Three leadership
theories:
- The great man theory: developed in
19th century was promoted by Scottish philosopher Thomas
Carlyle. This theory is based on the point that people accomplished
great things because of their fate and they simply fulfilled their
destiny. Hence it abandoned the theories that were in favor of
behavioral science. For example Alexander, the great who ruled the
entire world, Abraham Lincoln who freed many slave people etc.
- The trait theory: this theory
considers the saying that” great leaders are born and not made”.
This theory expands the above theory. The ability to leadership
comes only by birth and there is no way that these skills can be
learnt.
- Transformational leadership: this was
introduced by James Macgregor burns in 1978. This theory states
that leadership is actually a process where the leaders by
interacting with his followers advance together. People and the
organization and transformed by the leadership style and the leader
is the main person in guiding such transformations.
How leadership theories are used to
build trust and influence others:
- Various positive traits in the leaders will help in making good
decisions. Positive traits will automatically influence others in
the team as they get attracted by our qualities. This will further
help in building trust and confidence with each other.
- With transformational leadership theory, the followers will
note the leadership style of the leaders. This will create a lot of
impact on the followers which will influence them to start using
such styles and they also in turn become good leaders.
How can the theories
are used as strategies:
- Trait theories which highlight the positive traits in a leader
like integrity, good decision making, likeability etc. the leaders
make use of all these qualities as strategies to become successful
leaders. For example, the subordinate in a company would be
influenced by the positive thinking, attitude of his leader and
thereby adheres to his decision.
- As the behavioral theory states, there are various kind of
leaders in the organization namely autocratic, democratic, laissez
faire etc. some leaders in order to succeed, may adopt the strategy
of discussing with his team for decision making, some feel that his
own decision is quite good rather than consulting others whereas
some other leaders feel that they can succeed by leaving the
decision making to the group as when there are alternatives, best
decision can be arrived.
- Some people use their power to influence others and get their
things done. They feel that this kind of strategy would be the best
to succeed. This is through power and influence theory. For
example, a manager who uses his designation as his power and weapon
to influence the people under him.
- Transformational leaders on the other hand use strategies like
motivation, integrity to become successful in the organization.
Example can be using motivational strategies like rewards,
promotions etc toward the subordinate will encourage even more the
employees to adhere to the leaders.