Leadership is
the process in which an individual (or group of people) is endeavoring to
influence and direct efforts, attitude and interests of others into the
effective and efficient accomplishment of certain established organizational or
community goals. Leadership is nothing other than influencing others to a
common goal, Leadership is of propounding importance to any society, this is
due to the very nature and complexities of society, these complexities make the
employment of leadership to be necessary to any society. There is no any way in
which a group of two or more people may come together and work properly without
the use of leadership as a way of achieving the goal they wish to attain.
The evolution
and origin of leadership is on the emergence of society itself, its difficult
to look at the emergence of leadership in isolation, hence the proper way of
understanding the origin and evolution of leadership is precisely looked at
with connectedness with emergence of society itself. Leadership is evident in a
number of aspects of human being from the lowest level of organization of a
family, society level, national level, continental level to the global level.
We also have leadership in religious institution, economic and in political arena;
the principles of leadership are common whether they are applied in religious,
political or economic arena or anywhere else.
TYPES OF LEADERSHIP
Leadership has been grouped into
the following types, autocratic leadership, bureaucratic leadership,
charismatic leadership, democratic or participatory leadership, laissez-faire
leadership, people oriented leadership. Servant leadership, task oriented
leadership and transformational leadership.
Leadership
has the following importance to any society, this is as follows:-
Leadership is
important for the initiation of actions, as the society is always in constant
struggle for its life betterment, with the aid of leaders (good leaders)or
leadership p for this matter, proper actions are put in place(initiated) so as
to meet or exceed their expected goals
Leadership
plays a great role in the coordination of organizational/community activities,
with leadership an organization are able to link different efforts of its members
for the effective realization of the organizational goal. With leadership goals
are easily planned, established well in an attainable manner for execution.
Leaders (leadership)
are also crucial to the society for the provision of guidance and directions,
as we have societies and organization with people with diverse interest,
ambitions and skills, leadership is responsible to give out directions through
all this diversity so that a straight way to the attainment of society vision
is realized in a most effective way.
It comes a
time when a leader becomes the guardian
of the society he/she is serving by giving out protection and confidence to the
society this is evident during hard times
of the society, for instance in time of wars or any other natural calamities
,during this hard time good leaders are supposed to act a role of guardianship,
as a way a good shepherd would do to his
sheeps,this is almost the most valuable importance of leadership ,without a
leader with guardianship capabilities when organization/societies face stiff circumstances
the society might be divided and separated like the way a group of sheep may separate
when attacked by wild animal.
After a
closer look at the importance of
leadership to the society, let us now look at the qualities good leadership
should be embodied with ,this is as follows;-
A good
leader should be visionary and missionary, by visionary we mean that a leader
should be able to envisage the future before it appears with this capability a
leader will be able to make informed decisions with leadership bias, with
missionary we expect a leader who have particular aim(mission) that is
compatible with the interest of the society that he/she seeks to fulfill, for
instance poverty eradication will be a mission of a good leader in poor African
societies.
A good leader
should have great level of influence and discipleship, when you lead you obviously
influence others, hence a good leader will have a great level of influence who
will follow him/her without the use of rewards or punishment, without fluencies it impossible to take others to attain
goals certain goals, good leader will necessary also have people following (disciples)him a
good example of this is of ancient philosophers who had followers and disciples
,this are like the Confucius of ancient
China,Aristotle,and Plato to mention just a few, they were philosophers but
they also fit in leadership qualities.
A good leader will also have a great level of
goal accomplishment, when you lead what you want to reach at is the accomplishment
of goals, this leadership quality is
derived from the very essence of leadership itself, it is obvious a good leader will have so much
to accomplish.
A good leader
will always be an exemplary, person of high discipline, high moral moral values
and cetre of reference good leader will be a good example to his followers
(people you are leading) if you will have habits that are questioned you wont
be able to have organized force to the attainment of organization goals,
morealso a good leader should have moral values that are not questionable, most
important here is for a leader to be a centre of reference to his
followers.subordinates,a good example of this is Mwalimu Jk Nyerere to
Tanzania, who has always been a centre of reference to most leaders to
Tanzanian contemporary and aspiring leaders, it is very obvious people will be
ready to respect a leader with high moral values, and leadership is built in
respect, respect is the cornerstone and most important ingredient to any leadership
endeavors.
It is very
important for a good leader to be a person of great humility and humanist,
leader should be a servant of people we have passed a society rulers and ruled,
good leader has to serve the people,
this has to be bared in mind of leaders of the contemporary society this is not
era where a leader becomes ruler you have to save the people and always to
protect the interest of the society, if a leader lack humanist attitude will
not be bothered by the problem of his/her society, but any good leader will be
driven by humanist and dignity to ensure the betterment of his/her society are
reached at any cost.
Conclusively,
it is most important to know that without influence it is impossible to lead others,
I would like to end this discussion with this favorite proverb “he who thinks
he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk”
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