Leadership

Leader is an integral part of work and social life. In any situation, where a group of people want to accomplish a common goal, a leader is required. Leadership behavior occurs in almost all formal and informal situations. In a non-formal situation, such as a group of friends, some sort of leadership behavior occurs where one individual takes lead in most of the group activates. Leadership behavior occurs  in business organizations where the leader influences people to work towards common goals.

People have to be guided to contribute to organizational goals with zeal and confidence. “Zeal is ardor, earnestness and intensity in the execution of work; confidence reflects experience and technical ability.” The ability of individuals to influence the behavior of tethers is known as leadership. Leaders exploit human potential and transform it into output.

Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish and objective directs the organization to make it more cohesive and coherent.

It is an individual’s effort to influence the behavior of others. If inspires confidence and support among the group members to achieve the organizational goals.

In corporate terms, leadership is the process by which an executive imaginatively directs guides and influences the work of others in choosing and attaining specified goals, but mediating between individual and the organization in such a manner that both obtain maximum satisfaction.

“ A leader is one who conducts, acts as a guide to others in action or opinion, one who takes the lead in any enterprise or movement, one who is ‘followed’ by disciples or adherents, the most eminent member of a profession, a person of eminent position and influence.”

A leader datives potential to influence the behavior of others through power. A leader can derive power from various sources.

1.    Legitimate Power:

It is the power of a leader by virtue of his position in the organizational hierarch. An employee knows that his superiors have power to issue directions to him.

2.    Reward power:

It is the power to give rewards in the form of bonus, increments, promotion etc. for employed’ positive contribution to organizational goals.

3.    Coercive power:

It is the power of a person to punish undesirable tasks. A salary cut or a vacation cut can enforce people conform to directions of their leaders.

4.    Expert power:

It is the power that leader enjoys by virtue of his expertise and skill. A tax expert, for example, enjoys the power of solving tax related matters of his fellow workers superiors and subordinates.

5.    Information power:

It is the leader’s power to have access to organizational information. More the information one has about the organization  structure, more is his informational power.

6.    Referent power:

While legitimate, coercive and reward power are relatively concrete sauces of power based on objective aspects of organizational culture. Referent power is and abstract form based on identification, goals and intimation. A leader enjoys this power because of his skills and rtrits. People follow leaders because they like to associate themselves with them. They react favorably and behave the way their leaders want them to behave.

7.    Connection power:

It is the power that leader enjoys because of his connection with influential people. People follow a leader who has contacts with people of high social and economic standing to elicit farceurs out of such persons.

Different authors define leadership as follows:

Koontz and Weihrich define leadership as “influence, that is, the art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of group goals”.

“Leadership is the process of influencing others to work towards the attainment of specific goals.”

“Leadership is the relationship in which the leader influences others to work together willingly on related tasks to attain goals desired by the leader and/ or group.”

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