What Is My Direct Boss Whom We Will Call Chris

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.

Leadership is the elaboration of group inspiration. One person entrusted as leader can implore the aid, and support of supporters in the accomplishment of a common mission. According to Gurdjian, Halbeisen, and Lane “Becoming a more effective leader often requires changing behavior. But although most companies recognize that this also means adjusting underlying mind-sets, too often these organizations are reluctant to address the root causes of why leaders act the way they do” (Gurdjian, Halbeisen, and Lane, 2014) However, today abundant businesses engross importance on the improvement of leaders. Some of the ultimate leaders were formerly followers, such as in instructive businesses. One aspect as leaders many have to contemplate in striving

Businesses also have a variety of different leaders controlling the organization. Some executives attain a high-level position, placing them in a leadership role. However, there are many leadership positions that do not actually “lead” a team. A leader does not decide to be a leader overnight. A leader possesses a particular set of qualities and

In Kouzers and Posner’s view, leadership is to mobilize others to get extraordinary things done; and it is not about personality but it’s about behavior.

Leadership is a term that cannot be defined or simplified with a standard definition (Bethel, 2011). The term’s complexity is a phenomenon, as it carries a different meaning for each person. During the

Leadership is something that comes natural for some and is a developed skill for others. If we take a look at the role of the leader, we look for certain traits in a person. For example, in grade school, there always seems to be clicks, large and small groups of people that cling together. When we examine these social sub-groups, we often find that there is always one person that leads the group. This person is usually the person that brings the group together. I remember being in social circles with people that I knew I would never be friends with. However, we may have one or two people in common, thus we remain friends. Overtime, we

Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”...

What is leadership? How does people perceive leadership in their everyday Life? Can we still today, in a world oriented more an more towards individualism and commitment to achievement of personal goals, talk about leadership?

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks: CA: Sage Publications.

There has been vast amounts of research done on the topic of leadership, and yet despite this it continues to be ‘‘riddled with paradoxes, inconsistencies, and contradictions’’

Leadership has been studied extensively and many varying definitions exist. Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy (2015, p.4) review many of these definitions and consequently describe leadership as ‘the process of influencing an organised group towards its goals’. Leadership involves the interplay of a range of different factors, not least the leader themselves, the followers and the situation. For

Leadership is a commodity that is highly valued and highly desired. It can be described both as a trait and as a process. As a trait it has been viewed as a property or a set of possessed character traits by various people in varying levels, limiting leadership to those who are trusted to have unique talents that are inherent and natural. The process context view leadership as a phenomenon that provides a relationship linking leaders and followers availing leadership to everyone (Northouse, 2010).

Everyday humans experience the driving force of leadership as leaders exist everywhere within our society. Leaders help convey global messages, they help unite followers under a common purpose and motivate the public to get involved. Leadership, whether it be in a social setting or within the workforce is often a sought after role, so much so that “for decades, hundreds of leadership scholars have attempted to define the term, postulate theories, conduct research, and write about the topic…”(Komives, Lucas, McMahon, T. (2006). Exploring Leadership), all in hopes of discovering how to become a better leader. Through taking Leadership Studies I have been able to more closely identify the leadership traits within myself, as well as use my knowledge of my own self-identification to better enact my leadership style amongst those around me.

Leadership is fundamentally important to human society, Van Vugt, Hogan and Kaiser (2008) suggest it may even act as an evolutionary purpose to survival. Studies have shown effective leadership can have a vast impact on performance, examples include the likes of Steve Jobs, CEO of electronic communications and computing company ‘Apple’, who played a vital role in the organisations rise to domination of the modern world of technology. (Isaacson, 2011). In a political sense leadership governs our day to day life, leadership can be seen in all contexts, from sports, to education and work and corporate environments. Not only do encounter leadership we also, to some degree, we inhabit leadership roles ourselves. Since leadership is such a crucial part of our being, psychologists have become fascinated with ‘what makes a leader?’ and which specific qualities they exert which provides such influence over followers. This essay aims to understand and define the term leadership, exploring the many conflicting theories surrounding this province. In addition it will investigate what creates effective leadership, recognising the concepts which attempt to identify the classic characteristics of successful leaders. Further it will provide an evaluation of these theories including valuable examples of some of the most renowned leaders of world.

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)