Leadership and Its Approaches Strengths and Weaknesses

Leadership According to Yukl (2010, p8), â€Å"leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done, how to do it, the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.†Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership and Its Approaches: Strengths and Weaknesses specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More As a leader one needs to embrace strengths and weaknesses, acceptance of responsibility, leading by example, knowing ones subordinates, making timely and quality decisions, training his juniors, and informing his staff about tasks. Yukl (2010, p.5) identifies two methods of leadership; direct leadership (which involves communicating to his staff through memos, reports, meetings or emails) and indirect leadership which involves cascading, whereby, a message is passed through a channel, for instance, from the CEO to the manager, and fin ally to the employees. Nevertheless, Griffin (2006, p.290) identifies situational models as an approach to leadership, whereby, a leader’s behavior is said to vary with situations. Situational theories of leadership therefore include less-preferred- coworker (LPC) theory, in which a manager uses to describe a specific employee, who works least well. In this theory, the task structure entails how well a task is defined. In addition, the position power in this theory is strong when a leader has the power to assign duties, reward or punish employees. Path goal theory of leadership entail a leader’s responsibility being to grant desired and valued rewards to employees and further elaborating the kind of behavior required to achieve these rewards (Griffin 2006 p293). Leadership Approaches Strategic leadership approach is one of the most used approaches in organizations. This approach entails understanding of the organization and its environment, which leads to organizationa l change. Therefore, a leader needs to understand the organizational environment well enough in order to be a strategic leader. Examples of strategic leaders include Fujio Chow, who was a former CEO of Toyota and A.G Laftey, a former CEO of Procter Gamble, who made significant change in the company (Griffin 2006 p302).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Cross-cultural leadership is an approach based on different cultures globally. This approach applies in cases where a country like China sends an executive to the United States to manage the firm’s operations. Due to the different cultures that exist in these countries, the manager may have to change his leadership style in order to accommodate the new cultures and lead effectively. Therefore, the China executive will have to recognize the importance of United States’ way of business. Other leadership approaches i nclude behavioral, trait and functional approaches. The Selected Approach: Trait Approach- Strengths and Weaknesses There are traits that appear to rhyme with effective leadership; such traits include intelligence, integrity, responsibility, confidence, and interactive among others. No wonder some people tend to succeed in leading as opposed to others. Leadership requires self confidence and optimism as traits, whereby, optimism entails positivity when viewing things. Many executives rise to the top because they have the ability to see emerging opportunities, hence grabbing them. In case of a foreseen problem, they instill hope of a promising future to their staff. Self confidence is applicable in decision making and the leader’s judgments, hence fostering the same hope and confidence to his followers, which in return creates motivation. The trait approach in leadership does not involve arrogance or pride; however, it is based on optimism and confidence, which enable a leader to face any challenges. Moreover, this approach has it weaknesses; for instance, leaders tend to lack ethics that match with optimism and confidence. A likely case is that of Jeffery Skilling, the CEO Eron, who was finally convicted to jail a result of fraud. However, as a leader, Jeffrey had confidence and optimism as his traits as a leader of the most profitable organization, in which these traits contributed to the success of a once humble company to a successful one. Moreover, his downfall was as a result of lack of ethics (Draft Lane, 2007, p40). Another weakness of the trait approach is that if a leader lacks a certain trait, it is almost impossible for him to acquire that trait, as traits are not easily changed.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership and Its Approaches: Strengths and Weaknesses specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Therefore, leaders should learn new skills that will make them more effect ive. Certain traits make a leader, for instance, Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa, fought against racialism and independence to a point of imprisonment and misery. However, he never lost hope and it is because of such determination and optimism that South Africa is an independent country free of racialism. Only a few would have the sought of courage, determination, and optimism as Mandela, and that’s what makes a leader in term of his personal traits. However, the trait approach is misunderstood whereas certain communities tend to associate leadership with male traits, such as height and weight, which are not necessary. The trait theory also tends to have a very long list of traits describing leaders, therefore disagreeing on traits that are most desirable to make an effective leader and thus making the theory more complex. Nevertheless, the trait theory has been useful in research by contributing towards assessing an individual in terms of leadership trai ts. Conclusion It is evident that the trait approach distinguishes leaders from followers in that there are particular traits in a leader that are not present in a follower. Leaders are associated with self confidence, trustworthiness, courage, flexibility and adaptability among others. The trait theory mainly signifies born-with traits, which match with proficient leadership. However, this approach leaves us with a question of whether leaders are born or made. Primarily, self-confidence develops as an individual grows up, whereas integrity, honesty, and ethics are a matter of personal choices. References Draft, R. and Lane, P. (2007). The leadership experience. Edition 4. MA: Cengage Learning.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Griffin, R. (2006). Principles of Management. MA: Cengage Learning Publishers. Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in Organizations. Seventh Edition. NY: Prentice Hall publishers. This essay on Leadership and Its Approaches: Strengths and Weaknesses was written and submitted by user Danny Garrett to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.