[Z-man]

I just started a course on leadership, so this thread is very timely for me.

As stated - there are leaders, and there are managers. Sometimes, managers have leadership skills, sometimes they don't. Often, a leader is someone who has little or no positional power, yet is still able to influence a situation in a positive way.

There are countless studies and theories on leadership. For example:

Traits -- leadership is based on the traits a person has. Primary traits of a leader are :
- Personal characteristics: energy, passion, physical stamina
- Intelligence and ability: intelligence, conginitive ability, knowledge, judgement, decisvieness
- Personality: optimism, self-confidence, honesty and integrity, enthusiasm, charisma, desire to lead, independance
- Social Characteristics: sociability, interpersonal skills, cooperativeness, ability to enlist cooperation, tact, diplomacy
- Work-Related Characteristics: drive, desire to excel, responsibility in pursuitof goals, persistence against obstacles, tenacity
- Social Background: education, mobility
(Many studies showed that the traits in bold are especially prevailent in leaders)

Then came studies on behavior - how a leader acts and reacts to others -- is it autocratic leadership (one who centralizes authority and derives power from position) or democratic leadership (one who delegates authority to others, encourages participation, and relies on subordinates).

Next came leadership orientation: is the leader task-oriented or people oriented? Some roles of leadership require a leader to be more focused on one or the other; sometimes in the same position, a leader must adjust from being a task-oriented vs. people-oriented leader - think of it as a grid with four quadrants -- high-task, low people -- low task, low people -- low-task, high people -- high task, high people. (Ex of high-task, low people: assembly line manager. Ex of high-people, high task: CEO of a company facing peril).

Finally, there's theories that a good leader is a dynamic leader who adjusts his style based on the relationship between his followers and the situation, employing his traits, behaviors, and orientation to influence his followers and to produce a positive final outcome.

This stuff is in the first three chapters of a book required for class: The Leadership Experience Richard Daft.

A lot of it makes sense - the biggest thing for me is someone who has the right traits and behaviors and is dynamic to the point where he can adjust his leadership style to meet the situation at hand.

-Z-man.