LEADERSHIP

By Agnes Tioluwanimi Oyedokun

According to Wikipedia, Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to lead, influence and guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word “leadership” often gets viewed as a contested term. Leaders are required to develop future visions and to motivate the members of their organisation to achieve the visions.

QUALITIES OF A GOOD LEADER

1. Honesty and integrity: A good leader must be free of deceit; truthful and sincere. Leaders with integrity act in accordance with their words (i.e. they practice what they preach) and own up to their mistakes, as opposed to hiding them, blaming their team, or making excuses.

2. Confidence: A confident leader is a person who can shape and guide individuals while making decisions to keep the world moving. They are visionaries, motivators and encouragers.

3. Inspire Others: A good leader should be a source of inspiration to others.

4. Commitment and Passion: Passion elevates productivity and ensures an employee’s commitment to a leader’s vision. Passion eventually leads to mastery and success, in large part because you are always thinking and working on the thing you are passionate about. Most successful leaders don’t have a job – they have a passion. (theordinaryleader.com)

5. Good Communicator: A good leader should have good communication skills. He should be able to communicate with people effectively.

6. Decision-making Capabilities: Leaders should be able to choose wisely between two or more options. The decision-making process involves identifying the challenge in which the manager discovers an issue and determines the circumstances that led to the situation.

7. Accountability: A good leader should be able to give accounts of all the happenings in his place.

Other qualities of leadership are:

• Delegation and Empowerment
• Creativity and Innovation
• Empathy
• Resilience
• Emotional Intelligence
• Humility
• Transparency
• Vision and Purpose

LEADERSHIP STYLE

According to Wikipedia, A leadership style is a leader’s method of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. Various authors have proposed identifying many different leadership styles as exhibited by leaders in the political, business or other fields.

Bureaucratic leadership

Bureaucratic leadership is a system of management that relies on a chain of commands, official duties made by the superiors. There are very clear roles and duties in this style of leadership and it is commonly found in the governmental system, the military etc. It is stable in terms of job security and outcomes and it receives favoritism from the equation. It can make it difficult to respond to change and it does not encourage an individual’s personal or professional growth.

Charismatic Leadership

According to Wikipedia, Charismatic leadership is a concept of leadership developed by the German sociologist Max Weber. It involves a type of organization or a type of leadership in which authority derives from the charisma of the leader. It makes the followers feel heard and understood and it creates movement towards positive change. It is highly inspirational and motivating. It is frequently viewed as shallow or disingenuous and it can make the leaders focus more on themselves than on their followers.

Transformational leadership

It is a leadership style where employees are encouraged, inspired and motivated by their leaders to create some specific change that will help to give success to the company. It helps to create an atmosphere conducive to build strong relationships and encourages collaboration. It enables creativity, growth and empathy on the teams and it gives team members autonomy to do their jobs.

Autocratic Leadership

It is exemplified when the leader works with less or no input at all from the followers, he only makes decisions on his own without listening to the voices of the followers. It can be efficient when it comes to making decision and it makes the team consistent since just one person is the one in charge of the whole affairs but it can stifle creativity, collaboration, and innovation and it does not accommodate the diversities in thoughts.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

Laissez-faire leadership takes a hands-off approach to leadership and gives others the freedom to make decisions. While leaders still provide their teams with the resources and tools they need to succeed, they remain largely uninvolved in the day-to-day work. This is a leadership style you will commonly find in creative settings, such as advertising agencies or startups, due to its encouragement of independent thinking. It allows the followers to practice their leadership skills and it can lead to increased creativity and innovation but it can result in low productivity and confusion.

Other types of leadership styles are

• Servant leadership
• Collaborative leadership
• Democratic leadership
• Coaching leadership

All of these leadership styles are found in several aspects and as much as they have pros, they also have their cons.