How a person becomes a great leader? How the leader from within evolves? Why different individuals fail at being a leader while following the same set of rules? Is leadership subjective in nature? How to become a leader? …..
These are the questions who made scholars think for decades to come up with some theories and analogies to explain this phenomenon. These theories are known as leadership theories.
There are more than 10 leadership theories. We are going to study the most accepted 5 theories here.
Great Man Theory
This theory became popular in the mid 19th century. This assumes that great leaders are born, not made. Rather than focusing on a framework or a scientific pattern, the theory suggests that all great people were born to lead with necessary qualities such as confidence, charisma, etc. The term great man was literally focused on men because at that time men were leading at most places.
Trait Theory
Trait theory came as a counter-argument to great man theory. It suggested that great leaders may either be born or made if they inculcate some qualities(display a particular set of traits). These traits include physiological characteristics like gender, age, height, demographics like the country, city, timeframe, and family background and interpersonal skills.
Behavioral Theory
This theory states behavior in a given situation is of utmost importance. We can ignore the traits and characteristics for a while but the behavior is the key deciding factor. This focuses more on actions, not the inherent qualities. It also states that people can become leader even without having so-called traits if their behavior is appropriate and if they can learn to have these qualities when required.
Contingency Theory
This could be said as an extension of the trait theory. This states that leadership does not just depend upon the traits or behavior, there is one more key factor, situation. The same leader may behave differently in different situations. If a leader feels that his/her followers have started responding less, his/her leadership will have an adverse effect. It also suggests that there is no ideal leadership style for all situations.
Situational Theory
This again says leadership is situational like we studied in contingency theory. But it adds up some more context to say so.
This says that the nature of followers is of high importance in leadership. A leader may possess all great qualities but if the followers can not be synced with his/her direction, what could be achieved?
There are four maturity levels of followers that have been introduced by Hersey and Blanchard based on the willingness, motivation and skill/ability to perform the task.
- No will, no skill
- Will is there but no skill
- Skill is there but no willingness, not motivation, no accountability
- There is a will and there is the right talent.