SUBIMTTED TO

(Mam Atiya Aftab)

Assignment #2
SUBMITTED BY
Asra farooq 10012720-059
Bilal Ahmad 10012720-063
Nayab Ahsan 10012720-065
Umair Majeed 10012720-083
Naveed Khan 10012720-094

Master in Business Administration
(Faculty of Management & Administrative Sciences)
University of Gujrat

Topic: leadership theories in practice

Understanding various leadership theories and knowing when to use each is critical. Theory is
important, because theories are constructed and tested by examining not just the successes but
also the failures. Failures are incredibly valuable for the lessons they hold, especially when they
properly balance successes.
In our book we deeply studied various theories of leadership which are as follows:
Trait
Skills
behavioral
Contingency
Situational
Path-goal
Leader-member exchange
But there are few more ways through which leadership can be done. David Burkus in his book
the portable guide to leading organizations explained two new theories through which
people can lead effectively. They are known as:
Servant leadership theory
Strengths based leadership theory
Servant leadership theory:
Servant Leadership is a recent theory of leadership that argues that the most effective leaders are
servants of their people. Servant leaders get results for their organization through whole-hearted
attention to their followers and followers needs. Unlike many approaches to leadership, which
offer suggestions on how top-level leaders can influence and motivate those further down the
hierarchy, servant leaders puts its emphasis on collaboration, trust, empathy and ethics. The
leader should be a servant first, leading from a desire to better serve others and not to attain more
power. The assumption is that if leaders focus on the needs and desires of followers, follower
will reciprocate through increased teamwork, deeper engagement and better performance.
Greenleaf first presented the theory in a 1970 essay, The Servant as Leader. However,
numerous others theorists have contributed to our understanding of servant leadership. One
theorist, Larry Spears, outlined ten characteristics of servant leaders by analyzing the writings of
Greenleaf. These ten characteristics are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion,
conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of others, and building
community. Servant leadership is one of the more popular theories of leadership, especially
among Christian leaders who vigorously cite Jesus as the penultimate example of servant
leadership. However, its effectiveness in organizations is still being debated. Many researchers
and theorists argue that servant leaders can become so focus on the needs of their followers, that
the needs of the organization suffer as a result. In any case, Servant leadership theory has a place
within the spectrum of leadership theory, as it represents the strongest emphasis on followers of
any theory.
Strengths based leadership:
Strengths-Based Leadership Theory (also known as Strengths-Based Organizational
Management or SBOM) is a method of maximizing the efficiency, productivity, and success of
an organization by focusing on and continuously developing the strengths of organizational
resources, such as computer systems, tools, and people. At the core of the strengths-based
leadership is the underlying belief that people have several times more potential for growth
building on their strengths rather than fixing their weaknesses. A strength is defined as the ability
to exhibit near-perfect performance consistently in a given activity. Strengths-based
organizations dont ignore weaknesses, but rather, focuses on building talents and minimizing
the negative effects of weaknesses. Strengths-based leaders are always investing in their
strengths and the strengths of individuals on their team. Rath and Conchie put forth three tenants
of Strengths-based leadership: (1) Effective leaders invest in their followers strengths, (2)
Effective leaders build well-rounded teams out of followers who are not and (3) Effective leaders
understand the needs of followers. Strengths-based leadership theory is supported by over 30
years of research from the Gallup Organization and others. Recent research has found that when
leading teams, strengths-based leadership causes individual team member efficacy to increase,
but collective team efficacy to decrease, suggesting that it is not an optimal method for leading
teams where cohesion is necessary.