There was a chance to review a host of leadership theories during class. The ones that we went through were the the Great Man Theory, Trait Theory, Behavioural Theory, Transactional Theory, The Contingency Theory, Situational Leadership Theory, the Normative Model,  The Path Goal Theory, Transformational Theory and finally the Servant Leadership Theory.

Most all of these fall into these two or three categories ! One is that you are a born leader (!!) and the other is that you can develop leadership, and the last is that there is no one ‘Model’ for a leader to be categorized into.

For all we know, the ‘born leader’ theory is history. The others propose that there are certain behaviors, certain methods of dealing with leadership challenges that can be developed in an individual.

Some of the best ones I subscribe to are the ones that explain that there are different styles of leadership that works for different situations, different goal aspirations, and different sets of people that are being led. For example, there may be a group of people who can be best led with the ‘carrot and stick’ methodology (Transactional Leadership), certain other groups that are to be led authoritatively at times, and participatively at times.

As such, recognizing the situation that needs leadership, the people that are on the team, a particular leadership strategy makes sense.