Question

An important part of your MBA or MEM is becoming a great business communicator by writing to those in your sector. This assignment asks you to write to managers in your industry on how to lead with ingenuity. Your "industry" should be understood as your degree Specialization, whether as Finance, Technology, HR, Energy, Aerospace, Oil & Gas, or Program Management.

Ingenuity is the quality of being clever, original, and inventive, often in the process of applying ideas to solve problems or meet challenges. Ingenuity (ingenium) is the Latin root word for engineering. Leadership has been described as "a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task." When we put these two concepts together we have the process of applying ideas through enlisting others. As your textbook states, it involves “both the generation of good ideas and their implementation within society” (Homer-Dixon, p. 23).

In the Unit 1 Interactive Assessment you identified the Ingenuity Gap, and champions of ingenuity within your sector; in the Unit 3 Interactive Assessment you were asked to flush out Leadership Ingenuity. For this assignment, write a paper on "Leading with Ingenuity" and tie all these concepts together to demonstrate how leadership and ingenuity must be enacted in your industry.

Your paper should be 2,500 to 3,000 words, written in APA style (Cover Page, Abstract, Paper, References), tying together your thinking on ingenuity, explaining its benefits, describing how leaders champion teams, and offering managers steps on how they can lead with ingenuity.

Answer 1

LEADING WITH INGENUITY

Abstract

The place of entrepreneurship as a catalyst of economic development is established citing some countries including the awakening in Nigeria. Entrepreneurship in Nigeria is a child of necessity and opportunities with diverse inaugurated schemes for its promotion and coordination. This paper discusses the problem of leadership as a menace to the sustainability of entrepreneurship. The concept of leadership as the process of influencing people to act towards the attainment of the organizational goals is highlighted. The ingredients of leadership and leader’s attributes are stated. Diverse leadership styles ranging from traits, behavioral to contingency models are explained, but there is no simple and single answer to the best style. However, the leadership continuum concept is embraced as the appropriate leadership style which depends on the leader, the followers and the situation. The uniqueness of women style is enumerated making Katherine Hudson a reference point for distinguished women in business leadership. Leadership can be learnt hence entrepreneurs can be trained for effective leadership. Certain performance hints are listed for improvement. Recommendations like provision of on- the-job leadership training, sensitizing through radio and television reality show, availability of subsidized educative leaflets on leadership for entrepreneurs, and so on are proffered.

Introduction

One of every six business management students says that having their own company is one of their goals, and forecasters predict a large number of organizational births well into the future. In particular, an explosion in venture creation by men and women, immigrants, and members of minority groups is anticipated. The proportion of new business set-ups involving female entrepreneurs rose from 24 percent in 1975 to 32 percent in 1977. Entrepreneur is the label usually given to someone who creates a new business activity in the economy. During the past ten years, entrepreneurs have created several millions of new businesses throughout the world. Entrepreneurs are particularly active in Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, and increasingly so within Russia and the republics that formerly comprised the Soviet Union. In 1984, Holland registered 15,000 start-ups. In 1994, it registered 39,600 which accounted for sixty percent of the country’s 100,000 created jobs. Gijs Donders, a 29–year–old Dutch entrepreneur who started his own mop factory says, “It’s like the American dream. There is something happening here you didn’t see a few years ago. Now it’s cool to have your own business” (Helriegel, Jackson & Slocum 2003; 144). Entrepreneurship has actually jerked up the economy of these countries. Entrepreneurship does not exist without some pillars to hold on. The secret of the success and sustainability of entrepreneurial development is management and market.

Today’s younger generations can rightly be referred to as the twenty-first century generation because they are going to be the most entrepreneurial generation since the Industrial Revolution. In addition, two million Nigerians below 34 years are actively trying to start their own businesses while one-third of new entrepreneurs are below 30 years of age (Oyenuga, 2004). This study is carefully undertaken to look into the aspect of leadership in relation to entrepreneurial sustainability and development.

Concept of Leadership

Leadership is a concept that many authors have written on but scarcely defined. Hellriegel, Jackson & Slocum (2003) define leadership as a process that involves influencing others to act towards the attainment of a goal. It is based on interpersonal relationships and administrative activities and directives. Koontz & Weilrich (2005) also define leadership as the art of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of organizational goals. The emphasis here is encouraging employees to develop ardor, earnestness and intensity in execution of work and confidence which is a reflection of experience and technical capability. Entrepreneurs are to assist employees to attain objectives through the maximum application of capabilities not to push and prod but to facilitate and inspire them to accomplishment. Moreover, Cole (2002) attempts to give a working definition of leadership as a dynamic process at work in a group whereby one individual over a particular period of time, and in a particular organisational context, influences the other group members to commit themselves freely to the achievement of group tasks or goals. This definition points out that (i) there is no “one best way of leading”. (ii) Leadership is not necessarily confined to one person but may be shared between members. (iii) The principal role is to influence for achievement. (iv) Leadership is exercised in, and influenced by, the set of circumstances which form the organizational context. Ingredients of Leadership For an organization to perform near its total capacity there must be a skilfull individual in the art of leadership. These skills are a compound of at least four major ingredients; they are (i) the ability to use power effectively in a responsible manner

Types of Power Responses from followers:

• Expert (due to specialized knowledge)
• Commitment Referent (due to personal identification of followers)
• Reward (ability to satisfy their needs)
• Compliance Legitimate (based on formal position)
• Coercive (because of fear of punishment) Resistance

Traits Models which are based on the assumption that certain physical, social background and personality characteristics are inherent in leaders but not in non-leaders. Simply those traits must be evaluated in relation to other factors like situation and followers’ needs. Behavioral Models, when it was discovered that leaders do not have a uniform set of personal traits attention was given to isolating behaviors that are characteristics of effective leaders. These models focus on differences in the action of effective and ineffective leaders. An example is the McGregor Style of Leadership that proposes (i) Theory X – Directive Leadership Style is where subordinates are motivated mainly by money but lazy, hence, they are instructed on what and how to perform their jobs, meet standards and know who is boss. (ii) Theory Y–Participative Leadership Style believes people work hard and co-operate thereby the subordinates’ opinions are sought and encouraged to take part in planning and decision making. Ohio Research Leadership styles which proposes The Considerate Leadership Style characterized by concern for employees relationship and feelings and The Initiating structure Leadership Style characterized by active planning, organizing and coordinating subordinates’ activities. This latter is tagged ‘micro- managing’ that is, watching over employees shoulders. Likert Team leadership style observed that high productivity group leaders are employee-centered in leadership, paying attention to relationships and encouraging participation in decision making by employees while the low- producing group leaders are production-centered, more concerned with the demands of the task than the needs of the people. Empowerment model reflects a leader’s sharing of influence and control with followers. It Involves employees in deciding how to achieve organizations goal with some level of freedom. The shortcoming of behavioral models in covering leadership styles led to contingency models. 6. Contingency model sees leadership as a relative process that situation determines the best style to use. It suggests that successful leadership depends on matching a leader’s style to a situation. (i) This leadership style is determined by recognizing the manager’s Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC). (ii) One who recognizes the importance of developing strong and positive emotional ties with followers is a relationship-oriented leader. (Employee-centered style of being considerate). (iii) The one that does not value relationship but focuses on task is Task-Oriented leader. Three situational variables are also identified in this model. (i) Leader – member relations which is the extent to which followers accept the leader. It is favorable when accepted and respected and if otherwise it is unfavorable situation. (ii) Task structure is the degree to which a job is routine. Where there is operating procedure standard, it is favorable but where no clear guidelines it becomes unfavorable. (iii) Leader-position power is the degree to which the positional power can obtain good fellowship more easily than one without it. Summarily, he believes a leader cannot change his style to fit a situation but situation should be changed to fit leaders’ style. Managerial Grid model is a model

Leadership Performance Improvement Clues A manager must develop his supervisory ability, technical skills, intelligence, self actualization, decisiveness and self-assurance. He can improve his leadership skill by practicing the following: Clarification of organizational goals to be achieved. Communicate job assignments and expected results. Establish demanding measurable performance standards. Stimulate optimum performance by motivating subordinates so that they can apply their skills, abilities and interest to the fullest. Provide incentives for the growth and development of the workers .Be sensitized and sensitive to human relations problem. Develop the ability to ascertain the causes of personnel problems and endeavor to prevent it before it escalates. Develop the act of changing the subordinate’s behavior by increasing his skill through on-the-job coaching. Identify your leadership style and regularly re-examine it with a view to improving your effectiveness. Know the style and expectation of your supervisor and subordinates. Determine the style requirement of a specific situation. Learn the art of impression management which is a leaders attempt to control the impressions that others form about you by practicing behaviors that will make you more attractive, appealing and effective.

Conclusion

Leadership is an important aspect of managing. Leadership requires followers and followers requires leadership. Leadership is a dynamic process at work in a group whereby one individual over a period of time, and in a particular organizational context, influences the other group members to commit themselves freely to the achievement of group tasks or goals. The concepts of leadership is concerned with the results of leadership not inputs; achievement of organizational goals, intimately concerned with the relationships between and the group. Entrepreneurship should get a right perception of leadership giving it a full attention because whatever vision he has, his ability to lead the human assets effectively will obviously affect the effective maintenance of other resources in the organization. Good leadership is whatever is appropriate for the situation.