Leadership Introduction

Leadership Introduction

"Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." (Eisenhower)

In this leadership paper I will cover the Great man leadership theory and the Behavioral leadership theory. I will define the Great Man and Behavioral leadership theories. I will define the similarities of the Great Man and Behavioral theories, and I will also cover their differences. I will also cover when these theories are most and least effective.

Definitions

The Great-Man leadership theory is considered the oldest of all leadership theories. The great man theory commonly describes great leaders as mythic, heroic and destined to rise above all others to lead. It is believed that the name "great man" was given because leadership roles were believed to be roles mostly filled by males; even more so in regards to great military leaders. The basic premise is that a great man is born and not made. This implies that if you are not born great you will not become great.

John Buchan is quoted as saying "The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already."

The Behavioral leadership theory is the premise that a man can learn, observe and be taught to be a leader; it is the observations of behaviors and/or actions used to define and under a leadership theory. This means that a Behavioral leader is made not born, he is a learning leader.

"Researchers proposed that for a leader to be effective, their behavior must vary with the situation. In other words, you can learn how to act like a leader. Behavior theories are based on categories of behavior and leadership types. The myth in this thinking is that outward behavior is enough to establish leadership." (Penn n.d.)

Similarities

The Great Man Theory and Behavioral leadership Theories are similar in many ways. One similarity is that an autocratic leader: a leader that leads from a position of power can be a Great Man or Behavioral leader. They Theories have a focus on effectiveness, they must be effective or they cannot lead. If the great man is not effective he'll not be considered to be a great man. If a behavioral leader proves to be ineffective the person would lose that position of leadership or never attain the leadership to begin with.

The Great Man and Behavioral leadership theories both become extremely effective when their followers thrive on intrinsic rewards: the personal satisfaction an individual gets for doing a good job. These types of leaders also thrive when they empower their subordinates; empowerment is when the leader shares or delegates power to subordinates. Great Man and Behavioral leaders often are very charismatic. They