Leadership - Resolving Escalations

Leadership - Resolving Escalations

Can leadership be defined in one way? No, leadership is an ambiguous word that has a different meaning according to the individual and situation that defines the word. Leadership conjures up images of power, influence and directives. People, history, events, and structures have all shaped the many definitions of leadership. According to Bennis (1959), "the concept of leadership eludes us or turns up in another form to taunt us again with its slipperiness and complexity. So we have invented an endless proliferation of terms to deal with it...and still the concept is not sufficiently defined" (Chap. 1, p. 2). Determining a perfect position within the organization of my current employment requires me to know my leadership style. In 1939, Kurt Lewin led a group of researchers to conduct a study in which schoolchildren were assigned to three groups led by an authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire leader (Wagner, 2009) (¶ 1). These three represent the major leadership styles though many more exist. The determination of leader versus manager has to be decided in the analysis of my skills in the perfect position of Escalation Retention Specialist.

Leadership Effectiveness

Leadership effectiveness is measured by objective and subjective measures as well as the attitude of the follower. Some of the objective measures are performance and goal attainment through net profits, profit margin, sales increase, market share, return on investment, and cost in relation to budgeted expenditures (Yukl, 2006). Objective measures are the most commonly used measures of the two. Subjective measures of leadership effectiveness are obtained by the leaders' peers, superiors and subordinates.

Attitude of the Follower

Another common indicator of leader effectiveness is the attitude of the follower. If a follower has respect or admire the leader, he/she will be strongly committed to carry out the leaders' request. On the other hand, if the...

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