Floyd english i leadership leadership is taking initiative and following the path less traveled. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be. One hundred people could be asked to give their definition of leadership and most likely one hundred different answers will be received. Leadership is more than just a definition in a dictionary or words on a page leadership is action.

5 sources cited length: 1892 words 5.4 double spaced pages rating: blue price: $26.95 leadership definition there are lots of definitions and interpretations for the term leadership. One is a relationship through which one person influences the behaviour or actions of other people mullins, l.j. Another popular definition would be, the process of influencing an organization or groups within an organization in its efforts towards achieving a goal johnson, scholes whittington, 2005, exploring corporate strategy, 7th edition, ft prentice hall, p.519 leadership theories on behaviour to me, leaders are constantly surrounding us. People constantly need to be led and they seek out individuals around them who have personalities that stand out – the basic qualities of leadership, the great man theory. This could be in terms of their appearance, knowledge, charisma, behaviour or style. For example, popular actors/actresses might not be great leaders but they influence the thoughts of people through advertisements through their appearance and charisma.

Leadership is also a process where trust of people needs to be gained and established before followers are doing things willingly and without having to use pressure. Managers are different in this aspect, as they are given authority/power and trust factor might not be required to actively participate in management, subordinates might not be performing their tasks willingly. We tend to have an assumption that leadership is the mere act of leading people around you. Its definition is not just to lead people but rather to influence people for a desired mission or goal. To define leadership properly or to give its denotative meaning, it is the capability and the capacity to lead people.

The definition might be just simple as that but for me i do think that there is more to leadership than its inner sense of meaning. According to peter drucker 1991 , management is doing things right leadership is doing the right things. Did you know that leadership is not only a task to be done or a responsibility to be fulfilled? it is also a benefit to each and every individual. By benefit, what do i exactly mean? since leadership is a skill, enhancing it leads to the betterment of ones self.

Let us begin with the aspect of physical attributes that will be benefitted and augmented like grooming properly and having good and proper etiquettes. Trait theories of leadership proposed that successful leaders possessed distinctive traits or characteristics that differentiated them from unsuccessful leaders and subordinates. As northouse 2013, p.7 mentions there are common phrases in use in society such as he was born to be a leader or she is a natural leader which suggest that people tend to think good leaders are born and not trained. The concept of leaders having certain characteristics dominated research prior to the second world war. It was thought that individuals could be selected for leadership positions if they showed the appropriate characteristics or alternatively that traits could be taught to leaders furnham, 2005, p.571. Popular books, such as stephen coveys book, the seven habits of highly effective people, propose that certain traits or characteristics can be learned.

Covey 2004, p.46 states that our character, basically, is a composite of our habits. Covey continues saying that habits are consistent, can be learned or unlearned and express an individuals character and how effective or ineffective they are covey, 2004, p.46. Covey suggests that effective people are proactive, have a clarity regarding their life goals, manage themselves, value and respect other people, are empathic and encourage positive teamwork covey, 2004, p.65.

The seventh habit involves taking time to sharpen the saw which covey translates as meaning time to refresh physical, spiritual, psychological and socio emotional dimensions of a persons character covey, 2004, pp.287 288. A number of characteristics and traits related to good leaders have been identified for example, smith and foti 1998, p.147 undertook a study investigating the characteristics of emergent leaders and found that the traits of dominance, intelligence and self efficacy were significantly higher in emergent leaders than other individuals who were not classified as emergent leaders. According to furnham 2005, p.572 , good leaders usually possess characteristics such as persistence, innovation and a willingness to take responsibility for their actions. Yukl 2013, p.146 similarly identifies certain characteristics related to good leaders which include a high tolerance of stress, emotional maturity, personal integrity, motivation and self confidence. However, furnham 2005, p.574 suggests that although there are numerous traits, there appears to be little agreement regarding which characteristics contribute to a leader being effective. According to zaccaro, 2007, p.6 trait theories are not able to explain how leaders characteristics adapt to different situations and contexts and thus a major criticism of trait theories is that they do not consider the wider context of culture, society or the interactions with the characteristics of subordinates zaccaro, 2007, p.7. Examining the characteristics of good leaders implies that leaders innately possess certain personality traits although it could be suggested that some good leaders can learn through experience bryman, collinson, grint, jackson and uhl bien, 2011, p.78.

The notion that good leaders can learn skills through a dynamic learning experience is supported by other researchers for example, rodd 2006, p.13 proposes that practitioners within the early years profession can become leaders through demonstrating increasing competence and by developing the personal skills necessary to become a leader. Daly and byers 2004, p.7 suggest that good leaders will also ensure that employees have the opportunity for training and professional development which in turn may help them to become good leaders. Kolb 1984, p.25 similarly supports the idea of learning leadership skills through experience and suggests that learning involves a constant change of ideas, perspectives and opinions which are not fixed and thoughts are formed and reformed through experience and continually modified by experience.

The importance of having a flexible approach is emphasised by daly and byers 2004, p.187 ensuring that the leader is adaptable and can implement new ideas or procedures when necessary. Even early theorists such as taylor 1911, p.7 argued that good leaders are not born and required systematic training instead of being reliant on some unusual or extraordinary man. It is further argued by zaccaro 2007, p.10 that because being a good leader is complex there is probably an interaction of the leaders characteristics as well as an interaction with the variables present in different situations and contexts.

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Theories such as fiedlers contingency theory fiedler 1967, cited in northouse, 2013, pp.123 125 were developed primarily with leaders in the military and focused on how compatible the characteristics and style of the leader were with a specific situation. Thus, effective leadership is contingent on matching a leaders style to the right setting northouse, 2013, p.123. A problem with both trait theories and contingency theories is that they appear to focus on the characteristics of the leader and do not consider the characteristics of, the interactions with, or the role of, subordinates.

Contingency theory does not explain why some leaders are better in certain situations than other leaders and also how organisations deal with a mismatch between leaders and certain situations northouse, 2013, p.129. Who wrote this essay request removal example essays furnham 2005, p.588 suggests that transactional leadership can be defined as a contract between the leader and a worker where the leader achieves what they want by offering some sort of reward which is desired by the employee. There is typically a limited relationship between the leader as in certain situations for example in the military transactional leadership is necessary as certain actions need to be undertaken without subordinates questioning or debating issues bass and bass, 2008, p.41 bryman et al. 2011, p.55. Transactional leadership does not appear to be concerned with the characteristics of leaders and is more concerned with creating structures and systems which allow the sharing of information bryman et al. 2011, p.61.

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