The Difference in Leadership Essay -- Papers Leading Skills Essays Pap

The Difference in Leadership Introduction ============ Leadership is an influence process. It might be thought of as the ability to motivate others into following and understanding the role they play in an organisation, as well as what the overall strategy of the business is, with the interest of achieving organisational goals. If this is done correctly then high levels of motivation, empowerment, commitment and performance should result. It is equally important for a leader to be trustworthy, Viscount Slim describes leadership as being : â€Å"The quality which makes people trust you†. It is important in every leadership role that the leader be as effective as possible in order to work those people he is responsible for to their full potential. Certainly the leadership skill will play an important part in determining the effectiveness of the leader. Good communication skills are another important quality for a leader to have. This means that it is important to be both good at effective speaking as well as listening in order to aim the behaviours and actions of individuals in the required direction. Leadership is the process by which a person exerts influence over other people and inspires, motivates, and directs their activities to help achieve group or organizational goals.[i] It has been an old and common view that leaders are born, and not made. This is known as the Qualities Approach. Those which share this view believe that some core qualities of leaders are inborn, ie intuition, will-power and intelligence. This dismisses the idea that leaders can be manufactured, and places the emphasis on the natural ch... ...ent.IE5/M8UV2CDB/266,11,Slide 11 [x] Jones, George, Hill Contemporary Management p 411. [xi] M.G.Evans, â€Å"The Effects of Supervisory Behaviour on the Path-Goal Relationship†, Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance 5 (1970): 277-98;R.J.House,†A Path-Goal Theory of Leader Effectiveness,† Administrative Science Quarterly 16 (1971):321-38;J.C.Wofford and L.Z.Liska,†Path-Goal Theories of Leadership: A Meta-Analysis,† Journal of Management 19 (1993): 857-76. [xii] B.M.Bass, Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations (New York: Free Press, 1985); Bass, Bass and Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership; Yukl and Van Fleet, â€Å"Theory and Research on Leadership.† [xiii] A.H.Eagly,S.J.Karau, and M.G.Makhijani, â€Å"Gender and the Effectiveness of Leaders: A Meta-Analysis,† Psychological Bulletin 117 (1995):125-45.