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As it is known that good leaders are made not born, if a person think that he has desire and will power
he can be an effective leader. This leadership skill is developing through a continuous process of
education, self-study, training and experience. It characterized by providing direction, applying plans
and motivating people. Benesis, (2010) defined leadership as " a function of knowing yourself, having
a vision that is well communication, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to
realize your own leadership potential". There are many ways to lead and every leader has its own or
style. According to the situation, the leader should know what is the suitable style to use. The aim of
this paper is to describe different leadership styles and examine effective leader. Also, it aims to
discuss how a leader can develop effective leadership and discuss how effective leadership impacts an
organization's potential to succeed.
Leadership styles
Servant leadership
Page 2 of 13 There are many different leadership styles that help the leaders to be successful. One of
these style is the servant leadership. It based on premise that leadership originates from a desire to
serve and that in the course of serving, one may be called to lead ( Sullivan & Decker, 2009). The
servant leader serve other rather than other serving the leader by helping the followers to achieve and
improve. The individuals who served by this leader will grow and become healthier and more
autonomous. This leader benefit people who are least advantage in the society (Changing Minds Org.,
2010). There are some skills in the servant leader like listening, awareness to the situation or individual
needs, persuasion; to believe , foresight which is a visionary to create change, stewardship which is
taking responsibility and being accountable, and commitment to the individuals growth (Sullivan &
Decker, 2009). The servant leadership is very moral position, it puts the followers well-being before
other goals (Changing Minds Org., 2010). The advantages of this style are emphasize collaboration
and it is a long term approach to life and work that has the potential for creating positive change
throughout society . However, the disadvantages are that this style is not quick fix approach and
listening and empathizing too much with others may lead to lack of vision (Ewens, 2002).
Transaction leadership
Page 3 of 13 The second leadership style is the transactional leadership. "it is the traditional leadership
process the emphasizes leaders influencing a process over followers" ( Murray & Dicroce, 2003). The
relationship between the leader and the followers depend on the system of exchange. The leader
notice the follower's need and he will meet this need in exchange for meeting specific objectives or
performing defined duties (Bennett, 2010 ). It is mainly set up a sequence of rewards and punishments
to motivate the employees of an organization (Dollak, (2008). This style is a type of management and
some do not consider it a true leadership style, because it focus on the short term tasks. Transactional
leadership has limitations for creative work. Furthermore, this style start when the team members
agree to obey their leader totally when they accept the job (Mind tools, 2010). Mainly it based on the
principles of social exchange theory. When the individuals engage in social interactions, they expecting
to give and receive social, political and psychological benefits. The transactional leadership aimed to
maintain equilibrium by performing work according to policy and procedures and maximizing selfinterests and personal rewards (Sullivan & Decker, 2009). For the transactional leadership to work, the
leader and the followers should understand the important of the leader's goal (Dollak, (2008). The
advantages of this leadership that it is work in most of the cases where it is applied, motivate people by
rewards and it work best only if the leader in the hierarchy is capable of making most of the important
decision and is a strong personality. On the other hand, when the people get used to do whatever the
leader want they will stop thinking and will create a stressful work environment. These are consider
from the disadvantages of the transactional leadership (Ewens, 2002).
Situational leadership
Page 4 of 13 The third style is the situational leadership. This style "is one way to explain the
leadership through taking account forces that occur in the situation, the leader and the followers.
Leaders are determined by the situation" (Murray. & Dicroce, 2003). Leadership behavior is changed
according to the ability and the confident of the followers in any given situation (Bennett, 2010). Here
the leader change the style of leadership according to his analysis of the followers readiness. This
readiness refer to the level of motivation and competence an individual has for an assigned task. The
leader assess the motivation of the followers and provide the appropriate leadership behavior that best
met the followers needs (Murray & Dicroce, 2003). In addition, the leader behaves in four ways, the
first one is telling which means that the leader tell his followers exactly what to do and how to do it.
Secondly, selling; the leader provide information and direction, but with more communication with the
followers. Thirdly, participating; the leader will more focus in the relationship and less on direction. He
will work with the team and share decision-making responsibilities. Finally, delegation which means
that the leader pass most of the responsibilities to the followers and he less involve in the decisions
(Mind tools, (2010). The advantages of this leadership is that it works better in different places and puts
new leadership challenges. Also, both transactional and transformational leadership work better
together. However, the disadvantage of this leadership is that with constantly changing strategies with
time the leader will find it difficult to implement new strategies (Ewens, 2002).
Transformational leadership
Page 5 of 13 The last style is the transformational leader, it focus on merging the motives, desires ,
values and the goals of leaders and followers onto a common cause. Transformational leader aim to
generate employees commitment to the vision or ideal rather than to themselves (Sullivan & Decker,
2009). Also they provide unexpected motivation by attracting the follower's ideals and moral values and
inspiring them to think in new ways. These followers have the feeling of trust, respect and loyalty for the
leader who make their dreams reality (Buchanan, 2010).The characteristics of this leadership are
expanding and elevating the interests of the followers, generating awareness and commitment to
organizational values. With inspiration and motivation, the transformational leader should report better
job satisfaction and lower burnout of the followers (Weberg,2010) . The success of the followers is
used to measure the effectiveness of the transformational leader. Transformational leadership is a
value-oriented relationship, because it is only arise in an environment of trust and mutuality. The
fundamental strategy of this leader is to establish and maintain organizational and personal trust
(Murray & Dicroce, 2003). This leadership is an interactional process between a leader and followers.
The strength of the leadership rely on its focus on the empowerment of people. The leader leads his
followers informally by consensus rather than by gaining power and authority through position in the
organization (Ewens, 2002). The most important characteristic of the transformational leader is that
they can create a vision. Most of the time the followers are attracted to the leader's vision because this
vision is well planed and the leader will help them to achieve it(Buchanan, 2010). The advantage of this
leadership is that the people work through self motivation and this lead to guarantee higher output and
efficiency. Also, it develop future leaders from the followers. The disadvantage is that this leadership
based on the ability of the leader to inspire the work force to put their best in. Leaders of organization
may not have the force to achieve that (Ewens, 2002).
The best style in the nursing field is the transformational leadership, because nursing has traditionally
been driven by its social mandate and its ethic of human service. It can be used effectively by nurses
with patients or coworkers in the work, at home, in the society , health care center and in the health
care organization (Sullivan & Decker, 2009).
make major choices or directions that have an impact on the organization, the leader and the
employees. These decisions should be scheduled in a sufficient time in order to develop strategy and
make it continues process so that the strategy will be relevant and up to date. The second challenge is
to answer the key questions such as, what the employees should do for the organization and what are
the outcomes for it. The third challenge is to connect strategies. The leader should not just focus on the
main strategy, but also on the sub-strategies.
Moreover, many factors of effective leadership style may lead to organizational success. One of these
factor is communicating a common vision, the leader need to have a clear vision about a goal in order
to lead the organization to success. When the leader share the values and the goals with the followers,
this will impact on the employees productivity. Another factor is empowering other to lead. Leaders
know that empowering other to make decision will have a positive influence in the organization on the
long term. Cooperative leadership and team work keep the organization in the top of competitions.
Also, managing performance is very important in organizational success. The effective leadership
strategy should include a performance management system. This system should involve recruitment,
selection, training and development (Venkatesh, 2008).
Effective leadership in the change management process is important because of all the factors that
involved in organizational success. As the situation change, the leader must be able to adapt and
motivate followers to decrease fear and loss of followers morale. Anytime the organization go through
major changes by using the most effective leadership style. This will lead to organizational success
(Jenkins, 2009).
Conclusion
Page 9 of 13 In conclusion, many leadership styles have been develop over years. Each style has its
own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. According to some authors, the leadership style
that work the best in nursing is the transformational leadership. Because it depends on the motivation
and group work. In addition, the good leader have many characteristics that make him an effective
leader and it differ from one leader to another and from one style to another. Moreover, the effective
leadership style can be developed through many ways that the good leader do. These ways impact
positively on the leader and the followers and lead to organizational succeed. Good leader often switch
between styles according to the followers and the work's need. Establishing trust is the most important
point in balancing the needs of organization and the need of the followers.
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