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Leadership Wiki Project Mark Hackett Mitchell Penninger Neil Zoglman Christa Coenen

**LEADERSHIP** Are You a Leader?

Leadership, properly defined as a process of influencing a group to achieve goals, is a necessity in life to keep order and to push humanity forward. It is seen everywhere we look, whether it is ship captain keeping control of his crew, a general leading his men into battle, or even parents showing their kids how to be adults. toc = **Seven Traits of Leadership** =

//Table 1-1//
 * Leadership Traits || aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Definitions aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ||
 * Drive || Leaders exhibit a high effort level. They have a relatively high desire for achievement, they are ambitious, they have a a lot of energy, they are tirelessly persistent in their activities, and they show initiative. ||
 * Desire to lead || Leaders have a strong desire to influence and lead others. They demonstrate the willingness to take responsibility. ||
 * Honesty & Integrity || Leaders build trusting relationships with followers by being truthful or non-deceitful and by showing high consistency between word and deed. ||
 * Self-confidence || Followers look to leaders for an absence of self-doubt. Leaders, therefore, need to show self-confidence in order to convince followers of the rightness of their goals and decisions. ||
 * Intelligence || Leaders need to be intelligent enough to gather, synthesize, and interpret large amounts of information, and they need to be able to create visions, solve problems, and make correct decisions. ||
 * Job-releveant knowledge || Effective leaders have a high degree of knowledge about the company, industry, and technical matters. In-depth knowledge allows leaders to make well-informed decisions and to understand the implications of those decisions. ||
 * Extraversion || Leaders are energetic, lively people. They are sociable, assertive, and rarely silent or withdrawn. ||

**Styles of Leadership** A leader is anyone who can influence others and who has managerial authority. These people are characterized by traits that make them great; however, many theorists have studied the physical and mental traits of great leaders, but were unable to find consistent traits. This was a major downfall up until they began studying leadership, which is a leader's actions,instead of the actual person. Eventually, seven traits were discovered that can be associated with effective leadership. These traits can be seen in table 1-1 (Robbins 461).

Using these traits and further studies from the University of Iowa, three leadership styles were developed. The First style is //autocratic,// which describes leaders who take total control and do not take employee ideas into account. This type of leadership is seen in coaches and dictators because they make decisions based on what they believe and make close to, if not all, the decisions. A great example of a leader who follows this style is "Coach Carter" and "Martha Stewart." Coach Carter was a high school basketball coach who lead his players in a "my way or the highway" attitude. He forced them to miss games in order to focus on their studies, which was opposite of what the players and school wanted. Similarly, Martha Stewart was cooking show host and made sure that every little detail was to her standard and liking. This helped keep order on the set and helped her find success.

The second type of leadership style is // democratic, // which describes leaders who take employee opinions into consideration and use feedback to help them better their company and leadership techniques. This style allows the voice of the people to be heard, which helps create unity and helps the image of the leader. This type of leadership is significantly seen by presidents, like Barak Obama. He followed democratic style because he received input from his cabinet and used it while making decisions.

The third and final leadership style is the //laissez-faire style.// When a leader uses this style of leadership they allow the other members of the group to reach their goal by using their own strategies. The laissez-faire leadership style is also known as the "hands-off" style. It is one in which the manager provides little or no direction and gives employees as much freedom as possible. All authority is given to the employees and they must determine goals, make decisions, and resolve problems on their own (Robbins 462). An example of this type of leader is Ronald Reagan. Reagan practiced the use of Free-Market economics. This style attempted to reduce government intervention and boost private capital. Reagan thought that by standing back and allowing the United States, as a whole, decide what to do it would improve our country's economy. __** Other Sections **__ Nature vs Nurture



Contingency Theories of Leadership



Differences Between Leadership and Managemenet Communication Great Leaders Fun Facts  Bibliography

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