Assignment -2 submitted by:

Haarika Reddy K
RICS – CPM (Batch 04)
Leadership

Topic: Watch movies - Aaja Nachle & Devil Wears Prada– Observe the characters of Diya
the protagonist in Aaja Nachle and Miranda Priestly, the Chief Editor of Runway Magazine
and comment about thier leadership style.

Understanding Leadership:
Leadership is often considered mysterious and mystical. It is often linked with charisma and
other impressive personality traits. It is considered more inspiring than a management role.
These assumptions have no place in the study of leadership and management of business.
Leadership and management are essential, distinct and complementary system of actions. If
they fail to complement each other in practice it may lead to chaos.

Effective leaders are characterized by attributes like self-awareness, self-regulation,

motivation, empathy and social skills. These leaders understand their own make up as well
as that of others with whom they work, and use this understanding to accomplish the final
objectives.
Aaja Nachle– Observe the characters of Diya the protagonist in Aaja Nachle and comment
about Diya leadership style.

Diya in Aaja Nachle has inborn passion for Art includes dance; music and choreography
despite growing in a community where female are not given freedom to make their choices.

Diya‟s strong determination and to do nature from heart nurtured higher levels under
guidance her teacher called Dada. When her dreams and aspirations didn‟t suite to her
ideology & the socialistic norms, she chose to part the path. It can be clearly seen
throughout the movie, that Diya was not scared of going out of box thinking and decide
things on the spot.

Courage to hear the heart and charisma can be seen in her portrayal. She has inborn traits
with an exemplary personality which set her apart from other people specially women in the
town Shamili. She was conveyed as a symbol of disgrace and shame in the town of Shamli,
because of breaking societal norms. When she came to India for last visit to her teacher, she
came to know about demolition of Ajanta, the theatre where she had showcased her talent
was going to be demolished within couple of months.

Well, she had tried various leadership styles to stop the Ajanta demolition that too based on
the situation in the interest of people of Shamili and in the interest of culture and great ness
of Ajanta.

During the course of the movie, we feel that she portrays „authoritative leader ship’ style
for end result however,

Beginning , she had tried Benevolent Leadership Style by bringing people to theatre and
urges unite and stand as unity along with her to save the Ajanta and participate in the play
for the final play however her enthusiasm and energy doesn‟t brought expected level of
confidence in attracting cast but her objective is to stop the demolition.

The cast of the play is far from expert artists however she is able to motivate them for
working towards the objective and imports a level of confidence in them though the task may
not be difficult at the first glance but it is still achievable through hard work and co-ordination.

During the practice of the show, she influences by her charisma and communication in
converting the negative situation to become positive by convincing Chowdhary by plotting
election agenda to stop the abstraction/obstacles of the road map and smartly make an
agreement in return to get the Imran for Majnu role.

Diya‟s vision and commitment, passion in spite of negative comments and cheos , she has
motivated the team to keep moving towards the goal i.e saving Ajanta Theatre and
spreading the culture of art & love using theatre throughout the village of Shamli.

At last when she felt discouraged, her team displayed faith in her and restored confidence in
her. That‟s what leadership is, a mutual linking between leader and their subordinates.
In fact, she used coaching leadership style and transformational leadership to bring the
team up to speed and transform the people to meet the character role in case of Lila and she
unveiled herself as role model within the process of creating a legendary play. Her
leadership made the Imran who was formerly a heartless destroyer and didn‟t do anything
constructive found an artist, an actor within himself and gave him a skill job he began to love.

Final act changed the people of Shamili‟s thought process and hindered towards positive
aspects towards saving the Ajanta in turn love and affection by the Art and culture bring
smiles in families.

This clearly explains the various styles of leadership and qualities made the difference in
achieving the goal.

Diya’s approach and strategy in the movie ‘aaja Nachle’:

· Inputs include:

· Identify the right people

· Project plan
· Manage and motivate the people
· Provides feedback to the project team about performance against the project
plan.
· External feedback: Project team must periodically measure itself against the
performance expectations of those outside the project.

· Methods used during team development include:

· Team-building activities
· General management skills
· Reward and recognition systems
· Training

· Outputs include:

· Performance improvements: improved project performance. Improvements can

affect many areas such as:
· Improvements in individual skills may allow personnel to perform their work more
effectively.
· Improvements in team behaviours may allow team members to devote a greater
percentage of their effort to technical activities.
· Improvements in either individual skills or team capabilities may facilitate
identifying and developing better ways of doing project work.

Characteristics team:

· Team members must be interdependent

· Team members must have a reason for working together.
· Team members must be committed to working together.
 · The team as a whole must be accountable.
· Team members must have a moderate level of competition and conflict.

· Team building process:

· Plan for team building.

· Negotiate for team members.
· Organize the team.
· Obtain team member commitments.
· Build communication links.
· Conduct team-building exercises..

· Effective Team Communications:

· Be an effective communicator.
· Be a communications expediter.
· Get rid of communication blockers.
· Use a tight matrix.
· Make meetings effective.
The Devil Wears Prada : Observe the characters of Miranda Priestly, the Chief Editor of
Runway Magazine and comment about their leadership style.

The Devil Wears Prada is one such iconic movie. Deliciously swanky, high on glamour and
dry humour soaked in fashion references, no wonder it's massively loved and continues to
be a choice fashion pick.

Miranda basically follows autocratic leadership style throughout the story and comes out
with best plan and orders team to follow the instructions to bring the high performance of the
runway fashion magazine .

Miranda challenges subordinates and degrades them when they do things wrong, but not the
other way around when they do right. Miranda is an autocratic leader who controls
everything, makes decisions based on her opinions without taking advice from others and
does not care about her staffs‟ feelings and she can reach any level to hurt them.

Since she had faith on the sub ordinates, she used them to get the work done either by
encouraging or by threatening. Certainly, she has great leader qualities in leading team to
resolve the problem quickly and that shows her character and the power of leadership
qualities.

Miranda literally criticises Andy and assign difficult assignments so that Andy quit the job but
Andy changes his style of working and attitude towards positive way and this negative
relationship at work place inherits the stress and strain but under great leader ship , the sub
ordinates learns by looking at larger picture.

In summary, workplace relationship can either help or hinder one‟s success at work. Healthy
employee relationship brings job satisfaction, commitment and performance will increase.
On the other hand, an unhealthy relationship might result in negative feelings about
workplace. Employees can suffer workplace loneliness, stress in few cases but in some
scenarios this could change employees for the better to defeat their rivals.

In this movie, Miranda is in the need of self – actualization. She did unacceptable things to
retain her job as chief editor of Runway. By contrast, Andy‟s aim is to get a good
recommendation and find a new job and to be loved by people around. She tried her best at
work but not care about being promoted.

The Devil Wears Prada movie is a perfect example of multi-dimensional dynamics in

organizations. Within organizations, there are a multitude of motivations, attitudes and
behaviours.

In fact, these dynamics might bring higher creativity, efficient teamwork, and attainment of
organization‟s goals. By contrast, there is also the potential for risks, unethical practices that
affect not only the individual‟s productivity and their performance but the organization‟s
success as well.
Characteristics of Miranda (an autocratic leader):

- Autocratic and go anywhere/any level to get the work done

- Get the issues resolved either by encouraging or threatening the team.

- bullying and demeaning his executives, showing his displeasure at his slightest
mistakes

- Believes she is more competent than their subordinates.

- Thrives for success with passion and for position.

- Sometimes she exploits the subordinates to get the work done.

Understanding Leadership Styles

Leadership style is a way leaders choose either consciously or unconsciously to influence

their followers. The styles of leadership depend on the circumstance on which he operates
the type of followers and his own personality.

• Authoritative Leadership Style

• Autocratic Leadership Style
• Benevolent Leadership Style
• Coaching Leadership Style
• Democratic Leadership Style
• Pacesetting Leadership Style
• Expert Leadership Style
• Manipulative Leadership Style
• Participative Leadership Style
• Transformational leadership

Authoritative Leadership Style

According to Daniel Goleman, an authoritative style is the most effective of all leadership. An
authoritative leader is a visionary. He is clear about what his business is and where it is
headed. An authoritative leader tries to instil the same clarity in his followers as well. By
assigning individual tasks within a grand vision, an authoritative leader defines the standards
around the vision. He also provides feedback, both negative and positive. The sole objective
of the feedback is to make sure that the individual performance is in accordance with the
vision of the organization.
Bill Gates is a good example for this style. Bill Gates was able to successfully move
Microsoft in the direction he saw the industry going.

Autocratic Leadership Style

The least effective leadership style is an autocratic style. An autocratic leader creates a reign
of terror, bullying and demeaning his executives, showing his displeasure at his slightest
mistakes.
They do not consider employees‟ suggestions and views. They believe that they are more
competent than their subordinates. The subordinates are expected to carry out the task they
are given, be obedient and abide by leader‟s decision.
For example, it would be a lot better to have the Major in the army take the decision on
whether or not to fire, than have a vote of hands of all those involved. Many corporate
organizations and small time business run successfully due to an authoritarian and
autocratic boss.
Another example would be a supervisor in an unskilled sector where he will have to dictate
and get the work done. Else all the labourers might vote in for a day off and not turn up for
work.
List of autocratic leaders is pretty huge. Most of the dictators like Hitler, Stalin, Saddam
Hussein and kings ruled with complete and unquestioned powers. Some of them were good
and some were tyrannical and the power of tyranny came from their unlimited autocratic
power.

Benevolent Leadership Style

The primary focus of benevolent leader is his people. He values his people and his
emotions. This type of leader keeps his employees happy and creates harmony among
them. This ensures better communication and sharing of ideas, while providing inspiration
and building trusts.
A benevolent leader is a relationship builder by nature. He creates a sense of belonging in
his employees by spending time with him after office hours. This type of behaviour enhances
one to one understanding and creates fierce loyalty. A benevolent leader motivates his
people by giving them only positive feedback on their day to day efforts. Consider Ed
Woolard, who began his career at a DuPont plant in Kinston, N.C. From these humble
beginnings, he ascended over the next 40 years to ultimately become DuPont‟s chairman
and CEO. When asked to what he attributed his extraordinarily successful career, Woolard
replied: “A good „B player‟ can surround himself with a lot of „A players." My job was really
just to nurture them and make them successful.”
This style is most effective when the team lacks harmony and is low in morale. The
benevolent leader changes this by improving communication among the team members and
creating trust.

Coaching Leadership Style

A leader who prefers the coaching style identifies the strength and weaknesses in his
employees and tries to align these with the employees‟ personal goals and career
aspirations. He encourages them to plan and pursue their long-term development goals.
Such leaders are extremely good at delegations. They take pleasure in giving challenging
assignment, even if it results in delay in accomplishing the work. This shows that these kinds
of leaders are willing to accept short term failures for long term leanings. Though this style
appears to concentrate more on personal results rather than on immediate results, it is
usually effective when it comes to attaining long term goals. The regular interaction between
the leader and the employees also promotes responsibility in the organization.
The coaching style is not very common in the organizations the reason is that leaders don‟t
have time to teach the employee and help them grow.
Democratic Leadership Style
A democratic leader brings flexibility and responsibility into the organization by involving his
people in the decisions that influence the way they work and achieve their goals. He boosts
their morale by listening to and addressing their concerns. A democratic leader delegates his
responsibility and decision making power to his subordinates.
The style works best when the leader himself is uncertain about what to do, and is in need of
ideas and guidance from some of his more able employees.
Interestingly one of the best examples of a democratic leader is also a political figure -
Dwight D. Eisenhower (a Republican no less!). As a military leader Eisenhower was faced
with the difficult task of getting the Alliance forces to agree on a common strategy.
Eisenhower worked hard to make sure everyone worked together to come to a common
understanding. This was one of his greatest achievements. It was here that the democratic
leadership style and collaborative efforts of Eisenhower shone through and with a victory of
the Alliance forces to help back up the correctness of the approach.

Pacesetting Leadership Style

The pacesetting leader sets high performance standards and he himself adheres to the
stipulated standards. He is passionate about improving quality and productivity. He identifies
non-performers quickly and asks them to shape up. If they fail to meet expectation, he
replaces them with new people. Employee feels overwhelmed for the demand for ever-
improving performance. As a result, their morale drops. There are several other
complications with this style. The leader has certain yardsticks for performance in his mind
but he never states them or explains them clearly. He expects his subordinates to know
them automatically.
People feel that their leader does not trust them as they are rarely given any freedom to
work in their own way or to take new initiatives, Work become task focused and routined.
Consequently people lose their flexibility and abjure responsibility.
Jack Welch believed that leaders should avoid micro-managing and spend their time
inspiring others. He was a firm believer in leading by example - a leadership characteristic of
the pacesetting leadership style. Finally, he believed in what he termed the four E's of
leadership: energy, energize, edge and execution.

Expert Leadership Style

In the expert leadership style a person with high level of knowledge and abilities leads the
group. To maintain his leadership position the leader should continuously demonstrate his
expertise. However, if the situation changes and the current leader‟s skill is no longer
relevant then, he will be replaced by another person with required level of knowledge and
expertise.
A good example of this kind could be the head chef of a five star hotel who is paid for the
expertise that he levies in his recipes.
Manipulative Leadership Style
A manipulative leader believes that employees should be manipulated to get them to behave
in the way he wants. He identifies the needs and desires of the employees and uses the
knowledge to exploit them. The leader promises the rewards for good performance. The
employees lured by the promise of rewards puts in their best efforts and achieve their goals.
However, the leader offers very few or no rewards at all, once the goal is achieved. The
behaviour often leads to high level of dissatisfaction and resentment among employees. This
style is useful only in short term.

Bureaucratic Leadership Style

Bureaucratic leaders set certain rigid rules, regulations and procedures. Both leaders and
subordinates are expected to obey these rules. The subordinates are required to carry out
their task in a particular, specified way. They carry out their task mechanically without the
sense of commitment towards the organization. The rule indirectly indicated the minimum
level of performance an employee must reach, if he wants to continue in the organization.
Therefore employees put in the minimum efforts to complete their job. They identify
loopholes in the rules so that they can defy the rule under the pretext of conforming to
another rule. The employees constantly look for ways to express their resentment of the
rules laid down by the organization. If the mistake occurs they pass on the blame to other
employees.
By word, it is not difficult to imagine the number of lousy and lazy pubic servants working for
the federal or state governments. If you get to see one of these, especially in a developing
nation, you will understand why “Bureaucratic” style is not well favoured by many segments
of business and commerce or for that matter by public in general

Participative Leadership Style

Participative leaders encourage employees to participate in decision making .The leaders
listen to subordinates‟ ideas and opinions, but take final decisions. The leaders delegate
some of the responsibility to the subordinates and believe that they are capable of carrying
out those responsibilities. Generally, the leaders assign the task to be performed to his
subordinates but do not impose any procedure for carrying out the tasks. The participative
leader allows both upward and downward communication.
A participative leadership style is useful when subordinates are competent and capable of
working independently with little or no supervision by the leader.

Transformational leadership
Leader identifies needed change and works with teams, creating a vision to guide the
change through inspiration, and executing the change in cycle with committed members of a
group.
Transformational leadership serves to enhance the motivation, morale, and job
performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms; these include connecting the
follower's sense of identity and self to a project and to the collective identity of the
organization; being a role model for followers in order to inspire them and to raise their
interest in the project; challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work, and
understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, which allows the leader to align
followers with tasks that enhance their performance.
It is also important to understand the qualities a transformational leadership can bring to a
work organization. Transformational leaders are strong in the abilities to adapt to different
situations, share a collective consciousness, self-manage, and be inspirational while leading
a group of employees.