Leadership

105 flashcards by MentisLibrary

The named models from trait theory to situational and transformational leadership, motivation research, feedback and coaching, delegation, group decision making, team dynamics, leading change, and handling conflict.

What is the difference between management and leadership?
Management copes with complexity through planning, budgeting, organizing and controlling. Leadership copes with change by setting direction, aligning people and motivating them.
What did early trait theory of leadership claim, and why did it fall out of favor?
That leaders are distinguished by fixed personal traits. Decades of research found no consistent set of traits that predicts leadership across situations, though a few, notably conscientiousness and extraversion, correlate modestly.
What did the Ohio State leadership studies identify?
Two independent dimensions of leader behavior: initiating structure, which is organizing work, roles and deadlines, and consideration, which is attention to relationships, trust and respect.
What is the Blake and Mouton managerial grid?
A model plotting concern for production against concern for people on two nine point scales, producing named styles such as impoverished, country club, produce or perish, middle of the road, and team management at high on both.
What is Fiedler's contingency model?
A model arguing that effectiveness depends on the match between a leader's fixed style, measured by the least preferred coworker scale, and how favorable the situation is. Fiedler held that style is hard to change, so the situation should be changed instead.
What is situational leadership?
A model that matches leader behavior to the follower's competence and commitment on a specific task: directing, coaching, supporting and delegating.
What is path-goal theory?
The leader's job is to clear obstacles and clarify the path from effort to reward, choosing among directive, supportive, participative and achievement oriented behaviors depending on the task and the person.
What is transactional leadership?
Leading through exchange: clear expectations, monitoring, and contingent rewards and corrections. It works well for stable, well defined work.
What is transformational leadership?
Leading by raising people's aspirations and commitment beyond immediate self interest, through the four behaviors Bass named: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration.
What is servant leadership?
An orientation in which the leader's primary role is to serve the people doing the work: their growth, their obstacles, their autonomy. Authority follows from that service rather than from position.
What is Level 5 leadership?
Collins's description of the leaders of companies that made a sustained leap in performance: a combination of deep personal humility and intense professional will.
What is leader-member exchange theory?
The observation that leaders form differing quality relationships with individual reports, effectively an in group with more trust, information and latitude, and an out group with less.
What are Goleman's six leadership styles?
Commanding, visionary, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and coaching. His argument is that effective leaders switch among them by situation rather than having one style.
What is the difference between a technical and an adaptive challenge?
A technical challenge can be solved with existing expertise and authority. An adaptive challenge requires people to change their beliefs, habits or priorities, and cannot be solved by the leader alone.
What is the Peter Principle?
The observation that in a hierarchy people are promoted based on performance in their current job until they reach a role they perform poorly, and then stop being promoted.
What is Brooks's law?
Adding people to a late project makes it later, because new members need onboarding and every addition increases the number of communication paths.
What is Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and what is the caveat?
A five level model of needs from physiological through safety, belonging and esteem to self actualization. It is widely taught, but the strict ordering has never had strong empirical support.
What is Herzberg's two factor theory?
Hygiene factors such as pay, conditions, policy and supervision cause dissatisfaction when they are poor but do not create motivation when they are good. Motivators such as achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility and advancement create satisfaction.
What are Theory X and Theory Y?
Two sets of assumptions managers hold: Theory X assumes people dislike work and need control; Theory Y assumes people will seek responsibility and self direct given the right conditions. The assumption tends to become self fulfilling.
What does self determination theory say motivates people at work?
Three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Intrinsic motivation grows when they are met and shrinks when they are undermined.
What does goal setting theory say about targets?
Specific and difficult goals produce higher performance than vague goals such as do your best, provided the person is committed to the goal and receives feedback on progress.
What is expectancy theory?
Motivation depends on three beliefs: that effort will produce performance, that performance will produce the outcome, and that the outcome is worth having. If any one is near zero, motivation collapses.
What is equity theory?
People judge fairness by comparing their ratio of contribution to reward against the ratios of people they see as comparable, and they act to restore balance when it feels unfair.
What is the job characteristics model?
Five features that make work motivating: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback from the work itself.
How should recognition be given so it actually works?
Specifically, promptly, and tied to the behavior you want repeated. Generic praise carries almost no information.
What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?
Intrinsic motivation comes from the work itself: interest, mastery, meaning. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside it: pay, deadlines, status, avoiding punishment.
What is the SBI feedback model?
Situation, Behavior, Impact. State when and where it happened, describe the observable behavior, then describe the effect it had.
What is radical candor?
Kim Scott's framing of good feedback as caring personally and challenging directly at the same time. Caring without challenging is ruinous empathy; challenging without caring is obnoxious aggression.
Why is the feedback sandwich a weak technique?
Wrapping criticism in praise blurs the message. People remember the praise, miss the correction, and eventually distrust any compliment as a warning.
When should feedback be given?
As close to the event as is practical and private, usually within a day or two, while both people remember the specifics.