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Importance of leadership to a society
Importance of leadership in our society
Examples of leadership traits
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As we all know, leadership is ubiquitous in our daily life. From nation to business, and even in family, leadership indisputably plays the main game. In the business world, as likely or not, leadership, which is the field of subject that most researchers scrutinise, is deemed as the principal vitamin for a robust organisation. Literally, what is the true meaning of leadership? According to the Blackwood Encyclopaedia of Sociology, leadership is depicted as the process of inspiring, directing, coordinating, motivating, and mentoring individuals, and/or organisations (Pitsis, 2007). With respect to leadership, leaders in an organisation have to increase the work productivity of employees so as to bring about improved employee performance. In addition, the term of productivity, which can also be defined as organisational effectiveness, is an efficiency concept that measures how effectively inputs are transformed into outputs in view of the Blackwood Encyclopaedia of Management (2008). Besides, performance outcome is referred to a variety of measures used to assess effectiveness at the individual or organization level in which profit, customer satisfaction and market share are the examples (Cleveland, Performance Outcome, 2008).
By means of theories and skills as part of the knowledge of leadership, this essay will talk about the three successful pioneers in modern management – Virgin’s Richard Branson , General Electric’s Jack Welch , and ABB’s Percy Barnevik . Later on, the essay would be discussing how transactional and transformational leadership do impact on managers and leaders in organisations. In the end, the topic on how leadership can motivate employees ensues, and a new mathematical approach as to employees’ work perform...
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...he Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management .
Davidson, P., Simon, A., Gottschalk, L., Hunt, J., Wood, G., & Griffin, R. W. (2006). Management - Core Concepts and Skills (Australasian Edition). Milton, QLD, Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
De Vries, M. K. (1996). Leaders Who Make a Difference. European Management Journal , 14 (5), 486-493.
Humphreys, J. H., & Einstein, W. O. (2003). Nothing new under the Sun: Transformational Leadership from a Historical Perspective. Journal of Management History , 41 (1/2), 85-96.
Palmer, B., Walls, M., Burgess, Z., & Stough, C. (2001). Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal , 22 (1), 5-10.
Pitsis, T. S. (2007). Leadership. (G. Ritzer, Ed.) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology .
Zaleznik, A. (1992, March-April). Managers and Leaders: Are They Different? 126-135.
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.
Avolio, B. J., & Yammarino, F. J. (Eds.). (2013). Transformational and Charismatic Leadership:: the Road Ahead. Emerald Group Publishing.
All organisations require management and management in turn, require a certain level of leadership abilities. The long-term success of an organisation depends on its ability to take advantage of the competences and knowledge of its employees. In an increasingly competitive environment, organisations must motivate its employees and encourage initiative within the organisation. This new organisational climate requires more than a traditional manager and organisations must find ways to develop leadership skills in order to increase effectiveness and to stay competitive. In any organisation leadership is often argued to be a critical factor for success or failure. It can also be said that a leader can be a manager but a manager is not always necessarily a leader (Gandz, Crossan, Seijts & Reno 2014). It is therefore vital for organisations to recognise traits and techniques that defines a success...
Northouse (2016) offers a Skills Inventory Questionnaire to assess which skills and traits leaders exhibit strengths and weaknesses in. This questionnaire determined I have the most strength in technical skills with a score of 28. This did not come as a surprise to me as I have implemented many technological advances since beginning at my agency 6 years ago and am consistently called upon to solve technological crises. Northouse mentions that leaders with high technological skills are seen as more credible and can offer innovative solutions to problems which I have experienced in my career (2016). In human skills, I scored a 26 which indicates that I am a “people person” (Northouse, 2016). I have always tried to maintain great relationships with my coworkers and colleagues. Although I agree that human skills are
Heifetz, R, & Laurie, D 1997. 'The Work of Leadership', Harvard Business Review, 75, 1, pp. 124-134, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 18 November 2013.
Webster 's Dictionary defines leadership as "the power or ability to lead other people," and a manager as “a person who directs a team and is in charge of a business or department” (Webster, n.d.). Although, these are great definitions this paper will take a deeper look into what leaders and managers are, what leadership means as a visionary, what leadership means as a problem-solver, and what leadership means as a team-builder. Moreover, what are the most interesting aspects gained from our text through the first five weeks and how each aspect will be applied to a work environment.
According to Yoder-Wise (2015), a leader can be defined as, “an individual who works with others to develop a clear vision of the preferred future and to make that vision happen” (p 35). As employees, we often have our own ideal of a good leader, which may be influenced by experiences and perception of workplace norms. While one’s opinion of an effective leader may vary, there are several recognized leadership theories. The following will focus on the transformational leadership approach.
Leadership. Most people think of it as one person who has the loudest voice and leads everyone to a common goal (as seen during a Google image search for “leadership”). Northouse describes a leader as someone who “may have a high profile or a low profile, but in every situation there are leadership demands placed on the individual who is the leader. Being a leader is challenging, exciting, and rewarding, and carries with it many responsibilities (pg. 1).” The common dictionary defines a leader as “the action of leading a group of people or an organization” and a leader as “the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country.” There are many connotations leadership gives off to people and some people may be intimidated by it and may never want to pursue any kind of leadership role. But what those people fail to consider is the reality that you are a leader of your own life. Everyone has the capability to make their own decisions, like attending college, or choosing to have a different belief system than what they have been raised with. For myself, I chose to attend MCLA though I had 6 other options of colleges I could’ve attended. Now that I am here, I have to fend for myself and make my time here worthwhile. MCLA has many
There has been various theories on leadership by leading management scholars attempting to review, explain and define leadership. Cole (1996, p.51) defines leadership as a “dynamic process in a group whereby one individual influences the others to contribute voluntarily to the achievement of group tasks in a given organisation.” He further argued that leadership is not just personality or by accident or appointment but linked with behaviour, clearly a stand against the “great man” philosophy (Cole, G.A., 1996).
In Mayfield’s et al. (2014) research, the ML conceptualization—termed as motivational language—argued that a more versatile strategic leader language repertoire would serve to better engage, motivate, build commitment, and create a shared organizational vision with workers, thus improving firm-level performance and quality of work life. Mayfield et al. (2014) suggests from the theory, a leader articulates a strategic imperative clearly so that employees understand the specifics of what needs to be done—including processes, time frames, and what will be gained as a result of excellent performance—direction-giving language is being applied. Below is a table that shows rapport between MLT and select research in the extensive and well-articulated
Leadership is an act of leading a group of people or an organisation showing direction or a source of inspiration (Hanks 1986). It is a very important role when it comes to business which provides direction of an organisation towards success or failure. Leadership effectiveness depends on what style of leadership is being used. Different leaders take up different leadership styles to lead people or organisations. This essay will be looking at the different leadership styles with focus on the transformational leadership with examples and a critical analysis on impact on employee drive and organisational culture and influences on the business. The four leadership styles that will be discussed in this essay are transformational autocratic, democratic,
Tucker, B. A., & Russell, R. F. (2004). The influence of the transformational leader. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 10(4), 103-111.
Leadership is the ability to inspire confidence, support and trust among the people who need to achieve organizational goals. (Chan & Maubourgne 1992) It invariably requires using power to influence the thoughts and actions of other people in order to create new approaches and imagine new areas to explore. This definition has emphasized on influencing people to achieve set goals. In other words, we can say, the objective of leadership is achieving goals, meanwhile, the application is influencing other people to motivate the energy and stimulate the potential towards the goals.
Leadership is one of the most important facets in organizations. In most cases, leaders act with respect to organizational culture as well as the codes of conduct that determine the manner in which leaders relate with subordinates. Leadership entails the use of effective communication skills to get activities done in the workplace and to ensure that employees shelve their individual interests for the sake of their organizations’ shared targets. It is the role of leaders to ensure that consumers attain high quality products and services by making certain that members of their firms’ workforce are fully motivated to work effectively and utilize resources in an efficient manner (Bass, 22). With the increasingly sophisticated nature of the corporate world, leadership should not be based solely on the desire to control and coordinate affairs within the workplace, but leaders should also exhibit positive examples and continually monitor the changing trends in corporate governance to initiate the most relevant guidelines. Competitiveness can only be attained when leaders are in a position to set the right standards in their firms and coordinate affairs appropriately by understanding consumer and employee needs.
Leadership, without doubt, is a significantly important function of management. It helps to aggrandize efficiency and to fulfil an organization’s goals. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with confidence, determination, courage and zeal. It is also defined as ability to influence a group towards the realization of a goal. Leaders should have the capability of developing future visions, and to drive the organizational members to want to attain the visions. This paper states my points in which I duly believe, justifies the importance of an outstanding leader in any organization.