Dr. Paul Hersey
"The Situational Leader!"
Leadership Defined
According to George R. Terry, "Leadership is the activity of Influenceing people to strive willingly for group objectives." Robert Tannenbaum, Irving R. Weschler, and Fred Massarik define leadership as "interpersonal influence exercised in a situtation and directed, through the communication process, toward the attainment of a specialized goal or goals." Harold Koontz and Cyril O'Donnell state that "leadership is influencing people to follow in the achievement of a common goal."
A review of other writers reveals that most management writers agree that leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group in efforts toward goal achievement in a given situation. From this definition of leadership, it follows that the leadership process is a function of the leader, the follower, and other situational variables L = f(l,f,s,).
It is important to note that this definition makes no mention of any particular type of organization. In any situation in which someone is trying to influence the behavior of another individual or group, leadership is occurring. Thus, everyone attempts leadership at one time or another, whether activities are centered on a business, educational institution, hospital, political organization, or family.
It should also be remembered that when this definition mentions leader and follower, one should not assume that we are talking only about a hierarchical relationship such as suggested by superior (boss) / subordinate. Any time an individual is attempting to influence the behavior of someone else, that individual is the potential follower, no matter whether that person is the boss, a colleague (associate), a subordinate, a friend, a relative, or a group.
Learn more about Situational Leadership® by contacting our Escondido, California offices at 1-866-759-5811. We also encourage you to attend one of our Situational Leadership® training workshops. The workshops are designed as “Train the Trainer” sessions and are one week in duration.
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