The definition of leadership has been argued by many people as dependent on the fact that the leaders might be genetically related or that leadership might be a trait that is acquired from the daily knowledge acquisition. Leadership attracts both personality of a person and their talent as well. However, for a person to make a good leader, they must have the urge and the passion for leading others. To make a great leader an individual must have the urge and desire to lead. Despite the fact that a person might have the talent and the technical training, what is required of them is the necessary that they have the passion for it and not just do it because it is a talent that they possess. The leadership positions are effective, and they are also necessary because the people to be led demand a sense of direction, and as a result, they entirely rely on the leaders to obtain that sense of direction. On the other hand, the success of the leaders is ultimately measured by the efficiency and the success of their followers.
Some people believe in individualism and on the fact that people should live freely and be able to make their choices. Such kind of people also believe that to be successful in a particular endeavor people must not follow leaders who might at times be perceived to be superior and well-versed in a particular field. Such kind of people also goes ahead to argue that leadership is just but a way of manipulation of people’s limits and freedom. In the end, such kind of people also tends to associate leadership with elitism and the fact that leaders are always on a quest to seek power which in turn leads to corruption and unintended conflicts. Also, some might argue that the levels of education in the modern society has influenced and deemed leadership position unnecessary. This is in a particular reference to mass communication-related courses. In this context, therefore, we should not be asking whether there should be leaders in our society, rather we should be asking what constitutes a good leader and an efficient leader in the society.
There are two major assumptions made to attempt illustrating and trying to find a better explanation as to how the society could work with leaders. These assumptions tend to give an explanation how the organizations will form and produce different types of leaders in the society. According to these assumptions, it is evident that the behaviors of humans in the organization instills a particular leadership strategy. In these two types of leadership, we have type X and type Y. in the first type X, it means that the leader assumes that the subjects are mainly lazy with their work and as a result, they are also negatively receptive towards their work. In this assumption, therefore, since most workers are expected to shun their work and become irresponsible, then, the managers are also, therefore, force to become vigilant with their work and use coercion and threats and punishments where applicable to ensure that the workers are effective in their work places. These kinds of managers often feel like these measures are the best for the organization to perform adequately in the market. These managers often believe these stern measures are the best for their subjects.
On the other hand, type Y kind of leaders is often decision-sharing kinds of leaders. They often tend to share their ideas with their subjects and also at the same time invite the ideas of the other subjects on certain matters. These leaders tend to involve their subjects in matters of the company that involves decision making since they acknowledge the power of imagination, creativity, and ingenuity that is often distributed all through the individuals in the organization. Besides, these kinds of leaders believe in embracing the physical, mental and psychological part if the human system (Patterson, 2016). Therefore they embrace the fact that it is natural for people to rest and play once in a while. They also understand that people are not inherently shiftless and as a result, they get tired too. Therefore they also believe that the people have grown lazy not because they are born like that but because experience has taught them to be like that. Therefore, with these beliefs, they believe that stern measures such as punishments will not form the best alternatives in solving an issue in the institution. They believe that if the people themselves are committed to achieving certain goals in the organization, they will regardless of the conditions that they are given to propel them towards that particular achievement. All they need during that time is self-discipline and self-motivation. These leaders also acknowledge that if the people are given the right conditions, they will not only enjoy their time in the organization but also embrace and seek responsibilities in the organization.
Many reasons make leaders not to act on certain issues. Many people would prefer the manager who reasons out completely with his subjects to the one who orders and issues punishments to their subjects. However, we have to know that neither of these options is superior to one another. The efficiency of a leader is directly dependent on the subjects in an organization. Leadership mistakes is an issue that may be viewed as very critical, and that needs to be addressed in an organization. Therefore, to prevent leadership failures, first, the organization should find a more viable way of improving the leadership selection process criteria. This will mainly help to determine the levels of requirements of certain positions. Also, the organization will help to improve the talent assessments so as to help determine the better leaders by gauging their leadership potentials and their behaviors in general. Most companies are ill equipped to train and evaluate the skills of their employees and leaders, therefore, by improving their evaluation skills and by managing their evaluation criteria, they will be able to avoid the mistakes associated with inadequate evaluation procedures.
There are some ways that an organization and the leadership sectors can make numerous mistakes. The goal is to avoid these mistakes so that the overall progress of the organization can go smoothly (Price, 2006). Without a good organization and quality leadership criteria, an organization can succumb to a lot of minor failures of the leadership strategies in the organization. In addition to the above mentioned possible remedy to leadership failures, the organization including the CEOs can take advantage of the leadership development programs to ensure that the leaders are efficiently trained. Besides, they might also hire an external consultant on leadership issues to try and educate the leaders on how to avoid leadership mistakes at all costs.
In conclusion, defining and explaining the leadership process and both its theories and controversies is a very significant task. When approaching this issue, subjects such as history, psychology, sociology, business and even religion are some of the issues that can be put to consideration. Regardless of the subject the topic will still remain to be overwhelming to discuss and to fully understand. However, there is a great need for institutions and organizations to get a well-equipped leadership system to help in curbing some of the issues that they face in the organization. Good leadership protocols helps people to work efficiently and properly without any hitches.
References
Patterson, V. L. (2016). Leadership Failures. Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance, 1-7. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_1891-1
Price, T. (2006). Volitional and Cognitive Accounts of Ethical Failures in Leadership. Understanding Ethical Failures in Leadership, 12-27. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511615979.002
