Great Man, Trait, and Other Leadership Theories Case Study

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Leaders

There is no use denying the fact that the world is ruled by people who are able to make other people follow them. There is a great number of different ways to become a ruler, however, if a person is able to do it without force, just using his/her personal qualities, it means that he/she is a good leader and is able to make people believe him/her and follow any ideas which are suggested by him/her. That is why, the issue of leadership obtains great importance. It is vital to understand what qualities are peculiar to a good leader and what makes him/her so convincing and powerful. There is a great number of different approaches to leadership analysis of which can help to understand the nature of leadership better.

One of the first theories connected with leadership is called Great Man theory. It states that some people are born to be leaders and, moreover, they appear in times when they are needed most of all. That is why, they are able to develop qualities which make people follow them and listen to their words. (Northouse 2013). However, nowadays this theory is considered to be outdated as it is believed that leadership qualities can be developed. Trait theory appeared later and, that is why, it states that people are “either born or are made with certain qualities that will make them excel in leadership roles” (Leadership theories n.d., para.3).

That is why, some qualities are important for a good leader. Additionally, there is a Behavioural theory which states that actions of a leader are the most important aspect which makes people follow a person. Moreover, Instrumental theory suggests that leadership depends on the attention given to details and tasks (Antonakis & House 2014), while the theory of Expressive leadership determines a leader as a person who gives more attention to people. With this in mind, it is possible to analyse the issue of leadership taking into account great number of different theories.

Nevertheless, it should be said that according to these theories different qualities make a person a good leader. Instrumental leaders should be organised and, moreover, be able to make people work efficiently by outlining certain tasks and showing what steps should be done in order to accomplish these tasks, while expressive leaders have such personal qualities as enthusiasm. charisma and good rhetoric (Transactional Leadership n.d). That is why, instrumental leaders can sometimes be similar to efficient managers (Leadership vs. Management n.d).

It is obvious, that different leaders have different impact on people. It depends on the set of qualities which these leaders possess and the way in which they prefer to manage people. If a leader encourages his/her followers with the help of emotional support or motivation, people will feel relief and confidence, while other leaders can use another methods such as pressure or some other ways of stimulating which will increase efficiency though will not stabilise emotional state of a person.

Having analysed these different approaches, it is possible to make certain conclusion. It should be said that knowledge obtained from this analysis can be used n practice. It is possible for a person to analyse his/her own qualities and, taking into account different theories of leadership and different kinds of leaders, try to develop some certain traits of his/her character to be able to create some special approach which can be used in business in order to increase incomes of some company by engaging people..

Reference List

Antonakis, J & House, R 2014, ‘Instrumental leadership: Measurement and extension of transformational–transactional leadership theory’, The Leadership Quarterly, vol. 25, pp. 746-771.

n.d. Web.

n.d. Web.

Northouse, P 2013, Leadership: theory and practice, SAGE publications, Thousand Oaks.

n.d. Web.

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