Leadership Perspective-A Corporate Story

Leadership Perspective-A Corporate Story 

John and Jack were working in a logistics company. John was promoted as a senior manager. Seeing this Jack was not happy and he approached his head Mr. Anderson and raised his concern. Mr. Anderson, instructed Jack to check, whether consignment has reached the harbor. Jack called up the person in-charge and got the information and passed the same to Anderson

Mr. Anderson, called John and gave the same assignment to John. John took his mobile and called the person in-Charge and checked the same. Immediately he called the client and passed the information about consignment and also instructed what the client should do to ensure the consignment is lifted from the port without hassle.

Mr. Anderson, asked Jack what you observed in john. Jack realized and said these are some of the qualities he observed:

• He is self-motivated
• He has business knowledge
• He is able to Influence the client
• He takes initiatives
• He is aligned with the organisational needs

This kind of characteristics is called Competency Perspective.

Behavioral perspective: After few years the company started expanding and jack was also promoted as a leader in a new division and he was doing well. There was one more person called Louis who was a counter part to jack and they both were competing for a same position and finally jack was promoted and Louis was not. Seeing this Louis was dejected and he was not normal with jack. With experience, learning and maturity jack was able to understand Louis feelings and he said Louis “why don’t you speak to the Anderson and understand his views” though Louis was reluctant, he agreed and meet Anderson

Anderson used his same style of demonstrating which he did before few years to jack He said “why you don’t get the following work done through your team”?, Louis immediately went and told his team and also set difficult deadlines he was more oriented towards completion of the task and he was not willing to take any views from his team members.

Now Anderson called jack and gave the same assignment in his division and said “Louis let’s see how jack is going to handle it”

Jack went and told his team- Team we have a challenge we need to move this consignment by today evening to the client’s place, I do understand it is a short notice, however let’s come up with ideas for finishing the task.

Immediately one of his team members said jack we need additional manpower and you need to buy couple hours from the client for delivery, which will help us to finish the task in this short notice

Jack agreed to it and organised for the manpower and spoke to the client stating his situation and finally influenced the client.

After this incidents Anderson asked Louis what is the difference between your style and jack’s style

Louis realized and said I’m more task oriented whereas jack gives importance for both task and people. He did empathize, listen and work out a joint problem solving method.

Anderson said there is one more perspective to leadership – it is called behavior perspective -Your behavior reflects your leadership

Louis was convinced and also apologized for his behavior with jack.

Contingency perspective: After few years the company has gone on a major expansion and has taken over a company and retained the existing staff members.

The new company has two divisions and they have a sizable business but Anderson feels they are not using their potential to the fullest

At this point, Anderson has deputed Louis and John to handle 2 different divisions, Louis was comfortable with the new team and he was able to influence the team but john found it difficult to adjust with their culture and imbibe his thoughts.

When Anderson reviewed the performance of john, he found him to be lagging behind where as Louis was able to reach 90%, which was considered to be a good performance.

John approached Louis and stated his problem, Louis immediately did what jack did to him and he said meet Anderson he will help you

Anderson took john to Louis division and asked him to observe what Louis was doing

Louis was setting goals with his team and he was developing plan of action

& standards required in achieving the goal & he was also giving inputs

Where things might go wrong-in short he was Directive

When one set of team members come with issues, Louis listens carefully and shows his concern – in short he is Supportive

Louis gives opportunity to his subordinates to share their views and ideas –in short he is Participative

He continuously develops achievement plans and closely works with the team- He is achievement oriented

Now Anderson tells there is one more perspective to leadership which is called contingency

Anderson asks john what do you think you lack he said I set goals and I support to some extent but I don’t allow them to participate nor work closely with them.

Finally, Anderson called Mack, Jack, Louis and John and he set a new vision, communicated his vision, took their commitment and announced his retirement.

He asked jack what leadership perspective did you learn he said- Trait perspective, he asked Louis what perspective you learnt he said behavioral perspective and finally he asked john what perspective you learnt he said contingency perspective all the four asked Anderson what perspective did you demonstrate now he said- Transformation perspective

To sum up Anderson has taught 4 perspectives on Leadership

·         Competency – Qualities makes us a leader

·         Behavior- our behavior influences our focus on task or people

·         Contingency – how we handle our subordinates based on contingency

·         Transformational – setting a vision and committing people towards