Discuss the following questions.

A. Can you name any great leaders from different areas: politics, sport, business? Who do you admire most/ least? Why?

B. Is there any difference between a good manager and a good leader? Is a good manager automatically a good leader?

Brainstorm the following questions in pairs or small groups. Make two lists of ideas, and then compare and discuss them.

A. What characteristics or qualities are common to all leaders?

B. What makes a great leader?

Key Vocabulary

Study the following list of vocabulary and do the tasks that follow.

 

1. set and achieve goals	ставить и достигать цели
2. take action	предпринимать действия
3. swift adj	быстрый
4. outperform v	превзойти, опередить
5. perform v	работать, выполнять
6. supervising n	контроль, наблюдение
7. completion n	завершение, выполнение задания
8. Chief Executive Officer	президент и главный исполнительный директор, генеральный директор
9. Chief Operating Officer	главный операционный директор; исполнительный директор
10. Chief Financial Officer	финансовый директор
11. Chairman	председатель, руководитель, глава
12. integrity n	порядочность, честность
13. crucial adj	критически важный
14. vision n	дальновидность, видение целей
15. enroll v	зачислять, привлекать
16. think outside the box	мыслить нестандартно
17. head v	направляться, идти
18. roadblock n	зд.: препятствие
19. encounter v	сталкиваться, встречаться
20. be capable of	быть способным
21. correlate v	cоотноситься
22. distinctive adj	отличительный, характерный
23. mentor n	наставник, инструктор
24. in-depth adj	глубокий, детальный
25. autocratic adj	авторитарный, автократический
26. prompt adj	своевременный, быстрый
27. feedback n	обратная связь, отклик
28. loyalty n	преданность
29. commitment n	заинтересованность, приверженность
30. laissez-faire n	невмешательство
31. lack v	испытывать нехватку
32. inspiring adj	вдохновляющий, воодушевляющий
33. dedicated adj	самоотверженный, преданный
34. ensure v	гарантировать, удостовериться
35. hands-on adj	принимающий активное участие, вовлеченный в процесс
36. collaborative adj	коллективный, совместный
37. nimble adj	гибкий, быстрый
38. consistent adj	согласованный, последовательный
39. provide incentive	служить стимулом
40. drive results	стимулировать достижение результатов

Pre-reading Activities

1. Consult a dictionary or your teacher to pronounce these words correctly. Practice reading them aloud in class.

 

Completion, collaborative, laissez-faire, autocratic, inspiring, financial, supervising, an incentive, distinctive.

Can you think of any phrases with these words?

E.g.: financial operations, an inspiring goal, …

 

2. Use a dictionary and Key Vocabulary section to fill in the derivatives of the words given in the chart below. Note that some boxes will not be filled.

 

Noun	Verb	Adjective
participant
	collaborate
		inspiring, inspirational
encouragement
	supervise
completion
	challenge
autocracy
		dedicated
loyalty

 

3. Look through the words in the Key Vocabulary and Pre-reading Activities once again and find the adjectives that characterize different types of leaders. Draw the spidergram. How many adjectives have you found? Can you divide them into positive and negative traits? Are there any other adjectives you can add to this list?

 

 

encouraging

 

LEADER

 

 

Reading

Read the text and complete the following plan.

I. Leadership as a concept.

II. …………

III. Leadership styles.

IV. …………

 

Leadership is the ability of a company's management to set and achieve challenging goals, take swift and decisive action, outperform the competition, and inspire others to perform well. In other words, leaders provide direction for a company. Leadership involves showing workers how to effectively perform their responsibilities and regular supervising the completion of their tasks. Leadership is also about setting a positive example for staff to follow, by being excited about the work, being motivated to learn new things, and helping out as needed in both individual and team activities.

Individuals with strong leadership skills in the business world often rise to executive positions such as CEO (Chief Executive Officer), COO (Chief Operating Officer), CFO (Chief Financial Officer), President and Chairman.

People often mistake leadership and management as the same thing but in essence, they are very different. The main difference between the two is that leaders have people that follow them, while managers have people who simply work for them. In order to be successful a business owner needs to be both a strong leader and manager. Leadership is about getting people to understand and believe in your vision and to work with you to achieve your goals while managing is more about administering and making sure the day-to-day things are happening as they should.

While there are many traits that make up a strong leader, some of the key characteristics are:

Honesty and Integrity: they are crucial to get your people to believe you

Vision: know where you are, where you want to go and enroll your team in charting a path for the future

Inspiration: inspire your team to be all they can by making sure they understand their role in the bigger picture

Ability to Challenge: do not be afraid to do things differently and have the courage to think outside the box

Communication Skills: keep your team informed of the journey, where you are, where you are heading and share any roadblocks you may encounter along the way

Some of the common traits shared by strong managers are:

Being able to take a strategic vision

ü Ability to direct and establish work rules, processes and standards

ü Being people-focused: look after your people, their needs, listen to them and involve them

Effective leaders have a style or a combination of multiple styles that make them successful in guiding and inspiring employees. Successful leaders are capable of driving creativity and productivity. Being an effective leader does not always correlate with being a well-liked person, however. Some leaders are loved by their employees, while others are not highly regarded on a personal level, but remain great at moving the business in a positive direction through distinctive leadership styles. Many leaders are ineffective, and use leadership styles that do not correlate well with their industry or with the people they are attempting to lead.

Leadership styles often correlate closely with personality type. Influence from previous mentors will also influence a person's ability and style to guide and direct a group of individuals. Labeling leadership styles is a general practice, but each leader will have a more in-depth, detailed orientation in the leader's approach to managing, inspiring and driving results within his organization.

Autocratic Leadership

This aggressive leadership style is based on control. The autocrat is rarely well-liked, and an autocratic leader uses a militant-like style. The autocrat gives orders and expects prompt execution, with little or no feedback from the worker. The autocrat pushes employees hard; often, he does not get loyalty and long-term commitments in return. High turnover and low satisfaction is expected in response to this leadership style.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

The complete opposite of autocratic leadership is Laissez-Faire, which means “ do as you will or choose ” in French. The style has some major benefits in creative environments, but it also lacks discipline and structure that is often required in a business environment. Another weakness is the unstructured approach to learning. It relies heavily on talent, existing experience and creativity to drive results. It can work when the employee already has a motive to put in the effort.

Transformative Leadership

Transformative Leadership encourages employees to think critically and the leaders are often inspiring. The leaders have a big vision, they are charismatic and motivating. The big picture approach, however, does not cover the day-to-day details. A Transformative leader will require dedicated managers that have a more detailed approach, to ensure that administrative tasks and daily processes are in place. The Transformative leader is common in big business, where the CEO is a visionary with a large audience that's receptive to innovative thinking.