Title: Leadership
Assignment topic
Compare and contrast two leaders, at least one of whom must be a business leader. Which of the two was the more effective leader? Why? What skills did they demonstrate? These two leaders must be explicitly named in your assignment and will be drawn from your knowledge of them or from biographies of modern-day leaders. Provide enough details of these two leaders so that a reader, who does not know of them, will be able to follow the points about them that you are making. Your assignment should demonstrate that you know what makes a successful leader, manager and entrepreneur in any situation.
Word count
Executive summary
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
Effective leadership is crucial to the success of any organization. Leaders are usually hailed as heroes when things go well, and sacked when organisations don’t perform well. Vivid descriptions of these events are often played out through the media at the end of every Australian Football League season. Teams that have not performed well sack their coach; and those who have performed well focus on key draft picks for the following season.
1.1 Effective leadership
What makes one leader effective and another fail? Is their ability to lead, or is there more to it? Leadership is “a complex phenomenon" with many varying degrees and definitions (Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy 2012, p. 4).
Northouse believes effective leadership involves the central components of process, influence, within a group context, and goal attainment (Northouse 2004, p. 4). He concluded leadership is “a process whereby an individual influenced a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Northouse 2004, p. 3). His definition is similar to Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy who define leadership as “the process of influencing an organized group toward accomplishing its goals” (Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy, 2012, p. 5). On the other hand, Robbins comes from...