9 important Techniques of Leadership

9 important Techniques of Leadership are:

A manager while directing the subordinates must cultivate certain qualities among his subordinates. This can give a confidence about their superior. For this purpose the manager must display his leadership towards the following aims which’ are pointed out by Koontz and O’Donnell:

1. Confidence Building:

By successfully applying all the management techniques a manager gains knowledge and experience. He refines the art of application of various techniques through his own experience.

This alone can give him a confidence about his job and position. The confidence that results through this building process provides the manager with a deep sense of personal security.

In fact it is the only job security that has any real meaning. Internal to his enterprise he will be marked with success; to other enterprises he can bring a proven record of success”.

2. Zeal Building:

Leadership must also bring zeal to the manager. But this zeal nature should not be misused by the subordinates.

3. Inspiration:

Every manager must develop his own inspirational techniques. This cannot be taught, through his own experience a manager must inspire his subordinates.

4. Strengthening Personal Qualities:

The moral code and personal character of a leader can influence the subordinates towards a good end.

5. Securing co-operation:

Nothing is so important to the success of an industrial enterprise as the ability of the leaders to secure from all who are associated with the undertaking, the willingness and desire to give their best efforts in furthering the objectives and ideas for which the concern has been established. To secure this ‘will to collaborate’ there must be a willingness, on the part of both parties, to work with each other.

There are certain essentials for securing co-operation and they are as below:

(i) the leader must convince each subordinate that the successful operation and continued life of the enterprise are also of vital interest to him.

(ii) The leader must set a good example by cooperating with his superiors and with others at his own level.

(iii) He should be a psychologist and should try to do everything possible to determine what his followers want most. The best leader does not ask people to serve him, but the common end. He does not have followers, but co-workers.

6. The use of power:

With leadership goes power. Wise leadership uses power in the best interest of the enterprise and the groups related to it.

As regards the use of power, the following remarks of Tread are worth noting: Power comes by virtue of what we deeply are and do, and every great leader is a silent but eloquent witness to the fact that his followers are in a common and important cause’. There are certain persons who seize power rather than earn it.

7. Co-ordination and command:

In order to get the desired action, a successful leader must co-ordinate the acts of his co-workers through order or commands. These orders should be definite, sequential, flexible and open.

The term ‘definite order’ means that the command may come not as an oral order from a superior but as a part of the system of communication which has been established for the accomplishment of the planned goals.

The ‘sequential order’ arranges the acts to be performed in a sequence and specifies when each shall be done. The ‘flexible order’ is one in which the individual ordered may select the method, and time for carrying out the definite task which has been assigned using the predetermined means for doing so. The ‘open order’ is one in which the leader specifies the goals and leaves the details to the subordinates.

Commands to be obeyed must be received and understood. If the proper results are to be obtained, the recipient must know what is expected of him, where he is to do it, how it is to be done, which it is to be completed, and why? Barnard has made it clear that orders to be enforceable must be possible and acceptable to the person.

To quote Barnard, ‘There is no principle of executive conduct better established in good organisations than that orders will not be issued that cannot or will not be obeyed’. Authority, discipline and morale are destroyed violating this principle. A leader should understand the proper use of authority if he is to secure obedience from his followers.

8. Maintaining discipline:

Discipline is the force that prompts an individual or group to observe rules, regulations, and procedures that are demanded necessary to the attainment of an objective, it is the force that restrains individuals or groups from doing things that all deemed destructive of group objectives.

It is also the exercise of restraints or enforcement of penalties for the violation of group regulations. Consistency on the part of the leader is essential if he is to be successful in using the technique of discipline. When the subordinate is right, he must be backed and when he is wrong he must be punished.

9. Developing high group morale:

Morale is the state of mind or attitude of individuals and groups growing out of the conditions under which they operate, including their operating environment, their particular activity or work, their associations in the group, the quality of their leadership and the demands the worker is making upon his job.

A leader has certain traits which assist him in playing a directing role and wielding commanding influence over others. Some of these traits according to Jago are: Energy, drive; Appearance present ability; A sense of cooperativeness; Enthusiasm; height and weight; Personality Initiative; Intelligence Judgement; Self-confidence; Sociability; and Tact.