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There are several ways to define leadership.  Experts have tried to define leadership using several aspects. A process that influences other people to achieve an objective and guides the company in a way to make it more coherent and cohesive is called leadership. You can also define leadership as a process of leading people in the right direction in order to achieve goals. Leaders apply leadership attributes such as values, knowledge and skills to implement this process in any organization. Leadership ensures that that the organization works successfully and accomplishes the desired goals. Leadership is also defined as a process that can have a positive impact on others. It motivates people to excel in the field they are working.

Leadership does not mean yelling at your followers to accomplish certain tasks. If you are the boss of a company that does not mean you will have leadership qualities. Leadership makes its followers want to accomplish high goals. Thus, leadership will be aptly defined as a process that encourages the followers to achieve their objectives. You can also define leadership as an action that directs the followers to lead a respectable and honorable life. Leadership qualities are not inborn but can be developed gradually through education and self-study. Leadership can also be defined as lernership as it is a continuous learning process. Some scholars have defined leadership as an ability to inspire other people with a dream.

Behavioral theory of leadership defines leadership in terms of relation and behavior of leaders towards their followers. Some leaders are people oriented while some are task oriented. Accordingly, there is participative leadership and directive relationship. Leadership can also be defined as a process that cultivates and nurtures later generation of leaders. Leadership is about awakening the persistence and passion among its followers to get the desired result. Some experts have defined leadership as an ability to transform dream into reality.  Leadership does not mean just imparting instructions to its followers but also striving hard to implement and achieve the desired goals. Leadership is a process that persuades people to do the right thing for a better future. Leadership is a process in which one person encourages, inspires and motivates others to work for the betterment of society.

Your actions should motivate people to do more and then become more. It can also be defined as the ability of a senior to persuade his or her subordinates action to implement a course of action. Leadership directs people to inculcate qualities that will make them good citizens of the country. Leadership defines a clear vision for the company and capacity to translate it to reality. Leadership is like a 2 way street. You should have respect for seniors as well as your juniors. Leadership persuades people to go where they do not want to go necessarily but they ought to go. Leadership is a process that makes sure that his followers accomplish the task Leadership is also defined as a set of actions that are implemented   in order to create a friendly work environment

There is much that is written about leadership; like books on leadership styles, techniques and also biographies of leaders that have inspired people to action. While this is true, there is the everyday leadership and a slightly different outlook to leadership as well. Here are a few of them.

1. There Are Different Kinds of Leaders

Among leaders are formal and informal leaders. Formal leaders are elected to their positions like congressmen, senators and office bearers of clubs. Informal leaders on the other hand are those we look up to because of their experience and wisdom. This could be your parents, grandparents or elders in your community. Informal leaders can also be those that are respected because of their expertise and contributions in certain fields such as Albert Einstein in Theoretical Physics and Leonardo de Vinci in Arts. Whether formal or informal, these leaders practice certain styles. This could be

a. Lewin’s 3 basic leadership styles

- autocratic or authoritative: the leader takes decisions without consulting with others

- democratic or participative: the leader involves the people in the decision-making

- laissez-faire or delegative: the leader’s involvement in decision-making is minimized

b. Likert’s 4 leadership styles

- exploitative authoritative: the leader has a low concern for people and uses such methods as threats and other fear-based methods to achieve conformance

- benevolent authoritative: the leader adds concern for people to an authoritative position

- consultative: the leader makes genuine efforts to listen carefully to ideas, but major decisions are still largely centrally made

- participative: the leader makes maximum use of participative methods, engaging people lower down the organization in decision-making

c. Goleman’s 6 emotional leadership styles

- visionary: the leader inspires, believes in own vision, is empathetic, and explains how and why people’s efforts contribute to the ‘dream’

- coaching: the leader listens, helps people identify their own strengths and weaknesses, counsels, encourages, and delegates

- affiliative: the leader promotes harmony, is nice, empathetic, boosts moral, and solves conflicts

- democratic: the leader is a superb listener, team worker, collaborator, and influencer

- pacesetting: the leader has a strong drive to achieve, has high standards, initiative, but low on empathy and collaboration, impatient, micromanages and is numbers-driven

- commanding: is commanding, threatening, has tight control, monitors studiously, creates dissonance, contaminates everyone’s mood, and drives away talent

2. Leadership Skills Can Be Developed

For some people, leadership seems to be most natural, that it makes you wonder if it is a quality that they are born with. Even if this may be true, without exposure to the right environment, it is possible that they may not develop to their full potential.

You can learn how to become a leader. Attend leadership trainings or leadership seminars. Read books on leadership. You can observe the leadership skills in your daily interactions not only in the working environment but even at home and social environment. This becomes obvious when something goes wrong and you see how this person responds and sets things right.

Observing both formal and informal leadership modes, you can pick up leadership insights and further your knowledge on leadership skills.

Remember, though, that leadership styles are not learnt in a day. It needs daily use to learn from daily experiences and to put your learnt knowledge and skills to the test.

3. Practice Makes Perfect

Theoretical knowledge alone is not sufficient to develop leadership styles. The best way to develop it is to apply it at every opportunity you get. As you get better at it, people will recognize that you take charge when you are around.

Leadership is not only handling situations. It is also how you carry yourself. How you interact with people be it your work colleagues, family, friends or the guy at the bookstore. It is also reflected in how well you manage your personal and organizational responsibilities.

If you keep applying your knowledge, leadership should become a habit to you.

4. Successful Leadership Requires Trust Between The Leader And Team

There is no leader without the team members. The responsibility of achieving objectives is a shared responsibility as the leader alone cannot achieve them.

A person may be made leader as a formal position but this does not necessarily mean that he or she can bring the team together to complete the tasks at hand. Each member will have their own skills that makes them informal leaders in those areas.

The formal leader needs to be able to work together with the team and generate trust to build a cohesive group. Just words are not enough. Appropriate actions will be required to foster trust and to build confidence.

5. Situational Leadership

The type of leadership varies depending on the situation at hand. You cannot just apply the last technique you learnt without due consideration to the situation.

In emergency situations, like a fire, you cannot be consulting everyone on the decision. It is different during normal times, especially when you need everybody’s buy-in. In this case, you will want to take a consultative approach.

The style you choose will also depend on the skill level of your team. For a highly skilled and motivated team, you may use a combination of high delegative and moderate participative styles. But if the team has low competence, you may need to use a combination of high coaching, high supporting and high directing leadership styles.

Leadership styles need to be continually learnt not only through leadership training and books but also from observing other good leaders. Most importantly, practice because the best learning will be that which you learn from your own experience.

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