Essay Example on Leadership: An Essential Trait for Achieving Goals & Objectives

Introduction

The leadership trait is considered crucial in several aspects of life. However, many covet it, but only a few individuals possess it. In most cases, leadership is defined as the ability of an individual to significantly influence the rationale of others in an attempt to realize goals and objectives (Meuser et al., 2016). For instance, in an organization, leadership plays a critical role in ensuring directions are adequately provided, creating a coherent manner of guidance provision. Leadership does not necessarily mean character trait but also a process (Dugan, 20117). Over the numerous decade, scholars have consistently examined the effective leadership concept. As a result, various theories have been developed like behavioral, trait, situational, path-goal, and skills. The theories have dramatically helped in a substantial examination of factors that contributes to successful leadership; all the approaches mentioned above have distinct viewpoints and perspectives.

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The Trait Leadership Theory

The trait theory argues that leaders are naturally born and that people possessing the necessary leadership traits and qualities make better leaders. Some of the leadership traits entailed in the trait theory include flexibility, tenacity, honesty, integrity, creativity, confidence, and emotional awareness (Ford & Harding, 2018). Nonetheless, the theory insinuates that leadership is a result of personal characteristics or traits. The six individual traits that often describe leadership include adjustment, intelligence, self-efficacy, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to new challenges.

Undoubtedly, the trait theory vividly elucidates that leaders often have characteristics and traits that sharply distinguish them from other individuals who are not leaders (Ford & Harding, 2018). Thus, a successful and true leader is expected to possess multiple traits. Consequently, each leader has unique characteristics and traits that easily attract air followers' attention.

Outstanding leadership traits like emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, enthusiasm, and dominance dramatically contribute to enhanced organizational performance. Contrastingly, the situational leadership approach assists the leaders in inefficiently adjusting their leadership style to suit a certain situation (Dugan, 2017). Hence, the integration of both situational and trait approaches results in a holistic type of leadership.

Skills Leadership Theory

Ideally, a leader is expected to show exemplary leadership expertise and skills. The skills include delegating, communication, responsibility, trustworthiness, motivation, and commitment. Furthermore, the skills approach of leadership entirely focuses on the individual's skills and abilities (Ford & Harding, 2018). As such, it argues that the ability of an individual to become a leader largely depends on his or her abilities and skills. Based on this theory, for a person to have a relatively large following, three skills need to be perfectly mastered. The three skills are divided into three subgroups, which are technical skills, human skills, and connection skills.

The category of technical skills defines an individual's ability to be generally perfect in his or her profession. As such, effective technique, tools, practices, and processes are vital. In the second category, the human skill category comprises the ability of a person to draw attention and communicate appropriately to people in a given organization (Meuser et al., 2016). Thus, skills like diplomacy and persuasion are much desired in this category. In the last category, the connection skill category describes the capability of a person to be often optimistic in an organization, thus capitalizing on abstract ideologies to achieve strategic goals.

Behavioral Leadership Theory

The behavioral approach is more concerned with the leaders' behaviors more than who the leaders are. Based on this approach, all the leaders are open to indulge in various behaviors that may be classified into task behaviors or relationship behaviors. The relationship behaviors create the necessary environment for the followers to feel comfortable and free among themselves. In contrast, the task behaviors play a critical role in supporting the leader to realize his or her goals in an organization (Meuser et al., 2016). Hence, this approach's primary aim is to justify that leaders often invoke both the relationship and task behaviors to influence their subjects and achieve the set goals significantly.

Furthermore, the behavioral theory emphasizes several behaviors and skills to define that leadership. However, there are three common styles in leadership, which include authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire. The collective decision-making process defines a democratic type of leadership (Dugan, 20117). Contrastingly, in the authoritative style of leadership, dictatorship is often used by a leader to impose his or her ideas on the subjects. On the other hand, a laissez-faire type of leadership involves a leader being passive during the process of decision making. The styles of leadership show that the behavioral theory centers on the leaders’ behaviors.

There are numerous ways to benefit from the behavioral leadership approach. For instance, a small business owner can create a work culture where the employees feel acknowledged and valued (Meuser et al., 2016). As a result, the business can relate to the employees hence benefiting more from their skills and talents substantially. By capitalizing on understanding the disparity in response to various circumstances in an organization by the workforce, the behavioral leadership approach is highly helpful to the companies, especially while handling the different human resources challenges.

Situational Leadership Theory

The situational approach in leadership stresses that there exists no specific best method in leadership. As such, the approach elucidates that leaders who pose knowledge on effective leadership skills are in firm control of their followers' (Dugan, 20117). The situational approach in leadership is characterized by the leader exhibiting optimum performance to the followers. Thus, the leader’s behaviors are dictated by the confidence, willingness, and abilities of his or her followers.

Moreover, the situational leadership approach focuses on how a given situation determines the traits and behaviors adopted by a leader. For instance, the situational approach suggests that the democratic style of leadership is best used when in a situation where a consensus in a specific issue is needed. On the other hand, the authoritative leadership style is suitable during the crisis (Meuser et al., 2016). Thus, the difference in the style of leadership is triggered by distinct situations that require different responses. It is critical to comprehend that while applying the situational type of leadership, the leader is required to adjust the leadership styles according to their subjects.

Path-Goal Leadership Theory

The primary aim of the path-goal theory is to elaborate on how a leader's intervention can result in the subordinates making proper set goals in an organization. This is often achieved by the leader critically deciding on the behaviors that best meet the subordinate's requirements according to their working (Ford & Harding, 2018). As a result, the path-goal approach of leadership centers on the presentation of specific behaviors and styles to be adopted by leaders while keenly considering their employee environment and work.

Furthermore, the sole aim of the path-goal approach is to boost the motivation of the employee and empower the workers to realize their best (Dugan, 20117). Consequently, there are four leadership styles in the path-goal approach, which include achievement-oriented, participative, directive, and supportive styles of leadership. All four types of leadership are applied under the different circumstances in the path-goal approach to yield the same result.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the concept of leadership is relatively complex and requires the integration of several factors. The leadership theories play crucial roles in assisting groups, and individuals comprehend how leaders are expected to influence the followers. Nonetheless, the approaches provide the necessary information on how leaders are made and how they interact with their followers.

References

Dugan, J. P. (2017). Leadership theory: Cultivating critical perspectives. John Wiley & Sons.

Ford, J., & Harding, N. (2018). Followers in leadership theory: Fiction, fantasy, and illusion. Leadership, 14(1), 3-24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715015621372

Meuser, J. D., Gardner, W. L., Dinh, J. E., Hu, J., Liden, R. C., & Lord, R. G. (2016). A network analysis of leadership theory: The infancy of integration. Journal of Management, 42(5), 1374-1403. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316647099