Purpose and Goals of Leadership

Being a leader can mean so many different things to a wide array of people. to sum it up
personally, I believe being a leader is to motivate those around you while striving for success as
a collective rather than simply as an individual. In line with my purpose to help others succeed,
my main goal within leadership is to build others up and help them find their true potential. As a
leader, my main approach I would say aligns best with transformational leadership. as defined by
our textbook, “Transformational leadership is the process whereby a person engages with others
and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and
the follower” (Northouse, 187). I believe that this approach to leadership really speaks to and
better encapsulates my overall goal within my leadership journey. If others lack self-
confidence .and a sense of purpose, then not only will they lack these very critical skills, but they
may end up weighing the team down. When you make a deeper connection with those you work
with, it not only fosters this intentional and deeper relationship, but also increases motivation
within the team. As a leader my main goal is to make sure that everyone feels confident in their
abilities and have the resources in order to follow through with them.

Roles and Responsibilities

Within effective leadership, there are many roles and responsibilities that must be in place as
well as exceeded. These requirements aren't necessarily focused exclusively on the leader
themselves, but also their responsibility to their followers and the role that they play within the
success of a team. When delving into our textbooks, I believe the behavioral approach somewhat
identifies the behaviors that leaders must have in order to upholds their responsibility to cultivate
positive experiences and success. These two general kinds of behaviors within the scope of the
behavioral approach, include task behaviors as well as relationship behaviors “Task behaviors
help facilitate goal accomplishment: they help group members to achieve their objectives.
Relationship behaviors help followers feel comfortable with themselves, with each other, and
with the situation in which they find themselves” (Northouse, 84). When analyzing the
behavioral approach, it helps summarize what a leader needs to do in order to cultivate the
positive relationship that their position needs them to do. Overall, a leader is supposed to
influence those who they work with in order to work towards a common goal “the central
purpose of the behavioral approach is to explain how leaders combine these two kinds of
behaviors to influence followers in their efforts to reach a goal” (Northouse, 84). Leaders have
the responsibility to help lead the charge within their organization for followers to feel
comfortable and working towards a common goal and follow up with success.

Qualities, Characteristics, and Traits

While there are many qualities, characteristics, and traits stereotypically associated with
leadership, I do believe there are some that are more critical in being an effective leader
compared to others. As there have been many studies as to what traits are most commonly found
in leaders, they found overlap between perceived characteristics and genuine traits. To better
sum up the qualities that I believe a leader needs to be the most effective, you must take in
account the idea of social intelligence, which encapsulates many of these characteristics that we
already associate with strong leaders. When discussing trade theory, social intelligence includes
but is not limited to, strong social abilities, self-awareness, and situational adaptability “defined
social intelligence as having such capacities as social awareness, social acumen, self-monitoring,
and the ability to select and enact the best response given to the contingencies of the situation
and social environment” (Northouse, 31). Social intelligence isn't a single trait, it's accumulation
of many different qualities that a leader can possess in order to be the most effective
communicator, problem solver, manager, and overall a leader in itself. I think in order to be an
effective leader, you have to be able to be merciful and adaptive to the social and physical needs
of each situation, and social intelligence in itself is that.

Techniques, Methods, and Strategies

As I have lightly touched on throughout this paper, there are many techniques, methods, and
strategies that leader can use in order to be more effective and intentional within their work.
Other than utilizing the traits they already possess and reiterating their position and
responsibilities to their team, one technique that I wanted to highlight was the path goal theory as
a strategy with ineffective leadership. This technique best adapts to the motivational
requirements for followers by adapting your own behavior 2 best fit what is lacking within the
professional environment. Within this theory, incentives are off so offered in addition to the
emotional support that is given. “Path-goal theory was incredibly innovative in the sense that it
shifted attention to followers needs and motivations, and away from the predominant focus on
tasks and relationships” (Northouse 132). Somewhat different compared to transformational
leadership in this sense, this strategy put some more focus on needs of an individual both
emotionally and motivationally rather than focusing on building relationship between the two
period while these two may go hand in hand, path goal theory puts the spotlight on a follower
themself in order to best highlight what they may need to focus on. I would consider this a
helpful technique in order to be an effective leader because within this theory, most of the
responsibility falls upon the leader of themselves to facilitate the means of successful growth
“Put simply, path-goal theory put much of the onus on leaders and terms of designing and
facilitating a healthy and productive work environment to propel followers towards success”
(Northouse 133). By adopting this strategy within your leadership journey, it provides a personal
focus on others more so compared to other approaches to leadership that are either task or
relationship oriented. By using this technique, you are better able to address the weaknesses in
each individual team member and build upon these for them to become strengths and turn around
certain traits for the betterment of your team.
 References
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: theory and practice. Perusall Edition