deliberations, discuss the different approaches that each group have come up with.

You should consider the different approaches, why there are different leadership approaches to the same situation, what the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches might be and try to come to some conclusions about which approach should be adopted.

The following are some guides as to the possible reasons for the differences and the issues that you might need to consider.

What the overall vision is
What the intended outcome is
How complex the change is likely to be
When do you tell people about the change - before it has been decided to implement it or after?
How much do you tell staff about the change and why it is necessary?
How do you get people 'on board' with the change?
How the leader views the people s/he is working with
What the nature of the change required is
The objectives of the business concerned
What resources are available?
Considerations of the effect on morale and motivation of workers
How will you know when you have been successful?

Image: Leadership means different things to different people. To some, George W. Bush represents strong and decisive leadership in difficult times; to others, he is a megalomaniac making decisions based on appeasing the interests of businesses in the US.
Title: Activisits Protest Bush Administration Policies. Copyright: Getty Images, available from Education Image Gallery

The Situations

A new working practices regime is being introduced. Staff were working 40 hours per week, 9-5, but the firm now needs greater flexibility. The flexibility will come from staff working on shift patterns covering the period 6am-10pm, 365 days per year. The working week will be adjusted to 37 hours per week but there are no funds available for additional pay to be given to any member of staff.
A client has contacted your firm of commercial designers and asked them to come up with a new logo that represents a change in the direction the firm wishes to go in. The new logo and associated corporate branding of headed paper, publications, packaging and so on is set to coincide with the launch of the re-branding in two months time at the start of the client company's new season sales drive. If it does not meet this deadline, the client will run the risk of falling behind their rivals whom it has suffered against in recent years.
A business has decided to change its production process from a flow system into a cell system. It feels that it will improve productivity and build a greater team ethic amongst its workers thus improving motivation. It can do the change in two ways:
- It can impose its preferred system which it has been planning for two years onto the plant or;
- It can hire a consultant to come in to discuss the change with the staff and allow the staff to plan and design their own cell systems.
Following a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visit, a chemical company has been warned that its safety procedures in parts of the plant are lacking. It must take steps to remedy these weaknesses within three weeks or face having the plant shut down. The guidelines for remedying the weaknesses are readily available in detailed HSE publications.

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