Essay Example on Reflection on Leadership

Leadership can be defined in many different ways It is interpreted various ways by people around the world The most common definition of a leader is a person whom other people look up to and follow his principles The leader has a vision wisdom and courage to achieve the goal The popular sayings is that Great leaders are born not made It is true to some extent the capacity for great leadership is innate However learning how to be a more effective leader is within everyone s grasp An effective leader would make his followers believe in the vision and work with everyone to reach towards the goal Leadership Models There are many different approaches and leadership models developed by business people and psychologists to describe the different ways to lead people based on human psychology Based on my learning from other classes and personal experience there is no one particular model better than the other effective leaders use a blend of different styles depending on the situation and their people s need All different leadership models are built on common themes such as inspiration vision and focus on the relationship and emotional connection between leaders and followers Nahavandi pg 179 Charismatic Leadership Charismatic leaders are gifted with grace and charm They encourage their followers via their personality persuasion and eloquent communication and inspire their followers to do things or to do things better this is done by conjuring up enthusiasm in others for a stated vision or goal Charismatic leadership is often seen on political and religious leadership 

Transformational leaders work toward the greater good they care about their people and they have the goal of benefiting the team organization and or community Mahatma Gandhi used the transformational leadership to motivate his followers and transformed their thinking and worked towards the greater good of the country In business the transformational leadership style is considered as the most effective style however this style would not work in emergency situation or situations in which tasks are enormously complex and beyond the skill level of the average group member Servant Leadership Servant leadership focuses on followers rather than the organization or the leader Nahavandi pg 194 Robert Greenleaf the founder of the servant leadership explains that a servant leader focuses primarily on the growth and well being of people and the communities to which they belong They put the needs of their followers first and help them develop and perform as highly as possible Servant leadership is a relatively new approach therefore it needs REFLECTION ON LEADERSHIP 4 considerably more empirical testing and development A lot of organizations are trying to follow this new approach HCL and Praxair are among those organizations Authentic Leadership Authenticity is essential to leadership Authentic leadership emphasizes the importance of leader s self awareness and being true to his her own values

Authentic Leadership Can Be Bad Leadership Retrieved from https hbr org 2011 02 authentic leadership can be ba Burns Transformational Leadership Theory n d Retrieved from http www leadership central com burns transformational leadership theory html Cameron K S 2008 Positive leadership Strategies for extraordinary performance San Francisco CA Berrett Koehler Nahavandi A 2015 The art and science of leadership New Jersey Pearson Owens M n d 4 Personality Traits That Make You an Effective Leader Retrieved from https www entrepreneur com article 245394 Transformational Leadership Becoming an Inspirational Leader n d Retrieved from https www mindtools com pages article transformational leadership htm What Is Leadership n d Retrieved from https www mindtools com pages article newLDR_41 htm What is Servant Leadership Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership n d Retrieved from https www greenleaf org what is servant leadership