The great man theory of leadership is a 19th-century idea that states a person is either a natural-born leader or not. Some people are born with the necessary leadership attributes that help them create a great impact on society, politics, or the military. The theory focuses on identifying the innate qualities and characteristics possessed by great men.
This theory is linked to the work of the historian “Thomas Carlyle” and was proposed during the 19th century (1840’s) according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of great men or heroes and that great leaders are born and not made. According to this theory capacity for leadership is inborn that is a person is either a natural born leader or not. These born leaders are highly influential individuals, gifted with divine inspiration and the right characteristics like charisma, intelligence, wisdom, political skill etc. with a capability to have a decisive historical impact. The theories that were developed were called “great man” theories because they focused on identifying the innate qualities and characteristics possessed by great social, political, and military leaders.
In earlier times leadership was considered mainly as a quality associated with the males however with the emergence of many great women leaders in future, this theory was recognized as the great person theory in place of great men theory.
“The history of the world is but the biography of great men” - Thomas Carlyle
"The goal of humanity lies in its highest specimens" – Nietzsche (Untimely Meditations)
As much of the literature available on Theories of Leadership is a product of last two centuries, early research on leadership was primarily based on the study of people who were known as great leaders. Hence this theory is based on the assumption that leaders are born and not made and that the great leaders will arise when there is a great need for them, as the right man for the job seems to emerge almost magically to take control of a situation and lead a group of people into safety or success.
This theory presented a primary view of leadership as it was said that history is nothing but stories of great men. Advocates of this theory believed there were a few exceptional men in each generation who were born with qualities and characteristics that caused other individuals to follow them. These great men were believed to be born with the necessary attributes that set them apart from others and that these traits are responsible for their assuming positions of power and authority.
A leader is a hero who accomplishes goals against all odds for his followers. From an early age, these leaders could attract followers through the magnetism of their personalities and had the ability to direct the group in ways that produced significant changes to society. This theory was also supported by American scholar Frederick Adams Woods who in his work investigated 386 rulers in Western Europe from the 12th century till the French revolution in the late 18th century and their influence on the course of historical events.
One of the main reasons for evolution of this theory was that in those times people of a lesser social status had fewer opportunities to practice and achieve leadership roles, and research looked only at people who were already successful leaders. These successful heroes were either aristocratic ruler, who achieved the position through birthright or individuals with personal charisma that they emerged great against all odds. Their ability to lead others was not found in a set of skills that could be learned, but was thought to be a unique, internalized characteristic that was inherent in personality to such a degree as to be part of a leader's genetic structure. This fact contributed to the idea that leadership is an inherent ability. Leadership is believed to be provided by people possessed of special skills and/or qualities distinguishing them from other people who don’t have these.
The great person theory was popularized in the 1840s by Thomas Carlyle, and in 1860 Herbert Spencer formulated a counter-argument that has remained influential till present. He argued that such great men are actually the products of their societies, and that their actions would be impossible without the social conditions built before their lifetimes. Leaders were the products of the society in which they lived. Spencer wrote, "You must admit that the genesis of a great man depends on the long series of complex influences which has produced the race in which he appears, and the social state into which that race has slowly grown....Before he can remake his society, his society must make him." – The Study of Sociology.
Until the last years, similar in some ways to "Great Man Theories” another theory gained popularity that assumed that people inherit certain qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership. These theories were known as “Trait Theories of Leadership”, our next article in this section discusses these theories in detail.
There are four major factors in leadership called Leader, Follower, Communication, and Situation. The success of the leader is dependent on how the leader is effectively able to communicate and motivate followers to perform desired tasks using the appropriate leadership style best suited for the given situation. Interdependencies and dynamics of these four factors of leadership must be considered by a leader to be effective.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (SFP) Leader Theory
Pygmalion theory of Leadership is a model of SFP at work involving supervisory expectancy based on the pygmalion effect. This effect is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) in which raising leader's expectations regarding subordinate performance boosts the group's performance. Managers who are led to demand more from their team, lead the team to better performance. There is some evidence that the SFP effect does exists.
The psychodynamic approach to leadership has its roots in the work done by Sigmund Freud. These involved psychological theories of personality development and explaining leadership using psychoanalytic concepts. It tries to define a person is in terms of personality traits. Personality structured into three parts (i.e., tripartite) - the id, ego, and superego.
Team leadership theory is a recent leadership theory that does not discriminate between the leader and the other team members. The approach considers contributions from each team member to be critical for organizational success. This approach focused on the overall team effectiveness and team problems are diagnosed and action is taken to remediate weakness. This approach provides for taking corrective action when the leader deems necessary.
Socio-technical theory of leadership focus on the presence of two subsystems in every organization, the interrelatedness of social and technical aspects of an organization. Theory pertains to the social aspects of people and technical aspects of an organization, which means structure and processes within the organization.
Contingency Theories in Action
Contingency theory suggests matching the best leader to a specific situation based on situational factors and the leadership style. The practical application of theory can be done in various ways. The workplace example is to determine the best candidate for a given set of requirements using the LPC score. Applying the model to determine a leader's ability to adapt in the scenario of a new project etc..
Process & Stages of Creativity
Creative ideas do not come just like that. There is a process to it. There are a number of techniques of creativity to support the generation of ideas but the widely practiced ones are brainstorming and lateral thinking. Most innovations are not so much the product of sudden insights as they are the result of a conscious process that often goes through multiple stages. The creative process can be divided into four stages of preparation, incubation, evaluation, and implementation.
There are four characteristics of leadership that help us to understand the character of leadership as a concept. 1. Leadership is a process, 2. Leadership involves influence, 3. Leadership always occurs in a group context and 4. Leadership involves goal attainment. These are the four components that make up the character of the 'leadership' term and help us to define the leadership concept. All of these components of leadership have common characteristics.
All the teams are dynamic in nature and they take time to come together, they form, develop, and grow in stages, over a period of time. Teams go through five progressive stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. In this article, we want to introduce you to these stages of team development and certain strategies that you can use to help the team grow and develop in each of these stages.
Hawthorne Studies - Leadership
The Hawthorne studies were conducted on workers at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger in the 1920s. This study established the behavioral change that happened due to an awareness of being observed, resulting in active compliance with the supposed wishes of researchers, because of special attention received, or positive response to the stimulus being introduced.
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