- Conflict managers.When disagreements surface, team leaders help process the
conflict. What is the source of the conflict? Who is involved? What are the
issues? What resolution options are available? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each? By getting team members to address questions such as
these, the leader minimizes the disruptive aspects of intrateam conflicts. - Coaches. They clarify expectations and roles, teach, offer support, cheerlead,
and do whatever else is necessary to help team members improve their work
performance.
LEADING ONE’SSELF
When the death toll after Hurricane Katrina was around 900 in New Orleans and 1100 over-
all, rather than the tens of thousands officials had feared at the start of the catastrophe, most
people breathed a sigh of relief. What kept the toll so low? Two factors were largely responsible.
First, people took charge of themselves and their families, doing what they could to get them-
selves evacuated before the storm hit. People also did what they could to help others evacuate—
making it their own responsibility to help their poor, sick, and elderly neighbours move to
safety. That the death toll was so low illustrates the importance of individuals’ taking leadership
responsibility when the situation demands. So, how can individuals practise leadership on a
daily basis even if they do not hold official positions of leadership?Thus far we have discussed the role of leadership as if it were mainly a one-way street:
Leadership is something someone at the top does and, one hopes, those at the bot-
tom—the followers—follow. However, there are two provocative issues for you to con-
sider when thinking about leadership. The first is the issue of self-leadership, or taking
responsibility for your own actions. The second is learning how to be a leader, even if
only in small areas of your work or personal life.
Exhibit 8-10 on page 277 gives a lighthearted look at what it means to be a team leader.Self-Leadership (or Self-Management)
A growing trend in organizations is the focus on self-lead-
ership, or self-management.^75 With self-leadership, indi-
viduals and teams set goals, plan and implement tasks,
evaluate performance, solve their own problems, and moti-
vate themselves. Several factors call for self-leadership:
reduced levels of supervision, more offices in the home,
more teamwork, and growth in service and professional
employment where individuals are often required to make decisions on the spot.
Following from our previous discussion of substitutes for leadership, self-management
can also be a substitute or neutralizer for leadership from others.
Despite the lack of studies of self-leadership techniques in organizational settings, self-
leadership strategies have been shown to be successful in nonorganizational settings.^76
Those who practise self-leadership look for opportunities to be more effective in the
workplace and improve their career success. Their behaviour is self-reinforced—that is,
they provide their own sense of reward and feedback after carrying out their accom-
plishments. Moreover, self-reinforced behaviour is often maintained at a higher rate
than behaviour that is externally regulated.^77
What does self-leadership look like? Though “individuals in organizations are regu-
larly taught how to lead subordinates, groups, and even organizations, they rarely receive
instruction on how to lead themselves.”^78 Few empirical studies of this kind have been
carried out in the workplace,^79 but a 1999 study of 305 managers at a large retailing organ-
ization in the Midwestern United States identified four behaviours that can be considered276 Part 4Sharing the Organizational Vision
5 What is self-leadership?How do you