Page 309 - Business Principles and Management

Unit 4

12.1 The Importance of Leadership

Goals Terms
• Recognize the importance of lead- • leader • position power
ership and human relations. • leadership • reward power
• Identify important leadership • human relations • expert power
characteristics and types of power. • power • identity power
• Describe four types of power
available to leaders.

The Importance of Leadership

Anyone who holds a responsible position in an organization must have a num-
ber of qualities to meet his or her responsibilities successfully. One of the key
qualities for a manager at any level is effective leadership. If you plan a career
in business, you need to develop your leadership skills.
Many years ago, managers were totally responsible for all decisions in a busi-
ness. The goal of management was to get the work of the business done. Therefore,
managers just told employees what to do and expected them to do it.

WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?
Today, we recognize that management is not that simple. To get work done
effectively, employees must understand why the work is important and must
want to do the work. Employees want to be an important part of the business
and want managers to value their ideas as well as their work. A manager who
earns the respect and cooperation of employees to effectively accomplish the
work of the organization is known as a leader.
Leadership is the ability to influence individuals and groups to cooperatively
achieve organizational goals. Leaders have excellent human relations skills.
Human relations refers to how well people get along with each other when
working together. A group of people who respect each other and work well
together will likely do better work than groups characterized by negative feel-
ings, misunderstandings, hostility, and a lack of respect for each other. In a nega-
Teamwork tip tive group atmosphere, individuals—and often the entire group—will do things
that interfere with the group’s success rather than contributing to it. You can
probably think of groups that do not work well together. How do the members
treat each other? How do they spend their time when the group is together?
If you want your team to be Usually it is not enjoyable to be part of a group with poor human relations.
successful, the team will need
both an effective leader and DEVELOPING AS A LEADER
cooperative and supportive
team members. Many of the A manager can contribute to effective or ineffective human relations. All man-
traits of leaders are needed agers have a responsibility for getting work done through others, so relation-
by team members as well. ships are important. Not every manager is currently an effective leader, but

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