Long post about leadership by Jake

I've just done a brilliant placement with the light project and part of my job was to write about leadership, I've learned a lot about leadership through working at 4 different youth clubs and this is what I came up with.

Leadership is an important function of groups and their behaviour. It is also one of the key concepts (including culture, structure and motivation) which make up the process of management. Leadership is described by Cole as a ....

"dynamic process in a group whereby one individual influences the other to contribute voluntarily to the achievement of group tasks in a given situation".

G.A Cole (1990), Management Theory and Practice,3rd edition,p215,DP Publications Ltd, London.

As well as Cole, there are many other theorists and scientists who have studied the theory of leadership, early examples are H. Fayol and F. W. Taylor. Their early models were authoritarian in style and theory's such as D. McGregor's x and y theory evolved from the old classics. Changes in ideas progressed further such as J. Adair's functional or action centred approach which is more democratic in style. In this essay I will discuss some of these theories, in particular the authoritarian model verses the democratic model. I will also link some of these to the practise where I am currently working. By doing this one can try to understand what model works best in the youth work environment. I will then look at how my personal and professional values influence leadership.

In the Victorian days an autocratic style of leadership was mostly used in management, H. Fayol (1916) describes management as "to manage is to forecast and plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate and control." This suggests that there was an emphasis in commanding and controlling. Therefore the appointed leader would probably have had a bureaucratic style where he would use his power in a hierarchical position, thereby just ordering the staff to do what they are told, leaving no room for freedom of their imagination. Later in the 1960s D. McGregor made two assumptions about employees by their managers. The first is that employees are regarded as being lazy and in need of control and coercion, seeking security and avoiding responsibility, this example of scientific management he called theory x and is authoritarian in nature. Theory y is based on the assumption that the employees seem to like work, therefore they do not have to be controlled and forced in an autocratic manor as in theory x. Theory y explains that people will accept and seek responsibility and are able to use their imaginations at work more freely.

The x and y models are the extremes of authoritarian and democratic approaches. One could argue that the autocratic style of management actually makes people lazy, makes them less motivated and unimaginative as they are controlled and restricted, where as the democratic style of management allows people to be more inventive and use their initiative a lot more which motivates people a great deal more in the work place. On the other hand one could argue that people do have different personalities and may respond in different ways to either style of leadership. Lazy people may need direction and firm control whereas motivated people may be suppressed by autocratic leadership

Motivation is a seriously important part of leading in the youth work environment. The placement I'm currently working at uses a more democratic style of managing as the authoritarian method just wouldn't work well at all as the youths wouldn't turn up every week. However their leadership style is not so democratic that the youths run around with total freedom, but enough to enable them to have self awareness, confidence, responsibility and most importantly to safe guard their health and safety. Although there is a natural distance between the leaders and the youths, being a leader means that you will inevitably be seen as different and sometimes you have to exercise one's power in certain situations.

Gibson and Clarke (1995) believed that an "enabling" is most empowering and said ...

"good practise in informal education will sometimes mean that we have to exercise our power, to set the boundaries, to persuade or cajole. For example if we perceive that a group might come to harm, or to harm others if we allow it to continue to do something we need to be prepared to step in, perhaps even to become authoritarian."

R.Harrison and C.Wise (2005), Working With Young People,p129, Sage Publications, London

I agree that a balance is needed in the youth work environment and I think that J Adair's (2003) functional approach strikes a very good balance and has a more modern theory than the earlier mentioned. Adair's model of leadership incorporates the concern for task as well as for the people. It is also concerned with the individual. Therefore he is concerned with the task needs, the individual needs and the group needs. I would agree that this model is more effective because it is more flexible. I believe that groups are often different from one another some with distinctive characteristics. Different types of groups or organisations and cultures require a different style of leadership, some require more direction, coaching, discipline or support. I like Bower's (1966) description of organisational culture as "the way we do things around here"

According to Cole (1990) Adair's concept of leadership is basically a contingency theory of leadership. The leaders behaviour is therefore more in tune with the overall situation and is therefore adoptive in nature. In one incident at the youth club I'm working at we had a gladiators theme night where the youths where fighting with big rubber batons and naturally they were all far too over excited, pushing and shoving in the queue for a go at fighting. On this instance I was working in the tuck shop and the general vibe of the youths was hyperactive and pretty out of control and as a result of this I had to send some of them away and ban them from tuck for a certain amount of time to cool down and some of them for the rest of the night. Therefore I would tend to use Adair's functional model for the youth work where you have to react to the situation at the time.

I also agree with Adair (2003) when he claims that autocratic and democratic styles are political in origin and have a limited currency in the work place. I would also agree with his view that it is unhelpful to suggest that one style of leadership is more correct or is appropriate for all situations. Style he claims is linked to decision making and more a matter of temperament attitudes, values and personality. I also believe that everyone has their own style of leading which is developed through experience and knowledge and remember that you are often dealing with different personalities and individuals.

Adair (2003) has also pointed out some important and distinctive features in the concept of leadership which include:

Ÿ Direction

Ÿ Inspiration

Ÿ Building teams

Ÿ Example

Ÿ Acceptance

I have personally tried to implement some of these concepts in my practise. I have tried to inspire some of the youths by getting them involved in a film project. By being enthusiastic I have tried to get the youths to follow by example and have tried to be accepted by them and earn their respect. I believe that respect plays an important part in leadership and that it works both ways, it is a two way communication. I have also tried to adopt some of the qualities of leadership pointed out by Adair(2003) which are integrity, enthusiasm, warmth, calmness and being tough but fair

Some of the qualities mentioned above are those which I believe made me believe I would become a good youth worker. I believe I possess the values which are required to become a professional worker and can relate them to the list included in the professional and occupational standards for youth work (2008). One example is promoting young people's self awareness, another to facilitate learning and development of young people, also planning and implementing learning activities in youth work. Some of these standards I have incorporated through my film project, this was a good way of communicating with young people and most of all to motivate them, to enable them to use their imagination and take some responsibilities. I used my role as a leader to encourage their participation.

On a day to day basis in the clubs I work at have a managerial structure which works well. They have a main team leader who delegates jobs for the rest of the team. This is based on whatever part of the club we were working in the previous weeks which he rotates. This to me works really well as it means everyone works in every area at some point. All the leaders I work with have a culture based on a religion and all their clubs are motivated by their faith. What I really like about this is that unlike most similar Christian organisations they don't push their beliefs on to the young people, instead they have their own time before and after club to pray and do their Christian thing. This works so well because in their own way they do spread the word of god through some of the conversations they have with the young people, but the placement are just there to make the community a better and a more collective and friendly place to live in.

So to conclude I have looked at some of the different theories for leadership models and styles. I have noted that there has been a shift from the old fashioned, autocratic managerial models to a more balanced democratic approach. It has become apparent through studies that to get the best you can out of people you should be less controlling and allow people to become more imaginative and to take some responsibilities for their actions.

We now know that through practise and theory that personal characteristics of a leader, leader behaviour and the adoptive leader in light of situation are all important factors in effectively managing group behaviour. I have also learnt that the leaders major role is to ensure that unofficial and official norms are in harmony and balanced. I have experienced from my practise a good structure and a good balance of roles tend to create a strong team leading to an effective management team. The leaders have the ability to influence others to achieve a common goal and to take an individual's needs into consideration. In my practise I have found it useful when they allow the older youths to take some of the leadership roles e.g. during projects, tasks and volunteering. The most important things I have learnt through my experience so far through practise and theory is that leadership qualities determine how to carry out functions effectively by using qualities such as awareness, understanding and skill. I have also learnt that leadership is learnt through experience and the belief that one is not a born leader but one can become a leader.

Hope this was a good read, any feed back is much appreciated, it would be good to know what anyone else thinks on the topic.