Effective Leadership Styles

Question: How does ego relate to these forms of leadership? Answer: In the ted talk The rarest commodity is leadership without ego, the presenter Bob Davids emphasizes on the importance of formation of an egoless culture. By referring to his personal experience he tries to emphasize on the fact that in the present organizational structures there are prevalence of managers but there is scarcity of leaders. In order to explain the issue in an in-depth manner he refers to Bob Townsends Up the organization and his interaction with Bob Townsend in order to establish the fact that organizational structure in the present times lacks the present of effective leaders but consists of numbers of managers (Townsend, 1970). With the help of the above mentioned reference, he also tries to provide the audience with supporting evidences to establish the fact that the two concept- management and leadership are completely different perspectives. In the opinion of Bob Davids, the concept of management can be considered as equivalent to control. In the context of business, the concept of management consists of triple constraints of management- quality, time and price. In his opinion if either one of the three concepts are given preference then it create complications and the other two will suffer, resulting in affecting the all entire outcome or end product adversely. He elaborated the concept in further detailing band stated that if the aspect of quality is given preference as compared to the other two concepts i.e. time and money then it will result in not only affecting the two concepts adversely but will also lead to increased requirement of time and money, which will be required to form a better quality. Similarly if the dimension of price is given preference and it is made the determining factor for any product then it will result in comprising and with the dimension of quality and compromise will have to be done in term s of the quality of the product as efforts will be made to make the product cheaper that will evidently lead to negative impact on the aspect of quality (Davids, 2012). Likewise, if the aspect of time will be given priority then it will result in the requirement of more money and at the same time the aspect of quality will be compromised. The reason behind this is the managerial fact that in order to perform any activity at a faster pace, then more resources will be naturally required and performing any activity at a faster pace would imply an adverse impact on the aspect of quality as well. Thus in the opinion of Bob Davids, management would naturally imply control and the interplay of the triple constraints of business i.e. time, quality and money plays an important role in its operation. In his opinion, the main difference of the two concepts is on the fact that in case of operation leadership people come under its operation or functioning. Another dimension of the difference between the two concepts is that in case of management a push factor is always operative, which is used to take the people or team members to a direction. But the perspective to consider in this regard is the fact that, when the push factor is used to control the people as in case of management, then there is no assurance or certainty as to in which direction they will move due to the use of the push factor. But in case of leadership it is essential on the part of the leader to have the skill of making others follow the leader. Having this skill ascertains the direction in which the targeted follower will move, thus providing the particular motive or activity a concrete direction or plan of action (Davids, 2012). He further states in the ted talk that in order to make the people follow and be an effective leader, it is essential on the part of the leader to go down at the level of the followers, step in their shoes and exercise power sharing policies. It is also required to not only provide the followers with the power but also to provide the followers with the required support so that they can effectively exercise the provided power. As a result of incorporation of the above mentioned aspects in the operation of leadership, the followers will naturally provide the leaders with their effective and equal amount of input, in terms of the provided or shared amount of power. On the contrary, restricting power or reducing the amount of shared power will naturally result in reduced input on the part of the followers. Thus, in turn the power that is going to return to the leaders from the followers is going to make the position of the leaders shaky and also result in his or her losing of the position. He concluded by stating that the aspect of leadership is of great importance or value that is very rare. Any individual either have the quality or gift or he or dont have it (Adamek, 2007). There is no other way of achieving it, in his opinion it can only be polished with the help of the above mentioned qualities. He further made the statement that the crucial aspect on the part of an effective leader to be in constant touch of the people that he or she leads and experience them in order explain which he provided the audience with his personal experience of working in China where he gained success because of experiencing and going at the level of the works, thus establishing the above mentioned concept. From the above made discussion and analysis of the ted talk presented by Bob Davids, it can be clearly stated that he is completely against leadership styles like autocratic or transactional ones and makes an attempt to promote leadership styles that are transformative and participative in nature. Thus it can be clearly highlighted that he is in support of leadership style like participative leadership. In this form of leadership a democratic style is emphasized where the employees or team members are constantly encouraged and they are prompted to provide with their inputs. Thus in this kind of leadership style, the people or team members are given out most importance (Johnson, 2016). In this context, the example provided in the ted talk of Ronal Regan can be stated where he used to consider the requirements and needs of his employees. The above mentioned discussion also indicates a support to the Servant Leadership style where the interest of the followers are given outmost importance and aspects like trust, power sharing, fairness and selflessness are exercised in the relationship between the leader and the follower (Johannsen, 2014). In this context the example of Mahatma Gandhi as provided in the ted talk can be mentioned where, selflessness, power sharing and absence of any kind of ego are the main components of the leadership pattern. Thus the absence of ego and power sharing, in the opinion of Bob Davids are the main components of leadership. References Adamek, M. (2007). Elements of Leadership Development: What Contributes to Effective Leadership?. Music Therapy Perspectives, 25(2), pp.121-124. Davids, B. (2012). The rarest commodity is leadership without ego. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com [Accessed 1 Jun. 2016]. Johannsen, M. (2014). Legacee: TYPES OF LEADERSHIP STYLES. [online] Legacee. Available at: https://www.legacee.com [Accessed 1 Jun. 2016]. Johnson, R. (2016). Small Business. [online] Smallbusiness.chron.com. Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/ [Accessed 1 Jun. 2016]. Townsend, R. (1970). Up the organization. New York: Knopf.