Contemporary ideas about leadership
Having explored some of the more traditional approaches to leadership, we are now going to look at the more modern approaches. Basically, more recent ideas about leadership have addressed the need for leaders to be adaptive and responsive to what are essentially constantly turbulent times. Whereas the more traditional ideas were constructed when the world was a far less complex place, nowadays there are so many things that a leader needs to be able to think about, and our leadership skills must adapt accordingly. It is a continuation of the contingency approach really, but with some added extras and recognition of the need to transfer far more responsibility to one's employees as leaders cannot do it all themselves.
The leader's work is focused now on coping with a "multiplicity of adaptive challenges" (Heifetz & Laurie, 1997, 24).
The late Anita Roddick (1991, 214) stated:
You have to look at leadership through the eyes of the followers & you have to live the message. What I have learned is that people become motivated when you guide them to the source of their own power and when you make heroes out of employees who personify what you want to see in the organisation
Anita Roddick (1991, 214)
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This resource was developed as part of an Erasmus+ project, funded with support from the European Commission under grant agreement 2016-1-SE01-KA203-22064.
The project was a collaboration between:
- The University of Borås, Sweden
- The University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland
- The University of Alcalá, Spain
- Digital Connections, Scotland
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