Leadership: Efficiency and Impact - Management Essay, Semester 1

This essay delves into the multifaceted concept of leadership, exploring its definition, characteristics, and various types. It begins by defining leadership as the ability to direct and guide others towards a specific goal, emphasizing the importance of communication and collective effort. The essay then outlines key characteristics of an effective leader, including collaboration, persuasive communication, focus on individual and organizational development, effective decision-making, and accountability. Different leadership theories, such as the "Great Man" theory, trait theory, contingency theory, and others, are examined to provide a comprehensive understanding of leadership styles. The essay concludes by highlighting the significant impact of efficient leadership on an organization, including the development of procedures, policies, and the promotion of creativity, coordination, and collaboration. The importance of leadership in fostering organizational growth and empowering individuals is also emphasized, along with the ability to analyze and foresee outcomes in complex situations. The essay draws upon relevant research to support its arguments.

Running Head: LEADERSHIP: EFFICIENCY AND IMPACT
LEADERSHIP: EFFICIENCY AND IMPACT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP: EFFICIENCY AND IMPACT
A Brief Idea on Leadership
Leadership is the idea that can be explained in various ways. While one can say it is a
position of power and authority, others consider it as a psychological phenomenon. However,
leadership can be briefly stated as the ability of an organism to use his or her cognitive,
intellectual and experiential knowledge to direct the others and guide them towards a specific
direction. The leadership requires a well – developed aspect of communication and looks at
the various ways one can be at the base community levels of equality and communicate with
the respective people. Leadership is not the ability displayed by an individual but a collective
property that depicts a collective ability and shapes an organization. Again, influencing a
mass and enabling them to produce works that depict achievements depend on a multitude of
factors. Grint et al. (2016) also added to the perception of leadership, explaining it as a desire
for attaining power and authority in a lot of cases. However, it is an obscure desire that is
intractable. Leadership attracts universal attention and remains as an integral part of the
human life in the rural and tribal cultures (Hackman and Johnson 2013).
Characteristics of a Leader
A leader is a person who portrays the following qualities:
 A leader is a person who works his or her way up to collaborate and delves into the
aspect of community development.
 A leader looks forward to develop a persuasive approach where he or she is able to
understand and represent the voice of the group or team or community that the
respective person leads. It looks forward to focus on the three P’s of Person, Purpose
and People.
 A leader not only looks at the development of the organization, team or community
but also on the development of the individual, present in a group.

2LEADERSHIP: EFFICIENCY AND IMPACT
 A good leader also portrays an efficient speaker or a skilled orator who is able to
convince his people to work in collaboration towards a specific goal. It is based on
trust and inspiration. One could read this from the popular Shakespearean comedy,
Julius Caesar.
 Most importantly, an efficient leader exhibits good decision – making power and
holds himself or herself accountable for an action.
Types of leadership
There are various types of leadership theories as (Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube
2015):
• “Great Man” Theory: This theory states that leaders are born great and a few people
have this quality right from their birth.
• Trait Theory: This theory rests on the idea that qualities of an individual rests or
certain qualities in them help them emerge as a leader and depict the leadership
abilities.
• Contingency Theory: This theory rests on the evolution of leadership qualities based
on a few variables and surroundings in which the same evolves.
• Situational Theory: This theory is based on the emergence of a leader from varied
circumstances and situations in their lives.
• Behavioral Theory: This theory looks at the skills and habits of an individual that
comes by chance and leads to the development of a leader.
• Participative Theory: This theory is based on the formation of collaboration and
learnings gained from others and experiences that form a leader.

3LEADERSHIP: EFFICIENCY AND IMPACT
• Transactional/ Management Theory: This theory is based on the idea of organization
and management that creates a leader through their application of knowledge and
skills in the real life scenarios.
• Relationship Theory: This theory rests on the development of contacts and engaging
oneself into formation of relationships that helps in the building up of a leader.
• Skills Theory: This theory is based on the development of skills and attributes that
resonate for efficiency and creation of leaders who emerge as meritorious individuals
above the rest.
Impact of efficient leadership on an Organization
The impact of efficient leadership in an organization is that it caters to the
development of the organization and empowers the individuals to grow and be skilled with
time. An efficient leadership helps to include certain procedures and policies that are
followed by the employees to develop themselves as well as the organization. The cause and
effect are factors that are not very closely related to the aspects of time and space. In these
situations, the leader’s guidance and experience helps to analyze and foresee the outcomes of
these situations. In a collaborative space where a lot of people are working towards one goal,
the occupational space tends to get worse as competition increases (Ullah 2013). This can be
restrained by an efficient leader and re-directed to promote creativity, coordination and
collaboration. An effective direction and segregation of work zones can promote in
increasing productivity than restraining the same.

4LEADERSHIP: EFFICIENCY AND IMPACT
References
Amanchukwu, R.N., Stanley, G.J. and Ololube, N.P., 2015. A review of leadership theories,
principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1),
pp.6-14.
Grint, K., Jones, O.S., Holt, C. and Storey, J., 2016. What is leadership. The Routledge
companion to leadership, p.3.
Hackman, M.Z. and Johnson, C.E., 2013. Leadership: A communication perspective.
Waveland Press.
Ullah, A., 2013. Impact of leadership on organizational performance.