Essentials of Leadership

A. Nature of Leadership
There are two main approaches to leadership- traitist and situationist.In the early times leadership was considered to originate from the personal qualities of the leader and insufficient attention was given to the contribution of the group structure and situation. The early studies focused their attention on certain traits to compare leaders with non leaders. Gibb remarked that the leader traits are relative to a specific social situation and are not exhibited in isolation. He pointed out that attempts to find a consistent pattern of traits that characterize leaders had failed and said that the attributes of leadership are any or all of those personality characteristics that in any particular situation make it possible for a person either to contribute to achievement of a group goal or to be seen as doing so by other group members. The person who becomes a leader surpasses others in some qualities required by the goal in the particular situation. He writes leadership is both a function of these two interactions. The situationist approach to leadership provides a corrective to the traitist approach which regarded leaders as uniquely superior individuals who would lead in whatever situation or time they might find themselves. This approach emphasizes that leadership is specific to a specific situation. It is a way of behaving exhibited by individuals in differing degrees in different situations. A leader in one group is not necessarily a leader in another. A leader in the class may not be a leader in the playground. Though leadership may be considered as behavior specific to a given situation yet it does not mean that there is no generality of traits on the basis of which certain persons may be rated leaders. Carter noted that if leadership is absolutely specific to a given situation then it cannot be a subject of scientific analysis and generalization. Leader is necessarily a part of a group and leadership is status and role in that group. It is obvious that leadership can occur only in relation to other people. No one can be a leader all by himself. The relationships which the leader bears to other individuals are status and role relationships. He is part of the group structure and as such he carries on reciprocal relationship with other members of the group. These relationships define his role in the group. When leadership is viewed as a status in a group structure and a role defined by reciprocal relations with others in the particular structure it is easy to understand why there cannot be a generalization of traits characteristic of leaders.

B. Leadership Traits and Behavior Leadership Theory

A good place to start any survey of leadership theory is with the overarching model proposed by organizational researcher Gary Yukl. His work comprehensively reviews many of the leadership elements and theories experts in the field have developed in recent years. Becoming familiar with these theories will help you to better understand the Army Leadership Requirements Model and improve your leadership skills.

Trait Theory
Leadership trait theory focuses on the leaders values and beliefs; personality; need for achievement or acceptance; orientation to power; gender; confidence; and mental, physical, and emotional attributes. Early leadership trait theory assumed that people were born with specific traits and that some traits aligned with strong leadership. People with the right traits would become the best leaders. But how do you identify the common traits of good leaders? That was one of the many questions surrounding the study of leadership questions that led to further research. From about 1930 until 1950, research methods for studying social and psychological issues were not as sophisticated as they are today. When psychologists tried to replicate the studies, for example, they were not always successful. Researchers knew their inquiries were important because they seemed to point to the correlations between traits and leaders. But the inability to obtain the same results when repeating the studies raised further questions. Why couldnt researchers scientifically replicate these results? Some researchers pointed to the inherent difficulty in measuring a human personality trait. How do you effectively and consistently measure confidence or loyalty, for example? Still further questions arose about the impact of the particular situation or the followers attitudes on the leaders behavior and performance. Research into these and other issues led to the birth of additional leadership theories in the 1950s and 1960s. One key idea that led to new thinking about leadership was behavioral theory.

Behavioral Theory
As the questions about how to measure traits continued to challenge trait theory, researchers began thinking about measuring behavior. While you cant easily measure confidence or loyalty in a person, they noted, you can define a behavior or a set of behaviors that seem to embody the trait. Researchers define behaviors as observable actions, which makes measuring them more scientifically valid than trying to measure a human personality trait. Behavioral theory contains some very different assumptions from trait theory. Trait theory assumes that a leader is bornwith specific traits that make him or her a good leader. Behavioral theory, on the other hand, assumes that you can learn to become a good leader because you are not drawing on personality traits. Your actionswhat you dodefine your leadership ability.

Contingency Approaches to Leadership

Contingency Theory and Situational Leadership

The findings from the studies youve already considered led to contingency theory. According to contingency theory, what works for a leader in one situation may not work in another. This theory attempts to explain why a leader who is very successful in one situation may fail when transplanted to another or when the situation changes. While researchers have proposed several contingency theories, one of the most famous was developed originally by P. Hersey and K. H. Blanchard. In 1982 these researchers developed what they termed situational leadership theory. Like Blake and Moutons leadership grid, situational leadership uses styles of leadership that align with the task versus people orientation. But this leadership theory holds that a leaders most appropriate action or behavior depends on the situation and on the followers. According to Hersey and Blanchard, the motivation and the abilities of your Soldiers will affect your decisions in a given situation. They group leaders into four styles of leadership: delegating, supporting, coaching, and directing. Their theory assumes that each of these leadership styles can be effective depending on the development level of the individual or people you are leading. In this theory, then, how you lead isnt a question merely of you and your skills and abilitiesit also depends heavily on your Soldiers abilities and attitudes.

Issue in Leadership Development

Traditionally, leadership development has focused on developing the leadership abilities and attitudes of individuals. Just as people are not all born with the ability or desire to play football (soccer) like Zinedine Zidane or sing like Luciano Pavarotti, people are not all born with the ability to lead. Different personal traits and characteristics can help or hinder a person's leadership effectiveness[1] and require formalized programs for developing leadership competencies [2] Yet everyone can develop their leadership effectiveness. Achieving such development takes focus, practice and persistence more akin to learning a musical instrument than reading a book.[3] Classroom-style training and associated reading is effective in helping leaders to know more about what is involved in leading well. However, knowing what to do and doing what you know are two very different outcomes; management expert Henry Mintzberg is one person to highlight this dilemma. It is estimated that as little as 15% of learning from traditional classroom style training results in sustained behavioral change within the workplace.[4] The success of leadership development efforts has been linked to three variables: [5]

Individual learner characteristics The quality and nature of the leadership development program Genuine support for behavioral change from the leader's supervisor

Military officer training academies, such as the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, go to great lengths to only accept candidates who show the highest potential to lead well.[6] Personal characteristics that are associated with successful leadership development include leader motivation to learn, a high achievement drive and personality traits such as openness to experience, an internal focus of control, and self-monitoring. Development is also more likely to occur when the design of the development program:

Integrates a range of developmental experiences over a set period of time (e.g. 6 12 months). These experiences may include 360 degree feedback, experiential classroom style programs, business school style coursework, executive coaching, reflective journaling, mentoring and more. Involves goal setting, following an assessment of key developmental needs and then evaluate the achievement of goals after a given time period.

Among key concepts in leadership development one may find:

Experiential learning: positioning the individual in the focus of the learning process, going through the four stages of experiential learning as formulated by David A. Kolb: 1. concrete experience 2. observation and reflection 3. forming abstract concept 4. testing in new situations. Self efficacy: The right training and coaching should bring about 'Self efficacy' in the trainee, as Albert Bandura formulated: A person's belief about his capabilities to produce effects

Visioning: Developing the ability to formulate a clear image of the aspired future of an organization unit.

A good personal leadership development program should enable you to develop a plan that helps you gain essential leadership skills required for roles across a wide spectrum from a youth environment to the corporate world.