“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the

compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader but becomes one by
equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.”

_ Douglas MacArthur. (Woodall, 2016)

The etymological foundation of leadership is “lead & leader”. The concept of leadership is as old
as the hills but the actual etymology is modern. Leadership was first used in the year 1821 when the
word leader was combined with the suffix “-ship” which represented the position of the leader. Nelson
Mandela once said that a leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the nimblest go out
ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind. In
this regard many theories have been developed which has treated leadership as a trait, skill, behavior,
process etc.

People all around the world are interested that how they can become an effective leader. The
concept of leadership has been the center of interest for many years and many philosophers,
practitioners and academics has tried to define it in many different ways. So it is wise to say that no
single definition of leadership exists, Is leadership a person, skill, position, style, behavior, relationship or
the combination of all the things? There exists a wide variety of theories and definitions that talks about
the complexities of leadership. It can be said that there exist many definitions of the leadership as there
are people who try to define it. The past studies and literature review shows that the definition and
concepts of leadership has evolved from being function of traits, behavior, process. The various
definitions of “leadership” have been reviewed by a number of authors including Carroll Shartle [1951],
Cecil Gibb [1954] and Bernard Bass [1960]. The commonality of the definitions is: a person, or persons,
exercises influence on others towards a goal or common purpose. That goal or common purpose is
sometimes not consciously known. Hence one possible definition is that readership is the process of
influencing people to direct their efforts toward the achievement of some particular goal or goals
(Greenwood, 1996). People usually confuse the word leadership with the management as they are
similar in many ways such as both involve creating influence, working with the people, effective goal
accomplishment etc. But it is to note here that both leadership and management are different that is
“Management is doing the right thing; leadership is doing the right things.”— Peter F. Drucker

“…the way leaders reacted to the pivotal moments in their lives played a critical role in
deciding what kind of leaders they became….” (CHUA, 2017)

When we go back in the history and study the biography of the great leaders, we will observe
that a great disparity and differences can be seen in their personality and the way they lead and guide
their followers. If we take the example of two great leaders from past that are Adolf Hitler and
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi also known as Mahatma Gandhi, we see that Adolf Hitler is looked upon
in the books of war and genocide whereas Mahatma Gandhi was a leader who opposed tyranny with
non-violence (CHUA, 2017). Some leaders have used the power and authority as in case of Hitler to lead
and some has used humbleness, empathy and such skills to help their followers. According to Warren
Bennis, leadership is the capacity to translate the vision into the reality. Only the difference is that
different leaders do it in different ways. Rudolf Hitler used his different traits to lead. Many considered
that he had specific personality traits that were necessary ingredient in order to be a great leader. In
order to be a great leader, a leader should know how to take full advantage of favorable circumstances
and this is what Hitler was master in. He was considered intelligent by his followers. Supervisory ability,
initiative, decisiveness, self- confidence, oratory skills and social intelligence were some of the traits and
characteristics that people thought Hitler had. That is why people considered him their leader. Although,
there were some traits such as narcissism i.e. overly self- confidant, self-centered and extremely over
ambitious etc. that were found in Rudolf Hitler that led to his failure. On the contrary if we take the
example of Gandhi, he was the leader who leads by example. He was considered the “bappu” i.e. father
in India (Leadership Style And Power Tactics Of Gandhi History Essay, 2018). He was not a born leader,
instead he was a simple man leading a simple life. Gandhi was highly trusted by his followers, given the
fact that he was not motivated to free India for personal self-interest, but for the betterment and
concern of the people (Leadership Style And Power Tactics Of Gandhi History Essay, 2018). He always
worked and strived for the betterment, empowerment and improvement of his people. Along with this
he gained lot of praise and admiration for show casing high moral and ethical values etc. and his vison,
inspiration, confidence and positive attitude motivated and enhanced the collective efficacy of the
people (Leadership Style And Power Tactics Of Gandhi History Essay, 2018).

“Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence, and inspiration.”

— Robin S. Sharma, Canadian writer and motivational speaker

The above-mentioned examples display two extremes of leadership styles and behavior. We can
say that there is a paradigm shift from power to empowerment. In this paper we will be mostly focusing
on two schools of leadership that are the trait theories or in other words great man theories and servant
leadership. Their definitions, advantages and disadvantages and differences will be discussed too.

From the early twentieth century, leadership theory has been dominated by power and
authority of the leader. Leaders in this paradigm have been associated with commanding, controlling,
being authoritarian and have shown an unwillingness to share power (M. Dambe, 2008). The great man
theory came in the early part of the twentieth century and mostly described the lives of famous
‘military, political and industrial leaders’ (Short and Greer 2002, 24). The great man theories focused on
to identify universal set of personal qualities which could be found in all leaders and not in followers but
this was unsuccessful because the traits varied widely from leader to leader (M. Dambe, 2008). The
great man theories fit under the power based/transactional concept because they clearly make a
distinction between leaders and followers. The great man theory emphasized leadership, which is based
on coercive or legitimate power, which is another characteristic that makes them fit within the power
based/ transactional paradigm. Leaders according to the great man and trait theories possessed a great
deal of power, based in their position and used it to get followers to comply (M. Dambe, 2008). For
instance, the principal can control the behavior and attitude of the faculty members by withholding
favorable rewards. These theories also emphasize a command and control mentality, a reward system,
which is entirely controlled by the leader and tasks that are carried out according to the leader’s wishes
(M. Dambe, 2008). Northouse (2007) gave a list of five traits that are essential for a leader to create a
successful followership. Those traits are “intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, and
sociability”. A leader must have the intelligence to detect any changes in the surrounding environment
and has the self-confidence and determination to make significant organizational changes (Lowder,
2009). In addition to the above-mentioned traits according to the great man approach a leader must
also demonstrate a high level of integrity and be able to instill this integrity and values in others
(Banutu-Gomez, 2004; Bennis, 1999). Also, the sociability trait provides the leader the ability to create
and enhance shared meaning and generate true followership (Lowder, 2009). During the era of great
man era researchers focused on great men (and some women) in the history of the world. They gave the
proposition that persons who inherited or copied their personalities and behaviors will become a strong
leader (Borgotta, Rouch and Bales, 1954; Galton, 1869). The important study during that period was
conducted by Bowden (1927), who equated leadership with personality (David A. Van Seters, 1990). The
downfall of this era came when it became eminent that every leader displays different set of personality
traits in different situation and also because of the fact that personalities are extremely difficult to
imitate (David A. Van Seters, 1990). Even though, the trait approach is highly criticized but there are
scholars and researchers that still believe that different traits and personality characteristics effects on
leader effectiveness. Stogdill is a very important name that should be mentioned when we talk about
the trait approach of leadership. He in his earlier work said that leadership is total based on situational
factors and personality traits do not have effect on leadership but, in his later studies he was of the view
that traits and personality characteristics does play an important role in leadership style. According to
the different researches it has been proved that successful leaders are different from other people in
core personality traits which plays an important role in their success. And by understanding these
personality traits that effect leader effectiveness can help organizations with their leader selection,
training, and development practices.

Now we will talk about totally different style of leadership i.e. servant leadership. The following
two famous sayings will give an idea about servant leadership.

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists…when his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
they will all say: We did it ourselves.”

— Lao-Tzu, an ancient philosopher and founder of Taoism

“Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence, and inspiration.”

— Robin S. Sharma, Canadian writer and motivational speaker

Servant leadership is all about putting your followers first and working for their betterment and
improvement. The idea of servant leadership hinges on the ideas of mutual power and influence,
collaborative and mutual follower participation, helps in high follower learning and mainly focuses on
empowering the follower. This shows that servant leadership supports the idea of decentralization,
collaboration, flexibility, adaptability etc. (Lowder, 2009). This leadership approach was given by Robert
Greenleaf (1970) who noted that some leaders have a natural feeling to serve others (M. Dambe, 2008).
We know that these two words “servant” and “leader” are totally opposite words. And Robert Greenleaf
brought these words together in a very meaningful and interesting way. Servant leadership is an
approach which focuses on leadership style of the leader and his or her behaviors. Servant leadership
emphasizes that leaders be attentive to the concerns of their followers, empathize with them, and
nurture them (g.Northouse, 2016). It’s all about putting your followers first and about developing them
to their full personal capacities. This can be done when the servant leaders truly understand the effects
their decisions have on their employees or followers and when they provide their followers with all the
necessary supplies they need to succeed (Oakleaf, 2016). Furthermore, Greenleaf noted that the
followers should be allowed to define their own needs according to the way they want to. Some of the
salient features associated with this approach include the leader’s commitment to the growth of the
followers spiritually, personally and professionally until they themselves become servant leaders (M.
Dambe, 2008). The best 10 characteristics that are necessary to develop servant leadership are listening
to the people around you, this aids in getting an idea about the needs of your followers. The next
important thing that a servant leader should have is the ability to empathize with followers and stand in
the shoes of the others and see things from their perspective. Healing is another important
characteristic of a servant leader which means the ability to make whole and care about the personal
well- being of others (g.Northouse, 2016). Awareness is yet another important trait a leader should
have. Other than this persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth
of people and building community are important traits a servant leader should possess. This approach
of servant leadership aids in building trust between the leaders and the followers to such a level that
they choose freely to work with each other instead of being forced to do so (M. Dambe, 2008). This type
of leadership is different from traditional leaders who work for the betterment of the organizations but
in this case servant leaders work for the betterment of its people and followers. A good leader is that
person with whom the followers or the people can relate to as we can see in the example of “Journey to
the East” in which the servant was the leader to the group of travelers. This type of leadership style is
being followed by some top-ranking companies. This is following the notion of “I serve because I am a
leader and I am a leader because I serve.” This type of leadership demands the leader to self-
demonstrate the characteristics and behaviors pf listening, empathy, healing, commitment of personal
growth, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship etc. Servant leadership seeks to move
management and personnel interaction away from "controlling activities" and toward a more synergistic
relationship among parties. (KENTON, 2019). Where there are many advantages of the servant
leadership, there is a lot of criticism is found against it. As in time of crisis such as meeting deadlines or
facing a new and difficult situation, it is not feasible to consult with everyone and get everyone’s
agreement. It takes much effort, time, required resources and support from members at every level in
order to promote this type of leadership style.

In this paper two different styles of leadership have been discussed. One being the trait
approach in which the great man theory was discussed. The other being the servant leadership in which
instead of micro-managing and pitching in your employees and followers a leader should focus on
coaching them and being a mentor to them. Right form of leadership style is very important for any
organization. It is very crucial for the proper functioning and management of all the areas, help in
maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency and not only this aid in achieving the organizational goals.
Not only at organizational level but it also influences the people and followers working under you in a
way that they undergo personal growth, work with motivation and strive willingly to work for the
betterment of the organization they work for. Without proper leadership there will be chaos and
confusion in an organization. No country, nation or an organization can make progress and development
and touch the peak of success without right style of leadership, governance and guidance. Therefore, it
can be said that great leaders are great simplifiers who can provide solutions that everybody can
understand.

“The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action — an
unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing
campaign — even as the rest of the world wonders why you’re not marching in step with the status
quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zig while others zag. They understand that in an era of
hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for
something special.”

-Bill Taylor (Qualtrics, 2018)

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