LEADERSHIP

Leadership

Introduction

Human nature is the most complex thing. It is difficult to understand the nature of a human being and what is even more difficult is managing behavior of human beings. For smooth and lucrative operation of business it is so vital for an organization to manage behavior of its personnel. Organization behavior management is an indispensable function for an organization. Department of organization behavior management perform variegated tasks. This department actually analyzes and manages human behavior. It deals with wide variety of topics. Change management, leadership, teams, groups and learning are few of the topics that come under the umbrella of organization behavior. The core aim of this paper is to explore one of the areas of organizational behavior. So, this paper discusses the phenomenon of leadership from its different aspects.

Leadership

In this rapidly changing and fast paced world it is believed that leading life successfully has become a tough thing to do. In our life we have to make several decisions for its betterment. Sometimes we make rational decisions and some other times we become unable to properly analyze and comprehend a situation and reach to some irrational decisions. But the good thing is that every good decision brings confidence in us and every wrong decision enriches us with experience. With the help of this experience and some other traits we begin to give directions and guidance to people and that is how the story of leadership starts. Leadership is a very deep and intriguing phenomenon.

Definitions

Leadership is the task of motivating, guiding, directing and leading others in the right direction in order to fulfill certain mutual aims and objectives. A leader through leadership role shows the right and correct path to his or her subordinates. Leadership provides subordinates a guidance with which they can bring improvement in their work. A reciprocal process within a group context that occurs when a leader influences group members to make intentional change towards a shared purpose and goal attainment (Burns, 1978; Kotter, 1999; Laub, 2004; Northouse, 2001)

“The ability to positively influence people and systems to have a meaningful impact and achieve results”

“The increment of influence over and above an employee's mechanical compliance with routine directives of the organization”

According to the management guru Peter Ducker leadership can be defined in a simple and straightforward way as follows:

“The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers"

Warren Bennis defined leadership by focusing on it from individual's ability of leadership. His definition of leadership is as follows:

"Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential”

Leader

A leader is an individual who has the role of leading others. A leader can be considered as the captain of the ship. He leads and guides his or her team members in the right direction.

Leadership and management

There is a thin line of difference between leadership and management. Many scholars and practitioners have made an attempt to clearly describe difference between these two ...