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Leadership and Motivation MGT 5206 Assessment Task #2

Done by: Sandakova Olga ID# 20084753

I declare this work to be my own, original work and not appropriated from any other source except where cited.

Word Count: 1167

Table of Content: Introduction ........................................................................................................3 The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. (Andre Maurois)........................................................................................3 Conclusion.............................................................................................................5

Introduction
There are a lot of qualities that can be treated as leadership. For example, such acquired qualities as mentoring, organizing, supportive leadership or such personal characteristics as charisma and strong moral values. But does it mean that person who has these qualities can use them right in different situations? Or does it mean that just to have all these characteristics will help to be acknowledged as a leader? There are a lot of explanations of words leadership and leader. Definitions were slightly changed during the time to reflect changes in the economies, companies and peoples behaviors. Nevertheless core meaning is staying the same. "Leadership is the behavior of an individual. . . directing the activities of a group toward a shared goal" (Hemphill & Coons, 1957, p 5) or it is "the process of influencing the activities of an organized group toward goal achievement" (Rauch & Behling, 1984, p 46) and "Leadership is the process of making sense of what people are doing together so that people will understand and be committed" (Drath & Palus, 1994). In every single definition can be seen the importance and value of group of people that should be taught, coached, guided and controlled (Chris Clarke-Epstein, 2002). This group of people is necessity for every leader because only followers are able to acknowledge leader as such.

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. (Andre Maurois)
Usually to define the leader, people try to find some important qualities or characteristics such as sociability, self confidence, intelligence. These characteristics were identified as leadership traits long time ago and were structured as one of leadership theory, called Trait Theory. To understand leadership role of the person it is important to identify his personal qualities. During 1940-1950 several researches and studies were conducted to identify what kind of characteristics person should obtain to be admitted as leader. In 1948 by Stogdill was examined more than 100 studies based on the trait approach. He uncovered several traits that appeared consistent with effective leadership, including general intelligence, initiative, interpersonal skills, self-confidence, drive for responsibility, and personal integrity. (Richard L. Draft, 2008) But just to have such personal characteristics is not enough to be the acknowledged as effective leader. The most important thing is to apply these leadership traits to organize followers to behave toward shared goals. Therefore, as Stogdill concluded, the qualities, characteristics and skills required in a leader are determined ... by the demands of the situation ...". (Stogdill, 1974)

Application of leadership traits in appropriate situation shows the ability of leader to integrate with followers and means to be acknowledged as such. Witness for this can be driven from Lewin studies at the University of Lowa that was conducted in 1930th. Researches were done to identify the combination of traits, skills and behaviors leaders use when they interact with followers. By the results were found two types of basic styles of leadership: Autocratic and Democratic. According to Autocratic leadership style the leader makes all the decisions, tells people what to do and closely monitors employees. (Paul Davis, 2011, slide 8) Democratic Leadership Style related to the leaders that encourage participation in decisions, work with employees to determine what to do and does not closely monitor employees. (Paul Davis, 2011, slide 8) Later on in 1950th these studies were continued by University of Michigan and Ohio State University. During that study was identified two types of leadership behavior Job Centered and Employee Centered, which are closely related to the leadership styles. As the results of researches was found that in order to implement traits and behaviors leader should have the leadership style to interplay with people. What kind of integration should be between leaders and followers to achieve outstanding long term results? In 1978th by Burns was formalized the theory about Transformational leadership. This type of leaders has abnormal intrapersonal skills and charisma that give them to ability to empower the followers and better integrate with them. By the words of Bernard M. Bass in his book The Bass Handbook of Leadership, transformational leaders are those who people have in mind when they describe the ideal leader and are more likely to provide a role model with which subordinates want to identify. Transformational leaders better structure and organize job; and at the same time they always ready to share power and develop followers. These actions and behavior encourage subordinates to trust and acknowledge leadership quality in the person. Leadership acknowledgement is one of the important factors in terms of preparation and conversion followers to the leaders. If person is empowered and motivated he will be able to become next leader and by this, give opportunity for the current for further development and enhancement. This is accomplished with Servant Theory that was formulated in 1977 by Greenleaf based on his own work experience. Nowadays Servant Theory is also actual; leaders in international companies try to find, organize and empower subordinates to move further by the career path. By the terns of followers, they fill themselves as self actualized and encouraged for the further achievements.

Conclusion
In conclusion, it does seem that there are four main points can be drawn. First of all, every leader should have acquired or/and personal qualities to be identified as leader. But to be acknowledged as such person should be able to show democratic leadership style and behavior. Secondly, accepted or recognized leader should be able to empower, motivate and interact with followers in that way to share the leadership power with subordinates, as transformational leaders do. It helps them to gain the recognition and acknowledgement from followers. And the third point is that only subordinates can acknowledge leader as such, therefore it is very important for the leader to actively participate with the future development of followers.

List of Reference:

6 1. Bernard M. Bass (2008). Charismatic Transformational Leadership Theory. The Bass

Handbook of Leadership (pp.50). New York: Free Press, A division of Simon & Shuster, Inc.
2. James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (2007). The Leadership Challenge. United States

of America: John Wiley& Sons, Inc.

3. Joseph C. Rost (1993). Leadership for the twenty-first century (p 51). United States of

America: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc.

4. Peter G. Northouse (2010). Leadership: Theory and Practice. United States of America:

SAGE Publications, Inc.

5. Robert N. Lusser & Christopher F. Achua (2010). Leadership Theory, Application &

Skill Development. United States of America: South-Western Cengage Learning.

6. Stogdill, R. (1974). Handbook of Leadership: A Survey of the Literature. New York: Free

Press.
7. Paul Davis (2011). Lecture Slides 6 and 7.