Positive Leader

Running Head: Positive Leader
Positive Leader
Essay
System04104
7/19/2019

Positive Leader
1
Positive Leader
A leader is a person who motivates and encourages other people to achieve the
desired goals and objectives. In other words, a leader is person who influences a group of
people towards the achievement of goal. A leader shows the right way to the followers to
achieve the organisational goals and objective in effective way. Apart from this, a good
leader also encourages people to adopt the new challenges, which are necessary for the
organisational success. Leadership is the strategy used by a person to encourage other people
and enhance their productivity that will help the organisation to achieve its mission and
vision. The leadership skills are necessary in a person who is responsible for the performance
or act of other person, because a positive attitude of a leader capable of influencing
employee’s positive psychological capital so employee can positively contribute in the
organisation (Joo, Lim & Kim, 2016). A good authentic leader generally believes to enhance
the trust of employees and it further gives great output of employees in the organisation. It
has been seen that a positive and authentic leader also encourages people to give their
ideological contributions in the organisation and the leader ensures that all the goals of the
organisation can be achieved in effective and efficient manner. An authentic leader must have
good communication skills that help the leader to influence or motivate people easily.
However, a good leader should have specific skills and knowledge that motivates and
encourages people to adopt the new technologies and changes in order to achieve the
organisational goals. It means a leader should be innovative and have capabilities of
identifying the future changes to face the future challenges (Avey, Luthans & Youssef, 2010).
This essay also differentiates among different types of leadership styles and explains how
these leaders help to build psychological capital in employees. It also describes the role of
emotions and its impact on employee’s performance. In this essay, it has been argued that a
leader can play a vital role in building psychological capital in employees and it has been
described that building psychological capital in employees is based on the nature of work and
their needs.
A good leader always believes in building trust among the people and behaves
according to their personal values and convictions (Youssef & Luthans, 2015). It shows the
true behaviour of an authentic leader who always respect others and believe in people.
Authentic leadership is an effective leadership style that shows that a leader is should be
reliable and trustworthy for its people. This type of leader shows an honest sense of

Positive Leader
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awareness of self. Authentic leaders generally keep a higher level of moral values. Positive
authentic leadership self implies a strong and virtuous character, which shows an inspiration
for others to maintain honesty and integrity in every decision (Avey, Reichard, Luthans &
Mhatre, 2011). This type of leaders exercises the stewardship through mutuality,
interdependence, and compassion. While an authentic leadership shows positive attributes of
the authentic leader and believe in moral and ethical acts, the LMX (Leader Member
Exchange) leadership style emphases on the relationship between the leader and its
subordinates (Luthans & Youssef, 2017).
The LMX theory of leadership generally focuses on the importance of communication
in leadership and states that communication is the only way through leader can establish a
good relationship with its followers or subordinates. LMX theory refers that this type of
leader facilitates to maintain a healthy relationship with subordinates and also facilitates this
relationship to grow and maintain beneficial exchange between the leader and its
subordinates (Epitropaki et. al., 2017). Communication between leader and subordinates is
based on the trust, worthiness, loyalty, respect, and devotion. Generally, it has been seen that
there are different kinds of relationships found within a group of people who are the
subordinates of a LMX leader. One group is considered as the in-group, and people of this in-
group are closely attached with the leader (Gu, Tang & Jiang, 2015). Hence, this group
receive more attention and care from the leader, and it leads to the success of this group.
People of this group also have more accessibility to the organisational resources. In
comparison to in-group members, the out-group members are unable to receive this
favouritism support from the leader and it negatively affects their performance. The level of
job-satisfaction in out-group member is very low in compare to in-group members because
they have high level of job satisfaction because of favouritism (Epitropaki et. al., 2017).
Thus, the negative impacts of this type of leadership are low attrition rate, low job
satisfaction, and high employee turnover because people feel that all the facilities and
supports of leader are associated with in-group members.
Employee’s psychological capital is generally originated in the organisational context,
which is based on four pillars of Hope, Efficacy, Resilience, and Optimism (HERO) that are
associated with job and life both (Avey, 2014). Psychological capital generally shows a high
level of positive psychology state of an individual, which includes the four characteristics of
HERO. Employee’s psychological capital is directly linked with the performance of