Leadership Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Leadership

Leadership: Defined & Described

I think that leadership is the talent that an individual possesses to persuade and influence a group of people to perform a set of activities towards accomplishing a common goal. Some individuals are born to be leaders and some learn how to lead through series of training and life experiences. One of the main reasons why leadership is so hard to explain is because it is perceived differently from every vantage point. Trait leadership focuses on personal qualities that are used to identify leaders such as height, intelligence, extraversion, fluency, etc. Adolf Hitler is an excellent example of a leader that was not handsome or tall and still had millions of followers. It is interesting to note that Hitler believed that tall Germans with blonde hair and blue eyes were the master race even though he did not have blue eyes, blonde hair, was tall, or German and killed millions of people simply based on their places of origin, color of their skins, religion, etc.

According to the book Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.

Throughout history a significant number of leadership scholars have attempted to find an absolute meaning for leadership, but its meaning has evolved from time to time depending on the time period and situation. During the first three decades of the last century, from 1900 to 1929, leadership was seen as “the ability to impress the will of the leader on those led and induce obedience, respect, loyalty and cooperation”. The definition during this period was based on the idea that leaders were feared and use domination to make their followers follow. The fourth decade of the century, from 1930 to 1939, witnessed a change in the definition of leadership from the domination of a leader over a group to the power to influence a group of individuals. Through the 1940’s, it was believed that leadership was the behavior of an...