Leadership

Main article: Leadership

Leadership is a process of influencing and supporting and motivating others to work enthusiastically or effectively towards achieving the objectives or goal. A leader acts as a catalyst, who identifies the potential of a worker and tries to put that into reality. A leader can be a positive leader or a negative leader.

A leader’s influence within an organization or group has been said to stem from two primary sources, that person’s personal characteristics and their position within the organization. Personal power, also made up of two factors called expert power and referent power, is derived from elements like an individual’s personality, their knowledge base, their ability to effectively interact with others, and their demonstrated level of effort. Positional power, also often referred to as legitimate power, is derived from the leader’s position within the organization, and the authority imbued in them either directly or indirectly by the organization’s controlling parties to provide either rewards or sanctions for performance.^[29]

The leader’s role is to use this influence to encourage those within the organization to focus their actions toward the accomplishment of the organization’s goals. ^[30] Distinction should be noted between management v. leadership. Managers process administrative tasks that organize work environments. Leaders conduct those same tasks while also inspiring and motivating the workforce for which they oversee. Managers cope with complexity, leaders cope with change. Managers participate in stepwise tasks of planning and budgeting, organizing and staffing, and controlling and problem solving. In contrast, leaders approach these stages of business development through equivalent tasks of setting a direction or vision, aligning people or communication, and motivating and inspiring, respectively. ^[31]