Mohsin Says

If I want to become a Leader!

Have you ever wondered while looking at an illiterate person who has thousands of followers that how can someone be influenced by him and you must have told yourself that you would never follow that guy? And you would have also witnessed that a highly intellectual person has no followers whatsoever but you find him influential, why is it so? Why is it that certain people have a great power of followers and they can really make a difference in society? The answer is simple – They are Leaders!

General Eisenhower defines leadership as,

“The art of getting people to do what you want them to do, in the way you want it done, because they want to do it”

Can you and me also become such a person one day?

Most of the people believe that leaders are born and same is believed by some historians like Thomas Carlyle (Organ 1996). Others believe that some characteristics and skills can make you a leader (Colbert, et al. 2012) (Chemers 2000). Individual Differences Framework explained by Nahavandi (2006), says that both heredity (God gifted) and Environment (acquired characteristics) contribute towards transforming a person into a leader. Hence, it can be said that every person has a leader in himself that can express itself after nourishment. I understand that I am not a born leader but I can lead people after discovering what I am capable of and what type of behaviour do I have in different situations and people.

What kind of leader am I?

Before writing this blog, I have observed my own behaviour when I am around people I can influence, in different situations and I found out that I show different behaviours according to situation. Most of the time I feel so good to be a democratic guy because I don’t like to hurt others intentionally, and sometimes I feel very satisfied in a Laissez-faire style where I let people do what they consider better. But I have also seen an autocratic (authoritarian) version of myself in several situations where I actually want to exercise my power and to get the things done in a way I want only. These styles are identified by Mullins (2007) that helped me to classify myself as a leader. It is necessary to discuss a model of leadership that I think explains my style of leading others. Hersey & Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Model says,

“Situational leadership is based on the ‘readiness’ of the followers that the leader needs to influence”

Mullins (2016)

where readiness is the ability and willingness to accomplish a task (Mullins 2016). The essence of this model is to change leadership behaviour according to your followers (Businessballs 2019). According to Hersey and Blanchard (1997), appropriate leadership style depends on the combination of ‘Relationship’ and ‘Task’ behaviour, which needs to be identified in situations. The following figure shows different types of situations that arise according to the level of task and relationship behaviour.

This leadership style is also very effective specially in business organizations where tasks are to be achieved with in time and strong relationships are required to keep a happy environment as it is more productive (Hersey, et al. 1979) (Chartered Management Institute 2008) (McKinsey Quarterly 2008) (de Valk (2008).

How I evaluated my current strengths and weaknesses?

Belbin (2000) describes a method to find out the strong areas of team members. My Belbin profile says that my strength in a team is being an ‘implementer’ or ‘shaper’. This test also rightly pointed out my weaknesses like ‘can provoke others’ and ‘somewhat inflexible’. I applied the results to my team tasks which I was delegating and it really proved to be helpful as I had assumed my role as ‘Planter’ or ‘Completer’ before that doesn’t suit me. My performance was not only appreciated by team but also by my instructors. You see how you can come in limelight by just adopting a role you are very good at and lead the team at the same time by adopting the above model, as rightly believed by Buckingham (2005), using your strengths makes efficient teams.

How do my team members perceive me?

Mullins (2016) describes a way of development of leadership by diagnosing relations, identifying your behaviours unknown to you or team members using ‘Johari Window’ shown below. So, I requested an honest feedback of my behaviour from my team which I was leading to analyse perceptions about me as leadership style is based upon perceptions (Furtado, et al. 2011: 1048). One of them complained that I was so much of a Laissez-faire style person as some members don’t deliver unless dictated. I was bureaucratic (disagreeing to opinions out of policy) to some and autocratic (hurting feelings) to others, but all of them agreed that I had very good relationship with them apart from MBA studies which made them candid to me and also everyone believed in me to resolve disputes.

My behaviours that I disclosed to them were, I never worked as a coach style leader where I could have helped my team members to work on their weaknesses, infact, I don’t find it interesting. And I never adopted a transformational style whereby I could have challenged the members to deliver their best as I just wanted to get the task done. Most of them enjoyed my leadership as we achieved excellent results in our tasks and because they had a trust that while delegating, I will put my full effort myself to accomplish the task in time for whole team.

Looking Forward for myself

This feedback and evaluation earned me self-confidence and now I can say that I can lead and keep people happy, which is one of the greatest requirements of modern organizations, to get the most out of people and people produce more when they are happy (INSEAD 2014). In future I would try to adopt my leadership style to new teams and see if it works for them as well. I would also try to change my team roles and see the results. My weaknesses are very crucial for me and I am serious about them now. I can convert my weaknesses into my strengths by practice and adopting appropriate leadership style.

References

Businessballs (2019) Situational Leadership Model – Hersey and Blanchard [online] available at https://www.businessballs.com/leadership-models/situational-leadership-model-hersey-and-blanchard/ [2 Dec 2019]

Colbert, A.E., Judge, T.A., Choi, D., Wang, G. (2012) ‘Assessing the trait theory of leadership using self and observer ratings of personality: The mediating role of contributions to group success.’ The Leadership Quarterly, [online] 23(4), 670-685. available from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-16363-003 [3 December 2019]

Chemers, M.M. (2000) ‘Leadership research and theory: A functional integration.’ Group Dynamics: Theory, research, and practice, [online] 4(1), 27. available from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-13580-003 [3 December 2019]

Organ, D.W. (1996) Leadership: The great man theory revisited.

Navahandi, A. (2006) The Art and Science of Leadership. 4. Prentice Hall

Mullins, L.J. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour. Pearson education.

Chartered Management Institute (2008) Management Futures: The World in 2018 [online] available fromhttps://www.managers.org.uk/insights/research/current-research/2008/march/management-futures-the-world-in-2018 [2 December 2019]

Hersey, P., Blanchard, K.H., Natemeyer W.E (1979) ‘Situational Leadership, Perception, and the Impact of Power’. Group & Organization Studies, [online] 4(4), 418-428. available from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/105960117900400404 [2 December 2019]

McKinsey & Company (2010) How centered leaders achieve extraordinary results [online] available from https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/how-centered-leaders-achieve-extraordinary-results [1 December 2019]

De Valk, L. (2008) ‘Leadership Development and Social Capital: Is There a Relationship?’ Journal of Leadership Education, [online] 7(1), 47-64. available from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270678252_Leadership_Development_and_Social_Capital_Is_There_a_Relationship [1 December 2019]

Belbin (2000) The Nine Belbin Team Roles [online] available from https://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles/ [15 November 2019]

Buckingham, M. (2005) ‘What Great Managers Do’. Harvard Business Review, [online] 83(3),70-79. available from https://hbr.org/2005/03/what-great-managers-do [15 November 2019]

Furtado, R.D.C., Batista, C.G.D., Silva, F.J. (2011) ‘Leadership and job satisfaction among Azorean hospital nurses: an application of the situational leadership model.’ Journal of nursing management, [online] 19(8), 1047-1057. Available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2011.01281.x [1 December 2019]

Maddux, W., Swaab, R., Tanure, B., Williams, E. (2016) ‘Ricardo Semler: A Revolutionary Model of Leadership’. INSEAD, [online] available from https://cases.insead.edu/publishing/case?code=35202 [15 November 2019]

Luft, J. (1969) Of human interaction, Mayfield Pub. Co

Can EasyJet survive the final wave of Brexit?

This blog focuses on change management in a continuously changing business world. The political uncertainty in UK called Brexit (Britain exiting European Union) has posed a threat to many UK based businesses on account of tariffs, cost fluctuations, human resource management and legal operations. This blog is about the business problems that would be faced by a British Airline called EasyJet if Brexit happens. Headquartered in London-Luton Airport, this company operates in whole European Union as a low-cost airline. I would try to design a solution based on theories, to possible business problems faced by EasyJet in case of Brexit and formulate an action plan recommended to the company.

What suits EasyJet? “Soft Brexit” or “Hard Brexit”?

EasyJet operates in Europe only, as a low-cost airline in all of the EU countries. EU regulations require EasyJet to have 51% shareholders and headquartered in EU to operate legally, currently the airline has 49 percent EU shareholders (EasyJet 2019). In case of a soft Brexit, with free movement of services, people and products still in place, this problem can be negotiated by both parties but a hard Brexit would leave easyJet with no other option to convert its majority shares to EU and move its headquarter to EU in 4 months granted by EU to all airlines (Ries, et al. 2017). EasyJet already being struck hardest among airlines regarding reduction in shares prices by 26% on account of Brexit uncertainty, analysts believe that it is going to be even worse post Brexit (The Guardian 2019). There is an urgent need to motivate the share-holders to sell shares to EU members otherwise airline has to use its coercive power to implement provisions of its articles to compel the shareholders to sell shares to carry on the change process smoothly, as majority EU shares is the prerequisite for this airline to survive (EasyJet 2019). Moreover, in case of soft Brexit, EasyJet would still remain a UK company with no need to shift its headquarters out of UK. EasyJet has a competitive advantage on other airlines such as International Airline Groups (IAG) in terms of EU shareholders percentage. So, such airlines are re-registering their companies in EU countries, like IAG airlines want to become a Spanish Company now as they cannot meet the 51% shareholders requirement (Webb 2018)(Robinson 2018).

What should EasyJet be asking itself in the wake of Brexit?

While the UK government would take care of airspace usage agreements bilaterally with other European states post Brexit, the greatest concerns for the EasyJet should be, “How do we communicate with and reassure employees during this time of uncertainty and situation after Brexit? How do we motivate our British employees and teams to shift headquarters to Europe? How do we motivate our pilots to give away their British flying license and acquire a European one?” These concerns are of extreme importance as EasyJet has no other option but to move to European Union which is the primary market of this business (Reuters 2019). So, a massive movement for EasyJet needs to be carefully handled and this airline has to keep its employees on top priority in this change process. McKinsey & Company (2010) describes the importance of Human resource as

“When organizational transformations succeed, managers typically pay attention to ‘people issues’, especially fostering collaboration among leaders and employees and building capabilities”

The airline has to motivate thousands of its employees to move to a new base and work there as a foreigner where social security would be uncertain. According to Burnes (2005), emergent change is unpredictable and cannot be pre-planned. Moreover, such a large-scale change always faces a lot of resistance from individuals as well as organizational itself because of Inconvenience or loss of freedom, economic implications and family problems (Mullins 2007). EasyJet has successfully kept its employees contented and self-esteemed by maintaining a Task Culture, where teams are formed to perform a specific task and projects (Chartered Management Institute 2008) (EasyJet 2019). So, this change process must be dealt like a project for employees to be done in teams and this is where the top leadership of EasyJet should identify the strengths of their employees in order to be efficient enough to go through this change process (Buckingham 2005).

How can sociology help EasyJet?

Organizations are run by people and there are no organizations without them. Understanding what a person wants and how he behaves is a necessary trait of a leader (Yukl 2013:26). Being a low-cost airline EasyJet cannot afford to recruit and train all new employees once it moves to EU as it would increase fares per seat to accommodate new costs. So, there is a need to motivate the existing teams and people to continue working for the airline after moving to EU. There are certain levels of needs of every individual, and he or she remains satisfied as long as those needs are being met. Such a model called Maslow’s Hierarchy shown below, can be used to address the needs of every employee. Moreover, every individual needs some motivators (satisfiers) in life to work as explained by Herzberg 2 factor theory in figure shown below. EasyJet needs to identify – the level of every employee, how can the airline fulfill those needs in case of a change and how can they take care of satisfiers for each employee.

For the employees on physiological level, company would face almost zero resistance to change as they would still be having all their needs even after moving to EU while working under a task culture of this airline. The levels ‘safety’ and ‘love and belongings’ are most crucial for airline to deal with (Nohria, et al. 2008) (Ford 2009). People would be quite hesitant to leave their families and loved ones in UK. Analysts predict that there would be around 2.5 percent loss of jobs in Great Britain which means loss of around 750,000 jobs in case of a ‘no deal’ Brexit (Statista 2019). Moreover, many other airlines have decided to move out of UK post Brexit like IAG and Ryanair to continue operation in Europe (The Guardian 2019). While Job scarcity factor in UK would not let employees quit to a great extent, there would still be need to motivate many employees to keep working for EasyJet in EU as well.

Applying Sociology to Change Process

In order to take care of security and social needs, introduction of flexible job contracts for first 2 months in EU would give the employees a chance to see if they can adjust to new environment in EU along with their families. Ricardo Semler was successful in keeping the employee turnover to minimum level in Semco by giving extra bonuses and rewards for employees (INSEAD 2014). Promotions where necessary to maintain self-esteem of workers is a motivating step, team work and sense of belonging can be achieved by maintaining a task culture as seen in Tesco., which is a successful business (Business Case Studies 2019). Moreover, airline would have to choose the location of headquarters that suits the employees in terms of satisfiers of Herzberg theory.

Locke tells us that motivation for employees can be achieved by taking into account the Goal Setting Theory which says that ‘People get motivated when they have a clear Goal to achieve thus increasing performance’ (Mullins 2007). EasyJet can set a goal, “to become the largest and number one low cost airline of Europe in next 5 years.” This would trigger the emotions of the current employees who would love to achieve it for the company for which they have been working so long. But the success of this assumption depends upon sense of ownership and initiative among employees (Goleman 1998). This is what Mckinsey also believes for strong leadership to do for a successful change to take place (McKinsey & Company 2010).

In the end, it’s not about the shareholders, its about the company and the people who run it, as tremendously depicted by Ricardo Semler in his company Semco. Brexit and heat wave have already collapsed Thomas Cook, a 178 years old business in aviation which was not prepared for change (Independent 2019). But it is good to see that EasyJet is already preparing for the change and is willing to transform itself to survive in the aviation business.

References

Martin Robinson (2018) ‘It’s Spanish Airways!’ BA passengers and MPs accuse UK’s national flag carrier of ‘bailing out of Brexit Britain’ amid claim it could shift operations to Madrid in the event of a no-deal [online] available from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6380369/British-Airways-owners-seeks-help-Spain-case-no-deal-Brexit.html [2 Dec 2019]

(Statista 2019) ‘What no deal Brexit means for the UK’ [online] available from Statista [1 Dec 2019]

Webb, C. (2018) British Airways owner IAG ‘looks for Spanish government’s support in case of no-deal Brexit’ available from https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/travel/british-airways-no-deal-brexit-owner-iag-spanish-support-217691 [1 Dec 2019]

Boffey, D. (2019) UK-based airlines told to move to Europe after Brexit or lose major routes [online] available from The Guardian [2 Dec 2019]

Calder, S. (2019) THOMAS COOK COLLAPSE: BREXIT AND HOT WEATHER TO BLAME FOR FIRM’S FAILURE, SAYS CEO [online] available from Independent [2 Dec 2019]

Reuters (2019) easyJet plcEZJ.L available from Reuters [2 Dec 2019]

Nohria, N. Groysberg, B. Lee, L.E. (2008) ‘Employee Motivation’. Harvard Business Review [online] 1. available from https://hbr.org/2008/07/employee-motivation-a-powerful-new-model [2 Dec 2019]

Goleman, D. (2004) ‘What Makes a Leader’. Harvard Business Review [online] available from https://hbr.org/2004/01/what-makes-a-leader [2 Dec 2019]

Ford, L.W (2009) ‘Decoding Resistance to Change’. Harvard Business Review [online] available from https://hbr.org/2009/04/decoding-resistance-to-change [1 Dec 2019]

EasyJet (2019) EU Share Ownership [online] available from http://corporate.easyjet.com/~/media/Files/E/Easyjet/pdf/investors/shareholder-circulars/brexit-faqs-mar2019-v1.pdf [29 November 2019]

Ries, C. P., Hafner, M., Smith, T.D., Burwell, F.G., Egel, D., Han, E., Stepanek, M., Shatz, J.W. (2017) ‘AfterBrexit’ [online] available from https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR2200/RR2200/RAND_RR2200.pdf [25 November 2019]

Wearden, G. (2019) EasyJet issues Brexit warning, as crisis turns UK into ‘laughing stock’ – as it happened [online] available from The Guardian [28 November 2019]

Burnes, B. (2005) ‘Complexity theories and organizational change’. International journal of management reviews [online] 7(2),73-90 available from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2005.00107.x [1 Dec 2019]

Mullins, L.J. (2007) Management and Organisational Behaviour. Pearson education. Chartered Management Institute (2008) Management Futures: The World in 2018 [online] available fromhttps://www.managers.org.uk/insights/research/current-research/2008/march/management-futures-the-world-in-2018 [2 Dec 2019]

Buckingham, M. (2005) ‘What Great Managers Do’. Harvard Business Review, [online] 83(3),70-79. available from https://hbr.org/2005/03/what-great-managers-do [15 November 2019]

(Yukl, Gray, A. (2013) Leadership in Organizations. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson EducationPub.

EasyJet (2019) Our Culture [online] available from https://careers.easyjet.com/why-easyjet/our-culture/ [25 November 2019]

Maddux, W., Swaab, R., Tanure, B., Williams, E. (2016) ‘Ricardo Semler: A Revolutionary Model of Leadership’. INSEAD, available from https://cases.insead.edu/publishing/case?code=35202 [15 November 2019]

Business Case Studies (2019) ‘Tesco’. Business Case Studies, [online] available from https://businesscasestudies.co.uk/tesco/ [25 November 2019]