Essay on no effective leadership style

Leadership
There are many different definitions to leadership and the same for a leader. A leader is the
one that leads people to what they want to achieve. Leadership can be defined as the action of
inspiring or leading people or an organisation to achieve the goal or the ability to do so.
Leadership can also be defined as the ability to motivate, influence to enable others to
contribute toward the effectiveness of the organizations of which they are members.
There are many different styles of leadership from Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther king
and from Steve jobs to Bill Gates but here I am going to analyse 3 different types of
leaderships and analyze them with a personality.

Types of leadership

Transformational perspective
transactional leadership
Charismatic leadership

Transformational leadership style

The leadership style is the leadership style in which the leader enhances job performance and
motivation and morale of followers through different mechanism. Transformation leader
being a role model for the followers that inspires them and makes them interested and also
challenges the followers to take greater ownership for their work. Transformational leaders
are inspirational, trustworthy and charismatic role model who leads by example. There are
total four dimensions to trans formal leadership .i.e. - charisma, inspiration, intellectual
stimuli, and individualised consideration. One of the transformational leaders that I know of
is Steve jobs. Jobs were the CEO and one of the founder of apple Inc. he was widely known
for his charismatic leadership. He transformed the entire music industry. He didnt stop even
after that and transformed entire consumer electronics field. Steve jobs highly encourage
innovation and creativity among his apple employees. During his keynotes or launch Steve
jobs never mentioned the word I he always say we. This makes his followers and
employees feel that he cares about them. He never took credit for his employees work. Being
a transformational leader he always knew what people wants before they did. He believed in
leading the market rather than relying on the market.

Elements of transformational leadership

Steve jobs gave a great stress on the vision of the apple company. He was thrown out of the
company but he never gave up and came back. He removed the power distance that was their
within the company as the design team was reporting straight to the CEO of the company
jobs. Steve jobs created the strategic vision of innovation first. He communicated the vision
throughout the company that everyone has the power to come up with new innovative ideas.
He also models this vision. He believed in walk the talk. He demonstrated the vision through
his behaviour.by having regular interactions with the employees and design team so they
dont feel lost or lose their belief in their idea and trust their leader as hes always there for
them. Through all this he builds a commitment towards the vision that every employee knows
the importance of the new innovative ideas. Employees involvement in shaping the shared
vision helps in increasing the commitment towards the vision.

Limitations to transformational leadership of steve jobs

Not being able to communicate the goal and expectations- Steve jobs always said why
people dont get it because it always seems obvious to them. When he uses to set a goal he
automatically thought people will get it and follow it. Steve jobs would publically insult them
and fire them. Due to this Rob Johnson the creator of outstanding retail stores left the
company. Vice president of global marketing and communications, Alison Johnson left the
company.
Fail to train and invest in staff- Steve jobs never had formal training in management,
engineering and in design. This is great for a gifted visionary but not all of us are like this. He
never believed in training and investing in staff.
Failure to provide and receive feedback- Steve jobs bad behaviour with employees was very
well known by everyone. He always used his gut feeling and never followed logic. He was
unable to give a good feedback to his employees and used to behave badly with them in
meetings.

Transactional leadership style

Leadership style that is based on transactions from one point to another. It focuses on the
interpersonal transactions between managers and employees. In this leadership leader uses
rewards and punishment to motivate the employees. It is also known as instrumental
leadership. Structuring, controlling and rewarding comes under transactional leadership
style. Unlike the transformational leader the transactional leaders are not trying to change the
future but are merely trying to keep it the same way. This leadership style is very much
effective in crisis and emergency situations as well as when the project needs to be carried
out in a specific fashion. Coaches of athletic sports teams use this type of leadership style.
One of the examples of this leadership style is joseph McCarthy. He was an American
politician who served as a republican U.Ss senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947
until 1957.during cold war he played an important role. His ruthless style of accusing people
of being Soviet Union spies during cold war was very popular. He uses to punish the soldiers
for their deviation from rules and reward them for bringing accused communist infiltrators.
Charles de Gaulle also followed this leadership style of reward and punishment. Due to this

he was unable to become the leader of free French in a crisis situation. Joseph McCarthy had
made it clear to his followers that there are spies in the U.S. army also and whoever finds
them will be rewarded. He also said that the ones who deviate from their plans and breaks
rules will be punished. This punishment and reward system is the one which is followed
under transactional leadership style. The leadership style is very much to keep the normal
flow going and not deviating from the path. Due to this reward and punishment McCarthy
was able to produce results. Joseph McCarthy unlike transformational leader only focused
about himself .i.e.- self-development and career growth.

Disadvantages of transactional leadership style

Followers feel threaten- McCarthy has made it clear if you break a single rule you would be
punished. This could make the followers feel threaten and feel that they are always on the
verge for being punished if they make a single mistake.
False motivation- not every individual feels motivated with rewards. A transactional
leadership does not praise individual who meet the expectations. This is when the leader
assumes that the follower is only working for the money.
The followers will always depend upon the leader and will never think out of the box. They
will always depend upon the instructions that are given to them from the leader.

Charismatic leadership
Charismatic leadership states that followers make attributions of extraordinary leadership
abilities when they observe certain behaviour. Charismatic leaders motivate the followers.
Followers of charismatic leader are motivated to exert extra effort and because they like and
respect their leader, express greater satisfaction. One of the charismatic leaders that I know of
is Mahatma Gandhi. He is also known as father of India. Mahatma Gandhi played a huge role
in Indias Independence. He was the one who inspired and motivated others to follow the path
of nonviolence and fight for their freedom. His charisma inspired his followers to lead the
path of non-violence in the fight for freedom of the country. His simple living was so
inspirational for followers. He was a very simple man with no desires at all other than his
countrys freedom. Being so simple he only showed people the way to achieve their vision.
He also builds trust among all his followers. He communicated the freedom motive all over
India and motivated Indian people. All these factors show the charisma of one man .i.e. Mahatma Gandhi. He was the one who brought out the best among people. He could charge
the people up with his charismatic energy and people will believe what he says. Mahatma
Gandhi was the one who convinced people of India to look beyond religion and caste and
become one. He convinced the violent rebellion to follow the path of non-violence.
Convincing the whole nation is a big thing. He himself had no authority and had a voice of a

common man. It was because of his charismatic leadership that he connected with people of
India and leads them to freedom. Mahatma Gandhi inspired not only Indians but also people
from all around the world. People still talk about how one man took charge and lead a whole
country to freedom with only his charismatic leadership.

Disadvantages of charismatic leadership

Dependency- everyone waits for the leader to provide instructions. Followers are too much
dependent on the caharsamatic leader. People of India use to fight among themselves as
Hindu and Muslim .i.e.- religious differences. It was only when Gandhi came and united
them as one to fight for their freedom.
Reluctant to disagree with the leader- many people in India disagreed with Gandhis approach
to freedom but they did not do anything because Gandhi had become a big name in India. In
the end he was killed by one of those people.
Unrealistic expectations- people will have unrealistic expectations from their leader. Indians
expected that Gandhi will come and use a magic wand and they will be free from British rule.
But it took years for Gandhi to give people freedom.

Conclusion
There is no one effective leadership styleBy analysing all the three leadership style I can say that there is no one leadership style which
can be used effectively. All these leadership style has one or more disadvantages so they
cannot be followed blindly. With the change of the market and situation you got to change the
style of leadership. You cannot follow the text book approach to this. You got to change the
style of leadership as you go. There is no good or bad style of leadership even no right or
wrong style of leadership. The most effective leaders are those who adjust their style of
leadership depending on the situation they are in. while a certain way of leadership style may
work for you today but that might not work for you in the coming future. A leader should not
forget that he or she has people following and looking up to them. They cant afford to make
mistakes. Effective leaders are those who know there is no one way to manage people.
Leaders have to switch the leadership style into different gears so as to make the most
effective leadership style. Situation is the most important thing to look at while thinking
about making or implementing a leadership style.

References
Bass, B. M. (1998). Transformational leadership: Industrial, military and educational
impact. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Bass, B. M., Bass, r., Handbook of Leadership. Theory, Research & Managerial
Applications, fourth edition,
New York, Free Press, 2008.
Elliot, j., simon, w. l., The Steve Jobs way. iLeadership for a new generation, New York,
Vanguard Press, 2011.
kane, y. i., sherr, i., Secrets from Apples genius bar: full loyalty, no negativity, The Wall
Street Journal,15.06.2011.
Joseph McCarthy coldwar
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/senatorjosephmccarthy.asp
Joseph McCarthy
http://marvelousessays.co.uk/essays/Research/transformational-vs-transactionalleadership.html
Mahatma Gandhis charismatic leader
http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-charisma-of-mahatma-gandhi-1747756
Transformational leadership style
http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/a/transformational.htm