Discerning and consistently choosing the
right direction to go in one’s various roles can be called self leadership.
Haggai defines group leadership as "the discipline of deliberately
exerting special influence within a group to move it toward goals of beneficial
permanence that fulfill the group's real needs." (Haggai, 2009) . Leadership can be
described as a bipolar function in which there is a direction setter on one
side, and a direction follower on the other. Hackman and Jonhson ( 2009) note that leaders must create and
aptly use shared symbols like words, stories, rituals, etc; that carry specific
meaning.
Ongoing mutual influence between leaders
and followers is at the heart of leadership. If a leader fails to create and consistently
use a communication system that clearly explains the expectations and
aspirations of the organization at every level, performance will significantly suffer.
Baldoni (2003) notes that this failure of
communication is actually failure in leadership. How can a team align and
synchronize its effort if no clear direction is given to team members? How can
a community be healthy and strong if no one creates and shares the common
dreams for which the members want to live? It is obvious that for a group to function
and be effective, leaders must develop the ability to create clear and
unequivocal messages (Torsten,
2007) ,
while they also help their followers to understand and respond to the signals
they receive.
References
Baldoni, J. (2003). Great communication secrets of
great leaders. New York: Mc Graw Hill.
Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2009). Leadership:
a communication perspective (5th ed.). Waveland Press, Inc.
Haggai, J. E. (2009). The influential leader: 12
steps to igniting visionary decision making. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest house
publishers.
Torsten, M. (2007). What makes a good leader &
how might the performance of leaders be measured. Munich: GRIN Publishing
GmbH.
