LEADERSHIP AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

LECTURE - 02
Leadership Myths and Facts
PROF. SANTOSH RANGNEKAR
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

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 Contents
• Myths and Facts about Leadership
• 12 Common Myths about Leadership
• Case Study
• Book Recommendation
• References

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Myths and Facts about Leadership
• Much has been written about
leadership:
Rules, pointers, styles, and biographies
of impressive leaders all through world
history.

• Nevertheless, there are particular

leaderships facts that we all ourselves
fail to identify and understand in the
course of reading books.

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Myth 1: Leaders are of only 1 Type
Fact: The official (elected for position or offices) and informal leaders (by
virtue of their wisdom and expertise) exercise a mix of leadership variations.

The various types are:

Lewin’s 3 basic management styles:
• Authoritative
• Participative
• Delegative

Image Source: https://www.verywellmind.com/leadership-styles-2795312

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Myth 1: Leaders are of only 1 Type (Cont.)
Goleman’s 6 emotional leadership styles:
• Visionary Coaching
• Affiliative Democratic
• Pacesetting Commanding
Likert’s 4 Leadership styles:
• Exploitative authoritative
• Good-hearted authoritative
• Consultative
• Participative
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Myth 2: Leaders are Born, not made
Fact: Leadership is actually a procedure for becoming a leader.

• Although specific men and women are born with innate leadership
characteristics, without proper environment and exposure, they will often
fail to acquire their full potential.

• So, like learning the way to ride a bicycle, it’s also possible to learn how to
become a leader and sharpen your leadership expertise.

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Myth 3: Let them be the Leader
Fact: Leadership begins with you.
• Knowledge on leadership theories and
abilities may be formally gained by
finding leadership seminar, training
courses, and conventions.

• You cannot become a leader in a single

day. Life-long learning is essential in
learning to be a good leader for every
day which provides fresh experiences
that put your knowledge, skills, and
frame of mind to a test.
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Myth 4: Leadership is Sole Act
Fact: Leadership is Shared.

• Leadership is not the sole

responsibility of one person, but
instead a shared accountability
among people of an emerging
team. The leader belongs to a
group. Every single member has
tasks to meet.

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Myth 4: Leadership is Sole Act
Fact: Leadership is Shared.

• In an organization, commencing
as a simple band of men and
women, associates and
management work towards the
development of an powerful
team.

Image Source: https://blogs.imperial.ac.uk/pstrc/2019/05/24/why-sharing-leadership-in-healthcare-matters/

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Myth 5: Leadership exists only at the top of organization
Fact: Highly competitive market leaders needed at various levels.
• Restriction of leadership to the top would in fact be ringing its own death
knell.
• Necessity of leadership at
different levels is clearly
apparent when considering
armed forces.
• Effective leadership at every
level is a prerequisite to
achieve a corporate vision.
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Myth 6: Leadership are Charismatic
• Charisma is very often confused as leadership.

• It is not necessary to be charismatic to be a leader.

• Employee look for whether they can trust their leaders more than charisma.

• In fields which require technical and specialized skills it matters very little
whether the leader is charismatic or not.

• Organization like bank, investment house is not conducive to a completely

charismatic leader. A more quiet, leading by example type of person would
be better suited.
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Myth 7: Good Leadership Is All Common Sense
• At face value, this myth says one needs only common sense to be a good
leader.

• Do leaders need to act confidently? Of course. But they also need to be

humble enough to recognize that others’ views are useful, too.

• Do leaders need to persevere when times get tough? Yes. But they also
need to recognize when times change and a new direction is called for.

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 Myth 8: The Only School You Learn Leadership from Is
the School of Hard Knocks
• It is a mistake, however, to think of formal study and learning from experience
as mutually exclusive or antagonistic. In fact, they complement each other.

• Approaching the issue in such a way recognizes the vital role of experience in
leadership development, but it also admits that certain kinds of study and
training can improve a person’s ability to discern important lessons about
leadership from experience.

• It can, in other words, accelerate the process of learning from experience.

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 Myth 9: Leadership is a rare skill
• Contrary to popular belief leadership certainly is not a rare skill.
• Majority of us have inherent leadership qualities that come to fore when
opportunity arises like crisis, celebration or when simple family decision
need to be taken.
• Good leadership skills
without management
skills to support it will
result in inability to
operationalize the
corporate vision.

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for-these-3-rare-signs.html
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Myth 10: Extroverted leaders are preferred
• Extroverts are thought to be more outgoing and confident. Introverts are
considered shy and withdrawn. Extroverts work through problems by
discussing them and seeking the advice and input from others. Introverts
process their thoughts and conflicts internally. Because of these
differences, it shouldn’t be surprising that extroverts are drawn to
leadership roles. Being a leader means engaging with other people, right?

• The reality is that not all extroverts are cut-out to be leaders. A lot of
successful individuals, such as Warren Buffett, Barack Obama, and Marissa
Mayer, are introverts. Just because you’re not the head of a department or
comfortable in crowds doesn’t mean that you should sell yourself short.
You may still possess the right leadership skills to inspire others

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Myth 11: Leadership Is About Results, Not People

• Akin to the previous myth, leadership is not all about results at the sacrifice
of people. Unfortunately, when we are disconnected from the feeling of
ourselves and others, this incessant “doing” leads to actions that are not
grounded and leaves us feeling disconnected and desperate for meaning
and belonging.

• In the short term, high results may be achieved, but they will be at the cost
of long-term gains, as your people will be less motivated, discontented, and
probably be looking for other jobs.

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Myth 12: Management Equals Leadership
• In short, management is about oversight, reacting, and maintaining the
status quo. Whereas, leadership is about focusing on the bigger picture,
helping others see this vision, coaching, building relationships, and being
willing to take risks.

• A manager is a steward to get what needs to be accomplished done and

maintain processes. However, a leader goes beyond this. They take you
someplace you’ve never been before, to a new vision and opportunity.
Most people lean toward one or the other. Self-awareness is important, not
only of one’s own skills but the needs of the team.

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 Case Study: Richard Branson Shoots for the Moon
• The Virgin Group is one of the largest companies in the world over 30 countries. At the
head of this huge organization is Richard Branson. Richardson, he built the organization
from a small student magazine to the multibillion-dollar enterprise it is today.
• Branson was suffering from dyslexia in childhood but was great at his uncanny knack for
uncovering lucrative business ideas and His true talents began to show in his late teens.
• He decided to start his own magazine named “Student”. It was differed from most
college newspapers or magazines; it focused on the students and their interests.
• Branson saw an opportunity for Student to offer records cheaply by running ads for mail-
order delivery. He recruited the staff of Student for his discount music business. He built
a small recording studio and signed his first artist and Soon grand sale of 5 million copies
of Mike Oldfield recorded “Tubular Bells”.

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Case Study: Richard Branson Shoots for the Moon
• Some time later, Branson started other businesses like airline, hotels, finance etc.
his approach was nontraditional. he keeps each enterprise small and relies on his
skills of empowering people’s ideas to fuel success.
• Once a flight attendant from Virgin Airlines approached him with her vision of a
wedding business, Richard told her to go do it.
• Branson relies heavily on the creativity of his staff; he is more a supporter of new
ideas than a creator of them.
• In 1999 Richard Branson was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s Millennium New
Year’s Honours List for “services to entrepreneurship.”

Questions :-
Q1. Would you classify Richard Branson as a manager or a leader? What qualities distinguish him
as one or the other?
Q2. Identify the myths of leadership development that Richard Branson’s success helps to
disprove?
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Research Paper
Paper: Awakened leaders: born or made?
Authors: Joan F. Marques
Journal: Leadership and Organizational
Development Journal
Published: 2010
DOI: 10.1108/01437731011043339

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Purpose
• This paper aims to review the leader of the twenty-first century, the
Awakened Leader. Based on information, collected from 11 leadership
thinkers and practitioners, literature review, and the author’s workplace
observations, the article seeks to analyze some of the important
experiences and skills that make awakened leaders so outstanding.
Design/methodology/approach
• This study was conducted as a qualitative study of the phenomenological
kind, enriched with literature review. Interviews were executed from a pre-
validated interview protocol. The approach to the topic is: definition of
awakened leadership; review of the essence of awakened leadership;
reasoning of the determination regarding this leader being born or made;
and perspectives toward awakened leadership.
Findings
• An interesting combination of qualities emerged for awakened leaders varying from
morals and values, ethics, integrity, honesty and trust, to kindness, forgiveness,
courage, love, and deep listening. As an interesting endnote the article explains why
practicing awakened leadership is easy and difficult at the same time.

Research limitations/implications
• The studies reviewed, although in-depth, applied to a small sample of leaders, which
makes generalization riskier. Because leadership is such a broad and dynamic topic,
literature review is never exhausted, and thus always relatively outdated.
Practical implications
• Leaders may reconsider the skills required for themselves and their
workforce to guarantee successful performance in an increasingly
interconnected world.

• Leaders may engage in reflection and work toward stronger emphasis and
development of skills in which they consider themselves weak.

• Leaders may re-examine their work environment and consider how to

minimize the factors that complicate the practice of awakened leadership in
their organization.
 BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Leaders:
Myth and Reality

Publisher: ©2018 by Portfolio

Authors: Jason Mangone, Jeff Eggers, and
Stanley A. McChrystal
Language: English
Paperback: 480 Pages
ISBN: 0525534377
ISBN13: 978-0-52-553437-2

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 BOOK RECOMMENDATION
The Mythical Leader :
The Seven Myths of Leadership

Publisher: ©2017 by Thomas Nelson

Authors: Ron Edmondson
Language: ENGLISH
Paperback: 753 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-07-786240-4
MHID: 0-07-786240-6

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References
• Marques, J.F. (2010), "Awakened leaders: born or made?", Leadership & Organization
Development Journal, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 307-323.
• Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (2015). Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons
of Experience (8th Edition). McGraw Hill.
Online Sources
• https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/330198
• http://elearning.nokomis.in/uploaddocuments/Principles%20of%20Leadership/Chp
.3%20Leadership%20Myths/PPT/03%20Leadership%20Myths.pdf
• https://vdocument.in/myths-and-facts-about-leadership.html
• https://weaverbusinesscoaching.com/12-myths-about-leaders-and-leadership-you-
should-not-believe/

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THANK YOU

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