Leadership Theory Of Leadership And Management

There are many different types of leadership styles that are tailored to a firm's goals and resources and the leader must be able to determine which is best. Leadership can make or break an operation as is sets the operational structure and the amount of power each individual has. No matter what a manager must be able to effectively lead a team. They need to be able to motivate individuals and keep them on task so they may reach their goal within a timely manner. Without leadership an operation can fall to pieces if employees lack direction, are unaware of the goal, or lack the passion to execute their task properly.

In addition, leadership itself can be described in various forms and through the highlight of different skill sets, but the one thing that all definitions have in common is that “leadership involves influencing the attitudes, beliefs, behaviours and feelings of other people” Spector’s work (as cited in Curtis, de Vries, & Sheerin, 2011, p.306). When the skill set of a leader is compared to that of a manager, true differences are noted. Some of these key differences are apparent even in the approach utilized to reach the desired goals. While a manager directs, a leader transforms, a manager sustains and a leader improves, a manager controls, a leader motivates, a manager’s focus is on short-term goals and a leader’s is long-term based, managers ask how and when, while

Leaders are most effective when they are able to attain cooperation among all the members and make them feel the purpose of doing their tasks. It is important for them to research on the characteristics of high performance teams so that they also have it as their standards in leading their people. Some of the important activities that a leader should be good at are persuading, communicating, and motivating people (Tracy, n.d.).

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

"Leadership is the ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute to the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members" (Zhao & Seibert 2006). Leaders convey a future booming vision of the organization and assist employees revolve that idea into reality. Good leaders deem in opеn, honеst communication and carе about thе wеlfarе of еmployееs. For high-quality leaders employees and public in that matter are more important than things, goals, and visions. Such lеadеrs dеfinе both long-tеrm and short-tеrm tasks and how thеy rеlatе to achiеving organizational goals thus guiding еmployееs to succеss.

Leadership is something that can be taught (Northouse, 2015. There are some valuable theories, which will be discussed later in this paper, how a leader can develop into having a strong influence in any daily aspect of their lives. Also later in this paper it will be discussed the various styles of leaders that can affect the behaviors of the actions of each leader. Each leader can learn these attributes or some of them just have the natural capability of being a leader.

In the textbook Leadership is defined as ‘the process of influencing an organized group toward accomplishing its goals’ (Hughes, Ginnet & Curphy 2015, p. 5). Leadership involves leader, followers, and situation.

So, from the above definitions we may draw a difference between leaders and managers as leaders do have a vision, goal and objective, which he tries to make effective and purposeful. On the contrary, the managers only have to maintain their efficiency on day-to-day basis. In other words administration is the task of managers but innovation is the characteristic of leaders and there is a possibility of a manager becoming a leader by setting high standards and goals for his people. It is not the task of this paper to present a difference between both but it is important to present it only because of its being necessary to clear the concept of a leader. So, a good leader is a person who can look high into the horizons when the people are looking down in the bottom line. This makes other people follow their footsteps as everyone wants to move towards horizon to explore new dimensions of practicality.

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.

A manager is an individual who usually oversees a firm or companies actions on a daily basis. A manager has to have qualities of a leader to be selected for this position because in general the manager’s job has a huge weight on the company he is managing and can be a main cause for their major downfall or great success. There have been many influential and important leaders throughout history that have made the world a better place to live in, such as, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr, and Steve Jobs, these men have mad the world a better place by taking a stand and having very strong leadership skills. It does not matter what your managing or what kind of manager you are it is crucial to have

In corporate America the term used to describe a person in a position of power is “Manager”. A leader can be a manager, but a manager is not necessarily a leader. Leaders motivate, challenge, and influence others to achieve goals. Great leaders have the necessary skills and attributes which allow them to connect with the team and organization. Being a leader is not the same as managing an organization. Leader’s posses the interpersonal skills needed to influence others to achieve a goal willingly. Leading is a major part of a manager’s job. Leaders do not need to be a manager to lead people, but managers must know how to lead as well as manage.