“Leadership is about vision, about people buying in, about empowerment and, most of all, about producing useful change. Leadership is not about attributes, it’s about behavior”. (Kotter, P. 2013 et al). A leader has a vision, a leader can influence people and make them a part of the vision. A leader is relational and those relationships are what allows them to lead effectively. They are communicators and visionaries they can make people see what they see. A manager, simply manages those things that they are responsible for, they are not necessarily communicators and they likely are not able to influence in the way that a leader does, management can often be learned they are task masters.
There are people like Martin Luther King, Ghandi that
…show more content…
This type of leader is well organized and has vison and determination. The Path Goal Theory” best describes the type of leadership that I closely relate to. Path Goal greatest strength is motivational. In my personal life, professional life and my volunteer life, this is the trait that I use the most. The reason for this is, I know that motivation can go a long way. You Are encouraging others to believe in themselves and their abilities. Once you do that, you will a person that will walk in his or her purpose or strengths. Thus, helping you to achieve the goals that you have set out to accomplish without doing all the work yourself. The strength of this type of leadership is; it allows the leader to look at what is important to the subordinates as well, it defines the task in a clear manor so that the goal the is desired has a clear path to be reached. The negatives to this type of leadership is; it places a lot of the onus on the leader, thus can cause its employees to become dependent upon them. The evaluation in a large organization can be hard to analyze as you are motivating individuals individually in what they need to
The real person who has made an impact on not only myself, but a great deal of people in the community over quite a few years is Ms. Barbara Neiman of Brockton Avenue Elementary School. Working in different fields over the course of her life, Ms. Neiman has had to convert to various styles of leadership. Since she has had to alter the ways in which she leads, I selected pieces from three different practices that I believe best fit her: The Path-Goal Theory, Servant Leadership, and a little bit from the Behavioral Approach.
Leadership is the ability to influence employees to voluntarily pursue organizational goals. Leadership is vision, enthusiasm, love, trust, passion and consistency. Management is to pursue organizational goals efficiently and effectively by integrating the work of people through planning, organizing, leading, and controlling organizations resources. Leadership and management are not the same. They are not interchangeable. Leadership is coping with change and management is coping with complexity (Williams 444).
Leadership is a complex process with many different approaches. This is a summary of the leadership literature including the pros and cons of each approach. The trait approach implies successful leaders are born with those traits. This theory focuses on identifying certain traits that make people great leaders. Some of the major leadership traits identified in the trait approach are intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, and social ability. There are many advantages to the trait approach. “First, it is intuitively appealing because it fits clearly into the popular idea that leaders are special people who are out front, leading ...
Path-goal approach to leadership by House (1971) mentions that the roles of a leader involve primarily increasing individual rewards of followers to gain goal fulfillment and make the path to rewards seamless by clarifying, removing roadblocks and increasing followers opportunities for satisfaction (Dessler & Valenzi, 1977). The theory, which primarily feeds off motivation, has conquered as an acceptably rational explanation for an individual decision-making process. The days when organizations were able to function and prosper based on their product, service, or structural innovations are no longer sufficient to keep them afloat. Nowadays, companies are required to pay extra attention to the leadership process that makes things happen.
An effective leader is a person who is capable of making others follow him. A person who leads people becomes a leader. The quality of life of followers depends upon the quality of leader they have, so, it becomes important for a leader to be effective. Leaders possess certain traits that can be defined as relatively coherent and integrated patterns of personal characteristics, reflecting a range of individual differe...
The trait theory of leadership is the idea that people are born with certain character traits. This is the style that is attributed to a leader who others see as “a born leader”, it gives more credence to the qualities a person is born with rather than what they develop or the relationships they develop with followers, hence trait leadership focuses on the leader and not the followers or the situation. This theory assumes that if you could identify people with the correct traits, you will be able to identify leaders.(Roberts). Good leadership traits include:
After completing the “Leadership Style Questionnaire” and analyzing my results, I have learned what my preferred leadership style is and how that influences how I lead and may be perceived from members of the group. From the results attained from the questionnaire, my preferred style of leadership is directing. This type of leadership style is best for individuals who have a low competency and high commitment level. These types of leaders are highly focused on tasks and less focused on relationships. They make decisions without consulting with the group and communicate without regarding the group’s concerns or suggestions. This type of leader also supervises the followers intently. They are very successful in creating objectives for each follower and the group as a whole to guide the group in reaching a certain goal.
Presently many of us have learned that managers are primarily administrators who have learned to write business plans, utilize their resources and keep track of progress. We must learn that we are not limited by job title, and that means we can utilize our management skills in any position that we are in. We must also know that we can use our leadership skills in the same situations. On the other hand we have also learned that leaders are people who have an impact on those that surround them. The main difference that separates these two roles is that management is a function that must be utilized in any type of business, and leadership is the relationship that the leader has with his followers, which in turn can motivate and energize the organization.
For example, under this theory the leader would employ High Directive/High Support leadership behaviors to the Disillusioned Learner. Ideally, the leader helps the followers as they progress through the stages to achieve the Self-Reliant Achiever/Delegating level. While I do not necessarily fully subscribe to the theory, it does seem to have merit and I do believe that it is important for an effective leader to have the capability and flexibility to adapt his or her style to the needs of the followers in order to encourage everyone’s success. I also believe that an effective leader plays a significant role in promoting and molding individuals’ readiness as it relates to motivation and commitment. As such, I developed my leadership assessment with these points in mind. The assessment focuses on 14 attributes that I believe are important not only for a leader to be successful within the parameters of the SLT, but...
Path-goal theory deals with the leader's style to motivate followers, to accomplish set goals (Northouse, 2010). The path-goal theory is simply the implication that a leader works with an individual to establish a goal. The leader does this by individual motivation to achieve the proposed goal, while working through obstacles that may hinder achieving that goal (Whitener, 2007). The basic assumption of path-goal theory is that the following motivates subordinates: the capability to perform the work, their efforts will result in a certain outcome, and the payoff will be worthwhile (Whitener, 2007). The path-goal theory is a pragmatic approach that the leader uses to motivate the followers to achieve the set goals.
The process of their working is different but sometimes they work together. Managers are maintaining the organization structure and status. On the other hand leaders are setting goal, direction, find new ways and challenging. Manager’s activities depend on human, time, money and equipment included decision making, problem solving, planning, budgeting, controlling, discipline etc. Leader’s activities depending and leading on inspiring and empowerment included inspiration, motivation, team work, make relationships, teaching and couching etc.
Over the years, a number of theoretical models have been produced each trying to understand when and how leadership is effective. The trait approach is one of the early content theories, focusing on “what” and affective leader is, not on ‘how’ to effectively lead. This approach assumes that certain physical, social and personal characteristics are inherent i...
The method of leadership is almost as similar as management, and a leader can be a manager. “Both management and leadership are seen as positions of responsibility or accountability in an organization” (Edwards, Schedlitzki, Turnbull, & Gill, 2015). Leadership and management can relate and overlap within the roles and functions and are similar within one another in meaning. Together leadership and management direct the actions of a group or individually.
Leadership and management are two words that are commonly mistaken; the relation and the differences between them are often unclear. Leadership can be defined as the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or a set of goals." Managers are there to plan, organize, lead and monitor employees' activities. Leaders also have to be able to guide an organization through change. As we will see later, vision is a crucial component in the success of this task.
What is the difference between management and leadership? It is a compelling question that is often asked and also answered in many different ways. Management and leadership are very different skills. The key difference between managers and leaders can be identified in the way they motivate the people who work or follow them. Managers have subordinates, utilize an authoritarian / transactional style, are work focused, and seek comfort. Leaders have followers, utilize a charismatic / transformational style, are people focused, and seek risk.