leadership in practice

I took a leadership class when I was an undergraduate at Western Michigan University. I put myself through my bachelor's program, so I was working full time and going to school full time (which I'm sure nearly all my students can relate to). Communication and management scholars hadn't found transformational leadership yet; "best" leadership practices tended to focus on situational leadership. Trait and leadership style approaches were pretty much discounted. Nonetheless I found the class frustrating because it seemed to have little link to my experiences working as a unit clerk in one of Kalamazoo's hospitals. Maybe due to the highly bureaucratic nature of hospitals leaders and managers were constrained to behave in primarily one way (generally telling) and subordinates had little power in trying to change leaders' behaviors. This speaks to Gaber's comment that flexibility is essential for a good leadership. Yet organizational forces can prevent such flexibility. To make matters more complex in the hospital, although physicians were not hired directly by the hospital and technically were not part of the hierarchy, a doctor could get an employee fired. In studying leadership theories, it seemed to me the realities of organizational life were left out and situations were never as clearly defined as those theories suggested.

Transformational leadership certainly presents a compelling approach because it focuses on bringing out the best in followers. jdmINT blogged about the appeal of this approach. The habits of effective leaders discussed in the text also takes an optimistic perspective, but I wonder about the degree to which those habits are put into practice. Sensing and realizing (habits of mind), balancing humility and self-promotion (modesty), accessibility, decisiveness, and valuing individuals (character), and creating a vision and telling a credible life story (authentic and compelling communicative performance) provide the ideal that would resonate with organization members. Rabbit Tale did observe these habits put into practice.

But maybe we expect too much of leaders--developing the habits of effective leaders seems close to achieving perfection. Where are the followers in all this? That's the part that really interests me.

--Professor Cyborg