Theories of Leadership Essay example

An effective leader is one who inspires many to not only accept change but to cause change themselves, furthermore, though leaders can be effective it doesn’t always mean they are responsible with their power.

Leadership Evaluation and Philosophy: An Appraisal of Angela Merkel’s Leadership during the Euro Crisis and My Leadership Philosophy

Leadership is much more than being called President, Pastor, Principal, and C-level administrators. The true definition of leadership lies within the character of an individual. Effective leadership is a result of an individual having the desire to serve, motivate,and build others to reach their full potential. According to speaker Melara, in order for leaders to continue serving, motivating, and building others, they have to focus on and master three areas: pitfalls, priorities, and progress. Because of pitfalls, leaders should strive to always have their priorities in line to ensure they are always making progress.

The belief of leadership is constantly changing, with many theories and frameworks available. Today’s organizations face ever-increasing change, which includes increased patient demands and work needs, which requires a more adaptive flexible leadership that is becoming increasingly important in the 21st century. Leadership theory and philosophy can be divided into several well-known styles. Within this paper, we will discuss the basis of autocratic, democratic, laissez faire, servant, charismatic, transformational, and situational styles of leadership within the nursing profession, then conclude the writer’s personal philosophies of leadership.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, leadership is the power or ability to lead other people, the act or instance of leading. I believe that Leadership is an art, the art to get others to follow and accomplish a common goal or task in a harmonic manner. A leader can be shown in all kinds of shapes and forms. To be a great leader many people believe it consists of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. Over the course of me learning how to become a better leader and being in leadership roles, I’ve learned that all these are very necessary to be a great leader.

In the changing business environment, leaders of all organisations may face unprecedented uncertainty, especially the technology advancement and changes among the employees. To survive and succeed, leaders should have some necessary attributes. Meanwhile, some changes for leadership skills have to be made to confront the challenges.

There are different leadership theories developed throughout the history. Most popular ones are trait theories, behavioral theories, contingency theories, and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory. The author of the post will briefly discuss two theories, Fiedler contingency theory and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), and compare and contrast their strengths and weakness.

The first thing in this model is to identify the leadership style, which Fielder believed was to be fixed and could be measured using the Least Preference Co-Worker Scale (LPC) which is done by carrying out a questionnaire based on specific factors. The low LPC-leaders are more likely to be task-orientated leaders, these people view their LPCs more negatively, they are effective at completing tasks so they are good with organizing and group work. Thy tend to be eager and impatient to get their work done while carrying a no nonsense attitude whereas the relationship oriented leaders, the high LPC-Leaders, they see there LPCs more positively, they can handle complex situations, make good decisions, are good with personal connections and avoiding conflicts.

For many years, I have been told by teachers, family, and friends that I am a good leader. Until fairly recently, I had never truly thought about what it means to be a good leader and just took it as a compliment. Leadership is an intangible concept which cannot be properly outlined in a dictionary, but one which must be formed and explained only through one’s own philosophies and experiences.

Leadership is important because it helps followers reach a common goal. There have been several studies based on effective leadership. The definition of leadership has evolved over the years adapting to the different views of the world. Leaders have influence on their followers they are looked up to.

Situational leadership, developed by professor Paul Hersey and author and consultant Ken Blanchard. Their approach was based off of a 1967 article by W.J. Reddin called The 3-D Management Style Theory. In his article, Reddin discusses the need to have different styles based on the demands of the leader. A leader needs to be flexible in their approach to meet the needs of the job, their superior and their subordinates (1967). Hersey and Blanchard progressed this theory by introducing the Situational Leadership II model. Their model breaks leadership into four different styles, and how a leader must alter their approach in supporting and directing their subordinates based on a given situation. These styles are directing (S1), coaching (S2), supporting (S3) and delegating (S4). The model also focuses on the development level of the subordinates by categorizing them between low (D1), moderate (D2 and D3) and

The model is intended as a practical tool for developing leaders’ leadership presence, knowhow and skill. It aims to summarize what leaders have to do, not only to bring leadership to their group or organization, but also to develop themselves technically and psychologically as leaders.

Leadership is an important factor within a business environment and often plays a significant role in achievement of organisational success (Landis, Hill & Harvey 2014). However, leadership is an art, therefore there is no simple formula for effective leadership (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy 2015, p.33) and a leader’s effectiveness can often only be understood in the context of the leader-follower-situation interaction model.

Leadership is effective positive influence by inspiring, motivating and directing other effectively. To achieve the goals of the organization and their personal goal. Effective leadership is the process by which leaders increase the organizations ability to eliminate barriers and enhance engagements.

Leadership would be a bit more difficult to pin point a definition. Leaders set direction and help themselves and others to do the right thing to move forward. To do this they create an inspiring vision, and then motivate and inspire others to reach that vision. They also manage delivery of the vision, either directly or indirectly, and build and coach their teams to make them ever stronger. Effective leadership is to be able to cultivate these skills and put it to effective use