A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them

together.
Leadership Theories, Styles and Approaches
What is Leadership?
A simple enough question but one that evokes many perspectives and different
answers.
We all have our own experiences and views of Leadership both at a personal, home,
work, organization, community, cultural, sporting, political, local, national and
international level.
Leadership for many has been about the future, the vision, the goals and inspiration.
For others it has been about service, leading others through serving them. Others have
seen that Leadership is all about power and control.
In all of this the term leader infers that there are followers. Individuals may jump
between the two being the Leader in one situation and the follower in the other.
However if it follows that Leaders have followers then Leaders influence others.
Leaders seek to influence the actions, beliefs and the feelings of others.
This is a complex process: effective leadership requires the leaders qualities and
skills to connect with people and their needs as well as the needs of the leadership
situation.

The main approaches to leadership theory are:
The Qualities or Traits approach: leaders are born, not made; leadership consists of
certain inherited personality traits or qualities.
In this approach, we could say that leaders since they were born they already
have that potentialities and personalities that are meant only for leaders.
The Functional or Group approach: leadership can be learned and developed.
Focuses on the accountabilities, responsibilities and functions of the leader and the
nature of the group.
To be called as a great leader comes with great responsibility and accountability.
Leaders should not stop discovering things that could help them develop their
leadership styles so they can run or manage their organization in the most
effective way.
Behavioural styles approach: focuses on the behaviour of people in leadership
positions, the importance of leadership style and how it influences group performance.
This approach focuses on how a certain leader influences his group of followers
for them to be more functional. If a leader shows higher level of performance at
work, definitely, he can expect the best performance from his group members.

Characteristics of three types of Leadership
Coercive Style:
a) Leader directed
b) Authoritarian control over group
c) Imposition of tasks and aims etc
d) Hierarchical structure necessary for goal to be achieved
e) Conformity required
f) Rigid framework/rules have to be imposed
g) Task or orientated outcome.
"Do as I say." The style is most effective when an organization or group is faced
with a crisis. This can range from dealing with ineffective employees to a
complete turnaround for a company or group.
For example, in school, A school principal has noticed that some of his teachers
are not performing very well in their teaching strategies, he can use this style
for immediate compliance of changing new strategies that will work effectively
to all types of students.
Pros and Cons
One of the advantages of using the coercive style is the leader has a great deal of
control over what's happening in their particular organization. He or she is providing
direction and demanding conformance. This works especially well when an
organization is in trouble.
On the other hand, research has found this style has a very negative impact on
the overall work climate. In fact, by its very nature the coercive style is
inflexible, provides little reward, and removes from workers all responsibilities for
their actions; just as long as they are following orders.
While some workers actually enjoy being told exactly what to do each day, the
majority will find the coercive style intolerable over the long haul.
Permissive Style:
A) Individually self directed.
B) Individuals self select aims and tasks.
C) Requires self-initiative and self-expression.
D) Requires a relaxed framework within which the group can operate.




Permissive Leadership!
Is leadership just about creating a vision, mission, inspiring & influencing people.
Permissive Leadership is really about letting people choose their path; might be
either right or wrong. At least let them try it out, unless their choices hurt the
business real bad.
Benefits to group:
Participants can learn by their mistakes or from discovery and progress.
Failure is possible but also accepted.
Time consuming but not necessarily time wasting.
Content and tasks are self selected.
Downside to this style:
The work can become untidy, chaotic and mistakes can often occur.
May become competitive in approach.
Failure of group to reach objective or goal.
A specific task may not be achieved if no one wants to do it.
So what exactly does Permissive Leadership do for business? It ensures:

- A constant flow of Creative Ideas is guaranteed when folks are given freedom at
work
- More than 100% effort goes into work when you let people do their thing
- Employee confidence levels are at an all time high
- Recognizing future leaders gets easier.
Sure, there are enough reasons to be hesitant with taking such an approach to
leadership. It could lead to misuse of freedom; managing egos will be an issue
(everyone has an idea, right? You only want one!); work could border on over-
confidence and a thousand more reasons.
Consultative style:
A) Control of the group process in done by agreement.
B) The group determines the tasks, content and goals.
C) Democratic in approach which allows for representation to be set up by the
group for the group from within.
D) Structure can quickly develop.
E) Requires mutual trust and full cooperation.
Consultative leader also does something over and above the directive leader,
which is to ask his subordinates for opinions. While he ultimately has the
authority to make the final decision, he is willing to listen to the viewpoints of his
team.
This is likely because the consultative leader is in a position where he does not
know the whole situation and he requires the views and opinions of the team on
the ground that he may be able to make an informed decision.
Benefits to group:
Activity develops purely from the needs expressed within the group.
The necessary process of consulting, discussing and sharing views is an extra learning
experience.
Mistakes can shared in addition to being a good individual and collective learning
experience.
The end product is constructed by the whole group who shares in its success or failure
as a collective rather than individually.
The tasks and task content is decided upon by the whole group.
Another reason a leader can choose the consultative leadership style is because
he is humble enough to listen and consider all views before coming to a final
decision. Despite having the complete authority to make a final decision, he
chooses to listen to the team because he knows that he does not know
everything.




















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