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Leadership power and influence essay
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Leadership theories essay
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Leadership Theories
Comparison and Contrast
Melissa A. Swinson
Barry University
Abstract
This paper will identify different leadership theories that have I have felt have been most helpful as well as least helpful in relating to leadership insights. There is a wide variety of theories to explain the concepts and practice of leadership. I will provide an overview of the more dominant or better known theories. Leadership is a process that involves influence with a group of people toward the realization of goals as well as a dynamic and complex process. A lot of what is written today tends to over-simplify the process. My explanation here is to provide an overview that keeps things simple through my analysis of comparing and contrasting
Certain inherited qualities, which are personality and cognitive ability, are what motivate effective leadership (Wolinski, 2010). It is based on the characteristics of a lot of leaders who are successful as well as unsuccessful. It is used to forecast leadership effectiveness. The results are then compared to those of possible leaders to access their probability of success or failure. Successful leaders unquestionably have interests, abilities, and personality traits that are unlike those of the less effective leaders (Trait Theory of Leadership, 2016). Some of the core traits that are identified are: drive, motivation, honesty and integrity, and
L. (n.d.). The Leadership Experience.
Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. (2010-2016). Leadership-central.com. Retrieved from http://www.leadership-central.com/situational-leadership-theory.html#axzz3yCb7JmyY http://managementhelp.org/blogs/leadership/2010/04/21/leadership-theories/. (n.d.).
Johnston, K. (n.d.). Skills-Based Leadership Theory. Retrieved from http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/skillsbased-leadership-theory-16338.html
Last Name, F. M. (Year). Article Title. Journal Title, Pages From - To.
Last Name, F. M. (Year). Book Title. City Name: Publisher Name.
Trait Theory of Leadership. (2016). Retrieved from MSG Management Study Guide: http://managementstudyguide.com/trait-theory-of-leadership.htm
Transformational Leadership Theory. (2016). Retrieved from MSG Management Study Guide: http://managementstudyguide.com/transformational-leadership.htm
Wolinski, S. (2010, April 21). Retrieved from
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
Before you can summarize the concepts related to leadership theory, you have to define what leadership is. Leadership is a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task or goals. The fundamental concept of leadership is indirection. In any organization, the leader indirectly impacts the performance of the organization through the performance of individual team members. To make that impact, the leader takes on the role of the coach, and the inspiratory. As the coach, the leader improves the performer's skills. As the inspiratory, the leader inspires the passion required for optimal performance. A good leader can make decisions with a clear mind and will listen to theirs but can run through every consequence and possibility in their head. They take every angle and come out with the best answer for the majority of the people or situations it effects. And will not let their emotions be shut off but will have feeling where it is needed.
Leadership is a quality which cannot be acquired by any person from the other but it can be acquired by self-determination of a person. Leadership can best be called the personality of the very highest ability-whether in ruling, thinking, imagining, innovation, warring, or religious influencing. Leadership is practiced not so much in words a it is in attitude and in actions. Their actions leave a long lasting memory in the line of history and lead up to may events that occur today. To be a leader one will need many qualities. Leaders have a purpose and strategies to accomplish that purpose. They are driven and motivated. In the end they should be able to attain good results. These innate talents help to make up a leader that will succeed and be efficient in carrying out tasks. But, the purpose of this paper is determine what truly makes a leader successful. A successful leader should be considered more on their impact rather than their accomplishments of their organizations alone for they are not sufficient in determining the key to their success .
My impression of leadership is the ability to motivate, inspire, set a visualization, connect, and lead by example. To become a successful leader you have to be able to convince your followers that you are trustworthy of being followed. During this semester, we have learned many, if not all of the major leadership theories and how they play a role in our everyday lives. But personally, a few of these leadership models caught me and intrigued me the whole semester so much that this paper is going to predominately be referenced about them. For example, the proposed framework that organizes leadership theories based on each theory 's focus and approach. Focus is referred to as whether or not leadership is viewed as a set of traits or actions.
Looking at a simple definition of each terminology, then we will know each force behind all leadership theories. To better understand the fundamental principles preceding leadership philosophy, we have to understand the theory of leadership development and its essential characteristics. Hence, some of the leadership theories are explained in this paper.
1. Leadership is not only a talent. It is also a science that it can be taught, 2. Mobilizing others is the key world of leadership theory. Inspiration is the basic tool that a leader can use, 3. Leadership is not dictatorship. It is a common effort that aims to a common goal, 4. ethics is a significant issue in leadership theory, 5. leadership is interesting to the feelings of the employees who work in a project. People are not numbers but personalities with particular characteristics and wishes, 6. a leader does not need types to be respected by the employees. He gains them with his personality and they follow him because they agree with his recommendations and they trust him.
The leadership is a result of a combination of traits, with special emphasis on the personal qualities of the leader, which he should possess certain personality traits that would be special facilitators in leadership performance. This theory shows that leaders are born as such, there is no likelihood of 'making' them later with personal development techniques.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
There are different leadership theories developed throughout the history. Most popular ones are trait theories, behavioral theories, contingency theories, and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory. The author of the post will briefly discuss two theories, Fiedler contingency theory and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), and compare and contrast their strengths and weakness.
As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.
Traits of a good leader are trustworthiness, respectfulness, honesty, and be stern. When you have leaders that take their role seriously, you can form a backbone to an organization that cannot be broken. You have born leaders and you have trained leaders. Martin Luther King was a natural born leader for the Civil Rights movement. King saw there was something that needed to be changed and he took the steps to change the world.
The trait leadership theories assume that people inherit certain abilities and traits that make them better suited for leadership than others (Stroup, 2004). The trait theories originated from an earlier impression called the “great man” theories pop...
The most important quality that differentiates a leader from other people is the ability to think strategically. Vision is the most important aspect that drives a leader’s strategy. It is all about where you want to be. Other qualities include Decision making, problem solving, time management, self-motivation, emotional intelligence and many more. Once we know the type of leadership, it is easy to find what leadership skills we have and which we need to develop which is explained in the book “Leadership: Theory, application, skill development (5th ed.) by Lussier and Achua.” Also, Keirsey Style Sorter personality type helps to knowing our temperament type, and work on our weakness and to emerge out as a good leader.
Trait theories are theories that consider personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate leaders from nonleaders." Early results aimed at confirming this theory were inconclusive. Many research studies were conducted and each identified key traits supposed to differentiate leaders from nonleaders. The problem is that they didn't get the same results, thus failing to discover common traits, which should have shown in each research study. When applying the Big Five Personality framework (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience) to the study and research of leadership traits, results were more encouraging. They showed that the most important trait for leaders was extraversion. Still, this founding sh...
Another aspect of leadership includes leadership traits such as being influential and inspirational. There also different contexts of leadership, e.g, leading oneself, leading other individuals, leading groups, leading organizations. Some traits that are often associated with being an effective leader include a measure of intelligence, high energy, self confidence, dominance, and a need for achievement. An effective, charismatic leader must lead by example. That leader must be able to know what is going on, the job or task that is being accomplished, and be able to lead the group into performing the task at hand successfully.