The Art of Leadership - An Understanding

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to give a general overview of the term "leadership" as used and explained by different authors and how it is situated in the context of group or organizational communication. I will attempt to give various definitions of key terms and concepts used in leadership discourse. Key questions like; what is leadership? What does it mean? Who is a leader? What does a leader do? Types of leaders and types of leadership styles or approaches will be explored. Methodology: The paper adopted a desktop methodology research design. Key words such as leadership styles, leadership, leader, leadership approaches, and leadership communication skills were used to source published papers from popular search engines such as google and scholar. The published papers were then assessed for quality and those found relevant were used to generate results. The type of data analysis method used was qualitative data analysis. Specifically, content analysis was used to identify key themes and research gaps from papers. Findings: Transformational leadership was found to be a critical fundamental tool, particularly in the concept of getting others to buy into necessary changes in the environment, such as workplaces, communities, and government institutions. Another finding is that leadership is the transformational credibility and capacity of men and women in institutions, communities, regions, nations, and international settings to influence people emotionally, intellectually, relationally, and willfully toward shared vision, purpose, mission, goals, objectives and activities. Therefore, any leader taking up this model must continue to be an inspiring presence, one who leads by example and is responsible for motivating others. It appears to be a form of leadership well-suited to these current times characterized by uncertainty, and societal instability. Unique contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The paper sheds light on the role that leader's personal communication skills play in leadership. Transformational leadership is a theoretical dimension to leadership styles and types that merits consideration. Policy makers may prescribe the need for transformational leadership in the various policy documents such as the constitution sections which advocate for leadership and governance among public and private institutions. Leaders in all fora could apply transformational leadership in a bid to improve leader-follower performance outcomes.