H. Mintzberg (1970) takes a practical approach to leadership and identifies ten managerial roles, divided into three hierarchical categories:
- Relationship roles (representative, leader and liaison officer)
- Information roles (observer, disseminator and spokesperson)
- Decision-making roles (entrepreneur, regulator, resource allocator and negotiator)
Leadership is one of the relationship roles.
Its essential aim is to integrate the needs of individuals with the company’s objectives.
A management style
This approach considers leadership as a way of carrying out managerial activities, referring not to content but to form. In management literature, there are generally four management styles:
- Direct : the manager plans, organises and controls the work of his or her staff, giving them a low degree of autonomy and initiative
- User-friendly : people come first
- Lax : attaches little importance to tasks and people, “letting things happen”
- Ideal : an advisor and facilitator, opening up perspectives and enabling everyone to progress
For some (R. Blake and J. Mouton), leadership is found in the “ideal” manager because this style is better than the others in all circumstances.
For others (P. Hersey and K. Blanchard), however, there is no absolute right or wrong style: it’s a question of adapting to the managerial situation. For these authors, a manager’s leadership is reflected in his or her ability to change style depending on the situation.
In other words, if we integrate these different schools of thought, leadership would be the ability to adapt to situations, people via a relational mode.
And how good are you at adapting to situations and people?
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