Test 1: Leadership Management Essays

"There is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. Both are based on authority. A boss demands blind obedience; a leader earns his authority through understanding and trust." Klaus Balkenhol

1.1 Describe the factors that will influence the choice of leadership styles or behaviours in workplace situations

This writer decided to read the first three chapters of the book Leaders Without Titles by Steve Sampson. The first chapter was called “Intellectual Dimension” which was mainly an introduction to the book as a whole and introduced some of the main topics to be discussed throughout the rest of the book. What was interesting about this chapter and caused this writer to pause and seriously rethink the idea of leadership was the statement retold by Sampson (2011) which was originally spoken to him by one of his mentors (Kindle Location 224). The mentor stated that “to influence without authority was the key to leadership” (Sampson, 2011, Kindle Location 224).

| B. leaders can emerge in any situation and they come from many different backgrounds

As was mentioned earlier, the trait theory contains highly subjective perspectives. It means that the perception of leadership traits is associated with the assessment of leadership. Barry et al (2003) conducted an

Is the “traits” approach to the study of leadership valid? If so, in what ways? How does recent research on the links between personality and individual behavior contribute to our understanding of leadership?

In addition, leadership itself can be described in various forms and through the highlight of different skill sets, but the one thing that all definitions have in common is that “leadership involves influencing the attitudes, beliefs, behaviours and feelings of other people” Spector’s work (as cited in Curtis, de Vries, & Sheerin, 2011, p.306). When the skill set of a leader is compared to that of a manager, true differences are noted. Some of these key differences are apparent even in the approach utilized to reach the desired goals. While a manager directs, a leader transforms, a manager sustains and a leader improves, a manager controls, a leader motivates, a manager’s focus is on short-term goals and a leader’s is long-term based, managers ask how and when, while

The basis of leadership as stated by Maxwell is that a leader is only a leader if

My father once told me that, “everything we do— be it in academia, at work, social or family life—we are guided by principles, beliefs and values that collectively form our ideology of life.” I believe that every leader, to a certain extent, is shaped through her individual personal experience. Although in some cases, we may not realize to what extent our personal assumptions and beliefs shape our ability to lead or be led.

and unit structure. The most common negative leadership that is displayed amongst leaders is toxic

The trait approach has some undeniable limitations. One criticism is that traits do a poor job at predicting leaders’ behaviours in every

Due to the inconsistent findings from the studies that were done trying to link individual traits to leadership effectiveness, most all studies of leadership traits were abandoned in the 1950’s.

Many factors have contributed to the failure to discover the leadership trait: difficulty and measuring and describing personality traits; problem in establishing cause and effect relations (due traits cause leadership or does leadership cause traits?); and disagreements on the meaning of terms, such as loyalty and courage and even leadership

The essay classifies leadership into four key approaches: (1) trait approach, (2) behaviour approach, (3) the

Countless times leaders operate on instinct that has grown from what they have seen in the past. What leaders see others do sets the stage for what they may do in the future. A leader of sound character will exhibit that character at all times.” (p. 7-13)