The chapter begins with asking the question, what is a leader?A key essential to be a leader is to have influence over others, and using this influence to attain goals. Outstanding leaders use a combination of effective interpersonal processes and good strategic substance to help with their competitive advantage. People want a leader who can help them pursue their goals, these goals can range from a simple pay raise to improving the work environment. Organizations need people at all levels to lead. Organizations want their leaders to implement a strategic direction to do things people in the organization want.

Best Leaders:

1. Challenge conventional beliefs and practices, they create constructive change

2. Inspire a shared vision that appeal to peoples values and motivate them to care about an important mission

3. Enable others to act

4. Model the way, not just tell others what to do

5. Encourage the heart; show appreciation, provide rewards, use various ways to motivate others

It'd an important a leader has a good vision for the organization. Having a vision for the future and communicating the vision to others is an essential for being a great leader. Vision's a very important part of not only leadership, but in business in general. Academic research shows that communicating a clear vision leads to higher organizational performance. The important parts of an invasion are: (1) vision is necessary for effective leadership. (2) Manger or team can develop a vision for any job, work unit, or organization. (3) Many people focus on performing or surviving on a day to day basis. Vision can fail for 3 main reasons: (1) An inappropriate vision may reflect merely the leaders personal needs. (2) An inappropriate vision may ignore stakeholder needs. (3) Leader must stay abreast of environmental changes.

There are 5 important sources of power. Legitimate power has the right, or authority to tell others what to do. Reward power is a leader who influences others because they control valued rewards. Coercive power has control over punishments. Referent power is a leader who has personal characteristics who appeal to others. Expert power is the leader who has certain expertise or knowledge.Leader Traitsfocus on individual leaders and attempt to determine personal characteristic traits great leaders share. Trait approach assumes the existence of a leadership personality and assumes leaders are born, not made.

Leader behaviorsinclude task performance behaviors (leaders efforts to ensure teams, organizations, or individuals achieve work goals) and group maintenance behaviors (actions to ensure satisfaction of group members era, develop and maintain work relationships, preserve stability of group).

Charismatic leaders are dominant and self-confident. They have a strong conviction and righteousness in their beliefs. They satisfy others needs and reduce stress. Transformational leaders motivate people to transcend their interest for the sake of the larger community. They bring excitement and revitalize organizations.

Opportunities to lead include servant leader (concerned primary with the people in organization and other stakeholders in the broader community), responsible leadership (focus on decision-making process and choices that supports corporate social responsibility), lateral leadership (invites colleagues at same level to problem solve together), intergroup leaders (collaborative performance between different groups or organizations), and shared leadership (leadership rotate to the person with key knowledge, skills, and abilities for problem at the time).

To develop your leadership skills, it's important to work with a purpose to learn and develop. You can establish credibility by behaving with integrity, learning from mistakes, and becoming competent in your chose n field. It's important to look for and seize given opportunities. Building a network of personal contacts by reaching out to others to offer help and not just requesting help is also very important. There are three components most effective for developing: Assessment of yourself, strengths, and leadership effectiveness. Challenges helps you get of your comfort zone and learn how to tackle situations in different perspectives and ways. This can lead to new skills and abilities. Finally, supports can lead to feedback and connections. This can lead to improvement and learning more information.

Question: How important and valuable are leaders to an organization ? What makes a good leader ?