Introduction

Opportunities for leadership occur everyday, so that even the most reluctant individuals occasionally find themselves in charge. The better prepared they are to meet these leadership challenges, the more readily they develop new skill and increase their confidence and personal insight.

Leadership skill can be acquired through training and effort even if background, modesty, lack of confidence or inexperience create self-doubt. This process often begins when individual discover that they have qualitries and strengths usually associated with leadership. They then surprise themselves with their own inner resources. When this kind of inner strength is revealed, its existence is not easily forgotten. Regular exercise of new-found strength produces further achievement and a sense of self-fulfilment so that growth leads to growth.

The key factor of leadership is divided into smaller approaches. Leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary systems of action. Each has its own function and characteristic activities. One reason leadership takes precedence is that leaders are the people who decide what needs to be done and the ones who make things happen. Employees believe that organisational successes and failures are linked to leadership.

Effective leaders are flexible when deciding which leadership style is the best one for their group at any given time. Power and authority are exposed through leadership style and some writers propose there are three basic styles. These are divided into behavioural, contingency and also trait approaches.

Behavioural approaches are again divided into three leadership styles. Firstly the autocratic style. This type of leadership seems to be a ‘one man’ show or single mindedness where all the power of making decisions are made by the leaders. These leaders offer speed where it leads to quick decision and work could be done on time. This type of situation, the team actually benefits from being told what to do. However, autocratic leadership suffers poorer productivity and performance as well as greater discontent than those who are led in other leadership styles. This tends to demotivates their confidence, judgement and willingness to learn.

Democratic leadership believes in getting their subordinates involved in decision making which also mean these based upon mutual respect among colleagues regardless of designated positions. These leaders are encourage everyone to contribute skills and talents so that more work of higher quality gets done. They also create opportunities for them to grow and develop. Everyone gains from this, including the leaders who are challenged to learn from their colleagues. Through working together, it creates a team of individually powerful and dynamic peers. These are the strength of this style however discussion takes time (time consuming) and slow progress.

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Laissez faire leadership styles allow total freedom and leave their subordinates to freely set objectives and work procedure. These leaders’ best serve highly creative people who respond well to a structure free environment. This style is useful when little group of coordination is required. However, these leaders frequently does not realize that maintaining standard, giving guidance and acting as a forceful champion for the group is part of the leader’s job. Although colleagues describe them as the ‘nice’ or ‘cool’ guy leaders they also describe them as weak spineless and incompetent, regretting the day that

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