Relationship between Power and Leadership - Essay Example

Leadership Roll No: Teacher: 14th November 2008 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Leadership 2 Introduction to Leadership 2 Styles of Leadership 3 Relationship between Power and Leadership 5 Conclusion 6 Works Cited 7 Leadership Introduction to Leadership Leaders are highly influential persons in an organization and they have a strong impact on the organization and its employees. No one can deny the influence of the leaders, as they are the one who have to lead a certain group in order to facilitate the organization in terms of making revenue or gaining success. The employees working under the leaders are more devoted to their leaders as compared to the organization because of the persuasive style of leadership of the leaders. Leadership can be defined as to show the way by going first, to direct, to guide, to conduct and to convey (Berry and Cartwright 2000). Leaders see a vision and communicate that vision to their followers or subordinates. They focus on tomorrow rather than today. They inspire action and change. They are characterized by their people’s skills, their ability to motivate and get the last ounce of effort from their staff in time of crisis (McGovern, et. al 2008). On the other hand, they frequently dislike detail and routine, and can appear wildly disorganized to their colleagues. Leaders are optimistic, self-motivated, persuasive, convincing and goal oriented personnel. They are needed in all workplaces because of their ability to lead and to motivate the employees in different times. They help the management in bringing about a change. They facilitate the employees to move in a direction which is considered important by them. The leadership that is considered attractive and effective is that kind of leadership that keeps the capacity of persuasion. Effective leaders are always able to motivate people in their set direction. The leaders make people do their suggested jobs, as they exercise a certain power on employees on the basis of their effective motivation and encouragement (Parry and Hansen 2007). Styles of Leadership There are eleven kinds of leadership styles, as leaders are not all alike. They differ from one another on the basis of their opted strategies for leading people. There are bureaucratic leaders who have well thought-out and considered tasks, these kinds of leaders negate the innovatory ideas as they are stick to some set of rules and principles and also make sure that the principles and laws are not overruled (McGovern, et. al 2008). Another kind of leadership style is charismatic leadership in which, the leaders are mostly interested in inculcating energy and fervor in the employees due to which, they take deep interest in a task. Autocratic leadership is a form of leadership in which, the leader has the authority to exercise all his power in making and implementing decisions. This kind of leader makes sure that the employees accept his all kinds of commands (Parry and Hansen 2007). Democratic leader is a leader that takes support of one or more workers in making and implementing decisions. Employees are able to gain confidence in this kind of leadership style (Parry and Hansen 2007). The democratic leader makes his final decisions but involves the employees’ suggestions in decision making process. Laissez-faire leadership is a kind of leadership in which, the leader facilitates his/her employees to make decisions (McGovern, et. al 2008). The accountability of decision making is not put on employees but on the leader. This leadership style is best workable when the leader has a strong confidence on his/her employees. People-oriented leader is a leader that accommodates his/her employees or subordinates in terms of expertise and skill required for certain tasks, he/she adds to the usefulness and efficacy of the workers under him/her by helping them in learning and working (McGovern, et. al 2008). Task-oriented leader is a leader that is mainly devoted to the task that he/she has assigned to his/her employees (Parry and Hansen 2007). This kind of leadership is somehow similar to autocratic style of leadership, as the leader is not concerned about the development of his/her team members or subordinates, he/she just want the work done on due time. Servant leader is a kind of leader that is somehow similar to democratic leader. This leader accommodates his/her team coworkers with their needful in terms of output. The servant leader is attached to his/her coworkers (McGovern, et. al 2008). Transaction leader is a leader who keeps the right to recompense or penalize his/her subordinates for their performance (Parry and Hansen 2007). This type of leadership is goal oriented and leader wants his/her subordinates to come up with expected results. Transformation leadership is a kind of leadership in which, the leader presents himself/herself as a source of inspiration for effectual task performance. This kind of leader is concerned about the vision of the company or organization and facilitates the workers to move in the direction of the vision of the workplace (McGovern, et. al 2008). Environmental leadership is also a form of leadership style in which, the leader is concerned to develop and establish a workplace environment that is supportive for the workers to perform their respective tasks. An organization culture is established by an environmental leader (Parry and Hansen 2007). Relationship between Power and Leadership Leadership and power go side by side. Leaders are allowed to exercise their power on employees in order to get different jobs done. An effective leader is one who employs his/her power to motivate, encourage and convince people to do a certain tasks (Parry and Hansen 2007). Leaders who accommodate their coworkers in their performance of tasks by supporting them in development and gaining expertise are considered more effectual than those who only make use of power to make jobs done. Leaders exercise their power in making final decisions and also in implementing rules and regulations (Berry and Cartwright 2000). Leaders have the power to make employees work and to make them deny working. Leaders should not make use of their power in a negative manner, as keep the capability of misusing their power for their own motives. Conclusion Leaders enjoy an influential position and standing in a workplace. They are considered quite effective in making the employees perform the assigned tasks. The leaders play an effective role in making the employees faithful to an organization by their strategies of leadership with the help of which, they can win the trust of employees (McGovern, et. al 2008). The leaders can win the trust of employees of employees by making them give suggestions, by allowing them to provide innovatory ideas and by rewarding them for their good performance. The leaders are also considered effective, when they facilitate the employees with their help in developing skill and efficiency towards performance (Berry and Cartwright 2000). Leaders are also helpful in generating faithful customers by proper and essential communication and by listening to the customers’ needs. The leaders should be able to build trust in customers. They should be able to facilitate the customers with proper awareness and persuasion needed for a product. The leaders should make the employees quite efficient as to how to deal with customers (McGovern, et. al 2008). In terms of investors, again the leaders are very effective, as they are the one who keep the capability of persuading and convincing investors to invest in a certain idea or product. The leaders play a significant part in supporting the organization by persuading the investors to invest in their organization by proper communication, ethical code of conduct and persuasiveness (Parry and Hansen 2007). Works Cited Berry, A.J. and Cartwright, S. 2000. Leadership: a critical construction. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 21(7) (2000): 342-349. McGovern, George S., Donald C. Simmons, Jr. and Gaken, Daniel. Leadership and Service: An Introduction. New York: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 2008. Parry, K. W. and Hansen, H. 2007. The Organizational Story as Leadership. Leadership, 3(3) (2007): 281 - 300. Read More