Leadership is one of the most studied topics in human history. From the dawn of recorded history, the ability to lead people has been studied, analyzed, and widely written about. People have developed a lot of leadership theories. I know that most people don’t like theories, but I think they can be really useful! A good theory explains what is happening and allows us to make predictions about the future. So a good leadership theory helps explain how leadership works and gives us useful ideas on how to lead. 

I would like to use this blog entry to give a really brief summary of some of the main leadership theories that have been developed. Knowing these ideas can help us understand leadership, leadership behaviors, and can help us empower other people to be leaders. Think about yourself as a leader and leaders you know. You have likely seen some of these ideas in action. Awareness of these theories can help!

Leaders are born, not made. For thousands of years, if you were born into the right family, you became a leader. That is still the case even in the US and in many countries. Place and family of birth can be a significant factor in whether or not someone becomes a leader.

Leaders and power. Again, over thousands of years, the strongest warrior became the leader. He or she became a leader because they were the best fighter, the controller of resources, or the richest. They were not worried about empowering others, just empowering themselves. 

Leaders are made, not born. It was the military that first devised this theory. An army couldn’t wait around for people to be born, an army had to train leaders. The military

spent a great deal of time in developing training programs, academies, and leadership experiments to provide effective leadership for its forces. 

Trait Approach. This approach says that leaders should possess certain characteristics such as bravery, firm decision-making, height, domination, extroversion, sense of humor, etc. Sometimes these characteristics help, but not all leadership situations require the same characteristics. In addition, people that don’t have these characteristics help rven to be good leaders. 

Leadership styles. The main three styles are democratic (decision by voting), autocratic (decision by the leader), and laissez-faire (let the group run itself).  The strength of this approach is the recognition that different styles had different results. The weakness of the approach rested in the lack of agreement as to what each style really was and that a given style did not work in all situations. In certain situations, each style worked.

Functional Approach. This approach suggests that leadership does not need be a person, but it rested in a set of behaviors that needed to be performed for the group to achieve its goal. These behaviors include agenda setting, providing information, getting people to talk, decision-making, etc. The behaviors are normally divided into task (what is done) and process (how it is done) functions. The behaviors could be performed by anyone, not just the leader. The main strength of this approach was that it clarified specific leader behaviors. The main weakness was that many times no one performed the necessary behaviors.

Situational Approach. This approach analyzes leadership as depending on the maturity of the group. Groups need different types of leadership depending on if they are just beginning, being productive, having relationship issues, facing change, etc. This is useful in that it shows that one approach to leadership is not effective all the time.

Contingency Approach. The contingency approach combined two of the previous theories. It suggests that a leader needed to analyze the leadership situation to determine which style and which functions the group needed at the particular time. This allowed for greater flexibility and adaptiveness on the part of the leader. This approach says that leaders should ask three questions and work on positive answers: 1. How clear is the task? 2. How well do people get along? 3. How much authority do I have? It is easy to be a leader when the task is really clear, people get along well, and the leader can hire and fire.

Leaders as persuaders. Members with the most influence usually emerge as leaders over time, and they are followed by the other members of the group. Interestingly, the member with the most influence may not be the person who is the actual leader of the group. This is a cooperative process that uses mutual persuasion instead of power and control. 

Reciprocal and transactional leadership says there is a give-and-take relationship between the leader and the members in which the followers allow themselves to be influenced by the leader and the leader can be influenced by the followers. There is no leadership without followers. Leaders and group members work together to increase their mutual benefits. 

Transformational leadership means that leaders help develop a group vision that members find appealing. This vision motivates and empowers followers to become leaders themselves and influence the outcomes of group tasks. It asks them to make the group goals perhaps more important than their own individual goals and transforms them in the process.

The people, goals, and actions of the group will determine what leadership approach will work best. Understanding these different approaches can help you, as a leader, determine how to lead at any given moment in the group’s life. These also can help you, as a leader, empower others to develop their own leadership potential. Good theories do help us understand leadership and they give us ideas on what to do next.