Running head: STRAIT D ED7012-2 1

Definition of Leadership
Dawn Strait
Northcentral University
STRAIT D ED7012-2 2

Introduction
There are many definitions relating to the word leadership. Moreover, the words used in

the definition can be separately analyzed too. Also, there are different levels of power, different

reasons for leadership, and different styles of leadership. However, the important aspect to be

noted is that if someone wants a group of people to accomplish a common goal, they must have

an effective leadership style for the group. My definition of leadership is the following: A person

is a leader who has ambition, skills, personality, and other qualities to motivate and influence a

group of people to reach a common goal. There have been many leaders in my life, and they

have all had a different personality utilized one of the many styles of leadership. However,

whichever style they chose to use they seemed to accomplish a common goal.

Conceptualizing leadership

There are various ways to form a concept of a person’s leadership. However, as one

researches leadership, they will find similar words in conceptualizing leadership begin to appear

and even the basic definition of leadership contains the same words. To begin conceptualizing a

person’s leadership one must take a look at how that person influences other people. For

example, an individual may be outgoing and dominant, and the leader has all the authority.

Furthermore conceptualization is that a leader is a person who is the focal point of group change.

Since the leader is at the center of group change the leader is the one who represents the will of

the group. Some people define leadership as a certain form of a power relationship that leaders

have over the followers to cause events to happen.

Another belief is that the follower has more say in the leadership process. It is not a top-

down approach. Some conceptualize leadership as a combination of special traits that an

individual possesses. These characteristics enable a person to influence others to accomplish

certain tasks. Other approaches to leadership say it is a behavior that leaders perform to bring

about change in a group. Moreover, there are people that view leadership as a transformational

process, which usually moves followers to accomplish their aspirations by reaching a certain

goal. Still, some people say it is having knowledge about a goal that makes effective leadership.

Another one may have developed a technical skill to lead a technical call center (Northouse,

2016).

History Conceptualizes Leadership

Like other words, over a period of time leadership words are molded and shaped by many

different views and aspects until they eventually come to a precise definition or more than one

definition. The term leadership has a history line that can be traced over a period of years and

sometimes relates to the historical events that were taking place at that point in history. For

example, in the early 20th Century the definition of leadership began with the leader having the

central control and was dominant over the group. They had the obedience and respect of the

group. Then as a few years passed, in the 1930’s traits were being studied as the main

involvement with the development of leadership. At this time personality, qualities, and inborn

characteristics determined if a person was going to be a leader and which type of leader they

were going to be with the people (Northouse, 2016).

By the 1940’s, the behavior of an individual was considered part of leadership.

Therefore, leadership by persuasion and leadership by coercion was distinguished. In the middle

of the century during the 1950’s, three themes dominated the time period. One was the

continuance of group theory which analyzed the behavior of leaders in the group. The behavior

of the leaders was related to the effectiveness of the leader’s ability to influence the entire

groups’ actions. By the 1960’s, the definition of leadership was narrowed to the behaviors or acts
STRAIT D ED7012-2 4

of people that influence others in a shared direction. Nevertheless, by the 1970’s, the

organizational goals were set by both leaders and followers. Shaped by scholarly work on

leadership, prominent themes began to emerge about leadership and changed with the definition

in some ways. For example, they established that the leader gets people to do what they want

done, there was noncoercive influence, there was more depth of knowledge, and the

transformation movement developed (Northouse, 2016).

Coming into the 21st century, created a debate between the separate processes of

leadership and management. There formed four types of leadership: authentic leadership,

spiritual leadership, servant leadership, and adaptive leadership. First, authentic leadership is that

the authenticity of the leader is established. .Secondly, spiritual leadership used values and

membership to motivate followers. Moreover, servant leadership puts the leader in the role of

servant to focus on followers’ needs and adaptive leadership encourages followers to adapt to the

situation and be problem-solvers (Northouse, 2016).

Leadership Process or Trait

However, leadership has components that make it thought of as a process. Leadership

process involves the use of influence with groups of people. These groups through their leaders,

focus on common goals. As a process. the leaders use intercommunication between the leader

and the followers. They affect each other and everyone in the group is involved so it is called a

leadership process and not a leadership trait (Northouse, 2016).

On the other hand, some people believe that leaders are born with certain characteristics

or qualities in their nature that makes them become good leaders. These inborn qualities make

them different from non-leaders. Some traits are personality features that foster good self-esteem,
STRAIT D ED7012-2 5

certain physical features, or certain cognitive abilities. A difference can be found between

leadership trait and leadership process. A leadership trait belongs to a certain selection of people.

However, if leadership is gained through a learned process then it is available to everyone

(Northouse, 2016).

Leadership and Power

If someone has power, they have the ability to influence other people’s actions.

Therefore, it used to be thought of that effective or ineffective had the power over their

followers, so leaders had considerable amount of influence over their followers. At that time the

leader maintained the power.

Today there is a possibility for a structure change in power because of the technological

advances in society. For example, because of so much information being made available to the

followers as well as the leaders causes a change in the amount of dependency the followers have

on their leaders. This causes a change in leadership style because when the followers become

less dependent on the leader then the leader has less control over the thoughts and processes of

the followers.

There are different types of leadership powers, but coercive power has the potential to

cause harm to the followers. Sometimes when using coercive power the leader uses force to get

something done and it may be in a harsh manner. Coercive power can involve threats,

punishments, and negative rewards. Usually the leaders with coercive power have a dictatorial

style leadership. Moreover, the leaders that use coercion are interested in their own goals and not

the interests of the followers. In other words coercion works against the goals that the followers

are trying to achieve in the process.

Leadership and Management

Leadership and management are similar in many ways as they both work with people and

influence them to complete a goal. Both are essential to the success of an organization. Requiring

a need for adequate management and leadership skills even though both differ in several ways.

Management skills are concerned with planning, organizing, and controlling the mission

following a rigid schedule. Leaders are more open-minded in their ideas and are more involved

with their followers. They like to influence big changes and go for long-term goals (Northouse,

2016).

Leadership in Business Management

Bauer in his article (2016) claims that education of leadership is a multibillion-dollar

industry. Also, he says there are unique ways to think about and conceptualize leadership. For

example, leadership may be thought as building something great together. A company can start a

small business and a good leader can help grow the company. The leader can reach the goal of

high profits. The leader invests in others in the process and shows them that he trusts them so he

can build their trust in his leadership and ultimately, they reach their goal together (Bauer, 2016).

Another way to conceptualize leadership is the ability to motivate people toward positive

thoughts about themselves and their organization. Research done by a Cleveland Clinic said that

“95 percent of humans thoughts are habituated, and 80 percent of the habituated thoughts are

negative” (Bauer, para. 3, 2016). Also, it can be said that leadership is formed around

relationships between people and goals. However, it is important not to overwhelm your

followers by pursuing a lot of goals because this can bring confusion. One way is to let the

followers become part of the decision-making process and express their ideas to the group.
STRAIT D ED7012-2 7

Leadership is about searching for new opinions, support, and solving problems. Bauer says there

is a difference helping someone reach a goal and telling them every step to take toward the goal.

As a leader, one still needs to expand their knowledge and learn new skills. Included in building

leadership is the ability of finding new strategies, good communication, asking productive

questions, and respecting others (Bauer, 2016).

Leadership vs. Ineffective Leadership

Good leadership or any leadership at all can be a matter of life or death as it is so often is

in the health system. In the following study it shows how transformational style leadership

impacts the public health system. Also, it shows management and leadership working together

for the common goal. Throughout the study one can depict the characteristics of the effective

leadership qualities that ultimately lead to the success of the mission.

A mixed study that was conducted in which leadership was examined using the

Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, and Sustainment (EPIS) conceptual framework. The

need was for the evidence-based interventions (EBIs) to be sustained otherwise investments are

wasted and public health would be negatively affected (Aarons, Green, Trott, Willging, Torres,

Ehrhart, Roesch, 2016). Therefore a type of leadership was to be the key determinant of

implementation and sustainment of the EBIs. In the study there was leadership in the outer

context (with an example of the system) and the inner context (with an example of the team).

The outer context included the project’s mission which was positive sustainment leadership.

They included realistic and survival plans.

In the inner context was frontline transformational leadership which led to sustainment

whereas passive-avoidant leadership led to non-sustainment. Of the three leadership styles that
STRAIT D ED7012-2 8

was used in the study that was the most successful was the transformational style. It motivates,

intellectually stimulates, and inspires motivation and change. Transactional leadership provides

reinforcement for positive behaviors and monitoring of quality standards. Passive-avoidant is

considered non-leadership because the leader is not engaged (Aarons, et al., 2016).

The Inner Context role needed leadership to include having a vision, problem solving,

and engaging supporting providers in their EBI uses. With the outer context it meant constructs

in the leadership establishing the mission and vision, planning for sustainment, realistic planning

and using multiple strategies. Strategies included formal funding, system improvement, and

proactive planning. Also, it was a supportive and perseverance leadership and varied the EBI in

the system in multiple ways.

Leaders were at different levels coordinating, collaborating, and leading their teams to

actively support EBI implementation and sustainment. This multi-level team influence of

leadership resulted in successful benefits to the patients and clients. The benefits were an

effective and evidence-based health and allied health service with EBI sustainment (Aarons, et

al., 2016).

Quantitatively the study showed that leadership at the system and organizational levels

predicted sustainment. Qualitatively they used the functions of convergence and expansion to

further contextualize the idea of leadership that supports sustainment across outer context and

inner context (Aarons, et al., 2016). It is important to learn from this study that leaders can

positively create change and innovation or avoid it. The leadership that dealt with the outer

factors include funding and controlling provider organizations. The inner context factors are the

groups tasks that dealt with delivering EBIs. The responsibilities of the leaders included

obtaining funding, dispersing resources, and instituting policies. Weiner agrees that for
STRAIT D ED7012-2 9

innovation implementation leaders need to be ready to create change and have strategies to

support implementation (Weiner, 2009).

This study utilizes quantitative and qualitative methods and data from service systems

that use Safe Care (SC), which is an EBI to reduce child maltreatment. At the end of the study it

concluded that the ordinal regression analysis showed transformational leadership significantly

predicted sustainment. Passive-avoidant leadership significantly predicated sustainment in the

opposite direction than transformational leadership. Passive-avoidant leadership failed to sustain.

This studied proved that unless there was leadership this mission would not be reached and

would actually have detrimental effects to the situation without transformational leadership.

The prominent leadership skills bring change are by being supportive of the staff,

proactive in problem solving, and perseverant in dealing with issues. Also, the leaders were able

to implement new programs across system levels (Aarons, et al., 2016). The Program

Sustainability Leadership Competency scale assesses specific leader actions and planning for

sustaining (Mancini & Marek 2004). Moreover the Full-Range Leadership (FRL) Model

measures dimension of transformational leadership and transactional leadership (Avolio, Bass, &

Jung, 1999).

Conclusion

Leadership has been defined in many ways and analyzed for different types and styles of

leaderships. There are also different powers that leaders have can exert in different ways over

their followers. Leadership is effective most of the time if they motivate and help the group to

reach a goal, but control has to be kept at a balance and not be turned into something like a

dictatorship. However, in reality there are some that do lead by coercion. In today’s society with
STRAIT D ED7012-2 10

the technological advances leaders as well as followers have more knowledge and skills

available to help them quickly and effectively reach their goals.

References
Aarons, G. A., Green, A. E., Trott, E., Willging, C. E., Torres, E. M., Ehrhart, M. G., & Roesch,
S. C. (2016). The roles of system and organizational leadership in system-wide evidence-
based intervention sustainment: A mixed-method study. Administration and Policy in
Mental Health, 43(6), 991-1008. DOI 10.1007/s10488-016-0751-4
Avolio, B. J., Bass, B. M., & Jung, D. I. (1999). Re-examining the components of
transformational and transactional leadership using the Multifactor Leadership
Questionnaire. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72, 441–462.
Bauer, T. (2016) ”23 different ways to conceptualize leadership.” The Digital Transformation
People. Retrieved
from https://www.thedigitaltransformationpeople.com/channels/people-and-change/23-
different-ways-to-conceptualize-leadership
Benson, D. (2015). Creating Your Personal Leadership Philosophy. Physician Leadership
Journal, 2(6), 64–66.
Mancini, J. A., & Marek, L. I. (2004). Sustaining community-based programs for families:
Conceptualization and measurement. Family Relations, 53(4), 339–347.
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Weiner, B. J. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation Science,
4(1), 1.
York-Barr, J., & Duke, K. (2004). What do we know about teacher leadership? findings from
two decades of scholarship.  Review of Educational Research, 74(3), 255.