Sheikh Nabila Tabassum :
Leadership and power is often mistakenly taken for a synonym. The fact is that power is part of the leadership process. Leadership is defined by the ability of a person to motivate and inspire a group of people to achieve a common set of objectives. In other words, power is the ability to influence others , it is a subset of leadership which come in different shapes and sizes. We should recognize that these relationships are very complex and almost impossible to master.
In leadership process, a leader must appreciate the reality that there is not a one size fits all here. If a leader always impose his or her power to his/her sub-ordinates without showing the right or wrong situation and the subordinates cannot also raise their voice then this is related to an autocratic leadership style.
Autocratic leadership style is the source of personnel issues, they are simply reacting to the actions. They are not being creative or showing any signs of initiative. So this situation is not effective for our society. Leadership should be like participative or democratic style. Some people with leadership positions will never understand the relation between leadership and power, and will never overcome this belief and consequently will strictly use the authoritarian leadership style. There is a wide range of scope in what leaders are tasked to do.
The cultural parameter of power distance may influence the appropriate leadership style .It is easy to think of leader who have used the power for unethical or immoral purposes. Great leaders have the following in common, they have a vision to achieve large scale ideas that they dream of accomplishing, and they have the personal power to enact it. For example, such business leaders as the late Steve Jobs of Apple Inc., Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook , Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Phil Knight of Nike, and Sam Walton of Walmart had strong visions of the future. They were able to transform their visions into reality, because they had acquired and used the necessary power to do so.
Great leaders make things happen by utilizing personal power. So this article examines us to distinguee between proper leadership and power. Leaders use power as a mean of attaining group goals, not to attain his/her individual goals or purposes.
Leadership and power is often mistakenly taken for a synonym. The fact is that power is part of the leadership process. Leadership is defined by the ability of a person to motivate and inspire a group of people to achieve a common set of objectives. In other words, power is the ability to influence others , it is a subset of leadership which come in different shapes and sizes. We should recognize that these relationships are very complex and almost impossible to master.
In leadership process, a leader must appreciate the reality that there is not a one size fits all here. If a leader always impose his or her power to his/her sub-ordinates without showing the right or wrong situation and the subordinates cannot also raise their voice then this is related to an autocratic leadership style.
Autocratic leadership style is the source of personnel issues, they are simply reacting to the actions. They are not being creative or showing any signs of initiative. So this situation is not effective for our society. Leadership should be like participative or democratic style. Some people with leadership positions will never understand the relation between leadership and power, and will never overcome this belief and consequently will strictly use the authoritarian leadership style. There is a wide range of scope in what leaders are tasked to do.
The cultural parameter of power distance may influence the appropriate leadership style .It is easy to think of leader who have used the power for unethical or immoral purposes. Great leaders have the following in common, they have a vision to achieve large scale ideas that they dream of accomplishing, and they have the personal power to enact it. For example, such business leaders as the late Steve Jobs of Apple Inc., Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook , Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Phil Knight of Nike, and Sam Walton of Walmart had strong visions of the future. They were able to transform their visions into reality, because they had acquired and used the necessary power to do so.
Great leaders make things happen by utilizing personal power. So this article examines us to distinguee between proper leadership and power. Leaders use power as a mean of attaining group goals, not to attain his/her individual goals or purposes.
