What is traditionally meant by leadership?

In the XXI century being a leader has become almost a trend. Some of them simply narrate the stories of successful leaders’ lives; others give pieces of advice on how to become a leader, which quality a leader should possess, what are the useful habits of a true leader and so on. Many people suppose that the concept of leadership is virtually a synonym with success. And, frankly speaking, it is not a big wonder. Today you can easily find a number of essays about leadership. Leadership qualities had played a remarkable role in the humanity history. It was indispensable for human existence and surviving. From the ancient times when people were dwelling in the caves, the strongest and the smartest human being was to receive extra power and supremacy over a tribe. However, this concept includes a lot animal features, which were inherited by contemporary people from their ancestors and integrated in the modern society. Moreover, behind every historic event stands an outstanding figure with exceptional skills of leading. This topic has been an object of interest for people since quite ancient time. For instance, you may find one of the earliest classifications, devoted to ten types of leaders in Sanskrit. Besides, Plato and Plutarch tried to explore leadership qualities in their writings. Anyway, experts define this term as practical skill, which gives individual an ability to guide other individuals. We’ve tried to combine the most interesting fact, the latest survey data and the most useful tips into one essay for a many-sided view on the issue.

Contemporary scientific view on leadership

There are several approaches to the leadership research. The first of them is one that based on the trait theory. It says that a person could be born with leader’s or follower’s traits of character. In other words, a person has a collection of constant trait, which can’t be changed. This approach was quite popular in the 1930s-1950s.

The servant leadership approach has recently appeared. It is based on understanding of the fact that a leader firstly should be a servant to deal successfully with the future employees. Professional paper writers have to produce a great number of servant leadership essays because of this new theory.

The first researches on relations between leader and followers started to appear in the 1970s. They proved that the effectiveness of team work greatly depends on the leader-subordinate relations.

The roots of scientific interest to this subject are situated in the social sciences, such as sociology, psychology, anthropology as well as in history and philosophy. Since the leadership topic becomes more popular every day, there are a lot of academic programs, which study this question. Scholars study leadership, using quantitative, qualitative and combined methods of research. Survey method keeps standing on the top position too.

Modern researchers tend to name such main leader’s qualities as:

• Passion for the job they do;
• Open-mindedness and flexibility;
• Persistence;
• Capability to inspire other;
• Self-confidence;
• Integrity;
• Positive approach;
• Capability to establish close personal contacts;
• Efficiency;
• Creativity etc.

It’s interesting enough that the modern scholars suppose that a person can develop leader’s qualities, if he/she is really willing to. It definitely would be a challenge, but following some recommendations step by step you may achieve success. Nevertheless, they agree on the fact that charisma is an innate trait. But all of them claim that just being a charismatic person is not enough to organize a prosperous team and establish its work.

Differences between male and female styles of leadership

It is a well-known fact that men and women have different leadership styles. The subject of gender equality is revealed in a lot of essays on gender equality and specified essays on leadership. Male-leaders are generally more focused, goal-oriented, active and decisive.  As a rule, women are more communicative, understanding and helpful. In other words, their leadership is based on feeling and emotions, while the leadership style of men is more rational and logically-based. The carrying-out of the task is the most important fact for men. In the same time, women are both task- and relationship-oriented. There is no doubt that today the number of women in the international labor market is rapidly growing, consequently we may admit that both male and female leadership styles are equally successful.

How to develop leadership qualities?

The development of a real leader partly depends on upbringing and education. The suppression of personality and obtrusion of the parents’ views have a great impact on a child’s chances to become a leader in the future. Anyway, you may develop the necessary qualities even being an adult. First of all, you should become an expert in your sphere. Then your colleges would willingly ask you for advice and consequently your authority would grow higher. In addition, it will give them another reason to respect and appreciate you. Reading of some successful figure’s leadership experience essay can be pretty beneficial. By the way, you may use help of essay writing services to create this kind of essay. The third useful tip is developing your self-confidence. Try to learn how to speak convincingly and use this skill. Being a self-confident person is quite important, but don’t forget to care about your followers. By the way, leadership unambiguously means taking responsibility. And that doesn’t mean just the responsibility for good things. If your team failed in accomplishment of some task, be ready that the responsibility is firstly yours. Don’t try to blame your employees for the failure, because that would definitely lead to decrease of motivation among your team members. Firstly try to think about the reasons of this situation and about the steps you may make to avoid such problems in the future. Appreciate their opinions and stimulate their interest to the team-work. Rewording your team members for their achievements could be also useful for your employees’ morale motivation. Choose any kind of the appropriate motivation whether it is a monthly bonus, a small present or just some gesture of the general recognition. Another necessary feature of a great leader is firmness of character. But a tricky thing is that a real leader is able to combine in himself/herself both strictness and kindness. To put it in another way, be understanding when some of your employees fall sick or has some personal problems. Of course, you shouldn’t turn into a psychologist, but still it is better to stay humane in these situations. Anyway, you should remember that in fact people want to be led. It is one of their basic instincts. They are just looking for a strong and decisive person with a great will. So if you demonstrate your strength, they will gladly follow you.

What are the advantages of being a leader?

Every essay on leadership mention that being a leader is surely a hard task for everyone. It could be wearisome and stressful. But is it really profitable? What can leadership give you? Is it worth your efforts? The answer is totally depends on you, your life views and purposes. There are some obvious benefits of being a leader. Leadership definitely gives you an endless number of opportunities. For example, you may set your own goals and lead others after you. You will have an impact on other people and will be able to influence them. You will have an opportunity to express your thoughts and views, being heard. Authority gives you chance to make your opinion popular. Leadership experience is a way to improve your personal skills and creativity. You will have an opportunity to get acquainted with a lot of various interesting people, which makes possible experience and knowledge exchange. The last but not the least is the fact that being a leader you may change the world for better, charging people around you with your passion, energy, optimism and introducing your ideas.

Try to make this steps to successful leadership and, who knows, maybe soon enough you will be writing your own essay about leadership and your brilliant leader’s experience.