Leadership

The word leadership can refer to:

1. The process of leading.
2. Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading.
3. The ability to affect human behavior so as to accomplish a mission designated by the leader

Categories and types of leadership

leadership is a quality a person may have. One can categorize the exercise of leadership as either actual or potential:

-actual - giving guidance or direction, as in the phrase “the emperor has provided satisfactory leadership”.
- potential - the capacity or ability to lead, as in the phrase “she could have exercised effective leadership”; or in the concept “born to lead”.

In both cases, as a result of the constancy of change some people detect within the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the act of learning appears fundamental to certain types of leading and leadership. When learning and leadership coalesce, one could characterize this as “learnership”.

Leadership can have a formal aspect (as in most political or business leadership) or an informal one (as in most friendships). Speaking of “leadership” (the abstract term) rather than of “leading” (the action) usually implies that the entities doing the leading have some “leadership skills” or competencies.

The Psychology of Leadership

One of the differentiating factors between Management and Leadership is the ability or even necessity to inspire. A Leader, one who can instill passion and direction to an individual or group of individuals, will be using Psychology to affect that group either consciously or unconsciously.
Those who seem to be “Natural Leaders” and effectively inspire groups without really knowing the strategies or tactics used are considered Charismatic Leaders. The conscious Leader on the other hand applies a variety of psychological tactics that affect the “reactions” of a group to the environment they exist in.

In numerous “directive” (meaning to willfully direct as opposed to unconsciously do) Organizational psychology disciplines such as “Directive Communication” by Arthur F Carmazzi and theories like “The ripple effect” by Sigal Barsade, leadership is a product of awareness and command of the reactions and influences of a group on the individual as well as the individual on the group.

A Leader’s successful application of directive organizational psychology by modifying specific leadership behaviors towards the group, will yield an Organizational culture that is in essence “inspired”.