Leadership Theories And Theories Of Leadership Essay

Leadership is an influential factor in the success and failure. If an organization is failing, look at the leader, not the economy; not the market; look at the leader. The movements and influence of a leader determines the fate of those under her or him. The importance of leadership cannot be underestimated. The importance of leadership has constantly been debated and a part argumentative discussion. There is no one approach to leadership, however leadership theories try to make sense of various approaches to leadership. James G. Clawson is considered an authority in leadership theories. His Level III leadership theory is about managing energy, first in leader, and then in those around the leader.

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.

As was mentioned earlier, the trait theory contains highly subjective perspectives. It means that the perception of leadership traits is associated with the assessment of leadership. Barry et al (2003) conducted an

Arguably, there are countless different definitions of leaders in the world, and my experience brought me in contact with countless worthy people who excel as examples of this. Consequently, by utilizing the abundant case studies over the last 28 years of my career, I formed the following definition of what a leader is: A morally grounded individual who meets all challenges with an infectious excitement which others wish to emulate. This drive inspires allegiance to this individual, mostly without a formal request to follow. The members just choose to assist this individual in meeting the desired results without a need for the accolades of a successful result.

Though the theories of leadership glorify factors, such as personal significance, timing, special skills, responsiveness, or power, as the qualities of a leader, I believe that neither of those factors are as essential as being personable. I believe being personable is the greatest determinant since a leadership position requires public speaking, either in the form of one-to-one conversations or to an audience. I believe that a leader should create an impression that will motivate and inspire others. Therefore, they should be able to create an impressive and enduring impression. Leaders should speak to others in a way that is respectful, friendly, and relatable. If they are unable to do so, then no matter how powerful or significant the individual, not a single person will follow, admire, or respect them.

Trait theories were first of the four most common leadership theories. The foundation of trait theory is; leaders are born with the innate ability to lead. In essence, leadership traits are inherent in the genetic makeup of an individual and are natural, not learned predispositions. On the contrary, current research has found leadership traits to be external behaviors emerging from development of cognitive discipline and knowledge growth.

Leadership seems to be a concept that is just out of grasp. Simple in theory, yet difficult to define. According to Northouse (2015), inaugural definitions of leadership “emphasized control and centralization of power with a common theme of dominance”. Beginning views of leadership also postulated that leadership traits were not only inborn, but were also inherited- particularly by the upper classes. Soon after this trend of rationale, trait theory emerged and became the primary lens through which leadership was viewed. Early research in trait theory was focused on identifying individual innate traits that popular leaders conveyed. Trait theory differed from the prior leadership model as trait theory asserted that leaders were composed of traits that digressed from non-leaders and not that traits were passed down from previous leaders.

In today’s world, leaders are not defined by age, race or gender. They can be a high school basketball coach, the shift supervisor at the local coffee shop, or even the President of the United States of America. In as many ways that leaders can vary by appearance and responsibility, there is also a variance in the ways that they lead. This case study aims to compare three of the more popular theories of leadership. These leadership theories are situational leadership, trait theory and transformational leadership.

Moreover, the trait approach gives a deeper understanding of the leader element in the leadership process by emphasising exclusively on the leader, (Gore et al, 2011). The trait theory does not offer hypotheses about the role of situational variance or characteristic of the followers. Instead, this approach provide information about leaders, and about which traits cause which behaviours and that certain set of traits are central to the leadership process and play an indispensible part of effective leadership.

Here are different leadership theories. But before discussing leadership theories and styles, it is useful to first define the term and then take a closer look at them.They will give you only the general types of leadership because each leader is unique and has his or her own style. Moreover, some leadership styles work better with different groups of people and in different situations. However, it is essential find out and learn more about your own style and then start working on how to leverage your style to achieve even greater results.1

The first week’s topic was the history of leadership theories that explained the evolution of leadership theories in different periods of time. The leadership theories have ten theories. The first theory is the great man theory; a leader must born to be, cannot change and make, such as Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Abraham Lincoln. The second theory is the trait theory; leaders should have characteristics and personalities such as honesty, self-confidence, independent, optimism, responsibility and have interpersonal skills. They can improve, change and develop those characteristics and personalities to be better in the future. The third theory is the skill theory; a person who is a leader must have three skills, which are technical skills, conceptual skills and human skills. For the technical skill, a leader should have an experience and an expert to do and to perform tasks. The conceptual skills, a leader must have an ability to think critically and analytically (cognitive thinking). The last skills are human skills, a leader must have an ability to work with others. The next theory is the style theory that concentrates on what a leader does in organizations, not on a leader position. The leader styles have three styles; an autocratic, a democratic and a laissez faire leadership styles. For the autocratic leader style, a leader has a power to dictate employees, have a centralized authority, and limited employee participation. For the democratic leader style, a leader

The same principles underlie many other approaches such as a Fiedler’s contingency model of leadership suggest a productive group and effective performance of a team is based upon the style of leadership and to an extent to which the leader is able to apply his leadership qualities under given circumstances. The style of the leader is determined in terms of relationship and tasks, whereas the situational factors will include the power of the leader, relationship with the follower and the level of the situation. This theory assumes that a task-oriented leader will be extremely effective when he is able to control and influence his subordinates and the situation. On the other, a relationship-oriented leader will be extremely effective when there will be less control over the situation (Yukl, 2001).

The first week’s topic was the history of leadership theories that explained the evolution of leadership theories in different periods of time. The leadership theories have ten theories. The first theory is the great man theory; a leader must born to be, cannot change and make, such as Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Abraham Lincoln. The second theory is the trait theory; leaders should have characteristics and personalities such as honesty, self-confidence, independent, optimism, responsibility and have interpersonal skills. They can improve, change and develop those characteristics and personalities to be better in the future. The third theory is the skill theory; a person who is a leader must have three skills, which are technical skills, conceptual skills and human skills. For the technical skill, a leader should have an experience and an expert to do and to perform tasks. The conceptual skills, a leader must have an ability to think critically and analytically (cognitive thinking). The last skills are human skills, a leader must have an ability to work with others. The next theory is the style theory that concentrates on what a leader does in organizations, not on a leader position. The leader styles have three styles; an autocratic, a democratic and a laissez faire leadership style. For the autocratic leader style, a leader has a power to dictate employees, have a centralized authority, and limited employee participation. For the democratic leader style, a

This theory is based on the premise that there are certain personality characteristics that are essential for a person to possess in order to be a leader. The main emphasis is on what the person is in terms of a constellation of personality traits. This theory searches for that set of universal leadership traits that will assure success. Numerous traits have been suggested: courage, integrity, loyalty, charisma, ambition, intelligence, honesty, clairvoyance, persistence, arrogance, health, political skill, confidence and vision.

For decade’s individuals, companies, and organizations have spent an unprecedented amount of money on researching, molding, modeling and working to define what a leader is and what characteristics make successful leaders. Despite all the research, there is not a quick answer or even full agreement as to what makes an individual an effective leader. The definition of a leader is “someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority.” (Robbins, Decenzo, Coulter, 2015. P.370)