Saving My Revised GRE Issue GRE Issue(Manuscript under Review) Copy Right 2012 by James Jiang.

g. All Rights Reserved Authorized and printed at Toronto, Canada, June 2012

Supplementary Ref

007

Leadership

Keith Grint. Leadership: a Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2010 Peter G. Northouse. Leadership: Theory and Practice, SAGE Publications, Inc., 1997

The termleader connotes exclusivity and hierarchy. A leader is something few could be, but many should aspire to be. Like heroes, leaders are supposed to be cultural role models. Because, they so often fell short, leaders could be dissected for flaws and criticized for failing to provide the necessary leadership to improve conditions. Education for leadership and social responsibility is to promote quality in individual lives, in relationships, in institutions, and in the goods and services we produce. To education for leadership and social responsibility is the need to forge the common good within diversity. Leadership is traditionally related to a spatial position in an organization of some kind formal or informal. Thus we can define leadership as the activity undertaken by someone whose position on a vertical and usually formal, hierarchy provides them with the resources to lead. These people are above us, at the top of the tree, superordinates, and so on. In effect, they exhibit what we might call leadership-in-charge. This is how we normally perceive the heads of vertical hierarchies, whether CEOs or military generals or head teachers or their equivalents. We might consider the best example of this as the charismatic to whom followers are attracted because of the charismatics personal magnetism. Despite the Western fetish for heroic individuals as leadership icons, it is not at all clear that such examples exist in social isolation. For instance, Newton may claim to have led the discovery of gravity, but it was, in effect, the result of collective work by Robert Hooke and Edmund Halley as well as Newton.

It might be more appropriate to take the results-based approach because without results the purpose of leadership there is little support for it. There may be thousands of individuals who are potentially great leaders, but if that potential is never realized, if no products of that leadership are forthcoming, then it would be logically difficult to speak of these people as leaders, except in the sense of failed or theoretical leaders people who actually achieve little or nothing. There is an assumption that people to whom we attribute the term leader act differently from non-leaders that some people act like leaders but what does this mean? It could mean that the context is critical, or that leaders must be exemplary, or that the attribution of difference starts early in the lives of individuals such that natural leaders can be perceived in the school playgrounds or on the sports field. Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was adamant that true leaders heroes were born not made. The masses who were full of beer and nonsense were incapable of generating their own leaders and the new capitalist bosses the millocracy were only interested in the accumulation of material wealth. For Carlyle, great leaders did not emerge through privileged enculturation or education but through individual raw that is, natural talent combined with a Nietzschean will to power. Carlyles heros were born to lead but not born into greatness; hence his list included Mohammed, Luther, Frederick the Great, Cromwell, and Napoleon all born with little except the natural will and ability to lead. The Athenian refers to

Saving My Revised GRE Issue GRE Issue(Manuscript under Review) Copy Right 2012 by James Jiang. All Rights Reserved Authorized and printed at Toronto, Canada, June 2012

the model of leadership learning embodied by those citizens of Ancient Athens (male only) who acquired leadership position by dint of their relatively high social birth combined with a liberal education in the arts, suitably supported by character-building physical education. These leaders regarded themselves as cultivated amateurs they were not the products of a sausage-factory educational system that poured forth professional soldiers like their arch-rivals the Spartans but instead the most civilized product of the most civilized society. Some early theories suggested that leaders do have special traits/qualities that distinguish them from non-leaders and these seem to be: talkativeness; intelligenceproviding the gap between leader and followers was not too wide; initiative and responsibility; willingness to take

Achievement-oriented leaders: The leader sets challenging goals and encourages employees to reach their peak performance. The leader believes that employees are responsible enough to accomplish challenging goals. This is the same as goal-setting theory.

Stogdills survey identified traits that were positively associated with leadership. The list included the following 10 characteristics: drive for completion; responsibility and task

vigor and persistence in pursuit of goals; venturesomeness problem solving; and originality in

drive to exercise initiative in social situations; self-confidence and sense of personal identity; willingness to accept consequences of decision and action; readiness to absorb interpersonal stress; willing to tolerate frustration and delay; ability to influence behavior; and other persons

self-confidence; and sociability.

Robert House developed the path-goal theory, which states that a leaders behavior is contingent to the satisfaction, motivation and performance of her or his subordinates. The four leadership styles are: Directive leaders: Here the leader provides guidelines, lets subordinates know what is expected of them, sets performance standards for them, and controls behavior when performance standards are not met. He makes judicious use of rewards and disciplinary action. The style is the same as task-oriented one. Supportive leaders: The leader is friendly towards subordinates and displays personal concern for their needs, welfare, and well-being. This style is the same as people-oriented leadership. Participative leaders: The leader believes in group decision-making and shares information with subordinates. He consults his subordinates on important decisions related to work, task goals, and paths to resolve goals.

capacity to structure social interaction systems to the purpose at hand.

Intelligence: Intelligence is positively related to leadership. Having strong verbal ability, perceptual ability, and reasoning appears to make one a better leader. Although it is good to be bright, the research also indicates that a leaders intellectual ability should not vary too much from that of his or her subordinates. Optimism: Underlying successful entrepreneurial leadership is a boundless font of optimism that never seems to end. When faced with a problem, they view it as a challenge. When faced with a setback, they view it as a new direction. Self-Confidence: Self-confidence is the ability to be certain about ones

Saving My Revised GRE Issue GRE Issue(Manuscript under Review) Copy Right 2012 by James Jiang. All Rights Reserved Authorized and printed at Toronto, Canada, June 2012

competencies and skills. It includes a sense of self-esteem and self-assurance and the belief that one can make a difference. Determination: Determination refers to the desire to get the job done and includes characteristics such as initiative, persistence, dominance, and drive. Individuals with determination are willing to assert themselves, they are proactive, and they have the capacity to persevere in the face of obstacles. Interpersonal skills: Successful entrepreneurs are comfortable relating to other people; they easily create rapport and are at least more extroverted than they are introverted. These factors help leaders seem approachable, likeable, and comfortable in their position. Those qualities contribute to staff wanting to interact with their leader. They also help motivate employees to do a better job. Decision Maker: Part of a leader's role is to make decisions and provide direction to those under him. Being able to make decisions within the required time. Not spending too much time analyzing and considering each decision. Have the firmness and willpower to stick to each decision long enough to see it bear fruit. Have the flexibility to change directions and decisions when it is discovered that the initial judgment may not be the right one. Integrity: Integrity is the quality of honesty and trustworthiness. Individuals who adhere to a strong set of principles and take responsibility for their actions are exhibiting integrity. Leaders with integrity inspire confidence in others because they can be trusted to do what they say they are going to do. Vision and Mission: A superior leader has a well thought out (often written) mission describing the purpose of the organization. That purpose need not be esoteric or abstract, but rather descriptive, clear and understandable. Every employee should be able to identify with the mission and strive to achieve it. A vision needs to be abstract enough to encourage people to imagine it but concrete enough for followers to see it, understand it and be willing to climb onboard to fulfill it.