Eadership style and skills using relevant theories and examples Essay

Eadership style and skills using relevant theories and examples - Essay Example This essay discusses that along with the emergence of the new global economy, the need for effective management and leadership has become all the more important and crucial. Global business organizations have increasingly realized the need for effective leadership and its capacities to leverage the collective knowledge in the organization and which consequently depends largely on the quality and effectiveness of the leaders. Known for its ability to influence the minds of people and directing their activities and actions towards a required desired direction, leaders have emerged as one of the most crucial components in the management of organizations. In fact the future and fate of organizations significantly depends on the presence of leaders. Some of the most famous multinational organizations in the world, such as Microsoft and General Electric has successfully attained fast pace of growth because of the initiative and efforts taken by their leaders. Extensive researches have been conducted to identify the traits of leaders. It is seen that leadership traits or styles can vary significantly between individuals and this greatly depends on the personality that he is born with or the situations under which he emerges as the leaders. However, certain theorists are of the opinion that leaders are not made, they are born with leadership qualities. Thus it is important to make a thorough understanding of the leadership style that an individual should adopt depending on his character, personality, traits or the situation in which he adopts leadership styles. In the context of a large organization, it must understand which style of leadership would be suitable for it to take it towards success and growth (Gitlow, 2004, p.1-2). This project seeks to make an analysis of one’s leadership style and skills using relevant theories and examples. The views of researchers and authors are provided to make a critical analysis of the subject. Following with the identifica tion of the style of leadership suggestions are made with regards to the ways in which it can be enhanced in order to find usage in different situations (Okafor, 2009, p.81). Analysis of own leadership skills using leadership theories Leadership theories primarily focus on the differences in attributes between the leaders and the followers. However, recently there has been a shift in emphasis in this regard and subsequent theories have emerged which considers variables like situational factors, skill levels etc. Trait theory of leadership The trait theory of leadership provides a list of qualities or traits which are associated with leadership. The theory identifies some of the key characteristics which are associated with the great and successful leaders. The general belief was that people having such key characteristics would make great leaders and so therefore they were recruited for the leadership positions in the organization (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano & Dennison, 2003, p.6). However, the trait theory is not free from criticisms. After the identification of the traits several researches were conducted, however, the subsequent researches revealed that no such consistent traits could be identified. Although certain traits were found in many of the studies, most of the research results remained inconclusive. Researchers have claimed that although certain traits have been identified as being typical of the leaders, their mere absence does not necessarily mean that these people would not make good leaders (Bolden, Gosling,