Leadership

Leadership is an act of making an impact on others in the desired direction.

Leadership is a subject has long excited interest among people.  The term connotes images of powerful dynamic individuals who command victorious armies, direct corporate empires from atop gleaming skyscrapers, or shape the course of nations. The exploits of brave and clever leaders are the essence of many legends and myths. Much of our description of history is the story of military, political, religious, and social leaders who are credited or blamed for important historical events, even though we do not understand very well how the events were caused or how much influence the leader really had.  The widespread fascination with leadership may be because it is such a mysterious process, as well as one that touches everyone’s life.  Why did certain leaders (e.g., Gandhi, Mohammed,) inspire such intense fervor and dedication’ How did certain leaders (e.g., Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great) build great empires? Why did some rather undistinguished people (e.g., Adolf Hitler,

 The term leadership is a word taken from the common vocabulary and incorporated into the technical vocabulary of a scientific discipline without being precisely redefined.  As a consequence, it carries ex1raneous connotations that create ambiguity of meaning Additional confusion is caused by the use of other imprecise  terms such as power, authority, management, administration, control and supervision.

Definitions

Leadership is “the behavior of an individual,   directing the activities of a group toward a

shared goal – (Hemphill & Coons, 1957,)

Leadership is “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization.  .” (House et aI”  1999, pg. 184)

To drive value creation, inspire our people to congruently deliver it, and create a work environment that supports its perpetual delivery, we must evolve ourselves as intelligent, competent leaders. And, since each of us has different facets to our character and skill and how we are currently affecting others, we must discover our ideal Leadership Identity to master leadership with the resources we have. The Leadership is all about courage, assessing people, and bringing the best in others, more than their potentials. To stand out amongst the crowd and learn through the sub-conscious mind is the key to the leaders of tomorrow.

. It is different from management and Administration. It is a much broader term. Many leadership theories have been developed starting from Trait theory,  Behavioral  theory,  Contingent  theory,  Situational  theory,  Leadership  function  theory  to  some  recent theories. Earlier it was thought that Leaders are born but today leadership is defined from different perspective. Today  behaviour,  situation,  contingencies  and  other  dimension  are  added  for  defining  leadership.  So,  the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Aung Sang Sui-Ki, Narender Modi, Yashwantrao Chavan on political front and Henry Ford, JRD Tata, Dhirubhai Ambani, Aziz Premji, Narayan Murthy on business front and Medha Patkar with other social reformers, on social front can be studied with their style e of leadership. Basically, Leaders are those who take calculated risk, Initiative, Vision, Character, have professional knowledge with will to perform. Leadership‘ is defined in the oxford dictionary as the action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this similarly the dictionary defines a leader‘ as the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country.

 What are Different Leadership Styles?

We have covered 12 different types of ways people tend to lead organizations or other people. Not all of these styles would deem fit for all kind of situations, you can read them through to see which one fits right to your company or situation.

1. Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic leadership style is centered on the boss. In this leadership the leader holds all authority and responsibility. In this leadership, leaders make decisions on their own without consulting subordinates. They reach decisions, communicate them to subordinates and expect prompt implementation. Autocratic work environment does normally have little or no flexibility.

In this kind of leadership, guidelines, procedures and policies are all natural additions of an autocratic leader. Statistically, there are very few situations that can actually support autocratic leadership.

Some of the leaders that support this kind of leadership include: Albert J Dunlap (Sunbeam Corporation) and Donald Trump (Trump Organization) among others.

2. Democratic Leadership

In this leadership style, subordinates are involved in making decisions. Unlike autocratic, this headship is centered on subordinates’ contributions. The democratic leader holds final responsibility, but he or she is known to delegate authority to other people, who determine work projects.

The most unique feature of this leadership is that communication is active upward and downward. With respect to statistics, democratic leadership is one of the most preferred leadership, and it entails the following: fairness, competence, creativity, courage, intelligence and honesty.

3. Strategic Leadership Style

Strategic leadership is one that involves a leader who is essentially the head of an organization. The strategic leader is not limited to those at the top of the organization. It is geared to a wider audience at all levels who want to create a high performance life, team or organization.

The strategic leader fills the gap between the need for new possibility and the need for practicality by providing a prescriptive set of habits.  An effective strategic leadership delivers the goods in terms of what an organization naturally expects from its leadership in times of change. 55% of this leadership normally involves strategic thinking.

4. Transformational Leadership

Unlike other leadership styles, transformational leadership is all about initiating change in organizations, groups, oneself and others.

Transformational leaders motivate others to do more than they originally intended and often even more than they thought possible. They set more challenging expectations and typically achieve higher performance.

Statistically, transformational leadership tends to have more committed and satisfied followers. This is mainly so because transformational leaders empower followers.

5. Team Leadership

Team leadership involves the creation of a vivid picture of its future, where it is heading and what it will stand for. The vision inspires and provides a strong sense of purpose and direction.

Team leadership is about working with the hearts and minds of all those involved. It also recognizes that teamwork may not always involve trusting cooperative relationships. The most challenging aspect of this leadership is whether or not it will succeed. According to Harvard Business Review, team leadership may fail because of poor leadership qualities.

6. Cross-Cultural Leadership

This form of leadership normally exists where there are various cultures in the society. This leadership has also industrialized as a way to recognize front runners who work in the contemporary globalized market.

Organizations, particularly international ones require leaders who can effectively adjust their leadership to work in different environs. Most of the leaderships observed in the United States are cross-cultural because of the different cultures that live and work there.

7. Facilitative Leadership

Facilitative leadership is too dependent on measurements and outcomes – not a skill, although it takes much skill to master. The effectiveness of a group is directly related to the efficacy of its process. If the group is high functioning, the facilitative leader uses a light hand on the process.

On the other hand, if the group is low functioning, the facilitative leader will be more directives in helping the group run its process. An effective facilitative leadership involves monitoring of group dynamics, offering process suggestions and interventions to help the group stay on track.

8. Laissez-faire Leadership

Laissez-faire leadership gives authority to employees. According to azcentral, departments or subordinates are allowed to work as they choose with minimal or no interference. According to research, this kind of leadership has been consistently found to be the least satisfying and least effective management style.

9. Transactional Leadership

This is a leadership that maintains or continues the status quo. It is also the leadership that involves an exchange process, whereby followers get immediate, tangible rewards for carrying out the leader’s orders. Transactional leadership can sound rather basic, with its focus on exchange.

Being clear, focusing on expectations, giving feedback are all important leadership skills. According to Boundless.com, transactional leadership behaviors can include: clarifying what is expected of followers’ performance; explaining how to meet such expectations; and allocating rewards that are contingent on meeting objectives.

10. Coaching Leadership

Coaching leadership involves teaching and supervising followers. A coaching leader is highly operational in setting where results/ performance require improvement. Basically, in this kind of leadership, followers are helped to improve their skills. Coaching leadership does the following: motivates followers, inspires followers and encourages followers.

11. Charismatic Leadership

In this leadership, the charismatic leader manifests his or her revolutionary power. Charisma does not mean sheer behavioral change. It actually involves a transformation of followers’ values and beliefs.

Therefore, this distinguishes a charismatic leader from a simply populist leader who may affect attitudes towards specific objects, but who is not prepared as the charismatic leader is, to transform the underlying normative orientation that structures specific attitudes.

12. Visionary Leadership

This form of leadership involves leaders who recognize that the methods, steps and processes of leadership are all obtained with and through people. Most great and successful leaders have the aspects of vision in them.

However, those who are highly visionary are the ones considered to be exhibiting visionary leadership. Outstanding leaders will always transform their visions into realities.