Northouse's Definition Of Leadership In The US

Leadership is a word that has numerous meanings and definitions. People in the United States define the word leadership differently based off of what they think, what they were told, or what they have experienced throughout their lifetime. Leadership can be doing something as small as holding a door open for someone behind you, or picking up pieces of paper that someone dropped while they were walking. Or it can be as complex as being the CEO of an multi million-dollar cooperation, or being a doctor in an operating room. Leadership can be as small or as complex as you make it, some things are learned/taught while other things are just natural. Before learning what leadership was, I thought that people were born leaders and had a natural

He says leadership as a trait, is natural and you’re born with it. “A trait is a distinguishing quality of an individual, which is often inherited” (Northouse, 2015, p. 3). While on the other hand, he says leadership as an ability and skill, could potentially be learned throughout someone’s lifetime. “A person who has leadership ability is able to be a leader-that is, has the capacity to lead. While the term ability frequently refers to a natural capacity, ability can be acquired” (Northouse, 2015, p. 4). Although those three are really good ways to define a leadership, relationship is also a good way to identify leaders from

For chapter 1 of the Northouse Introduction to Leadership questionnaire, my highest score was process emphasis while my lowest score was trait emphasis. I agree with both of these scores because as I think about my leadership roles, I focus a lot on the process of how to get a job done. I also agree with the process score because I believe in having a relationship with my followers and allowing them to have input in situations. I agree with the trait score because I don’t completely believe that you have to have certain traits to be an effective