Social influence on leadership styles

Leadership
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Introduction
Leadership is basically the social influence that one person can have over the rest in a bid to accomplish specific tasks that are common to the group. Whichever the school of thought, the bottom line is that some of the leadership skills have to be acquired and practiced over a long time and over different scenarios to master the edges. Different styles exist today as it’s evident with the several philosophies that can be realized from different leaders all over the world. There is not one shoe that fits all the feet, and the same case applies to the leadership styles. Different scenarios call for varying tactics in the leadership frontier. It is upon the leader to possess or acquire the ability to depict clearly which of the styles they need to use in the approach of the different scenarios to bring out the best results in the situation, after weighing out the positive and the negative aspects.
Leadership style assessment
Majority of the leaders do not have the full picture of how their decisions and leadership styles affect the kind of performance that the employees can deliver as well as the satisfaction that the said employees have from the leadership. Aspects such as the motivation, performance, attitude and the overall behaviour reflected from the employees, is directly linked to the style of leadership that they work with. The style of leadership at the workplace dictates the kind of working climate, peer relations and the growth opportunities employees are exposed to, which in turn alters the satisfaction and the performance.
Transformational leadership
Majority of the leaders in history have been transformational, from the times of Jesus to Bill Gates’. They span from business, political, military to religious. These are all the leaders that continually transform themselves and the world around them. Using their transformational abilities they turn around the dire situations in their specialty such as business and make the best out of it. When Steve Jobs came back to apple, it was on its knees but it sprang back to life, when he took over. Every leader is required to have qualities such as motivating the employees, cost tracking, planning and scheduling. These qualities are most crucial when an organisation is restructuring (Kramer, 2012). Close scrutiny of the lower rank employees such as the foremen may reveal one that has all this qualities as compared to the current manager. Due to his/her work style, communication and the goals orientation, the foreman then rises to the position of the president of operations.
Transactional leadership
While this is one of the oldest concepts of leadership, it is based on the give-to-get system, where the employees, are rewarded for their efforts. One of the main examples throughout history is that of a French general during the Second World War named Charles Andre Joseph Marie de Gaulle. Other than the general th...