there are two
fundamentally different kinds of leadership styles, Theory X and Theory Y.
Theory X leadership is largely transactional.
Meaning that leaders believe people are fundamentally not motivated and
they need to be offered incentives or punishments to perform.
Theory X leaders believe that people need to be monitored, and
that good work should be rewarded, and bad work or lack of work needs to be punished.
All of this amounts to a tit-for-tat culture.
John was a Theory X leader.
A very different view, is Theory Y leadership,
which is based on the outlandish idea that people want to contribute and
are self motivated to perform good work.
Theory Y leaders are transformational, meaning that they inspire people
to excel and contribute, not by administering rewards and
punishments, but by empowering others and giving them authority.
This creates a gift culture, where people are not adding up cost and
benefits, but they are actively contributing to the enterprise.
Another question, when it comes to leadership is,
should managers focus on getting the work done or attending to the people?
Task-focused leaders are highly agentic and focus on
getting the work done, meeting performance objectives, and being productive.
In contrast, person-focused leaders care about the people,
their welfare, and seek to build trusting relationships with them.
Let's use Blake and
Mouton's leadership grid to explore five possible types of leaders.
The Authority-Obedience Manager is high task, low people.
The Authority-Obedience leader focuses so much on the task,
that people often don't feel appreciated.
The Country-Club leader focuses so much on the people that no work is getting done.
The Impoverished leader is low people, low task, and is not really doing anything.
Team Managers are high people and high task.
Team leaders focus both on the people and the work to be done.
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