Chapter14

=Leadership=

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Leadership professionals aren't necessarily any clearer, as would be indicated by the number of books on leadership, but four words commonly associated with leadership are //influence,// //vision//, //mission//, and //goals//.

**Manager vs. Leader**

 * ~ Manager ||~ Leader ||
 * Authority, analysis, rationality || Vision, creativity, passion, inspriation ||
 * Takes care of where you are || Takes you to a new place ||
 * Lives with situations || Takes control of situations ||
 * Implement outcome || Create vision and strategy ||
 * Focus on administrative duties || Focus on interpersonal aspects ||

Lao-tzu stated that "a leader is best when people barely know he exists." When the work is done, the people he leads will say "we did it ourselves." Please answer the following survey items!

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**Transactional vs. Transformational Leadership**
At first thought, one might think that transactional leadership, with its focus on task/reward transactions between leader and subordinate, is opposite from what would be thought of as the more desirable transformational leadership, which is geared towards inspiring subordinates to turn their own interests into the interests of the organization. However, it has been found that transformational leadership is often built on the foundation of transactional leadership, though it should be no surprise that transformational leadership is usually thought of as having a more positive effect on an organization. The culture within which these leadership styles are implemented will have a large effect on the success of either style.

Leadership In The 21st Century: No, It's Not About Buck Rogers
For much of history, leaders have been typically though of as heroes - those who rise to the occasion in times of crisis and can fill the void of the people's powerlessness. However, this can cause great pressure if this notion is applied to all leaders, as the heroic leader typically has to also be a "perfect" leader, for whom there cannot be negatives. Heroic leadership can also cause the followers to be too dependent on their leader, and thus are less likely to step up and meet challenges on their own.

Post-heroic leaders follow a now familiar concept of the early 21st century, that of "flatter" organizations. Other terms for this style of leadership include servant leadership, distributed leadership, and virtual leadership. While especially with the concept of servant leadership, it is expected that even those at the top will be active participants in the work of the organization (perhaps even some "menial" tasks), it is also expected that the qualities of leaders - intelligence, commitment, energy, courage of conviction, and integrity - will be found in everyone within the organization.

A great challenge of this flattened model of leadership is the fact that questioning leaders is far more of a norm than in the past, when leaders authority may have been considered more absolute. Many would prefer to be given an exact, step-by-step recipe for how to lead; however, the most effective leaders are able to discern the situation and act accordingly, and doing so is something that cannot be prescribed in a recipe-like manner. The human element simply has too many variables to always trust that the same solution will work for different situations.