Research And Reflection : Management Perspective Essay

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.

Leadership is an important aspect of management sciences. Over the past century, many theories have been developed to provide managers with the tools required to effectively lead their subordinates. From a simplistic theory cataloguing individual traits and characteristics, leadership has become a complex science shaped by many forces (ex: behavioural sciences, organizational culture, strategic management trends etc.) (Avolio, Walumba and Weber, 2009).

Effective leadership is not something you come across very often. Leadership can be defined as ‘the ability to inspire confidence and support among the people who are needed to achieve organizational goals’ (Dubrin, 2010, p. 2-3). Finding someone who fits the idea of being an effective leader can difficult. In fact, Myatt (2013) argues that many leaders in our world think they are leaders, however, he states that ‘not everyone can or should become a leader’ (para. 1).

Introduction: Any discussion on leadership issues reveals the complexity of the topic with wide-ranging views and perspectives. However leaders do share some common characteristics, and they have a positive impact on the organization and the employees. Through countless interviews, Kouzes and Posner discovered that all types of leaders, across different industries, professions and countries exhibited similar practices when describing their most exceptional leadership accomplishments.(Truedell, 2011 p. 1 Review) Various theories of leadership include the Great Man Theory, Trait Theory, Behavioral Theories, Motivational

What is leadership? Leadership stems from social influence, not authority or power, Leadership requires others, and that implies they don’t need to be “direct reports”, (Kruse, 2013). Some leaders are great leaders, they care about the organizations they work for, they also care about the people they manage and their future. Other leaders are just put in positions or situations that they are simply not qualified for. There is also one dangerous type of leaders called dysfunctional leaders. Dysfunctional leaders can be gifted with charm and determination, but when something goes wrong, their self-confident behavior can rapidly spiral out of control (Kakabadse, 2013).

Leadership is an attempt to influence the people around the leader and try to direct them to accomplish the desired goal. The leadership skills contain influence people to reach their goal which is finally benefiting the organization to achieve its goals. In addition to, it contains the ability to influence and motivate in order to reach goals. Leadership skills exist within each individual that can be shown at the time of external events or the individual can learn it through training. The importance of leadership summaries as a source of the interaction between employees and the organization and its future plans. Also, it is a tool used in order to unite efforts to achieve the goals. One of the benefits of leadership is eliminating labor problems and develops and motivates individuals. The leadership is defined as making accurate decisions in urgent situations. (1)

The interest in the study of leadership has expanded over the past years. There are a great number of leadership theories, styles and models that have been presented to describe precisely why and how certain individuals become to be such great leaders (Northouse, 2013). People have often wondered the questions such as what accurately makes an exceptional leader as well as the certainty of personality traits that could make people better-fitted for leadership roles (Northouse, 2013). With the interest in leadership throughout history, there have recently been a number of leadership theories that has emerged (Northouse, 2013).

The definition of leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization. Leadership is not a title; however, it is the ability to persuade, convince, conduct, motivate, and inspire individuals to engage with a vision to the achievement of a goal. The challenge that leaders have is to be able to adapt or adjust their leadership style to each situation. Some leaders might find that being more commanding or authoritative to their employees is more effective, however some may find being more democratic and giving their employees a voice is more meaningful. Based on the six leadership styles created by Daniel Goleman, this paper will introduce and analyze the leadership effectiveness of three successful CEOs: Michael Eisner, Larry Ellison, and Andrea Jung. It will briefly explore their background, how they became successful, and how they lead/led their companies.

In Andrew (1998) in “Nature vs nurture: Are leaders born or made? A behavior genetic investigation of leadership style” a publication by the Australian Academic Press, leadership is inherited. Their focus was based on trait theories to explain leadership. A look at the personality of individuals and relying on the premise posed in this context, personality traits are correlated with leadership. The author is quick to mention that, there is no sufficient modern research in this field. Through the use MQL which is an abbreviation of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire as well as self-report psychometric inventories, it was found out that transformational leadership was due to genetic influence (Andrew 219). In

Leadership appears to be an increasingly discussed topic, not only in business school, but also in real-life workplace. As teamwork has become the essential part of today’s business world, few people would argue the importance of leadership skills in contributing to a prospective career. I believe there is no one-size-fits-all definition for leadership. Everyone can have his own understanding of what characteristics or personal traits make a good leader. The understanding usually stems from one’s personal experience. I have rarely been a real leader so far in my career; therefore my definition of leadership, to a large extent, comes from a non-leader perspective and may vary with someone who is a leader.

The term leader is defined as an individual who can lead and influence a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (Grint, 2010). Being an effective leader takes time, experience, and lots of maturity. What traits do effective leaders possess? How is the vision of the organization implemented by the leader into the team? How can a leader build and manage a team? This paper will talk about all these points in detail.

The topic of leadership and what makes a good leader has been studied for many years and has resulted in various leadership theories. Early leadership theories focused on the qualities or characteristic that leaders possessed while subsequent theories considered other variables such as the leader’s behavior and situations. Each theory has its advantages and disadvantages. In this report, I will provide a detailed analysis of the Trait, Contingency, Behavioral and Path-goal theories.

From mid-nineteenth century to the decade of 1940, the research on leadership was dominated by efforts to show that there are characteristics or qualities that leaders have that set them from followers. The research shows that leadership abilities are that of an effective and successful leader. Studies have focused on the measurement of leadership traits and the relationship that is between criteria and traits of leader

The word leadership cannot be defined by one single definition. This is a word that has many different characteristics as well as traits. Throughout the years people have bespoke this word behind many of the influential individuals that have come and gone in America’s history. Furthermore, I think that a leader is one that leads by example. A great leader knows that it is not about what you say, but more so of what you do. As this paper continues, I will give examples of what I consider a leader as well as the strategical plan that has been paved for me to become the great leader that’s within.

Leadership can be characteristics that some individual possesses. These characteristic traits enable those individuals to induce others to accomplish tasks (Northhouse et. Al., 2010). A successful leader