Political Leadership: Styles and Impacts

Political Leadership

Styles and Impacts

There are various books and researches relating leaders and leadership. Glenn. D. Paige, in his book “The Scientific Study of Political Leadership” has exclusively addressed the characteristics, traits, power management and differences of political leadership. Paige picked up Dahl’s theory on community leadership patterns are described as “covert integration by economic notables, an executive-centered ‘grand coalitions, coalition of chieftains, independent sovereignties with spheres of influence and rival sovereignties fighting it out.”

Glancing around David Gergen’s book, he impressively informed us what he experienced with distinctive four presidents of the United States. One of his phrases emphasizes leadership that must have inner mastery; a central, compelling purpose rooted in moral values; a capacity to persuade; skills in working within the system; a fast start; a strong, effective team; a passion that inspires others to keep the flame alive. He drew attention by picking up six prominent men whom we can explore their leadership’s background in leading the world. They are Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tse-Tung, Roosevelt and Churchill. Five of them are communist political leaders; Roosevelt and Churchill didn’t side with them. Presently, these two American figures have become the democratic role models for American and also influence most parts of the world.

John W. Gardner in his book of On Leadership illustrates some significant and effective managing methods that he focus on planning and priority setting, organizing and institution building, keeping the system functioning, agenda setting and decision making, and exercising political judgment. He outlined a very vibrant phrase that “values always decay over time. Societies that keep their values alive do so not by escaping the process of decay but by powerful process of regeneration. They must be perpetual rebuilding.” What leaders’ attributes are? Gardner addressed very interesting that: physical vitality and stamina, intelligence and judgment-in-action, willingness (eagerness) to accept responsibilities, task competence, understanding of followers/constituents and their needs, skill in dealing with people, need to achieve, capacity to motivate, courage/resolution/steadiness, capacity to win and hold trust, capacity to manage/decide/set priority, confidence, ascendance/dominance/assertiveness, and adaptability/flexibility of approach.

Primal Leadership: realization the power of emotional intelligence, three authors of Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee focused their works with four dimensions of emotional intelligence which are grouped into two distinctive functions such as personal competence and social competence. Personal competence concentrates on self awareness and self management. Self awareness requires emotional self-awareness, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence. Self management requires emotional self-control, transparency, adaptability, achievement, initiative and optimism. Social competence clarifies the capabilities how we manage relations that significantly constitutes of two different modes: social awareness and relationship management. Social awareness requires empathy, organizational awareness and service. Relationship management requires inspirational leadership, influence, developing others, change catalyst, conflict management, building bonds and teamwork.

More than this, they envisioned us the leadership repertoire in a very spectacular leadership styles in a nutshell as visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and commanding. To be a visionary leader, s/he should know how to build resonance to move people toward shared dreams, to impact on climate with most strong positive and to select the appropriate time when changes require a new vision or when a clear direction is needed. Coaching connects what a person wants with organization’s goals, prestigiously constitutes of highly positive and help an employee improve performance by building long-term capacities. Affiliative creates harmony by connecting people to each other, be positive and heal rifts in a team, motivate during stressful times and strengthen connections. Democratic values people’s input and gets commitment through participation, be positive and build buy-in or consensus, or to get valuable input from employees. Pacesetting meets challenging and exciting goals, be too frequently poorly executed often highly negative and get high-quality results from a motivated and competent team. Commanding soothes fears by giving clear direction in an emergency, be often misused becomes highly negative and in a crisis to kick-start a turnaround or with problem employees. This sixfold leadership styles consist of how it builds resonance, impact on climate and when appropriate.

By Vodano