Leadership As A Leader And Gaining Leadership Qualities

Organizations depend on the management and leadership skills of individuals in order to be successful. Leaders do not have to be managers but are equally important. Leaders are individuals who possess traits, behavior and abilities to influence others to accomplish tasks and other needed objectives for the company. Leadership is defined as “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization. . . .” (House et al., 1999, pg. 184).

At some point in life, someone is required to become a leader; many organisations and specific situations require a leader (Northouse, 2014). No matter the profile of the individual, there are demands placed on the individual which require them to deal with many responsibilities and duties which can be both challenging and rewarding at the same time but this depends on how well the individual handles themselves in these situations. The important question is; “what is leadership?”. Many people question what this term means as it is a fundamental skill which is required in the workforce (Avery, 2004). Leadership definitions have been approached in various ways with many authors relating to the nature of leadership rather than distinctively

Throughout history scholars and psychologists have attempted to build various theories of leadership by identifying and defining unique characteristics of leaders and their various styles of leadership. There are four such theories developed. Namely, Trait theories (What type of characteristics makes a good leader), Behavioural theories (How would a good leader act or behave?),

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.

Leadership refers to the act of leading a considerable number of people within an establishment or the capacity to do this. Leadership has to do with coming up with a vision that is crystal clear and the ability to spreads that idea out in a manner that makes individuals, given the information, knowledge, and methods to understand, willing to follow. Subsequently, balancing and coordinating the conflicting interests of all stakeholders and members. It is typical for any good leader to step up in the event of a contingency, with the potential to imagine and act creatively in situations that prove to be difficult. Different from management, leadership can never be taught, in as much as it may be learned and bettered employing mentoring and coaching (Servant Leadership Based on Robert Greenleaf’s Writings, 2010).

Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.

Leadership is both an inherent value and is forged overtime. Inherently, some people are born good leaders and intrinsically have good values imbedded. Leadership traits can be honed and developed overtime; you never stop learning to be a good leader. Leadership is the cornerstone of all successfully run organizations and is what drives stewardship to successfully carry on the organizations mission statement. Throughout one’s life experiences, they come across some great leaders and some not-so great leaders. Those life experiences transcend one to become a better leader through experiential circumstances.

Leadership theory, or the scientific approach to understanding leadership, is a vast group of theories that try to explain what makes, or constitutes a great leader. There are many schools of thought on this subject and many pull from existing psychological theories, like Behavioral Theory, Developmental Theory, Personality Theory and Learning theory (Myers, 2014). There are three main leadership theories: trait theory, which suggests that some are born with certain traits that make them an effective leader, while behavioral theory focuses on how leader behave, while contingency theory addresses how the situation influences leadership.

Our text defines leadership as “the ability to formulate a worthy vision and inspire people to make a total, willing, and voluntary commitment to accomplishing or exceeding organizational goals” (Goetsch, 2016). Let’s start with the first element, creating a

Leadership encompasses the world around us, and is seen in some shape or form every single day. Without it, there would be no sense of direction for anyone, people would be lost. Leaders are those who take initiative to do what others won’t. Those who strive to make a difference in our ill directed world and guide those who need to be guided, or pushed, further than they deem themselves capable. Leadership doesn’t take enormous physical strength or even a booming voice. All it takes is a strong mind, full heart, and a purpose.

The word leadership has lost its power. A leader, in today’s vernacular, liberally signifies any individual who occupies a position of authority or management. Leadership is more than a discounted buzzword or entitlement. There are an infinite number of interpretations of leadership and no singular, definitive solution. However, despite the seemingly insurmountable challenge that leadership is, authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner scientifically defined what makes a great leader. Their book, The Truth About Leadership: the no-fads, heart-of-the-matter facts you need to know, provides ten truths that define proper leadership.

Several definitions of leadership have been established. Bringing these definitions together, a common description is advanced. As such, leadership can be acknowledged as the activity of leading a community of people or an organization. It involves four essential aspects. Foremost is devising a clear vision. In line with Avolio and Yammarino (2013)’s thoughts, this is to say that a leader is mandated with the responsibility of setting the direction of an organization. As such, leaders have to identify where they want their organizations to be in a certain period into the future. Secondly is the sharing of that vision with others to ensure that they follow it in a willing manner. A person serving in the leadership position has to ensure

Effective leadership, commonly regarded as both a learned skill and innate ability, is an essential characteristic of successful organizations (Northouse, 2016). Great leaders are said to define purpose, create a vision for the future, set high ethical standards, and guide their organizations through many circumstances and into new directions (Morrill, 2007; Parris & Peachey, 2012). Leadership is also described as complex – it can mean different things to different people. Given there is no standard approach to leadership, scholars focus on the process of leadership as opposed to the definition (Northouse, 2016). As a process, leadership is not simply

Leadership is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as the “action of leading a group of people or an organization.” Leadership is also the ability to set trends, inspire, motivate, and sway others to produce desired results. There are different styles and ways of performing leadership and a good leader has the ability to take ordinary people, put them all together, and hopefully yield successful results. For organizations to have sustained results from their performance there must be a good balance of business insight, technical and interpersonal skills, and good team dynamics. A leader must know how to use all these areas as well as trust and communicate with their people in

If we focus on the idea that people can poses different personality and characteristics can be linked to successful leadership across various situation this would be defined as the trait theory of leadership. Some researcher believe that the ability to lead was something that a person was born with and not something that could be developed or learn. Many people still believe that leaders just have an intuition that makes them good at making decision and developing