Across the globe, there are various types of political schools of thought regarding politics and government. Commonly, the role of the government is to set legislation, conduct policy and act as a figure of authority , however is this necessarily synonymous with Leadership? Is it possible that certain styles of government provide better leadership? And what is the importance of effective leadership in government?
It is a common misconception that a government automatically carries out the role of leadership in a country due to its control, but this brings in to question what the role of the government actually is and what constitutes effective leadership. What determines the success of a government and how far does effective …show more content…
Leadership in a broad sense could mean almost anything, for example, leading could be synonymous with ‘guiding’ or ‘directing’, however none of those verbs translate to effective leadership. Effective leadership can be defined by two key factors: influence and impact. Influence in the sense of inspiring or motivating a team or followers towards a common goal and impact in the sense of the lasting effect created and achieving the intended change. A popular way to define effective leadership is as a process of social influence towards a common goal whilst maximising the effort of the team however a highly effective leader can alternatively be defined as one which “cultivates the moral law, and strictly adheres to proper methods and discipline”- this is what Sun Tzu, a Chinese military general, believed defined a ‘masterful’ leader. This proves that effective leadership can be carried out in various forms and there is no single definition of leadership, let alone effective leadership. This therefore means that in the the assessment of various leadership styles of governments, more focus should be placed on the impact rather than the method in order to assess the effectiveness of the leadership.Authoritarian and Autocratic …show more content…
In the case of the Panama Canal and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the project was one of the most ambitious projects in history when they began construction, however the completion of the project was credited to Roosevelt’s willingness to delegate authority to experts.
Laissez-faire leadership can be quite effective as it maximises the strengths of the team, and, in the case of Roosevelt, the nation. Delegation is an important aspect of leadership and in the end makes the processes of democracy more efficient in addition to empowering people and making them feel part of the change.As seen in Roosevelt’s case, his effective leadership contributed to one of the biggest successes of his government.
Conclusion
Through this broad analysis of three main styles of leadership in government, it can be ascertained that firstly, not one single form of leadership can be termed as the only effective one as it has been witnessed that, with the right skill and intention, most existing forms of leadership can be effective. Secondly, it can also be drawn from this analysis that the co-operation of the nation being governed is fundamental to the overall success of a government and this has been proven to be achieved only by effective