Great Man Theory

Introduction Leadership can be traced back to many ideologies over the history of time. There have been individuals that have achieved great success and accomplishments through inspiring others to believe and follow their leadership. This paper will explain some of the theories that philosophically explain how those great people inspired others to believe in their vision and goals. Great Man Theory

The Great Man Theory was a further developed and explained my historian Thomas Carlyle. This theory suggests that great men are a born and not developed. Their ability to galvanize and motivate others is based on their charismatic persona that often rises up from occasions or situations. This theory in the early 19th century became popular mostly

Is based on perception and how people perceive a leader and how well the person is able to communicate and inspire others will greatly affect how successful they can become. For example, a principal in a school has to have a certain amount of charisma, being able to communicate to the staff, parents, and student to about the vision of school. Much like a politician, the principal has to exude confidence in their vision but also must open up to others so that can align themselves with their followers. The principal can reward their followers by mentoring, training, and sharing leadership roles so that their followers can grow and becomes administrators

This method implies that leaders and follower have combine motives that can be beneficial to both parties. When theses task are assigned, there is a designed reward or punishment for the followers. This method of leadership can also be associated with managing in a sense. Transactional leadership in a sense is like management in that it does not look to inspire or promote change, it is in fact more about ensuring a particular process, and procedure meets the desired results.

The style of leadership is very task orientated. Therefore, it would be easy to establish goals and quotas for followers to target in order to achieve higher levels of pay, promotions, or incentives. For example, a restaurant manager may design a contest in his or her restaurant that can reward the highest seller a bonus. This type of leadership has many avenues to inspire employees by rewarding them. Equally, with rewards however, they can come with punishment. Leaders are able to have measurable result that can also have consequences.

This style of leadership offers the leader an opportunity for growth, often leaders can become process driven and lose focus on how to relate with their employees. Using transactional method keeps that line of communication open and demand a hand on approach by leadership.

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