As Steve Jobs once quoted: "Life is about connecting the dots" and on the 3rd week of my MBA program, this is already happening and I am very pleased to be able to take time and reflect upon my experiences and make a critical constructive evaluation of myself as a leader of my previous organization and my own life.
In today's post, I would like to share my own reflection of what Leadership means in my point of view as a Leader, as well as share some piece of history behind one of the many Leadership Theories out there: The Great Man Theory as a starting point and nest for Trait Theory.
Today was a great experience and some pieces fell into place as I started to link learnings I had over Leadership Management and Managing People modules. Although subjects seem very similar, they are actually complementary to each other, and, a clear question raised in class by Faruk Merali (an INCREDIBLY INSPIRING teacher that I am very happy to learn from) put me to think:
"What is the difference between leaders and managers?"
Since Management involve by nature managing something, I found interesting co-relating some Management theories to Leadership concepts and theories.
As Karl Marx suggested, managers were the "patron representatives" on labor lines, since they were occupied enough accumulating profit, so from starting point, Managers were a trusted figure and leaders in the optic of the patrons in their organizations.
Lots of theories and theorists tried to explain how leadership is shaped. Thomas Carlyle developed the Great Man theory and concluded that great leaders arise with great needs (i.e war times, revolutions).
As Karl Marx suggested, managers were the "patron representatives" on labor lines, since they were occupied enough accumulating profit, so from starting point, Managers were a trusted figure and leaders in the optic of the patrons in their organizations.
Lots of theories and theorists tried to explain how leadership is shaped. Thomas Carlyle developed the Great Man theory and concluded that great leaders arise with great needs (i.e war times, revolutions).
Later Grint built the Trait Theory based on a list of characteristics and skills to distinguish leaders from followers adding to previous definitions that true leaders were born leaders and those traits therefore could not be taught. (Grint, 1997)
Although the Trait Theory is quite clear to understand it's principles and point of views, I was personally interested in the ideas of Thomas Carlyle and the Great Man Theory and I researched thru his life to better understand where and what were the background of the Trait Theory.
Thomas Carlyle was born in Scotland in december 4th 1795. His initial education came mainly from his parents whom taught him to read and develop some Mathematics. By the age of six, Thomas was attending school and from his skills and characteristics, at the age of nine he was already considered as a pride to the schoolmasters as well as a promise for the future of the city.
By that period in history, society had a belief that seldom people with such learning skills would later become a minister of god.
At the age of fourteen, thomas was already lecturing at a low cost university for big classes. His subject was mainly mathematics, his fortress, but at the same time he was excelling in foreign languages. He classes in French and Latin and later on, he learnt by himself Italian, spanish and German.
After thirty years, Carlyle wrote several books as On Heroes, Hero worship and the Heroic in History (1841) where he identified the talents, skills, and physical characteristics of men who rose to power. According to Peter Ackroyd, a british Biographer, Carlyle was considered to be the single most important writer in England during the 1840s.
(Simkin, 1993)
After the French Revolution of 1848, Carlyle started to write monthly papers called Latter-Day Pamphlets, where he criticized democracy based on the "absurd" that leaders should chosen by number of votes gathered. On the other hand, heals criticized the aristocratic Leadership and classified it as "deadening". Later on he expressed his admiration for strong Leaders in a series of six books called history of Frederick, the great (1858-1865) where he supported the idea that
people should be ruled by those most able. (Simkin, 1993)
From my understandings both books highlighted above were critical to the foundation of Grant's Trait Theory. By that time and age where revolutions were taking place and the working class were emerging as a potential change in the way society was to be developed, disorder must have taken place and a lack of a strong single leadership to support it's followers was clearly understandable.
With this brief background, it is clear to understand the context in which both theories were raised.
Although the Trait Theory is quite clear to understand it's principles and point of views, I was personally interested in the ideas of Thomas Carlyle and the Great Man Theory and I researched thru his life to better understand where and what were the background of the Trait Theory.
Thomas Carlyle was born in Scotland in december 4th 1795. His initial education came mainly from his parents whom taught him to read and develop some Mathematics. By the age of six, Thomas was attending school and from his skills and characteristics, at the age of nine he was already considered as a pride to the schoolmasters as well as a promise for the future of the city.By that period in history, society had a belief that seldom people with such learning skills would later become a minister of god.
At the age of fourteen, thomas was already lecturing at a low cost university for big classes. His subject was mainly mathematics, his fortress, but at the same time he was excelling in foreign languages. He classes in French and Latin and later on, he learnt by himself Italian, spanish and German.
After thirty years, Carlyle wrote several books as On Heroes, Hero worship and the Heroic in History (1841) where he identified the talents, skills, and physical characteristics of men who rose to power. According to Peter Ackroyd, a british Biographer, Carlyle was considered to be the single most important writer in England during the 1840s.
(Simkin, 1993)
After the French Revolution of 1848, Carlyle started to write monthly papers called Latter-Day Pamphlets, where he criticized democracy based on the "absurd" that leaders should chosen by number of votes gathered. On the other hand, heals criticized the aristocratic Leadership and classified it as "deadening". Later on he expressed his admiration for strong Leaders in a series of six books called history of Frederick, the great (1858-1865) where he supported the idea that
people should be ruled by those most able. (Simkin, 1993)
From my understandings both books highlighted above were critical to the foundation of Grant's Trait Theory. By that time and age where revolutions were taking place and the working class were emerging as a potential change in the way society was to be developed, disorder must have taken place and a lack of a strong single leadership to support it's followers was clearly understandable.
With this brief background, it is clear to understand the context in which both theories were raised.
Returning to my own experiences, on a very interesting exercise, our group had to come up with a definition in 20 words for Management and the outcome was:
"Management is the process to engage and envision a team to achieve common goals on a efficient manner".
Later, we were presented to 2 definitions that a group of managers came up with on a workshop sometime ago that said:
- "Management is a way to achieve company objectives thru people's effort"
- "Management is a way to achieve company objectives with people's effort"
In my point of view, engagement and envisioning are concepts that true leaders can permeate in their organizations in a inspiring way with unique traits, whilst managers can motivate and control thru techniques and previous experiences. With that I also believe that Great Leaders can become good Managers, but Great Managers might not serve as a Leader. Behavior, Emotional Intelligence and some of the Great Five characteristics are some traits you either born with or not.
But what we can observe from 21st century organization is the effects of a more horizontal and flatted hierarchy, where managers became fire fighters and politicians, rather than leaders that inspires and generate good will amongst it's crew to achieve an objective in time with efficient resources management.
With that, we have a large number of leaders in the same organization with different traits, fitted accordingly to job description needs, rather than Trusted people who possesses unique traits to envision, inspire and move people to get their best out.
But what we can observe from 21st century organization is the effects of a more horizontal and flatted hierarchy, where managers became fire fighters and politicians, rather than leaders that inspires and generate good will amongst it's crew to achieve an objective in time with efficient resources management.
With that, we have a large number of leaders in the same organization with different traits, fitted accordingly to job description needs, rather than Trusted people who possesses unique traits to envision, inspire and move people to get their best out.
On the next weekend I will have a great opportunity to put some more pieces in the right place and to think on a more critical way about some theories.
London Met will provide a Residential Weekend with other 19 people for a Business Game. It will be a multicultural leadership experience with people from all across the globe that I am sure I will learn a lot from others. It will bring out the best (or worst?) of myself.
London Met will provide a Residential Weekend with other 19 people for a Business Game. It will be a multicultural leadership experience with people from all across the globe that I am sure I will learn a lot from others. It will bring out the best (or worst?) of myself.
Bibliography
Grint, K. (1997). Retrieved from SCRIB:
http://www.scribd.com/utsav_mittal/d/49260773-Chapter-2-Leadership-A-Constested-Consruct-%E2%80%93-Keith-Grint
Management Study Guide 2009. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2012, from Management Study Guide: http://managementstudyguide.com/trait-theory-of-leadership.htm
Simkin, J.
(1993). Thomas Carlyle. Retrieved April 01, 2012, from Spartacus
Schoolnet: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jcarlyle.htm
