Leadership As An Evolutionary Purpose

Before diving into the different theories of leadership, I decided to spend some time understanding what exactly leadership is. To understand what leadership is I had to start with the root of the word “lead”. The definition of lead according to dictionary.com is to go before or with to show the way. This definition originates from the Anglo – Saxon lad or leadan meaning a path, a way, to lead, or to give a sense of direction (Peretomode, 2012). Nothing in this definition states

There are many definitions of leadership. Chemers (1997) describes it as: "A process of social influence in which one person can enlist the support of others in the accomplishment of a common task or aim"

In my opinion the term leadership is a very broad and various definitions are given by authors. One definition of leadership is that it is

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.

There are so many definitions of leadership and it is difficult to establish a specific definition;

According to Business Dictionary.com, leadership is defined as the individuals who are the leaders in an organization, regarded collectively. It also can be define as the activity of leading a group of people or an organization or the ability to do this. Leadership involves the establishing of a clear vision, sharing the vision with other so that they will follow willingly, providing the needed information, knowledge, and methods to realize the vision and coordinating and balancing the conflicts interests of all members and stakeholders.

Webster 's Dictionary defines leadership as the power or ability to lead or influence other people (Webster, 2009). Leadership definition varies depending upon the perspective of the person and garners many different responses. Leadership is typically viewed as a process of social influence, in which one or more persons affect one or more followers by clarifying what

In an attempt to revisit my personal view of leadership, I will first review what fine points are of a leader that led me to define it as I did. My original definition identified leadership that “Scholars agree that there is no one definition of leadership and it remains a complex concept.” Further internet searches drummed up a plethora of slogans with different meanings and words of influence. This all was simply a bumper wall to stay in and fall between concepts, to no avail of a defined meaning of leadership. Without a concreate explanation into a definition of leadership that one can apply to effectively lead followers, one can only look at traits and concepts to rationalize within

Let us start by defining the term “leadership”. Is that even possible? Like art, leadership is subjective, and we can only define it when we see it. Sociologists and authors such as Rost, Burns, Bennis and Mintzberg have all argued that the actual study of leadership is flawed in that there have been numerous studies identifying it, but very few defining what it actually is. Again, we can only identify it, when we see it taking place.

Scholars agree that there is no one definition of leadership and it remains a complex concept. Therefore, we will look into some of the complex concepts of leadership to bring about a personal perspective. Face value per the dictionary is that leadership is the act of guidance, direction, control, management, superintendence, supervision, power, rule, and influence of a person or organization. Per our text, Northouse (2016) defines leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (p .4). A simple search on the net can reveal a plethora of slogans that give us insight to conceptualization of its meaning, but are able to grasp and avail the bottom line of its true meaning. My answer is ‘No’, leadership means different things to different people, and hence leaders in different organizations will project adverse leadership concepts within those organizations compared to others. Northouse (2016) further clarify this conundrum with his reference to “Stogdill (1974, p. 7) points out that a review of his leadership research, there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it” (p. 2).

Leadership is a difficult word to define and according to the Miriam-Webster Dictionary leadership is the “office or position of a leader” (Miriam-Webster, 2010). This definition is definitely not one that I would ascribe to when discussing leadership. My definition of leadership is “the ability someone has to motivate and empower others to achieve a goal.” Some may add to this definition, others may discard it altogether and have a completely different definition. In the end, leadership takes on many different forms depending on who is doing the defining and we end up asking ourselves, what is leadership and why do we care?

Each community leaders are loads of different meanings to their own culture and leadership perspective. One according to community leaders; to be a holy person, and absolute obedience individuals. These individuals according to another community; be responsible and criticizing possible-only is a person. Leaders of institutions and leadership in their communities glance affinity with the approach of cultures, signal the inevitability of a process of interaction between the organization and 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 to the group achieve 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 of to influence comprehends and agree with others about what is necessary to be completed and how doing it as such, as to support

Leadership is a tricky subject that is actually hard to define in one single definition. According to Alex J. Ramthun Leadership is a “dynamic, interactive influence process among individuals in groups where members lead one another to achieve organizational objectives.”(Ramthun, 2012) However, when one dissects leadership it is noticed that there are many dimensions to it. True leadership is the ability to be diverse and culturally competent on a global scale while leading. A Culturally diverse leader appreciates the differences of other. Culturally diverse leaders are comfortable

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