Leadership Approaches: Similarities and Differences

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Leadership Approaches: Similarities and Differences

Introduction

Leadership is the ability to lead other people from a position where one is endowed with power. Leadership is critical in all spheres of life, from family, society, business, and government. In most cases, in business organizations, the top-most leadership positions consist of the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). In contrast, in countries and Kingdoms, such positions are occupied by presidents, prime ministers, and kings. They are the highest-ranking in their respective areas and are expected to provide leadership. There are various leadership approaches, including traits, skills, and behavior.

According to the trait approach, leadership characteristics are believed to be hereditary. Thus, good leadership skills emanate from inheritance and naturally being born with them. On the other hand, the behavioral approach posits that leadership emanates from a set of behaviors. It goes on to say that successful leaders have particular taxonomy of actions and patterns indicating varying leadership styles. Lastly, the skills approach sets out a set of skills as opposed to personality traits in defining effective leadership. Thus, it emphasizes measuring the leaders performance based on their skills, encouraging those interested in becoming leaders to learn the necessary skills. This paper aims to define these three approaches to leadership, drawing more attention to how they compare with each other in terms of similarities and differences.

Traits Leadership Approach

This theory draws its basis from the characteristics of a myriad of leaders and helps predict successful or otherwise leadership. The resulting trait list is then put side to side with the traits of potential leaders to assess the likely outcome of their leadership, whether effective or otherwise (Vasilescu, 2019). The theory is also tied to the great man leadership theory initially proposed by Thomas Carlyle in the mid-1800s. Carlyle argued that extraordinary leaders are the shapers of history. Carlyle also pointed out that the ability to lead others is a gift that a person is born with, and it is impossible to develop and acquire along a persons life journey (Kovach, 2018). Carlyles arguments found a basis in the three rationales, consisting of certain traits producing certain behavior patterns, patterns being consistent across various situations, and people being born with leadership traits.

The traits theory builds on Carlyles arguments, suggesting that certain innate qualities and characteristics make a leader. These qualities and characteristics include intelligence, personality, and physical factors, to name a few (Kovach, 2018). Thus, according to trait theory, leaders and their traits occupy a central position in any organizations success (Kovach, 2018). Consequently, it is assumed that organizational performance is pegged on the kind of traits that its leaders possess. Thus, this theory emphasizes the leaders as opposed to the followers.

Skills Leadership Approach

The primary focus of this theory is the belief that certain skills, knowledge, and abilities that can be learned are critical to leadership. Its evaluation of a leader is on what they have the potential to accomplish. The skills leadership approach is vital in recognizing critical skill sets that lead to effective leadership (Uslu, 2019). Thus, with its understanding, it is possible to help promote the right leaders and become better leaders. According to this theory, effective leadership is a product of skills instead of the leaders traits (Uslu, 2019). Hence, it allows every person to rise to leadership by acquiring certain necessary skills. The theory provides the three most important skills for an effective leader: conceptual, technical, and human skills.

Conceptual skills are central in helping leaders to create solutions to critical problems. These skills also help measure the leaders ability to adapt to new ideas and incorporate them into their day-to-day activities (Delbert et al., 2021). Conceptual skills include innovation, critical thinking, persuasiveness, and decision-making, among others. Technical skills refer to specific skills crucial in performing a leaders daily activities. They measure the ability of the leader to work with critical tools for their tasks. Such skills include writing reports, creating digital art, and computer software skills, among others (Kovach, 2018). Lastly, human skills describe the interpersonal skills that enable a leader to manage a team. Thus, they measure the ability of the leader to work with others. They comprise active listening, effective communication, and social judgment.

Behavioral Leadership Approach

This approach evaluates leaders on their actions while in the workplace. The proponents of behavioral leadership theory posit that effective leadership emanates from learning a certain set of behaviors (Oberer & Erkollar, 2018). The theory suggests that a leaders success is based on the leaders behavior and not their natural attributes. This theory entails observation and evaluation of the actions of the leader and their behaviors in response to the specific situation. Hence, it takes the position that leaders are made instead of born.

Consequently, behavior theory rests on the belief that everybody has a chance of becoming a leader by learning and implementing requisite behaviors. This theory is relevant in a vast of fields. It provides the chance to evaluate various leaders concerning the criteria developed. It promotes the notion that all leaders can learn and develop by adopting beneficial behaviors and performing them in the workplace (Uslu, 2019). This theory also encourages leaders to be self-aware regarding their behavior and acknowledge their effects on the product and team morale.

Similarities of the Trait, Skills, and Behavioral Leadership Theories

The three theories have common grounds on which they agree on some issues. Among the issues they agree on is that they all assess the attributes of a leader, which can either be natural or acquired through skills or behavior. All three theories identify traits of an individual fitting a given leadership position (Vasilescu, 2019). For instance, traits theory focuses on innate traits, and skills theory focuses on acquired traits through training. In contrast, the behavioral theory emphasizes the behavioral traits of leaders as shaped by their environment. Thus, all three theories emphasize certain common markers and habits of skill, trait, and behavioral attributes. The trait theory emphasizes innate attributes. The behavioral theory emphasizes the attributes of a leader or a potential leader when faced with a particular situation in the line of duty, while the skills theory emphasizes both the technical and personality aspects.

Both behavioral and skills theories emphasize nurturing individuals desirable behaviors and skills in building them toward becoming successful leaders. They both demonstrate that anyone can become an effective leader, provided they are willing to learn certain behaviors and skills geared towards making them effective in their positions (Delbert et al., 2021). Thus, the possibility of one becoming an effective leader solely rests on their ability to learn and implement the desirable behaviors and skills in their position.

Differences in the Trait, Skills, and Behavioral Leadership Theories

Among the key differences between the three leadership theories is their disagreement on the discourse between nature and nurture. While the trait theory emphasizes that the ability of a person to become an effective leader solely rests with nature, both skills and behavioral theories argue that a person can become an effective leader through acquiring and nurturing desirable attributes (Vasilescu, 2019). Thus, the trait theory locks out anyone not born with desirable leadership attributes such as intelligence, physique, et cetera. On the contrary, both skills and behavioral theories give everyone a chance to become effective leaders. The only price they have to pay is committing to learning and implementing such skills and behaviors that are consistent with an effective leader.

On the other hand, while behavioral theory limits a persons ability to influence the outcome through relating with others correctly, skills theory is not limited to the teams influence. It also emphasizes the ability of a leader to offer leadership through the actual doing of the work (Uslu, 2019). Hence, among the effective skills that a leader is supposed to have are technical skills in addition to human and conceptual skills, which are not emphasized in both behavioral and trait theories.

Conclusion

Different aspects can define effective leadership. While natural, innate attributes, as trait theory espouses, are critical, one can acquire effective leadership attributes through learning and nurturing them. Thus, the main difference arising among the three leadership approaches is the approach in which a person can become an effective leader in an organization. However, all three leadership theories emphasize various attributes of a person becoming central in their execution of leadership mandate. These attributes may be innate or acquired and nurtured over time.

References

Delbert, T. M., & Jacobs, K. (2021). Best Practices in Leadership Curriculum Development: A Case Study of a Curriculum Designed to Foster Authentic Leadership Skills in Graduate Students. Journal of Higher Education Theory & Practice, 21(2). Web.

Kovach, M. (2018). An examination of leadership theories in business and sport achievement contexts. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 11(2), 14. Web.

Oberer, B., & Erkollar, A. (2018). Leadership 4.0: Digital leaders in the age of industry 4.0. International Journal of Organizational Leadership, 7(4), 404-412. Web.

Uslu, O. (2019). A general overview of leadership theories from a critical perspective. Marketing and Management of Innovations, 1, 161-172. Web.

Vasilescu, M. (2019). Leadership styles and theories in effective management activity. Annals-Economy Series, 4, 47-52. Web.

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