Group leadership project reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Group leadership project reflection - Essay Example Then the similarities and differences between them will be illustrated, with special highlight on the importance of each towards the success of a team. The influence of a leader on a follower and what a follower expects from a leader will also be discussed. Furthermore, the factors which make a good leader will be dissected and then the problems leaders or followers might face in certain situations. What makes a leader efficient and how does he achieve these goals? What makes a follower efficient and what makes it easy for him to be so? Focus will be placed upon these questions as on how this efficiency is developed in each. Leadership and its many styles and forms will also be discussed and the effect of these varying styles upon a follower and his efficiency. This will all be done so collectively and in general but by focusing on the theme of each week, i.e. leadership in women, the power and importance of charismatic leadership, leadership challenges and failures, leadership trust and ethics, leading high technology organizations and global leadership and influence, and adapting on what has been learnt from each week. What is a leader and what is a follower? There can be a great number of definitions for both a leader and a follower. The simplest of course is that a leader is someone that instructs and follower is someone that follows these instructions. But it isn’t quite as simple as that because a soldier who follows the instructions of a general cannot strictly be considered a follower and a teacher who instructs a student on his homework cannot strictly be considered a leader. What then is the precise definition of each? According to Brosnahan (1998, stated in Lau 2000, pg 212) the definition of a leader and leadership vary from people to people but he goes on to define a leader broadly as, ‘†¦ a somewhat paternal figure, autocratic, wise and knowing, able to make hard decisions†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Gary Yukl (2006) defines leadership as â⠂¬Å"the course of having an influence on others to comprehend and be in agreement about what requires to be done and how it should be done, and the progression of facilitating individual and collective efforts to achieve shared objectives† (p. 8). Yet others define leadership as â€Å"a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.† Peter Northouse (2007). What does this actually signify? It implies that there is far more to a leader than just giving out instructions. A leader is someone who does not just give out instructions but rather someone directs and guides a specific group of people towards doing something and someone who unites the aims and intentions of that group such that they reach their own personal goals as well as the specific common goal. What then is a follower or followership? The former is a term very commonly used and given little thought. The latter is a term rarely heard and not fully understood. This is because ‘follower’ is a devalued term, where most people consider it as blindly following instructions. In truth, there can be no leader without a follower and good followership is what drives a team towards its ultimate goal. Once a far neglected area of research, research is now being conducted into the role and importance of a follower and followership skills are being developed just as leadership skill would be. Followership can be defined as ‘†¦ the ability to effectively follow the directives and support the efforts of a leader to