Definition of Leadership

Northouse (2013) defines leadership as a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Let’s break this down…

1. Leadership is a process

By saying that leadership is a process, we are saying that leadership is not a characteristic of the leader (such as being authoritative), but is an event that occurs between the leader and his/her followers. Leadership is not a one-way event, but an interactive event. Leadership involves something happening as a result of the interaction between leaders and followers.

2. Leadership involves influence

The ability to influence others is called power. In the reading assigned, you will learn that leaders have many different types of power (i.e., ways of influences others). As you read about these different bases of power, you will start to appreciate how diverse leaders can be.

3. Leadership occurs within a group context

If you started searching for leaders in different contexts, like sports, you might find that people sometimes use the word leader to mean ‘one of the best.’ That is not the approach we are taking in our study of leadership. Leadership, as we will learn, requires followers. Leaders may initiate the relationship with followers and hold more (and various type of power), but leaders need and are not better than followers.

The role of followers has not always been appreciated. When we read history books, the role of leaders is emphasized, but we don’t usually learn about followers. Followers’ expectations, personality traits, ability levels, and motivation affect the leadership process. Workers who share a leader’s goals and values and who feel rewarded for performing a job well might be more likely to work extra hours on a project than those whose motivation is only monetary. The number of followers can also have important implications. A manager who has six individuals working for him or her can spend more time with each individual than a manager with sixty subordinates.

The situation or context is also important in the process of leadership. We could know everything about a leader and the followers, but we need to know how leaders and followers interact in certain situations. The situation is the most ambiguous aspect of leadership since it can refer to anything from the task the group is working on to a broad context such as the work setting.

4. Leadership involves goal attainment

Leaders are not just hanging out with followers to have a good time. The nature of the relationship is more pragmatic, often involving effort towards a particular “end.”

Note that Northouse’s (2013) definition here includes the “means” (part 1) and the “end” (part 4). This is important, because ignoring either could change our thinking drastically. For example, if you felt that the end was all that was important, you might entertain leaders using immoral means to achieve that end. Or, you might ignore a lot of potentially great leaders that did not accomplish their goals for reasons outside their control.

The greater implication here is that by including both the means and ends, we assume that leadership has a moral component. The ends or goals should involve increasing the common good. And, the means should be those that create as minimal harm as possible.

We may discuss people called leaders that have perpetrated immoral acts for the sake of learning in this course (e.g., Hitler), but it’s important to point out that by our definition, they are not really leaders.