Definition of Leadership
Leadership can be understood as the ability to instigate motivation amongst others that results in the improvement in the quality of the work. Leadership is a trait necessary for an executive to influence the attitude of the worker towards the work thereby influencing the overall efficiency of the work itself. One can define leadership as the capacity of an executive to enhance the degree of accomplishment of certain goals. Positivity, confidence, and willingness are some responses that leaders bring forth in their subordinates.
Due to its abstractness as a quality, it can’t be achieved in a fortnight. However, its presence does make substantial changes in the quality of the work, work environment, and the overall organization. The purpose of leadership for any manager or any other authority figure is to help their teams or subordinates to realize and visualize a well-defined objective. This realization and encouragement carry out the fulfillment of goals.
Leadership traits
- Leadership is the effective communication and professional rapport managers engage in influential tasks for accomplishing business goals.
- Leadership definition incorporates the intermingling of various other traits like emotional intelligence, communication skills, maturity, etc.
- Leadership cannot be practiced at an individual level. It is important that there be interactive engagement amongst a group of individuals.
- Efficient leaders are conscious of their resource disposal and its inherent management.
- There is no singular approach to leadership. Innovative methods and cost reducing ideas are acceptable so long as they are adept to maximizes the efficiency.
- It is crucial that employees are provided with the necessary information and insight in order to realize and implement the vision.
- Conflict management and problem-solving abilities are innate to the duties of a leader.
- Leaders need creative thought processes for crisis management and tackling emergent issues.
- Leadership definitions are inclusive of development initiatives and organizational vision. Thus it requires the delivery of ideas and vision with clarity.
- Leaders need effective decision-making skills. So much so that they can take firm decisions in a difficult situation. Leaders must stand accountable for the decisions that they take.
- For the purpose of practicing leadership in a way that it works practically leaders delegate. Delegation invokes division of work, enhancement of the pace of work and accomplishment of goals.
- There is an inherent need for integrity within a leader and this quality is what makes them reliable and trustworthy in their work.
Importance of Leadership
The necessity and significance of leadership lie in the various activities that it instigates. It is functional in multiple aspects of work. Some of which includes:
- CREATING POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT: Leadership is about creating holistic work environments wherein every employee finds growth opportunities. Managers can’t merely be authority figures who aim to get the job done but ones who provide guidance to all. They need to be engaged at the level of the individual to identify with the problems of their employees and find functional solutions.
- COORDINATION: Leaders are visionaries who ensure that the individual level work has the capacity in it to contribute to the overall organizational goals and purposes be it in a direct or indirect manner. Thereby leadership is important because it ensures an alignment in the individual goals with that of the organizational goals.
- SUPERVISION: Leaders by definition are supervisors but their work involves the task to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their subordinates and in turn guide the employees in their respective work accordingly.
- UNDERTAKING INITIATION: Leaders are the ones who initiate the tasks after clarifying upon the strategies and approach to the work. They prioritize the work to be undertaken first and implement upon it.
- CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND MORAL SUPPORT: Leaders take in charge of a crisis situation and support their employees through the course of the problem. They do so by building trust amongst their employees and cooperation that ensures the accomplishment of goals despite the hurdles.
- CONFIDENCE BUILDING: Being honest about the requirements, expectations, and demands of the work undertaken can go a long way in building confidence amongst the employees towards the work. This works well at an individual level and at the level of the team.
- MOTIVATION: Leaders need to instigate inspiration towards the work that their employees undertake. A willingness and enthusiasm need to be incorporated. Leadership Definition finds motivation as its foundation quality and thereby leaders in any workspace build an inspired team of professionals under their supervision.
Understanding Leader against Manager
Managers are supervisors and authority figure who need to be leaders essentially. To define leadership as being a Manager, however, is to overlook the distinct qualities of leaders that make them stand out from the otherwise typical authority figure. While the employees merely follow the instructions of a manager, they are led by a leader and that is the distinction.
A manager performs the tasks of organizing, planning, staffing, directing and monitoring. This is fundamental to the job of the manager. To acquire the position of a leader, the manager needs to incorporate and practice the qualities of a leader.
Management alone can be an impersonal activity that is instructive and may not necessarily involve emotional quotient. The disengagement in building professional rapport amongst one another can cost the manager with problems. There can be miscommunication and issues that may be too difficult to resolve. However, Leadership is a way in which the followers feel free and willing to undertake tasks allocated to them. It is the ability to practice ideologies in a way that it remains impactful ever after decades.
Leadership by definition is a skill that needs to be internalized by regular and devout practice. So managers can become leaders. They may also be in the process of being better leaders in the professional sphere.
The task of management is such that it is mutually inclusive to leadership.
All in all, at the level of the individual, the definition of leadership is flexible and can be personalized depending upon the individual’s vision and beliefs.
It is a quality that channelizes improvement in all dimensions of one’s professional pursuits.
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