The Meaning of Leadership

Leadership is the social process of influencing the behaviors of others without posing any threats
of violence. It is a process of influencing the thoughts, attitudes and behaviors of others by
setting a direction that helps visualize what they can hope to achieve or what lies ahead for
them.
Leadership in a very ordinary sense refers to creating a group of followers whom another
individual leads. Merely accompanying a group of people isnt leadership unless the person
actually is choosing and showing a direction to the followers. Without followers a leader isnt a
leader in spite of having the desired qualities or nature of a leader.
The Essence of Leadership in Business
The four fundamental factors of production are land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship. The
final factor belies the vital importance of leadership in business settings. When it comes to
achieving business success, most people think it is mostly because of the strategy that the
business comes up with. The strategy is one part of the whole range of reasons but not the
reason for success. There are a lot of things that amount the success of an organization, and
leadership without a doubt is the main reason for this success.
For any type or size of business, effective leadership provides many benefits and will assist the
organization to achieve success and stability. In the absence of effective leadership,
organizations often grow slowly and may lose their direction and competitiveness. Leader is
someone who shows the way to his followers and looks to create future leaders for business, as
part of succession planning. When it comes to business development the need of leader is more
important.
Difference between Leadership and Management in Business
Management and leadership are related, but they are not the same. You can be a manager or a
leader; you can also be both or neither. The biggest difference between managers and leaders
lies in the way they motivate others. When executing plans as a manager, you focus on
supervising results, comparing them with goals and correcting deviations. In contrast, as a
leader you focus on energizing people to overcome hurdles in reaching goals. Leaders hunt
pressing issues such as influence, power, dependence, and policies for change.
How to be a leader
A leader overnight is not made, created or born. But, is there a secret sauce to being a leader?
Well, one of the hallmarks is being adaptive.
Cool-headed, farseeing, visionary, courageous - whichever adjectives you choose, leadership is a
winning combination of personal traits and the ability to think and act as a leader, a person who
directs the activities of others for the good of all. Anyone can be a leader, but you can't be a
leader just by saying you are. Business leadership, needs to be worked at. Transform yourself
into the kind of leader your business needs with these five keys to business leadership.

For Effective Business Leadership:

1. A leader plans.

The core of business leadership is being proactive rather than reactive. Leaders are good in
crises - but that doesn't mean they sit around letting crises develop. Leadership involves
identifying potential problems and solving them before they reach crisis proportions and the
ability to identify and reap potential windfalls. So good leaders analyze and plan and adapt their
plans to new circumstances and opportunities.
2. A leader has a vision.
Vision is essential to good leadership. Vision provides direction and without direction, theres not
much point to all that planning; your business will still flail about. So if you dont have one
already, take your first step towards business leadership by creating a Vision Statement for your
business. Because it embodies your dreams and your passions, a vision statement will also serve
as a leadership vision.
3. Leaders share their vision.
Sharing your leadership vision helps your vision grow and your business leadership develop. As
you tell your leadership vision to others, you will strengthen your own belief in your vision and
strengthen your determination to make your leadership vision become reality. And other people
will start to see you as a person who's "going places". Your business leadership skills will grow as
you and other people recognize you as a person with leadership potential.
4. A leader takes charge.
At this stage of business leadership, you put together your planning and your leadership vision
and take action. Whether it's implementing a specific plan to improve your business's bottom
line or responding to a crisis, you, as the leader, are the one who makes the decisions and sees
that the appropriate actions are carried out. You can't just "talk a good game" to be a leader;
you need to act and to be seen as taking effective action for the good of your business.
5. A leader inspires through example.
If I asked you, you could easily name three people whose leadership qualities inspire you. If I
asked you why, youd tell me about the things these inspiring people did or are doing.
Leadership is defined through action. Therefore, in developing your own business leadership
skills, you have to act in ways that are fitting to your leadership vision and your self - all the
time. We can all name many actions of other people whom we admire, but what inspires us is
the integrity that gives these actions meaning.
Learning to be a leader isn't easy because it takes a conscious commitment and consistent effort
to develop one's business leadership skills. But on the positive side, anyone who is willing to
make the effort can become a good leader. And as good business leadership is critical to
business success, your efforts to improve your leadership skills will be amply rewarded.

Conclusion

A leaderless organization is like an army without generals. Work forces need the leadership of
skilled and experienced individuals to provide guidance and a single direction for all employees
to follow. Leaders are invaluable when it comes to formulating and communicating new strategic
directions, as well as communicating with and motivating employees to increase dedication to
organizational goals. Effective leaders adopt strategies and techniques to try to win or take the
lead in the competitive market. The success of a business or an industry is mostly dependent on
the leaders it gets or inherits.
Yenia Snchez
Mara Snchez
Iveth Alvarez
Jorge Lam

http://globial.com/globialtalksbusiness/the-importance-of-leadership-inbusiness-development/
http://www.divinecaroline.com/life-etc/career-money/meaning-and-essenceleadership-business

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/smallbusinesslearning/a/leadership1.htm
http://toolkit.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/part/8/39/187