Introduction
Leadership is a critical ability that enables one to influence others in accomplishing an objective. In business, leadership entails strategic thinking in fulfilling a task to attain the objective of the organisation.
Leadership skills play a crucial role in determining the performance as organisations operate in the market and compete against each other.
Successful leaders are able to solve problems, understand people and the social systems clearly, as well as be in a position to accumulate knowledge for purposes of organising information.
This paper seeks to discuss the concept of leadership. The paper discusses the significant role of leadership in business, leadership advantages in the industry, and its importance in business.
Leadership Approach
The Trait Approach
Leadership traits refer to comparatively stable, along with logical, combinations of personal characteristics. All these encourage consistent leadership performance (Zaccarro et al., 2004, p. 104).
The trait theorists looked at leadership on the basis of the characteristics that are commonly exhibited by individuals.
Among the notable traits highlighted by this school of thought include drive, leadership motivation, honesty and integrity, understanding business, as well as self-confidence and cognitive skills.
The drive trait is a compound characteristic that involves achievement, ambition, energy, and motives. Additionally, it also reflects on tenacity and initiative with regard to high effort level (Daft, 2008, p. 38).
The leadership motivation trait, on its part, emphasizes the need for leaders to possess a strong desire that can effectively influence the actions and thoughts of others.
Honesty and integrity must be present for the leaders and their followers to build a formidable foundation of trust between them (Derue et al., 2011, p. 7).
Great Person Theory
This theory came into existence in the early 1900s as early researchers on leadership attempted to study the concept. In particular, this school of thought focused on establishing inherent characteristics and qualities that leaders possessed.
It considered various leaders who existed at the time in society, including social, military, and political leaders.
The trait theory, however, has witnessed a shift in its general perspective, with researchers concentrating mainly on traits that interacted with the situational demands that leaders faced in the period between 1930 and 1950s (Great Person Theory Of Leadership, 2010, n.p.).
The perspective shifted to personality and behaviours between the 1970s and the early 1990s, with the main focus being on the revival of the significant role of traits with regard to leadership effectiveness.
Five Factor Personality Model
This theory identifies five personality factors that it describes as crucial for any leader. They include neuroticism, extraversion, and openness, in addition to agreeableness and conscientiousness.
An effective leader must exhibit strong extraversion qualities, which imply being highly sociable and assertive.
The next important personality characteristic that a leader has to exhibit is conscientiousness, which means being thorough in one’s performance and roles and exhibiting high levels of organisation, dependability, and decisiveness.
Strengths and Criticisms of the Traits Theory
The trait approach makes it easy to determine effective leaders from ineffective leaders. It is possible for a recruiting firm to identify a leader from amongst many applicants through interviews that specifically evaluate one’s traits.
Additionally, managers can use this approach to establish their exact stand and determine their strengths and weaknesses. However, this approach fails to fix an ultimate list enumerating the most significant leadership traits.
Equally, the trait approach does not consider particular situations when determining the characteristics of an effective leader.
The Skill Approach
The skills approach considers the specific abilities, as well as knowledge that an individual possesses. Particular skills have been noted as being significant in determining remarkable leadership capabilities in individuals (Lussie, 2012, p. 338).
The skills approach mainly concentrates on the leader as the main rationale of its discussion, while basing its arguments on the abilities and skills that can make one emerge as a successful leader (Mackenzie, & Barnes, 2007, p. 92). A successful leader must be in a position to use his knowledge and competencies in fulfilling specified goals and objectives.
Two models have been proposed by researchers studying leadership. The models include the three-skill model as projected by Robert Katz and the skills model as proposed by Michael Mumford and other colleagues.
Three-skill model (Robert Katz)
The three-skill model identifies three important abilities required of each leader. These abilities are described as technical skills, conceptual skills, in addition to human skills. The technical skill refers to the understanding held by a leader concerning proficiency and competency in any given role.
For example, some computer software require a person to have special skills to operate them. Such software include MySQL and SPSS.
The human skill, on the other hand, provides an individual with the capacity to work together or mutually with other people. Human skills are competencies that help people to interact with one another in workplaces.
In organisations, it is important for individuals to be able to communicate with colleagues and work in teams without any difficulties (Northouse, 2007, p. 37).
Conceptual abilities are the competencies that help a person conceptualize ideas. A leader with conceptual skills understands actions and measures in advance, thereby realising the appropriate decisions expected of any situation or action.
Skills-Based Model (Capability Model)
Mumford et al. (2000, p. 23) identify up to five significant components that form the basis of the skills-based model. They include individual attributes, competencies, environmental influences, leadership outcomes, as well as the career experiences.
The skills model focuses on the affiliation between the skills and knowledge held by a leader, otherwise referred to as the specific capabilities, and the performance of the leader. The specific capabilities required of any leader can be acquired by means of daily experience or education.
Individual Attributes
At the individual level, a leader needs four critical individual attributes. These include general cognitive skill, crystallised cognitive skill, motivation, and personality. The cognitive ability of a person helps the person to view things intelligently.
Such a person is able to process information and come up with creative ideas. People acquire knowledge over time, a concept that is well known as crystallised cognition.
Motivation, on its part, focuses on three important aspects of willingness to deal with complex issues in the organisation, readiness to convey dominance, and dedication to perform the organization’s social good (Mumford et al. 2000, p. 23).
The personality attribute helps in coping with challenging situations in the organisation.
Competencies
It involves skills in solving problems, social judgment, as well as knowledge in general. Problem-solving ability refers to the capability to unravel new or unusual organisational problems that are ill-defined.
A person who is able to coexist with other people in the society, as well as the societal systems put in place is said to exhibit apt skills in social judgement.
Knowledge refers to the information accumulated in one’s mind that helps in solving problems through appropriate strategies (Mumford et al. 2000, p. 23). Leadership outcome is achieved as a result of solving problems effectively and practically taking part in the performance.
Leaders are also shaped by factors that are present in the environment. These factors are outside what the leader has acquired through learning and personal experience. They include technology, task complexity, and subordinates’ competencies.
Criticism of the Skill Approach
This leadership approach explores leadership in a simplistic manner that does not explore leadership in a critical manner.
Equally, this approach is weak when it comes to its predictive value. In other words, the approach fails to explain the exact manner in which skills result in effective leadership performance.
The Style Approach
This approach focuses on the behaviours exhibited by a leader. In particular, the style approach identifies two significant kinds of behaviours that include task and relationship behaviours (Badenhorst-Weiss, Brevis, & Cant, 2008, p. 66).
The task behaviours are critical in terms of enabling the attainment of goals, especially through helping group members to achieve their objectives. The junior staffs in an organisation easily interact with one another in the workplace when they exhibit relationship behaviours.
The Leadership Grid
This theory was founded on the premise of the production and relationship orientations that were discovered following the studies that were previously conducted at the Ohio State University.
The grid gives five styles of leadership that are based on behaviour. However, these behaviour styles are based on the concern that a leader expresses towards people.
An individual leader who does not emphasise on production or the people practises impoverished management. A country-club kind of manager emphasises more on the people, while placing less concern on production.
In comparison, a task manager emphasises his concerns for production, but ignores the subordinates’ concerns to a large extent (Mackenzie, & Barnes, 2007, p. 92). In between the extremes is a type of leader referred to as the “middle-of-the-road” manager.
This is the kind of a leader who attempts to strike a balance in his concerns about the production and the people.
The leadership grid further incorporated two other leadership styles, which include the paternalism and opportunism styles.
A leader whose style is paternalism executes his leadership roles graciously with goal achievement in his mind. The opportunism leader, conversely, acts by incorporating any of the essential five styles to achieve personal advancement (Mackenzie & Barnes, 2007, p. 93).
Strengths of Style Approach
This approach has widened the range of leadership studies and research compared to the skill and trait approaches.
While it focuses on the behaviours as the defining aspect of effective leadership, this approach also incorporates the different situations involved.
The style approach is renowned for its identification of the leadership mainstay by highlighting task and relationship as the most significant components in leadership.
Conclusion
Numerous studies and researches have been undertaken by scholars to define and understand the leadership concept in detail. These studies have been grouped into three significant categories that include the traits approach, the skills approach, and the style approach.
Early scholars defined leadership in terms of trait exhibited by individuals. Their main argument bordered on the belief that leaders are born with inherent leadership traits. This denounced the thought that anybody could be a leader.
The skills approach identifies a set of talents or capabilities that an effective leader must possess.
The style approach, on the other hand, focuses on behaviour as the most defining aspect of leadership. It bases its argument on the leadership grid, which defines concern for people and concern for tasks as the bases for identifying a leader.
List of References
Badenhorst-Weiss, H, Brevis, T, & Cant, M 2008, Business management: a contemporary approach, Juta & Co, Cape Town
Daft, RL 2008, The leadership experience, Thomson, Mason, OH.
Derue, DS, Nahrgang, JD, Wellman, N, & Humphrey, SE 2011, ‘Trait and behavioral theories of leadership: An integration and meta-analytic test of their relative validity’, Personnel Psychology, vol. 64, pp. 7-52.
Great Person Theory Of Leadership 2010, n.p.: Gale Virtual Reference Library, EBSCOhost, .
Lussie, RN 2012, Management fundamentals: concepts, applications, skill development, 5th ed, Cengage, Mason, OH.
Mackenzie, KD, & Barnes, FB 2007, ‘The unstated consensus of leadership approaches’, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 92-118.
Mumford, MD, Zaccaro, SJ, Connelly, MS, & Marks, MA 2000, ‘Leadership skills: Conclusions and future directions’, Leadership Quarterly, vol. 11, no 1, p 23-170.
Northouse, PG 2007, Leadership: Theory and practice, 4th ed, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA