Leadership is a function of input an individual can make into the community’s capacity for concerted action, into the total power of the community in relation to the problems and opportunities it encounters (Breton, 1991). The notion of leadership is very often linked to the issue of power and influence. (Jedwab) Ethical leadership Aristotle’s philosophy of leadership argues that "Leadership is more than a skill, more than the knowledge of theories, and more than analytical faculties. It is the ability to act purposively and ethically as the situation requires on the basis of the knowledge of universals, experience, perception, and intuition. It is about understanding the world in a richer and broader sense, neither with cold objectivity …show more content…
Styles of leadership: Trait theory of Leadership 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: Integrity Masculinity Dominance Determination Extroversion Self-confidence These traits among many, while not totally responsible for an individual 's success as a leader, are influential in the success of the leader. The leader should not only possess a certain set of traits, the leader should exhibit a certain set of traits in order to be an effective leader.(Roberts). Trait leadership works well for organisations with managers in leadership positions that have specific traits. …show more content…
This opens the floodgates to leadership development, as opposed to simple psychometric assessment that sorts those with leadership potential from those who will never have the chance.” This theory does not seek inborn traits or capabilities; rather they look at what leaders actually do.(Changing minds). Behavioural theory suggests that leadership requires a strong personality with a well-developed positive ego; self-confidence is essential.(Boundless,
In my opinion, the trait approach is the defining leadership from the objective perspective rather than a physical or technical glance. It is the study of consistent patterns in thought, emotion, and behavior of an individual that are linked to effective leadership across various situations. Northouse’s five leadership traits are intelligence, integrity, sociability, determination and self-confidence. The trait approach provides a foundation to what a leader should look like due to it being backed back a century of research; however, there is no definite list of traits or take into account situational traits.
Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Another popular definition of Leadership is — a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. The word “leadership” has been used in at least three different ways. Occasionally it refers to a position within an organization,
In chapter one, the concept and definition of leadership was introduced and according to the text, more than one hundred definitions of leadership have been identified by scholars and academic studies. What is clear is that leadership requires certain skills and traits of an individual that give them the ability to influence others in a way that motivates them to work toward and accomplish a common objective and goal effectively. While most traits seem to be somewhat inborn and natural to most leaders, it is true that others can be taught and develop the skills over time.
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.
Leadership is a fluent philosophy with definitions as unique as the individuals developing the descriptions. However, a majority of researchers, philosophers, and students agree leadership is “the relationship between an individual (leader) and a group (followers) where the individual guides and influences the group toward a common goal” (Estep, 2016a, p. 4; Keskes, 2014). Hence, great leaders need to be forward thinkers who lead by example and communicate the mission and vision to the followers, so personnel understands the path of ...
Leadership can be defined as the method in which one influences a group of individuals for a common goal. There have many great leaders in the world but these leaders are not born leaders. One must have willpower and the desire to become an effective leader. These leaders become dependent upon based upon their abilities and their success. A leader is looked upon for guidance and the inspiration to know what the right thing to do is. The theoretical foundations of the research of leadership are firmly supported. To better understand the foundations and understand the focus of leadership, it is essential to have knowledge of the history of leadership, the meaning and concept of leadership, types of leaders and leadership styles, and issues in leadership such as issues with culture and gender. According to Antonakis (2004), “leadership researchers have struggled for most of the last century to put together an integrated, theoretically cohesive view of the nature of leadership, invariably leading to disappointment in those who studied it” (p.4). An overview of the history of leadership is necessary to understand the concept of leadership because it also provides a framework for other areas of leadership. In any conventional group, individuals fill different role and one of those roles must the leader which is essential for the group to achieve it purposes.
The basic premise behind trait theory was that are leaders born or made. Leaders trait research examined the physical, social as well as mental aspect of a individual. In general these studies simply look for significant associations between individual traits and measure of leadership effectiveness. The initial result was that leader trait was that there were no universal traits that consistently separate effective leaders from other individual but in final result explain that that early research considered the impact of situation variables that might moderate the relationship between leader trait and measure of leader effectiveness. Therefore due to lack of consistent findings l individual traits to leadership effectiveness, studies of leader traits were largely abandoned in 1950. Contingency approach is also an important approach in leader subject, this approach was first to specify how situational factor interact with leader traits and behavioral which influence leadership quality and its effectiveness of a person. According to theory leader should make contact with subordinates goal attainment, strengthen subordinates ' expectancies that improved performance will lead to valued rewards, and provide coaching to make the path to payoffs easier for subordinates. Path-goal theory suggests that the leader behavior that will accomplish these tasks depends upon the subordinate and environmental contingency factors. But this approach has not been successful as it has been criticize on both theatrically and method approach However, it remains one of the better-known theories of leadership and offers important in stories of the interaction between subordinate and
Sometimes leaders are glorified and other times they are criticized or taken for granted; whatever the case, leaders obviously play a vital role in the success or failure of any group, organization, city, state, or country. Unfortunately, leadership does not have a one-size-fits-all definition, but it clearly demands self-awareness, self-regulation, and sometimes, self-sacrifice. Leaders are both born and made. Some capabilities are inherited and others are learned through personal and professional experiences. It is important to remember that through all the research and differing perspectives, one common theme remains, true leadership is an influential process that constantly moves an individual or group forward. Leadership is not just a title or role placed upon us; a leader’s capabilities consists of passion, motivation, skills, traits, qualities, experiences, and choices that help improve the lives of the people around them.
This is the first approach that was developed to structure the process of leadership around skills that can be learned and developed- suggesting that leadership is not an innate ability but can be nurtured and developed. It incorporates a wide variety of components that capture many of the intricacies and complexities of leadership not found in other models .
Trait leadership is the foundation of great leadership, but because the theory was based on having the traits. The theory of trait leadership states that if a person/manager does not have all of them, then they do not apply it to their leadership skills. The qualities that define a leader or manager have all the characters, but they were supposed to already have the characteristics when being appointed a higher position. These certain qualities are drive, desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, intelligence, job-relevant knowledge and extraversion (Robbins, Decenzo& Coulter, 2015). The seven traits can be learned but from the theory the person must have inherited them from their family or just knew them already. “The search for specific traits in leaders has never yielded a list that can be used”, but there are certain traits that are common in many effective leaders (Taylor, 1994). One of the common traits is drive or motivation can make an impact on the environment around them. When a manager has motivated the people around them are also motivated. With no drive a manager will get nothing done and they would not care
The Trait Leadership theory states that leaders are born rather than made and that certain attributes of leaders are primarily the cause of their success (Northouse, 1997). Hersey an...
Leadership has been described as a “complex process having multiple dimensions” (Northouse, 2013). Over the past 60 years, scholars and practitioners have introduced a vast amount of leadership models and theories to explain this complex field and examine its many perspectives. Numerous leadership theories and models have attempted to define what makes a leader effective. From the early 1900s, the trait paradigm dominated leadership literature, focusing on inherited traits of leaders and suggesting that “leaders are born, not made”. However, during the 1950s, the trait approach lost enthusiasm as focus shifted to the behavior of leaders. Similar to the trait theory, the behavioral paradigm was based on general effective leadership behaviors
Trait theory: In this theory we can know what types of person makes a good leader. A good leader has some kinds of characteristics which makes them a good leader. Those characteristics are:
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...
After understanding the theory behind both the trait and skill approach, I was eager to evaluate and reflect on my own leadership traits. It was interesting to see how the trait approach allowed me to better understand whether or not I have certain traits considered to be important for leadership, while skills approach allowed me to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses in the technical, human and conceptual skills. From completing the Leadership Trait Questionnaire (LTQ) and the Skills Inventory, I was able to reflect more on how I behave towards others in a leadership context, as well as the skills that I currently possess. As a naturally extroverted person, I have been taking on leadership roles from a young age. The findings from these two