Leadership is a way of focusing and motivating a group to enable them to achieve their aims. It also involves being accountable and responsible for the group as a whole.
A leader should:
Ideally, a leader should be a few steps ahead of their team, but not too far for the team to be able to understand and follow them.
| Skills Needed Different Ideas of Leadership References |
Leaders must have a wide range of skills, techniques and strategies. These include:
There is a debate about whether leadership should be concentrated in one person or distributed among members of the team.
Traditionally, a permanent team leader would be appointed by more senior levels of management or elected by the group. This technique relies on the assumption that one single person has all the strengths required.
However, it has been argued that "on the best teams, different individuals provide occasional leadership, taking charge in areas where they have particular strengths. No one is the permanent leader, because that person would then cease to be a peer and the team interaction would begin to break down" [1].
This approach would eliminate the problem of a leader being isolated from his/her group.
It must be emphasised, however, that continuity and focus of the group must not be lost. Thus, in our opinion, the best compromise may be to have a permanent leader who is flexible enough not only to delegate responsibilty for individual tasks, but also to let others take leadership of the team as required.
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[1] DE MARCO, T. and LISTER , T. : `Peopleware', (Dorset House Publishing Co, 1987), p155.
[2] JACQUES, D. : `Learning in Groups', (Kogan Page Ltd, 2nd edition, 1991).
[3] ROBERTS, W. : `Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun', (Bantam Press Ltd, 1989).
[4] JARVIS, C., `B.O.L.A ', Brunel University College, Osterley Campus, Borough Road, Hounslow, Middlesex, TW7 5DU, Tel: 0181-891-0121 http://wwwbs.wlihe.ac.uk/~jarvis/bola/communications/effective.html
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Most recent revision 6 Feb 1997