Google the word “leadership”, and the search will return 360 million results. This staggeringly large number points out one “truism” – it is a topic about which much has been said and written.
A brief survey of even the first page of web results will reveal many opinions on the subject. Despite this, there doesn’t seem to be a commonly accepted definition of what leadership is. And yet, it is a vital skill to behold.
As humans, we seek out leadership, and we know it when we see it. We rely on it to thrive and succeed in many settings – work, school, and society in general.
While there is no one accepted definition, detailed behavioural description, or methodology to discover and train leaders, it’s worth understanding the general schools of thought on leadership and how it works.
We can’t summarise the full scope and range of leadership theories without some degree of simplification and exclusion, but generally, the subject lends itself to four broad categories:
1. Trait theories – leadership is based on a cluster of individual attributes or traits
2. Style theories – there are multiple ways to lead, and each approach consists of a group of behaviours that define the style
3. Situational theories – based on the idea that in the context of effective leadership, no single optimal psychological profile of a leader exists
4. Contingency theories – based on an amalgam of the three previous ideas, contingency theories propose that influential leaders should and do adopt different styles depending on the situation
Each of these approaches may be incomplete when viewed as “the answer” to leadership. That’s why it’s so important to explore each of these theories thoroughly. But first, you can gain a lot of insight into the subject just by asking yourself a few questions, based on the truth of your own experiences:
Is leadership inborn? – do certain people have it, and others not?
Can leadership be learned?
Can different types of people be leaders in other ways?
Do certain situations make leaders out of anyone?
Do different situations call for different types of leadership skills?
Food for thought on an ever-evolving topic!