Leadership Report: Leadership Theories, Principles and Factors

This report provides a comprehensive overview of leadership, exploring its meaning, factors, and various theories. It delves into the core concepts of leadership, including the roles of leaders and followers, the importance of communication, and situational factors. The report examines different leadership theories, such as the Great Man Theory, Trait Theory, Behavioral Theories, Contingency Theory, Transactional Theory, and Transformational Leadership. It also discusses the Bass Theory of leadership, total leadership, and contrasts management with leadership. Furthermore, it highlights key principles of leadership, emphasizing self-improvement, technical expertise, and the importance of leading by example. The report concludes by justifying the statement that leadership is not only a skill but also a human purpose, emphasizing emotional intelligence and caring for people, as critical components of effective leadership.

Leadership

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
Meaning of Leadership ........................................................................................................................3
Factors of Leadership ..........................................................................................................................4
Theories of Leadership ........................................................................................................................5
Bass Theory of leadership ...................................................................................................................5
Total leadership ....................................................................................................................................6
Management versus Leadership ..........................................................................................................6
Principles of leadership .......................................................................................................................6
“ The leadership is not only skills but also human purpose that means emotional intelligence caring
about people" – Justification ...............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................9
Books and journal ...........................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Leading a group or team is an effective skill that consumes time, dedication and thought.
Leadership is a most important aspect of an organisation, family or nation which is necessary to
achieve goal and success. This report is context to support a statement which states that leadership
is not just a skill but a human purpose that means emotional intelligence caring about people. The
assessment will prove that the statement is reliable. The report will include a brief description about
leadership, its functions, impacts and outcomes which helps a team or group to achieve a common
goal. Furthermore, the report will also identity the different theories of leadership which affect an
individual or human resources of an organisation or economy.
Meaning of Leadership
The process through which an individual encourage or influence other people to achieve a
goal or objective and directs a team in a particular way that helps in making it more coherent and
efficient. A leader is a person who leads a team or group of people trying to achieve a common goal.
He or she uses various techniques and methods to motivate, encourage and influence all the other
team members to move in a same direction effectively for achieving a same target or objective.
Different leaders adopt unique and various types of leadership approaches or theories for leading
people. There are mainly two types of leaderships, the process carried out by the leaders using
specific skills and knowledge is known as process leadership whereas the process of leading when
leader knows they have traits which can influence their actions or activities it is known as Trait
leadership(Bolman and Deal,2017).

Factors of Leadership
Leadership process has various factors which play a significant role in making the leading
process effective and useful. All these factors are very important and essential for the leadership
process to be performed. There are four basic factors of leadership as described below -
 Leader – A leader is a person who lead the team or group of followers. He or she should be
clear and understand who they are what they know and what they can do. Leader should be
aware that followers only decides if they are successful or not. The leader should make sure
that he or she is worth being followed by all the team members or followers. Followers
should have trust and faith on the leaders so that they can perform their roles effectively.
Leader should ensure he can lead the team in the best way possible fin order to achieve the
goal or objective of a team.
 Followers – Followers are the team or group members who work according to the direction
of a leader. They are people who are supervised or guided by a leader of team, selected by
all the other followers. Different people or followers need different styles of leadership, such
as in an organisation a newly hired employee requires more supervision or guidance than
compared to an old employee which is working form a long time in the same organisation. A
leader should know his people or followers, the first thing a leader must do is to understand
the followers, their need, emotion and motivation. In order to build an effective team it is
important to have a good relationship between the leader and the followers(Tourish,2014).
 Communication – The communication or interaction among a team, between the leader and
followers is very important to share information, views and ideas. The communication can
be done in two way by a leader, verbal and non-verbal. The verbal communication is done
through speech or dictation while non-verbal communication is done by setting example or
key of encouragement. The communication is a critical element as it is responsible building
or harming the relationship between a leader and his followers.
 Situation – There are various situations within a team or leadership process. The leader is
responsible for deciding or planning the best activities or operations that the team need to
perform in order to achieve a desired goal or team objectives. A particular process or
strategy can not be work in each and every situation or condition. Therefore, choosing a
suitable course of activities for a specific situation is very important in order to attain
success.
All the above factors or elements are interrelated and needs to be considered in a leadership process.

Each factor can affect all the other elements in the leadership. There are various factors while
affects all the four elements of leadership, These factors are as described below -
 The relationship of a leader or follower with the superiors or seniors.
 The skills and knowledge of the followers.
 The various informal leaders within the organisation.
 The structure in which organisation is organised.
Theories of Leadership
There are various theories of leadership which can be adopted by a leader to effectively lead a team
or group of follower. These theories are different from each other but have their own benefits and
importance in the leadership process. The Various theories of leadership are described as below -
 Great man theory – It is an old theory of leadership developed in the mid 19th century. This
theory states that the leaders are not made they are born. Great man theory assumes that
great leaders are those who are bound by birth to become a leader. This theory believes that
leaders will rise and stood up when they will face a specific situation. It simply means that
leaders get active when they confront a critical or social condition(Boezeman and
Ellemers,2014).
 Trait Theory – The trait leadership theory or approach have a belief that people born or are
given various qualities that enables them to perform effective leadership functions and roles.
The trait theory of leadership focuses on analyse on social, physical and mental
characteristics for gaining effective understanding of the combination or features that are
similar among various leaders.
 Behavioural theories – In comparison to the trait theory, the behavioural theory of leadership
offers new perspective that focus on the behaviour of the leaders are opposed to physical,
mental and social characteristics. This theory of leadership is further divided into two parts
one is concerned with the people and the second concerned tasks or activities.
 Contingency theory of leadership – The contingency theory states that there is not individual
or single method of leading a team. The leadership style should be chosen or applied
according to a particular situation. It means that there some people who does not perform
well at some situation or places and the same people perform impressively at some places
with the maximum output.
 Transactional theory – The Transactional leadership theories is also known as the exchange
theories of leadership. This theory is characterised by a transaction made between the
followers and leader, This theory values mutually beneficial and positive relationship. The
Transactional theories state that people in general needs to increase the pleasing experience
and decrease the Unpleasant experiences.
 Transformational leadership – This relationship theory states that an individual or person can
communicate and interact with others in order to build a strong relationship which helps in
developing trust as well as increase motivation both extrinsic and intrinsic within followers
and leaders(Priest and Gass,2017).
Bass Theory of leadership
The Bass theory of leadership means that there are three primary methods to describe how
individuals are transforming into leaders. The first two methods explains leadership development
for a minimum number of members, while the last one is the most effective method used in the
present world. The various elements of bass theory leadership are as described below -

 Some personality attributes can direct people into leadership roles naturally. This refers to
attitude and skills within a person that enable him or her to become a leader and lead a team
effectively.
 A particular situation or event can encourage or motivate a person to transform into a leader.
There are many crisis conditions which forces or enable a person to identify the leadership
skills hidden in themselves and they become a leader.
 A person can also become a leader by his own choice, each and every person thinks or wants
to be a leader some or the other time in his life. In order to become a leader by choice a
person learns specific leadership skills and apply it in order to lead team to accomplish a
task or objective(Dinh and et.al,2014).
Total leadership
People needs to be guided or directed by a leader who have skills, knowledge and clear
sense of direction. In order to gain respect a leader required to be ethical or honourable. A leader
attains effective sense of direction through developing an impressive vision of the upcoming future.
People judge a leader by observing the activities performed by him or her, as they respect the leader
they do not consider his or her skills or attributes. Followers wants that their leader should not be
selfish or work for his own benefits by misusing the power and authority. Followers have strong
trust and belief on the leader that he will direct them effectively in order achieve a specific goal or
objective for the welfare of the entire team. Some leaders are self serving, they make use of their
authority to complete a task with the help of their followers or workers. They earn benefits from the
work of performed by their followers and develop a good image to their seniors. This type of
leaders are not followed or respected by the team members or followers, they are only obeying the
leader because of their authority or power
`Good leadership is a selfless work for an organisation, country or economy. A leader is
practising good leadership if he is respected, honoured by his followers. This type leaders is selfless
and always thinks about the welfare and benefit of the entire team. He does not separate himself
form his followers and try to work together for achieving a common goal effectively as well as
efficiently.
Management versus Leadership
Leadership and management have various things in common such as accomplishment of
objectives and working with people in an organisation. But with some similarities they also share
many differences in their functions. These differences are as described below -
 Management has a main function is to manufacture products and develop consistency with
activities or processes for example budgeting, planning, organising, staffing and problem
solving. On the other hand leadership's major function is to develop movement and adaptive
or constructive change through activities such as visioning, establishing direction, managing
people, inspiring and motivating them(Antonakis and Day,2017).
Principles of leadership
In order to be an effective leader, know what to do to be a good leader and implement the
plans to perform, there are various principles of leadership which are very important. Principles
helps a person to practice effective leadership and direct a team for achieving a goal or objective.
These principles are as described below -
1. Seeking self improvement and self assessment – In order to develop leadership qualities, a
leader needs to analyse his own skills and knowledge to know what he is capable of, after
knowing self skills he should identify what he knows and can achieve or perform and at last

he should implement and develop the skills in order to improve them. The leader can
improve or develop his leadership skills by self learning or communicating with random
people.
2. Being technically expert – A leader should be familiar of the task or activities performed by
his or her followers in order to direct them effectively. The leader should know his roles and
job so that he can contribute to the achievement of goals and objectives.
3. Taking and seeking responsibility for the actions – The leader should be able to identify and
determine unique ways for directing the followers of an organisation in order achieve
enhanced objectives leading company to new heights of success(Fairhurst and
Connaughton,2014).
4. Making timely and sound decisions.
5. Setting example for motivating the followers.
6. Knowing the followers and focusing on their welfare.
7. Keeping the followers well informed.
8. Developing a sense of responsibility within the followers.
9. Making sure that the activities are well understood, supervised and accomplished.
10. Training as a team.
11. Using the abilities of a business or organisation.
“ The leadership is not only skills but also human purpose that means
emotional intelligence caring about people" – Justification
The above statement states that leadership is not just a skill or method to lead or direct
Illustration 3: Principles-Centered Leadership

people or followers for achieving a specific goal or objective, it is an activity or human purpose that
refers to emotional intelligence caring about the people or followers. Leadership involves
understanding the needs and ethics of the people or followers, for being a good leader a person
needs to have ethical and moral values or attributes as described in the leadership theories as well as
it's a main principle of leadership. It is clear that without knowing the follower a leader can not
direct them to the achievement of goals or objectives. The leader needs to care about his people or
followers, understand their needs, wants, ethics, values and also focus on their welfare in order to
motivate or encourage which can effectively increase their performance(Northouse,2015).
A leader is a person which is trusted and respected by his followers, therefore they also
expect some care and concern of the leader. In order to motivate or encourage the people, a leader
needs to know the values of the followers and their satisfaction elements. For making the followers
perform a leader needs to build a good relationship with them which is not at all possible without
proper understanding between the leader and his people. Therefore, it proves that leadership
includes emotional intelligence which care about people or followers and not only a skill for
directing a group of people.
Illustration 4: Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

CONCLUSION
The assignment concluded that leadership is an important element, skills and emotional
intelligence which helps a person to lead or direct a group of people or team for accomplishing a
specific goal or objective. The study identify and determine the various functions of a leader which
needs to be performed to lead a team or followers. The assignment also described various theories
of leadership which proves that leadership is not only a skill or method to lead and direct followers
it also includes understanding and building good relationship with the people following, trusting
and believing in a leader. The report also provides justification to prove that leadership is an
emotional intelligence caring about people.

REFERENCES
Books and journal
Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John
Wiley & Sons.
Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Antonakis, J. and Day, D.V. eds., 2017. The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
Priest, S. and Gass, M., 2017. Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming, 3E. Human
Kinetics.
Fairhurst, G.T. and Connaughton, S.L., 2014. Leadership: A communicative
perspective. Leadership, 10(1), pp.7-35.
Tourish, D., 2014. Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the role
of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), pp.79-98.
Dinh, J.E., Lord, R.G., Gardner, W.L., Meuser, J.D., Liden, R.C. and Hu, J., 2014. Leadership
theory and research in the new millennium: Current theoretical trends and changing
perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), pp.36-62.
Boezeman, E.J. and Ellemers, N., 2014. Volunteer leadership: The role of pride and respect in
organizational identification and leadership satisfaction. Leadership, 10(2), pp.160-173.