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Would you have walked alongside Gandhi in 1930 for a 240 miles journey in what was later called "the salt march"? Could you imagine waiting for hours under the hot summer sun of Washington to listen to Martin Luther King's speech? Can you picture yourself with Mother Theresa and her hundreds of aids healing the poor in Calcutta's streets? Those incredible feats have changed the world, and it was only possible because those great leaders gathered thousands of people to follow and work alongside them toward achieving their goals and vision.
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Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenWould you have walked alongside Gandhi in 1930 for a 240 miles journey in what was later called "the salt march"? Could you imagine waiting for hours under the hot summer sun of Washington to listen to Martin Luther King's speech? Can you picture yourself with Mother Theresa and her hundreds of aids healing the poor in Calcutta's streets? Those incredible feats have changed the world, and it was only possible because those great leaders gathered thousands of people to follow and work alongside them toward achieving their goals and vision.
In this explanation, we will look closely at many different leadership theories and styles of leaders who have changed the world. So keep reading if you want to learn their secrets and how to become a better leader!
Let's dive straight into the definitions of leadership, leadership theories and leadership style.
Leadership is about guiding, influencing, motivating, or even ordering a group of people toward achieving a specific goal.
A leadership style is a leader's approach to managing people toward achieving a specific goal.
A leadership theory describes the process and strategy of a particular leadership style.
There are dozen or even hundreds of leadership theories that you can find in textbooks and all over the internet. This explanation will look closely at some of the most influential theories impacting how people lead.
What are the eight theories of leadership?
Most leadership theories can be classified as one of the following eight types:
There are many different types of leadership theories, and although we could spend hours discussing them, we have to limit the scope of this explanation. For this reason, we will focus this article on contemporary leadership theories.
Contemporary leadership theories are the ones that shape our modern society. Those leadership theories include:
Robert House created the concept of charismatic leadership theory in 1976. For him, Charismatic Leaders inspire people to follow them and achieve their vision.
Charismatic leaders often have five common characteristics:
Barack Obama is a well-known example of a charismatic leader:
Check out our article on Charismatic Leadership for more information.
A recent trend in leadership theories picked up on what is called 'authentic leadership.' This leadership style is about the Values the management team abides by and wants to promote within their organization. For example, they often pursue the following values:
Authentic leaders always think about their long-term mission, not the short-term gains they might seek.
The 'leader-member exchange' theory was developed in 1970 and focused on the relationship between leaders and followers. This theory states that leaders have different relationships with their employees that fall into two groups: the in-group and the out-group.
The leader favors employees from the in-group as they have more personal connections with the leader. In contrast, people from the out-group are disfavored by the leaders and receive fewer privileges and attention.
This relationship has three stages:
Situational leadership theory was developed in 1969 by Dr. Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard. This theory states that there isn't one best style of leadership that will suit every situation. Instead, leaders must adapt their style and approach to the circumstances and situation.
They define four types of maturity in a group:
They also describe four types of leadership:
As some maturity levels are more adapted to specific leadership styles, the leader must assess the group they are working with and adjust their leadership style to the group's maturity level.
S1 leadership style is appropriate for a M1 maturity group.
Leaders have to give clear and detailed instructions to a group that lacks knowledge and skills.
On the other hand, S1 leadership style is unnecessary for an M4 maturity group.
There is no point in a leader describing every step of a specific task to a highly experienced group of professionals.
Transformational & transactional leadership are complementary leadership styles. Transactional Leaders guide their employees to realize specific tasks and work toward a goal; they motivate them by appealing to their own self-interest. In contrast, the transformational leader inspires, motivates, and encourages employees to transform and become something more significant to help achieve the organization's objective.
The best leaders are the ones that adopt both transactional and Transformational Leadership styles.
In the table below, you can find the characteristics of both leadership styles.
Transformational leadership | Transactional leadership |
|
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Table 1 - Characteristics of transactional & transformational leadership
There are hundreds of leadership theories, and we have only been through a couple. Leaders must acknowledge that there isn't one specific leadership style that will be perfect for every organization and situation. Instead, leaders should define their style based on their circumstances and objectives.
There are hundreds of leadership theories. Leaders must acknowledge that there isn't one specific leadership style that will be perfect for every organization and situation. Instead, leaders should define their style based on their circumstances and objectives.
Most leadership theories can be classified as one of the following eight types:
There are hundreds of leadership theories.
Most leadership theories can be classified as one of the following eight types:
Contemporary leadership theories are the ones that shape our modern society. Those leadership theories include:
Robert House created the concept of charismatic leadership theory in 1976. For him, charismatic leaders inspire people to follow them and achieve their vision.
Charismatic leaders often have five common characteristics:
Flashcards in Leadership Theories128
Start learningIn which year Robert House first mentioned the concept of charismatic leadership?
1976
Charismatic leadership theory defines the extraordinary or heroic characteristics of leaders that can ____ devotion and motivation within their followers.
Inspire
Charismatic leaders are those who 'by force of their personal abilities are ____ of having profound and extraordinary effects on followers'
Capable
Which is not a common trait of charismatic leaders?
Clarity of vision
The level of self-awareness of charismatic leaders is:
High
Are charismatic leaders willing to adopt open communication?
Yes
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