Leadership and Persuasion

There are several leadership models developed by different people and practiced by many more .these models include, Four Framework Approach by Bolman and Deal ,Managerial Grid by Blake and Mouton,T McGregor’s  Theory X and Theory Y ,Action Centered  Leadership proposed by John Adair and several others. The most important leadership model for an organization however is the Managerial or Leadership Grid by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton.

This model uses two dimensions to describe managerial behavior namely: concern for people and concern for task.

Blake and Mouton describe this concerns using vertical and horizontal axis in a range 0-9.concern for people is plotted using the vertical axis ,whereas concern for task is on the horizontal axis .Majority fall near the middle that is 5,5,but Blake and Mouton go ahead to examine the two extremes and end up with four types of leaders .These are:

(1)    Authoritarian leader: on the graph or grid this leader has a 9 on task on production and a 1 on people or relationship.

Get quality help now

RhizMan

Verified writer

Proficient in: Philosophy

4.9 (247)

“ Rhizman is absolutely amazing at what he does . I highly recommend him if you need an assignment done ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

This type of a leader is interested in results and time management is of great concern to him, targets must be met and there is no room for debates or arguments .He stifles’ the development of the employees, his subordinates hate him .Incase of a problem he is after who is to blame as opposed to the cause or the solution.

(2)    Country Club Leader: He has a 1 on task and a 9 on people. This type of a leader is more interested in the welfare of the people, he wants to make them happy and also wants to be liked .

the problem is he cannot be coercive enough to make work be done effectively.

(3)    Impoverished Leader: He is not committed to the task nor to the people he  delegates duties and neither checks nor follows them up, he avoids conflict by not commenting or stating his opinion, he has a carefree attitude, a laisez faire.On the grid he has 1 on task and 1 on people.

(4)    Team Leader: He is the ideal leader, everyone wants to be this type, he has concern for both the people and production, is very positive and sets the standard stands aside by them and leads by example. He has a 9 on axis.

A good leader should aspire to be like the team leader, but not also forget that some situations may require him to borrow some traits from the other types of leaders, authoritarian, country club and impoverished so as to instill discipline, to motivate workers.

(b)Persuasive leadership is based purely on effective communication between the parties involved. Communication on the other hand relies heavily on feedback between the source and the receiver. A persuasive leader must frame his or her ideas in a manner that is appealing, logical and with evidence in order to win or convince more people .A persuasive leader must learn the virtues of listening to other people’s opinion he should be open minded and willing to compromise .

He should try to cultivate a sense of trust between himself and those under him .He must identify common grounds. It is only through feedback that the leader can know whether his message or idea has been understood, accepted or ignored. Feedback can be both verbal and non-verbal.

Reference

Blake,Robert and  Mouton,James(1985).The Managerial Grid III:The Key to Leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publish Co.

Yuki.  G (2002). Leadership in Organizations. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Clark, Donald (2005). Concepts of Leadership, Big Dog ?s Leadership Page. Retrieved  July 10, 2010, from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcom.html.