Exploring Influential Leadership: Power and Empathy

According to Conger (1992), leadership means the action of influencing the subordinates to achieve the desire goals. Leaders are often described as people who have power or authority in the organisation. Power can be derived from several sources and divided into different categories and such as legitimate power which is the power that a leader can obtain as a result of the position that he is holding (Lunenberg, 2012). However, leadership is not all about the position or the authority that the leader has. Kloppenborg (2015) stated that a good leader is someone who has the ability to influence and maintain a good relationship with his followers by developing empathy and trust, and inspiring people that they are leading without controlling or forcing other people to complete the task, as well as knowing the strength of the leader himself and the strengths of his team members.

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Transactional leadership is the form that the subordinates are motivated to meet the desired target through reward and punishment and focuses on maintaining the current standard rather than making changes for better organisational performance. On the other hand, transformational leadership concentrates on organisational development by making changes through collaboration between leader and his followers and encourage individuals to think innovatively and creatively. The transformational leader also considers the needs of his followers and understands the strength of his team members (Odumeru, 2013). With the transformational leadership, trust and confidence could be developed among leader and team members and leader could be seen as role-model by the followers (Bacha, 2013). Hay (2012) further added that this type of leader is also capable of dealing with uncertainties and deliver vision through effective