Great Man Theory Of Leadership

This paper summarizes the article written by Cam Caldwell, Rolf D. Dixon, Larry A. Floyd, Joe Chaudoin, Johnathan Post, and Gaynor Cheokas regarding the need for a new type of leadership in today’s social work environment, defined as Transformative leadership. The article itself varies in the definition, however in a broad sense Transformative leadership is maintaining good moral standing and sound business ethics among employees and individuals inside and outside the workplace. However, in order to reach this theoretical level of business related moral and ethical leadership known as

Throughout time, many books and papers have been written to study the birthplace of leadership failure, its causes, results, and ultimately, the best way to oversea these situations to avoid future failures. Some leadership experts, may argue that the best way to learn how to lead, is to study successful leadership outcomes and more importantly, how former miscalculations were committed and as a result, what gran plan was used that resulted in the leaders turnaround success. To be a great leader, the individual has to be cognate of what elements, including external and internal impact, resulted in their failure, as well as, how to avoid leadership oversight in the future. In this paper, I will attempt to do just that, as I will incorporate the transactional and transformational leadership theory from this course and apply them to the leadership failures of one of the most entertaining leadership failures of all time: the DeLorean Motor Company.

Transformation is a period of growth, brought about through reflection and expansion of knowledge, awareness, and self-improvement. With each metamorphosis, an individual absorbs and cultivates new skills and understanding. This enlightened state enhances the ability of a leader and the quality of their leadership. According to Ciulla (2004) “Transforming leaders raise their followers up through various stages of morality and need. They turn their followers into leaders and the leader becomes a moral agent” (p. 15). Thus, the benefits from a transformation extend beyond the leader to influence organizational members as well.

There are many models of leadership that exist across a range of fields (e.g. social work, education, psychology, business, etc.). The ability to transform an organization successfully requires a different set of attitudes and skills. Transformational leadership is an approach where a leader utilizes inspiration, charisma, individualized attention, and intellectual stimulation with their employees (Iachini, Cross, & Freedman, 2015, p. 651). Transformational leadership helps to clarify organizational vision, inspires employees to attain objectives, empowers employees, encourages employees to take risks, and advocates the seeking of alternative solutions to challenges in the workplace (Transformational Leadership, 2015). It allows the leader to engage and motivate each follower identify with the organization’s values and goals.

Describe the role of leadership types within teams. What are some of the primary reasons teams fail? What can be done to ensure team success? Give a personal example of team success. Support your discussion with appropriate leadership theories that apply.

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.

Albion, M. J., & Gagliardi, R. E. (2007). A study of transformational leadership, organizational change and job satisfaction. Retrieved from http://eprints.usq.edu.au/3098/1/Albion_Gagliardi.pdf

Transformational leaders poses a variety of skills that “motivates followers to do more than expected, by (a) raising followers’ levels of consciousness about the importance and value of specified and idealized goals, (b) getting followers to transcend their own self-interest for the sake of the team or organization, and (c) moving followers to address higher level needs” (Northouse, 2013, p. 190). Besides having specific skills to motivate followers, transformational leaders possess dominant personalities, have a desire to influence others, are self-confident, have high moral values and exhibit charismatic behavior (Northouse, 2013).

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.

Transformational leadership is something I have experienced as both an employee and manager. So I relate to this style and I recognize the possibilities within. However, this style of leadership is not easy in today’s workplace. This is especially true when you try to be positive to employees who display negative attitudes all the time. So this can be challenging for some managers. In this paper, I will talk about transformational leadership as part of the future of management. I will try to elaborate more on why not every manager can be transformational. Yet, I do believe and support this style of management. I believe it can be learned, but I also believe it is not born within us. Transformational leadership is ideal for management today

Research on management and leadership in organizations over the past century shows there are still no clear definitions or answers about what counts as effective and successful leadership; the field remains varied and argued. Actual studies of leadership began in the early twentieth century. The research and studies on leadership have resulted in defining what characters, traits and attitudes are considered to be significant for leaders to possess. The early studies of leadership theories focused on the person and their behaviors, currently known as leadership trait theories and behavioral theories. It is important for organizational leaders and managers to understand what characteristics, traits and actions of an individual mark a great leader when forming a strong diverse workforce.

Since transformational leadership is such a powerful force for change, history has seen its fair share of transformational leaders. Leaders in sports, politics, religion and business have used the transformational style to implement their visions and change the structures around them. Examining these leaders can help understand the frameworks and characteristics of this leadership style in detail.

As a leader and a manager, I continued to read a lot of articles on transformational leadership. I subjected myself to taking a lot of questionnaires on leadership prepared by popular leaders such as Blanchard, Gladwell, Maxwell, Burns, Riggio and Bass.

As pointed out by Keskes I. (2014), fundamentally, the empirical and meta-analytic studies suggest that subordinates working with transformational leaders are more committed to their organizations and demonstrate fewer withdrawal behaviours (Bono & Judge, 2003). Besides, Bass and Avolio (2004) maintain that transformational leaders perceive the strategic goals of the organization. They argue that transformational leaders are more sensitive to their environment and thus formulate and disseminate strategic goals that capture both the attention and the interest of their followers. Besides, managers who have a transformational leadership style will focus on the big picture of the organization and try to encourage the employees to have the same

Being able to lead a group or someone is a very powerful action. Being a leader in general is very powerful. Leadership is an art that is painted, sculpted, and displayed in all sorts of ways. There are many different styles of leadership that correspond with different tasks. From transformational leadership to laissez-faire leadership, there are various styles throughout the continuum. A transformational leader is one of the best, more successful leadership style. When going down the continuum, the leadership styles only become less effective. Everyone also falls in distinctive categories when it comes to leading others. The leadership style that is displayed depends on the person leading and those who are being led along with the task.