Every company has a president, chairman of the board, or leader. For the most part, we agree that some individual needs to head our businesses and social institutions. The importance of leadership lies not just in role-play or in adhering to traditions. The leader of a company or business fulfills an expected role while at the same time communicating the values of the institution he or she represents. There is of course much more to leadership than giving lip-service to company history.
Leadership is the act of communicating value standards to followers through actions. Whatever the communicated standards, followers will use these in their work. Any company or group becomes whatever those in authority cause employees to experience. For example, if bosses reflect and require high levels of knowledge, juniors will perform work commensurate with high knowledge expectations. If bosses treat juniors unfairly, juniors will adapt this standard in treating each other and customers unfairly. Thus, people in authority are suppliers of standards to followers because implied values are what followers search for in order to conform (Simonton, 1996).
We all look for leadership. Often we are called on to be leaders in one group or another. Even leaders caught in difficult situations cast about for answers from some "higher" source. These higher sources are often no more difficult to find then simple inward answers or common answers that relate to everyone of us (Bennis, 1996).
Leadership is a way of interacting with those around us in a manner that manages to communicate a continuity of thought or feeling that seems acceptable and familiar. Effective leaders manage to tap into commonly held beliefs and remind those listening (reading, viewing, etc.) of the goals they all accept. This is an experience that all of us share, from the head of the household, to the principle of a grade school, to the CEO of a multinational corporation....