A Brief History of Leadership 

In the beginning most leaders were born to their task i.e. they were a son of a leader or sometimes a daughter. However this did not mean that they were any good at it, it just meant that they were in the right or wrong place and the right or wrong time. Some of these leaders were very good and inspired there followers to do great deeds, other were appalling and could not influence even the most gullible. 

After a while people got feed up with this approach to leadership and got rid of the families who produced the leaders, they then started to look for people who had the right qualities (this is called the qualities approach to leadership) like courage, intellegancy, strength, etc. The trouble with this is that no two people ever come up with the same list and even if they did find someone who had all the required qualities they still might not be a good leader. Try making your own list of qualities you would like to see a leader have and then compare your list to leaders you know to see if they fit in? 

The next idea in leadership was to think of the task that needed to be completed and select a leader who was best equipped to achieve the task. This is called the situational approached to leadership. With this approach each new task may need a new leader and although the appointed leader may be the best at doing the task he might not be any good at working with other people. 

It was finally recognised that leadership was a skill all of its own and that it encompassed all of the above and much more, so the functional approach to leadership was devised. 

So what is the Functional Approach to Leadership? 

The functional approach to leadership is the ability of a leader to manage a group to complete a task whilst keeping the group working as a team or developing the group into a team and satisfying the requirement of the individual group members. To do this the leaders has to divide their time between the three areas noted above i.e. the task, the team and the individual these are known as the AREAS OF NEED. The time spent by the leader on each AREA OF NEED varies depending on the task, the team and the individuals within the team. The leader job is to realize which AREA needs the most attention at any one time. The leader must not forget that the task is the all important AREA and that the task must be completed otherwise they have failed as a leader. There is no point in have a happy bunch of individuals in a well knitted team if they cannot produce the good (finish the task) as and when required. The following lists show the main points for each AREA OF NEED that need to be consider by the leader. You will see that some points occur in more than one AREA OF NEED. 

 So when does Leadership apply and what does a Leader have to do?

 Leadership applies when groups need to take action, perform a task or solve a problem. For leadership to work effectively you need three components a task, a team and a leader, take any one of these away and you do not need leadership. 

The main purpose of a leader is to influence the behaviour of others. They also have to inspire or persuade others to convert plans and decisions into actions and to maintain morale. 

To help leader organise their teams they should carry out the following functions; planning, communicating, initiating, controlling, supporting and evaluating. If the Leader applies these function effectively and in the order stated above the team should be fully involved and committed to the task. The leader may have to repeat this process several times depending on the length and or complexity of the task.  

Planning - It is important that the leader has some idea of how the task is to be tackled, but if not do not worry that is what the team is for. If you have no idea of how to complete the task you must be careful that the person who comes up with the best idea does not take over as leader. Take the team’s ideas and mould them into your plan, then you can represent the idea to the team. Before you talk to the team come up with a plan and write it down in brief outline. 

Communication – Talk to your team about the task and ask for ideas as your initial idea may not be the best. Different team members may have good ideas for certain parts of the task, a good leader should be able to recognises these good ideas and use them in the final plan. After talking to your team, make your final plans, this should be written down in detail. Whilst you are colleting ideas from the team remember you are the leader and do not let the team member with the best ideas take over. 

Initiating – This is where you the leader tell the team how the task is going to be tackled. You should brief the team in as much detail as possible, allocate jobs, detail equipment needed, explain how things are to be done etc. If you do not know all of the answers say so and say when these missing bits will be dealt with. The briefing sequence should follow the following format; 

Situation –                          This is a general overview of the conditions surrounding the mission.

Mission –                            This is the task you have to complete. You should state this twice. It should be a clear and concise statement.

Execution –                        This is how the task is to be tackled. This should be the longest part of the brief and by the end of it the team should know what they have to do. Get the team to write this down.

Any Questions –                               Ask the team if the have any question.

Check understanding –    Ask the team question to see if they have understood as people tend to say they have understood when they have not.

 Controlling – This is where the leader makes sure the team and the individuals are working correctly. This may be by setting targets of quantity and or time or by checking the quality of the work. The leader will need to praise or reinforce the importance and meeting the targets. 

Supporting – If the team or individuals are finding it difficult to do the task the leader must intervene and sort out the problem(s). 

Evaluating – Within the plan it is a good idea to have set review points these can either be time based, task based or sometimes a combination of both. At each review point progress should be checked against the plan and if required a new plan made to get the task back on track. 

The above is the ideal situation that you should apply to every task, but to be a good leader you need to be adaptable and sometimes you may not be able to go through all of the above steps before you need to take action. If time is short then actions are better than words. For example if you have some distance to travel and only limited time why not carry out a short brief and get the team moving and then do the full brief on the move or when you know you have the time. However you must always keep the team informed as much as possible, an informed team work better as they understand why they are doing something. 

Finally 

The only way to get good at leading is to practice it therefore if you get a chance have a go. If you mess it up it does not matter as long as you learn from your mistakes. Listen to the de-brief as this is where any errors and any good points are mentioned.