Leadership

Leadership is an important issue of managership: the ability to lead effectively is one of the keys to being an effective manager. The essence of leadership is followership. People tend to follow those who provide a means of achieving their own wants and needs. Leadership and motivation are closely interconnected. By understanding motivation, we can appreciate better what people want and why they act as they do.

The skill in the art of leadership consists of four ingredients:

-        the ability to inspire;

-        the ability to appreciate that people have different motivations at different times and in different situations;

-        the ability to use power effectively and in a responsible manner;

-        the ability to develop a climate facilitating responding to and arousing motivations.

Two major functions of leadership are problem solving functions and social functions.

The three basic leadership styles are described as autocratic, democratic and free-rein leader.

The autocratic leader commands and expects compliance and leads by giving rewards and punishment. The democratic leader consults with subordinates on proposed actions and decisions and encourages participation from them. The free-rein leader uses his power very little, giving subordinates a lot of independence in their operations.

Finally, a manager’s choice of leadership style must address such things as the organisation’s preferred style, the size and cohesiveness of a specific work group, the nature of the coup’s tasks, the pressures of time and even environmental factors.