When discussing leadership theories and styles, the common question arising is – ‘Are leaders born or made?’. Earlier theories such as Trait theories, which are also known as ‘The Great Man Theory’, developed by Carlyle (1841) was born out of the philosophy of Aristotle, who believed that some are born to lead, and others are born to be led (Barr & Dowding, 2016). It is based on the belief that leaders possess exceptional qualities (Barr & Dowding, 2016). The theory attempted to determine which specific traits make a person an effective leader, by concentrating on identifying who were considered ‘great’, with their characteristics or traits as a reason for their success (Ledlow & Coppola,
“Leadership is when someone who leads”, goes along to guide and show the way, or who directs authority over others”(“Leadership”). Leadership is determined by anyone who
Leadership a hard thing to define. There is no one definition that can incorporate every individual 's personal leadership style. Each leader has to decide for him or herself what their approach to leadership will be and how they want to approach it. Some people believe that leadership is an quality that you are born with, I do not believe that is the case. Leadership is a skill that can be not only taught, but continually improved on.
Leadership is not a characteristic or trait with which only a few, certain people are endowed with at birth. If we consider leadership as a process it means that it is a transactional event that happens between leaders and their followers for the purpose of a common goal. Leadership is about directing a group of people toward the accomplishment of a task or the reaching of an endpoint through various ethical based means. Leaders and followers share objectives, meaning that they work together to achieve the shared objectives. For a leadership process to take place the leaders and followers have an ethical responsibility to attend to the needs and concerns of each other in attaining the goals.
According to American Nursing Association, “Leaders do more than delegate, dictate, and direct. Leaders help others achieve their highest potential.” Leadership has been described as “influence, that is, the art or process of influencing people so they may strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals.” (Weihrich and Koontz, 2005) As stated in the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, ‘Qualities of a Good Leader” “The qualities of a good leader includes, having a structural framework, making sound and timely decision.
Leadership has so many different definitions, some more specific than others, but all of them reflect many important aspects of what it means to be a leader. The complexity of defining leadership shows that it is an open practice and it is formed by personal experiences. It is open and personal because it is subject to change from one person to another, it can be built with the time and there is not a magical formula or characteristics to be a perfect leader. Throughout the class, we have seen various concepts developed by some experts about leadership. Many of those definitions can add to each other and help people to build on their personal definition and it can translate to a better exercise of leadership.
Firstly, the trait theory of leadership supports that a leader is borned and not made but there is not a specific and accepted list of characteristics (Kliem, 2004, p.2). A research of Ghiselli (1971 cited in Altman et al. 1985, p.287-288) shows that there are characteristics such as intelligence, the ability to direct others, self-confidence which are the most significant to leaders in relation to other characteristics like power and financial reward. Secondly, the behavioral theory mentions that leadership is learned rather than inborn (Hurd et al, 2008, p.15).
According to this theory, leadership is a social interaction process whose characteristics are determined on the basis of three dimensions: the personality traits of the leader, the elements of the situation, and the requirements and characteristics of the
Effective leadership is seen as major source of management to sustained competitive advantage for organization performance improvement according to (Avolio, 1999; lado, Boyd and Wright, 1992; Rowe, 2001). According to Yukl (1989) most of leadership definition describe it as the idea of guiding followers to their goals while specifically, leadership is hard to understand but easy to perceive human activities. According (Smith, 2000 in Marn 2012) stated that “leadership is the process or activity of influencing an individual or group in effort towards
Unlike great man 's theories, behavioral theories hold that leaders are not born but made: leadership develop from learning either through teaching or observation. Further to participative and management
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Leadership has been a topic of interest to historians and philosophers since ancient times, but scientific studies began only in the twentieth century. Scholars and other writers have offered hundreds of definitions of the term LEADERSHIP, and one authority on the subject has concluded that leadership “is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth”. First reading explains about how Latham found an inability to converge or a universal answer about leadership. There were also notion whether leaders are born or made. Managerial practises, trust and performance is part of leadership which improves team work and organizational performance.
Situational leadership theories Autocratic - this leadership style is one where the manager sets objectives, allocates tasks, and insists on obedience. Therefore the group becomes dependent on him or her. Democratic - democratic leadership style encourages participation in decision making. Democratic leadership style can be persuasive or consultative. Laissez-faire – This leadership style allows employees to carry out activities freely within broad there are few guidelines and directions.
From the late 1940s onwards, the focus of leadership research shifted from leader traits to leader behavior. Researchers were particularly interested in identifying leader behaviors that enhanced the effectiveness of subordinates. With that shift in research, the former common opinion that leaders with the right qualities have to be selected changed into the opinion that, knowing the effective leadership behaviors, leaders can be trained to become successful (Bryman, 1992). Mainly two research groups coined the behavior approach - the Ohio and the Michigan studies. Accordingly, the view that leaders are naturally born is shifted to the notion that leaders can learn and change their behavior to emulate effective leaders (Benson, 2008).
Leadership is an important aspect in our life. It is all started within a basic unit of family which the father held the responsibilities as a leader that lead family towards happiness. Leadership skills also been practiced at the primary school level where there are class monitor or class president who is in charge of the class. The major aspect is for government where a leader is elected or appointed in order to rule the country. Leadership style is classified as the way leaders perform their role and how their action and attitude toward members of the group (Mullin, 1999).
My leadership journal 1) Intro 2) Personality profile/ self assessment 3) Defining moments of leadership from primary school to jc 4) How I changed and can be better 5) What I want to be Introduction Having been through almost 21 years of life and experiences, attended countless of leadership talks and read numerous books on leadership, if there was one word to describe leadership, it is influence.
