Leaders can be seen around the world in many different positions. One may think that every leader has some general similarities. This may be true, but many people believe that leaders function differently when exposed to different contextual factors. In this paper I will be exploring this idea by asking a straightforward but very complicated question, “How do Contextual Factors Shape the Work of a Leader”? In recent travels to Ireland with the Southwestern College Leadership Team, we were asked to think about this important question and form an answer based on our experiences in Ireland and during the research we performed over the subject of how contextual factors shape the work of a leader. Numerous amounts of research have been done about the topic of leadership in general, but studies about contextual factors influencing leadership is harder to come by. The Merriam Webster Dictionary describes context as, a situation in which something happens or a group of conditions that exist where and when something happens. (Merriam-Webster 's online dictionary, n.d.) There are leaders all over the world in different situations ranging from the ruler of a country and the common people who live under him or her. The difference between the two is range of power and different context. An article about different leadership styles and context mentions that though basic leadership principles are universal, leading is not as simple as it seems. Leadership has to be applied
The next question posed to Rene inquired about essential characteristics of a leader. After giving the question some thought she responded by saying that a leader must be able to remain objective and prioritize. “Prioritizing in my job is essential,” Rene stated, “with so many issues to deal with some nights it can be difficult to determine which to tackle first. However, remaining calm and objective in your decision making can help a leader prioritize properly, which can improve patient outcomes.” Additionally, Rene emphasized that the best leaders lead by example. By displaying desired attitudes and behaviors, a nursing leader may inspire their staff to act in a similar manner. Another area Rene stressed when posed this question was a leader’s ability to support learning. She went on to state that “it is necessary to focus on learning, not chastising. Placing the blame on someone rather than stepping back and looking at the details of a problem, deters the team from achieving the overall goal. Incident reports remain vital to the process of learning.” Rene continued to emphasis that by filling out incident reports individuals can analyze a situation or process and determine where the flaws or errors remain present. Without incident reports and learning from mistakes, growth remains difficult. Diana S. Contino (2011), author of “Leadership Competencies: Knowledge, Skills, and Aptitudes Nurses Need to Lead Organizations Effectively,” believes that organizational and
Leaders have a “the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p. 402). In the past leaders have been described by certain traits or characteristics. These traits can help an organization identify potential candidates who may be strong leaders. Later behavior approaches of leaders were identified that could be taught. In short, leaders could be made. Situations have an impact on which leader behaviors will be most effect at any given time. Several contingency theories have been formulated over the years to identify how situations influence leadership behavior. Each style has strengths and
There have been many studies and papers written about leadership by looking at all sorts of perspectives. More recently, researchers have started to look at the keys to leadership from a natural sciences standpoint. The world is starting to understand that our views of leadership in organizations have to be consistent with the nature of the world outside. Richard Wielkiewicz and Stephen Stelzner go so far to say that the key to effective leadership is by looking at and having a fair representation of all perspectives, that includes an environmental perspective. They not only give assertions about leadership as a whole, but they also give criteria for looking at leadership from an ecological standpoint as to better understand it.
Leaders are not merely those who control others, but act as visionaries who help employees to plan, lead, control, and organize their activities. As states by (Hood, Leddy, & Pepper, 2006), “leadership is a complex term with multiple definitions but is normally defined as a process of influencing others or guiding or directing others to attain mutually agreed upon goals” (as cited by Agnes, 2005). There are several recognized leadership styles such as bureaucratic — where the leader rigidly follows rules, policies, and regulation; or participative — where the leader allows the staff to participate in decision making and seek the
Leadership is a personal skill that has to be developed and improved upon daily, just like an athlete works on his craft. We all come from different walks of life and that is often a factor in the way our leadership styles are shaped. Our differences of race, gender, religion, home environment, and lifestyle all have an effect on the way we are led growing up. It is a skill that is mastered over time, while never being perfected. Like anything else in life, leadership skills are often developed from who we are, where we come from and the people in our life who have taught us their knowledge.
Leadership influences a group of people towards an established, clear vision. Leadership styles differ considerably from leader to leader, while some leaders are more
Leadership is defined as the ability to obtain followers (Maxwell). Obtaining a following is dependent on one's influence on others. Essentially, everyone influences someone, whether one intentionally influences a
What is a leader? A leader is a person who commands a group, organization, or country. Throughout my life I have encountered the chance to experience position of being a leader. I have experience democratic leaderships through playing on a high school football team, being apart of groups in college for class presentations, being a youth leader in my church, and also being apart of a family. I have gain important qualities of being a good leader through these experiences. Some of valuable leaderships traits that I obtained and strengthened are: how to be a team player, to be a better listener, to have more patience, to be not afraid of constructive criticism, to be outspoken, and to be a problem solver. Even though I have gained a lot, I
Leadership is something that comes natural for some and is a developed skill for others. If we take a look at the role of the leader, we look for certain traits in a person. For example, in grade school, there always seems to be clicks, large and small groups of people that cling together. When we examine these social sub-groups, we often find that there is always one person that leads the group. This person is usually the person that brings the group together. I remember being in social circles with people that I knew I would never be friends with. However, we may have one or two people in common, thus we remain friends. Overtime, we
This is why, Organizational renowned scholars have been studying of this very significant topic of leadership for literally hundreds of years. Because. It is very complex, not simple one.
Research on leadership is a subject that has been approached in many different ways. Theories on leadership can be classified according to the type of variable that is emphasized the most. Three types of variables relevant to these theories include (1) characteristics of leaders, (2) characteristics of followers, and (3) characteristics of the situation (Yuri, G., 2010). In the textbook Leadership in Organizations, Yuri, G. classifies these theories into the following five approaches: (1) the trait approach, (2) the behavior approach, (3) the power-influence approach, (4) the situational approach, and (5) the integrative approach. This paper briefly discusses the situational approach of studying leadership.
Summarizing the idea of Leadership that I have researched, in my opinion, is the capacity to conduct followers to reach goals. Leaders convince followers the necessity of a leadership group to achieve the success. And although, followers use their own expertise to complete a job, they need to be driven by a Leader. A Leader exerts a certain power and influence in their follower that can be direct or indirect. An effective leader knows how to extract the best ability from each follower and although the skill belongs to the followers, some of them perform better when is conducted by a Leader. The ability to influence, comprehends and agree with others about what is necessary to be completed and how doing it as such, as to support individuals and group effort to
According to Daft (2008, p.20) leadership typically reflects the larger society, and theories have evolved as norms, attitudes, and understandings in the larger world of change. Throughout the centuries leaders have adapted in response to these changes. Northouse (2007, p3) defines leadership as a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. A person’s ability to
Leadership has been a topic that has been researched for a long time in many disciplines. Leadership as a personality focuses on the characteristics of an individual that gives them power to act as leaders. There is leadership as an attribution this approach views leadership as phenomenon that causes group of followers to have outcomes.(Wu et al, 2010, 90).Researchers have used the following approaches to study leadership; they are mainly trait, behavior, power influence, situation and integrative approaches. Trait approaches focuses on the characteristics, values, skill and personality of leaders. Behavior approaches is focused on the leaders behaviors, differentiating between the behavior of ineffective and effective leaders. Integrative approach combines all the approaches to have a holistic picture of the process, outcomes and determinants of leadership. The approach that this paper uses is situational approach that is not leader centered but more on the significance of the context as an influence of leadership. Leaders should be able to choose the leadership quality appropriate to a particular situation.
Leadership does not have one universally accepted definition; it is according me an ever-evolving concept. I firmly believe that even though individuals can be groomed and trained to be leaders, however some leaders could motivate and influence individuals around them more effectively/easily then others and direct an organization into a coherent and cohesive way in order to accomplish objectives and targets. This exact school of thought is actually a common thread or an existing element in various theories and