Essay 3: Leadership

Essay 3: Leadership

It is often said that a manager is what one does and a leader is who one is (Schnietz, Epstein, 2005). This is particularly true when it comes to evaluating the aspects of leadership across the spectrum of leadership theories, and evaluating the styles of leadership that dominate organizations today. Of the many theories of leadership, those that revolve around relationships show the greatest potential for explaining the dynamics of leading complex and highly intelligent teams in the 21rst century (Bartol, Tein, Matthews , Sharma & Scott-Ladd, 2010). The development of these theories has been a complex and circuitous process in themselves (Schnietz, Epstein, 2005). Relationship-driven leadership theories are also predicated on the aspects of leader's ability to create a culture of authenticity, transparency and trust throughout organizations and with their teams, instead of enforcing a high degree of compliance through more transactional and even authoritarian-based styles of management (Schnietz, Epstein, 2005). The relationship-based theories are also predicated the concept of leaders being entirely focused on the needs of their teams while also balancing the need for continual pursuit and attainment of objectives. This balancing of needs of the team on the one hand and the ability to keep focused on a compelling mission and vision on the other is a key attribute of transformational leadership (Bartol, Tein, Matthews , Sharma & Scott-Ladd, 2010).

Given the dominance of relationship theory in the prevailing mindset of many theorists and practitioners alike, the current focus in many organizations is to create and sustain as many transformational leaders as possible (Schnietz, Epstein, 2005). This specific leadership theory concentrates on transformational and transactional leadership as the two dominant leadership styles. Transformational leadership is differentiated by the focus on creating a very compelling vision and mission for a company or team, and then working to align the available resources to ensure its fruition or attainment can be completed. The ability to create a transformational leadership mindset within a company is driven to a large extent by the leader's ability to inspire sacrifice and commitment to excel in pursuit of the shared long-term goals and objectives of the company or team (Singh, Krishnan, 2008). As a result., transformational leadership is every well-suited for longer-term projects and initiatives (Andressen, Konradt, Neck, 2012). Transformational leaders also have the ability to create a very strong shared commitment to a common goal, so strong that there is the willingness of each team member to see their personal objectives in the context of the broader ones (Bartol, Tein, Matthews , Sharma & Scott-Ladd, 2010). Conversely, a transactional leadership style is more focused on how to create immediate attainment