Leadership is often defined as a process wherein an individual influences and encourages others to achieve the

organizational goals and objectives and manage the organization so that it becomes more coherent and cohesive to
work.
The Trait Theory: an individual must possess the key personality traits and characteristics to be an effective leader and
these traits are inherent by birth.
Intelligence General mental ability, which psychologists refer to as “g” and which is often called IQ in everyday language,
has been related to a person’s emerging as a leader within a group.
Openness – Openness to experience describes a person’s degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity, and preference for
novelty and variety. Some disagreement remains about how to interpret this factor, which is sometimes called intellect.
Conscientiousness – Conscientiousness is a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement.
Conscientiousness also refers to planning, organization, and dependability.
Extraversion – Extraversion describes energy, positive emotions, assertiveness, sociability, talkativeness, and the
tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others.
Agreeableness – Agreeableness is the tendency to be compassionate and cooperative towards others rather than
suspicious and antagonistic.
Neuroticism – Neuroticism describes vulnerability to unpleasant emotions like anger, anxiety, depression, or
vulnerability. Neuroticism also refers to an individual’s level of emotional stability and impulse control and is sometimes
referred to as emotional stability.
Self-Esteem This is defined as the degree to which people are at peace with themselves and have an overall positive
assessment of their self-worth and capabilities that seems to be relevant to whether they will be viewed as a leader.
Integrity Leaders whose integrity is questioned lose their trustworthiness, and they hurt their company’s business along
the way.
Task-oriented leader behaviors involve structuring the roles of subordinates, providing them with instructions, and
behaving in ways that will increase the performance of the group.
People-oriented leader behaviors include showing concern for employee feelings and treating employees with respect.
Employees working for transformational leaders do not focus on themselves but rather the company’s well-being
comes first.
Transactional leadership, also known as managerial leadership, focuses on the role of supervision, organization, and
group performance.
Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory proposes that the type of relationship leaders have with their followers
(members of the organization) is the key to understanding how leaders influence employees.
The servant leadership approach defines the leader’s role as serving the needs of others.
Authentic Leadership - Leaders have to be a lot of things to a lot of people.
Fiedler’s Contingency Theory - The earliest and one of the most influential contingency theories was developed by
Frederick Fiedler. According to the theory, a leader’s style is measured by a scale called Least Preferred Coworker (LPC)
scale.
Situational Leadership - Another contingency approach to leadership is Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey’s Situational
Leadership Theory (SLT) which argues that leaders must use different leadership styles depending on their followers’
development level.
Path-Goal Theory of Leadership
Robert House’s path-goal theory of leadership is based on the expectancy theory of motivation. The expectancy theory
of motivation suggests that employees are motivated when they believe— or expect—that (1) their effort will lead to
high performance, (2) their high performance will be rewarded, and (3) the rewards they will receive are valuable to
them.
The Vroom Yetton Jago Decision Model is a model for decision-making that’s based on situational leadership.
The quality of the decision to be taken is about how much impact the decision will have and how important it is to find
the right solution.
Involvement and collaboration concern the question of how important it is that everyone agrees to the decision in a
team.
Time Constraints - How much time is there to make a decision? If there’s little time, a fast autocratic approach might be
more desirable, as there’s no time to lose in certain situations. If there’s a lot of time, there are more options to involve
more team players in the decision process.
The behavioral theory of leadership evolved in the 1950s. After understanding that personal traits are essential for
effective leadership, the researchers were now eager to know how leaders behave to become effective leaders To study
the behavior of leaders, two major research programs were implemented by two different universities namely, the Ohio
State Leadership Studies and the University of Michigan Studies.
Consideration: Friendly leaders are attentive and supportive of the concerns of their subordinates and create an
excellent relationship with them. This was termed as ‘people-oriented behavior’.
Initiating structure: The leaders are mostly concerned with achieving goals and following schedules and work structure.
The transformational theory states that to be an effective leader one must be able to transform or change the
perceptions, behavior, and expectations of their followers, and guide them towards a common goal to accomplish the
leader’s vision
Psychological transformation: Bring about a change in the perception and mindset of the follower.
Influential: Creates a strong impact on the followers.
Motivational: Generates positive energy within followers.
Inspirational: Encourages them to achieve something.
Individual impact: Creates a powerful effect on the behavior and perception of the followers.
Leadership style is the relatively consistent manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and
motivating people.
Authoritarian or Autocratic - the leader tells his or her employees the tasks to be done and the manner of doing it,
without getting their advice or feedback; though this style may sound quite “bossy”, such is suitable during situations
where the leader have all relevant information to solve the problem and employees are well-motivated, but there is only
limited time.
Participative or Democratic - the leader allows one or more employees to join in the decision-making process, but the
leader normally maintains the authority to make final decisions; this leadership style promotes empowerment among
diversified members
Delegative or Laissez-faire (free-rein) - the leader allows the employees to make the decisions, however, the leader is
still responsible for the decisions that are made; this is an ideal style to be used if the leader has great trust and
confidence in his people.
Positive Organizational Behavior (POB) is defined as "the study and application of positively oriented human resource
strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance
improvement in today’s workplace" (Luthans, 2010) POB is said to be the application of positive psychology to the
workplace.
Self-Efficacy. Self-efficacy is an individual's confidence in their ability to attain a certain goal in a specific situation.
Optimism. It is a positive mental attitude that reflects one’s belief that the outcome will be favorable.
Hope. It is a positive motivational state where successful feelings of agency (or goal-oriented determination) and
pathways (or proactively planning to achieve set goals) interact.
Resiliency. This is a positive way of coping with adversity or distress. In the organizational aspect, it is defined as an
ability to recover from stress, conflict, failure, change or an increase in responsibility.