Leadership roles

Leadership role is an attitude, which is popular among people who are willing to quicken some decisions in an organization. In other words, it is the involvement of some workers, especially managers, in decision making (J. C. Huston, M. L. Bessie 2009, p. 288).

A person who possesses leadership skills is a leader in an organization or a team. Such a person is focusing on the development and implementation of the organization's strategy, its mission and vision. A leader is also interested in making the workforce more motivated. In large part, a manager is a person in an organization who has leadership skills. The manager is responsible for the result of the team which he or she leads. Consequently, the manager influences the staff, gives directions on how to do something better, helps others and manages the whole project (J. C. Huston, M. L. Bessie 2009, p. 32). Leadership role depends on personal characteristics and is grounded on relationships between the person who leads and the staff. It is said that there is a strong connection between leadership role and change. Implementing transformations in daily tasks is very important for making a leadership role strong and good(R. Sue, J. Rowley 2008, p. 4-7).

Types of leadership roles

A person who has leadership skills can adopt many different roles. It can be a person who (J. C. Huston, M. L. Bessie 2009, p. 32):

• makes decisions
• communicates very often
• evaluates the results
• facilitates reaching goals
• takes risk
• mentors people
• energizes others
• coaches
• counsels
• teaches
• thinks in an critical way
• buffers the organization
• advocates
• has a vision of something
• forecasts
• influences people
• solves problems in a creative way
• wants changes
• is a role model for the staff

Difficulties of the leadership role

Nowadays there are some obstacles for people who lead and who want to implement creativity, including (R. Sue, J. Rowley 2008, p. 10-11):

• insufficient resources
• overhelming bureaucracy
• workload
• lack of communication skills among the staff
• insufficient self-confidence
• lack of visionary skills
• employees with a negative attitude

Systems of leadership

R. Likert created 4 systems of leadership (R. Sue, J. Rowley 2008, p. 35):

• 1 system is known as exploitatice autocratis. The leader has no believe and no trust in employees. He or she also tries to influence people by threating them and has lack of good communication skliis.
• 2 system is known as benevolent authoritative. The leader has patronising trust in employees. Such a person impose decisions, sometimes encourages subordinates to solve problems and motivates employees by giving them rewards.
• 3 system is known as participative. The leader has some barriers to trust in subordinates. Such a person listens to the ideas of employees but when it cames to make a decision, he or she does it on their own. The leader motivates people by giving them a reward and a sense of partnership. He or she uses the ideas of subordinates in a constrictive way.
• 4 system is known as democratic. The leader has no obstacles to trust in subordinates. He or she allows them to make decisions on their own. Such a leader motivates by giving a reward when the employee achieves goal which was set by the members of the team. The leader shares remarks, ideas and opinions with subordinates.

The leader who want to be effective should use 3rd or 4th system. However, in practise, the person who wants to be known as a good leader uses the variety of these styles depending on the situation and circumstances in which he or she is in this particular time. Though, such a leader can have a preferred and commanding style (R. Sue, J. Rowley 2008, p. 35-36).

Leadership roles — recommended articles

Laissez faire leadership — Ability to work in a team — Advantages of team work — Hersey and Blanchard model — Informal leader — Charismatic leadership — Cross-cultural leadership — Leadership skills development — Affiliative leadership

References

• Cameron E., Green M (2017), Essential Leadership: Develop Your Leadership Qualities Through Theory and Practice, Kogan Page, London
• Huston J. Carol, Marquis L. Bessie (2009). Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application, Wolters Kluwer Health, Philadelphia
• Northouse G. Peter (2010), Leadership. Theory and Practice, SAGE Publications, California
• Sue R., Rowley J. (2008), Leadership. The challenge for the Information Profession, Facet Publishing, London
• Winkler I. (2010), Contemporary Leadership Theories, Physica Verlag, Berlin

Author: Katarzyna Krzyk, Adrianna Kuzak, Julia Kotlarz