Leadership

We live in a world where we are told everyday that “we are all leaders” – we are capable of leading and so we grow up with huge ambitions of wanting to be like the great “leaders” like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Leadership is "organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal". The leader may or may not have any formal authority. Studies of leadership have produced theories involving traits, situational interaction, function, behavior, power, vision and values, and intelligence, among others. Somebody whom people follow: somebody who guides or directs others.

A leader steps up in times of crisis, and is able to think and act creatively in difficult situations. Unlike management, leadership cannot be taught, although it may be learned and enhanced through coaching or mentoring.

Philosophers believe that there are various styles of leadership. An authoritarian leadership style is being used when a leader who dictates policies and procedures, decides what goals are to be achieved, and directs and controls all activities without any meaningful participation by the subordinates.A Participative Leader, rather than taking autocratic decisions, seeks to involve other people in the process, possibly including subordinates, peers, superiors and other stakeholders. Often, however, as it is within the managers' whim to give or deny control to his or her subordinates, most participative activity is within the immediate team.

The delegative leadership style is also known as the laissez-fair style of leadership. It is not among the most effective types of leadership styles.Delegative leadership is a somewhat hands off approach in which the leader places great responsibility on lower level managers and employees. Thus the term laissez faire (or laisser faire), which is French for the non-interference in the affairs of others.

A leader has qualities like integrity, dedication, magnanimity, humility and openness. With these qualities, a person becomes a innovator, creator, dreamer, risk taker, ponder, enthusiast, seeker, decision maker visionary and spectacular in each way.

Using the skills, a leader grabs each and every opportunity and moves the group of people involved closer to their common goal. With a good knowledge and skills leader is able to overcome any problem in his way making things easier for all. Leadership is not a quality developed overnight but a leader develops over time. It has been well quoted that “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”

After all “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”.