Did you ever analyze why few leaders succeed in their career and others fail? Since the early 20th century, psychologists and business leaders have tried to figure out the solutions for this. It reflects upon the traits of a good leader and what defines a true leader. How they behave in certain situations and take a wise step. They teach others in motivating employees. Consequently, more people studied various concepts. In this article, you’ll learn more about these theories.
Currently, when there’s a shortage of good leadership, these are important to know and develop an understanding of these.
What is leadership?
Leadership is an act of motivating an individual or a team and influence them to achieve a common organizational goal. It involves making wise and challenging decisions, enunciating a clear vision, setting smart and achievable goals and implementing followers with updated tools necessary to attain those goals. If you achieve these as a team, then the sky will be the limit for happiness. Leaders are not found but they are made and required in every space. Be it business or politics. Even while organized local-community based events, you’ll find a leader. These leaders direct and delegate the work to others with a similar approach to mee the company mission and vision.
An efficient leader displays the following traits
- Self-confidence
- Management skills
- Strong communication
- Innovative and creative
- Reactive to crisis
- Perseverance
- Level Headedness
- Open to change
- Thinking
- Accepts risks boldly
Furthermore, if a person shows these characteristics in a business environment then they are placed in a C-level or managerial position. Thus, you can see them as a CEO, CIO or president. Some noteworthy individuals exhibited their traits in the tech-savvy world. They include
- Steve Jobs
- Bill Gates
- Jeff Bezos
- Elon Musk
- Linus Torvalds
- Evan Spiegel
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Andrew Jassy
What makes a better leader
All entrepreneurs and executives have different experiences and perspectives to become an effective leader, some of them are listed below
They confidently accept their beliefs and work on the same
Make hard choices and sacrifice theirs to enhance the lives of others
Earn respect and shows empathy
Know the team’s strengths and weaknesses and efficiently manage the outcome
Concentrate on helping the team at their best
Create, articulate and passionately work on the vision they set. They relentlessly strive to complete them.
Top leaders have a positive attitude and responsible for their work and accountable for the team’s work. They never explain or complain but make progress instead.
Are leaders born or made
In today’s generation, it is important for many aspiring leaders to know. You can be the face of the company, and help your team to achieve numerous goals. But the answer to this is people learn many different skills in their career life and one among them is leadership. It is absolutely necessary to cultivate these characteristics to picture yourself as a leader. Thus, leaders are not born, they are made by learning any other skill. Through hard work, you can achieve them no matter where you’re in this professional ladder. But how to initiate the process. Starting is easy, just frame a clear vision for yourself. Pick a theory that works best for you and make a visionary board. Start by jotting down your biggest goals. It has to be specific and time-bound.
Top leadership theories you need to know for becoming a great leader
Since decades, many leadership theories have evolved because of numerous studies. In reality and practice, many have tried to define the leader from their own perspective. Some of them are listed below
Trait theories
According to this theory, many effective leaders share various common personality traits or characteristics. These qualities encourage them to become a leader. The trait primarily focuses on personality. They have the following qualities like
- Empathy
- Integrity
- Assertive
- Visionary
- Decision-making capabilities
This theory helps the manager to analyze their strengths and weaknesses by understanding and developing their qualities. According to this theory, one can understand that leadership is an art and requires special skills and techniques. This requires development and encouragement. For instance, a person is not born with self-confidence, they need to master it.
Behavioural theories
This theory states that leaders are made. Consequently, the qualities imbibed by natural leaders are set apart from their counterparts. This emphasis that the actions of the leaders are determined from the people’s experiences, teachings and observations. This can transform an ordinary person into a great leader. They are a few questions to be answered while inculcating this type of theory
- Is that you need to lead a team
- Encourage them in teamwork and decision-making abilities
- Indicate them what to do
These main questions stem from the types of leader a person should be
They can be
- Autocratic
- Democratic
- Laissez-faire etc.
Contingency Theory
This theory argues that there is no best way to lead an organization. Many internal and external factors alter an effective way to lead a situation. All the variables have to be taken into consideration and choose an action based on that. There are 3 variables to be considered in this scenario:
- How do the employees in the organization believe and accept the leader
- The extent to which the employee’s roles and responsibilities are explained in detail
- The influence your leader possesses according to their position
According to White and Hodgson, effective leadership is all about striking the right balance between context, needs and behaviour. Generally, leaders focus on the
Desires of the followers
Interpret the situation
Alter their behaviour
according to the situation. Success on leadership focus on multiple factors like style, relationship, situation etc.
Conclusion
The role of a leader is very crucial to develop a team. For instance, imagine you’re giving an orchestra program, you have all the instruments ready in hand but no one to play them. Though they’re are working perfectly, there needs to be a perfect player. Without them, there will be no harmonious music. In fact, the same situation can be applied to every business. If a company does not run without an effective leader, then there will be chaos, no deadlines to meet, different people put their own voices. Ultimately the company runs without a clear goal. That is the reason, over the period, there are many theories evolved to run the organization smoothly and effectively. A leader is essential to see the situation is efficient and people make their best decision.
