Leadership Meaning and Types of Leaders

Leadership

• Theo Haimann-Leadership may be defined as a position of power held by an individual in a group, which provides him with an opportunity to exercise interpersonal influence on the group members for mobilizing and directing their efforts towards certain goals.

• Leadership is an influential process.

• There exists a particular relationship between the leader and his group members which is characterized by interpersonal and social interaction.

Nature of Leadership

1. Leadership derives from power and is similar to, yet distinct from, management.

In fact, "leadership" and "management" are different.

Thus it can be said that a manager is necessarily a leader but a leader may not be a manager.

2. Leadership is essential for managing.

The ability to lead effectively is one of the keys to being an effective manager because she/he has to combine resources and lead a group to achieve objectives.

3. Leadership and motivation are closely interconnected.

A leader can encourage or dampen workers motivation by creating a favorable or unfavorable working environment in the organization.

4. The essence of leadership is followership.

Still, the leader will usually have more power than the group members.

5. Leaders can influence the followers' behavior in some ways.

The leader must be able to empower and motivate the followers to the cause.

6. The leader must co-exist with the subordinates or followers and must have the clear idea about their demands and ambitions.

This creates loyalty and trust in subordinates for their leader.

7. Leadership is to be concerned about values.

8. Followers learn ethics and values from their leaders.

9. Leaders are the real teachers of ethics, and they can reinforce ideas.

10. It is very important for leaders to make positive statements of ethics if they are not hypocritical.

11. Leading is a very demanding job for both physically and psychologically.