Leadership Is Critical to Any

Leadership is critical to any organization. The leader sets the tone for the organization in terms of what it wants to achieve and how it will achieve. Any given organization is a vast set of resources and it is the role of the leader to pair those resources with the objectives of the organization. In addition, the leader acts as a proxy for shareholders, finding ways to achieve their objectives as well. An organization without leadership or with poor leadership is one that lacks direction, and as a result the resources of the organization can fail to attain any of its goals.

In addition to resource allocation, leaders play a critical role with respect to inspiring others. The people that perform tasks within an organization can perform them to a variety of levels of execution. Good leaders inspire the members of an organization to perform at a high level, which delivers superior output for the organization. Inspirational leaders can convince others to give more to the organization's objectives than they would otherwise give, and this typically benefits the managers and owners of the company.

Leaders also play a critical role within the organization in terms of their ability to help influence the change process. All organizations face change, not the least because of changing external circumstances. As a result, leaders are required for their ability to help guide organizations through the necessary change processes. The leader at this stage must not only understand the nature of the changes to which the organization is being subjected, but must envision the type of organization that will emerge from the change process. In this way, the leader will deliver a change process that allows the organization to emerge from its changes able to deal with its challenges and meet its objectives.

I believe that leaders can be either born or made. There are different types of leaders, and depending on the circumstances of the organization the ideal leader could be either. The reason that there are different types of leaders is that there are different tasks that a leader must perform. For example, the task of allocating resources in a manner that allows the organization to meet its objectives is largely a mental task for which a leader can be trained. The task is relatively scientific in nature and can be subject to measurement and study. As a result, this task is generally something that can be taught to prospective leaders, both in academia and in the field. Experience and practice still constitute learning, and this method of learning is important for a number of different leadership functions.

There are a number of different leadership theories, each of which reflects some of the facets of leadership that must be taken into consideration. Behavioral leadership considers that some behavioral styles are best suited for leadership roles. Contingency leadership theories are based on the view that the situation dictates the ideal leadership style -- and how much of that style can be learned or not is variable.

There are elements of leadership, however, that cannot be taught. In particular, the inspirational aspect of leadership is very difficult to teach. Leaders can reach their subjects in a number of different ways, using a wide range of triggers. While to a certain extent these ways can be identified through scientific study -- psychology and sociology in particular -- there is an element of relating to other people than is entirely inherent. Some leaders are simply born with better charisma and interpersonal skills than others. The former in particular is nearly impossible to teach -- those with charisma that makes others want to follow seldom can identify what it is they do that makes them so charismatic -- they simply are.

Even the core skills that leaders need can be difficult to teach. It has been noted, for example, that leaders typically must be able to allocate resources well, but there is a core underlying talent to this task that will make some leaders inherently better than others. The ability to think in abstract is difficult to teach, yet for a leader this is a critical skill. I believe that thinking in abstract allows a leader to piece together disparate resources and objectives in ways that others simply are unable to conceive of. As a result, a leader with strong abstract thinking skills will be able to devise better solutions to problems and opportunities than one who has more trouble envisioning the ways in which problems can be solved. While problem solving can be taught to some extent, beyond that extent there are leaders who will simply be better than others.