Leadership is an essential element in every human group because it is a fundamental component without which would be hard to adequately orient efforts towards a common goal. According to Schneider and Schröder (2012, p. 269) “leadership is the set of capabilities that a person has to influence a group of people, making this team to work with enthusiasm in the achievement of goals and objectives”. Applying this concept to the business administration area, leadership is related to the managerial or leadership skills that an executive has to influence and direct others to achieve the goals and meet the needs of the company in an efficient and effective way. A leader seeks to develop the full potential of company and workers (Chase, Connelly & Griffith 2012)
Carlos Goshn, CEO of Renault-Nissan Alliance is recognized as one of the most important leaders of the global automotive industry, having won respect by leading the transformation of the Japanese company Nissan, which from the crisis in the 1990s has become in one of the industry 's most innovative brands. He is considered a leader who broke paradigms and creates his own strategies and rules to succeed in a competitive market. (Stahl, Mendenhall & Oddou, 2012 )
LEADERSHIP STYLE
In many ways, the style of a leader defines an organization. If the organization is faithful to its philosophy and mission, the style of its leader must be consistent with them. The leadership style is the way a leader achieves its purposes. It can
Leadership in an organization often plays a critical role, and is frequently, though not always, one of the major drivers of the success or failure of a company. (Bass, 1990) Effective leadership helps a company through times of peril and brings a future of brightness. It makes a corporation successful. However, what is leadership? According to Kouzes and Posner, it is the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations. (1995, p.30) Leaders set a clear direction for us; they help us realize what is ahead; they support us to achieve and win; they encourage and inspire us when we feel depressed. Without leadership, an organization will degenerate into chaos and unstructured because people view things in different ways.
Leadership is a facet of management. It is just one of the many assets a successful manager must possess. The main aim of a manager is to maximize the output of the organization through administrative implementation. To achieve this managers must undertake the four functions of management: planning, organization, leading and controlling. In some cases leadership is just one important component of the leading function. Predpall (1994) said, "Leaders must let vision, strategies, goals, and values be the guide-post for action and behavior rather than attempting to control others". In some circumstances, leadership is not required. For example, self-motivated groups may not require a single leader and may find leaders dominating. The fact that a leader is not always required proves that leadership is just an asset and is not essential.
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 style is a combination of the natural qualities and manner in which a person carries out their role as a manager, along with the way they have consciously decided to perform this role. Leadership can be described as the balance between the supporting and directing team members. The key to success is knowing how to use management skills to best effect with individuals.
A leader is described in different ways, some are naturally talented to be a good leader, and some obtain their leadership ability from their environments or from their experience, and others get leadership ability from academic, career, and accumulated skills. According to Principles of Business Administration,
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 entails guiding others to realize particular goals using a variety of skills (Sullivan & Garland, 2011); Weihrich & Koontz, 2008). Likewise, Spector (2006) defined leadership as the art of influencing others to readily and actively endeavour towards achieving goals set by the team. Additionally, Spector (2006) emphasized that there is a shared theme that leadership comprises influencing individual belief systems, behaviours and feelings. As such, the smooth running of an organization requires effective leadership.
Leadership is an influential word: and its meaning may differ from person to person. Some describe leadership as the people in the highest and most powerful positions within an organization. But as I look back on the positions I have held and the people I would consider leaders, the people I would choose to follow, they were not necessarily the higher ranked people in the organization. They were the people with vision and moral compass who moved the company forward. These people live by their own values and stayed true to these principles every day in their roles within the organization. Those who try to lead by intimidation are not actually leaders but managers, who will have some success in achieving goals but will
In today’s competitive world, leadership skills are crucial for both personal and professional development. Leadership is an important function of management which helps an individual or a business to maximize efficiency and to achieve goals. Leadership has different meanings to various authors.Most commonly, leadership is defined as influence, that is, the art of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals. (Koontz). Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of either formal or informal group in the task of goal setting and goal achievement. A leader is one whose magnetic personality innervates people for some cause. Not by words, but by their actions is
Leadership is a process of influencing activities of a particular group of people with the aim of attaining certain stipulated goals. In defining leadership there is need to consider a particular group, the common goals and the duties that are allocated to specific members of the group depending on their abilities (Fiedler 1976). Leadership therefore cannot successfully occur unless members of the group are given different considerations in terms of personality, traits and responsibilities. In considering leadership, it is important to look at the leader, the group or organization they are leading, the members as individuals and the situation; these are
Leadership style is a form of cross situational behavioral consistency. It refers to the manner in which a leader interacts with his/her followers. Leadership is the ability to influence a group towards the achievement of goals. Leadership style is fixed, that it is, either relation oriented or task oriented. Situational influences create a platform on how a leader has to change his/her leadership style. However, leaders must first be clear about their most important tasks or priorities. Leaders must identify the
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).
Leadership is an approach for a leader to guide, motivate, supervise, manage, and influence others in different situation to reach a goal. According to the Pettinger (2007), the leadership can be explained in several situations. First, the leaders have the responsible to provide vision and direction to the followers. Second, the leaders shall energise and motivate the followers. Third, the leaders shall set and enforce absolute standards of behaviour, attitude, presentation and performance.
Leadership poses a challenge in the organizational context. A leader is responsible for the mission and vision of an organization. The values of leadership should reflect the core values of the organization by demonstrating honesty, accountability, and openness. The vision of the business is required to be shared by everyone. Leaders need to inspire others through motivation to encourage employees to work towards the achievement of the set goals. The leaders have to change themselves first to demonstrate what they want others
Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans and motivating people. Leadership is important to a company’s productivity. The methods and manner that a manger uses to encourage employees towards the achievement of the companies objective is mean by leadership style.