Leadership Terms and Philosophies

(Click on letters in bold to go directly on the terms that start with that letters.)

T

Teambuilding - Effort by a leader to enhance the cooperation, identification and cohesiveness of a group. Suggested efforts include emphasizing common values and interests, initiation of rituals, symbols and ceremonies, encourage non-business social interaction, cultivate appreciation and tolerance, and establish incentives to reward mutual cooperation.

Team Management - Joint administration of a project or organization that places decision-making in the hands of individuals with different skills or specialties. Team members are typically diverse yet complement each other to achieve results.

Think Tank - An organization that is engaged in the intensive study and evaluation of projects or problems with the intent to offer advice to others.

Time Management – A plan or program for better organizing ones tasks to make better use of available time.

Transactional Leadership - A leadership theory developed by James McGregor Burns and expanded by both B. M. Bass and B. J. Avolio. It maintains that transactional leadership attempts to influence followers by contingent rewards and punishments to achieve desired work levels or performance. Originally, a second type of transactional behavior was defined as including “passive management by exception.” This behavior attempts to influence followers by providing corrective action including punishments as a response to obvious departures from acceptable work standards. Two additional behaviors have been added to transactional leadership . One includes “active management by exception” which is the constant and active monitoring of followers to insure work is at acceptable standards. Another behavior is “laissez-faire” leadership behavior that demonstrates a passive indifference toward followers or their tasks.

Transformational Leadership – A leadership theory originally developed James McGregor Burns. It maintains that transformational leadership is influential in motivating and transforming followers to be more aware of task outcomes, activate their highest order needs and to go beyond their own self-interest for the benefit of the organization. This is achieved because the transformational leader seeks to build commitment, empower and elevate followers to the greatest degree possible. Because of transformational influence, followers are motivated to do more than they originally would and feel a greater degree of respect and trust for the leader. The backbone of this theory is that the leader and followers are mutually motivated to enhance their performance by transformational leadership rather than transactional leadership.