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The company secretary as strategic leader - Coggle Diagram
The company secretary as strategic leader
The role of the company secretary is much more than just administrative. At its best it delivers strategic leadership, acting as a vital bridge between the executive management and the board and facilitating the delivery of organisational objectives
An important starting point is to become the third person in the CEO and Chair relationship
Leadership and management
John Kotter strong advocates that there is a key distinction between management and leadership, he argues that management is more about creating order and doing things right, with a focus on efficiency and administration, maintaining a focus on systems and structure and relying on compliance and control
Management usually takes a more short term, tactical view and asks 'how and when'
Kotter argues that leadership is about producing change and doing the right thing. It focused on effectiveness, innovation, development and leaders' spend time with people building their trust and alignment with the directional vision and values. Leadership often has more of a long-term view and asks what and why
Henry Mintzberg
Argues that people are constantly required to flex their role from moment to moment across different activities and that a senior individual is not someone who is constantly in visionary change mode
Identifies 10 managerial roles across three categories that senior people flex between over the course of any given day.
Category One: Informational
Monitor: seek and receive information, scan papers and reports, maintain interpersonal contacts
Disseminante: Forward information to others, send memos, make phone calls
Spokesperson: Represent the unit to outsiders in speeches and reports
Category Two: Interpersonal
Figurehead: perform ceremonial ends and symbolic duties, receive visitors
Leader: direct and motivate subordinates, train, advise and influence
Liasion: Maintain information, not information links, in and beyond the organisation
Category Three: Decisional
Entrepreneur: initiate new projects, spot opportunities, identify new areas of business developmnent
Disturbance handler: Take corrective action during crises, resolve conflicts among staff, adapt to external changes
Resource allocator: decide who gets resources, schedule, budget, set priorities
Negotiator: represent department during negotiations with stakeholders and generally defend interests
Evolution of leadership theory
The earliest theories of leadership revolved around the concept of the 'Great Man' with its roots in military leadership and the idea that leaders are born and not made
Leadership in organisations was then influenced in the late 1970s by the concept of transactional leadership which held that it is possible to influence followers through the transaction of reward or punishment
In the 80s and 90s, this was replaced by the concept of transformational leadership which emphasies the need for charismatic leaders to inspire others to do great deeds through communicating a clear vision
Leadership styles (Daniel Goleman)
Directive
This is about getting immediate compliance by giving lots of directives, controlling tightly, relying on corrective feedback and motivating by stating the negative consequences of non-compliance
It is the most effective when applied to relatively straightforward tasks, in a crisis and when divisions from compliance will result in serious problems
It is least effective when applied to tasks that are more complex than straightforward when used over the long term and when used with self-motivated and capable employees
Visionary
This is about providing long-term direction and vision and explaining the 'why' in terms of a follower of organisation's long term interest
It is most effective when a new vision, clear direction and standards are needed, and least effective when the leader is not perceived as credible
Affiliative
This style is about creating harmony and is most concerned with promoting friendly interactions, placing emphasis on personal needs over standards and therefore will avoid personal confrontations
It is most useful when used as part of a broader repertoire and when getting diverse, conflicting groups to work together harmoniously
It is least effective when performance is inadequate, in complex situations where clear direction and control are required, and when followers are uninterested in personal friendship
Participative
This style builds commitment, generates new ideas and invites followers to participate in the development of decisions
It is useful when followers are competent and/or if the leader is unclear about the best approach
It is least effective in crisis, when employees are not competent, lack crucial information or need close supervision
Pacesetting
This style is about accomplishing tasks to high standards of excellence through leading by example
The pacesetting leader will be apprehensive about delegating and has little sympathy for poor performance
It is most effective when employees re highly motivated and competent and when they can make individual expert contributions and when followers are similar to the leader
It is least effective when the leader cannot do everything personally and when employees need direction and development
Coaching
This style supports and challenges followers to complete tasks while also developing their long-term potential
It focuses on helping employees to identify strengths and weaknesses through providing ongoing feedback and building trusted relationships
It is most effective when followers are interested in their own learning and development on the job and least effective when the leader lacks belief in their employees and lacks expertise in questioning and empathy as well as in an immediate crisis
The older transactional theories of leadership are more associated with directive and pacesetting styles, where the leader is asking followers to do as I say or do as I do. These two styles have repeatedly been found to be corrosive and have a negative impact on organisational culture and performance
Company Secretary as an invisible leader
Kakabadse
suggest that individual leadership capacity in the boardroom is most commonly observed through the use of words as an expression of IQ (intelligence) and PQ (political acumen)
Invisible leadership is more associated with the subtle actions of higher-order EQ (emotional) and MQ (moral) skills in leadership decision making
Luke's (2005)
conception of third dimensional 'smart power'
First dimension power is also known as 'hard power' which is defined as similar to the directive leadership style in Goleman's framework - It is coercive, involves power over someone to tell them what they must do and often derives from one's formal position
Third-dimension power or smart power, is the most potent type such that 'the supreme exercise of power is to get others to have the desires you want them to have'. Smart power is concerned with influencing others to change their perception so that they then intrinsically choose to do something emanating out of their own motivation.
Second-dimension power, also known as 'soft-power' is defined as the power that arises from convincing followers through an appeal to what is right and aligned with what society values such as a governance code. It is power based on what one should do