Leadership Styles

In studying the various leadership styles, I found that many, if not all of the styles we covered have some degree of relevance to most people's leadership practices. A few however, seem to stand out from the rest. I will review these various styles individually. The leadership styles and approaches that will be focused upon are: the Trait Approach (Northouse 15), Skills Approach (Northouse 39), Style Approach (Northouse 69) and the Situational Approach (Northouse 89). I will discuss the five questions every leader should ask of themselves when engaging a team to achieve a goal. Lastly, I will look at emotional intelligence leadership skills, also referred to as EQ, (Northouse 23) . Trait Approach

The Trait Approach to leadership implies that in order to be an effective leader, there are certain types of characteristics that you would have to be born with. These trait characteristics have been identified by several researchers. In my opinion, the list is so vast, one would be hard pressed to not find at least a few that they could associate with themselves. The ability to stand out among the masses appears to be a qualifier as well. There seem to be some consistent traits present in the leadership evaluations I conducted. They are: intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability (Northouse 19). While there is much controversy in regard to whether or not one must innately possess these traits, there seems to be an overall agreement that the presence of them make the difference when being considered to be or not to be an effective leader. Skills Approach

The Skills Approach to leadership shares the concept of being based upon characteristics however, it concludes that although ulitmately there are specific characteristics necessary to be a successful leader, there is opportunity to learn and develop these skills. The skills approach concept summizes that there needs to be the presence of three basic administrative skills-technical,...