Leaders and History Having a leadership position and being a leader are not the same thing, even though many people believe it is. Being appointed to a leadership role is entirely dependent upon circumstances; being a leader is an innate quality that moves beyond the tactical and into the strategic, allows those with greatness to rise to the occasion, and often results in drastic changes in society and culture. We can ask, though, about the traits of leaders that make them successful. There is scholarly evidence, in fact, that shows there are personality traits in leaders that are more developed than non-leaders. When combined with certain historical circumstances, these traits become dominant and the "Great Man" theory of leadership is fulfilled. This view says that leaders are born, not made -- that there is some sort of genetic configuration that allows certain people to move beyond even their own wildest expectations....
This view was very popular in the 19th century when scholars tried to understand how personalities shaped history. In the 20th century, Thomas Carlyle used something called "social profiling" to identify talents and skills that he believed defined leadership. This theory says that leaders are larger than life and extend leadership traits (Carlyle and Tenneyson, 2000). This may be a bit simplistic in the modern world, because leaders often rise to the occasion based on stressful situations, "In fact, leadership is highly situational and contextual. A special chemistry develops between leaders and followers and it is usually context specific" (Wren, 1995, p. 30).
Leadership Styles In many ways the United States offer the ideal case study for examining different leadership styles, because its particular process of election and governance presents opportunities for each leadership style to flourish. In short, while the election itself favors a charismatic leadership style, the success of the executive branch depends on a transformational leadership style, and the interactions between the executive and the legislature can only be characterized as
Self-confidence is one of the most universally agreed-upon traits of a leader. In order for the organization as a whole to have confidence, the leader must exude confidence. There will be moments in any initiative the followers cannot see the benefits of the initiative or do not feel that they will be able to execute the initiative. It takes the confidence of the leader in order to enable the rest
He projects a persona of trustworthiness, likability and brilliance that even his harshest critics admire. But a multiplicity of goals does not always make for a sense of coherent mission, and this sense of mission is required to sustain as well as initiate major changes. One of Obama's most-admired historical figures was Abraham Lincoln and: "Lincoln united his followers with a 'corporate mission' of preserving the Union and abolishing
However, the sum total of the organization's output extends beyond the realm of the quantifiable. Qualitative measures also exist, and they can impact on the quality of the organization's output as well. It can be argued that even qualitative outputs will eventually impact on quantitative outputs. Ford's loss of reputation as the result of the Pinto scandal, for example, cannot be quantified but the sales and profit decreases that
2. Leadership analysis of the two former Arab leaders Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Alnahyan and Saddam Hussein were two great Arab leaders that significantly influenced the Arab world, but there is very little resemblance in their leadership styles. As a manner of manifestation, the two had very distinct leadership styles, although their objective was somewhat common: the prosperity and unity of the Arab world. 2.1. General leadership analysis The two Arab leaders had
Leadership Qualifications in the Workplace Quintessential Leader Proposed Leadership Model For eras there have been people and leaders have discussed what the qualifications that make a great leader are. Leadership travels all the way back to the period of the ancient Greeks. In the 1500's, there was an Italian statesman named Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote The Prince, and in this book he talked about the different methods for leaders to use in obtaining
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