Leadership has been described as one of the most difficult concepts to define. This is because the discipline cuts across different circumstances, disciplines, and eras. At the same time, leadership attests to the social nature of man, as well as other animals that also need a leader in order to survive. Leadership is an important and difficult part of a social or another group to find and utilize. As Napoleon would say, it is better to have an army of rabbits led by a lion, than an army of lions led by a rabbit. This was meant to show the critical importance of the leader. Finding a leader is also difficult. A Chinese proverb aptly depicts this, saying that an army of a thousand is easy to find, but “ah, how difficult to find a general” (Michael &Lochrie, 2009, 33).
Leadership has been defined by Warren Bennis as the “capacity to translate vision into reality” (Kirimi, 2007, 172). It has also been defined as “the art of influencing and directing people in such a way that will win their obedience, confidence, respect and loyal competition in achieving common objectives” by the US Air Force. Massie defines leadership as the situation in which one person induces another to work towards some predetermined objectives” (Kirimi, 2007, 172). Samson and Daft (2015,445) define leadership as “The ability to influence people towards the attainment of goals”.
Leading
Leading is the successful practice of leadership. A leader can be defined as a person who is able to influence people successfully towards the attainment of goals as Kirimi (2007) says. This involves inspiring them to do things that are in the best interests of the organization, and as they have been directed. Failure to inspire will ultimately lead to low performance and the resulting failure of leadership. Having defined leadership as the ability to influencing and directing people in a way that wins their obedience, confidence, and respect, leading can be termed as the successful attainment of this description, with a more successful leader having the followers show greater levels of obedience, confidence, respect and loyal competition.
For this to happen, however, the leader must be able to satisfy the basic concepts of leadership, including motivating and coaching followers to work towards an objective. Motivation refers to the different measures that a leader takes so as to enhance the productivity in followers. These mechanisms are meant to enhance the team’s commitment to the goal, and in so doing, inspire them to increase output. Motivation may also “relate to the drive to do something”. Motivation is the drive which causes one to wake up and leave for work in the morning. A leader who motivates his people encourages them to try again once they fail, by giving them the necessary inspiration to do so (Tileston, 2010, 5).
Coaching refers to the training and development, and mentoring work that the leader does so as to increase the capacity of his team to perform better. Coaching increases the relevant skills in the team and in a way also contributes to motivation (Samson & Daft, 2015). Training may also be referred to the identification of gaps between skills and the required output and thereafter executing measures to bridge this gap. Doing this imparts knowledge and enables the acquisition of new and relevant expertise while preparing leaders for future leadership roles (Rothwell, 1998).
Successful leaders have organizing ability. This refers to use power that is bestowed on them properly, without putting others at a disadvantage. It also refers to the level of comfort of dealing with organizational structures. A successful leader must be able to follow the rules of the organization, not just in letter, but also in spirit. This means that in application of the rules, the leader must still deal with the followers as individuals, who have different characteristics, and who may respond differently to the laid down regulations. The leader must be accountable to the organization and his followers. The leader exhibits this by displaying a high level of integrity, owning up to mistakes and expecting others to do the same. This way, the leader is able to lead by example (Michael & Lochrie, 2009).
A successful leader is one who is able to build a team and foster teamwork within this team. For this to happen, the leader must possess strong interpersonal, communication and conceptual skills. This makes them approachable despite their rank and establishes the leader as the person whom the followers go to when they have a problem. This also includes empathy (Michael & Lochrie, 2009). The individual is able to understand things by looking at situations through their circumstances, and thereby being able to respond appropriately. The leader also has a high capacity for cooperation with the team members. Problems cannot be resolved alone, the leader realizes. Therefore, he has the necessary ability to bring together ideas and opinions, while focusing on the main issue. Ultimately, the leader should be able to work through others (Chuang, 2013).
As the leader, and the to-go-to-person in case there is an issue, it is important to possess strong problem-solving skills. Problem-solving requires the ability to handle organizational politics efficiently and understanding the real motives behind the behavior. Some problems require creativity to resolve. This means the leader has to be innovative to act while remaining within organizational norms. At the same time, the leader should have the courage to face problems head on, instead of looking away or delegating issues best handled by them. The leader is decisive and makes his decisions timely, even without the ideal situation being present (Sethuraman & Suresh, 2014).
The successful leader is able to be an embodiment of the vision that he propagates to the followers. This is manifested in their self-confidence. The leader is optimistic and exudes confidence, despite any other misgivings or anxiety that they may have. The leader is able to manage changes it comes. For this to be done efficiently, the leader needs to understand that change is inevitable. As such, they embrace change and strike a balance between stability and growth. At the same time, the leader is able to come up with effective means of managing resistance to change, ensuring that it does not significantly disrupt the organization. The leader at the same time uses their personal skills to be persuasive, without being too domineering, but ultimately achieving their objective (Baker, 2014).
Charismatic leadership is visionary. This means that the leader derives his ability to lead by focusing the future and conceptualizing it more clearly than others. This makes them the best-placed people to lead the organization and the people to where he sees the organization should be (Baker, 2014).
Transformational leadership refers to the ability by the leader to motivate followers, such that they are able to surplus their performance expectations. The transformative leader works with the followers closely, so that they can identify the necessary change. Thereafter, they create a vision to guide change through inspiration and the execution of the change, having guaranteed total commitment from the members of the team. The transformational leader succeeds by displaying high levels of innovation, commitment, and empathy (McCleskey, 2014).
Transactional leadership, on the other hand, refers to the leadership style focused on managing the people. The leader does this through supervision, organization and focusing on performance. The leader is more interested in compliance of the members with his desires, and there is little by way of collaboration. The leader uses rewards and punishment as the necessary tools to inspire the desired behavior or compliance with what he has set out to achieve (McCleskey, 2014).
References
Baker, E. (2014). Leadership and Management Guiding Principles, Best Practices, and Core Attributes. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 20(3), 356-357.
Chuang, S. (2013). Essential Skills for Leadership Effectiveness In Diverse Workplace Development. Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development, 6(1), 2-24.
Kirimi, B. (2007). Successful Leadership: 8 Essential Principles You Must Know. Nairobi: ABC Book Publishing.
MCCleskey, J. (2014). Situational, Transformational, and Transactional Leadership and Leadership Development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly,5(4), 117-120.
Michael, B., Lochrie, R. (2009). Integrity: The Core of Leadership. Mustang: Tate Publishing.
Rothwell, W., Dubois, D. (1998). Competency-Based Human Resource Management. Alexandria, Virginia: ASTD.
Samson, D., Daft, R. (2015). Management. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Sethuraman, K., Suresh, J. (2014). Effective Leadership Styles. International Business Research, 7(9), 1-8.
Tileston, D. (2010). What Every Teacher Should Know About Student Motivation. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.
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