Northouse’s definition of leadership is “Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.” (Peter G. Norhhouse 2016)
Northouse continues to explain ideas about the following components of leadership. Process, power, influence, group context and goal attainment.
Defining leadership as a process means it is not a trait or characteristic that resides in a leader, but rather a transactional event that occurs between the leader and the followers. When leadership is defined in this manner, it becomes available to everyone. (Peter G. Northhouse 2016). Perhaps an example that comes to mind is when an emergency occurs. Imagine at a high school catches fire. The leader of the school may be the Principal during the normal school day however in the event of a fire there are more qualified people that need to take charge. It might start with a floor warden that safely leads the children out of the school. Until the Fire department arrives a designated Incident commander will collect information from floor wardens so that when the fire department arrives they get a clearer picture as to what is happening. When the fire department arrives, clearly they are the ones that are most qualified to deal with the fire and so naturally will take on a leadership role. In this type of leadership style it can become available to anyone. The leader is recognized for their level of expertise in dealing with the emergency and so others will naturally follow.
With respect to leadership and power, I found this section to be of particular interest, mainly because of my experiences with both positive and negative power. Power can be abused and lead people in the wrong direction and do terrible things. Looking back on history it is hard to sometimes understand why some leaders are followed however as explained by Northhouse (page 10), there are many reasons why people will follow a dangerous leader. Motivations of followers stem from people feeling like there is no other alternative and or come from the need to be rewarded. On the contrary positive power can benefit followers by learning from another persons gifts or being influenced by being around someone that cares.
Leadership involving influence stems from those that can see the bigger picture and understand what motivates their followers. By motivating their followers the leader is able to influence them toward a common goal. Influences can be organizationally external or internal in nature . An example of how influencing followers in an organization might stem from external motivations is for where an employee is struggling to find affordable housing. A leader of a housing organization with a goal of creating affordable housing and is able to articulate their vision on how to solve a problem will likely influence employees wanting to achieve a common goal and to follow the leader. This same employee because of their personal experience may empathize with others and so internally within the organization may also be influenced to follow the leader that stands behind these same values.
Some followers however can be influenced to follow a person using positive power or negative power, simply by being influenced by a group of people. This stems from people wanting to have a sense of belonging and so even if they don’t believe in the leader of the group they will follow the leader because they want to be part of a group.
When it comes to goal attainment by a leader this stems from the desire to achieve organizational missions. Company Missions are built by the leadership and form part of the strategic plan. A Manager is the one however that is assigned to an organization to carry out the day to day tasks that will help the company to achieve it’s mission.
My question however is how do we stop those that abuse power and are in a leadership role, particularly when the followers of a leader are motivated for monetary reasons?
Peter G. Northouse (2016) Leadership theory and practice. Definition and Components pg. 6.
Peter G. Northouse (2016) Leadership theory and practice. Definition and Components pg. 10.