Leadership
Leadership has been around for thousands of years, yet experts are still unable to agree on a universal definition. Perhaps it is because leadership is a complex, multidimensional concept that continuously evolves. Nevertheless, explaining leadership and its theories and approaches is a monumental task (Henman, n.d.).
According to Day and Antonakis (2012), leadership is essentially an influencing process. Its effectiveness largely depends on leadership behaviors and followers perceptions, as well as the context in which the influencing process occurs. Early leadership theories suggested exceptional leaders are born rather than made. Currently, most researchers believe leadership skills can be learned (Carbone, 2009).
Leader development is the process of expanding a person 's capacity to be effective in leadership roles and processes (Uhl-Bien & Ospina, 2012). This development is achieved through knowledge, experiences, and a commitment towards improvement. As mentioned, business environments are dynamic and ever changing; therefore, leadership development is a lifelong process. However, the focus of development will change over time. For example, emerging leaders might focus on identifying the purpose of specific leadership theories and evaluating their appropriateness, usefulness, and effectiveness. In contrast, seasoned leaders are in a position to polish their skills, evaluate their approach, and refine their style to ensure they remain
In practice, Tyssen et al. (2013, p. 54) found that people in an organization usually receive periodic enrichment such as leadership training, On-the-Job Training (OJT) and/or a project which aims to foster a leadership behavior. However, a future leader in an organization may be getting experience on how chaired by using various types of leadership. For example, how their leader motivate them, how they deliver reward and punishment, and how they provide learning spaces in daily activities. So, from all those behavioral process above, it will form a leader who knows the problems that arise in the organization not only in theory, but also in practice; and this kind of leader can be specified as the effective leader (Daft & Pirola-Merlo 2009, p. 21).
Leadership is complex and, comprises of many definitions and qualities (Grimm 2010). One definition of leadership is ‘a multifaceted process of identifying a goal, motivating other people to act, and providing support and motivation to achieve mutually negotiated goals’ (porter-O’Grady 2003). Back in 1939 Kurt Lewin researched to identify different styles of leadership. According to his research, there are three major styles of leadership. Authoritarian or autocratic, participative or democratic and delegative or laizzes-fair. These three styles remain influential today. According to educational leaders.govt.NZ, leadership is about empowering, transforming and working together to meet schools and 21st century (www.tki).There are many leadership theories and from leadership theories comes leadership styles. the educational leadership model according to www.educational leaders.govt.nz identifies four qualities that build a leader 's capability to enhance teaching and learning outcomes for the school: manaakitangi- leading with moral purpose, pono- having self-belief, ako- being a learner, awhinatanga -guiding and supporting.
Leadership is, and always has been, a vital aspect of social and economic constructs. It is essential to the survival of societies, industries, organizations, and virtually any group of individuals that come together for a common purpose. However, leadership is difficult to define in a single, definitive sense. As such, theories of leadership, what constitutes a great leader, and how leaders are made have evolved constantly throughout history, and still continue to change today in hopes of improving upon our understanding of leadership, its importance, and how it can be most effective in modern organizational cultures.
Throughout the entire course of this class, I have been asked to fill out different self-assessments related to whatever topic or approach to leadership Peter Northouse (2013) was discussing in his book Leadership Theory and Practice. Each one of these self-assessments were intended to help me in discovering who I was as a person and a leader. Some of the leadership self-assessments included the Least Preferred Coworker Measure from the Contingency Theory chapter, the Leader-Member Exchange Questionnaire from the Leader-Member Exchange Theory chapter, and the Servant Leadership Questionnaire from the chapter that discussed Servant Leadership. Many of these questionnaires I found to be very effective in helping me discover more about my personality traits and leadership style.
Leadership might be the most discussed and written about topics in our modern society. Thousands of books have covered this topic and people are often using this term correctly as well as in the right format. But what does it really mean? Strength? Power? Leadership could be as simple as holding the hand of a small child crossing the street, or as complex as signing the Declaration of Independence. A leader is not someone who cheats their way to the top, or tricks others into doing things. Being a leader is also not all about power and control. Power is not leadership because leaders don’t necessarily need any source of “power,” but instead are looked up to by their followers. The assertion of power can create feelings of fear, betrayal,
Leadership is a term that cannot be defined or simplified with a standard definition (Bethel, 2011). The term’s complexity is a phenomenon, as it carries a different meaning for each person. During the
Leadership is defined as one’s ability to influence others. However, when done well that influence enlists 4 major ingredients:
The principal aspects of leadership are oft debated; to attempt to define what leadership is would most certainly result in broad and varied definitions dependent on who is queried. Nonetheless, in the preeminent
A quick Google search for “Leadership” will yield over 490 billion entries with results ranging from Forbes Magazine to the Harvard Business Review, and on Amazon.com there are over 140,000 books written on the topic. If you limit your query to trying to find a definition of leadership the results be come only slightly clearer, with 298 billion results and thousands of websites trying to clearly articulate the definition of a leader. This focus on building great leaders stretches throughout history with philosophers like Plato extolling the virtues by which good leaders could be identified, and examples like Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, and George Washington litter the annals of history giving us living examples by which to model leadership.
Leadership is an ever evolving practice for leaders as they progress in an organization and reviews of performance (by observers) gives insight into individual progress. As leaders develop in an organizations structure habits developed throughout a career can cause stagnant growth through inward personal observations. Without input from outside sources, through measurable observations, personal growth is slowed and
What is leadership? How does society define as good and bad leaders? What are the traits most embodied by the successful leaders? These questions, along with many other, have been the topic of debate for centuries. Defining leadership in hard terms can be a challenging thing. In one hand, soldiers in the Army, for instance, can recite the definition of a leadership that came out of a publication. On the contrary, most soldiers will struggle to define what leadership means to them, in their words. However, troops in any organization can quickly identify who is a bad or a good leader. They know what right looks and feels like, though, putting it into terms can prove to be more challenging, and goes to demonstrate why it is
Leadership has been a developing concept for me. People I have met throughout my life have greatly influenced my definition of leadership. I have seen my definition of leadership evolve as a result of their influence in my life. In this paper, I will discuss how my previous leaders and five leadership levels shaped the way I approach the idea of leadership.
Leadership has been studied extensively and many varying definitions exist. Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy (2015, p.4) review many of these definitions and consequently describe leadership as ‘the process of influencing an organised group towards its goals’. Leadership involves the interplay of a range of different factors, not least the leader themselves, the followers and the situation. For
Chapter sixteen discusses various leadership theories which can implemented by leaders to achieve success. The choice of leadership theory differs from leader to leader as they possess different vision and way of managing. A theory isn 't always perfect in itself, it is the endless effort of the leaders which makes the theory a perfect one. Two approaches of leadership that I prefer are Situational Leadership Theory and Servant Leadership Theory. Among many theories I prefer these two because I tend to practice those principles most of the time and I assume these are theories that I truly tend to continue in a long run.
Over the years, a great deal of time, and research has been dedicate to the study of leadership. Even with extensive data on the topic, many still disagree on what leadership really means. Hence, leadership is a word that has many different meanings and different researched theories associated with it. On a basic level, leadership involves having and establishing a clear vision, sharing that vision with followers, respecting followers, and leading an organization with excellence while ensuring that everyone is part of the team. Leadership is also a method by which a leader uses his or her influence towards getting a group of followers to take ownership or buy into a vision.