There are quite a few leadership theories that exist, but there about half a dozen main leadership theories that describe the qualities that define leaders and followers. These qualities can be inherent, learned or present in specific situations. The following is just a taste of the different types of theories present in the topic of leadership today.

The Great Man Theories

A couple of different leadership theories explain that leadership is inherent, or the qualities that define a good leader are natural traits that people express. These leadership theories idolize the born leader that is, the leader that best fits most situations have had a leadership personality from birth.

These leadership theories seem to fall short when people express the qualities that a great leader should have, though they do not want to be or cannot be a leader.

Relationship Theories

Some leadership theories explain the role of the leader by comparing that role to the role of the followers. Making these distinctions provide a list of traits that differentiate the leader from his followers. This relationship is usually defined in a workplace where the role of the leader is forced upon the team in order to reach a goal. The reason that the leader became a leader in the first place is because they showed some extra effort that defined them as leadership material. Leadership theories like this are usually the ones that create the moral and ethical leaders who are proud to serve as a leader and help the followers through their tasks, creating a solid team.

Other common leadership theories look at the outside variables that affect the group dynamic to determine the particular style of leadership that is needed for a certain situation. These theories take in account the attitude and behavior of the leader as well as the collective behavior of the followers.

Knowing what kind of a leader to want to be and being familiar with common leadership theories will help you out. Whether you believe in natural born leaders or made leaders, it is important to understand all the concept of leadership in order to best serve your followers.

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Discovering Leadership Theories

Time To Be Taught

Although there are some skeptics, the fact is that leadership can, in fact, be taught. Normally, when one hears of leadership training, they conjure images of business seminars and teamwork activities. However, these types of events relate more to management rather than leadership. True leadership can only be taught through other types of leadership training.

One type of leadership training is the most common in the nation college! Though this may seem too typical to be true, the fact is that many colleges, such as the University of Chicago, offer leadership classes as a part of their political science departments. Other schools, such as West Point, offer students opportunities to become real life leaders early on. This type of leadership training is some that you can’t get anywhere else.

Hands on experience is another form of leadership training. Internships and job experience can provide excellent training in leadership. However, since you are still under the supervision of the actual leader, there is no pressure and room to make mistakes. This kind of training provides the best of both words.

Guidance Makes All The Difference

Some skills are God-given, like organization, extroversion and people skills. However, these alone cannot make a good leader. What makes all the difference is leadership training. Leadership training will allow you to not only add to these skills, but also refine and develop them so that they can be used in real-world situations.

The development of these skills provides a broad based knowledge of leadership, the benefits of which far outweigh those of specific topics. The knowledge of specific topics is necessary for a follower, as the knowledge of how followers should work together is more important for a leader.

Leading The Way

Leadership training can help those who were born with leadership abilities to become better leaders, and those who were not to develop the leadership skills they need. Training is not a guarantee of success but rather it ensures that those born with the potential to lead are given the tools to lead.

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Teaching And Training Can Leadership Be Learned?