Essence of Leadership

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” John C. Maxwell

In followership there needs to be a leader that inspires and bonds followers together as a unit moving in one direction. Today’s leader has to be more than someone that was placed in a position of authority, a person with a title and a higher salary level. A real leader is found when the behaviors and attitudes of their

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Growing up I was always told to be a leader and not a follower, and as a child I did not think much of that saying. However, in recent years I have begun to grasp what it truly means to

A leader I admire, whether real-life or fictional character from the television, the movies or a book, will be identified. Leadership theories will be used to evaluate my selected leader to determine what characteristics and leadership abilities helped this leader become successful. I will also include an evaluation of my own leadership style and identify what my individual leadership characteristics are. The plan will be developed to improve my leadership style based upon the findings of my chosen leader’s leadership style compared to my own.

The importance of followers in creating leaders and creating a movement is the main argument in Becher’s article and a key

“The difference between followers and leaders is that followers need leaders to help them follow what leaders themselves are following. This relationship takes the form of a shared response-ability to a shared calling. Both find each other in a true fellowship to create the world responsibly.” —James Maroosis

According to organisational behaviour by McShane, leadership is defined as influencing, motivating and enabling others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the organisation of which they are members (page 382, McShane).Becoming an effective leader depends on the leader’s leadership style. Successful leaders have vision and charisma, also the leader should have an ongoing personality, talkative, careful and self-disciplined. The leader must also have self-concept

Without followers there are no leaders and to be able to lead and be successful, leaders need followers. Leaders have different behavior, traits, experience and skills and are consistently assessing their followers and the current situation in order to practice an appropriate leadership style for best outcomes. Leaders use their best judgment to approach a situation and use the best action for each situation. These are examples of the leadership formula that prove its validity:

The leader and follower relationship is looked at as winners and losers, when it is actually a symbiotic association. (Chaleff) Leaders cannot exist without followers and followers cannot exist without a leader. Leaders can forget that they need the backing of a solid team of followers in order to succeed. Because they make the “important” decisions and enjoy an astronomical rate of pay, it is easy to overlook the loyal, hard working individuals that make everything happen under them. Followers too can forget that they are a valuable element of a successful organization, and that their feedback and ideas are welcome.

Leadership has been a topic that has been researched for a long time in many disciplines. Leadership as a personality focuses on the characteristics of an individual that gives them power to act as leaders. There is leadership as an attribution this approach views leadership as phenomenon that causes group of followers to have outcomes.(Wu et al, 2010, 90).Researchers have used the following approaches to study leadership; they are mainly trait, behavior, power influence, situation and integrative approaches. Trait approaches focuses on the characteristics, values, skill and personality of leaders. Behavior approaches is focused on the leaders behaviors, differentiating between the behavior of ineffective and effective leaders. Integrative approach combines all the approaches to have a holistic picture of the process, outcomes and determinants of leadership. The approach that this paper uses is situational approach that is not leader centered but more on the significance of the context as an influence of leadership. Leaders should be able to choose the leadership quality appropriate to a particular situation.