Strategic Leadership and Change Initiative

The study of leadership is a complex and often controversial subject. Essentially every angle of leadership has been studied and thus exists many theories and perspectives on this widely reviewed topic. The oldest and perhaps most widely studied viewpoint on leadership is from a leader-centric model, that is, leadership is a function only of the leader, his traits, personality, and competencies. With nearly a century of research to support this leader-centered view of leadership, it is foundational to the understanding of leadership. More recent studies of leadership however, have expanded our understanding to include leadership as a dynamic, fluid process involving leaders, followers, relationships, and situational contexts. Jon L. Pierce and John W. Newstrom suggest that underlying the various perspectives on leadership exists a commonly agreed upon idea: “[leadership] is a sociological phenomenon involving the intentional exercise of influence by one person over one or more other individuals, in an effort to guide activities toward the attainment of some mutual goal, a goal that requires interdependent action among members of the group” (Pierce & Newstrom, 2008). The mission of the typical organization is to achieve it’s goals and objectives through it’s leadership of people, processes and systems. How then, does the leadership of an organization effect it’s overall success? Through my research, it can be demonstrated that an organization whose leadership is based on trust, honesty, integrity, relationships, and respect of persons will be a successful organization.
Great leaders start with great characteristics. The article, Leadership: Do Traits Matter?, by S.A. Kirkpatrick and E.A. Locke, presents research by Ralph Stogdill on the leader trait view. The research supports the “Great Man Theory”