Leadership Approach Paper

771 Words4 Pages
Leadership Approach Paper Stacey Beadin LDR/531 December 10, 2012 Allan Beck Leadership Approach Paper There are many definitions of leadership that have been “defined in terms of traits, behaviors, influence, interaction patterns, role relationships, and occupation of an administrative position.” (Yukl, 2010) A simple definition of leadership is “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable other to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization.” (House et al., 1999, pg. 184). A leader must be able to lead a group of people with high quality skills and positively influence others around them to follow in his or her direction. In this leadership approach paper, the researcher will discuss one fundamental approach to studying leadership as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen leadership approach. In addition, the research will provide an example in which the chosen leadership approach was used in her organization. According to Yukl (2010), “most definitions of leadership reflect the assumption that it involves a process whereby intentional influence is exerted over other people to guide, structure, and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or organization.” (Yukl, 2010) There are four leadership approaches known as, Directing, Coaching, Supporting, and Delegating. The one fundamental approach that will be discussed will be the Directing Leadership approach. “Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard in the late 1960s were the first to describe the directing leadership style. The directing leader clearly provides specific instructions, defines the roles and tasks of the “follower,” and closely supervises task completion.” (Money, 2012) “The directing leadership style is most effective when the followers are relatively inexperienced, and need to be instructed in how to accomplish tasks. For example,
Open Document