Chapter 15 - Leadership

When discussing influence tactics with your managers, you should tell them that:

The best managers use a variety of influence tactics

The six characteristics in this list are associated with leadership, but the best leaders focus on their __________. These are natural talents reinforced through learning and practice.

strengths

Sirah runs a housecleaning service. She wants her employees to be highly efficient, cleaning a certain number of houses each day, and perform their work according to established checklists of tasks that have proven to satisfy clients. What is the more appropriate style of leadership, given Sirah's objectives for her housekeepers?

Transactional

To motivate longtime employees who are at or past retirement age to stay with the company so the organization does not lose their expertise and deep relationships with customers, Columbia Office Furniture structures its retirement savings plan to make larger contributions to these employees' accounts each year.

Transactional leadership

When employees raise problems at staff meetings, Jonna doesn't solve them. Instead, she asks the employees what approaches they would like to try. Her employees know they can suggest any solutions, even those that imply criticism of Jonna's management.

Transformative leadership

A real estate agent gets new clients by being known as a "good guy" whose clients trust and respect him.

Make people like you

Ensuring that correct invoices go to customers

Management

A manager demonstrates __________ when he listens carefully to his subordinates and works to build trusting relationships.

consideration

In staff meetings, Jack demonstrates __________ by asking questions, offering constructive feedback about others' ideas, and contributing his own solutions to problems.

critical thinking

When Jonah communicates a vision of providing customers with excellent service, he is acting as a __________.

leader Explanation: Being a manager involves planning and organizing work and evaluating how well employees are performing it. Managers solve problems and complete "paperwork," or more often these days the computer system equivalent. Leadership, on the other hand, means creating an environment where others can do their best work and motivating them to perform their best. When Sam processes his employees' merit raises, he is acting as a manager.

Verlie, an employee, came into your office yesterday and said, "You've got to do something about my manager, Stephanie! She is such a bully. Just last week she told poor Sally that she would fire her if she didn't improve her sales figures by 20%."

Coercive

The key to __________ is believing in and practicing high ethical values, exercising self-discipline to avoid unethical behavior, and pursuing goals by building positive relationships and genuinely caring about other people.

authentic leadership

In a Harvard Business Review article, consultant Ben Dattner emphasizes the importance of giving credit to others for their good ideas and successes, both in private and in public. A leader with __________ would generally behave in this way.

humility Explanation: Someone who is unpretentious and modest, not arrogant and prideful, has humility. This is an important trait of a Level 5 leader, who accepts responsibility for mistakes but gives credit for successes to others. (Source: Dattner, B. (2012, March 27). Give credit where it's due. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2012/03/give-credit-where-its-due/)

Francine views her manager as a colleague and does not hesitate to approach her manager with new ideas or to question a decision. __________, Francine is highly committed to the organization and seeks to make a positive impact on her colleagues and customers.

An effective follower Explanation: Francine is an effective follower, exhibiting both independent, critical thinking and an active stance toward her work. Effective followers tend to behave the same way toward superiors, peers, and subordinates. They also have good self-awareness and can discern the strengths and weaknesses of others.

Jacob is an accounting clerk whose favorite phrase is "Whatever the boss wants." Jacob will do whatever his boss requests, without thinking about problems that may arise. Around the office, Jacob is known as the ultimate yes-man.

Conformist

A CEO is considering whether to invest in developing leadership capabilities in its managers. To make this determination, which of the following should the CEO take into account?

How leaders behave has a major impact on employee performance. Explanation: Leaders shape the organizational context in which other employees work. Leadership can be defined as the ability to influence people toward the attainment of goals. Therefore, leaders' attitudes and behaviors have a significant impact on the performance of everyone else in the organization. Managerial work, such as solving problems, is distinct from leadership, which is about accomplishing work through others.

Blanchard talks about seeing employees as partners. This type of consensual and collaborative process is most similar to which of the following theories of leadership?

Interactive leadership

Driving the organization to make changes

Leadership

Emma is an industrial designer; she creates detailed drawings of machine parts prior to production. Her company has seen a lot of ups and downs in the last few years, and now Emma has resigned herself to do whatever it takes to get by. Sometimes she takes an active role on her team; on other occasions, she sits back and just does what her boss tells her to do.

Pragmatic survivor

A parent smiles at a child whenever the child is being quiet. In turn, the child is quiet more often.

Reward the behaviors you want

You are an experienced manager, and you fortunately have the ability to use all four managerial styles: directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating. You are currently working at Delaware Ignition, an automotive ignition manufacturer. Your team consists of engineers who are very experienced, but most have gone through several rounds of layoffs in other jobs. They are nervous about how things might play out at Delaware Ignition. Your boss has given you 2 months to create a more efficient ignition coil. Based on Situational Leadership II, what should you do?

You should let the engineers handle the technical details on their own. Your job is to give them the resources they need to get the work done and to offer reassurance that things will be okay at Delaware Ignition.

Which of the following statements concerning the relationship between leader characteristics and leader performance are true? Check all that apply.

- Traits can be more or less strongly linked to performance, depending on the leader's situation. - Few leaders have all of the traits commonly associated with leadership. - Early research found that there is only a weak relationship between leader performance and leader characteristics.

By virtue of being the CEO of McKesson, a medical and scientific supplies company, Brian Tyler has __________.

legitimate power Explanation: Power coming from a formal management position in an organization and the authority granted to it is legitimate power. Because he is the CEO of his company, Brian Tyler has considerable legitimate power.

Ford needs a __________ good as they move ahead with the redesign, to be sure that a schedule for the redesign is created and adhered to, and that the budget for the redesign is not exceeded. Grade It Now Save & Continue

manager Explanation: Ford needs a manager to put the redesign in place. The vision and plans for the redesign have already been completed. Now, the work remaining is to implement that vision, and that is the job of a manager rather than a leader.

The United States Post Office (USPS) has very strict regulations on how to sort mail. Maria, an experienced manager, regularly talks with her employees to see whether they are satisfied with their jobs. Maria's __________ leadership behavior is likely to be __________, because __________ __________ this leadership behavior.

people-oriented; effective; inflexibility; has no effect on

A manager's position in the organization, ability to give out rewards, and other factors give the manager __________, which is the potential to impact the behavior of other people.

power Explanation: Power is the potential ability to influence the behavior of others. This is in contrast to influence, which is the actual effect someone has on the attitudes, values, beliefs, or behavior of others.

James is an agreeable and emotionally stable person. A __________, he inspires his employees to believe in the changes he wants to make to the organization.

transformational leader Explanation: Transformational leaders can bring about innovation by communicating an inspiring vision, shaping values, building relationships, and providing meaning for followers. The traits of agreeableness and emotional stability are often associated with transformational leaders, and they often have high emotional intelligence.